Emily's trip Day 3

Emily’s Wish Day 3
Well, the laundry is still being completed more often than we’d like, but you have to keep your perspective. Our kids get sick every year, this year they are being sick at the happiest place on Earth.
Emily woke us at 3:30 with another round of dirtying sheets and blankets. Not cool, but she was able to settle down and sleep the rest of the morning. I gradually felt better throughout the day, and the weather warmed up a bit, although still a bit too cold for Emily.
Drew came in to get us this morning already wearing his Epcot shirt. –Here might be a good place to tell our readers about the “DisBoutiquers”. This is a large group of INCREDIBLY TALENTED and EXTREMELY GENEROUS ladies who met Aimee on a Disney board when we first learned about Emily’s trip. Starting in the middle of November, we received gifts in the mail (Referred to as THE BIG GIVE) nearly every other day or so up until we left. In all we received between 20-25 packages in the mail. Each package was a true gift from the heart, either handmade or purchased with our trip in mind. Hats, bows, dresses, shirts, pajamas, personalized ornaments, things to keep the kids busy, and even gift cards to use at the park is just the beginning of the list. The kind notes sent along with the gifts often touched our hearts as it really is just absolute kindness in the greatest form. The Gives really excited the kids and pumped them up for what a great experience we’re having. So outside of my fear of being “that guy” we’ve been wearing thematic matching outfits to each park and did actually have a costume change today. We look really great in our well-planned combinations, despite my original nightmares of my family showing up in matching newsboy hats and argyle Disney sweaters at the next family gathering(they've been know to mock our Christmas outfits) to mock us. It will have been worth the mockery, as the oohs and ahs from the passersby who asked Aimee if she made the outfi€ts and we told them about these sweet ladies who still believe in the spirit of giving. All the advice and support they’ve given Aimee in planning this trip has really been a blessing. I hope they know just how much it meant to us. – Anyway… Drew came in to get us this morning already wearing his Epcot shirt. He was so excited, and we did get off to a faster start. We were on the road by 9am. We had originally planned to go to EPCOT this morning and then go to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, but we instead went to Hollywood Studios, so we could see the things we planned to see yesterday.
We went to EPCOT today because of the surprise Aimee had planned – a reservation in Norway at Akershus, for brunch and a photo with Belle. Because we were early, we stopped in Mexico and went on a real gem that we didn’t really remember, but that Emily and the rest of the kids enjoyed. The Three Caballeros was a boat ride similar to It’s a Small World.






When we arrived in Norway, Emily was really upset by the cold and we were worried she would be sick again. You see, she was wearing her beautiful handmade Cinderella Dress and we couldn’t possibly allow her to be sad and sick when meeting the princesses! Brenna was wearing her handmade Belle dress and Carter was wearing his Prince shirt my Aunt Sue made for him. Our gang was getting a lot of second looks as we strolled through the park in such super cute outfits. Anyway, I brought Emily inside while Aimee waited outside with the rest of the kids and Em calmed down after a few minutes. She did, however, start crying immediately when we were invited to get her picture taken with Belle and briefly spit up on her matching bib but the photo turned out nice, despite the drama. Belle was very convincing and sweet with all the kids.










The brunch was good and included visits from Snow White, Jasmine, Mulan, and Mary Poppins. Mulan spent plenty of time at our table, clearly pausing for photos and making a memorable experience for us and Mary Poppins paraded around the room not once, but twice with Carter and Brenna in each hand. This personalized experience was very special and will be remembered fondly.




After the brunch we visited Journey Into Imagination, starring Figment(Who Aimee defends furiously to the non-believers) where Em didn’t love the ride, but didn’t get sick either. Otherwise, the kids loved the cheap jokes and gags, especially the skunk spray.
Next, we entered The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush which was enjoyed by everyone. We briefly visited the Siemens VIP lounge (by special invitation) where we had some time to clean Emily and decide on our gameplan. Since everyone seemed up to it, we ventured to Hollywood Studios.
Our first stop was an early dinner at Backlot Express which overlooked the Jedi Training show. Drew wanted to do it, but the time invested wasn’t fair for everyone, especially since we already saw the show, so he settled for a souvenir from the Tatooine gift shop. We found Mater and McQueen from Cars, which was Carter’s big plan for the whole trip.




Right before we saw Muppets 3-D, because I love the Muppets, Drew told Aimee that his ear hurt. By the time the show was over he was wincing about it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave until Emily could see the Osbornes Light Spectacular. Drew tried to be patient but was starting to cry because he really was hurting. Emily did enjoy the light show and was still awake the whole ride home, although Drew was asleep inside of 90 seconds, and Carter was out in five minutes. It would have been nice to stay and see the show a second time, but it was wonderful to see her truly enjoying the lights at all.







We decided that we’ll likely alter our plans again for tomorrow, and we’ll likely stay at the village and participate in some of the events offered on site and determine if Drew needs to see a Doctor or not.
For now, I’ll have to check with our costume coordinator to see what we’ll be wearing tomorrow…