It's 12:00am, I'm exhausted after an overwhelmingly exciting vacation, so here is my best attempt to sum up the most memorable last few days before I head to bed...
We arrived at the "Buzz Hotel" on Saturday ready for some play time and relaxation! We checked into our room & headed down to see the Toy Story fun downstairs!
The boys did some checker jumping and chasing.
And posed nicely on Buzz's boots :)
We suited up and headed to the pool. We had forgotten to put our hotel parking pass in the front window of my car, so Matt offered to go out to the parking lot to do it while we got a head start on swimming. (This was about the time Matt actually went to the front lobby to talk to the Manager, Stacy, who he'd been working and organizing his 'plan' with for weeks).
Connor and I spent a good hour practicing his swimming and playing in the Mickey fountain.
Connor was showing signs of being tired, so we talked him into drying off and heading back to the room to wait for Auntie Katie & Eric to arrive.
Here's a classic shot of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Once Kater & Eric arrived, we loaded up and headed to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Connor was pretty quiet, which resulted in a short snooze on Eric's shoulder during our commute.
The boys enjoyed a nice brew while Kater, Connor and myself took a stroll around the restaurant checking out the animals.
We spent a good amount of time at dinner (and I'm kinda surprised I didn't get anymore pictures there, but it was probably because I was busy walking around with Connor and taming a few of his exhaustion-mild-breakdowns). Once the food arrived, Connor scarfed his pizza & got a much-needed second wind! On the ride back to the hotel, Katie noted in less appetizing words that she had to use the restroom and didn't want to disturb our room's bathroom. She said she'd feel more comfortable using the restroom at the front lobby, so her & Eric broke off to go to the lobby when we headed up to our hotel room.
I opened our room's door to find balloons everywhere...
I didn't think much of it, and just kind of thought they opted to do fun balloon decor instead of towel animals or something...
While we were slightly confused, I came in, put my bag down, and noticed a toy box on the floor in the corner of the room.
It was loaded with Toy Story toys. Connor and I dug through them and I asked Matt if he had anything to do with this. He admitted he did have a hand in it. I thought he was so sweet to surprise Connor with all these goodies. I then spotted a pair of cowboy boots next to the toy box. At first, I didn't notice them since they were set out right in front of Matt's suitcase, but a piece of paper caught my eye in one of the boots. I pulled it out and read it aloud...
"While Woody was walkin', he started a hoppin'
For something was stuck in his boot.
He thought it a snake & started to shake,
But turns out his fear was a moot.
'Cause when he looked in, he got a big grin & ran
to your room straight away!
It's the last thing Matt needs before he's down on one knee...
Now look he has something to say..."
This was about the time I realized what the heck was going on! :)
I turned to see Matt all teary eyed! He said some amazing, sweet things to me (that I could probably never repeat since I was in such shock!), got down on one knee, opened a ring box, and it was empty. He then went over to Connor and did his 'trick' he usually does with Connor, and pulled the ring out from behind Connor's ear :).
I, of course, said "Absolutely" and was so giddy with excitement!
(Here's my famous Woody boots, that didn't read "Andy",
but instead read:
Marry Me? 5-26-12
I stared at my new favorite hand the remainder of the night!
My sister and Eric returned from their pretend visit to the restroom
and gave us a delicious cupcake and bottle of champagne to celebrate!
We're engaged!!!!!!!!
We had a late night of fun conversation, apologies from Matt for his numerous lies over the past few weeks (to help execute his final plan), phone calls, texting, Facebook postings, so we all got to sleep by about midnight. Both the boys slept in until about 9:00am the next morning, so once they were rested up, we got ready & headed to Disney!
I got to push around this adorable big boy in a stroller for the day. Can I just tell you how weird it is to push him in a stroller now?! We would have not survived toting around this 40 lb lug in the heat of Disney and were so grateful to have a stroller to use! Pretty sure your child should not be in a stroller anymore when they stick their feet out & they drag on the ground! :)
Connor made the special request to go on the "Pooh ride first," so that's exactly what we did!
How precious is this face?!?!?
Our next stop was the "Buzz ride." Connor's personal fave!
Connor loves him some Zurg!!
We waited in a lengthy line to get a chance to see the real Buzz. It was worth every minute of waiting. Connor ran right up to Buzz and gave him a hug.
Connor then explained to Buzz with all seriousness that he helped him shoot Zurg and the aliens (on the ride).
He could not get enough of his hugs with his favorite Space Ranger.
From there, we headed to lunch and the potty (I had the underlying fear Connor would wait until we got to the front of a ride's line to tell me he had to go potty, so we made sure to make potty breaks between rides!)
Once we refueled with food, we trotted off to the Mickey PhilharMagic 3D theater. Nothing cuter than the boys in their fashionable glasses. Well, except, a little boy in his 3D glasses watching the movie and sticking out his pudgy hand to catch the 3D objects 'coming at him.' :)
We hit a few rides in between, then got front row seats for the parade!
This is what Connor saw...
and this was the precious little floppy wave we saw, as Connor said Hi to all the passing characters!
Connor's best bud, Woody, stopped by to shake his hand! He was thrilled!!!
"HI 'Nochio!!!" (aka Pinnochio)
(Pinnochio made eye contact with Connor and waved...)
Connor turned to me and shouts,
"MOM!!! 'Nochio said Hi to me!!!"
It was too precious!!!
"HI Peter Pan!!!!"
I was so happy that I made a point to show Connor every Disney movie in the past few months, so he'd recognize all the characters in the parade. Job well done, Mom. :)
We stopped for a family photo.
(which we later decided we looked fat and opted to have a retake later on!)
We were approaching 5:30pm without a nap, so we knew we were running short on fun time...and that Connor was a time bomb ready to explode. We found the Jungle boat ride and decided Connor would like that. We waited in line for about 40 minutes (and half way through our wait time, Connor decided to rest his head and snooze away). You really don't realize how great this was for me, since Connor has never been an easy sleeper or one to willingly give in to his exhaustion. I was sweating like a pig with his limp, heavy body resting on me, but I had to capture the moment!
When my back began to ache, Matt offered to trade with me.
So we wait in this loooooong line, get on a ride for Connor, and Connor sleeps through the whole thing. The worse part of it all was the fact that Connor woke up the moment we were stepping off the boat ride, and he freaked out!! He was so incredibly upset that he missed the whole Jungle ride. We figured this massive meltdown was a good time for us to exit the park. It was all a good idea until Connor puts his tears away, looks up at me with his runny nose, and says, "Buzz ride is the last ride Mama?! It's over by the Monster's Inc ride!"
I gave Matt my batty eyes, sheepishly hinted that Connor wanted to do one last ride, and we headed on over to get in line.
Just before that, we opted for a Take 2 of our family photo. This time we sucked in our stomaches :)
(Matt & I look decent, but of course, this was the time Connor was sweated out, all red with his post-tantrum cheeks, and looking all blah.) Owell! We tried!
We made it back to the hotel and cleaned up for bed after our full day at Disney!
Woody & Woody bonded before bed :)
We had a very eventful, exciting last few days!
We're happy to be home and need to catch up on our sleep!
Off to bed I go :)
