We headed out to Euro Disney on Saturday to celebrate Amelia's birthday. It took us about 3 hours to get there (it would've been shorter, but TomTom kept sending us in circles after a detour to McDonalds for lunch). We actually had to drag the children out of the McDonalds playground, assuring them that Disney Town (as Amelia called it) would be much more fun. TomTom (our GPS system) didn't know quite where our hotel, the Davy Crockett Ranch, was, and tried to take us to an empty field. Luckily, we backtracked and found some signs to the hotel and arrived without further incident.
We dropped off our stuff at our "log cabin" (honey, I really had a wonderful time, but I do have to giggle about this a little), which was really a little trailer decked out as a log cabin, placed in a "neighborhood" of other trailers. We had a nice full kitchen, a separate bedroom for the kids, and a bedroom for us. To our dismay, there was a bunk bed in the kids' bedroom, which the kids just adored. Both of them just wanted to go up, down, up, down. We ended up blocking the door with Jack's Pack-n-Play so that we didn't have to worry about either one of them leaping off the top bunk.
We quickly unloaded, and headed out to the park. We got to the park around 2 -- it was PACKED. We walked around a little and headed to Fantasyland and through the castle. Everything had long lines, but Amelia really wanted to ride on Dumbo. The sign said it was just a 30-minute wait. I wish. It ended up being a 60-minute wait. Lots of tired, cranky, hungry toddlers in line. T.J. and Jack ended up walking around while we were waiting, and they saw a live Pooh Bear show. We finally got to ride, and while Amelia had a great time, it was over much too soon. We walked around more but were unable to find anything with short lines. Since the kids hadn't had afternoon naps, we had an early dinner at a steakhouse (again, not very good meat) and an early bedtime -- for all of us. At dinner, I was trying to entertain Jack, and he swiped at me, knocking my contact out. We frantically searched the floor for it (needle in a haystack), and luckily finally found it on the highchair seat.
The kids conked out with no trouble. Amelia, thankfully, fell asleep on the lower bunk, and Jack was relegated to the living room (no room for the Pack-n-Play in Mia's room), right under the only TV. T.J. and I commiserated that on yet another hotel stay, the only one who had a TV in their room was Jack. We were so looking forward to some English TV (even if it was going to be mostly Disney programming). But without anything else to do, I headed off to bed while T.J. went for a walk around the hotel grounds to find out what the Indian drumming was all about.
We woke up Sunday morning starving and in search of breakfast. We walked over to the hotel restaurant, only to find it closed. I mentioned that the hotel employee had pointed breakfast out on the map, and it was supposedly at the end of our street (although we hadn't seen anything that even remotely looked like a breakfast place). So off we walked, and sure enough, there was a little ... kiosk? ... where they were distributing bags of food. So we got our allotment of a giant baguette, bag of croissants, box of milk, 3 juice boxes of OJ, box of condiments, and are two packages of instant coffee. It was pretty funny. Our visions of bacon-filled buffets were shattered, but it was still a pretty tasty breakfast (especially because they included Nutella). It was hard not having coffee (we couldn't bear to make the instant stuff), but we ate at the picnic table outside of our cabin, and it was really pretty nice.
We headed off to the park early on Sunday, as it opened at 8 (2 hours early) for Disney hotel residents. The lines were MUCH better, and we got to ride the carousel and the Mad Hatters Teacups without waiting at all. We all headed over to It's A Small World to ride. But that ride didn't open till 10. Amelia and I waited in line (again) for a 1/2 hour, until they announced that the ride wasn't opening because of technical problems. We went off in search of T.J. and Jack but couldn't find them. We eventually went to see the Pooh Bear live show and had a really nice time. We eventually found the boys, who had gone in search for us and had been able to ride It's a Small World.
We had a quick lunch at the park, then headed back to the hotel to spend the afternoon there. We went swimming (luckily T.J. could wear regular swim trunks, but there was a sign saying no topless swimming). It was a little chilly, but the kids had fun. There was a big waterslide, and T.J. and I both went down it. Perhaps a little juvenile, but it really was a lot of fun! We also saw the animals, played on the playground and saw Mickey Mouse. There were even reindeer on the property, plus some TeePees for the kids to play in. I headed to the store on the grounds, which had Disney goodies as well as groceries, and I quickly snagged coffee and filters for the next morning. Amelia conned me into a baby Simba stuffed animal, while T.J. picked up a Pooh Bear for Jack. A good buffet dinner, and another early bedtime.
Monday morning brought another bag of breakfast and checkout from the hotel. We finally got to ride It's a Small World (twice) and the carousel again.
Jack had downed two huge sippy cups of juice before leaving for the park, which is nothing new. I was holding him in line for It's a Small World, and when we got to our turn and I put him in the boat, I noticed the whole side of my shirt was wet (always a great feeling first thing in the morning). His pants (and onesie), needless to say, were drenched. So while Amelia and Jack and I rode the ride for the second time, T.J. went to a shop to purchase an (overpriced) Disney t-shirt and sweatpants.
We had lunch at Mickey's Cafe, where several of the Disney characters came through (unfortunately, they weren't very recognizable by Amelia -- several from Robin Hood and Pinocchio, which she hasn't seen. They brought her a cake and pumped their Happy Birthday song over the loudspeakers. She really enjoyed it, and even Jack didn't mind all the characters coming by.
The kids are definitely learning how to push each other's buttons. The kids had one sippy cup to share in the car one afternoon, and Jack had it. Amelia started whining and crying and pleading for Jack to give her the cup. Jack didn't really want it, but he didn't want to hand it over easy, either. So he held the cup to his lips and emphatically went "Mmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmm." Which made Amelia only cry louder. It was pretty funny, although as a parent, I probably shouldn't say that.
Post-Vacation Fun
Jack continues to learn new words. His latest phrase is "Oh, man" courtesy of Swiper the Fox. It's pretty funny. His new name for Amelia is "nyah-nyah" and he just adores her (but still likes to torment her).
It's been a cool summer so far. We've even had to get the fleece pajamas back out and turn on the heat in the bedrooms at night. Highs in the days have been in the low 60s, with more cloudy/drizzly days than I'd like. I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. There are so many big playgrounds at the zoo, that they were more interested in playing than seeing the animals. We got a year pass for the zoo (at 16 euros for me, 11 for Amelia, and 4 for parking, it adds up quickly).
I've bought rain cover for nearly every stroller we have (double jogging, Sit-n-Stand, and single umbrella), and I've used them ALL! We were going to go to the market this morning, but hesitated when I saw it raining a little. I decided to go anyway and put the kids in the double jogger with the rain cover. It was actually quite pleasant -- the rain was next to nothing, and pushing them in the jogger is so much easier than pushing them in any of our other strollers. We got some tasty treats at the market (spanikopita, feta-stuffed marinated red peppers, baklava, petite strawberries). It was such a nice way to spend the morning.
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