Family Time

I have to say that the 10 days that we spent with Brian here recently were by far the best we have had so far. Brian came home earlier than we all expected that Thursday and surprised Ava at school. It took her a minute to realize who was standing there since she thought he wasn't coming home until the following night. But as soon as it registered she jumped in his arms and wouldn't let go. Ella was happy to see him too but Ava's reaction was priceless. We spent the next couple of days just the four of us and loved it. We played catch up lol. Brian was amazed at all the differences in the girls. He did get to talk and see them on the computer every day while he was gone but it just isn't the same. The zoo was a lot of fun. I think my favorite moment was when we were at the gorilla exhibit and the girls scooted their way to the front so their faces were pressed to the glass. One of the gorillas came sauntering over and sat right in front of Ella and was just staring at her as she talked to him (or her) and waved at him. He seemed perfectly content to just sit there and so did Ella. She LOVES monkeys, gorillas, any animals like that. In fact, her first zoo trip when she was 8 months old she chose a stuffed gorilla to take home and has slept with it ever since. Two-thirds of her stuffed animals on her bed are monkeys. Ava was in awe of the elephants and the giraffes. She had been asking to see them all day and then we were able to see them pretty close up so she was ecstatic.

While at the zoo Brian and I changed our plans from going to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood to surprising the girls with a trip to Disney. They had mentioned it several times in the past few months so we figured it would be fun. It was an absolute BLAST!!! We had so much fun but at the same time so exhausting! The drive down wasn't horrible so that was a plus. Ella is notorious for being a horrible traveller but she did amazing. Ava has always been a great traveller and of course did a great job. We stayed at the Nickelodeon Resort and we were impressed. The reservations desk staff and the guest services staff were not the greatest and they did not get us into our room until a bit after the normal check-in time. However, what impressed us were the grounds, eating area, water park, room and general area staff. Anyone we encountered, even just walking by would stop and say hello and ask how our stay was and seemed to genuinely care. I think our favorite part was the water park though and the fact that the weather cooperated and we were able to even go swimming at 8:00 at night in the middle of October! The girls thought that was great and wanted to go swimming when we got home (it was barely 68 when we got back here!).

Disney World was the absolute greatest part of our trip. We decided to take the girls two days so we wouldn't have to rush to do things and meet characters. The girls met lots of characters, saw several parades, two shows and some fireworks. They loved the ferry ride over, although Ava was convinced we were riding one of Tinker Bell's friends over until I showed her the boat and explained the difference in spelling and such.

If you ask the girls they would probably say their favorite character they met was Prince Naveen or Rapunzel. If you asked Brian and I we'd have to say Prince Naveen and Peter Pan, although Prince Eric and Ariel were pretty great as well. What made these particular characters the best? Well first of all, Prince Naveen took several minutes with the girls, got down on their level and really talked to them. Then he took them by the hand and danced with them. He made them laugh repeatedly and they loved him! Peter Pan, Disney couldn't have found a better person to play him. He was very much like the character in the movies. He noted that the girls' pen had Ariel on it and after talking to them about her he took them by the hand, told the other people in line he'd be right back and pranced (yes, I do mean pranced) the girls over to where people were meeting Ariel and Prince Eric and proceeded to teach the girls how to make whale noises at them and picked them up to play peek a boo with them! Later on when the girls met Ariel and Prince Eric they too made whale noises with the girls and spent a good bit of time with them.

The parades were a great highlight as well. I have been to Disney World 4 times and this was the first time I had ever seen the light parade. That was awesome! I think Brian and I enjoyed it as much as the girls did. We also found it very amusing that sitting in front of us was a woman with two daughters who were 6 and 3. The six year old's name was...Ava Grace. The three year old's name was...Ella (different middle name though!) Our Ella's we found out were only three weeks apart in age as well. We all got a good chuckle from that. But the reason I say the parades were the biggest highlight was the because of the presence of characters without the presence of screaming, crying and running. Ella did hide between Brian and I when the characters came close at any of the parades but Ava shook hands with them, danced in the street with them and even had a playful moment with Jafar...and yet she still won't set foot in Monkey Joe's!

I am very thankful that we had this opportunity as a family to have such a grand adventure. Brian's job may have him travelling a lot and this outage being a full year was not something we anticipated but it has also afforded us to do trips like this, our anniversary trip to NYC and our trip to NJ to see Brian earlier this year. This outage has also helped us appreciate our time together even more. We took for granted having each other around all the time so now we make sure that our time together is the best for all of us. That being said I can't wait for him to come home for good!