Monday Mayhem - the Disney trip

We have been scheming and planning for a while to surprise Garrett with a trip to Disney for his birthday. You must understand that Disney really isn't my idea of the perfect vacation spot--we don't really like crowds or lines or commercialized stuff. But Garrett has been asking for a trip to Disney for a while, especially for a birthday present. Even though his birthday isn't until May, we went this past weekend because A. It will be unbearably hot when his birthday roles around and B. Brad's parents could get the weekend off and were able to spend it with us.

This trip was a total surprise for Garrett. We told him on Monday (two months before his actual birthday) that a big surprise was coming and he would get a hint in two days. His first guesses included only material things (like a Transformer), so when I told him it wasn't something he would get but something he would DO he was stumped for a while. Then his guesses were limited to Chuck E. Cheese and Dandy Bear. On Wednesday we told him we wouldn't be back to school for the rest of the week, so he thought THAT was his special surprise. Silly boy. On Thursday morning we packed suitcases and the guesses included going to Grandma's, going to see Grandpa Hosein, going camping, and going camping on the beach. Then he started asking questions to narrow it down. "Are we driving a long way? Are we getting in an air plane?"

Once we hit the road he got out his leapster and basically stopped guessing for a while. It was until we were IN orlando that he started guessing where we were. And once he figured out it was Orlando, he assumed we were going to see Shamu. We picked Grandma and Grandpa up at the airport, and although he didn't know for sure who we were there to get, I think he knew it would be them, because while he was happy he didn't seem all that surprised.

We went to McDonalds and told Garrett that it was his special surprise. He actually was cool with that, acting all happy and then said "But why did we drive all this way to go to McDonalds?" We gave them each a Mickey and Mini and finally told them we were going to Mickeys house. :-)

It was yucky and rainy, so we spent the rest of the day chilling at the house that Brad's parents rented. Grandma loved reading to the kids all weekend long!

Summer enjoyed modeling her new "Kitty glasses"

Friday was Epcot.

Since Grandpa Lynn works for GM, we were able to get the VIP treatment for the Test Track, which he LOVED. He rode it twice and STILL asked for more.

Riding the test track with mommyGrandma and Summer being silly :-)

Brad, Garrett, Grandma and Grandpa at Epcot

Lightening McQueen! Cars 2 will be out in no time at all :-)

Summer drumming away from the Oh Snap.

Summer took a break from playing at the playground to bring Daddy a flower :-)

and she was in LOVE with the sea horse from Nemo at the Seas With Nemo and Friends.

Garrett loved all of the rides

Summer-not so muchBut everyone enjoyed the fish!

And we lucked out while we were leaving by catching Daisy with no wait.

We did movie night, watched Tangled, and otherwise just enjoyed each others company for the rest of the afternoon. Summer swam, but I didn't take any pictures.

Saturday was Magic Kingdom. I really didn't take that many pictures. We rode Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. Garrett really wanted to check out the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

We got our pictures taken with Goofy, but Garrett didn't want to do the Pirates of the Caribbean, which surprised me.

We went to the T-rex Cafe for dinner. Summer was too tired and completely scared to death of the dinosaurs. Garrett, on the other hand, loved it like always. He especially loved digging for dinosaur bones.

And on Sunday we took him back to build a dinosaur. He picked a saber tooth tiger that he has named "Tooth."

It was a super fun weekend that went by way too quickly. And this pretty much sums up how we all felt afterward!