Who's the leader of the club...

MICKEY MOUSE!

We're home after 8 magical days in the heat and extreme humidity of Florida. We had a blast and Brooke tolerated the week very well. She got tired and we had to keep an eye on her temperature, but overall she was an excellent traveler. Disney is such an incredible place! The cast members are so kind! I love how they tell you to "have a magical day" or "dream magical dreams." And most of them went out of their way to help with Brooke in any way possible. They called her "princess" all the time, which I loved. I got a Guest Assistance card when we got there that allowed us (most of the time) to get in the fast pass line instead of having to wait in the regular line. This was a God send. Without this, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish half of what we did. Thank you WDW for treating the disabled the way they deserve to be treated!

When we got there Saturday, mom, Brooke and I took the Mgical Disney Express bus from the airport to our resort. What fun! Mike drove the rental car. I have zero complaints about our resort. The POP CENTURY is great! Yes, the rooms are small, but we were rarely in them. The food court had good food, the store was great, and the mousekeepers were super efficient. They even left a couple of towel animals for us during our stay. And the icons there ---- so neat! I have so many good pictures. After we got settled in, we went to Downtown Disney so Brooke could spend $250 of her $300 spending money on toys. Ha. You can't imagine how much she loves the Mr. Potato head bar. We now have another potato head and two more boxes of Disney accessories. She looks forward to the toys each trip. (And yes, it was a challenge figuring out how to get everything back home. 4 people, 8 checked suitcases, and 4 carry ons. Mike was thrilled at the amount of our luggage - NOT.)

Sunday it was Magic Kingdom which is always fun. It was crowded but nothing too horrible. Remarkably we got a lot on our "to-do list" accomplished. We saw the shows, rode the rides and of course - had pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie. We figured out on this trip that while Brooke does like Goofy, Max and Donald...she is definitly a MICKEY MOUSE LOVER! Brooke loves MK! It rained for a bit but we just happened to be on the steam boat, so we had cover. That was a nice 20 minute ride.

Monday we were at Hollywood Studios where I finally got to ride the Rockin Roller Coaster. (I love Aerosmith!) Our friend Irshaun, who works for Disney met us there and talked Mike into riding the coaster with us. I never thought I'd get him on another one and I probably never will again. It was INTENSE! WOW! We loved the new Toy Story ride and we got to see Beauty and the Beast, which Brooke loved. We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Drive In again, which is totally neat! And then we hung around for Fantasmic, which was incredible. It was a little more violent than I'd like to see at Disney, but the special effects were mind-blowing. Very good.

Tuesday was our down day, which we needed. We slept in, I did laundry, and my mom and Brooke got an afternoon nap. Tuesday night we went to Ft. Wilderness and saw the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. What a great family show! I highly recommend trying to get tickets for this show if you ever head to WDW. (And you're lucky if you can get tickets! It's sold out 90 days in advance and is the longest running show there.) After the show we took a private carriage ride that took us around the campground...over 500 acres of wilderness. Gorgeous! We saw 4 deer and got ate up by some huge Floridian mosquitoes. This park is easily accessible by boat from MK, which was a nice ride in itself. If you're the outdoorsey type and like cabin-life or camping...this is your place!

Wednesday was EPCOT, which Mike and I did without mom since she got sick during the night. I hated that she didn't get to see this park because she was really looking forward to riding Test Track. We rode it twice...love it! We also rode Soarin (our first time) and loved it. What an incredible ride! We saw Turtle Talk with Crush again, which is a cute show, and rode the Nemo ride. It's really neat...they put their cartoon fish in the aquarium with the real fish...not sure how they did that but it was a stunning effect! We rode Living with the Land for the first time and got to see different methods of irrigation...no soil techniques, etc. All of the things they grow in the greenhouses at EPCOT are used in the restuarants in the park. It was interesting. Wednesday night the three of us went to BOMA at Animal Kingdom lodge for supper. It was an African buffet. Very unusual. The desserts were to die for! And we walked around the grounds afterwards and got some great pictures of some of the animals there. How neat would it be to stay at a place like that and be able to go out on your balcony and see wild animals? Our motel was animal-like at times due to the large volumes of people staying there. Ha.

Thursday we had a character breakfast at Animal Kingdom with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck. What fun! Brooke loved this. They gave the kids musical instruments and they danced around the restuarant with the characters. I got lots of great pictures!!! Afterwards, we went on the safari where LOTS of animals were out. We didn't see half the number of animals when we rode it 3 years ago. We had giraffe's standing beside our vehicle. It was incredible! And then my camera battery died which made me really mad! I think we had outlet issues at the motel because this happened to our phones as well. We thought things were being charged when in fact - they weren't. So we rode the train to another section of AK where I spent $25 on two disposable cameras. Mike's favorite character, which is RARELY SPOTTED ANYWHERE just happened to be here. So with lots of luck, my pictures of Jiminy Cricket and Mike will turn out! Thursday night we took Brooke to Give Kids the World to visit. This is where we stayed 3 years ago on our Wish trip. It's an incredible place ran by over 3,000 volunteers. In fact, Mike spent 3 mornings volunteering while mom and I hit the parks in the morning with Brooke. We ate supper there and Brooke got to celebrate Christmas, which we missed out on last trip since we flew home on Thursday. She had pictures with Santa Claus, got another potato head as her Christmas gift of choice (we knew she'd pick it), she decorated a sugar cookie, rode the train, we had ice cream and we left. It was a fun time. Visit www.gktw.org and check this place out. It's a great place to volunteer, donate to, or visit if ever in Kissimmee. The story behind the man who started it is an interesting one and you can buy the book on their website.

Friday was awesome. We drove to Boggey Creek airboats (about 30 miles from WDW) and took an airboat tour. WOW! We saw 1 baby alligator and a bald eagle. Brooke loved the boat ride. She laughed the entire time, which scared me because I was afraid one of the HUGE dragon flys would fly right in! We held an alligator after the ride and bought the $20 picture. It's great. I'll get it scanned and post it. After the airboat ride we went to Sea World. What a beautiful park and a LOT bigger than the one in San Diego. Brooke had never been, but since it was day 7 of the vacation...her attention span was not what it needed to be. She didn't care much for Clyde and Seamore but LOVED Shamu. She's still doing the Shamu cheer today. It was cute. Lesson learned...do Sea World earlier in the week next trip. And...consider making it 10 days instead of 8. Two go days, one down day, etc.

The trip was so much fun and we're so blessed Brooke's health allowed her to enjoy it. I cleaned her hands so many times it wasn't funny, but she got so used to it that it bacame second nature. We scrubbed the seats of the plane, the motel, all the luggage, etc. It was a lot of work, but SO WORTH IT. Please, please, please...enjoy the small things in life. Life is short and it's up to us to make it sweet. Memories are something no one can ever take away. God bless you all...keep the prayers coming our way...and I'll blog again soon.