Samantha: 18 Months, Week 2

The beginning of this week began with our first trip to Disney.  A friend of Ben's from college has a brother who works at one of the resorts and was able to get us  in for free.  We weren't able to get into the Magic Kingdom, but we had a park hopping pass for any of the other parks.  The first day we went to Epcot and my dad ended up going with us as well.  Samantha had a WONDERFUL time.  When we got there, we met Ben's friend and took our picture in front of "Spaceship Earth."

Samantha was very excited to see all the people, the park decorated for Christmas, and especially the monorail train.  We were enjoying the warm Florida weather, although it was a bit colder than average for Florida and maybe that had to do with the smaller crowds that day.

The first ride we went to was "The Seas with Nemo and Friends."  She did fairly well waiting in line even though she was very, very excited.  The ride was a little people mover car shaped like a shell.  She loved seeing the fish floating around and was mesmerized.  The only part that seemed a little scary to her was a part with a shark that kind of popped out at you.  When we got to that part, I felt her body tense up a little bit.  Here is our attempt at a picture in the dark of the ride:

After the ride, there was an aquarium area that we looked around for awhile before moving on to the next area.

We went to several other areas in Epcot, "The Land" where we went on another boat ride and had lunch, the World Showcase area where we went on a couple other boat rides, and then lastly, "Ellen's Energy Adventure."  She was a trooper all day long, getting tired after lunch at her normal nap time when we were in the Imagination area with Figment.

Here is Samantha getting very sleeping while waiting in line for the Figment of your imagination ride.  This was right around her normal nap time, for she normally takes a nap for a couple of hours every afternoon around 1:00, so I was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to last the whole day without a nap.  However, our little social butterfly will just keep going and going, having fun and interacting with people, until she finally crashes.

Yes, we were Disney World and she was fascinated by the birds.  Go figure!

After touring the World Showcase, we decided to go on two last rides.  We had to wait in a staging area for "Ellen's Energy Adventure" and while we were waiting, Samantha started dancing to the music.

Then, once we were on the ride, it took no more than 15 minutes for Samantha to fall asleep in my lap, right in the middle of the dinosaur part of the ride.  She was sitting on my lap, and all of a sudden, I felt her head flop over to the side and she was zonked out for the rest of the ride, snoring away while the ride continued just as loud as normal.  At the end of the ride, I tried to stand up slowly and keep her asleep, but it didn't work, she woke up with a very dazed and confused look on her face.  We were glad that she at least took a little bit of a nap to get her through the rest of the day.  Our last ride of the day was "Spaceship Earth" which Samantha really enjoyed.  She especially enjoyed the interactive postcard on the screen at the end.  I was going to try to include it in this blog, but it is expired now.

After this, we decided to call it a day and go home.  Samantha had a long, full day, and we were planning on going back for dinner and time to visit with Peg.

The next day, we didn't do anything too much.  We relaxed at the house and went to a local park which Samantha really enjoyed, especially the wonderful weather.  Now, the only downfall of our time in Florida was Samantha's wake up time.  She would wake up between 6 and 6:30 every morning, a little too early for our own liking.  We tried to snuggle and play with her in bed until at least 7:00 when we would go out of our room into the rest of the house.  Daddy also got a nice wake up call every morning with Samantha hitting his foot until he paid attention to her.

On Wednesday, we had another full day ahead of us as we were planning on going to Animal Kingdom.  The park was MUCH busier than it was on Monday.  I don't know if that was because of the nicer weather or because it was closer to Thanksgiving, but it was almost so crowded that it was overwhelming.  We went on several fun rides, a dinosaur ride that was kind of like the Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom, which Samantha LOVED.  She cried when we had to get off and leave that area.

Since it was so busy, we decided to get a couple of Fast Passes for rides we wanted to be sure to get on.  One of them was an animal safari.  Samantha really enjoyed riding in the truck, seeing all the animals, and dancing to the music they played on the ride.  I took many pictures of the animals as well, but I figured that I didn't need to post any of those.

One of Samantha's all time favorite activities of Animal Kingdom was the petting zoo.  She got to get up close and personal with many animals like sheep, goats, and pigs.  She was SO excited!  She loved trying to pet the animals and even tried to hug a few along the way, chasing them if they tried to run away from her.  We practically had to drag her away from this area because she loved it so much.  We have a real animal lover on our hands.

Later in the day, while we were waiting for our time to go on the Mt. Everest ride, we decided to go see a bird show.  Ben and I were going to go get a drink, and while he was in line, I went to change Samantha's diaper.  While we were in line for the bathroom, I could see her eyes getting heavier and heavier as she fell asleep in my arms.  I slowly laid her over so that she was laying on my shoulder, and we exited the line since now I had a sleeping baby.  We went back to the bird show and Samantha slept through almost the entire show.  Here is a pictures of my sleeping sweetheart:

After having our fill at the Animal Kingdom, we decided to leave and go to the Hollywood Studios park for a little while, just to take advantage of the park hopper pass.  We got some food there and decided to get in line to ride the "Tower of Terror."  My dad and I waited in line while Ben walked around with Samantha, took her on a Little Mermaid ride, and let her watch some music playing.  By then, we were done riding the ride and Ben was able to use the rider swap to ride again with me.  It was getting late after that, so we only went on one more ride and then went back home.  Samantha was so sleepy, but enjoyed riding the bus one more time to get to our car, falling asleep very quickly once we started driving home.  We certainly had a full day of fun with our little girl.

The next day was Thanksgiving and we had a slow, relaxing morning spending time together playing and watching the Thanksgiving Day parade. Because of Samantha's long day yesterday, she was very, very tired this morning so we decided to lay her down for a nap.  She slept for a good couple of hours, waking up just in time for us to get her ready and head to my grandpa's church for our Thanksgiving meal.  Samantha was a really good girl at lunch and all the older people really enjoyed seeing her around.  After lunch, once we got back to the house, Ben and I decided to take Samantha swimming before dinner.  She loves swimming and really had a great time.  We didn't stay in too long because we didn't want her to get too cold, but we were enjoying basking in the bright sun and blue skies of Florida.

Friday after lunch, we headed out, on our way back to Indiana.  We decided to head all the way up to Nashville on our first night, making for a long first day, but much shorter second day.  Samantha again did great in the car.  The only time she got antsy was when we were about 45 minutes away from home and wanted to get out of the car, which is how we all felt.  We were all very glad to be back home again and get settled back in for a day before we had to head back to work and back to reality.

We had a wonderful time in Florida.  It was great to be able to see my grandpa, have him meet and see Samantha in person, and it was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of this crazy semester and have some time enjoying ourselves as a family.  Even the next day and many days after that, Samantha was talking about Disney and Minnie Mouse.  I think she really enjoyed her Thanksgiving trip to Florida. :)