Meeting the Michauds (at Disney)

Our friends from Washington state made their annual pilgrimage to Disney World in August and we met up with them for a few days.  Our trip started out very rocky. The timing belt on the PT Cruiser snapped at around midnight only 40 miles from Disney. We managed to limp into a rest area and wait for a tow truck and a cab. Jonathan got the car to a garage and I got the boys to a hotel.

While the local Chrysler dealership fixed the Cruiser, we went to Animal Kingdom. We rode the safari several times at Sean's request. It was very hot and all the animals were doing their best to find shade or water to keep cool (including us!).

The next day we took our first trip to a water park, Typhoon Lagoon. It was okay. The highlight of the park for us was the giant wave pool. And when I say giant wave, I mean giant wave. Every two minutes, this enormous wave rises up from one end of the pool and crashes all the way to the other end. Eli loved it. Sean wasn't so sure. I think Sean would have preferred a smaller, regular pool.

We were supposed to meet the Michauds at Hollywood Studios that evening but a particularly wet central Florida thunderstorm rolled in. We weathered the storm at Downtown Disney and stuffed our faces at Earl of Sandwich. Closing time at the Studios was approaching and it was still raining so we cancelled our meet up with the Michauds. 

Our plan was to just head back to the hotel room, but here is where things got interesting. Sean, who had spent the whole year complaining about all parks except Animal Kingdom, protested our plan to go back to the hotel and demanded that we go to the Magic Kingdom. We were so thrilled to hear him ask for the Magic Kingdom that we gladly trekked through the rain to oblige him. He had a whole agenda of rides planned out in his head and with the crowds thinned out by the storm, we got to ride them all.

We all met up at Epcot the next day and took an exhilarating ride on Soarin'. It was Eli's first and he loved it. We took our normal mid-day hotel break and met back up for dinner. Eli and I joined Patrick and Gabe for a ride on Test Track. Another first for Eli and me.

We said our goodbyes at the Magic Kingdom and as evidenced by that last picture, my boys were all Disneyed out. Fun trip! (Notice the awesome Gaston t-shirts the boys have on-I screen printed those myself).