Disney WrapUp

My parents wanted to take us out to dinner while we were in Florida (you know, as a way to thank us for hosting them in 92 degree heat and 100% humidity.) After my exhaustive Disney restaurant research I picked the Rainforest Cafe - perfect because it wasn't in one of the parks (we weren't planning on traveling to the park that day) and because it was a theme restaurant so I thought Nikos would have a ball.

Well, we ended up having a great time (despite the fact that Nikos got SERIOUSLY freaked out by the life like elephants that trumpet every 15 minutes or so.) I was actually a little worried that the elephant noises (along with the "hurricanes" every 30 minutes) were causing some sort of seizure from the bizarre, freaky reaction it created in Nikos. Luckily, after a few rounds he seemed to adjust to it a little bit. He also seemed to hold nothing against Dumbo. Phew.

Olive asleep on the way to the restaurant (not a great shot but I need to up her showings in this blog!)

We gave Nikos the (rum-soaked) oranges from our drinks to help distract him from the elephants.

Volcano dessert!

On the beginning of the trip my dad sat Nikos down in the driver's seat in the minivan and it then became Nikos' new favorite thing to do. We would set him down (or he would climb in) in front of his seat and then he would quickly wiggle forward to the front.

You will notice he is dressed appropriately for our visit to Animal Kingdom.

Nikos checks the bird chart to see what birds we should be looking out for.

Impressive gorillas.

Dinosaur version of Dumbo in AK.

Ready for her close-up.

More fun shots of Olive (getting ready for pooltime at the timeshare.)

Nikos at pooltime.



We park-hopped to Epcot to hit the Nemo ride.

Tried out our stroller with the two "toddler" seat set up for the first time.

Experienced late night at Disney which involved slightly delirious kids (and surprisingly short lines!)

And seriously amazing fireworks.

Lest we not forget, we also got the opportunity to see the shuttle take off, which was seriously goose-bumpy cool. After trying to plan our various activities around the different launch schedules, we finally caught it on their third and final attempt.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, the shuttle is the little line veering off to the left, above the middle cloud. Such a fun thing to see, and funny since most people in the park were oblivious and just watching the parade.

On the last day of vacation I relented and let Nikos get a tattoo. Okay, okay, it was a fake shark tattoo, but still very cool. He scored some street cred at daycare when he got back.

Apparently she ("tattoo" artist) usually sprays them on the arm but since Niko's arms are so teeny she just did it on his leg instead.

And this little Mickey leaves you with this advice "steal all the hotel shampoo you can get your hands on!"