Alex is FIIIIIVE!! Part 1

Some of you might remember the crazy party I threw for Ashton on his 5th birthday. Welllll…yeah Alex didn’t get anything like that. BUT, I mean, it’s March, and in my defense, Alex never really said a word about wanting a big thing (granted, I didn’t suggest it either, but…) THE POINT IS, it didn’t stop Alex from loving turning 5 🙂 Callie and Holden were visiting for the weekend, Crosby and Elijah came over for pizza and cake, and Alex finally stopped asking how many days until his birthday. Wins all around.

Making cupcakes to bring to his class:

March 16, the day in pictures!
Breakfast…
Presents, naturally…

A little fuse beading…

 Bounce-housing…
And pizza and caking.

We had planned to go to the ice rink but open skate was cancelled so that was a bummer. Generally though, the fact that Callie and Holden were visiting made it feel extra special and Alex was just happy to be in the spotlight, however small the audience 😉 
I’ll be back next week to post his stats and all about what makes Alex Alex. In the meantime, happy 5 Rory! (Golf reference lol. Long story.)

Quick Before and After: Guest Room and a bonus!

Our house used to be a traditional cape and as such, the original (or, what I presume to be the original) master bedroom is on the first floor at the base of the stairs. It’s gone through a lot of iterations including changing paint colors, window treatments and art over the past 3.5 years since we’ve lived here. But, I literally have ONE true before picture, from the listing photos when the house was for sale.

What it looks like now:

Opposite wall before

Generally this space is tough to photograph when you only have an iPhone – here’s a panorama attempt…
Last couple:

So in this room we swapped out the fan, painted (twice), added crown molding, and the main feature is that Jason white washed a bunch of planks and we made an accent wall behind the bed. It’s a very subtle detail that makes the room feel pretty cottage-y. I totally don’t mean to minimize how much work that wall was but frankly it’s been like a year since Jason did it and I just want to move on from this post haha. Sorry honey.

Another exciting update is that we finally put a runner on our steep, death-trap of a staircase! Before and aftersssss

The true color is a lighter gray than it appears. Anyway, overall it makes me feel like I live in a grown-up house. I can’t explain it. We used AJ Rose on Route 9 and it’s just so professional. But of course now the rug in the foyer doesn’t match so I need to pick a something more complementary. Sort of like how we just re-did the living room fireplace and it was like great now we need all new furniture. But that’s a whole other post! The house stuff rolls on!

Finishing Up Christmas

This is, like, overdue. Let’s pick up on Christmas Eve. So while the boys were awake, we were very busy tracking Santa to find out when he would be arriving.

This app is freaking amazing. Every time we checked it, Santa was, of course, closer. And since Santa does not deliver gifts when you are awake, there was an increasing sense of urgency to get to bed. #GENIUS

 We read the Polar Express, which is a tradition from my childhood.

And did the cookies-and-milk thing.

After the boys were in bed, I mean, first things first.

And then Santa came!
Which brings us to December 25. If you want to see how annoying kids can be on Christmas morning, click here.
General pictures of ensuing madness:

After this it was off to Grandma and Grandpa’s in NY. Lots of football and hockey stuff made for two very happy boys!

It’s February 13 right now (I’m backdating this post) so this seems like forever ago! We did more traveling than usual this year and after NY (Jason’s side), we headed to VT (my side)!

Incomplete without an Uncle Erik pile-on!
Historically I go into the details, like “then we went to lunch, and then went skating,” etc etc but since pictures are worth a thousand words, I’m going to let those do the work on this post because Christmas was like 7 weeks ago lol. And I have much newer stuff to share with you, including a new living room fireplace – up next!

Holiday Things

Back in the day, I used to make whole posts about just picking out our Christmas tree, or just making cookies. But now, well, it seems that all the usual holiday things can kind of be combined into one post :-/ I’m going to follow my usual format of text, picture, text, picture, so buckle up because here we go. In no particular order, I give you the components of the Nill Family Christmas 2018.

First, decorations. The house:

We did all the wreaths this year and I love how the red ribbon looks!

Next, my little kitchen mantel:

I also did garland on the stair banister but waaah I have no final picture. Just one of me working on it (in my holiday plaid shirt of course!)

I also spent a small fortune on decorations for the TV mantel and fireplace but have no picture of that either! What good does it do me to go around to 16 stores and spend an hour arranging everything if I can’t brag about it here? Pbbbbthhhh.

One of the things I love about this time of year is we are forced to do something with what we got last year.

Lots of organizing/trashing/donating certain things – gotta make room! Santa can’t bring more stuff if there’s no place to put it 😉

What next. Oh – the tree of course.

It looked great on the lot but when we got it home it was a little, um, curvy. No big deal.

On to… matching pajamas:

Our Christmas card…

Which was mailed by my “helpers” who didn’t understand what I meant by “quality control”. If your envelope arrived with a crooked and/or upside down stamp, well here you go. 

Mystery solved.
Then we made the cookies. Ashton’s mouth turned blue and Alex got icing on not one but both sides of his head.

We also went to see all the lights at Fatima Shrine, under the most incredible full moon (looking pathetically small in this picture, but it was, in fact, huge).

What’s left here. Oh, Santa! We crashed the Santa Brunch at Brae Burn to meet him.

A note about this. All the BBCC members sign up in advance and then they get a number to see Santa when they arrive at the club that day. Santa shows up and ALL the kids sit around and wait for their name to be called (again, according to their number). Since we were guests, and didn’t have a number, Ashton and Alex were going to be last. They did not know this.

You can’t tell how many kids there are, but the list before them was long. They waited for easily 45 minutes on the rug, just like this, and watched everyone else go up.

Alex eventually slumped and laid down with his head propped up on his elbows. But Ashton was the model of patience. Front and center, they waited and waited, quietly behind the line.

At last, all the children had gone and just these two sweet boys were left. Everyone had noticed how polite they had been, watching the other kids and listening for their names, including Santa.

“Ashton and Alex!” he boomed. And then, Santa got out of his chair and crawled on all fours, across the rug, to where they were sitting.

I just about died. It was quite possibly the most endearing thing Santa could have done. He told them how good they had been, to wait like that, before inviting them up to sit on his lap.

In the end, because they were last, the boys got extra time with him and were able to ask him all about his elves, his reindeer, etc. Santa didn’t skip a beat with his answers and when we were finally driving home, our car was filled with palpable Christmas magic 🙂 Ashton even said, “I know Santa has lots of helpers this time of year, but I think that actually might really have been him. His beard was real, did you see? The hair was like really stuck to his skin! I do, I do think it might really have been him Mommy…” as he looked out the window with sparkle in his eyes. I’m not even exaggerating – it was just that good you guys. I could not have been prouder of them, of their behavior, of their patience, in front of all these families that Jason works for. They deserved the special attention Santa gave them and for me, seeing their true belief in him afterwards…it was everything.

So that was Santa, which brings us to Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the end of December. Next post 😉

Sayings and spellings

Well there’s no shortage of words in our house, that’s for sure. Someone is always talking (maybe it’s me, usually it’s the boys). Thought I’d share some of December’s finest before I launch into my holiday recap post.

In no particular order…

***
Alex (playing with his toy cars): “Look Mommy! I’m driving an ASHTON Martin!”

***
Me: “Alex, your hair is so long!”
Alex (exasperated): “It grows Mommy.”

***

Alex (seeing it was dark): “Wow it’s really late out.” 
***
My favorite spellings (by Ashton): “Santa Claws”, “Happy Holadase” and in a letter to Pete, our elf, “Welcome bac Pet, I mist you.” When Alex was practicing his letters the other day, he told me he was doing both uppercase and “downercase”.
***
Both boys have (modified) mohawks lately. Alex says that “spiky is his style”. One night after they washed their hair Alex pointed to his freshly combed head and said “LOOK Mommy. ALL of my hair is busy right now being in this mohawk.”
***
Alex: “How many elves do you think Santa has? Like a hundred?”
Ashton: “No way, like way more. Like infinity.”
Alex: “Like a thousand and a hundred and sixteen hundred and eighty?”
Ashton: “No no, Alex, it’s at least a dozen.”
Alex: “Ooo, yeah that sounds right.”

***
Alex (handing me an umbrella): “Can you turn this on for me?”
***
Alex called the tissues the “nose box”  
***
When we had winter weather in the forecast, Alex told Jason “Better get repaired, Daddy, for the snow.”

***
Alex, playing on my laptop: “I’m so good at typing. SO good. I’m like a scientist at it.”
***
I gave Alex his milk in a stemless wine glass. He threw his hands up and said “Where’s the stand?”
***
In church on Christmas Eve, during the homily, the priest was asking rhetorical questions about everyone’s year and what we all pray we can put behind us. He said, “Perhaps you’ve had an issue with a loved one. Or have you had a strain on a friendship? Maybe there’s been a problem with money, or health. Does any of this sound like something you’ve struggled with?” Ashton, listening intently, whispered to me, “I don’t see any hands. I guess no one knows.”
He also held up his index and middle finger in a V when the priest said “Let us offer each other a sign of peace.”
***
We were getting dressed to see Santa and Alex had on a sweater. He tugged at it and said “Ooof, these clothes are so heavy Mommy. I’m going to have to try really hard not to get hot.” (Because when he gets hot he just starts taking things off and he knew how important his sweater was to seeing Santa 😉 )
Next to him, Ashton was in his new hightops and said, “These shoes are just so…fresh! And jumpy!” and then Alex said, “Mmm hmmm. I know how that feels.” He says that a lot lately in response to things. Lol ???

***
After a long road trip, Alex: “It’s good to feel home.”

Family photos 2018

We were on the ball this year everybody! Partially because I had a gift card and partially because I was motivated to get some pictures with the leaves actually still on the trees (last year it was so late and they had all dropped). There’s not much to really say! We went to Wellesley College in October, it was a misty, kind of overcast morning but the pictures still came out fine. If you read this and you are also on my Christmas card address list, prepare to see a few of these twice.

You only need one good one and we got more than that I’d say. The boys are getting easier and easier to bribe as they get older, that’s what it is 😉

A 2 for 1

Well I’m stooping to a new low here in my blogland – I’m *gasp* combining two holidays into one post and I’m going to blow through them (a few pics, minimal text). I’m just too far behind and now that Christmas is almost here, I really can’t spend December in arrears. So:

Halloween

First things first. My themed mantel. This post is nothing without that. 
This was last year’s and clearly before I took the tags off everything haha. This year’s was better but somehow I don’t have a picture (for shame!). But this the little shelf/coat rack thingy in the kitchen that I change seasonally. It’s safe to say that decorating this is one of the things I live for and I’m not even ashamed to admit that!

Besides the mantel, of course there were the pumpkins. Have to do those. And also of course, both boys had to do the whole thing by themselves. Draw the face (several drafts- magic erasers are good for clearing sharpie off a gourd, who knew?) and then carve all the pointy teeth with an itty bitty serrated pumpkin knife and it all only took a thousand hours. Alex just kept moving his knife in and out of the same spot, never actually making any progress. You could not tell him that though. In the end he cried because he didn’t like how his came out so then I had to give him mine and we started all over. Another thousand hours. Jason and I were permitted to minimally assist at times. It all looked like this.

This is fun. Without fail, Jason sticks his tongue out any time he is concentrating on something. Look at Jason and then look at Ashton 😉 

The pumpkins were almost a bigger deal than the trick or treating. I didn’t even attempt to photograph that, but I did end up with some fireball and a hot toddy with my bestie 🙂
Group costume shot with Elijah and Crosby:

So Ashton, full of stealth, was a ninja. Alex was like, a bull. He was like the cowboy AND the bull.

Here’s a more descriptive side shot. 

The bull was a bit unwieldy and 4 houses into trick-or-treating, Alex fell twice and had had enough. Luckily Grandma was visiting and took him back to the house to hand out candy. When Jason, Ashton and I rolled in about 8:15 pm, Alex took one look at how much candy Ashton had, cried that Ashton had more than he did (Alex really is a crier), and how was he supposed to go out and get more now that it was too late? 
So that was Halloween.
On to…
THANKSGIVING

You know what comes first!

We had a full house for this one – Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris, Aunt Lizzie, Owen, and Sarne. Berg, Karen and Jayden came for the actual meal itself, which consisted of the same recipes we make every year. Why mess? (It’s funny, if you look at last year’s post about this, the pictures are pretty much the exact same lol – including one of Grandpa chopping!)

30 pounder!

Whiskey sours, naturally!

Hastily taken photos of the spread

So much to be grateful for! Like how the boys (ages 3, 4, 6 and 7) gave us 10 seconds to eat in peace before needing something lol.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Blue 42, Blue 42, Hut Hut!

I only know that line because of Ace Ventura. ANYWAY, Ashton just wrapped his first season of flag football! We have been allll about the game this fall – practices on Wednesdays (even in the rain!), games on Saturdays, watching it professionally on TV (pause for photos)

 under the friday night lights at Natick HS (pause again)

and we even hit a BC game (annnnd pause again).

This was the first year Natick offered a K/1 flag football league and frankly, it was awesome. The coaches, the people, all of it. Ashton actually really learned how to play and the season felt, I don’t know, official. Must have been the green screen 😉

Back row, middle. #7!

It should be noted that Ashton always came home sweaty and filthy (see face):

And on Saturdays, even though his games were often at 8 or 9 am, he wore his jersey the whole day 🙂 In other news, his mouthguard proved to be good practice for the retainer he now wears, and I only had to drag Alex off the field two hundred times during the course of the season! (That’s him next to Ashton:)

His turn next year, when he is in kindergarten (!!).

Just wanted to post some of my favorite pictures somewhere. Enjoy 😀

And a quick video of him scoring a touchdown: 
Final huddle of the season. That’s a wrap!

Before and After: Laundry Room

The laundry room, everybody, belongs to me. I’m the only one who uses it and so Jason very rightfully said, “You can do whatever you want in there, I don’t care.” Wheeeee!!

To start from the beginning, the walls were a depressing gray and the room was basically a closet and two laundry machines. I started with the idea of some fun, whimsical wallpaper. I was obsessed with this sample on the wall:
But there was one small problem and that is my knack for picking expensive things. THEY FIND ME. Jason went along with it for awhile (see statement above) but once the installer quoted $400 and we did the math on the actual wallpaper cost (over $1,200, who could have known?) well it was astronomical for a room that is 8×12 and basically a reservoir for dirty clothes. Even I couldn’t justify paying that.
So then I was all fiiiiiiiine, I’ll just paint (bahahaha, meaning I’ll pick the color, Jason will paint). While I was noodling on that, Jason started to build out the shelves/laundry machine “housing”. 

The laundry room is small and hard to get decent pictures of. This is the view from the hallway:
Anyway, Jason added crown moulding and after I settled on a color (Pink Bliss/Benjamin Moore), he painted.

Then. THEN. Came these. They were just what I needed to turn this space into something special. The decals came on giant sheets, I had to cut them out and spent a lot of time grouping them on the wall, moving the clusters around, etc. so the overall pattern was balanced.

Let’s pause for a moment of appreciation because I’m super proud of how this came out lol. All the little sprigs and leaves had to be arranged not only so they looked good, but in reverse order of how they were going to be peeled and applied so that the layering looked right. Plus I did the whole thing not actually knowing the full color of the decals under their white paper.

So- before:
After:

The boys helped me peel once I was 100% sure of the placements (there was no rearranging these – once they were stuck that was it):

(This was last June, by the way, hence the bathing suits. That’s how behind I am!)

Anyway, final wall!

It looks painted in person and I totally love it.

Ok what else. We swapped out the light fixture,

Hung a drying rack:

And I made a wreath out of clothespins. Yep I did. Like almost 200 of them, that I spraypainted and then glued sparkly paper on top of. Briefly, the process:

That’s it! A couple before and afters:

(Used canvas to simulate countertop)

And just some afters. As I said this is a hard space to photograph because it’s small!

To completely geek out over this, my dryer sheets are in the pink box and my stain soap is in that octopus thing. Decorative objects can be functional.
Alright well…off to
Wash…dry…fold…repeat! 

California Dreamin'

To add on to what was already an awesome summer, the boys and I took a trip to visit my grandparents in Southern California in the middle of August. 3039 in 92626 is a super special place for all of us – we have sooo many memories there from growing up. I hadn’t visited since before Ashton was born, and it was so exciting to have the boys now at an age where we could go and be relaxed about it. We had planned it since February and my mom and Erik were meeting us there.

The morning of the flight out, Thursday, was very hairy. If you want to know the whole story, I have posted it at the bottom. We got to Papa and GG’s around 4 pm on Thursday and a giant bull raft awaited the boys in the pool (thanks Papa!).  That was basically the rest of the day, as you can imagine. What else would we need? Lol

The boys were pooped and in bed by 6:30 pm (helloooo, glorious time change).

Friday – DISNEYLAND! Me, the boys, Uncle Erik, Papa and GG(2). If you ever want to do Disneyland in one day, I have posted, also at the bottom, our itinerary. I spent untold amounts of time reading Yelp reviews of the rides, determining which lines get long and when, what is worth it, what isn’t, etc etc. To many, I realize this seems ridiculous and silly. HOWEVER, ask my fam how happy we all were to have a great plan and I’ll show you a picture that looks like this!

Being shoved in a teacup spells F-U-N, amiright? 😉

But here are a just a few yummy samples from the 1,336 pictures I took.

Alex’s favorite character!

Pew pew! Papa and GG on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters:
Autopia:

Disneyland Railroad:

Boat to Tom Sawyer Island, which was so cool by the way!

Parade

Alex and GG sat out Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but the rest of us rocked it!

I’ll also make a note about Splash Mountain. Last year, at Disney World, Alex rode all of the rides like what. He was not even 3 and jaws were dropping all over the place. Well it’s clearly because he had no clue about what was happening. 1.5 years later, it was not as impressive. In fact, he screamed bloody murder on Splash Mountain this time. He was so petrified I was honestly figuring out how to stop the ride. Pretty sure he ruined the experience for the other people in (on?) our log. Which brings me to…Best quotes of the day!!

Me (at Splash Mountain, about to board): “Oh, the seats are single file? I thought we would be going in pairs.”
Erik: “Well, two people can’t straddle a log very well can they.”

Mom/GG, as the celebratory bugles were blaring to announce the park’s opening: “I hope they don’t play this music all day.“
Random woman walking next to us [in disbelief]: “I hope they do!“

Me (in It’s a Small World): “Wow, this ride just keeps on going.”
Erik: “Well Kristen it’s a big world.”

Alex (on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which is dark and twisty): “I really don’t like this!”
Ashton (frantically turning the wheel, truly believing he was driving our car): “Don’t WORRY Alex! I WILL GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”

Ashton (on Big Thunder, which is a fast roller coaster): “WHOA! Is there someone DRIVING THIS?”

Erik, in Mickey’s house, gazing about appreciatively: “I could live here.”

And so we could, perhaps! It was really that fun despite our blistering schedule. (Literally – it was hot!)

On to Saturday, no slowing down here!! Off to Little Corona to the beach with Erik and GG. Not super compelling pictures of this day.

Ashton made a cool necklace and Alex found a heart shaped rock.

Not pictured was the exploration of that giant rock (boulder?) in the background, covered with spitting anemones, crabs and weird sea bugs.

More pool time when we got home and another early bed time – looooved it.

Sunday was a mish mash of things. Bike riding (Papa attempted to help Alex learn, he just won’t!), then the Fun Zone at Balboa Island, walking the pier, Newport Beach and then shopping at Fashion Island. I got new Ray Bans 😉 What is it about being away and on vacation and feeling no guilt about spending money? (That’s rhetorical.)

And just like that, it was Monday 😦

No drama on the way home. Off we go!

Thank you to Papa and GG(1) for hosting us. Papa for getting the bikes ready and blowing up the bull, and GG for all the food and cleaning up after us. I know it is no small feat to have us in the house, but we loved every single second. XOXOXOXOX! And thank you GG(2) for having so much fun with us. We made great memories.

Lastly, thanks to Erik, for being a truly awesome uncle the entire time. I know this was your favorite part:

Who doesn’t love sifting for pre-planted coins in the blazing hot sand under a relentless sun? I owe you one. Um, several. 😉

****
Appendix #1 : 
The flight that was delayed almost two hours but then changed its mind and tried to leave on time. 
Actual emails I sent. It’s just faster. 
From: Kristen Nill <kristen.nill@me.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2018 12:24 PM
To: kari.brayden@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: Hello from fly-fi

Well holy f&*king S#&%T. I am on this airplane by the grace of god. At 7:30 am JetBlue was like oh, we’re not leaving on time at 10:45 anymore, we are delayed until 11:30. Then not long after that, “actually we are now delayed until 12:30”. 
So I basically screwed around at home and waited to leave. The boys played, Jason had coffee etc. Around 9:15 I was like ok we should just go probably. I’ll go get dressed. Jason was like ok I’ll just drive you (had planned to Uber).
9:45 we get in the car and we are on route 30 about 30 mins from the airport and the text from JetBlue comes: “back to 11:30!” And I am like oh crap, ok well that’s perfect actually. We will just make it. Then 3 mins later: “back to on time at 10:45!”
Now as you know the door for a 10:45 flight closes at 10:30. At this point it was 10:05 and I call jetblue to see about other options to maybe Long Beach but nothing. Sold out. Jason drives on the pike like a bat out of hell. We get there at 10:20 am. My heart was beating out of my chest, I was like are we actually going to miss this flight- it’s like unthinkable. The next 10 minutes are going to make or break me.
Story commences below. Let this be a lesson that JetBlue does roll back their delays!! This happened last year in Florida too actually.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kristen Nill <kristen.nill@me.com>
Date: August 9, 2018 at 12:05:17 PM EDT
To: jasonnill@braeburngolf.com
Subject: Hello from fly-fi

Omg babe. We are in the air. that was so unbelievably intense! We ran into the big open terminal and I did exactly what you told me to do. I found a person and said can you help me? We are on the 10:45 to LA…and totally started to cry (for real). I was like shaking. She looked it up, it was 10:20 and she said the flight is closed. She must’ve seen the look on my face though, and said “hold on…” so the she ran over and got on the phone and came back with boarding passes! But then she didn’t realize we had bags so then it was a question of whether they could get those on. Which eventually was a yes.

So then she carries the car seat bag with us and escorts us to security which was a MESS. We cut the line but those agents were in ZERO hurry. The boys lost their water (which was fine, at one point I was like I’ll throw the whole bottle away I don’t care!), I had to totally take out the car seats and helmets and scan those through, my bag got flagged for the Epi pen and the ipads, my shoe got stuck etc etc . It was slow motion. I started to panic again and the boys were both crying and the girl called again to the gate and she was like don’t worry! You’re on I promise.

We ran down and there was still a line to board. And then I got a text for a delay until 11, so I was like wait we would have been fine? but the girl was like the problem was they had closed the flight. (She had had them reopen it for me so she could get us boarding passes and do our bags). Anyway we got through and she hugged me and I gave her $20 and we walked on!! I was shaking the entire time omg. I can’t believe it. You were an amazing delivery driver babe, a regular Uber and we never would have made it. Actually after we walked in and the girl was seeing if she could get me on, there was another guy wandering around waving his hands like “WTF? There was a delay and now it’s ON TIME?? I’ve never experienced that in my LIFE!” And naturally with his attitude no one rushed to help him, he was like “my wife and kid are in the car, can SOMEONE please tell me what I’m supposed to do right now.” And I was thinking to myself you’re screwed buddy, I know the next flight that has seats on it is 8:55 pm tonight based on what the agent told me over the phone when we were on our way in.

Anyway I’m still in disbelief. That was a crazy 20 minutes!!

The boys have latched on to one new app that is of course on just one iPad so I’m trying to download it to the other one- doubt it will work but we have tons of other stuff to play and watch. Haven’t tried the amazon streaming yet. Just bought a sandwich and cheese box and when the beverage cart gets here I might order a vodka lol. Phew!!

Xoxox

By the way I did send in a glowing review of Shaneah to JetBlue. We never would have gotten on that flight without her!

***

If lastly, if you have somehow googled something and landed here, Appendix 2:

How to do Disneyland in one day with a 4 year old and a 7 year old and be home in time for dinner
(adapted slightly from its original version to show what we actually ended up doing and the times we did them – we skipped Star Wars, Space Mountain and Jungle Cruise, but otherwise a solid showing!! Numbers and color codes don’t matter unless you are hard core like me.)

ITINERARY –
7:00 am   Arrive at Disneyland, park and shuttle to gate 
7:30 am   Get tickets/head for the rope drop,  
                  Book first FP 
8:00 am   Rope drop -> head across the Sleeping Beauty drawbridge to Fantasyland 
Fantasyland – 8 am – 9:30 am 
FIRST: Peter Pan’s Flight (33) 
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey (25) 
Mr Toad’s Wild Ride (32) 
Storybook land canal boats (38) 
It’s a small world (39) 
Explore Toon Town and ride the little roller coaster, 9:30 – 10:15 am for characters (meet Mickey at his house) and then walk down around the Matterhorn (currently closed for refurbishment) 
Tomorrowland – roughly 10:30 am – 12 pm 
Nemo submarines (49) 
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (58) (FP) 
Autopia (51) 
GET ON THE RAILROAD AT TOMORROWLAND AND RIDE 2 STOPS TO NEW ORLEANS SQUARE 
LUNCH at French Market ~ 12:30 pm 
New Orleans Square – roughly 1 – 2:15 
Haunted Mansion (15) 
Splash Mountain (16) – FP 
Explore Pirate’s Lair – Tom Sawyer Island (19) 
Adventureland – 2:15-3:15 
Indiana Jones (11) -FP 
Pirates of the Caribbean (13) 
Tarzan’s tree house (12)  
Get Dole Whip at Tiki Room (9) on the way to: 
3:30 PARADE (watched from bottom of circle next to Adventureland entrance) 
Frontierland – 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Big Thunder (25)– FP 
Show at the Golden Horseshoe  

Depart, exhausted but glowing, to the Toy Story parking lots 🙂 Try and avoid crap souvenirs that cost one million dollars on the way out. 

***

Can’t wait to go back, honestly and truly. 
xo Papa and GG(1)