Hello, readers! Since I did not cover Sunday in my last Weekly Review, I will start this post by writing about Sunday and Monday. We took Mr. O to Disney World for the first time and it was a wonderful week in Florida. It was a great time and I’m excited to tell you all about it!
On Sunday morning we were up at 3:30 AM. I was so groggy. It felt like I was half asleep all night. When we were all finally awake, we finished getting ready for the airport. As we were about to leave, we realized we did not see Winston the Cat all morning. Fearing that he may be stuck somewhere, we could not leave until we saw him. Lea and Mr. O checked downstairs, while I checked upstairs. Then we switched just to be sure neither of us missed anything. As I was going back upstairs one last time, Winston the Cat comes sprinting up the stairs behind me and runs into our bedroom. We have no idea where he came from. We assume from behind the couch. After breathing a sigh of relief, we packed up the car and went to pick up my aunt.
Since it was Sunday and the Bears first game of the season, I wore my “lucky” Brian Urlacher jersey. As we were walking through the airport, a man walking towards me gave me a head nod and said, “Bear down!”. As I was walking past him, I was pushing a huge suitcase and trying to carry a very heavy carseat, so I wasn’t really paying attention. As he spoke, it didn’t register what he said to me until it was too late, so all I responded with was, “Yeah.” I felt like such a failure! Like a terrible Bears fan. What a dumb response! I wasn’t down on myself for long, though, because 20 minutes later another guy walked by, said “Bear down”, and I was ready this time. “BEAR DOWN!”, I said excitedly. Finally, my redemption.
When we boarded the plane, Mr. O took the window seat, Lea sat in the middle, and I sat in the aisle. Mr. O does not know “airplane courtesy”. Typically, airplane courtesy refers to the middle person getting both arm rests, while the aisle person and window person get the ones on the end. It makes sense, right? Well, Mr. O does not abide by these made up rules! Lea was simply not allowed to have his armrest. He must have both of them. He claimed the armrest is his, that he is “the boss”, and that Lea was a “stinker”. Then, right as we were taking off, he turned to us with a grin on his face and said, “I tooted. You smell it?”. Fortunately, for us and everyone else on the plane, it did not smell.
Randomly in the middle of the flight, he started “Hulk smashing” the chair tray in front of him. Then he kept asking if we were in space. The poor boy must have been confused, because when he would ask us, Lea would shake her head and say no, while I was behind her nodding and saying yes. Sometimes it’s fun to mess with him a bit. He can take it, he’s a good sport. A few hours later we were at baggage claim in the Orlando airport. We packed our bags into our rental car and drove to the resort. Unfortunately, our condo wasn’t ready yet, so we went to lunch at a nearby Steak N’ Shake. On our way there, we saw a car dressed up as Lightning McQueen driving around. Mr. O loved it, of course.
When we finished eating we went into the tourist shop next door. Mr. O immediately spotted a stuffed animal of Marshall from Paw Patrol and had to have it. We bought it for him. Listen, Mr. O was spoiled this week. I know I complain that we buy him too many toys, but it was a special week for him, so he got a lot of toys. We went back to the resort after leaving the store, and since our room wasn’t ready yet, we changed in the bathrooms and went to the pool. Of course, 10 minutes after we got in it started raining. Thankfully, our room was ready! After we unpacked, we caught the end of the Bears game. It was an incredible win and such a fun, high scoring game. I can’t wait to see where this team goes this season.
When the game was over, Lea and my aunt went to buy some food for the condo, while Mr. O and I played with some of the toys he brought from home. When they came back they unpacked their groceries and I put on more football. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in the condo, ordering dinner, and watching football. We had a long, busy week ahead! On Monday morning, Mr. O and I were up bright and early. I made us eggs and we played on the floor while watching the Disney channel. When the rest of our household was up, we went to the pool, where we spent the majority of our day.
While there, Mr. O made a new friend. Although I don’t know this boys last name, I will refrain from using his first name (just like I do for Mr. O). Unfortunately for me, his name also starts with an O, so I’m not sure what to call him, Lol. I guess I don’t have to call him anything, he’s barely in this story. Anyways, this little boy, Mr. O’s new friend came up to us and proudly stated, “I’ve seen every episode of Peppa [Pig]!”. I said, “Wow”, because it is impressive. He then went on to tell us what episodes Mr. O “has to watch”. Then they both ran off and chased each other around for a few minutes.
Hours later, we all went back to the condo. We ate lunch, hung out, and I watched a few minutes of the latest (at the time) Pardon My Take episode. Mr. O ended up taking a nap. Later in the evening, we all cleaned ourselves up and drove over to Disney Springs. It is such an incredible place and I had no idea it existed. If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s a huge Disney themed outlet mall. I don’t know if that’s a great description, but it’s what comes to mind. The first store we went to was the M&M store. I have never, ever, seen so many M&M’s in my life. This place is huge and has to have millions of M&M’s inside of it, Lol. The merch was cool too. Then we went to the Marvel store, where Mr. O picked out some toys. Lea and I said no, but then my aunt said she wanted to buy them for him, so he got his way.
We then went to two different Disney stores, which were interesting, but had mostly the same stuff. For dinner, we went to this place called TREX. You could probably guess, but it was Dinosaur themed. Mr. O was scared at first, but ended up loving it. After dinner we went back to the condo and watched the final football game of the night. It was a great second day in Florida.
On Tuesday we slept in a bit. We were all exhausted after our first two days there, but we had to get up because it was Disney day! Lea and I both went when we were probably around Mr. O’s age, and neither of us have been back to Magic Kingdom since. It was also, as I mentioned, Mr. O’s very first time there, so we were so excited for him. My aunt did not join us, which gave her a quiet, relaxing day at the condo and at the pool.
When we arrived at the park, we had to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Mr. O instantly loved it. We knew it was going to be a great day. When we entered the park we saw so many cool buildings.
Then we made our way to the famous castle. When we walked up to it, there were so many characters dancing and singing on stage. Mr. O did not know what to think! Elsa, Olaf, Mickey, etc. were all up there singing and dancing. It was so cool to see, honestly. Seeing the castle up close was also awesome. One day I would love to go inside and see what it looks like. At the request of Mr. O, the first ride we had to go on was the Buzz Lightyear one. He was so excited about it and was talking about it nonstop.
Mr. O and I sat in one car, while Lea sat in the one behind us. He had so much fun shooting at the robots and “defeating Zurg”. He was scared at times, but loved it overall. Once we got off the ride, we had lunch at Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe.
We all ordered cheeseburgers and rested our legs for a bit, then we started walking again. We went to the Tomorrowland section of the park, where Mr. O and I went to the Speedway ride and drove a race car.
After that bumpy ride, Lea and Mr. O rode on Dumbo. He hated it. It went too high, I guess! When they got off that ride, we walked around and they both got some ice cream. Then we went on the It’s a Small World boat ride. It was like a fever dream. Little robot children and animals singing and moving around in a dark water tunnel. Creepy! It was fun though, and kind of relaxing. Mr. O liked it so that’s all that matters. When this ride ended, we got in line for another boat ride, but it started raining nearby and there was lightning, so they shut down basically everything at the park until the storm passed. We sat and waited for about 30 minutes, and then everything opened up again.
Eventually, we found Mickey Mouse. The king of Magic Kingdom himself. The ruler of Disney. To say Mr. O was starstruck is an understatement. As we were walking in, he told me, “I’m going to sneak up on Mickey and say Boo!”. When we entered the room Mr. O stood there with his hands over his eyes. Mickey thought it was hilarious and did the same. The two hit it off and we got a bunch of pictures, but I will only show the ones where Mr. O’s face is blocked, Lol.
After 8 long, but extremely fun hours, our time at Magic Kingdom had come to an end. We drove back to the condo, ate dinner (and everything else in sight), and watched Spongebob with Mr. O. Our feet were throbbing, and we rested the rest of the night. What an amazing day.
When Wednesday rolled around, I was up at 3 AM and I could not fall back asleep. I rolled around in the bed, trying to get comfortable, but nothing was working. I eventually started scrolling on my phone and then fell back asleep, thankfully, around 5 AM. I might as well have stayed awake, because Mr. O and everyone else was awake at 7, Lol. After breakfast, we packed up Mr. O and took him to an aquarium nearby. To our surprise, the building the aquarium was in also had an arcade, so we played there too.
Fortunately for us, Mr. O didn’t know we had to put coins in to actually play the games, so we just let him “play” whatever was on the loading screens and with the steering wheels. He still had tons of fun. Later in the evening, we met our friends from college, who live in the area, for dinner (along with their kids). One of our friends, the wife, was Lea’s maid of honor at our wedding, so they’ve stayed close over the years. The restaurant we went to had a play area, where Mr. O and the other kids were able to run around and play while the rest of us were able to catch up for an hour or two. It was a really great time and a beautiful evening!
On Thursday morning Mr. O and I were up around 7 AM. I made eggs and poured a bowl of cereal for myself, and then I cut up a blueberry muffin for Mr. O when he decided he was hungry. After breakfast I noticed I wasn’t feeling too great. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, and I had no idea what was going on. I stayed back in the condo while everyone else went to the pool. After lying down for about an hour, I finally felt better. I’m still not sure what the issue was, but I’m glad it was over. We spent the rest of the day at the pool, and one of my cousins (who lives in the area) came over to have lunch and spend some time with us. It was great to see him!
In the evening, Lea and I left Mr. O with my aunt as we went back to Disney Springs for our date night.
When we arrived, we walked around for a bit and went through different stores, looking for gifts for each family member. Then we went to Paddlefish for dinner. It was a big restaurant on a boat and it was pretty nice. The food was great! Lea and I ordered the same thing, lol. We both ordered an 8oz filet, with mashed potatoes and green beans. The only difference was Lea ordered a salad. It was a great dinner. Afterwards, Lea got some ice cream and we walked around for a bit longer before heading back to the condo.
We finished the night with Mr. O. He played with his new toys and we watched Thursday night football and relaxed. On Friday morning it was time to pack and go home. When we arrived at the airport we learned our flight was slightly delayed, which was a bummer but at least that was the only issue. During the flight, Mr. O slept the entire time and I watched an episode of Pardon My Take, while Lea read her book. After we dropped my aunt off at home, we picked up Culver’s for dinner, unpacked our clothes, gave Mr. O a bath, and we all went to bed. It was an exhausting day.
On Saturday morning there was a nasty thunderstorm rolling through the region. We had to pack our bags (and the car) again, to head down to my in-laws (for a private family matter). It was tiring to drive almost 3 hours after flying home the day before, but it was necessary. It was also nice to see my in-laws, nieces and nephew. Mr. O had a blast with his cousins too. In the evening, we decided we did not want to stay somewhere else and decided to drive nearly 3 hours back home. It was an easy drive and Mr. O slept most of the way. When we came back home, Lea put him to bed and we watched the second half of the LSU vs Ole Miss football game.
On Sunday morning, Mr. O came running into our room because he was scared of the thunderstorm. We slept for a couple of hours before waking up for the day and going downstairs. I made us both breakfast and we played while Winnie the Pooh played in the background. Currently, Lea is grocery shopping, Mr. O passed out on the couch right next to me, and I am wrapping up this review, watching the Bears play on one TV, and watching NFL Redzone on our other TV. It’s a gloomy day here, and it is relaxing. I love this weather, especially at this time of year.
A Moment I’m Still Thinking About
A lot happened this week, but I’m still thinking about our trip to Disney World Magic Kingdom. Mr. O had so much fun and loved every second of it, especially meeting Mickey Mouse. Looking back at all the pictures, his smile was the brightest when he met that special mouse. I know he probably won’t remember most of this trip, but at least we will have the memories and pictures to hold on to. We can also take him again many years from now. What a great week.
How was your week, reader? Let me know in the comments!
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Peter
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