november 2013

november 16 2013

wow - what a whirlwind couple of weeks. the journey was a little rocky to begin with - we landed in LAX about an hour after a gunman had started shooting in another terminal. that meant a redirected gate and a 90 minute wait on the tarmac to be bussed in. once in the terminal, there was no traffic into the airport and no transportation out - only foot traffic. once we left the terminal we wouldn't be allowed back in [so a little worrying since we had a flight to texas later that evening] so after trying to get some information and weighing up our options for about an hour we decided to walk out of the airport and hoped we'd find a shuttle to the car rental place we'd booked a car from. the rental company couldn't tell us whether there would be shuttles available outside the airport or not.

walking out of LAX

it turns out they had cordoned off about 3-4 blocks around the airport along with various highways. eventually we managed to find a cab to take us to the car rental place and finally [very slowly] made our way to disneyland for the afternoon 6 hours after landing. we're glad we went - another 10 hours in LAX might have driven us all insane. our terminal reopened about an hour before we arrived and we were only a little late departing just before 1am for a red-eye to Texas. the children slept pretty well and we boarded our final flight to orlando around 7am. we didn't quite manage to fit in disneyland and disneyworld in 24 hours but came pretty close by squeezing in a trip to hollywood studios before heading off to meet all the sleepy brits at old key west resort arriving off their airport shuttle.

we weren't able to find a good deal at old key west so we had decided to split our stay between the new art of animation resort and a cabin at the very old fort wilderness resort. the art of animation was incredibly well themed and we were very happy in our nemo-themed room with a dining table which converted to a bed. it was very bright and very busy which made the transition to a campground quite a shock. fort wilderness is vast so we fell in love with our golf cart to get us around. we had a very memorable night around the campfire watching a disney movie, listening to the epcot fireworks and then watching the magic kingdom fireworks just above the big screen!

we loved the new room keys [magic bands] - which made paying for things a little too easy!

art of animation

zoe's bed/dining table!

a quick fish dance!

fort wilderness

pony ride after zoe declared she likes horses suddenly

sascha on a horse!!!

it was also nice spending time at old key west where my mum and dad are members so it feels like a home away from home. the Jenner side of the family were just across the street from the Sheldrake/Milligan side of the family and walking from one apartment to the other brought back lovely childhood memories of when we all lived on the same street.

this holiday was all about spending time with family which is what i miss most having left England. i love all the disney parks, but all my happiest memories were about the people I love most in the world - getting to hold my only nephew now that he's a whole year older, zoe getting to play big sister to eva, laughing so hard I could barely breathe watching us all get drenched on a rapids ride, and taking the 8-person cycles out for a ride. hopefully i've stored up enough love to last me until we all see each other again for daniel and sara's wedding in april.

'big sister' zoe with eva!

all ready for the wet rides at universal!

golfing at magnolia

playing with flynn

eating at the sci-fi diner

we finally got to see hogsmeade at universal studios. the day was a lot of fun and the harry potter area and main ride were amazing but i did feel like i was cheating on disney all day!

universal studios

hogwarts

hogsmeade

aly in jurassic park

halfway through our trip apparently it was christmas. i was trying hard to resist because i love christmas but i know if i get all excited too early then i'm over it by the time it finally arrives. i was withstanding the whole thing until the end of the trip when we went through the christmas version of it's a small world and then i got a little bit excited!

it's christmas??!

we also squeezed in a belated 40th birthday get together for me, belated 1st birthday for flynn and early birthday for my dad. i love family get togethers :) the 40 presents from my parents also helped! my birthday treat was eating in cinderalla's castle which we'd never done before. the girls loved meeting all the princesses and i loved the private viewing of the electric light parade beforehand and the view of the fireworks from inside the castle during the meal. wow!

eating in the castle

big jasmine meeting little jasmine

zoe was a great age for disney. i've always said that you can take children to disney at any age, but she was finally happy [and big enough| to try lots of different rides, liked most of what she rode [star tours is her new favourite], she doesn't need to nap even when the days are fairly long, she can eat what everyone else eats and she had a really good concept of where we were are and how long we were there for. unfortunately that also meant that she was a lot more upset when it came close to time to say goodbye to the rest of the family.

out on the seven seas lagoon

spaceship earth

on the way back to canada we had another layover in LA - this time we decided to spend the night and squeeze in two last disney parks on the way home [we realized long ago that we are addicts!]

we manage to meet up with our good friends from kelowna so zoe got to have novelty play date with her best friend in california adventure!

we're now on the way back to kelowna and i have a feeling that toby may regret his decision to wear shorts and an hawaiian shirt when we land at midnight and it's -3! i just hope that the car starts and is not under a foot of snow as it was when we returned from our holiday in january.

what a great trip - i hope we find a way to do it again together within the next few years. now to persuade the children to finish their 2 weeks of homework tomorrow!...

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