Daphne

Tonight’s our last night at the Grand Floridian and last nights in Disney are always bittersweet. I’m sitting here thinking of ways to describe the past 8 days we’ve had but I’m coming up short so I’ll just say this: If life is a collection of memories, then Disney World is where you make some of the very best ones.

Some of these memories we’ve just made, I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

//Before the trip, we were telling Finn about how he’d get to hug all his favourite Disney characters and he was so thrilled. The first character we got in line for was Mickey, his favouritest. When we got to the front of the line, he panicked and wanted to run away but Mickey walked up to him, gently took his hand and gave him a hug. It was totally a moment.

Turns out, he’s really good at hugging characters.

Except for Rafiki. He couldn’t quite decide if Rafiki was to be trusted.

He stood for the photo looking all suspicious and after it was over, he considered it for a moment before he declared firmly, “Monkey is a bad guy.”

//We spent some time hanging out at the kids play area at the Dumbo ride and Kirsten brought Finn around to explore. While following behind, I overheard this conversation.

Kirsten: Finn, did you have the best time??

Finn: YES I DID!

Kirsten: (takes his hand) Ok just follow me, I’ll show you how to have fun.

//We had breakfast in Epcot’s Paris on one of the quieter mornings and it was such a treat to have the park to ourselves before the madness descended upon us. We sat and talked and walked a little and talked some more. It was my kind of morning.

//Finn couldn’t get on Test Track because he didn’t pass the height test. He was really disappointed at first but as we were sharing a cheer up cupcake while waiting for Kirsten and the husband to ride, he reached in to give me a chocolatey kiss. “It’s ok momma, when I’m a big boy, we will take the super fun ride.”

I think this has been the longest blog break I’ve taken since…well, since the beginning. I made several attempts to write a post over the past week (after full days at the parks!) but I started writing and it just felt like an out of body experience. Being the dedicated blogger that I am, I just went with it, y’know, letting inspiration take over and all that.

I summoned enough brain power to read it again 20 minutes later and started laughing because even in my delirious state, I could tell that it sounded like I was totally high, and not in a good way. Unlike The Beatles, writing when I’m high is not one of them skills I can include on my linkedin profile. I’m still working on that. So those drafts went straight to the bin and I went straight to bed. Yeah, clearly not that dedicated after all.

Some things I’ve learnt from this trip so far:

1. Jet lag does not get any easier with practice.

2. There are people who possess the mental strength to overcome exhaustion by sheer will power. I am not one of those people. Me, I just give up and walk towards the light.

3. Traveling with a toddler is about 72 kinds of exhausting. Every day, I’m discovering new ways to be worn out by this little lamb.

4. It is also incredibly fun, which most definitely makes all the exhaustion worth it.

It’s been beautiful here in orlando, warm sunny days and lovely chilly evenings. We spent a couple of days at the new Diagon Alley expansion in Universal Studions (ZOMG!!) and we’re now over at Disney World.

I’ve got so much to update and so many photos to post but all that’s going to wait because my brain is rapidly running out of fuel.

Be back with updates soon!