Epcot and the Road to Recovery

Tamiflu is a wonder drug. On Wednesday morning, Nathan's fever finally broke. Hallelujah! I stayed at the hotel with him while Jeff and Ashley explored Epcot. Nathan was feeling well enough late in the afternoon to go out for a short time, too.

My Little Princess

We had reservations to dine in Cinderella's castle on on Tuesday night for the whole family, but it ended up just being me and the princess. After a brief trip back to the hotel to check on the boy and quick wardrobe change, we were off to the castle. I mistakenly called her "Ashley" on the way there. She corrected me and said that she wanted to be called "Cinderella".

Magic Kingdom - Party of Two

Tuesday was supposed to be the big day for Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, Nate woke up at about 5:30am with a fever. I was very worried about him since we couldn't suppress it with the usual Motrin/Tylenol cocktail. Jeff took him to a local "urgent" care center, and after a 5 hour wait, he was diagnosed with H1N1. They had to find a pharmacy that would compound some Tamiflu suspension for us. So far the rest of us are okay, but we are all taking the Tamiflu prophylactic dose.

We didn't want Ashley to miss out on a whole day of activity, so I took her to MK by myself. Needless to say, it was not the happiest place on earth for us that day, but we tried to make the best of it.

Animal Kingdom

Since Nathan LOVES animals, we spent Monday at Animal Kingdom. We started the day at Donald's Safari Breakfast where we met some characters. I wasn't sure how Ashley would react to the characters, but she LOVED them. The more affectionate they were with her, the better! ("Mommy, Minnie kissed me two times!") Both kids enjoyed getting autographs (thanks for the tip, Missy) and getting their pictures made with the characters.

After breakfast, we went on a safari and got up close and personal with some real animals.

For the rest of the day, Nathan rode almost every ride in the park. He stretched a little to 48", so he was tall enough for everything. Both of my critters got their faces painted. And later, we watched a couple of shows (Lion King and Finding Nemo the Musical). They were both great!

We wrapped up the evening at Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks.

Hollywood Studios

We started Sunday morning with Mickey-shaped waffles, the first of many Mickey-shaped treats. And then we went to our first park: Hollywood Studios.

Nathan's love of all things Pixar has rubbed off on the whole family. We got to meet all of our favorite Pixar characters, rode some rides (Toy Story Midway Mania was a family fav), and finished the day with another classic Mickey treat.

A Very Happy Halloween!

We're at Walt Disney World! Jeff and I have been planning a surprise trip for months, and we successfully pulled it off! We spent the night in Memphis on Friday then caught a direct flight to Orlando on Saturday morning. We told the kids the night before we left.

Saturday was a little warmer and a little more crowded than I would have expected for this time of year. Amanda and the kids drove over, and we spent the first day with them in Downtown Disney. Since it was Halloween, the kids changed into their costumes, and we all went trick-or-treating. They all had so much fun with their cousins!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I don't usually dress up for Halloween, but we had a costume contest at work this year. Several of us in the clinical department dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. I took some creative liberty with my costume and was the tin woman. I made my entire costume! I have to admit that it was fun, and the make-up was surprisingly easy to remove.

A group shot of most of the people that wore costumes.

Decades of Fun: 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s

My good friend Phyllis on the left with my boss and his wife

Pocahontas

One of my favorite shots of the day: Typical morning clinical meeting with a few characters thrown in.

Since I leave early, I don't know who won the contest, but I was definitely in the running for 1st place.

U-C-A Bears, U-C-A Bears!

This is Jeff's 3rd year at UCA, and I finally went to my first football game on Saturday. I felt a little bit like a traitor getting the whole family decked out in purple to support another team, but it's not like UCA actually competes with the Hogs in athletics. It was fun and the atmosphere was good. Nathan was totally into it!

Jeff was in charge of a tailgate for his department, so we spent the whole day meeting and greeting. I just want to go on record as saying that if Jeff should ever take a position in a school that does compete with the Razorbacks, I will not pull a Houston Nutt and convert our family to Rebel, Gator, Tiger fans, etc. Just so we're clear on that!

Happy Birthday Boys!

Another year, another party. This year we chose a costume party theme and the kids loved it. There was an 80% chance of rain for Saturday earlier in the week, but by Friday it had virtually disappeared. It was really cold. So we did all of our outside activities as quickly as possible then 20 kids invaded my house. It was crazy, but the kids had a blast.

We survived!

Nathan had his birthday party yesterday on his actually birthday. We collectively chose a "Survivor" theme. I did a lot of work on the front end (making signs, flags, buffs, etc.), but all the credit for the success of the party goes to our many helpers: Debbie pretty much planned all the activities, and Dad designed the obstacle course. Mom watched Ashley and helped me around the house so I could get things ready for the party. Sean helped with set-up, Karen took pictures (about 140!), Abby and Jared helped wrangle the children at the party, and numerous others helped with the activities. I actually got to enjoy watching the kids and visiting with the grown-ups. So a big THANKS to all!

Painting the team flags

Getting instructions from our "host"

Ball launch

Gross food eating challenge

No cake drama! The cake actually turned out as ordered this year, and I'm told that it tasted good. We ordered the largest size ice cream cake that they make, but it was little too small.

The obstacle course

If you need help with games for a kid's party, call Debbie. She loves doing this kind of thing and actually already owned a lot of the stuff that we used at the party.