Day 5- Sea World

Saturday we didn't have anything planned with the Warners until late afternoon so we had the whole day to ourselves. We debated what we wanted to do and decided to head to Sea World. We knew they did a few extra things for wish kids so we thought it would be fun to go there. After completely wearing everyone out on Friday we let everyone sleep as long as possible. It felt great to be able to sleep in for a while!

Once we got ready we headed to Sea World. We stopped and took a picture just before entering the park. This time I handed the camera to Jared so I could be in a picture:)

This was one of the only days I attempted to wear my hair down. It definitely didn't last long. It is just too hot and humid there!
The first thing we did when we got inside the park was pet the sting ray. As a wish kid they let you feed them for free so the boys enjoyed that.

Caleb was always a little more timid when feeding the animals. Kyson thought it was great!

After feeding the sting ray we also got to go feed the dolphins.



After feeding the dolphins, I started feeling quite sick. We found a place to sit in the shade and get some food and water. Unfortunately while sitting there I just couldn't eat and I felt awful. My throat was really hurting, I was nauseous, and probably a little dehydrated. I was determined to not let it ruin our day. Jared kept saying we just needed to go back to the villa but I didn't want to. After saying a quick prayer the thought came to me that I should have Jared go to first aid station and ask for some Ibuprofen. We were actually sitting quite close to it so he ran over there. They didn't have Ibuprofen but they gave him some Tylenol. I took it and began feeling much better. Jared was still thinking he wanted to take me back but I convinced him to go watch the Shamu show where we could sit in the shade and we would leave after that if I wasn't better.

We had to walk clear across the park to get to the show and by the time we got there it was almost going to start. We didn't think we would find very good seats but when we got there I asked the people in charge if they let wish kids have special seating and sure enough...we had the best seats in the house. I was very grateful for that especially since I wasn't feeling the best.
Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from the show.


Once this show was over I knew I was feeling good enough to do a couple more things. The boys kept asking to see sharks so we headed that direction. There was a big tunnel that you can go through where the sharks and other animals are swimming all around you. The boys really liked that (and it was air conditioned!!!) so we did it twice!

After seeing the sharks we knew we had time for just one more show before needing to go back to GKTW. I remembered as a kid loving the Sea Lion and Otter show so we headed there. We got front row VIP seats which was awesome!
This show was very fun. The actors did a really great job and it was really funny.


In the middle of the show they asked for a child volunteer from the audience. Since we were sitting in the front row I told Caleb to raise his hand and he was chosen. He got to go and help the Sea Lion do a few fun tricks. He was definitely very timid but I was proud of him for going up there and doing it. He loves to tell people that he got to shake hands with a Sea Lion:)


They took a really great picture of Caleb shaking hands with the Sea Lion so we got a printed copy of that picture. That was another perk being a wish kid...they give you one free picture at Sea World. I'm so glad we have that picture! I just wish Jared had videotaped it because Caleb was so cute up there!

On our way out of the park we spotted this shark. The boys wanted a picture with it so we stopped real quick.

I'm so glad we chose to go to Sea World despite my not feeling very good. We had a lot of fun and definitely felt like VIP every where we went. Plus it was a great place to go with three little kids. We didn't ride any of the rides there, but we all got to enjoy feeding the animals and watching the shows. Brooklyn was a little angel as always. It was so hot and she was sweating like crazy and yet was happy as can be.

We got back to GKTW in time to go to the parent meeting with Kurt and Brenda. All of the volunteers came and watched all of the kids while all the parents met together in a small conference room at the village. We really enjoyed this meeting. Everyone got a turn to tell a little bit of their "story." I think out of the ten wish kids there, five of them were HLHS kiddos. It was a special time to get to know each other. There were many tears shed but we could all relate to one another on so many levels. At the end of the meeting Kurt said a prayer for all of us and our kids, and even he shed a few tears. I'm so glad they always take the time to have that special meeting.

Soon it was time to go rescue the volunteers...I mean get our children. Poor Rory always had a story to tell about something Kyson did while we were away. He can definitely be a tricky kid to deal with but Rory was so great with him. Sometimes it wasn't even that Kyson was being bad, he was just so dramatic. For example, Rory was carrying him on his shoulders and accidentally hit his head on something and Kyson was so upset. I know Rory felt bad and Kyson just made it worse by screaming bloody murder! Hopefully someday Kyson will learn to deal with his emotions just a little bit better:)

While we were in our meeting the kiddos got to spend some time with Mickey and Minnie. They each got turns taking pictures with them.



After the parent meeting there is usually a pool party with everyone. We were all so excited but unfortunately there was lightening in the area AGAIN so they closed the pool and all outdoor activities were cancelled. We just hung out around the village, ate dinner, and had ice cream. Soon the sky got really dark so we decided to call it a night in case it started pouring. A little disappointing but since I still wasn't feeling great I was grateful to get to bed.

Day 4-Disney Quest/Islands of Adventure/Hollywood Studios

Friday we woke up early to meet everyone for breakfast at Downtown Disney. The place we ate at had really good breakfast sandwiches. We all sat outside and enjoyed visiting and eating.
Here is a fun picture taken while we were waiting for everyone to finish eating. From left to right...Elijah Warner, Sienna Warner, Kate (another HLHS child like Kyson), Kade Warner, Kyson, and Caleb.

All of the kids spotted this duck and her little babies following her around. Caleb especially loved them and kept wanting to take pictures of them. I deleted tons of them but here are a couple.


After eating, we all walked down to Disney Quest.
This is Sierra (the youngest Warner) pushing Brooklyn. Sierra just couldn't get enough of her and just loved to be wherever she was.

Kyson was having a hard time walking that far so he hitched a ride on one of the volunteer's shoulders (Erin). Poor kid has no waist and his pants never stay up where they are supposed to:)

Along the way, Kurt stopped to pose for a picture with another wish kid, Emmanuel.

Kyson thought this Buzz Lightyear and Woody made completely of legos was super cool!

Disney Quest is a huge building just filled with arcade games. I thought it was funny that Kurt kept saying that Disney Quest was his favorite part of the whole trip. While it was a lot of fun, I definitely loved the roller coasters and theme parks more. The cool part was they opened Disney Quest just for our group an hour and a half before it was opened to the general public.
Here's Kade talking to our boys just before they let us in. He was telling them about all of the fun things to do.

We had the whole place to ourselves. Our boys LOVED the car racing games. If we tried to do anything else they were very upset. In fact trying to leave Disney Quest turned into a bit of a nightmare but we survived the crazy fits being thrown (isn't it crazy how even when kids are being spoiled rotten, they still throw fits!) and decided to get some lunch and head to Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios.

On our way we asked the boys what they would like to eat and not surprisingly they said Taco Bell. We wanted to hurry to get to the park so we grabbed it on our way.

We got parked and it seemed like a mile walk to get inside the park and it was HOT and humid! I convinced Jared to stop for a quick picture...

One of the first rides the boys rode was the Dr. Suess ride. Jared took them both while I stayed and watched Brooklyn.
When they saw Kyson was a wish child they made the boys honorary conductors.

They both had a great time and I guess Kyson was very sad to have to get off the ride.

My favorite part of the park was Harry Potter land. It was so busy and crowded so we didn't stay too long because the boys weren't as interested as I was. They did a very good job building that part of the park.




We tried the butterbeer, went to a wand show, and rode the hippogriff ride a couple times.
This ride was fun, short, and fast. Kyson wasn't too thrilled about it but the rest of us loved it!


Once we left Harry Potter land we found a couple more rides the boys really enjoyed. Then it was time for the parade in Universal Studios so we decided to head that way. We realized we were short on time so we ran a good portion of the way. Unfortunately we completely missed the parade because they decided to start it early because of the threat of rain. A little disappointing to us after running there, but oh well. We met up with our friends, the Arandas, after the parade and rode a couple rides with them. After riding the hippogriff ride Kyson was scared to ride anything else. I convinced him to ride one ride and he was happy when he got off but didn't want to go again!
We ended up staying at the park until it started raining on us again so we started home.


Once we made it to the car the boys were completely exhausted! They both fell asleep pretty quickly. Poor Caleb was in a booster seat and didn't have anywhere to lay his head. We were laughing pretty hard so I decided to video tape him for a minute:)

Day 3-Part 2-Back to GKTW

We had a very fun morning at Animal Kingdom but when it began to rain we decided to leave the park and head back to GKTW. Every Thursday night is Christmas at the village so we wanted to make sure we were back in time for that.
When we got back we had a little time before the Christmas events started so we decided to go do Kyson's star and pillow.

For those who don't know, GKTW gives a star to every wish child that stays there. They get to write whatever they want on it and then the "fairy" takes it and hangs it up in the star tower. Hopefully someday when Kyson is older we can take him back to GKTW and show him where his star is and relive some of these amazing memories.
Here's what Kyson's star looks like...

He wrote his name and colored it a bit and then showed me where he wanted me to draw a few hearts on it:)
Watching the "fairy" take Kyson's star away to put it in the star tower.
After the star, we went and "woke up" the owl to make the pillows.

Here the boys are getting their pillows.

After those two events it was time for the Christmas events. It was still raining outside so we ran to the Gingerbread house where they had a Christmas dinner (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.) We enjoyed eating dinner but were quite disappointed to see that the rain was not going to stop. Most of the Christmas events were cancelled but we heard that Santa was still giving out gifts in the theater so we RAN over there. When we walked in that building we were dripping wet. They were handing out towels so everyone could dry off! The boys picked out a gift and then we went to see Santa and get pictures with him.

After taking pictures we decided to call it a night. We knew we had a fun morning planned at Disney Quest the next day so we wanted to get some rest.

Day 3 Part 1-Animal Kingdom

Thursday we had an early morning because we had to meet our group in front of Animal Kingdom to get in before the park even opened. Once our group was all there, they let us in the gate and the Disney guides took us directly to the Safari ride. This was our first experience being guided around the park (our guides did lead us to our spot for the fireworks show at Epcot but I didn't realize they would lead us around every park)and we began to realize how awesome that was going to be! Not only did we not have to wait in line for a single thing, we didn't have to figure out our way around the park. They just guided us the quickest way to get from one activity to the next!
Anyway, back to the Safari. This ride was very cool. Of course this was the first time our family rode that ride, but everyone who had rode it several times before said we saw a ton more animals than normal. Pretty cool! It was so helpful, our family volunteer, Rory, held Brooklyn so I could take pictures while on the safari ride (honestly if we were with the group I hardly ever had Brooklyn. Everyone loved her and passed her around and she was a perfect angel about it all!).
Here's a few of my favorite pictures...





I remember taking this picture and just thinking to myself..."WOW! Our family really is in Florida at Disney World with Kurt Warner!!!"
By the way, that is the back of Kurt's head on the right:)

When we were being guided around the park, we couldn't stop for the meet and greets because we had to keep up with the group. Caleb and Kyson spotted Chip and Dale and really wanted to go say hi but we had to keep going so I just took a picture.
After the Safari ride we headed to the Bug's Life show. That was pretty entertaining. I think the boys were a little scared because you wear 3D glasses and the bugs look like they are super close to your face! It was fun though.
When Bug's Life was over we headed to the Lion King show. Now this show was AWESOME! It was probably my favorite show of all the ones we watched. The actor and actresses were so fun to watch and they had incredible voices. I would love to see it again someday!
We got to our seats a little early so we had to wait a little bit for the show to begin. Kurt grabbed Kyson and had him sit on his lap and of course Kyson couldn't resist asking if he had an iPhone! I didn't even know he did it until I looked over and there was Kyson sitting on Kurt Warner's lap, playing his iPhone!

Here's a fun picture during the show.

Being with Kurt Warner always brought surprises every where we went. Our surprise at the Lion King show was that after everyone left besides our group, the cast came out to meet us. It was fun talking with them!
Both our boys really liked Timon.

It was actually king of comical. Kyson was throwing a bit of a fit about being in this picture. He was crying so I ran over to him to talk to him and try to convince him to go get in the picture. He was still throwing a fit when he saw Timon. His tears instantly stopped and he said..."I want to stand by him!" and then he put a big smile on his face and cooperated for every picture. That's our crazy Kyson for ya!

This picture has a funny story as well. This guy was trying to talk to Caleb so Jared picked him up and put him on his shoulders. The guy asked him, "How old do you think I am?" Caleb thought about it for a minute and responded, "100!" The guy chuckled a bit and said, "Oh, your sooo close! I'm 99!" Caleb thought that was pretty cool. Later on he was telling me about it and he said, "remember that guy that was 99?!?"

This is one of the few family shots we got while we were there. I wish I would have made it happen more often!

After the Lion King show we headed to the River Rapids ride. At first Jared and I had on ponchos because we didn't want to get wet. After some peer pressure :) we took them off. Of course we both got drenched! I was on the same boat as Kurt and the first time we went I definitely got the wettest. The funny part was when we got back Kurt wanted to go again so he told the worker and we didn't even get off the ride. We just kept going. Our boat took the exact path it took the first time around so I was even more drenched! I seriously shouldn't have given in to the peer pressure because I never did get dry the rest of the day!
Next, it was time to divide into the "thrill seeker" group and the "fun" group. At first I was going to stay behind with Brooklyn and the boys and let Jared ride the thrill seeker rides. Of course Rory was having none of that. He convinced me to go with Jared and he would handle our kids. I wasn't sure, but he said he would have help from some of the other volunteers so I decided to go. I'm so glad I did, we had so much fun riding the big rides together!
After we finished the rides we met back up and had lunch with everyone at the Rainforest Cafe.
Once lunch was over we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We decided to go do a few more things at Animal Kingdom. The boys picked out a couple souvenirs and then we headed out to ride a couple rides with our friends, the Arandas. As we were walking with them, a person from Disney saw our Make A Wish pins so he stopped us. He talked to Andrew and Kyson and gave them both a special pin to add to their collection. They both felt pretty special!
After a couple rides our boys were tired so we decided to head back to GKTW.
Day 3, to be continued...