Day 3

Magic Kingdom was my favorite park, but today was my favorite day of the whole trip.  There was so much crying involved though...We wanted to go to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios today.  Very ambitious.

Hudson had a rough start this morning.  He is on oxygen at night for central sleep apnea, and we spot check his sats during the day, usually they're fine.  This morning though, his sats kept dropping too low, and his heart rate was fluctuating, leading to his pulse ox alarming like crazy.  I really thought he was just very tired and had worn his body out.  Mito kids can tire out very fast, and we had done more things yesterday than Hudson ever has!  We called his pulmonologist back in Houston, and she said to keep him on oxygen during the day and keep spot checking.  That means we have to carry around a 30 pound diaper bag (seriously, it was HEAVY), a pulse ox, a feeding pump, a very heavy portable oxygen concentrator, oh yeah...and 3 kids!  We were determined to do it! 

We had breakfast at the Gingerbread House, where Jakey asked for French toast.  They didn't serve this, but one of the volunteers overheard, and next thing you know, French toast made specially for Jakey!  I kept trying to help the kids with their trays, but there are volunteers lined up to help everyone, and one sweet man told me, "Please let us do this.  You have so much more to worry about than this, please let us help you in any way we can this week."  Cue the waterworks, I'm tearing up just thinking of that nice man.  Loved those Angels.

Then we were on our way to Animal Kingdom.  Of course, I had my handy list ready!  It was rainy and cold this morning, so our first stop was for some sweaters at a gift shop, we hadn't brought any!  GKTW did have plastic ponchos though, those were very useful.  We headed towards Camp Minnie Mickey, where you can meet a lot of characters.

When we met with Hudson's Wish coordinators, they asked us his favorite things.  We told them, Mickey Mouse, spinning, swimming, and bright lights...in that order.  Well, we'd done the other ones already, now it was time for Mickey!  Anyone who knows Hudson well knows that the only way we get through doctor appointments, hospital stays, any kind of wait really, is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my iPhone.  I was excited to see how he'd react.

We headed up the ramp to see Mickey, and this was what Hudson's face looked like!

He was in AWE.  He kept looking at Mickey like, it's you...it's really you!  He was smiling so big.  I instantly burst into tears, because the look on his face was just so perfect.  Jake told me when I started crying he wanted to cry, the PhotoPass photographer started crying and hugging me, and Aislin kept saying, "Why are you crying?"  Oh my, what a sight we must have been for the people in line.  It was a beautiful and special moment.

We had made lunch reservations at an African themed restaurant called Sanaa.  We didn't realize that it wasn't actually IN AK.  It was in the AK Lodge, which meant we had to leave AK and take a bus into the Lodge.  It was only about 5 minutes away, but we had a lot of stuff to carry!  So we headed back towards the front of the park.  On our way we stopped for a picture at the Tree of Life.

While we waited for our table at Sanaa, we went out onto their viewing deck to see the animals.  The kids loved looking at them.

Hudson looking at all the animals

Lunch was delicious, I highly recommend Sanaa!  Very good margaritas too! :)  Our waitress gave Hudson a big bag of toys and goodies, which she said was for their Wish kids, and she was so sweet and brought Aislin and Jake some light up toys as well.  After lunch we headed back to AK, and went straight to Dinoland.  This area had some rides, and a lot of carnival type games.  We rode on the Triceratop Spin, again, like Dumbo but with dinosaurs.  We loved it!

The kids played some carnival games, and Hudson observed while happily munching on his frog.

We headed to the Asia section of AK to find the Kali River Rapids ride.  This is where our GKTW ponchos came in handy.  You get soaked on this ride!  We were on a boat with another Wish child, and the attendant let our boat ride 3 times!  This ride was so much fun!

We passed Expedition Everest, a rollercoaster.  Jakey really wanted to ride it, but was too short by just a little.  I was glad though, I would have been scared silly to have my baby on that ride!  He was so mad about it, I think he's our little daredevil.

Would you want your 5 year old on that?!

Aislin and Jakey got a Mickey head ice cream.  I helped Jake with his, they're pretty good!

At this point, we had seen everything we wanted to see in AK, and our plan originally had been to try to go to Hollywood Studios.  It was getting late though, the rain in the morning and all the extra stuff we were carrying really slowed us down.  We knew we wanted to be back by dinner to GKTW, tonight was Santa Claus night!  So we decided to skip Hollywood Studios and head back.

We rode the carousel again before dinner, of course!

Then Hudson got a picture with Mayor Clayton.  This giant bunny is the mayor of GKTW, and he has a sweet little bunny wife named Ms. Merry!

After dinner we headed to the Jungle Safari Theater, where Santa Claus was.  Every Thursday night at GKTW is Christmas, complete with presents, a parade, and snow!  It is a very sweet and fun night.  The reason for it is sad, some of the kids at GKTW may not see another Christmas, so GKTW makes sure they have an awesome one while they are here!

The Jungle Theater

Candy machine inside the Theater



I don't know what it was about that candy machine, but Hudson
laughed hysterically every time he looked at it!





After visiting with Santa, a volunteer led the kids to the presents, they were each
allowed to choose one.  We chose a ball popper toy for Hudson,
but he was really way more interested in pulling off his socks.

After presents, we went to check out the Christmas parade and activities.

There was cookie decorating



and giant reindeer!

After Christmas we went to the Castle of Miracles to make Hudson's star.  At orientation, GKTW had given us a star and a certificate for 3 pillows for the kids to make in the Castle.



Hudson with his star

Then Aislin helped him hold a marker to scribble his own special mark on his star.  I wrote his name on it.

Don't know why it's sideways, but that's his star

This is the area of the Castle where you make the stars, you put your star into that box, and on the screens, you can see the star fairy flitting away with your star.  The kids loved it!

The next day a booklet is delivered to your villa with the exact coordinates of your star, so you can come see it on the ceiling!

Next the kids made their special pillows.  There is a talking tree in the Castle that rains down magical pillows!  Pretty cool!



Hudson really liked it when Aislin and Jake had to shake the tree





He loved his Pooh pillow!

We stopped so Aislin and Jake could get some ice cream, walked back to the villa where the kids found yes, more presents!, and went to bed.  We had an amazingly wonderful day.

Day 4 - Princesses, Knights, and Epcot