Feeling Better

Noah has been sick a few days this past week, but thankfully he's back to his old self. For some reason today, he kept unsnapping the top few snaps of his shirt and leaving it open. For a while, I tried chasing him around to snap him back up, but then I just decided it was not a fight worth fighting.

Here he is playing with the top of his shirt unbuttoned.

However, I guess it's a slippery slope.
I was doing laundry and came back in the room to find him in just a diaper! There must have been something about that outfit that just didn't work for him.

Magic Kingdom

We had a great time at Disney World a few weeks ago! We visited all 4 Disney parks, spent a bit of time in the hotel pool (which was amazing) and we rode on some trains, buses, boats and of course a plane to get there. Noah loved all of it, but for some reason he especially loved the buses!

Here is our first day at Magic Kingdom. You'll notice that they already have everything decorated for Halloween. We were out here waiting a few minutes for the park to open and didn't realize that Mickey and some other characters come out to the terrace at this train depot and put on a short show and then do a big countdown for the gates to open. It definitely built up the anticipation for the day!

Our very first ride... Dumbo's Magic Flight! Noah wasn't too sure about it at first, but then really seemed to enjoy it. We were really surprised how empty the park was this particular day. We were able to just walk right up and get on most rides right away. Amazing!

By far, the Carousel was Noah's favorite ride all day.
We rode it four times and he was still signing for more!

Here we are waiting for a 3d movie, Mickey's Philharmagic.
Noah's signs came in handy during this show. It was the first of many times during our visit that he signed 'All Done' during the middle of a ride to let us know that he didn't like it and was ready to move on to something else. Thankfully, we were able to duck out of this show and just move on.

We rode the teacups together. If you don't know, the teacups spin around by themselves, but then you make it spin even more by turning the wheel in the middle of the cup. I was a party pooper and didn't let them spin the wheel, but I didn't want to get sick early in the morning!

We all squeezed into one Speedway Race Car and Noah had a great time steering!

Here we are on a ferryboat that travels around part of Magic Kingdom.

Noah lasted at Magic Kingdom until early afternoon, and in the time we were there, we were able to go on so many more rides than we expected. We went on It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Winnie the Pooh's Adventure, Aladdin's Magic Carpets, the freight train that takes you from one side of the park to the other, and so much more. We had a really great day, even with a little rain!

Animal Kingdom

On our second day, we started at Animal Kingdom. David and I enjoyed the safari, but I think the animals were too far away or the bus was moving too fast for Noah to see all of the animals. He really enjoyed the parts that are more like a zoo.

Here we are on one of the walking trails and there is an aquarium right at Noah's height. I think he could have stayed here all day.

Here we are at a Flight of Wonder live bird show where birds fly around the audience and then do tricks on stage with a trainer. I'm not sure how I got wrangled into this one, but Noah didn't last long. I think he would have liked it better if we had been closer and he could see the birds better.

Noah really enjoyed the petting zoo. It was a large area where the sheep and goats could walk around with the kids. There was also this shaded area that was roped off so the kids couldn't get in, but the goats could come and go out of the shade. On this hot day, there were a number of goats far inside the roped area that I guess didn't want to be bothered and then several at the outskirts so they could have a little interaction with the kids. For some reason, Noah thought it was great fun to lift up the rope and run in to the group of lounging goats in the shade. I didn't see one other child do this while we were there, but Noah was determined to get in to play with them all.

Here is one of the goats out and about. She and Noah must have made some kind of connection because Noah kept going back to her. I couldn't quite make out what Noah was saying to her, but there was definitely some kind of conversation happening.

More Disney

We spent an evening at Hollywood Studios. While David was working, Noah and I explored the park and he enjoyed the steps on what is supposed to be a set for a San Fransisco street. There were probably 8 of these building facades with steps going up to them and Noah climbed up each one and knocked on each door, only to turn around and climb back down.


When he saw me taking the camera out, he made a mad dash for it.



We spent our last day at Epcot and decided to try and get some pictures with characters. It's hard to see in the pictures, but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with them and was very clingy while around them.

Noah hadn't done very well for Mickey and Minnie so we were heading out, but he stopped and watched the chipmunks. He waved and said hello to them from about 10 feet away. So we decided to give it a try. We walked him up to them and just as they were kneeling down to say hello, he got scared. You can see one of them waving his arms trying to make him happy for a picture. None of the pictures with Chip and Dale turned out very well.

I can't say enough about the hotel pool. It was really a series of about 6 pools, some of them connecting. This one is the children's pool that had sand on the bottom, a sand bar for the kids to play in, and a little beach at one end. He wasn't too sure of the sand at first, but then he warmed up to it and had a great time.

A New Family Favorite

In the town where David grew up, there is a small chain of quaint, walk-up hamburger stands that are well-known for both their hamburgers, specifically their double cheeseburger, and also their custard, which makes for some great shakes. It's called Krekel's Custard and we just love it. We try to stop by when we're in town.

We've commented that it's a good thing we don't have them around here since it's not the healthiest lunch option. It's just a nice treat when we're back home.

But very randomly a few weeks ago, we ran across an old newspaper article about a hamburger stand in a nearby town. As I read the article I thought this place sounded a lot like Krekel's. And then wouldn't you know, towards the end of the article it talked about how the owner worked for over 20 years in another hamburger stand in the very same town David grew up. She worked side-by-side with Mr. Krekel and several years ago decided to move to middle Tennessee and open up her own stand. It's Karin's Kustard and we knew we just had to try it.

Just this past weekend, we drove almost 40 minutes to find this hamburger stand and low and behold, it was the spitting image of the much-beloved Krekel's Custard. We thoroughly enjoyed our double-cheeseburgers that were made just like the Krekel's burgers and shared a chocolate chip shake, made with the same kind of chocolate that Krekel's uses. We sat out on the picnic tables, right next to some train tracks and Noah enjoyed the train the passed by. As good as our lunch was, I sure hope they don't franchise and put any closer to us! It's far enough away that it would have to be a very special occasion to go back. But it's just nice to know that there is such a gem of a place that reminds us of home.