The HAPPIEST place on Earth!! (well, there were moments) ;)

So, I will give a bit of a disclaimer before I begin writing the post on our fantastic trip to visit Nana Castellano and our trip to Disney. Most of this post will be pictures. I'm not even sure if Blogger puts a limit on how many pictures you can post per entry, but I just may reach the max on this one. Because the story of our Disney experience is best told via pictures I think. ;)

Our first day we went to Epcot on a mission to meet some characters! We had really built up to the girls going to visit "Mickey's House", so they were ready to meet them some Mickey I think!! The day started out pretty great. We did some rides, ate some lunch and rested in some AC out of the heat all in great anticipation of our reservations to have dinner at a restaurant where the characters come around to meet you at your table! So, the characters came and went. Braelyn attacked them with great joy and lots of hugs and kisses. Gwendolyn cowered by her daddy and wouldn't say a word until they walked away. Then and only then would she say, "Daddy! Where did Mickey go?' She enjoyed more of a long distance relationship with the characters. She liked them, but only if they were not standing anywhere near her. :)

Some of you that are friends with me on Facebook may already know what happened next. This is the part of our trip where I realized that Disney is not ALWAYS the "Happiest place on Earth". Gwendolyn was sitting on a booster chair and leaned over to play with her cousin and sister and fell head first onto the floor, and directly on her shunt. I immediately ran to her and picked her up. She was extremely pale, her body was a bit limp, and her eyes were rolling back at times. This is about the time I panicked. I told Chuck to come with me and I took our baby out of the restaurant as quickly as possible. The rest was a bit of a blur. I remember someone asking me if I wanted the medics to be called and I told them yes, and as quickly as possible because she has Spina Bifida and a shunt and she is not acting herself. The medics took what seemed like forever to get there, but they finally did. They put her on a stretcher and asked me a few questions. We were in an ambulance a short time later on our way to the nearest hospital. (A hospital named Celebration of all things. I couldn't get that irony out of my head let me tell you.) We got to the hospital and Nana, Chuck, and Braelyn met us there. I noticed immediately after arriving at the hospital that Gwendolyn had a pretty nice bruise right where her shunt is. The doctor decided to be on the safe side and ordered a CT scan. To make a long story (and an even longer wait) short, everything came back fine. Her shunt was fine and there was no sign of brain trauma or anything. We were allowed to take her back to the hotel for the night. It was very late by this point, so we were more than ready to get out of there. We had plans of going back to Disney the next day, but decided to just take it easy at the hotel, let the girls nap, and take a little swim in the great hotel pool.

The day after that we went to Magic Kingdom where the girls had a blast going on rides like the teacups, Dumbo, and their favorite, the carousel. We also set up a time to go and meet Mickey and Minnie. Again, Braelyn was on cloud nine, and Gwendolyn cowered on Daddy's shoulder. ;) The highlight I think was the Electric Parade that night. We took Gwendolyn in her new wheelchair to Disney so we were allowed in the handicapped reserved section. They were amazing seats and we saw all of the floats right as they came out. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the girls, or me. :)

We didn't have the hotel reserved for any more days, so we headed back to Nana's house to get a bit of rest before hitting the third day of our 3 day passes. On Sunday we decided to hit up Animal Kingdom. It was great. We saw the Lion King show which was really, really cool. The girls sat in absolute awe of the whole thing. I was worried they (Gwen) would be afraid, but she really wasn't. She liked it a lot! We also went on the Safari tour which was extremely cool too. The girls got a really up close look at amazing animals like elephants, rhinos, and their favorite giraffes.

So, in a nutshell that was our Disney experience!   Enjoy some of our MANY photos!!
(In no particular order, cuz that would have taken me FOREVER!!) ;)