(It’s pretty obvious that this was a Dad only photo encounter, because it never dawned on him to brush Evie’s hair out of her face. The dressing and maintaining of Evie sends fear and panic into Alex’s eyes.)
I can relate.
“Disney makes rides I don’t like.”
Give the kid drops, turns, darkness and he’s fine. Throw some sand towards a screen and that’s a big NOPE from him. 
Soarin’ is another attraction I have never ridden with Landon nor will I ever, it appears.
Poor Landon... one of life's hard lessons. Sometimes parents are actually right.
As my mom and husband were enduring one child’s quirks, I was practicing patience with another’s. Evie was STILL EATING her lunch. By a certain point, I packed the sandwich back in the container it came in and took her outside.
That's a common thing for us too.
Is there anything more iconic to Epcot than this?!
Nope. Not at all. And I hope the view of the monorail and Spaceship Earth like that will still be present with the changes coming. I mean, I'm sure it will be but you know the sightlines will change somewhat.
Although, Alex dozed off halfway through. So really it was just me enjoying our journey through time in complete peace.
Dame Judi Dench does have a calming voice.
Alex had to work during the base's holiday party, and his job turned out to be pretty entertaining:
Ok... I've gotta know. How on Earth did they decide they needed a Stormtrooper Santa??? I mean, it's pretty frickin awesome, but how do you end up deciding that's how you're going to theme your holiday party?
Unfortunately, over the summer the condition worsened and he reached his max strength in prescription glasses. This means that next week he will have surgery to try and repair the issue. It's a fairly basic procedure, and I scheduled it right before Winter Break so he'll only have to miss the last 4 days of school and then have two full weeks of recovery at home.
This is the first time any of the kids have to had to have any sort of medical procedure, so I'm a little nervous but hopeful this will help alleviate some of Landon's ongoing symptoms. (He's been getting a lot of headaches and blinking a lot.)
But because of this, I have no clue when I'll catch up to this report or remain current on everyone else's. Please bear with me; I'll get there, eventually!
Sorry he's dealing with this, but hopefully the surgery does what it is intended to do and gets him the relief he needs.
Right at 6 o’clock, I piled us into the tight and crowded corners of the Via Napoli lobby and checked us in. Why is this check-in area more congested than any other restaurant? And why is it almost always impossible to hear our name being called by the nice host/hostess? I go into a near panic trying to keep my ears peeled and my toes tucked in…
True! That place is always cramped. Thankfully it seems you never wait long after checking in. But with the restaurant being loud, most of the servers being soft spoken with their Italian accents, it can make it hard to hear/understand when they call names.
Our server brought us bread with our drinks, which I don’t remember them doing in the past. Is this a new thing?
I don't think we got it this summer.
Honestly, this was the meal Evie learned a lesson. Listen to Mom and Dad when we suggest a menu item. I tried to tell her she would prefer the spaghetti, but she was in one of those moods where she wanted to do the exact opposite of what I said.
Mom’s saying go left, so I’ll veer right instead….
The joy of kids.
Sounds like a little girl I know. Just wait till she's about 7. It's fun.
And there was not a bite to be left once we attacked it.
All right…once I attacked it.
My mom had, like, 3 slices.
Halfway through the meal she turned and looked at me and said, “I don’t think I’ve seen you eat this much food in years!”
Don’t judge me, Mom. “I can’t let food this good go to waste.”
You would think with as much dough and cheese that I inhaled I wouldn’t have room for dessert.
You’d have clearly underestimated my love of Italian dishes.
I can relate to and respect your diligence in ensuring no Via Napoli pizza goes to waste.
At one point, Alex made a crack that can’t be repeated on a family site but which caused my mother and I to bowl over with laughter. We laughed so hard tears almost started streaming, and Alex was wonderful enough to capture the moment:
When he showed this to me later, it almost caused the tears to return. I love that photo. I love that such a happy moment between my mother and me was caught and memorialized. I love that I had the ability to go to Disney with her and create memories that will last a lifetime.
First of all, that really is a great picture and a memory you'll always have.
But now I really want to know what Alex said that isn't Dis appropriate.
Evie loved them and kept asking how old she had be before she could buy one. But she also walks around the house singing Tamatoa’s “Shiny” all the time, so this question wasn’t a huge surprise for us. If it’s pink or sparkles in the sunlight, Evie is going to be drawn to it.
Hey, if it takes a tiara to turn my daughter into a Disney fan….this mom might eventually cave.
Again... I'm seeing similarities to another little girl I know. Good luck. You're going to need it.
This was the last chance all of us were going to have to watch IllumiNations before it went away, and I knew this was big on Alex’s Must Do list.
He loved IllumiNations – it was one of his favorite things to do in Epcot – but since it wasn’t high on my priority list, we skipped it more often than not. I couldn’t let that happen this time around, though. He needed a final viewing, and so that’s why I made the kids hunker down around 8:15.
Pretty great ending to the day... relaxing at WS, letting the kids watch the trains and then seeing Illuminations!
During our wait, my mom kept pointing out how empty Epcot felt. We expected a lot more crowds than there were, given the current state of the parks and it being summertime. Everyone else must have been in the other three parks that night, though, because the sidewalks of the World Showcase felt like the days of old. Uncrowded and quiet.
I felt that way this summer too! I mean, the attraction lines were still pretty long in a lot of cases, but WS was nowhere near as crowded as I remember from past trips. It was really enjoyable.
While IllumiNations might have been Alex’s favorite thing to do at night in Epcot, mine was walking out of the World Showcase with the post-IllumiNations music playing through the speakers.
I'm with you on this one.
So many of my Epcot memories revolve around that walk. When I hear that music, I think about my mom and me on our first mother/daughter trip. About Alex and I pushing a sleeping baby Landon past the pavilions. About waddling out of the park both times I was there pregnant, once with my in-laws and once with my mom carrying my eldest. I think about how I’ve grown and the different people I’ve walked beside over the years, and it makes me really happy.
Nobody should be happy when the park is closed and attractions have shut their doors, but oddly enough I always am. But who can blame me, when this is what I see as “We’ll Go On” plays in my ears:
I can completely relate. It gave me goosebumps and brought back some of my own memories reading that. I don't know what it is about leaving EPCOT, but that walk all the way from WS I guess gives you more time to soak in the atmosphere and remember those moments as the park goes from hustle and bustle to a more calm demeanor.
Why, Landon?! When I pulled the photos up on the app later that evening, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Trying to understand what compels Landon to do certain things is like trying to figure out the secrets of the universe…
There's one for the high school graduation party picture board!
Like most other people in DHS that day, we were headed to Toy Story Land first thing that morning. None of us had seen the new land yet, and we were anxious to see what it looked like in person.
Of course, in order to get there we had to stand among the masses and take part in the mad dash once the ropes were dropped.
I’m pretty sure it was here that my mom lost a little bit of faith in humanity. 
People were so rude! Chaos reigned supreme when the floodgates opened and men and women spilled forth along the sidewalk, pushing and shoving and jostling for an inch of open space.
When the crowds started pushing forward, my mom turned to me with her eyebrows raised and whispered, “This is madness.”
I tell you, it seems like DHS just attracts this type of behavior. I've witnessed more chaos in this park than the others combined. Sorry you all had such a rough start to your day due to someone's inattentiveness.
At the very least, we should implement a hands free rule. No pushing a stroller while you’re on the phone. Goodness knows how many more ankles got bruised and scraped by that one guest that morning.
I mean it's hard enough to enforce "no driving while you're on the phone."
Only, someone was missing.
“Where’s Evie?”
“She took off after you guys.”
“No, she didn’t”
Turns out, our bold little daughter decided not to wait for Alex to finish parking the stroller before walking off. Alex turned around to start looking for her and thank goodness she was right behind him.
That had to be the scariest ten seconds of my life.
Yikes! Definitely a scary situation! We had to have this talk a few times with our kids this summer. We never had any situations where someone was actually missing like that, but our older 2 kids were a little too brave and would try to venture off when something caught their attention.
Right as I set my phone in my pocket, Tom Hanks stood and waved to the guests and gave a thumbs up to Woody as he walked past.
And Alex managed to catch a super grainy picture of it
Hey, it isn't about the pictures, but the memories. Pretty cool that you happened to be there to get to see them!
My family made it over to lunch and by some miracle, we found a family leaving a table and were able to grab it. As popular as this restaurant is, you would think the seating area would be larger. Or has the popularity gone down since Galaxy’s Edge opened?
Kind of makes me feel bad now... we at least weren't there during peak meal time, but my dad has some certain medical conditions that he can't spend more time in the sun than necessary and he can't be on his feet too much. Unfortunately, the only place to sit down in some shade in TSL is pretty much here. He found a spot to camp out there while we were riding TSMM and Slinky Dog.
I could tell my mom was getting super uncomfortable with the situation, so I got up to throw our trash away and spotted a family of five standing nears the bins, using it as a table ala Wine and Dine style. I told them to follow me and offered them our table, asking if Evie could sit with them as she finished her orange.
Well played!
I’m sure we will have little side trips and weekend getaways throughout the rest of the year, but those are our big vacations for 2020. Disney was not on our radar this year at all, but this was too good to pass up. Just when I thought we were going to take a year off they pull us back in!
Wow... you've got a lot of fun things coming up this year! I'm glad you were able to make the trip back to Disney World work. I know your kids will have a blast with their cousins even if only for 1 day!
although if your sister in law was smart she would look to you for advise!!
Let's just say Alex made an observation about other enjoyments that could elicit reactions besides a good serving of tiramisu. 
- she looks so grown up in it!
