Early 2013, I got to thinking about what I wanted to do for Gracie's birthday. What theme would it be? There's really nothing she was into like her 2nd and 3rd birthday. But she was talking about being a princess more and loved wearing dresses and heels. Princess theme it was. Would we come back to the States for it or would we have one in Italy? Going back to the States was to big of a risk in the summer flying on the rotator (the cheap plane for military only) and not being able to get back on time, and flying commercial was out of the question (over $4,000 for all of us). So Italy it was. Where would it be? I hated cleaning up and having everything set up at our house for her 3rd birthday, so we'll try and rent out the building in area D (Aviano is not one big base, its made of several 'areas' and you have to drive to get to each. Area D is the recreational area with the soccer field, building for parties, play ground, etc.) Who would we invite? This was the big question. We have no family here, hardly any friends, AND it's summer meaning most people are going to be traveling. Would anyone show? Would it just be us? Forget that. This is my baby girl's big day, to celebrate her life. No way am I going to let her down. What was that theme again? Princesses? Where could we take her in Europe that deals with princesses? The wheels started turning BIG time. DISNEYLAND PARIS!!! I knew I needed to plan months in advance because it was surely to cost a lot, but I didn't care..this would make her year (ya know, instead of make her day? :))! Planning began and then I thought, well if we're already going to be in Paris, why not go visit the heart of Paris too? Just go all out in case this is our only chance to visit France. So Disneyland and Paris it was! Tickets were bought, hotels were reserved, money was saved, months turned to weeks, weeks to days, days to hour, and then it was time!
July 9th, 2013
5am the alarm goes off and we are still so sleepy we hit snooze (excited weren't we? I should say we were up til 1am). 5:30am, we finally roll out of bed, get ourselves ready then we went to get the kids up. Camera's rolling, we burst through their door (they share a room now since Gavin's old room doesn't have air conditioning and Gracie's does) shouting "time to get up! Today's the day!" Gracie kind of rolls over, still groggy, eventually sitting up, rubbing her eyes and Gavin is still knocked out. We tell Gracie today we get to go to the castle and she lightens up just enough to show us she's excited but still sleepy and Gavin, well he wasn't happy. He got picked up by daddy and immediately started crying for mommy. We get downstairs, get them ready, Gavin calms down once milk and cereal are in his hands and 30 minutes after planned (7am) we head off to Venice airport.
It's about a 45 minute drive from our house, so the kids watched a dvd and me and Chance started building dreams. We arrive at the airport and find out that when flying with the airline we chose, you only pay for your tickets/seats and you pay a separate fee for your baggage which we obviously didn't do. So I go pay for our one luggage (yes, I'm super proud of us for only having one luggage!), get everything squared away, get in line for security where you don't have to take off your shoes, and head to our boarding gate. Being our first time using an Italian airline to fly anywhere in Europe I wasn't sure of how things worked, so thinking we didn't have assigned seats we board the plane, sit in 3 empty seats (Gavin was a lap child), get comfy until we were informed we were in someone elses seats. We then move to our assigned seats that were stated on our boarding passes and settled in for an hour and 20 minute flight. Our little travelers were simply amazing like always, Gavin watched Mickey Mouse on the iPad (a life saver) and Gracie colored. Sometime close to 12pm, we had gotten off the plane headed to get our luggage when we passed a McDonald's. What right American would pass up American food just to hope they found something they liked else where? These American's right here. Chance ran in and ordered some food (which I might add that I should of patented my idea of having computers set up for customers to complete their own order so they know it's been put in the system correctly, but McDonald's stole that...there goes my million dollar dream) while me and the kids ran to baggage claims (a big treasure hunt) to get our bag. I should also add that we didn't take the double stroller, we took two little umbrella strollers so they would be easier to fold up and carry when need be (Gracie's ended up being our worst nightmare because the wheels wouldn't work, so it's currently sitting in our garbage can outside). We finally all meet back up and decide to figure out how we're getting to our Disney hotel before sitting down to eat. We find out there's a shuttle that runs to Disneyland that costed money so we decided to go sit out and wait for it and eat. We open our delicious bag of McDonald's food to find Chance's burger was forgotten and the kids nuggets became a cheeseburger. It was okay though, we were in Paris, | | this close to Disneyland (I have to mention that after Chance found out his burger was missing he decided to eat his fries which he only got to eat half off before they jumped out of his hands to their death on the ground, so no lunch for daddy but thankfully we had packed lots of snacks...we had to laugh it off). A bus pulls up and we ask if they're going to Sequoia Lodge (the Disney hotel we were staying at) and he replied no, yet this was the shuttle the information desk told us to wait for because this shuttle took you to Sequoia Lodge (apparently it only went directly to the park). Getting antsy and tired we decided an expensive taxi was better than waiting around for another shuttle to get there and possibly get us to where we wanted (we found out later had we paid to take that shuttle to Disneyland, then caught a free shuttle at Disneyland to our hotel room we could've paid half the price). 110 Euro later we arrive at our paradise for the next 2 days. We get checked in, go to find our room, get lost, finally find the burning furance (our room), get somewhat settle, and lay down for a nap (who takes a nap first thing when you're at Disneyland?! Tired parents with two tired kids!) Everyone is knocked out except me because I can't breathe because it is so hot in our room. Why is it so hot? Our air conditioning has been on for an hour now on the coldest setting, highest fan. Somethings got to be wrong. I call down to the reception desk and address our problem (I should add that we called down before laying down and found out that if your window is cracked open the air automatically shuts off, which ours was so we were assured after we closed the window our air should work) and I'm told the maintenance guy was on his way. 15 minutes passed no maintenance guy in sight, everyone's still snoring and I don't see how...I can't sleep, I'm tired, can't breathe...yep, I started boiling. I go to the reception desk, irratated, tell them my problem again and they ask me if I shut my window...yes, then told me a maintenance guy was on his way...now or 15 mintues ago like you said? She called him back to make sure he knew I meant now. Another note: I am very impressed with English that was spoken by almost everyone we had to deal with our entire trip. Almost everyone spoke it fluently. I go back to our room, telling myself the maintenance man better beat me there and of course no one was in sight again. I pace the hallway way, prop our room door open with a stroller and sit out beside the door and wait. 5-10 minutes passed and they finally arrive, where everyone got woken up (if you recall at the beginning of this day, Gavin doesn't like to be woken up so you can bet he was super cranky) and we where told it wasn't fixable. We had to move rooms. Trip started out good didnt it? We pack back up, get to our new room with working air (!!), drop our things off to finally go to Disneyland (this is around 5 or 6pm)!
Anxiously awaiting the bunch of Disney characters that we would see on the streets, we walked in only to see thousands of people and no characters because they all had set times and set places where they would be and you were lucky if you got past the pushy crowds. This was a bit disheartening for me. I really expected more. But I can see where the costumes would get hot and the crowds would never end. Searching frantically for the castle we get through main street where all the shopping stores are, and behold, the most magical place on earth, The castle.
We stopped for an ice cream break, took some pictures, rode the carousel, then headed off for the big Parade. Searching for a good spot, we settled on a spot behind a crowd with Gracie on daddys shoulders. After the parade we rode flying Dumbo then headed for our reservations to watch Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with Mickey and friends (this was at 9:30pm which was probably a mistake for us after traveling all day).
We were seated with the best seats in the house, front row, and waited for the show to start. Included in this show was our very first ever, actual 3 course meal. Of course we didn't know this at the time and with being as hungry as we were, when we were served our first course (chili and corn bread) we gobbled it down. Then the server came around with our second course which included a chicken thigh, ribs, pork sausage, and mini whole potatoes. After that was dessert which was a hot apple pie thing for adults and popsicles for the kids. I should also add here that we were super worried about eating while on our trip because we're super picky with super picky kids, which ends in you better have the choice of hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, or something American for us to eat. The food wasn't bad but our other fear happened..what would the kids drink? We can't take milk with us and probably no where will sale it...they can't live off water...I don't want them drinking coke or a lot of juice...but alas when orange juice wasn't an option coke it was. Back to the show, it was mainly about the wild west with the appearance of Mickey and the gang (go figure). It was very fun, we seen horses, bulls, buffalo, cowboys and indians, and "Annie Oakley"...which if you know who she is you know she's famous for shooting guns and that didn't sit well with Gavin. He's petrified of fire works or anything with a loud sound so as the show was going on I was being wallered by Gavin until finally he passed out.
We decided to leave the show right before the finale because it was so late, Gavin was asleep, and secretly I wanted to go see the Disney Dreams show which started at 11pm. This included going through Disney stories shown from a projector that projected the stories on the castle and of course fire works. It was amazing! The kids weren't too excited as Gavin slept through it and Gracie wanted to sleep through it, but I loved it. I'm a Disney fanactic though, it's what I was raised on. I videoed, took pictures, danced and sang through the whole thing (yes, it was in English. All the showings were done in English).
Around midnight we finally got back to our cooled off room where we had a message from the front desk telling us it was concerning our bill. Well we had already paid everything so we weren't sure of what it was. Chance went down to investigate and apparently in the fridge, from our first room, they provide in your room, they stock it with cokes, beer, alcohol and candy. If you take anything out or move anything there is a sensor that goes to the front desk that says you consumed that. We had a water that was hot so I moved two cokes to the back row to make room for our water and it registered that we drank those cokes. Chance assured them we did not and no charges were pressed. After all that our heads finally hit the pillows and we were out!
July 10th, 2013 otherwise titled Gracie's FOURTH Birthday!!
Alarm clock went off at 8am, giving us an hour for everyone to get a shower/bath (note: if you plan on going to France bring your own wash cloths unless you want to use your hands...French don't believe in them! We were using huge hand towels as wash cloths) , get ready, and out the door for meet and greet of the characters and breakfast...HA! Running late, everyone was dressed we headed downstairs to find Minnie for the first character we would meet at the hotel. Gracie in her birthday attire, was elated (Gavin, not so much. He didn't like when any of the characters got close to him, even Mickey!)! She soaked up every moment of meeting Minnie and getting her autograph (we got an autograph book just for the characters we met), she even kissed Minnie on the nose.
We then set off for breakfast where who else would we run into but Mickey?! Apparently he walked right past me as I was getting mine and kids breakfast, to see Gracie. After finishing up eating and getting ready to leave who else would show up but Pluto! This was probably the happiest I have ever seen Gracie! She hung all over him, kissed him, sit in his lap, he played with her, oh my goodnes...the sweetest sight ever! Again, Gavin...not so excited.
We finally leave and head to the park, where Gracie was promised she could have whatever she wanted that whole day, not thinking she would actually take advantage of it. First thing was a big Minnie balloon. Then it was everything she seen in sight with "but you said I could have anything I wanted"...oh boy. We finally get through the entrance with two giant Mickey and Minnie balloons smacking us and everyone we walked by in the face. We also got suckered into those funny protraits drawn by people sitting outside of attractions gates. Of course I thought they'd be somewhat similar to our actual features...ha, those are being locked away just for our memories. I was kind of disappointed especially in the price we paid, but you live and learn right?
The weather was beautiful and all was good. Well, except for my patience. My lack of it ended up almost tripping a man flat on his face and getting into it with another woman who claims I pushed her son when I promise I just stuck my arm out so that he wouldn't cut us in line when trying to get a picture of Gracie trying to pull the sword out of the stone (I'm laughing as I type this!). We then go get Gracie's face painted for her special day. And as I'm watching the woman paint her face and how she is sitting there so patiently, my eyes filled up with tears...my tiny 6lb 13 1/2oz baby girl sit before my eyes, at 4 years old, so grown up.
We then went and rode some rides walked around then went to our reservation for lunch with the Disney Princesses where Gracie would have her birthday cake. This was another 3 course meal restuarant, the most expensive in Disneyland park, consisting of French courses. Oh boy. You should of seen mine and Chance's faces when we looked at the menu, and should've seen the waiters face when we were ordering. Me and Chance then came to the conclusion that us Kentucky folk just aren't made for 3 course meals...we're satisfied with beans and taters. But what made this lunch worth every penny, Gracie meeting Suzy and Perla (two of the girl mice off Cinderella), Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora with Prince Phillip (which she wasn't to fond of...her belief right now is that girls can only talk to girls and boy can only talk to boys..and this applies everywhere even for me and Chance. For example if I go on base and the gate guard is a boy, I get fussed on by my 4 year old because I can only talk to girls.) After barely touching any of our food and Gavin only eating those strawberry-apple star puff things, they bring Gracie's cake out (I say Gracie's cake because apparently she wasn't the only one whose birthday was that day or being celebrated). They sang happy birthday as they brought it to her (no I didn't record it and yes I'm kicking myself in the tail for it!), and who better to accompany them besides Aurora and Prince Phillip! Aurora knelt down beside her, talked to her, told her about making wishes, and stood right there as she blew out her candles. How much better could it get?! My heart was so full of happiness it was unreal. The cake was scrumptious and everyone enjoyed that, it was chocolate cake with chocolate icing and white chocolate candies on top...how could you not enjoy it?
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| The appetizer they brought out for Gracie, HA! |
We left there and went to ride just about everything Gracie could ride on, Gavin rode on most of the rides too and I rode on all the rides that didn't go in circles because if you know me I get motion sickness real easy. While walking through the park a disturbing message came across the intercom, "Please keep your luggage and belongings with you and supervised, pick pocketers are out and about!" Being the smart woman I am, we didn't have to worry about this because I sported a nice fanny pack our entire trip but this did explain the reason why France doesn't have backpacks...they have frontpacks, where everyone wheres their bag on their front. Surprisingly, we got through everything we wanted to do in the first Disneyland park so we went to eat supper at a place with burger's, fries, and nuggets while watching different Disney short flims on a screen. We ended up leaving Disneyland with Gracie having a Woody doll just like the one on Toy Story and a huge lollipop as big as her face.
After getting back to the hotel around 9:45pm we decided to walk around and see what all it had to offer, knowing there was a pool somewhere. It had a cool slide, huge pool, and hot tub but we found it just as they were closing so there was no chance of swimming that night but it opened at 7am and we could go that next morning before heading back to Disneyland. So to our room we went, where the kids turned into hulligans while stretching their "all day, sitting in a stroller" legs and watched a little Disney Junior in French (that, they didn't have in English).
We again had another message about our account, and again it was the fridges. Except this time nothing was touched because we couldn't even get the fridge in our new room to open. Everything was worked out and we passed out.
July 11th, 2013 Last day at Disneyland first night in Paris
Alarm went off at 7am so we could get up and head to the pool except when it went off, no one jumped up to go. The kids were still passed out and we were considering skipping the pool and passing back out. But the trip was for Gracie, not for us to sleep so I woke Gracie up giving her the option to go swim or not. What 4 year old turns down swimming? Not mine! Darn. We get ready, get to the pool and to me, if it doesn't feel like bath water it's too cold. Me and Gracie got out to the pool before the boys did so we stuck our feet in waiting on them. Chance and Gavin came out and Chance went to get in with Gavin and he threw a fit. He was not having this early morning swimming stuff. Perfect! Mommy and Gavin could just sit out and watch daddy and Gracie get cold.
That lasted a whole 45 minutes before they got out and we headed up to get ready and go eat breakfast, except on our way to the room they were doing a meet and greet with Eeyore. I push Gracie in line, told daddy to stay with her while I ran to grab her autograph book. Probably the fastest 15 seconds of my life. It comes Gracie's turn where we 1) find out Gracie has to be wrapped in her towel because she was still in her bathing suit (which was fine) and 2) Eeyore didn't have hands so he couldn't sign her book. Pictures did the job though. We then went upstairs, quickly got ready and headed back down for breakfast to find Goofy doing the meet and greet. Our turn came and Gracie was more shy with him than any of the other characters she had met so far. A quick photo and signature and we were off for breakfast, then Disneyland.
This day was our last day at Disneyland so we decided we'd spend most of the day in Walt Disney Studio's (the 2nd park) where there was lots of live shows, meet and greets, and a few rides. When we arrived it was crazy windy and cold so we ended up buying hoodies because we had dressed for 80 degree weather. We get in Walt Disney Studio's meet Buzz, ride some rides, meet Woody, watch a Stitch Live show, then head back to Disneyland Park. We had orginally planned to leave Disneyland and head down to our other hotel in Paris by 3pm except things didn't go as planned. We ended our Disneyland fun with Daddy and Gracie going to ride Dumbo one last time while me and Gavin waited in a forever long and pushy line of parents trying to make reservations for their little ones to have a one on one meet and greet with a princess. I got our reservation done, except for it was for 6:40pm. We so didn't want to be there that long, but what the hay, for our princess...anything. It was finally our turn to meet our princess and I was praying it wasn't one we'd already met. It turned out to be Ariel!
Gracie didn't really recognize her because she had her dress on and not fins and Gracie seemed to be more shy around her than the other princesses. They talked a little, took photos, got her autograph then we headed out. While walking we passed a ride that Gavin loved, it was a train roller coaster! He cried the day before when we had to get off and he had been watching a train pass us several times while we were in line reserving our princess meet and greet saying "choo choo!" So of course we had to stop and ride just one more time for him. By now we were Disney'ed out and ready to leave. We had walked more this day than any other, because we had parked hopped at least 5 times. It was very stressful with having to plan times for things and it not being a free flow kind of thing. It was also hard because every ride Gavin went on, he had to be held the entire wait. We were ready to go somewhere with a more slow pace...Paris. We said our goodbyes to Disneyland and headed to eat at the Disney hotel, grab some souvenirs, get our luggage then head to Paris. By the time we got to Paris and got checked into our hotel/apartment it was at least 11pm (now do you see why I was so excited we were packed and ready 1 day before our trip? We're never on time!) and both kids were passed out. We did have a disappointment when we found out our apartment room didn't have the direct view of the Eiffel Tower like we had requested, but we didn't care...we were tried and ready to sleep and relax. Besides that, we still had an awesome view of Paris being on the 19th floor with the reflection of the Eiffel Tower in the building across from us.
July 12th, 2013
(Incase anyone was worried or even knew, there was a train crash right outside of Paris on this day in the afternoon. We were not involved and are obviously alright.)
No alarms were set, so we just got up whenever the kids decided to get up. Oh how nice it was to sleep til 9. They had been going til they were empty too, so they slept extra late for us. We got up, had showers/bath (again using a huge hand towel for a wash cloth), ate nabs for breakfast, slowly got ready, and around noon decided to go get lunch then see Paris. Of course as I mentioned early we are picky eaters, so on our way to the airport before our trip began we had googled how far a McDonald's was from our Paris hotel. Luckily for us, there was one right down the street. We figured we'd be living off McDonalds for our stay there. On our way there, there was a carousel so we let the kids get on that.
Again this McDonald's also had the nifty machines where you put your order in, so we got our food, everything is there this time, sit down to eat only to have a little girl, around 7 years old, come in and (in French) start begging for food. I'd have gladly given her some if her clothes weren't so nice and she actually looked hungry. We finished our meal and walked outside only to see the girl that was begging for food, walking away with a Starbucks cup in her hand and her mother had a burger in her hand. We headed for the Eiffel Tower, which was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We decided that we'd go to the top and have a look around. While standing in line though, there was about 372784313 chinese kids (just kidding, there was only like 10) in front of us with a group leader who looked to be in his early 20's. Gracie, sitting quitely in her stroller, complaining she didn't feel good, all of a sudden had all these chinese kids looking at her, pointing, and laughing. My heart sank. What was wrong with her? She wasn't doing anything funny? So me being the aggressive mom asked in a stern voice, "Is something wrong?" To which the crowd gets quite around us and the chinese kids have a very confused look on their face and the leader says, "I'm sorry?" I said again, "Is something wrong? Your kids are pointing and laughing at my daughter!" (remember I speak and was speaking English at this time). He says, "Do you speak German?" The guy is talking back to me in English and hears me speaking English, yet asks me if I speak German?! Anyways, he says "I don't understand the problem." I said, "They're laughing at my daughter for no reason!" He says, "They just think shes beautiful, is that wrong?" I said, "Of course not! But don't point and laugh at her if you think shes beautiful, try smiling and waving!" He then turned to give his kids a big lecture about us uptight Americans (well this I'm assuming that's what he was saying considering he was speaking another language) as each of them turned and looked at us. Anyways, we got our tickets and Gavin started fussing and the nice security guy seen my struggle with trying to keep the wiggling fussing kid in my arms, so he broke through the line, waved us to follow him, took us straight through to get on the elevators to the top (mind you we cut right in front of those chinese kids, hahaha). We step on the elevator and I tell Gracie to stay focused on mommy and mommy would stay focused on her because we were going very high up. Boy was it scary when thinking just one cable had to break for your elevator to go surging to the ground. But we braved it, and all was well. It was super windy but super beautiful! Gavin passed out on the ride back down and Gracie was super tired so we decided we'd go back to the hotel and rest then venture back out later.
On our way back to the hotel there was a candy stand similar to a Candy Craze from the mall...yep we went candy crazy. After everyone rested up, me taking a hot bath to soothe my aching legs, we set out again for supper under the Eiffel Tower and to see it lit up. Can you guess where we ate? McDonalds? Nope. We had found a Subway on our way to the Eiffel Tower so we ate there and got the kids an Italian pizza next door. Hey, we're just staying true to our American side. We get our food and go find a bench at the base of the Tower and settled down to eat. Poor Chance hasn't had good luck with his meals while on vacation so what better way to end his supper than tipping his coke over. Afterwards we went to find a spot in the grass to wait for the tower to light up. While waiting the kids and daddy went to play at the park, while I stayed back to keep our seats warm...literally, it was super cold the last 3 days of our trip. At 10pm, the lights started to come on and the "spectacular light show" (as Chance called it) happened, where flashing lights lit up all over the Tower (what my video that I posted on Facebook shows). After sitting there in awe til almost 11pm we decided to head back to the hotel except across the street from the Tower was another carousel so we let the kids go ride on it. We then went back to the hotel and crashed.
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| Our view while eating supper :) |
July 13th, 2013 Last day of our trip
We had planned today to be very laid back like the previous day. We got up around 8:30, got ready and set out to McDonald's to eat breakfast only to find they didn't have the whole menu that they do in the states (I really wanted some McDonald's biscuits and gravy). It had very few items on it, so we decided we'd go back to the hotel and eat a healthier breakfast of fruit we had bought from a stand the night before. Before heading back to the hotel though, we had to go find another luggage. Yep, our one luggage deal didn't last. We ended up having to buy a separate luggage for just souvenirs. But we got it for a steal of 18 euro! We got back to the hotel, ate, packed (we had to check out at 11), then took our luggage down to the holding area so we didn't have to carry it around Paris all day because our flight wasn't until later in the afternoon. We figured since we had a few hours to kill we'd go see two of the big monuments that are most famous and a must see...Notre Dame (the largest cathedral in France and the Hunchback's home from the Disney movie) and the Louvre (the big glass pyramid with a museum underneathe holding the original Mona Lisa painting and many more famous paintings. And its legend that Mary Magdalene's tomb is there). We didn't go tour inside either because the Notre Dame had hundreds of stairs to climb and I'm not a big fan of seeing a work of art. We did go inside the Louvre just not through the museum part. We of course asked about the tomb but was told it was just a legend, but Chance swears that it's there.
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| Inside the Louvre |
We went and grabbed lunch at McDonald's afterwards then went and grabbed our bags at the hotel and headed for the airport. Our trip was ending. It was so fun, and the days seem to last forever then seemed to fly by when we looked back.
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| In the taxi on the way back to the airport. Gavin loves his sissy! |
We got to the airport only to find we were super early and had to wait 2 hours before we could even check our bags and even then it would be 2 hours after that, that we would board our plane. So the kids took naps (again, we have the best little travelers ever!) and we done our best to stay awake. Our time came to finally check in our bags and once again we hadn't paid for the bags just for the tickets/seats, so we paid separately for those. We landed back in Venice around 8pm, got our bags, got out to the car, got ready to leave the parking lot only to find where I left the ticket in the sun like I thought you were suppose to, it faded it so much that the machine wouldn't read it. So me being the smart one I am, I decided on my own to go try and find this place to get a new ticket that was in the middle of a parking garage and needless to say it ended up with me going from one end to the other, freaking myself out because of all the bad movies I've seen involving parking garages, and running back to the car. It was quite the sight to see. No new ticket in hand, I get to the car and tell Chance either he can go look for the place or we can all get out and go. We decided to all go, and wouldn't you know we found it, no problem. I told Chance, I just needed my security guard with me. So finally a big fee later, we get out of the parking lot and around 11pm we got back home.
This trip will definitely be something I'll never forget and hopefully Gracie will never forget it either!
Happy 4th Birthday Princess! We love you so much!
