A chilly day at the zoo!

I got a new stroller this week (the one that I rented and fell in love with in Disney), so I decided that I wanted to plan an outting for th weekend to take it out for a proper stroll.  We also have made one of our New Years goals for this year to use either our zoo or aquarium memberships at least once a month.  We decided to venture to the zoo since we haven't been there yet this year even though it was only supposed to be in the 30s (but at least it was sunny).  We told the kids we were going to see animals and immediately they asked if we were going back to Mickey's House.  We had to tell them that no, Mickey's House was very far away but that we were going to the ZOO.  Cole especially LOVES zoo animals.
We got to the zoo at just about opening time and the parking lot was almost empty which was AWESOME!  There were a lot of animals that had not ventured outdoors due to the weather I assume, but we still had a great time.  We strolled around for about 2 hours checking out all of the animals.  Here is Cole's description of our day:
Cole... what animals did we see at the zoo?
Pengins (trying my best for his pronunciations).  Y-ons and Tigers.  2 bears, sleeping.  No rafes (giraffes - they weren't out). 

A Toy Story Day!

Well it has taken me quite a while to get back into the swing of post-vacation life, but I think I'm finally getting there and now have time to finish blogging our trip.  Here is what we did on Friday!

We got up at went straight to Hollywood Studies at got back to the Toy Story Mania ride at 9:30 (only a half our after the park opened!).  There was already a 60 minute wait to get on the ride and the fast past wasn't until 1:20.  We got them anyway, just in case we made it in the park that long before the kids started melting down.  While Jim got the fast passes, I got right in line with the kids to see Buzz & Woody.  The were both very excited to see in while we stood in line and were really very good since we had a pretty good wait.  Summie was now becoming quite the ham and went right up to Woody for a picture, but Cole was still a bit unsure of the characters so Jim had to hold him for the pictures.  After we got our pictures, we went to search for the real live Lotso since the stuffed one can't be found (I can now happily tell you that I was able to find one at the Disney Store when we got home to NJ).  While we waited for Lotso arrive to his picture location, we got pictures with Sorcerer Mickey which were probably the worst pictures we had the whole time we were there.  Since we were in the animation studio we played with the digital coloring games and then went to wait in line for Lotso.  We luckily were very close to the front of the line!  Summie loved Lotso and gave him big hugs and gave him her book to be signed, but Cole was again not too sure.  We got a family picture with him and it wound up being our favorite picture of the whole trip!  Next we saw Handy Manny.  Cole decided that he didn't want a picture, but Summie happily posed for a few.  Next we went to play on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set playground.  Cole loved going down the BIG slides, but Summie would climb to the top and then decide that she didn't want to go down.  We finally found a little slide that she happily slide down!  It's so very funny how different they are.

For lunch we went to Pizza Planet which was very yummy!  Summie saw some people posing with a pretend snowman next to the Christmas store and decided that she wanted a picture too!  By this time the next Disney Junior show was about to start so we headed in.  The show was great because it included all the shows that the kids watch on TV:  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  After this it was about time for our Toy Story Fast Passes.  We walked around to kill time a bit and then headed over.  Cole had fallen asleep in the stroller and then we realized that we had lost one of the fast passes.  I took one for the team and sent Jim and Summer on the ride and I stayed with sleeping Cole and the stroller.  Jim liked the ride, but said it was not as good as his favorite Buzz Lightyear ride! 

We headed back to the hotel for nap time, which did not go so well.  I wasn't so worried about Cole because he had a decent nap in the stroller, but Summer has issues if she doesn't nap.  We headed off to our last dinner of vacation at Ohana in the Polynesian Hotel.  This has always been one of favorite restaurants.  We started enjoying our family style dinner right away and then Summer, Cole & I went to join in when they were doing the hula dance and we all got pretty flower leis when we were finished.  When we got back to the table, Summer started to meltdown due to her lack of nap and Cole was also ready to go.  This was really the first dinner issue we had all week, so we finished up quickly and I headed for the stroller with the kids and waited for Jim to take care of the bill.  We headed back to the hotel to pack up for our drive home.  We really had no idea what to expect from this trip, but we really couldn't have imagined that it would be this great! 

Today was a Fairytale

We had great plans to get up early and get into the Magic Kingdom at 8am for their extra magic hours, but when Summie & Cole came bouncing into our bedroom and asked to see the castle we opened the drapes to pouring rain! We staying in bed a bit longer and watched the weather to see that it should clear up by the afternoon.  We waited for Downtown Disney to open at 9:30 and headed to my FAVORITE store in Disney World, Disney's Days of Christmas!  After not finding anything that I have liked at home the past few Christmases, I decided that I wanted to get the kids Disney Christmas stockings with their names embroidered on them.  We also always get a Christmas ornament from every trip that we go on for our tree so that our tree if full of wonderful memories.  The kids were not very happy to part with their stockings to have them embroidered, but the woman traded them stickers to let her "borrow them".  They were ok with this option, so we headed off to a yummy lunch at the Earl of Sandwich.  On our way out, Summie decided that she wanted to get out of the stroller to take a picture with this fountain.  She's finally getting into taking pictures...

While the kids and Jim took a nap in our room, I walked around the resort for some quiet ME time and got myself a nice sweatshirt.  Once everyone was up we started getting ready for the Princess Storybook Dinner in EPCOT.  Summer decided that she did not want to take off her pink Minnie Mouse dress from Aunt Chele to put on her Snow White costume for dinner.  Luckily I was able to bribe her into the dress since I had a matching hairbow for it and her new Cinderella shoes.  Once we arrived at EPCOT Summer received tons of attention from the people that we passed.  She sat with absolute perfect posture with her hands folded looking quite the part of the princess in training.  We went on the Nemo & Friends ride which Cole loved, but Summie did not like that it was so dark.  This is typically one of my favorite times of year to visit EPCOT as it is the Flower & Garden show and they have large topiary displays of characters.  I have to say that I was very disappointed in the opening display that was featuring Toy Story.  All of the press releases stated the display would feature Woody, Buzz & Lotso, but Lotso was no where to be found.  Usually this front display is gigantic and impressive.  In years past it has featured such things as a gigantic pirate ship with Captain Hook & Peter Pan & the crocodile.  Another year was Donald & Daisy in a row boat going down the tunnel of love, so to have 2 little characters at the front with a ball and blocks (that weren't even topiaries) at the back and just some simple planted flowers in between this large bed was rather disappointing.  The expanded Butterfly House with the Bambi character display was a nice new addition however!  We went to Tinkerbell's garden but were too late to get pictures with her.  We were able to get on the Donald Duck boat ride in the Mexico pavillion before dinner and both kids seemed to enjoy it.  Then we were off to the Princess Dinner.  On our way into dinner we had a meet & greet with Belle and got some really great pictures with her. 

Once we got to the table however the meltdowns began.  I actually thought that we might have to leave, but we were able to get everyone situated and happy and the rest was great.  We ordered our food which came very quickly, thankfully and the characters started coming.  We saw Aurora & Cinderella and the kids pretty much decided that they weren't interested in them at all.  I was kind of thinking now that maybe we overdid the character thing.  Then Snow White arrived in her matching dress and declared that she had found her "twin".  That was all it took and Summie followed the lead of the other little girls that she watched and got down from her seat and posed for her royal subjects to take some photos.  Cole was more interested in eating his and Summer's pizza.  Last to come for a visit was Ariel and Summer was an old pro at this picture thing now!  Cole & Jim joined in for their own pictures too.  I decided that this was my favorite meal of the trip.  I had some wonderful mushroom stuffed pasta in a creamy sauce... delcious!  We walked around and took a few more pictures and got Jim the funnel cake he had been craving all week and sat down and shared it with the kids, which they just LOVED.   I was really bummed at the beginning of the day when I saw that the rain had spoiled our plans, but I think it worked out for the better actually because the rest of the day was SO wonderful!

No Lick Me Pluto!

Wednesday morning, we got up and drove to Animal Kingdom early because we had 8:25 reservations for the Donald Duck breakfast.  While we checked in for breakfast, Jim got fast passes so we could enjoy the Safari again as soon as we were finished.  The breakfast was great!  The kids LOVED seeing Donald, Mickey, Daisy & Goofy in their Safari gear.  Summie was especially excited to get a cup with a coffee cup top since they do not allow plastic straws in the park because of the animals (although some places do now have paper straws, but they are kind of weird to use).  We got a really nice picture with Daisy.  Summie got down and took a very nice picture with Mickey, but Cole wouldn't take one by himself.  He did shock us however by taking a picture with Goofy all by himself (the only time on the trip).  Then we road the safari and we saw many more animals than on Monday.  Go figure that Summie was more excited to see the baby ducks than anything else as our tour guide told us how the majority of them were eaten by the vultures on the safari, except for the ones whose mothers were smart enough to hide them with the flamingos.  After this we headed to Camp Minnie Mickey and got pictures with Minnie Mouse who they did really well with and Chipe & Dale who Summie wanted no parts of.  Jim took Cole to see Chip & Dale and they tickled him and that's all he kept telling us for the rest of the day.  Cole really liked the stroller and got in the habit of asking me to let him lay down and just falling asleep throughout the day, which he did today and fell asleep by 11am!  We had a family picture taken before we left complete with Cole snoozing away, if only Summie would nap in the stroller.  She wouldn't even let me put her sun visor down because it blocked her view of all that was going on.  This vast difference describes their differing personalities to a tee.
We returned to our hotel and played in the pool for a bit and then had a nap.
Since the kids were up early enough from their nap, we decided to head to EPCOT quickly for a free Meet & Greet and picture with characters from my Disney Visa.  It was a surprise of who we would see and it wound up being Pluto & Mickey.  Summie was by this time very into seeing the characters and giving them her book.  Pluto came up and pretended to lick her and Cole yelled at him "NO LICK ME!".  It was hysterical! 

Aunt Judy & Uncle Bob came over to stay with the kids for a few hours so that Jim & I could go out for a bit.  We headed back to EPCOT to get some snacks and margaritas.  Unfortunately, not long after we got to the park it started to DOWNPOUR!  We decided to duck into a store and browse around a bit to see if it would let up.  It wasn't happening so we decided to head back to our hotel.  We wound up going to the Top of the World Lounge which is on the top floor of our hotel and has an observation deck to see Magic Kingdom.  It was really nice to have a few hours out by ourselves on vacation even if the weather didn't cooperate.

A vist from Aunt Judy & Uncle Bob and the Special Cups

Tuesday was our day out of the parks.  It was Mardi Gras and projected to be very crowded so we decided that it would be our down day.  (Apparently the entire state of Louisiana comes to Disney World for the week of Mardi Gras).  We had breakfast in our hotel and you would have thought that Cole & Summer hadn't eaten in days. They seem to like breakfast food the best!  Aunt Judy came to hang out with us, while Jim and Uncle Bob went to check in on our renters and house.  Cole was so excited as we entered the lobby of the hotel to meet up with her that his feet just kept going in 500 different directions and he slipped and fell on the tile floor.  This child falls more than any child I've ever seen.  I scooped him up and quickly saw the blood gushing from his mouth and all over my shirt.  The kind woman working in the lobby ran with me to the bathroom which was thankfully right there and started wetting and handing me paper towels.  After everyone was all cleaned up she doled out lots of stickers (there are no shortage of stickers around here).  Aunt Judy brought color wonder markers and the kids went to town.  We all met back up for lunch at Downtown Disney.  It was very nice to get to visit with Aunt Judy & Uncle Bob while we were here.  They winter in a campground close to Disney.  After lunch Aunt Judy wanted to get Ice Cream so we went to Ghirdelli.  I asked the kids what kind of ice cream they wanted... not really expected much of an answer.  Summer answered "pink" (any surprise there?) and Cole asked for "yellow".  I tranlated this to be Strawberry and Vanilla and we ordered the "kids single scoop".  Let me just tell you that when they brought it out, I did not believe that it was the right order.  The kids single scoop was more like a 3 scoop sundae from Friendley's!  Jim had gotten a 2 scoop cone and I really think that there was probably a half gallon of ice cream in that thing.  Luckily I did not order anything for myself and shared Summer's strawberry ice cream (luckily that is my favorite kind too!).  While they finished up I ran into a few stores trying desperately to find Lotso bear for Cole. (it turns out that after calling Guest Services today that they are sold out on the entire property! I can order it when it is stock, but they are projecting that to be anytime from the next few weeks to September!)  After ice cream, we headed back for a nap.

We had dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge and boy was it yummy!  I was a little nervous about this one because there isn't really anything entertaining for the kids here.  No characters, they do some games but our kids are still a bit young for this.  Luckily the crayons worked again here!  The kids were being so well behaved that Jim and I were considered getting them the special souvenir cups with the light up Buzz & Tinkerbell.  They hadn't gotten drinks yet because we brought their sippy cups with us.  About the time that we were debating this, Summie looked at me twirling an extra straw that the waitress left on the table and said "I'm waiting for my apple juice to come!"  I couldn't even look at her with a straight face.  The adult things that come out of this 2 1/2 year olds mouth constantly surprise me.  We ordered their drinks and told them they were getting special cups.  They kept repeating special cup, special cup.  When the two cups arrived with cool straws and clip on light up characters Summie's entire face lit up like she was just given a million dollars.  They spent the rest of dinner drinking their pink juice and making Buzz & Tink fly around.  We headed back to our hotel and let the kids stay up to watch the fireworks from our window.  What a wonderful day and night!!!

Mommy... Open... Wanna see Castle

This is the phrase that Summie squealed as she ran into our bedroom on Monday morning.  She was telling me to open the curtains so that she could look at Cinderella's Castle again.  Once everyone was up we quickly got ready to head to the Animal Kingdom for the extra magic morning hours that were beginning at 8am.  I need to add here that as Summer's present from Mommy (Jim & I each decided to pick one souvenir each for both of the kids) she got a pair of Cinderella dress-up shoes which she insisted on wearing all day Monday.  To onlookers in the park, I probably looked like a piece of work as a mother.  She had a pink t-shirt dress with Belle, Aurora & Cinderella on the top with a pink tulle skirt, a pink/purple Pooh jacket that she wore at times even though it was pretty chilly and these clear slingback Cinerella jelly heels, but she insisted!  She looked ridiculously cute as she click clacked all around the park as she wanted to walk on the animal exhibit paths.  And insisted that her feet did not hurt and she was not cold, although how either of those statements were true I do not know.

As soon as we arrived at the park, we headed right for the Safari.  Summie was very excited to ride the big car and Cole was very excited to see all of Mickey's animals.  It was a pretty chilly and cloudy morning so unfortunately we didn't see all of the animals wondering around (but usually morning is the best time to see the most animals).  After this we got some breakfast snacks and headed down the Pagani Forest Exploration Trail where we saw monkeys, okapi, fish (which we had a hard time dragging Summer away from), a hippo and gorillas.  It's really funny the things that we used to skip over when it was just Jim and myself on these Disney trips that now we are spending a great deal of time enjoying with the kids.  Cole especially loves animals as you can see him on Jim's shoulders so that he could get a better view (by the way, today Jim is wondering why his back is killing him... definitely couldn't have been the 35lb child he was hoisting that high in the air!)  Next we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek where we saw many more animals including a bunch of tigers.  Then we walked over to Dinoland and road on the Triceratop spin which Summie once again especially loved.  We now have turn taking system on who gets to ride with Mommy as that is apparently the most coveted seat.  After the ride we headed for lunch which quickly became meltdown city.  Luckily lunch came with a shovel & bucket which helped with the tantrum.  We finished up quickly and headed out of the park for a nap. 

After our naps we headed back to Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Crystal Palace which is a character dinner with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet.  I learned my lesson from last night's dinner and brought crayons, coloring books and stickers since the kids really don't usually eat very much by the time dinner rolls around.  The kids were both really into this dinner which was awesome!  Summer was much better with these characters than Cole.  He didn't want to take a picture with Tigger!  He was very excited however to show Pooh that he had brought his Pooh with him.  He kept saying "2 Poohs".  Summer was especially enamered with Piglet who saw her crayons and knelt down on the ground and drew grass with a flower, a cloud and a sun in the sky.  Pretty impressive considering the size of his fingers.  She happily gave him a kiss when finished.  After dinner we decided to see if we could hang out until 7:25 which was the time for our Winnie the Pooh ride fastpasses.  We actually made it by going on Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show which Cole loved and Summie decided she did not like and "want to go home now" when it got dark so Jim took her out and wound up buying his present to her which is a baby Tinkerbelle with a little blanket.  She is in LOVE.  Still picks Pink bear first, but this is the first new thing that has made it into bed with her in a LONG time.  She is much more particular about what she sleeps with than Cole.  We rode the Carousel again... which was as much fun this time for the kids as the day before.  We went on the peoplemover in Tomorrowland and went in the Toy Story shop to try to find Lotso bear for Cole which apparently is one of the hardest things to find in Disney World right now!  As I was trying to shuttle him out of the store, he decided that he wanted a pack of Toy Story figurines which I tried to discourage but he said he really wanted them.  They were actually on the cheaper side so I gave in and he actually has been playing with them since we got them and is very happy with them.  It was about that time so we looped back around and road the Pooh ride and then we headed back to the hotel for the night.  A long day we had, but it was SO great!

Arriving at Mickey's House

We've been talking to the kids for at least a month now about going to visit Mickey's House.  We talked about who we would see there and what we would do and that we had to drive for a long to in the car and watch lots of movies to get there.  I got a text message when we were getting ready to leave our overnight stay that the stroller we were renting was waiting at our new hotel for us.  We decided to go and pick it up and head right in to Magic Kingdom for a bit.  On this trip we are staying at the new Disney Vacation Club Bay Lake Tower which is attached to the Contemporary Hotel.  We can actually see Magic Kingdom from our room and are even able to walk to the park.  We decided to go this route since the kids are little and we hit a few bumps in the road with the buses taking too long on our last stay.  We grabbed our stroller and took the short walk over to Magic Kingdom.  We got our autograph books and walked down Main Street to see the "Big Castle".  Then we went on the Jungle Cruise, The Magic Carpet Ride (which Summie seemed to like the best), got our picture with Frontierland Donald.  Then we stopped for lunch at the Columbia House.  After lunch we went on the Carousel which the kids loved!  The park was starting to get more crowded, so we decided to head back for a nap.  As we were waiting in the front of the park for Jim to go to the bathroom, Pluto came walking by us and I zipped the stroller back around to be second in line for autographs!  It was kind of funny because Jim actually was heading out to meet me as this all transpired and there were literally people with stollers running to the line as they saw Pluto heading out.  I was THAT mom... pretty hysterical!  I think this rush was a bit too much for Cole because he decided that he did "NO LIKE" Pluto.  No problem... Summie gave him kisses!

After our nap we headed to the Grand Floridian to have dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Stepmother and the Stepsisters.  I actually think Cole was more impressed with the characters than Summer was.  Summer was very excited though to see that Cinderella was wearing the same dress as she was.  However, for the rest of the dinner she was more concerned with drawing and her autograph book.... typical.  Pretty impressively at one point she turned to me and said "Mommy I drew Mickey" and you could actually make out the 3 circles making up his face and ears! 

Our night and morning at the Gaylord Palms

After Jim and I made the decision to drive to Disney World, we started formulating plans on when to leave.  After much information gathering we finally decided to leave very early Saturday morning and drive right through and find a place to stay in Orlando.  We were checking into Disney on Sunday, but had 4:30pm dinner reservations with Cinderella so we wanted to be well-rested for that.  We looked online and found an amazing sale on rooms at the Gaylord Palms Resort.  We had visited the atrium of this hotel on a timeshare tour that we had looked at several years ago and they were showing us the wonderful surroundings of their property.  The atrium is split into 3 breathtaking sections that represent the Sunshine state.  There is the Everglades which includes real alligators and turtles, St. Augustine & Key West.  We arrived at around 9:30 at night so we pretty much unloaded what we needed took a quick walk around and got the kids to bed.  But the next morning after we packed up we took a nice long walk around to see all of the sites.  The kids really loved it and Cole decided to show his stuffed turtle to the real turtles.  Very cute what little minds think of!

We survived the drive... thanks to Taylor Swift!

Saturday was the day that we have been preparing for for quite some time.  Jim and I decided that we would attempt to drive to Disney World for this trip.  Our decision was made for a couple of reasons.  We had a really awful flight with Summer last time, now that the kids need their own seats flying is a much bigger expense and since there are only 2 adults and 2 small children on this trip, that is A LOT of luggage needed and only 2 people to manuever it all through the airport.  In the end, it wound up being an especially good decision as Cole wound up having 2 ear infections and bronchitis or pneumonia a few days before we left, so it would have been a very painful flight for him and Summer is still recovering from her surgery. 
We got on the highway right at 5am on Saturday.  Jim drove the first 500 miles and they went pretty smoothly and we only stopped twice during that time for breakfast & lunch.  I did jump into the backseat twice for a good chunk of the ride although this was probably very unsafe as I barely squeeze my butt onto the end of the seat between their carseats.  Cole was getting himself very upset and wanted to hold my hand, which was very hard to contort myself around to do this as we was sitting directly behind me. 
After lunch at South of the Border, which I highly recommend skipping if you've never been there before, I took over in the driver's seat.  Cole slept through our lunch stop and Summer was still fighting any type of car sleep.  At about 2pm she started freaking, so we gave her some benedryl and put on good old Taylor Swift.  Now some of you may already know about Summer & Taylor, but for those of you who do not.... here's the scoop:
When Summer was about 6 months old, she started having this vomit temper tantrums in the early evenings when I would get home from work with them by myself.  She would get herself so worked up that she would turn red and projectile vomit everywhere.  I was so beside myself about what to do so I asked the pediatrician at her checkup, who told me that Summer knew what she was doing to me and would stop if I didn't give in and pretty quickly.  Within a week we had figured things out, but on the first night that I just couldn't take that scream she had that told me she would puke... I plopped her in the swing and turned the stereo on loud enough to cover her so I could walk in the other room and not pick her up.  The CD that was in was Taylor and immediately she stopped crying and then soon fell asleep.   This quickly became our go to calm down remedy for her.  I decided that since I had my IPOD in the car, it couldn't hurt to try it this time.  It was amazing, but within 1 song she had calmed down and quickly fell fast asleep.  When the album came to a stop, Jim decided we should change it... however after just a few other songs Summer began to rouse and cry.  We put Taylor back on and off to sleep she went for another whole time through.  Thanks for saving the day and my sanity again Taylor!
We stopped for dinner and to run around a bit at Chik-FilA and I was really happy to see it was in a very nice and clean shopping center since our other stops were not so great.  The kids were very happy to get out of the car for a bit and then we made our last 2 1/2 hours of the trek.  In all it took us 16 1/2 hours and 3 stops!  Not too bad!  The kids were awesome and colored, played with stickers and watched lots of movies! 

What a week!

I have been preparing myself for some time for this week.  The week before vacation.... boy if I only knew what it was really going to be like.  The beginning of the month is always rough for me at work and has been worse lately because of a new project that has come online recently.  Because of the way that our vacation falls, I also need to condense the same amount of work into less time which may or not be possible.  For this reason I've been planning to work extra hours this week.  Everything seemed to be falling into place... Over the weekend I successfully backed the kids stuff for our trip which is a definite advantage of going to a warm place when it is cold at home. 
Unfortunately Monday evening my preparations came to a screeching halt!  When I arrived to pick the kids up from daycare, I was given the happy news that Cole had a 101.8 fever and could not return to school the next day! Very luckily Mom-mom was able to watch him and nothing but the fever seemed to be the problem, so we thought it was just his teething again.  Wednesday he started coughing pretty badly, which he was actually pretty funny about.  He went and got the small trashcan from Mom-mom's bathroom and would pick up the trashcan and cough into it.  (I think that he got this from after Summer's surgery, she got sick a couple of times and they had given us a plastic tub for the ride home).  Since I was having a busy week at work, Jim took Cole to the doctor's Wednesday morning and although the fever had gone away, the cough was getting worse.  Cole was diagnosed with 2 ear infections and bronchitis or pneumonia.  Since the treatment is the same for both, they didn't want to put him through another chest x-ray as he had just had one in January.  More antibiotics and more nebulizer breathing treatments, but at least we found out before we left for vacation and are able to start treating it. 
Summer went for her surgery follow up today... Jim took her to this as well and they were unable to do the hearing test b/c her tubes were clogged.  Apparently this is not abnormal since her ears were so badly infected when she had the surgery.  We were given more ear drops to help out that situation and she will go back in 2 weeks for her hearing test.  The good news is though that her ears are NOT INFECTED for the first time in at least 3 MONTHS!  Hopefully the surgery did the trick!
We will be leaving very early Saturday morning to drive to Disney, which the doctor said is a very good thing that we are driving.  Cole would be in lots of pain if we were flying.  Hopefully I will be able to count this blessing on our very long drive. Check back next week to check what we are up to!