Cooper does Disney

Our week at Disney was really great. The house was exactly as we had hoped, with great features, really close to the parks, and a perfect fit for all 3 families. We had a wonderful time with the Vasquez and Sosebee families, enjoyed some outlet shopping, and of course, had a memorable time in the parks.

And it never fails, a trip to the US with Cooper is always an accident waiting to happen. This one occurred within 25 minutes of our first day in the park. As Cooper broke into an excited run coming out of Mickey Mouse's House, he tripped and fell headfirst into the curb. It was a bloody sight at first, and two thoughts ran into my mind . . . 1. My poor baby! and 2. Our pictures are going to be ruined! I know, not the most reasonable thought, but whatever. We rushed Cooper to first aid, they verified that he did not have a concussion (funny, that didn't enter my mind rather than our gorgeous family photos), applied ice, some Motrin, and after about 20minutes, the little guy was smiling again. Granted he had what we dubbed as the "unicorn horn", which he would proudly sport for the rest of the week, but he was smiling. The boy sure knows how to make memories! After an air-conditioned lunch, we were ready to continue attacking the park.

Since we had limited tickets into the park and three families to divide them between for the week, it soon became clear that we would need a schedule. Let me paint a little picture here for those who were not in the living room for this particular conversation. As soon as the thought of a schedule was formulated into words, Peter started squirming in his seat, breathing hard, and breaking out in a cold sweat. His agitation over this lasted for a good 2.5 days, and it was only after much prodding and heated discussion, that I was able to come to the realization that the "schedule" had in that very instant absolutely ruined Peter's vacation. Now this may sound a little over reactive to some, but Peter was dead serious about this. I finally got it out of Peter that he finds the idea of a schedule on vacation absolutely repulsive, robbing the fun out of everything. While he accepted the need for said schedule and despite the fact that the Claus family had a few days with nothing planned on the schedule, Peter was completely convinced that all chances of relaxing were off now that things were on paper.

I hate to break it to anyone who is not yet married with kids, but life after marriage and kids is the end of spontaneity. Deal with it.

After it was all said and done, in our 7 days in Orlando, we went into the Disney parks for 3 half days, Peter played golf twice and took multiple naps, I went to the outlet mall 2 afternoons, and we saw Cirque du Soleil one evening. And sadly for Peter, in the end, he still stands by his opinion that he did not have enough down time. Down time for Peter is sitting on the couch Ted Bundy style with his hand in his pants, and if that is what he needed, then we could have saved over a thousand dollars and sat in my aunt Brenda's living room in front of the big screen all dang day. Somehow, I think that pictures of Cooper marveling at It's a Small World with a unicorn horn trump pics of Peter asleep on the couch, but what do I know?

Anywho, here's the pics!