Smiles, Laughter, Tears: Disney Adventure!

I've posted just a few of the pics I have taken so far on our trip! We are having a FABULOUS time! The first stretch of driving was from KC to Chattanooga, TN, and it took us about 12 hours-with just 3 stops, one tiny Ethan melt-down, and only one child asking "are we there yet??" just ONE TIME!! And we were actually within 2 hours of our destination when that question was asked-not bad for Parker! We spent Saturday exploring downtown Chattanooga-visited the TN Aquarium-very cool place, ate some sushi for lunch at Seseiku, AND found the local Children's Hospital-not because we had to-but hey, better safe than sorry!
Our trip to Orlando began early on Sunday morning, and we hit rain once we were inside the FL state borders. It slowed us down quite a bit. Either FL drivers don't know how to drive in a little rain, or (more likely) the elder population was freaked out by it. About every 12 miles of really slow traffic, we came across a tow truck, ambulance and two or three police vehicles pulling a Buick or a Lincoln Town Car out of the ditch-old people's cars ya know!
Upon arrival to our resort-Grand Beach Resort-a mere 6 miles from Disney's front gate, the rain was more like a monsoon-I thought we left that crap in KC! But no luck-the forecast for the rest of the week (drum roll please....) RAIN-every damn day! Like I have said about a bajillion times-
If the Rawley's didn't have BAD luck, we'd have NO luck at all!
But the Gods have smiled upon us for at least today-we made it to Epcot and for 8 hours with one brief rain shower! Disney is an amazing place! We got a stroller=wheelchair sticker for Ethan today because we were afraid to take his wheelchair in with the possible rain(it doesn't have a cover) and man-you wheel up to a ride and flash that red sticker-and the red carpets are rolled out for you! We got on Spaceship Earth immediately-instead of waiting the 50 min wait time-as we did all the rides we could take him on!
We even went to the front of the line for the Disney character photos-and I almost had to throw down with a Mom who kept eyeballing us and Ethan and making snide comments. I finally said to her "hey, I know you're upset that we walked right in and avoided the hour long line you obviously waited in with your kids, but I see you have two healthy, walking, talking kids with you. Well, the reason we went to the front of the line is because of this little guy-he doesn't walk, or talk, or even eat by mouth. There are very few things here he will actually get to ride on, or enjoy, but this is one of them-so if you would like to trade your perfectly healthy kid for one like my little guy-I'd happily let you cut in front of me, cause damnit, this kid deserves it!"
She apologized and stopped giving me dirty looks-I think I made my point. Good thing, too, I really didn't want to have to whip out some Wyandotte County White Trash moves on her right there in front of Mickey Mouse!
Anyway-Ethan got to ride the Spaceship Earth ride-his very first roller coaster!! And I think I held my breath and felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest the whole time! It is a slow-moving ride and you are in nice little cars on a track-right up my alley. But it's dark, and there are flashing lights, and there are no 'cast members' inside the ride-believe me, I know, I was looking for the poor soul I was going to grab when Ethan either had a seizure, or stopped breathing-or did whatever it was he was going to do simply because we were dumb enough to put him on a roller coaster a thousand miles from home! He didn't though! He laughed and smiled the whole time! And I mean big, belly laughs! When I wasn't a nervous wreck, I think I laughed at him too! He also got to ride the Nemo ride, the boat ride at The Land, and the Imagination ride! He had such a good time today-as did all of us!
Hailey and Brian rode all of the fast rides-the Mission Space, the GM Test Track and some other ride that turns and twists you and makes you go upside down. Not me and Parker-if it said 'do not ride if you have a problem with motion sickness' I knew that was code for 'this ride is fast and spinny, and will make Kari vomit'. And I simply chose to avoid those!
We finished up the night with crab legs and shrimp at the Crab House and then baths for everyone-including Ethan! (well, kind of a bath....as good as we felt comfortable giving him without having to find out where this local children's hospital is...) Now off to bed so we have plenty of rest for Disney's Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

Oh, the weather you ask??? Much like KC-actually not even as bad as KC had been in the last few weeks before we left! Hot-yes-record high temps expected early this week-but I don't know what the difference is, because it doesn't feel as sticky, wet humid here as back home.

Then again, maybe I just don't notice it, because I simply don't care-

I'm on vacation!