And all our wishes came true....

This will be a long blog post, due to the fact that I couldn't get my pics to download to my computer while we were in Florida, and I didn't want to post without these gorgeous pics!
But don't worry-it's not a lot of reading, mostly fun pics!

I will start with Sunday the 6th-the day we left KC and Ethan took his first ever plane ride!
Ethan's Make-A-Wish wish granters Marita and Stephanie came to see us off and brought with them a pretty blonde girl...

Of course he got kisses from that blonde gal!

Lots of family and friends came to see us off too!

As far as Ethan's first plane ride, he did pretty darn well, as long as he could look out his window

And listen to some tunes from his other fave blond gal

The resort we stayed at was Give Kids the World, and was geared towards kiddos all the way. 

Our home for the week was villa 123. It sure was convenient to pick up the phone and order a pizza, or drinks or rotisserie chicken dinner for all of us after a long day at the parks!

Breakfast and dinner were served at The Gingerbread House

The other fun places on the resort were the Carousel, which of course looked like a polka-dot mushroom!

The Train Station, where there were games, a huge model train set up,

mini-put and remote boats to drive

The Castle of Miracles

Where a star with Ethan's name on it will forever remain,

 along with thousands of other special kid's stars

Monday we were off to Magic Kingdom and a meet and greet with three beautiful princesses!

Ethan really liked looking at Cinderella's sparkly dress

And might have even started crushing on a brunette; Belle....

Of course, it was right back to the blondes once he saw Princess Aurora

And we left the castle with no less than a head full of Princess kisses!

At Hollywood Studios Brian and Hailey had no luck talking Parker into riding the Rock and Roller Coaster once he saw how fast it took off

And Ethan was super fascinated with the green Army man

At Epcot we rode Spaceship Earth-Ethan's very first 'roller coaster', and got to see the flowers and shrubs shaped as Disney characters

And we shopped for some Mickey ears for the kids

Sea World brought hungry, barking sea lions waiting for a snack

And we could never miss the Shamu show-from the front row of course-right in the Splash Zone!

These two killer whales were actually pretty sweet. 

On each other anyway

Our first visit to Universal Studios was awesome! What an amazing place, with some really cool people and rides!  There and at Islands of Adventure, the cast members were so helpful and once they spotted Ethan and his big blue button, really rolled out the red carpet for him!  We were offered drinks, snacks, gifts, private pics with characters, and a great time was had by all!

Once inside Universal Studios it was picture time with some pretty cool friends,

 starting with kisses from the crazy monkey himself-Curious George

Then on to Woody Woodpecker and his girlfriend Winnie

Shaggy and Scooby Doo

And a crazy family, much like ours, The Simpsons

The Shrek 4D show was incredible

We also enjoyed Twister-a movie quality show from the movie Twister, complete with wind, rain, fire and moving platform that made us all jump!

We had lunch at The Monster's Cafe next to The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

We experienced a flood, fire, subway car derailment and black out on the Disaster ride.

Brian and Hailey rode an insane roller coaster called the Rip Rocket.  It took you straight up, then straight down before a series of crazy loop-de-loops and upside down spins and twists.  A ride Parker and Ethan and I just watched comfortably from afar.

The crazy coaster riders also rode The Mummy ride, and I wanted to ride it, but my stomach just wasn't feeling anything too crazy that day, so I held off. 

The Men in Black ride was fun, but I would have to say the ET Ride was definitely the highlight!  Ethan loved that ride and couldn't move his head fast enough to see all the special effects. 

The Super Stars parade featuring Gru, the girls and the Minions topped our day off!

Our final day in Florida was spent at Islands of Adventure, where once again,

Ethan was treated like the true hero he is. 

Once inside we headed to Seuss Landing, where we got a special back stage visit with Cat in the Hat, Sam I Am,  Thing1 and Thing2, The Lorax, and the Grinch.  They were so wonderful to Ethan, spending lots of time with him, holding his hand,

 rubbing his head and posing for hundreds of pictures.

Once in Hogsmeade, it was much the same as Seuss Landing.  As we were wondering around admiring all of the town, we were approached by some cast members who invited us to Ollivander's magic wand show right in the front row!  All four of us rode Harry Potter's magic wizard ride, one I almost didn't ride, but am sooooo glad I did-it was amazing and fun!  Hailey and Parker rode the Hippogrif, and the roller coaster daredevils Brian and Hailey rode the Dueling Dragons.  I do regret we forgot to get a glass of butterbeer before we left Harry Potter land though!

We were approached a third time by a cast member for a special photo op with some super heroes!  These special folks spent a ton of time with our guy and us and we got some pretty cool pics.  Storm hugged me right away and said she knew I was a survivor and wanted to make sure she and Rogue got their picture taken with me!  Lots of hugs from the X-Men characters ensued.  Then a handsome Captain America and Spiderman showed up too!

Spiderman, Wolverine, Cyclops, Capt America, Storm and Rogue



Ethan was cracking up at the posing posse of super heroes

The Men

The Women

Parker wanted in on the action with Storm and Rogue!




We thouroughly enjoyed the Jurassic Park ride, the Storm Force Accelerator and the Spider Man ride was awesome!  Brian and Hailey braved the Incredible Hulk ride-another one us chickens sat out from, and we all enjoyed the Popeye water ride-where we got completely soaked-henced the wet clothes in the above pictures! 

It was a magical trip, and though it took me three days of sleep and rest to recover from, one I wouldn't trade a thing about!

Thank you Make-A-Wish, you made all our wishes come true!
now back to the real world.....