amazingact21
Upendi
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
Hi guys, hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend. My family went to the Netherlands; we visited a cheese and clog farm where the kids got to feed some cows.
And Landon got to help make a clog:
We also bought cheese to bring home:
Then, we went to a theme park called Efteling.
The park itself was absolutely stunning.
My phone flew out of my pocket and into this pond on our first day:
(Thank goodness for the new Iphone’s water resistant technology.)
Alex got to ride several coasters, Evie enjoyed the panoramic view of the park from a high viewing platform, and Landon took us on ride after ride. The park was extremely lax with their height restrictions so similar attractions he couldn’t do at Disney were available to him here.
For example, the Halve Maen he convinced me to do 3 times. It was the largest swinging ship ride in Europe and its twin RC Racer over in Disneyland Paris has a 47 inch height requirement!!!
That’s us on the ride. Evie could have ridden, too, if we would have allowed her. That blows my mind!
The best part of the trip, though, was all the delicious food we got to try. I had a roast duck with gnocchi that was out of this world, and the kids loved all the snacks that were at their fingertips.
The winner, though? That was the stroopwafels:
f1 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
Warm cinnamon-y dough with hot caramel in the middle. I might or might not have insisted we stop at a grocery store in Belgium and buy some pre-packaged ones for later.
Another tasty treat were the poffertjes:
f2 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
They looked like tiny pancakes but tasted more like funnel cake. Alex was a big fan.
Overall, it was a fun getaway and a nice little glimpse in to what the Netherlands has to offer.
Okay, back to Disney!
Thursday, April 26th, 2018 Part 1:
My goal was to be on the road by 7:30, but in reality we didn’t leave until 8:15. Between getting the kids fed and changed and loading up the car, we fell behind and that put us arriving after park opening.
I couldn’t stay stressed about it, though. The weather was gorgeous and provided a very mellow atmosphere as we headed on our way.
f3 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
Sixties, sunny, and no humidity. This was not the Florida I was used to! Absolutely perfect park weather.
We made it to the entrance sign without event:
f4 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
And since Landon slept through the grand arrival last summer, I turned around to capture his expression this time around.
Buddy!!!
Missed it, again.
We parked the car, lathered on half a bottle of sunscreen, and waited for a tram to arrive to whisk us to bag check.
Words can’t describe how happy I was to have Alex with me this time around!
When the tram began moving, I happened to glance at the people who had forgone the wait and were walking to the front and noticed a girl with BRIDESMAIDS written on her back.
“Aw, another bridal party’s here today. Fun!”
“And look, she’s wearing a navy top just like our group is.”
“Oh, maybe that’s because it’s Liz….hi Liz!” I started waving wildly to her from the tram.
I felt so dumb for not recognizing one of the other bridesmaids immediately, but at least we now knew some of others were already at the park and could say our hellos.
Bag check was a breeze as was the ticket window that Alex stopped by to activate our tickets. In no time at all we met up with Liz and a gigantic group of other people. My other sister in-law was there, as well, and she had brought her friend who was a Cast Member along. The other million guys and gals were friends from Minnesota. The bride and groom have lived in Minnesota for the past 4 years and therefore a lot of their friends and coworkers had come down for the wedding and ultimately wanted to visit Disney during their trip.
It was way, way, way more people than we anticipated. Alex and I thought it was just going to be the bridesmaids and groomsmen and their significant others. This was a lot. This was a swarm.
Those Brazilian tour groups had nothing on our bunch!
(The final count later in the day was 36 people total.)
Most people wanted to wait for stragglers before heading into the park, but Alex wasn’t okay with that. He told everyone we’d meet back up with them later and steered us through the tapstiles.
Leslie (the other sister) and her Cast Member friend came with us and when they asked what we wanted to do first, I told them we had to get a rental stroller for the kids. We had made the judgment call to leave our stroller at home and spend the money to get a rental one. That way there would be no arguing over who got which one and no stress getting it gate checked.
Leslie’s friend…I’ll call him J, offered to go with me and when we got to the front of the line he jumped ahead and showed some kind of credential that got him the double stroller.
For free.
Whaaaa?!
I thought he was going to get a discount and was prepared to pay him back, but he showed me the receipt and there it was.
Zero dollars.
Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow! Did we really just get a 31 dollar stroller for free? This was amazing!!
I thanked J over and over…and over again. He was completely cool about it and kept assuring me that it wasn’t a big deal. Meanwhile, Alex was standing around getting antsy.
There was a time to talk and then there was a time to tour Epcot, and the time to talk was over.
He mentioned that Landon was old enough to try Test Track and J immediately ushered him on, saying: “Go! Have fun, I’ll see you guys later.”
Leslie needed to do something, so we left them by Spaceship Earth and made our way further into Future World. We grabbed a Rider Swap at the entrance to Test Track and then the boys went one way while Evie and I went another.
We were all finally back in Epcot together. Time to get the day going!
Up Next…One Must Always Wear Proper Attire when Meeting an Idol
And Landon got to help make a clog:
We also bought cheese to bring home:
Then, we went to a theme park called Efteling.
The park itself was absolutely stunning.
My phone flew out of my pocket and into this pond on our first day:
(Thank goodness for the new Iphone’s water resistant technology.)
Alex got to ride several coasters, Evie enjoyed the panoramic view of the park from a high viewing platform, and Landon took us on ride after ride. The park was extremely lax with their height restrictions so similar attractions he couldn’t do at Disney were available to him here.
For example, the Halve Maen he convinced me to do 3 times. It was the largest swinging ship ride in Europe and its twin RC Racer over in Disneyland Paris has a 47 inch height requirement!!!
That’s us on the ride. Evie could have ridden, too, if we would have allowed her. That blows my mind!
The best part of the trip, though, was all the delicious food we got to try. I had a roast duck with gnocchi that was out of this world, and the kids loved all the snacks that were at their fingertips.
The winner, though? That was the stroopwafels:
f1 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
Warm cinnamon-y dough with hot caramel in the middle. I might or might not have insisted we stop at a grocery store in Belgium and buy some pre-packaged ones for later.
Another tasty treat were the poffertjes:
f2 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
They looked like tiny pancakes but tasted more like funnel cake. Alex was a big fan.
Overall, it was a fun getaway and a nice little glimpse in to what the Netherlands has to offer.
Okay, back to Disney!
Thursday, April 26th, 2018 Part 1:
My goal was to be on the road by 7:30, but in reality we didn’t leave until 8:15. Between getting the kids fed and changed and loading up the car, we fell behind and that put us arriving after park opening.
I couldn’t stay stressed about it, though. The weather was gorgeous and provided a very mellow atmosphere as we headed on our way.
f3 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
Sixties, sunny, and no humidity. This was not the Florida I was used to! Absolutely perfect park weather.
We made it to the entrance sign without event:
f4 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr
And since Landon slept through the grand arrival last summer, I turned around to capture his expression this time around.
Buddy!!!
Missed it, again.
We parked the car, lathered on half a bottle of sunscreen, and waited for a tram to arrive to whisk us to bag check.
Words can’t describe how happy I was to have Alex with me this time around!
When the tram began moving, I happened to glance at the people who had forgone the wait and were walking to the front and noticed a girl with BRIDESMAIDS written on her back.
“Aw, another bridal party’s here today. Fun!”
“And look, she’s wearing a navy top just like our group is.”
“Oh, maybe that’s because it’s Liz….hi Liz!” I started waving wildly to her from the tram.
I felt so dumb for not recognizing one of the other bridesmaids immediately, but at least we now knew some of others were already at the park and could say our hellos.
Bag check was a breeze as was the ticket window that Alex stopped by to activate our tickets. In no time at all we met up with Liz and a gigantic group of other people. My other sister in-law was there, as well, and she had brought her friend who was a Cast Member along. The other million guys and gals were friends from Minnesota. The bride and groom have lived in Minnesota for the past 4 years and therefore a lot of their friends and coworkers had come down for the wedding and ultimately wanted to visit Disney during their trip.
It was way, way, way more people than we anticipated. Alex and I thought it was just going to be the bridesmaids and groomsmen and their significant others. This was a lot. This was a swarm.
Those Brazilian tour groups had nothing on our bunch!
(The final count later in the day was 36 people total.)
Most people wanted to wait for stragglers before heading into the park, but Alex wasn’t okay with that. He told everyone we’d meet back up with them later and steered us through the tapstiles.
Leslie (the other sister) and her Cast Member friend came with us and when they asked what we wanted to do first, I told them we had to get a rental stroller for the kids. We had made the judgment call to leave our stroller at home and spend the money to get a rental one. That way there would be no arguing over who got which one and no stress getting it gate checked.
Leslie’s friend…I’ll call him J, offered to go with me and when we got to the front of the line he jumped ahead and showed some kind of credential that got him the double stroller.
For free.
Whaaaa?!
I thought he was going to get a discount and was prepared to pay him back, but he showed me the receipt and there it was.
Zero dollars.
Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow! Did we really just get a 31 dollar stroller for free? This was amazing!!
I thanked J over and over…and over again. He was completely cool about it and kept assuring me that it wasn’t a big deal. Meanwhile, Alex was standing around getting antsy.
There was a time to talk and then there was a time to tour Epcot, and the time to talk was over.
He mentioned that Landon was old enough to try Test Track and J immediately ushered him on, saying: “Go! Have fun, I’ll see you guys later.”
Leslie needed to do something, so we left them by Spaceship Earth and made our way further into Future World. We grabbed a Rider Swap at the entrance to Test Track and then the boys went one way while Evie and I went another.
We were all finally back in Epcot together. Time to get the day going!
Up Next…One Must Always Wear Proper Attire when Meeting an Idol