magic kingdom

If part one of our “Been a While” series was our quarantine, part two is when we go visit a couple places!

One beautiful day in June, we left our home to visit favorite friends so Ollie could look at faces other than ours and play somewhere that wasn’t our backyard. Lucky for us, we have plenty of beaches to choose from! Our friends know we’re more on the phobic end of the Covid spectrum, so they suggested this quiet spot.

He always smiles this big when Tim and John are around, but I’ll never forget how happy he was to be OUT with them here!!

It took alllll day (and some safety goggles!) for Muppet to muster up the courage to hold a sparkler and I loooooved him for it! <3 The highlight of our 4th of July right here!

We made reservations for the character breakfast at Disney’s Riviera Resort. It was my first time on property since February, and I cried. A lot. (That’s a common theme to come!)

Favorite times a million. <3

Finding empty places at Disney is getting harder but still my favorite past time!

It was an odd day when Nate pulled our camera gear out to clean and pack for our first wedding back!!

His first was this sweet Winter Park elopement…

… Our first wedding back together was Noelle and Phil’s in St. Cloud!

If you have a kid, or remember being a kid, you know. THIS was a biiiiiiig day for Ollie!

*Sigh.* Had to make the impossible decision for our oldest. <3

I knew I wanted to have Huck “give” Ollie something to remember him. I ended up taking a Boo stuffed animal I’ve had for ages, ripped out the eye, and sewed it shut. Ollie calls him “little Huck” and loves him to pieces.

We took a special trip with Huckleberry to Fort Wilderness to celebrate our last week with him. We spent the week having last “holidays” with him, feeding him food he’s never allowed to have, and loving on him like crazy. Our first night there, Ollie’s “guncles” came over for a swim and to say goodbye to Huck!

Ollie *really* wanted to be Josh from Blue’s Clues for Halloween and he wanted Huck to be Blue. Once we knew it wasn’t possible, I made sure to dress Ollie as “Josh” as I could and I’ll Photoshop Huck blue for him later <3

Can you spot tiny Huck outside of our cabin??

In September we needed a family pick me up after Huck and *another* blow from 2020. BUT on the plus side, we booked the Contemporary for a night for less than we’ll probably pay the rest of our lives! Did my son spend the entire night asking “Can we PLEASE go home and sleep in MY bed?!” Yes. But did he love the pool? YES!

First park day since February. Were our masks insanely hot in August? Yes. Was I happy to have it hiding my ugly cry down Main Street? YES!

Highlight of 2020 right here- We were waiting to wave at the characters, and they all came out and said hello to Ollie by name. <3 <3 <3 The most unexpected was Prince Ali coming out and saying, “Hey! It’s Prince Ollie, like Prince Ali!” Ollie wants nothing to do with Aladdin but is OBSESSED with Prince Ali now! <3

Don’t let his face fool you- He was *smitten!* Just totally not loving that I kept making him turn AWAY from his favorite characters to take photos with them! :) Alice in Wonderland is played on the weekly in our home. He told me he either wanted to yell “I love you Alice!” or “Huck died last week!” to her. Lucky for us, he chose the former!!

Definitely too young to explain Covid-19 to him, but he’s such a little rule follower and is AMAZING at not touching things he’s not supposed to and waiting his turn to jump from line to line!

Real life:

Instagram life! <3

Kim contacted us, in her words, when she and Christopher had “been engaged for 100 years and finally settled on a hopeful date.” :)

These guys were married at Walt Disney World on Halloween, and were our first ever Halloween couple! We didn’t know what to expect on the Halloween wedding spectrum, from all their guests dressing up and some sort of themed bridal party or goth look for the bride and groom to a totally “normal” wedding that just happened to fall on Halloween. Theirs happened to fall in the latter category, and aside from their DJ slipping in a few Halloween songs, you’d never even know it was October 31st on their wedding day. In fact, going back through their wedding photos, I had to remind myself that their wedding was around Halloween, and not the middle of April with their amazingly bright and happy color palette!

My favorite story from meeting Kim and Christopher was when Kim told us the moment she knew she and Christopher would be together forever: He had a bar of Mickey soap from the Disney hotels in the 90’s on his computer desk… And she keeps one on hers! Hearing that reminded me of when Nate and I had been dating for a few months when I glanced at him typing in his PIN number- It was the SAME AS MINE! Sometimes you just know right off the bat they’re “the one,” sometimes you just know and then the universe hits you over the head with it a few times to make sure you reeeeeeeeeally know. ;)

I looooooove rehearsal dinner dessert parties! So fun to meet everyone ahead of time, and I love seeing our couples all nervous and excited about the next day.

I know I tweeted this around their wedding, but I cannot look at these photos without the theme song to “World of Color” being stuck in my head and it makes me soooooo happy. Also, paper flowers are my new favorite. I love the thought of having them to keep forever. :)

“I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a plenty…” <3

Kim has connected with other Disney runners on Facebook, so when she posted in a group that she was getting married, these guys came to the Yacht Club Gazebo to cheer her on! So fun. :)