Make-A-Wish Pt. 2
After a fun night enjoying the resort, Tuesday morning we woke up pretty late, struggling on Alaskan time but eager to go play in the parks! Em and I went to the salon at the resort and she got he make up done while the boys caught up on sleep!
We headed to Hollywood studios to get some more Star Wars Time in and got a crash course on how the Genie pass worked. The Genie Pass is a blue pass that looks like the genie that we wore on a lanyard and it is given to families on wish trips. It stated the dates we were on our trip and how many were in our party. When we arrived at a character, ride, or show we wanted to go on we would find the fastness entrance or a cast member and they would put us right through the line! It was glorious and so super necessary for our LJ and his inability to wait in a line. Let’s just say these Disney addicts were spoiled rotten with zero lines! The best memories from this day were LJ being so confused why Kylo Ren was so mean when he was so nice at the airport a few days before, Emmaleigh becoming a Jedi at Star Tours and me hula hooping with my babies. Hula hooping with my kids, in public, would have been something I would have never ever done but a cancer diagnosis changes a lot. We hopped over to Epcot for a quick visit with Elsa and Anna. They spent so much time with our kids, it was truly magical!
Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom where LJ and Emmaleigh became pirates first thing! LJ was not impressed and almost didn’t go through with it but once he fully woke up, he enjoyed being a pirate! We rode Pirates of the Caribbean ride !!!!! And enjoyed Dole Whips while we watched the Festival of Fantasy parade.
Emmaleigh and Mommy got to have a very special lunch in the castle while the boys and Nana enjoyed hot dogs in front of the castle. They had a photographer take some pictures of LJ which he was clearly not in the mood for!
We had some firsts! LJ rode Barnstormer and absolutely loved it! Emmy rode Space Mountain and the little crazy loved it too! While Em and Nana rode mine train we took LJ to see Tigger and Pooh. Those characters could not have been sweeter. They were so gentle, kind, and patient with our boy! He was so happy to hug them and show Tigger how he could jump too. LJ struggled to jump at the time and it was so hard watching our boy try so hard to do something his body was struggling to do. He was so happy and I remember standing back, watching it all in tears, just soaking the sweet moment up. There is no rushing of Make a Wish kids, the cast members give them as much time as they need with the characters.
After a full day at the park we ended the night with more ice cream only this time it involved Emmaleigh singing to some of the college kids who were serving that night and her giving out her autograph! Collages from around the country have special trips where the go and stay a week at a time at the GKTW and serve. It’s a really cool program!
Every morning there are characters from either Disney or Universal, available for meet and greets at GKTW. It really saves time in the parks and allows for some surprises first thing every morning! Thursday was our Animal Kingdom day! It is our favorite park so we geared up ready to visit Pandora! We hadn’t been yet, and this time we had the genie pass! We went straight to the Na’vi River Journey, the wait was over 100 minutes and thanks to the Genie pass we walked right on! We all took turns hanging out in the Pandora area with LJ while two of us took Em on the Avatar Flight of Passage. That ride is incredible! We bought Em her Banshee and LJ some overpriced futuristic looking animal too.
After the park we came back to a very emotional evening at GKTW. At this point in our walk with DIPG we weren’t sure if we were going to treat LJ’s tumor and we were told if we didn’t, we would lose him. I wasn’t sure if I would ever get Christmas with my boy again but GKTW thought about that. It was Winter Wonderland night! Santa came with toys, there was horse drawn carriage rides, and a parade complete with SNOW! During Emmaleigh and LJ’s time with Santa the tears just poured down my face as I imagined this being the last picture I would have of my kids with Santa Claus together. He began to talk to them about stars in the sky and no matter what our family would always have those to look at. I honestly don’t remember what exactly he said I just remember it was beautiful and I never wanted to let that memory go. Finally, after dinner the kids were surprised by Mayor Clayton and were tucked in by him for a good night’s rest.
Friday morning was a really exciting day because we were going to Island of Adventure and Universal Studios! We were getting to take our Harry Potter loving little girl to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was a complete surprise and Em was so excited! But that wasn’t all…my brother and his kids were able to drive down from Atlanta and meet us at the parks! She was so excited to see her uncle and cousins, we all were! My niece Ava loves HP as much as Em, so we took both girls to pick out their wands and school robes! Em chose Luna’s wand and a Gryffindor robe, Ava chose a Ravenclaw robe! The girls had so much fun playing with their wands. We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and finally got to try butter beer! We all loved it! We closed the park down with the Mardi Gras parade that was a really fun surprise! The kids (and us) loved collecting all the beads and we had so many by the end of the night.
When we got back to the resort, Emmaleigh lost a tooth and was going to get a visit from the tooth fairy at GKTW! It was such a fun day full of new adventures and lots of smiles and hugs!
