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On June 1, 2010 our two year old, "Little Air Bear," was diagnosed with Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Type M7. After enduring 146 days at Primary Children's Hospital, Erin is now in remission and living a full life at home with our family. Her strong will and constant happy smile is an inspiration to us all. Through our difficult circumstances we found great strength and peace in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for checking in on us.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Make A Wish Day TWO

"Here you leave today
and enter the world of
yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy."
— Walt Disney Company

Day 2
Magic Kingdom

We woke up happy happy happy.  The kids were jumping on their beds and it didn't take much effort to get everyone out of the door.

By special invitation our family was invited to have ice cream for breakfast and be a part of a photo shoot for the Give Kids The World fundraising.

These are some of the pictures they took that are on the
GKTW facebook website.



Who doesn't have ice cream for breakfast?



Magic Kingdom...Let the memories begin!


One special thing about our Make-A-Wish trip was Erin's magic button and the lanyard pass I wore around my neck.  We were given VIP treatment.  The pass and button entitled us to walk to the front of almost every line, up the exit, or in the fast pass lane on every ride in the park.  We would find an employee at a ride, show them the button/pass and then we were escorted to the front of the line.  Wow!  We felt so special.  It was great for the kids because with three kids, ages 5, 4, and nearly 3 they have pretty short line-waiting-attention-spans. 


Surprise surprise!
We hit the carousel first.
I bet I have over 40 pictures of the kids on either this carousel, or the one in the village.
Our kids are carousel amusement park level.


...and Dumbo ride level.


I have been brainwashing the kids with the Small World Song.  I know many people out there dislike Small World and it's never ending song. But, not me.  I LOVE the ride.  It is my favorite ride.  Seriously, my favorite ride.  It must have something to do with the fact that I had a small world music box as a child.  I love this ride!


Then, oh the wonderful mother that I am, I talked the kids into going on Splash Mountain.  It was the first and last time they did it.
But, they did it.

I took a picture of the picture they took of us.
That's me, arms up, white shirt on the third row.
Cecily on the left and Caleb on the right.


Then we had our first of MANY character meetings.
We ran into Goofy.
Erin was so scared of him.
It was a bad first meeting.


Then Woody and Jesse.
Erin was still scared.


Then it hit me...duh!
Erin's wish was to SEE the princesses.
So off to the princesses we went.

The magic button let us bypass the 45 minute wait.
This was our short 5 minute line.


Erin was super excited.
She could hardly hold still.


She ran right up to Cinderella and gave her a big hug.


Lots of hugs from Belle.


And more hugs from Sleeping Beauty.


Seeing the princesses was magical for Erin.
She really felt so special getting her hugs.
She was in heaven.
This was what we came for.
We spent a good 10 minutes working our way through meeting each of these three princesses.  They gave Erin some special attention and talked with her and she just beamed all the while through.  It was the start of many princess greetings throughout our whole trip. 

When we left for our trip, our Make-A-Wish granter gave us a matted picture of some of the Disney princesses.  We carried it around with us each day and had every princess we saw sign it.

Here's Belle chatting with the girls about the princesses in the picture she signed.


I haven't mentioned it yet, but it was hot.
95 degrees + 75% humidity = feels like 105.

The kids were BEAT when we rode the fairy back to the parking lot. 
They laid down right on the floor.


We got back to the GKTW Village and enjoyed
Winter Wonderland!
Every day is an adventure at the Village and every week Christmas is held.
You can imagine how special that would be if you were a wish kid and if you didn't know if you would live to see a next real Christmas.

Unfortunately Erin didn't appreciate Santa as much as the princesses.
The other two kids were pretty entranced though.
Cecily told Santa she wanted a pet and Caleb asked him for a car.


Erin did appreciate the gift she got to pick out afterward.


We cooled off in the early evening at the splash park.
This splash park was seriously one of my favorite parts of the village, and one of the kids most favorite parts about the village.  We could have swam here all day, everyday.




We finished off the night with ice cream and then we all dropped into bed and quickly drifted off into dreams of Disneyworld and princesses.

4 comments:

  1. The pictures of her with the princesses brought tears to my eyes! That was exactly what we experienced too!

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  2. it all looks so magical! i'm so glad you guys got to have such an amazing experience! reading and seeing your pictures brings everything back from our trip (even though it was only 7 months ago - but man it feels like years ago!). i agree that the pictures of erin and the princesses are priceless.

    and that splash park looks dreamy right about now. :)

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  3. Thank you so much for this post...still makes me get a little teary! I am so happy for you guys,a nd we truly do appreciate your kindness to us. I love to read your blog, and it's nice to see someone else...that has gone through the same thing. Every story is diffent, but the idea is the same! Thank you again! Looks like the greatest trip ever.

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  4. That looks like the most amazing vacation! And your haircut is cute, Jill. You look nice! :)

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