Fun Family Weekend

So this weekend was Alexis' first trip away from home without Mom and Dad. She had her first train ride! Here is her train coming to pick her up...She was so excited to be taking her first train ride. So we put her and Grandma on the train and waved goodbye to them. Alexis had a fun and exciting weekend ahead of her.....a trip to the children's theater to see "Beauty and the Beast", dinner on a floating resturant in Portland, and making cookies with both grandma and grandpa! What a lucky girl! Back at home though.....we were going about our buisness like usual. Saturday brought Santa Claus up the street at Costless Pharmacy....we took Katrina and Tommy up to see santa and get their pictures taken! They were free! Pretty cool huh? After seeing santa and telling him what we all wanted we continued on for a nice lunch at burger king. it was a nice, peaceful weekend.
On Sunday we travelled down to Centralia to pick me Grandma and Grandpa halfway between our house to pick up Alexis. She was tired but happy from her weekend away.

2nd part of Make A Wish vacation story

So to finish the story of our trip. Thursday night we went to Medieval Times. This place was just way too cool! They took our pictures when we first got there in front of a white screen. We had no idea what they were taking our pictures for. Well, during dinner they brought around a copy of the pictures (to be purchased but Tommy's was free) they took of us. The boys were knights and the girls pictures were princesses. We had quite a good laugh over our pictures but at $7 a picture times 5 people, that was little pricey for my blood. They served us dinner 1 course at a time. But the thing the kids loved was that our plates and bowls and cups were made of pewter. We were not allowed to have utensils (because they didn't use utensils back then) and the menu wasn't like a regular menu....they had a specific menu and they brought us everything from that menu. They literally serve you a feast! While we were eating they had a lady come around and took pictures of the whole family eating dinner. Then during the beginning of the show they were announcing guests who had birthdays or anniversarys or other special reasons for being at Medievil Times. Tommy's name was annouced which made him feel very special! So while we are eating our delicious dinner the show is going on before us. They had a real story line to the show. They introduced our knights to us one by one and our knight was the green knight. He threw 2 roses into the crowd right to Alexis. She was so in love with him after that. Our waitress (called a "wench") came by to make sure Alexis knew the roses were just for her (because the first time our knight threw the rose the man behind Alexis grabbed it before she could and wouldn't give it her even when our waitress said it was meant for her) and gave her a replacement rose for the one the man behind us took. They made sure the knight knew she didn't get to catch it and he threw her another one right into her plate! It was so sweet. So they had a king and a princess that sat in a balcony above the arena and the knights were challaging each other for the princess. It was so cool! They really did the jousting and sword fighting too. They had to lower nets because when they sword fight sparks actually fly off the swords and when they ride at each other during the jousting and one of the sticks or sheilds break the wood can tend to fly! Tommy was so attentive during the jousting and sword fighting. He has been telling everyone that Medievil Times was his favorite part of the trip! The next day was our final day of the parks. We went back to Magic Kingdom to take mom on all the rides that the kids loved so much the first day. Plus there was a lot we didn't finish the first day at Magic Kingdom. The first thing Tommy wanted to do that day was to go to the Barber Shop on Main Street to get a green mohawk...or should I say feuxhawk! He looked so cute with his green hair. And the rest of the day everywhere we went people would comment on his hair. Even Mickey Mouse took him he had cool hair when he signed his autograph book. Every where we went Tommy was made to feel so special. We went on just about every ride in the Magic Kingdom that day. We were exhausted by the end of the day. We started with Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. They we had to head to Splash Mountain and the Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster. Alexis loved Splash Mountian and Tommy's favorite was the Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster. They we worked our way to It's a Small World and Jason refused to go on that ride! I think he was scared of the dolls!!! HA HA HA! We drove cars on the Autopia Indy Raceway....Alexis wanted to drive with me and it was hard for her to steer the car so I had to try to drive from the passenger seat. That was not easy. Then we visited Toon Town. We went through Minnie's House, Mickey's House and had a personal visit with Mickey Mouse and got our picture taken with him. After that we went to Tomorrowland where Jason and Tommy and Katrina went on Space Mountain. Which Jason said was a lot of fun. Tommy got to be in the first seat all by himself and all Jason could hear from him was his cheering the ride! The more thrilling the ride, the more Tommy liked it. We finished our Disney Adventure with the Buzz Lightyear ride and a visit with Buzz Lightyear himself! Boy was Tommy excited! He still likes Buzz Lightyear. But he told me not to tell anyone that...he he he! We then went back to the village for the pirates and princess party they were having that night. And we were all extremely exhausted from 5 days of FUN!!!! The next day it was time to go home. None of us wanted to come back home. I think I am still having Florida withdrawls and we've been home for 2 weeks now. We are definitely thinking that we have to take the kids to DisneyLand next. We're hoping for 3 years from now. But I definitely fell in love with Florida. I want to go back there some day.

Our Make A Wish vacation

Well, today was our first day back from Tommy's Wish. We went to Florida to DisneyWorld, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld. I think we all agreed that Universal Studios was our favorite of the trip! We arrived at Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Florida on Sunday, September 17th! Give Kids the World is a great organization that owns land and has about 96 villas for family of "wish kids" to stay in. Here is our villa....#186! We were given a very nice Minivan to drive around during our stay. Make-A-Wish had everything arranged with Give Kids the World for us. Inside our villa was everything we needed. Washer & Dryer and full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and more! We were in heaven! They have a resturant that feeds you breakfast and dinner and an all you can eat Ice Cream Palace! We had Ice Cream for breakfast on more than once occasion....just for fun! The kids were absolutely exhausted from travelling all day long. We left Sea-Tac at 8:30 am and didn't arrive in Florida until 10 something that night! It was a long day for all of us. We got settled in our villa and put the kids to bed and they were asleep in minutes! The kids room had 2 beds plus a roll out bed for one of them. They were so excited about their room. They had a jacussi tub and huge stand up shower in their bathroom. They were very excited about taking a bath in the jacussi tub right away. We went to bed early and had to wake up early for orientation at Give Kids the World village to get our tickets and other information about what parks we got to go to and other attractions! Our first day we decided to go to Magic Kingdom in DisneyWorld. Alexis could not wait to see Cinderella's Castle and Tommy could not wait to go on the rides! We decided to start in Fantasyland and work our way around the park! All the kids loved Splash Mountain and Tommy loved the Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster. Tommy set the tone for the whole vacation....he decided that the more thrilling the ride, the more he liked it. The next day we decided to go to SeaWorld. We had a blast at SeaWorld. We fed Sting Ray's right out of our hands. Luckily they were tame and won't hurt you. We fed them fish out of our fingers. It was so cool. They would tickle as it sucked the tiny little fishy right out of your hand. Tommy really wanted to go on SeaWorld large roller coaster but he wasn't tall enough. He was so upset about that. The poor attendant at the ride felt so bad that she could't let Tommy on. So he and Jason found another ride they could go on and procceed to go on the ride twice! I forget the name of the ride but it had something to do with Atlantis. It was water ride. Tommy loved the drop off! Here is a picture of how much of a drop it was. And you could hear Tommy laughing and yelling all the way down! He is so much fun to take on the rides! We decided to try to make it to the dolphins after that ride but got there just as feeding time was over. We did, however, get to pet them and watch them swim around in the pool. We also tried to make the Shamu show but missed that by a few minutes. We found out that the day before while we were exploring Disney World a baby killer whale was born at Sea World. How excited. We were hoping to get a glimpse of the baby but were unable to do that. We still had a wonderful time in SeaWorld anyways. The girls got hair wraps done while in SeaWorld. They were beautiful and it was a lot of fun to see the ladies wraping their hair. They were so good at it and did it so fast. Then we found another adventure right around the corner. The kids decided to go on this huge trampoline that made them go very high in the air. The kids were put into a harness and then bungee cords were attached to the harness. They were then told to start jumping and as they jumped they went higher and higher into the air. It was really cool to see them go so high. They loved it. For some reason Katrina wouldn't go on the trampoline but Tommy and Alexis had so much fun. They were allowed 2 minutes each on the trampoline. It was great fun to watch! After a full day of animals and rides we went back to our villa for some much needed rest. The next day my mom arrived in Florida to spend some time with us. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom back at Disney World that day. We were actually quite disappointed with Animal Kingdom. And the love bugs were so bad that we couldn't stand it anymore. We would get swarmed by them anytime we stood still. So we decided we were all hungry and it was time for a break so we went and had luch at the RainForest Cafe. None of us had ever been to the RainForest Cafe. They treated us so nicely. They brough gifts to the kids and gave us preferential seating in the resturant. It was such a cool place. After that we went back to the village again to go swiming and the kids went to Kids Night Out at the Village that night. They got to have dinner and play games and had a dance contest and they played with volunteers. The kids had so much fun with their volunteers. katrina made her's dress up as girls...(they were boy volunteers) and Alexis learned how to do the chicken dance with hers. Tommy and his volunteer bonded so well they they exchanged contact information with each other. Mom, Jason and I hung out around the villa and relaxed while the kids were having their fun. We were exhausted already! The next day we woke up early and went to Universal Studios. Universal Studios was by far our favorite park to visit. We went through Seuss Landing and met Cat in the Hat, Sam-I-am, The Grinch, Thing one and Thing two, and many more characters around. We went on some fun rides too. We went through Nickelodeon Studios and went on the Jimmy Neutron ride..which I highly recommed. As we came out of the ride we got to be the first ones to meet Spongebob Square Pants. Tommy didn't want to stick around to meet Spongebob because he was too excited to go on the next ride! Next we went on the Shrek 4-D ride. It was so cool. The seats moved with the movie. They had you put on 3-D style glasses. But this ride was much more than 3-D! The characters in the movie would seem like they were inches from your nose! Then they had things like Donkey sneeze on you and they would spray you with water so it was like he really sneezed on you. Or air would blow by you like something was brushing up against you. It was just so fun. We also did the Jaws ride...which has defentely improved since I was a kid. Jason, Tommy, Katrina, and my mom went on a few more rides like Earthquake and Twister while Alexis and I waited for them and met some great characters like Beetlegeuss and the lion and one penguin from Madagascar! Too much fun! Then we went over to Islands of Adventure (which is part of Universal studios). That is where Seuss' Landing and Jurassic Park and Marvel Island are. The kids and Jason and my mom went on the Jurassic Park River ride with the 85 foot drop down! I stayed behind...I don't like rides like that. We ended that day because we had to get back to the Village and pick up our reservations for Medieval Times...yes, the resturant that they went to in the movie "Cable Guy" with Jim Carey! We were all excited about going there. But I am tired and I will finish telling you about the rest of our trip tomorrow. Good night all!

Lucky Dawg Game

Our little stud muffin Tommy got to be the "Lucky Dawg" at the first Huskies game! It was so cool. We met our Make-A-Wish employee out in front of the Northwest entrance! And they took us inside the stadium to our seats. Here we are in our seats!
After we got settled into our seats Tommy and I were taken down on to the field where he got to meet the cheerleaders, the mascot, the team captains, and the head coach. We got to see the Helmet Car that they drive around the field everytime the Huskies score a touchdown!
Tommy really loved meeting the cheerleaders! He thought they were so cute and loved having his picture taken with them!
Then we met the Huskies mascot..."Harry the Husky". Tommy wasn't quite sure about him at first but after a few minutes warmed up to him and was hugging him and having a great time meeting him!We had a few minutes wait until the team came out on the field. The band came out and sang the national anthem and unfurled the flag. Very cool! The flag was about the size of about half the field! While we waited Tommy discovered the fans sprayed out water with them! He loved them! He didn't want to stop playing in the fans!Then finally the players came out and Tommy got to meet the team captains! He was pretty overwhelmed but the size of the players! He couldn't take his eyes of them. After we had our photo ops with the team captains it was time for the game to start. Tommy went out with the players to the center of the field and participated in the coin toss! He loved it! Here he is on the field!

Tommy's Story

This is our Make-A-Wish family photo!
Tommy is getting a wish from the Make-A-Wish foundation. I am so excited for him. After all he went through with his illness, he totally deserves it. The poor child lost 7 1/2 months of his life! But in reality, he doesn't remember any of those 7 1/2 months so its really Jason and I that deserve this wish. And really we are getting one of our wishes granted too. We are getting to see our now healthy son and taking the family on a much needed, much desired family vacation. We never figured on being able to afford to take this kind of a vacation for at least quite a few more years. But thanks to Make-A-Wish we are going to DisneyWorld, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios in September. We are so excited. I just wish other people could be as excited for us. I have had about 3 of my friends talk about how jealous they are that Tommy has gotten so much attention. I just can't understand how they could be jealous of all that we had to go through to get that attention. We would trade all the attention, support, kindness, presents, etc. for our son to have never been sick. My goodness the kid stopped breathing 4 times! And he was in a sort of vegetative state for 7 months! What is there to be jealous of???? This is how he looked during his illness... this sweet little boy with all these tubes in both of his arms and wires attached to his head (he looked like he had brain surgery but he really had EEG leads on under the cap). Our whole life was thrown upside down by this serious illness. And the doctors don't even know what the illness is!!! Can you imagine that? We didn't even know if he would recover or not. But thankfully he did and has made almost a full recovery. There are a few kinks in his system to be worked out but intense weekly therapy is taking care of that! Look at him now! He is enjoying life as a healthy 7 year old! We finally got to give him a birthday party in July (his birthday was in March) and all his friends came to celebrate with him! It was wonderful! And now he is getting all of his childhood dreams to come true. He gets to see DisneyWorld, he gets to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop, he gets to go to a Mariners Game (we just got a phone call from them today and they are sending 20 tickets to Tommy and his guests of choice to go a game), he is hopefully getting the Nintendo DS he wants so badly, and much more....I just don't understand how anyone can be jealous of a 7 year old who was very close to death! And these people are adults! Oh the pettiness of some people. Enough ranting for one night. You know I kind of like this blog thingy where I can just rant and rave and who cares if it's read or not!