So we finally made it to Day Four of our Walt Disney World (WDW) vacation (thanks for sticking with us), with the Magic Kingdom batting cleanup. This was definitely the grand finale, as the girls were not only going to meet their favorite Disney princesses in their respective dresses, but also dine at Cinderella’s Royal Table in her castle (which the girls labelled, “The Princess Dinner,” even though it was technically for lunch). This was set-up as our best day of the trip and it did not disappoint in the least.
True Story: It took them ten minutes to sit still for this picture.
With two parks down and two to go, our Walt Disney World (WDW) vacation was halfway over. But it was far from the end and we were going to keep up the pace until we got on the flight home. Day Three was Gabriella’s pick and she chose to go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She is a huge animal lover and her perfect day back home is going to either the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson or the OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale (at age three, without any pressure or influence from me, she wants to be either a veterinarian or a dolphin trainer).
Grab your popcorn and get your paint on. The post is about to begin.
With one full day already in the books, the Calkins Family decided that Hollywood Studios was going to be the next park at Walt Disney World (WDW) that we were going to attend (which we actually decided weeks before so that we could lock in our FastPasses). While the girls were extremely excited about the prospect of seeing Woody and Buzz Lightyear, I was looking forward to seeing if Gabriella grew in the past week (or if the sign was a tad short) so that she could ride Star Tours. Either way, this was going to be another amazing day on our family vacation.
After arriving the previous day, the Calkins Family was going to spend their first full day at Walt Disney World (WDW) at Epcot. I gave the girls the option of where to go first, and since the best way that I could describe the park was “like a giant children’s museum that has Anna and Elsa,” they obviously wanted to go there first.
Definitely the “Happiest Place on Earth” if it gets them to stop fighting and just hug each other every now and then
After the New Year, the Calkins Family embarked on our much-anticipated vacation to Walt Disney World. Resort reservations made. Tickets purchased. Bags packed. And Disney movies watched again and again. After months of preparing the girls for this trip, we set off from Fort Huachuca late at night so that we could catch our early morning flight to Orlando.
Given that the girls have returned to Arizona and we have had our Christmas together, I wanted to do a quick follow-up to my previous post on getting through the holidays (spoiler… we did!).
The girls are back home in Arizona and we are headed off to our next adventure at Walt Disney World today. I will certainly post about our WDW experience when we get back. I also have a follow-up holiday article coming up, as well as articles on how to manage (fix? not destroy?) little girls’ hair, organizing for toddlers, and travelling with little ones.
Walt Disney World is gonna rock!
I hope you are all having a great 2019 and we will be back in a week!
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. While the turkey and pumpkin pie are always amazing, it is family and cooking together that makes the holiday truly special for me. Christmas has always been a distant second, but I have a newfound appreciation for it now that I have children. It is so nice to see them get involved with the Elf on the Shelf, writing letters to Santa, and the smile on their faces Christmas morning is simply priceless. Until last year, I had been lucky enough to have spent every single Thanksgiving and Christmas day with my family, which can be pretty hard for someone in the military. Unfortunately, to reach a compromise that would give me primary custodianship of my girls, I agreed that their mother could have them for Thanksgiving every year, which was really tough to give up, and Christmas every other year. This is the first year that we are executing our Parenting Plan with their mother getting visitation rights during Thanksgiving and Christmas in the same year, which makes for a really lonely holiday season for this single Dad. So with my girls enjoying Christmas with their mother, her family, and her new fiancé (yes, already), the holiday season is forcing me to cope with this as best as I can and to try to figure out where to go from here.
Daddy Daughter Days do not happen as often as they did before, but on the rare occasion that I have a babysitter or family in town, I try to spend some quality one-on-one time with both Elaina and Gabriella. It is an excellent opportunity to bond with your child without sister interference, as they both tend to get frustrated when the other turns Dad’s attention away from them. Elaina is currently enrolled in ballet at her Child Development Center and she mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she really wanted to see the Nutcracker Ballet. Not really sure how she got this idea, but I aim to please. And it seemed like a good activity for a Daddy Daughter Day, which we have not had in a while. I got tickets for The Nutcracker, presented by Ballet Tucson, and Elaina was just ecstatic. She gets to wear a pretty dress and watch real ballerinas in action. I get to spend some quality time with my oldest daughter and broaden my horizons. Talk about a win-win scenario.
Since I was a young boy, I have always been fascinated with both airplanes and World War II. One of my fondest memories was when my Dad took me to Washington D.C., which included a visit to the National Air and Space Museum. Since the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, AZ has an absolutely amazing collection of aircraft, particularly those from the Second World War, I have always wanted to make a visit. But with having two daughters who spend their evenings hosting tea parties in their princess dresses, when were they ever going to let me visit a museum with stationary planes? As I have mentioned before, these girls just keep surprising me.
Adventures in Single Dadding 