Honk Kong, Day One

After nearly 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Hong Kong yesterday evening. Finley did great on the flights, she was still not a huge fan of headphones and she did do some kicking while she slept, but other than that, she was perfect. I still cannot believe we all traveled together for that long and made it. I did get whacked on the head by a suitcase, but other than that, the trip was without incident.

We got to sleep relatively quickly on Sunday evening and were up bright and early for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked along the harbor to the Hong Kong Tourism Office to arrange our Junk Tour for Thursday. A lot of the decorations from the Chinese New Year are still up along the waterfront and Finley was fascinated by them.

Then it was off to the MTR (subway) to catch the trains out to Lantau Island. Finley had selected riding in the cable car as her first choice activity in Hong Kong. I was curious as to whether she had ridden one before. I eventually remembered the cable car in the San Diego Zoo. It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized she had ridden on a cable car multiple times in Vail and Beaver Creek. They have a display out of cable cars around the world and seeing the old cars reminded me of the old cable cars at the top of the bunny slopes in Vail.

The main draw of Lantau Island is the cable car ride itself. It is quite long. Finley entertained everyone in our car with stories of alligators that chomp chomped and ghosts. She didn’t want to end the story until we were off of the car. I don’t think she realized how far that was. At the end of the ride stands the largest sitting outdoor Buddha. Finley was insistent that we walk to the top. I was worried about her making it, but she went faster than both Clifton and I. She had the same determination climbing the steps in the Sacre Coure. There must be something about steps on vacation. Finley loves it!

We took the cable car ride back to the MTR station and had a very late lunch. Then it was back to the hotel for a nap. Or as it goes when you are on a 10 hour time difference..,in for the night. Despite our best efforts of setting an alarm, no one woke up until nearly 10 pm. Finley is still asleep and we will let her stay that way hopefully until morning. We all still have a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Valentine's at Home

On Valentine's Day, Finley was in a really goofy mood.  Which made for some very interesting photographs.  Finley got a Minnie Mouse Valentine book, the six Star Wars movies on Blu-Ray and a Star Wars sheet set.  She was most excited about the sheet set and insisted on changing her bed to the new sheets straight away.  She now sleeps with a Death Star pillow.  What a sweet little Valentine!

Valentine's Day at School

Finley filled all the bags for her Valentine's for school. She was quite upset that the bag of Hershey Kisses didn't have equal numbers of colored kisses. We had an excess of pink and not enough red kisses. Other than that, Valentine's day was easy. Finley shared her Valentine's at school, they made chocolate covered pretzels and then had a party. Apparently no one napped, so they played all day. The kids had pizza, fruit and cupcakes. At home Finley opened each one of her cards and treats. The cutest part was that she could read each of her friend's names.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bubbles, kisses and love! From Finley, to you!

Happy Birthday Luca!

Luca had an awesome monster truck birthday party this weekend. There was a jumpy house, Chick-fil-a nuggets, cake and chocolate pudding with gummy worms. Finley was in heaven. She spent most of the time playing in the play room with the kitchen. She certainly didn't want me in there with her because every time I went to check on her, she told me to go back outside. We are enjoying wonderful warm weather right now, so I was happy to oblige. Happy birthday to Luca!

Jedi Training Academy

Relaxing at Home

For the first time in forever, Finley and I had nothing scheduled today. I got some house cleaning done while Finley watched Finding Nemo. She was so cute watching it, she kept reassuring me that they would find Nemo at the end and not to worry because she has seen this before.  She also got to watch episodes of her new favorite shows, Doc McStuffins and Sophia the First.  This was all while eating three waffles, a bowl of blueberries, Rice Krispies and strawberries.  And she was still "more hungry!"  She must be growing again.  I know her feet are growing like crazy because she has already outgrown shoes I got her just a couple of months ago, including her tap shoes.

WDW: Day Seven

Ah, our last day at Disney World.  Finley did not want to leave.  For the final day of our trip, Finley chose to go to Epcot so we could ride Test Track again.  We checked out of the hotel and checked our bags on to Houston, then it was a monorail ride to Epcot to start our day at park open.  Finley and Clifton met Daisy while I grabbed fastpasses for Test Track.  We were able to ride it three times that morning, with Clifton riding the Sum of All Thrills in between.  Sadly, it had gotten crazy over at Soarin', so the fastpass times were for after we were leaving for the day.  We headed over to Italy for lunch at Via Napoli.  Miss F had pizza while Clifton and I had pasta.  I tried her pizza and it was fantastic, my pasta was good, but her pizza was amazing.  Then we rode the Maelstrom again a couple of times.  Finley loves to ask to ride in the front row.  She met Donald and we rode the boat in Mexico.  We did Journey to Imagination again (I think I still have the song in my head!) and went over to ride Nemo.  Finley wanted to see Turtle Talk with Crush again, mainly because she wanted to ask him a question, "Are sharks mean?"  I think being selected at the Monsters Inc show made her very confident.  She didn't get called on, but she had fun nonetheless. We finished the day with an ice cream cone covered in Mickey sprinkles. It was an amazing trip and Finley had so much fun.

WDW: Day Six

We had another early start this morning. Hollywood Studios opened at 8 am for Extra Magic Hours, so we wanted to be there at rope drop to get fast passes for Toy Story Midway Mania and to get Finley signed up to be in the Jedi Training Academy show. Clifton went with Finley to sign up and I went to Toy Story Mania to get fastpasses. After I got them, Clifton texted me to say they were having technical difficulties and to meet them over there.  They told everyone in line that they would start signing kids up at 8:30 am.  Clifton and Finley went to ride Star Tours while I held the place in line.  Turns out, Star Tours was having issues as well.  They finally just walked off without riding it in order to get back to the sign up spot in time, they just made it!  Finley was set for the 11 am show.

The night before we had dinne at The Plaza Restaurant.  A sweet family at the table next to us gave us their ANYTIME use Toy Story Mania passes they had gotten when the ride broke down on them, they were leaving and wouldn't be able to use them.  That meant we got to ride it twice.  I say it is good karma for all the fast passes I handed out in Disneyland when we couldn't use them.  Clifton got the top score for the hour on our first ride!

Finley met Chip and Dale, then we headed to ride Star Tours a couple of times.  Before we knew it, it was time to check in for the show.  Finley got together with all her castmates and they marched over to the stage.  She was the second youngest kid in the show and she did amazingly well.  She did have some trouble activating her light saber, but other than that, she was just perfect.  She got to battle Darth Vader and became a Jedi!  We have the whole thing on video, I will post it later.  It is such a cute show.

Then it was time for lunch at 50s Prime Time Cafe.  Finley and our waitress got along famously.  She got her to eat all her peas and carrots.  Finley was giggling the entire time!  She was rewarded with a chocolate milkshake.  Yum!  We rode Star Tours again and Finley selected a Pluto R2D2 toy from the gift shop for doing so well in the show.  It was time for a nap since we were at the bus stop at 7:10 am.

Finley and I changed into our swimsuits and swam for a bit.  There is a big volcano slide in the pool, which looked really neat.  I had Finley convinced to go on it when a kid started struggling at the base of the slide.  He was under for quite awhile and the lifeguard had to jump in the pool to rescue him.  It was quite scary.  And it meant no slide for Finley, which I totally understood. 

After a three hour nap, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom.  We watched Philharmagic waiting for our fast passes for Crooked Choo Choo.  We rode Pirates and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three times, then we headed over to Tomorrowland.  Finley wanted to watch the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor show again, so we headed in just as it was starting.  The show is so cute and changes everytime.  This time, Mike's nephew interviewed Finley.  He asked her name and told her she had four ears.  Then he told her a joke about a pirate.  All the while, she was on the big screen.  She did great!  She wasn't scared at all.  She was laughing so loud during the entire show, I think she had half the audience laughing with her.  Her reward was riding the People Mover with arms up the whole ride.  We rode Buzz Lightyear one last time and boarding the monorail home.  Finley didn't want to leave, but it was past 10 pm and time for bed.