It has been a long time since I posted.  Things here in the Cross house have been crazy.  Elliott had to have some more tests on his shoulder.  He had surgery on it in April and it is still giving him problems.  They finally gave him cortisone shots and he is back in physical therapy. 

We went on our Disney Vacation.  It was great and so much fun.  I tell ya, Disney has thought of everything to make your vacation so enjoyable.  Here is a rundown.  We arrived on Sunday afternoon.  We stayed at The Wilderness Lodge.  Now, let me just say that this place is huge.  It is like being in a Colorado mountain resort.  It is beautiful.  The staff is so friendly and the accommodations are wonderful.  We got settled into our rooms and wandered around the hotel.  When we purchased our vacation we also did the Disney dinning plan.  I highly recommend it.  We ate dinner and went out to the beach (the hotel is nestled around a lagoon)  to see the lighted boat parade that they do every evening.  It was fun. 

On Monday we were up bright and early and went to Magic Kingdom.  The shuttle boat over was accessible and it was fun seeing the girls on a boat.  We spent 12 hours at Magic Kingdom on Monday.  We rode rides, many of them Natalie could stay in her wheelchair.  Like I said, Disney has thought of everything.  They treat kids with special needs like royalty.  We ate great food and stayed for the evening parade.  You should have seen Phoebe by the time we left.  She was sound asleep in the stroller.  Natalie was all smiles.

On Tues.  we headed over to Epcot.  It was so hot.  We finally realized that Epcot wasn’t for our family.  They didn’t have much for the girls.  We did find out that you can meet Mary Poppins, so we did that.  She is Phoebe’s favorite.  Phoebe knows all the songs in the movie.  We also met Beauty and the Beast.  We headed home from Epcot around 2pm.  We rode the shuttle bus and all of there buses are accessible with ramps.  Ah..air condition….Awesome! 

Wedn. we took our time getting up and headed back to Magic Kingdom.  We wanted to see the afternoon parade.  We didn’t know that they have an opening parade.  While we were walking up to the castle the parade was going by and one of the cast members grabbed Phoebe and took her into the parade line.  Well, I grabbed my camera and off we went.  It was so cool.  We were behind Minny Mouse the whole time.  We rode more rides and were back to the hotel at a decent time…I had some laundry to do.

On Thurs we hung out at the resort.  The resorts have so much to do you could spend days just at the resort and have a blast.  We went to the pool.  The pool is like a Rocky Mountain spring.   The rain moved in around 4pm and so we headed over to the Polynesian for dinner.  That is a cool hotel.  Very Hawaii themed.  Lush gardens, waterfalls and lots of hula girl stuff. 

Friday the heat index was going to be 105.  Okay, what do you do when the heat index is that high.  You stay in air-condition.  So we headed over to Hollywood Studios to see some indoor shows.  We saw Ariel’s story.  We rode the Toy Story ride which is so cool.  Met Woody and Buzz.  Saw Indiana Jones stunt spectacular.  We left that park early too.  It was extremely hot.  That night to end our vacation we ate at the Fort Wilderness Campground.  This campground is next to Fort Wilderness Lodge.  It is massive, 600 acres.  They have buses that take people where they have to go because it is so big.  We saw lots of golf carts too.  The restaurant we ate at was sorta like a chuck wagon buffet.  It was yummy.  We found out that the campground hosts a bonfire and a Disney movie every night.  So we boarded the bus and went to the bonfire.  It was fun, we roasted marshmallows and watched half of  Wall-e.  Such a nice, relaxing way to end our trip. 

We had a wonderful time.  All in all things were smooth.  Natalie’s hip was bothering her so I often had to take her out of her wheelchair and hold her.  Bless her heart.  It is hard to see her in pain.  Hopefully her rehab doctor will be taking care of that in early August. 

So now we are home and into the swing of lazy summer days.  Here are some photo’s of our Disney trip.  We feel so blessed that we could go and have such a nice time as a family.  This is definitely the place to go if you have children with special needs.  One of the neat things they do for your family is to give you a card that allows you to go up the exit and right onto the rides.  We never had to wait.  Even to meet and greet characters.  It was very accommodating and nice. 

Cross's at Disney

meeting Tinkerbell!!

met the famous couple

check out the accessibility for the rides. This is the Jungle Boat ride.

future pirate..

urgh...give me your gold

a wish come true!

check out the Beast's paw..

Phoebe in the parade..see Minny in front of her...

I love this...all the princess's called Natalie's wheelchair her carriage. So sweet..

meeting Ariel..

The beautiful pool

the family with Woody and Buzz

Toy story ride..once again check out the accessibility. Natalie loved it.

the amazing Wilderness Lodge Resort

Well summer is here!!  I am ready to relax and enjoy the outdoors.  I do have some questions that maybe some of you can help with.  We have an adorable daughter Natalie, who has a brain injury.  She is in a wheelchair and cannot talk, eat by herself, sit, crawl, basically she is full care.  Summer brings it’s own bag of difficulties to us.  When it’s hotter than 86-88 degrees she has a hard time being outside.  So we are trying to think of fun things to do this summer.  We do take her outside to sit on our deck, go for walks, get in the pool, until it get’s too warm.  We go to the Zoo, the Museum and sometimes to the movies.  Do any of you have any other ideas.  We usually take some wash clothes and get them wet, place them in a zip-lock bag with some ice and when she’s  hot we get the cloths out and wiper her face and neck.  It does seem to help.  We are looking into getting a canopy cover for her wheelchair so she doesn’t get cooked.  It’s  just  hard because our other daughter who will be 5 soon wants some attention and loves being outside.  We feel pulled and guilty.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated. 

Has anyone gone anywhere that would be accessible and fun for a family.  Obviously things like water sports, camping and skiing are out.  Just throw us some ideas.  Thanks so much. 

Okay now onto a different note.  So, how are you gonna either lose weight this summer or maintain?  I know for me I have set a goal to work out 3 times a week.  Hopefully this will maintain and help me stay in the routine.  Now that summer is here we are doing more grilling and eating more salads.  All the fresh markets have wonderful selections of veggies and fruits.  My husband just built me a herb/lettuce box.  It is really cool.  I placed some lettuce and herbs I had in it.  We spent all day yesterday putting in our garden.  I love gardening.  It is relaxing. 

herb/lettuce box

Cross Farm

Have a wonderful Memorial Day.  Say Thank You to someone who served or is serving our country.  They have paid and continue to pay a huge price for our freedom!!  We are blessed by them and their families for their commitment to our country!  God Bless!