Tucker's Make a Wish Trip! Orlando, Florida, October 2019

I had the extraordinary privilege of going to Florida for part of Tucker's Make a Wish trip!  They needed someone to be there to help with Austin who's just barely 3 and I got the job!!  It was so much fun and such a thrill to see Orlando from the eyes of those darling little kids.  It was exhausting and we crashed into bed every night, but it was so fun.

We stayed at the Give Kids the World resort and it was such a great place.  They had so many volunteers who took such good care of all the families who were there.  This is the villa where we stayed. It was a beautiful resort.

The Spanish Moss is pretty cool!  The weather was so hot and muggy except the day it was pouring rain for several hours.  Didn't hold us back a bit!  What a group of troopers!

The first day I was there, Tuesday, I stayed back at GKTW with Austin so the big kids could go on more rides at Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood.  Austy and I were able to do a lot of stuff and really explored the resort.  We went on the rides and he loved the remote control boats.  He got to meet this cute bunny too.  He loved riding the golf carts all over.  He was a little sad to be left behind, but I think we did pretty well!

Day two (Wednesday) meant a trip to the Magic Kingdom!  It was a perfect day.  The heat and humidity were actually pretty bearable this one day and we all loved it!  Tucker had a Genie pass which meant straight to the front of the line!  It was amazing and we don't think we can ever go back to standing in 90 minute lines waiting for the rides!!  First thing we did was to meet Mickey Mouse.  He actually came out and got Tucker and led us all back to a meet and greet session.  Tucker was treated so well all week and so were the rest of us as his family!!  Jaimee got us these awesome Disney Halloween t-shirts before we came.

We got to be in a special handicap section for the parade so we were upclose and personal!  It was fun being there during Halloween season.  Fun decorations all over Disney!

Riding the Disney World carousel was a hit with Austin!

We got to go on so many rides; haunted mansion, pirates, thunder mountain, splash mountain, space mountain, small world, buzz lightyear, the car ride, and so many more!

This sundae was amazing!

Best part of the day was this amazing fireworks and light show!  Absolutely incredible.  Have to see it to believe it and I still can't figure out how they did all the different transformations on the castle!!  Amazing!

I thought the lighted Jack-o-lanterns in the windows of the Main Street stores was a brilliant touch!
Wednesday night, I stayed with the kids while Tyler and Jaimee went to a Halloween event at Universal Studios.  They went on a couple of scary rides and something like 10 haunted houses within the park.  They had a blast.  The kids and I watched a movie, Austin literally lasted about two minutes and then was sound asleep.

 

Day three (Thursday), was Legoland!  There weren't many people there plus we had the fast pass, so we pretty much got on everything there was to go on.  Tucker and Sophie brought some little Lego people with them and were able to trade several times with workers there.  That was a lot of fun for them and they ended up with some pretty cool trades.  Lego's are Tuckers favorite toy so this was a very special day for him!

Tyler won this huge dog by shooting hoops!

World famous Apple-Fries!  They did not disappoint!

Legoland was pretty fun but doesn't compare really to Disney or Universal Studios.  It was more of a low key day which was needed and Tucker was super happy, so it was a great day!

Day 4 (Friday), was my last day with them.  They took Sophie and Tucker to Universal Studios for half of the day and then Austin and I met them there after lunch (we took an Uber).  It all worked out fine in the end, but Austin was not happy to be left behind again.  He screamed for a really long time and nothing I could think of distracted him.  Finally, he gave up and was fine, but he was so happy to be back with his family when we met up with them.  Needless to say, he did not want to stay with me for the child swap on the rides where he was too small.  Tyler and Jaimee had to take turns staying with him mostly. 

This was the day where it rained a lot.  It was actually good though because the rain made it so much cooler.  It was so much more comfortable being wet than being dry and sweating to death.  We loved Universal Studios.  It's enormous and we really didn't get to experience half of it, but luckily they got to go back another day after I left.  The truly amazing part was the Harry Potter World!  The Hagrid motorcycle ride was so crazy fun.  I got to ride it a couple of times in a row due to the child swap thing and it was so fast and twisty and incredible.  Tucker's pass at Universal was even better than the Genie pass at Disney.  The workers escorted us to the front of the fast pass line where as at Disney we were able to get in the fast pass line at every ride but not the front of the line.  Both ways were such a treat and we got to ride on a lot of rides!

Hogwarts

One of the best parts of the week was when Tucker got to meet Captain America, one of his very favorite super heroes!  He was so nice to the kids and they loved him!  Tucker is my favorite super hero for sure!!

At the end of the day, we got delicious Voodoo donuts on the way out of the park!  Yum!

Saturday morning at 5:15, I left to go to the airport to return home.  They stayed a few more days as a family.  I was grateful I got to be a part of such a wonderful, amazing trip.  I'm so grateful for all the people who donate their time and talents to give kids with cancer and other disabilities and their families trips like these.  We will never forget this amazing week!