Elena's Make A Wish Trip, part 7: Fun Morning, The Best Belle Ever, and Universal Studios

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Little update on Elena before I start the post: Today was a waiting and watching day. Elena started out the day doing a lot better - she was talking and playing in bed. No more fevers and halfway through the day, she even got taken off of oxygen. But, just when we thought she was totally on the upswing, she started having fevers again, had a reaction to one of her antibiotics, and had to go back on oxygen. Her counts also came back low (which the doctor expected). SO... we'll see what the doctors say in the morning, but from what they told us today, she'll get a blood transfusion and probably be headed for a CT scan tomorrow to check out her sinus area for a bacterial or fungal infection :( (that's really bad anyway, but she also can't start this new phase of treatment until they are sure there are no problems there). And other than that, we'll just see where they think we should go from here.

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On Thursday, Danny and Kristi and Jack joined us to go to Universal Studios. But first, we met up in the village because various Disney characters (they visit weekly, but who comes varies every week) and Minnie and Mickey were coming to spend time with all the kids. We'd been told that this was the time/place to meet Minnie and Mickey because you'd get lots more one on one time with them since there weren't so many kids.

Belle, Goofy, and Pluto came to visit and Elena had a ball once again. Like I said before, the character meetings seriously made the trip for her. She pretty much had these guys all to herself for about twenty minutes. She would have had them for longer, but we had to steal away to visit Minnie and Mickey before they had to head back to Disneyworld.

This lady who played Belle was absolutely FABULOUS. FAB-U-LOUS! This was the second Belle we had met in Florida and although the first one was great, there was a huge difference. She fell in love with Elena right away and was SO great with her. She seemed really touched by Elena's fuzzy little head (and all that represents) and her spunky personality. Several times she would watch Elena for a minute and sigh and say, "Precious girl" and gently kiss her head. Or after playing with Elena and Lily, she'd say, "What happy babies!" I want to remember those tender moments - I really appreciated how sweet she was with Elena. Elena was IN HEAVEN to be spending so much one on one time with Belle. Like I said, she basically had her to herself and they just walked and talked and hugged and danced. It was like a dream come true for her. If there was any indecision before, Belle became- hands down- Elena's favorite princess after this trip. :)

I think it's really neat that Disneyworld sends the characters over to the village every week. It's got to be a really rewarding part of their job - knowing that they are bringing joy to kids who have dealt with so much suffering in their short lives. We really appreciate all they did for Elena!

Such a sweet lady AND gorgeous to boot. Like Kristi said, who has skin like that? For reals! :)

While we were all standing around talking, she asked us if we were going to be coming to Disneyworld again. We told her yes, the next day, because Elena was going to have breakfast in Cinderella's castle, but that it would be a short day because we had to catch our plane home. She asked if we could meet her at 12:30 at the Hall of Fame and she'd have a little surprise waiting for Elena.

I think this is my favorite picture from our trip - I just love all that it represents.

Lily got a kiss from Belle, too. :)

Then we headed in to meet Minnie and Mickey. Elena was super excited to have them sign her Mickey doll she'd been given (and fallen in love with) when we first got to the village. :)

Giving "Eskimo kisses" :)

Dancing with Minnie

After a great start to the morning, we headed off to Universal Studios. Our first stop was Dr. Suess Land (kind of the little kid area of the park).

Our first stop was, you guessed it - a carousel. :)

Then we went on the Cat in the Hat ride (which we all decided was slightly creepy) and the ride stopped working halfway through. We were stuck in this part with flashing lights and crazy carnival type music and laughing. It felt like we were on drugs. :) Elena was not too sure about that ride. But after that we made up for it by going on a cool sky alphabet train ride. In Universal Studios, our magic pass was Elena's "golden ticket", as they called it (her lanyard). That combined with the button got her an escort to the front of every ride, in the best seats, and able to jump right back on again when it was over, if she wanted. The service was unbelievable!

Elena and Uncle Danny

We meandered around and made our way to Harry Potter land. This was more for curiosity's sake as I have never read/watched Harry Potter and don't really have any interest and none of the rest of our group were diehard Harry Potter fans. Still, even as a non-Harry Potter fan, I was impressed. It was pretty decked out and seemed pretty authentic (from the little I know about anything... haha.) We did, however, see plenty of crazy Harry Potter fans decked out in black robes, carrying wands, and drinking butter beer, who- I'm sure- made up for us. :) The rest of Universal Studios wasn't crowded at all, but Harry Potter land was packed!

The conductor played with Elena in front of the train.

Examining his pocket watch.

Hogwarts- it was pretty impressive inside and out.

We tasted some butter beer ourselves and then went on the Harry Potter ride inside Hogwarts. It was crazy! Danny and Eric braved the Dragon Challenge twice in a row- thanks to the Golden ticket. Then we took turns riding with Elena on the "How to train a Hippogriff" ride (a roller coaster), which she again, loved! I still can't get over that girl's love of roller coasters! :)

Here's my Harry Potter pose with Hogwarts in the background. I think I'm supposed to be holding a wand.

We spent the rest of the day exploring various parts of the park - Jurassic Park, Spiderman, and the crazy boys went on the Hulk roller coaster, which sounded truly insane. :)

We headed for home as soon as the park closed - if you remember Eric had been sick all week, but by this point, he was pretty much a zombie. Poor guy. We put him and Lily to bed and Elena and I walked into the main part of the village to pick up some dinner and walk around and soak in a bit more since we were leaving in the morning. I really started to get sad at the thought of leaving - it had been such an incredible week! Indescribably magical and happy and healing and wonderful.

It is a very strange feeling- very surreal- when you are in the middle of an incredible experience that you know is a once in a lifetime thing that you will never get to do again (the village is only for wish kids, special passes in the parks, etc.). How do you fully soak it all in and really experience it, you know?

It was fun to walk around the village that quiet evening with Elena, though. She was so happy. Carefree and quick to smile and joyous in a way that she hadn't been for a long time. She jabbered away and hugged the cookie statue (remember that from the post about the village?) and danced and laughed with me. A fitting ending, if any ending of such an incredible experience can be good. :)