From HeatherSue at Disboards

Leaving the Disney-Hater at Home: A Dorky Disboutiquing Diser Sista Trip Report

Where do I begin? Oh yes, my husband, the Disney-hater.

This is my husband, Henry. He hates Disney, really hates it! Up until now I've been able to convince him to go to Disney every 3-4 years. 

But, I couldn't stand the thought of waiting that long after our trip in May 2008. So, when I couldn't convince him to use our skymiles for a Disney trip in 2009, I decided to ask my mom to come along.

She agreed!! For some reason it took some convincing, even though I offered to pay for the room and her flight.

Hmmm....could it have something to do with the fact that she'd have to help me out with these two??



They sure look sweet, don't they? But, you never know what you're going to get when they're tired or feeling silly! 



I suppose I should make some more formal introductions:

Me:

Heather- 34 years old, stay at home mom. I worked as a nanny and at my mom's home day care before I had kids. I LOVE Disney!! But, as I am married to the Disney-hater, I don't get to go as often as I'd like. I also love to sew, read (but haven't read anything in a while), and watch tv (thought I'd be honest here). I knew that Sawyer was at a magical age to take to Disney right now and I didn't want to miss out on that window of time! I was so right! This was a very special trip and I loved spending time with my mom and kids.


Mom:

Barbara, 65 years old. Mother of 3, grandmother of 7, retired from home day care and is now the overworked caretaker of my 90 year old grandma. Mom and Dad live right next door to me. Mom is a child at heart and instilled her love of Disney on all of us. She loves spending time with her grandchildren. She is the best Mom and Grandma in the world. Seriously! I think she was worried about going on this trip because Tessa was quite a handful when we took our last trip together without husbands (in 2/06). But, I think she was pleasantly surprised by the kid's behavior on this trip!


Tessa:

5 5/6 years old and in kindergarten. All of these years of brainwashing have finally paid off as Tessa has finally requested a Disney themed party for her 6th birthday! She loves Ariel, Dumbo the ride, and says she loves Hannah Montana (although she never watches it). She found the joy of pin trading on this trip, and continued her love of collecting autographs. When I asked her, she said the most important thing about her is that she loves her Mommy. She also said that she is a dog lover and a cat lover. She likes to go outside with her daddy and play with her brother.

Sawyer:

2 1/2 years old and my little snuggle bunny. He is definitely a boy and every toy he has, he will turn it into a gun. He barely talks, but he tells several knock-knock jokes that either center around Papa John (my dad) or Poop. Sawyer changed a lot from our trip in May when he was not quite 2 years old. He was so much easier!! He loved absolutely everything and I can't recall a single meltdown (or very few as compared to our last trip)! He really is a happy go lucky little guy and he loves his family. He also loves our dogs, but the feeling is not quite mutual. When asked what his favorite thing about our trip was, he'll say "Pan!" Sometimes that's followed by the word "Poopy" if he's hoping for laugh.

There is another character in this trip report,
The Disboutiquers: This is a very large group of women and one man who like to sew Disney clothing for their kids and others. We have our very own thread here on the disboards. Actually, we're on thread #11 as I type this. We talk about sewing, life, and just support each other in general. I've been a part of this group since June of '07 and I have made some wonderful friendships. These women and man have really enriched my life and I'm thankful to have them. I've never seen another group on the internet who was friendlier. When I mentioned that I was taking a trip in February, a bunch of them decided to take a trip in February, too!! We all decided to meet up on Feb. 8 at Epcot!!!

Plus, there was my fellow dorky disboutiquing diser sista, Teresa. Even though she wasn't able to go with us, she was there in our hearts.

Getting There

Let's start this baby off on the night before we were going to leave for Disney. The kids put their final stickers on our countdown calendar and could hardly believe that there were ZERO days left!



I guess you can't really see my super-cool magnet collection in this picture. But, rest assured that they are just that- SUPER-cool.

I put the kids to bed in their clothes because we had an early flight and would have to leave the house by 5:00am. I surprised myself by actually falling to sleep within a reasonable amount of time and I woke up to the sound of music at 4:00am. My wonderful, Disney-hating, husband wanted to drive us to the airport so he could say goodbye, so he got up shortly after me. I already had most everything packed and out in the car so I could just hop in the shower, pack up my everyday stuff, get the kids, and go.

I couldn't believe how chipper the kids were when I woke them up. They were SO excited! Getting their shoes on:





Henry was sobbing as he was going to miss us SOOO much!



Okay, maybe he wasn't sobbing. But, he was a little teary eyed, right? No? Well, I still think he was sad deep down inside.

While we're here, did you notice my super-cool Disney cookie jar collection up on top of my kitchen cabinets?

We were all ready right on time. We gave our fairly obnoxious schnauzers a pat on the head and were on our way.

We swung by to pick up my mom, right next door. She's so cute that she was waiting outside for us. In the COLD! This was one of the most miserable winters in my memory. It has been SO cold and we've had SO much snow! I was ready to get out of here!

As we were driving off, I could see my dad at the front door, waving. I felt so sad for him. We weren't leaving him all alone. We were leaving him with my GRANDMA!!! Poor dad!

Our local airport is only about 15 minutes from the house, so it was a pretty short drive. It's also a tiny little airport, so it only took a few minutes to check our bags and such. When it was time to say goodbye to Henry, I got a little teary-eyed. I probably would have cried if I wasn't afraid that the kids would get upset. I'm SURE I saw a tear in his eye as well.

Well, I KNOW I saw tears in Tessa's eyes- lots of them. The poor thing was sobbing over leaving her daddy. It was pitiful. People in line at security were looking at me suspiciously. I finally got her to calm down when I told her that the security people might not let us get on the airplane if they think I had kidnapped her.

So, we set about the business of taking off our shoes, folding up the stroller, sending the carseat through, taking the laptop out of the bag, putting all 6 carry ons on the conveyor, and then stepping through the metal detector, one at a time. I was the first to go through and I set the darn thing off. Ugh! I took off my watch and I passed through the 2nd time. I then coaxed the kids to come on through, one at a time. They passed through without arousing suspicions from the TSA.

As we came out the other side, my bag was being searched due to questionable cargo. The inspector assured himself that the string cheese was less than 3oz and didn't look combustible and allowed me to pass through with no further incident.

We then set about the business of unfolding the stroller, putting the carseat on top of it, putting the laptop back in the bag, pulling off all 6 carry-ons, and then putting our shoes back on. All while trying not to hold up the line behind us. I must say, I'm pretty darn good at that! Not only am I a packing savant, but I'm also an airport security efficiency savant! I had the kids ready and everything off the conveyor before my mom could get her shoes on. Yes, I'm THAT good!

Once we got to the gait area (which is about 10 steps from security in this tiny airport), we needed to use the potty. Sawyer insisted on following Tessa and I into the bathroom and then proceeded to scream the whole time he was in there because he didn't actually want to go in the stall with me (and I wasn't going to let him run around the bathroom).

When we got out, it was time to board already! Sawyer was still having residual bathroom tears and really didn't want to go out to the airplane. Once I saw that we had to walk a LONG way OUTSIDE in the COLD, I didn't want to either! I took a picture of this part of our journey, but I can't find it anywhere! But, rest assured, it was a really long walk to our little airplane, in the COLD.

Once there, we had to go up a very steep set of narrow stairs. Sawyer was scared by the noise of the airplane and the weird situation with the stairs. So, I had a crying Sawyer and his car seat, plus our backpacks to try and get up there. Let's just say it was a daunting task. He was NOT going to do it! So, I had to take his carseat up first and then come back down to get him.

When I got up to the top, something AMAZING happened! The flight attendant had grabbed my car seat and was walking down the aisle with it. She was HELPING me!!! With a CAR SEAT!!! I have never, in all of my experience on airplanes, had a flight attendant help me carry anything, especially a car seat. They usually look at me with disdain and exasperation when they see I've brought a car seat. Silly me, wanting my child to be as safe as the other passengers on the plane.

Once I got over the shock, I followed her and thanked her profusely for helping me with the seat. She smiled graciously and said that it looked like I had my hands full. Wow, what a great start to our vacation!

Sawyer calmed down quickly and was really very good on the flight. He kept kicking the seat in front of us, but he couldn't really help it. There just wasn't enough room between his seat and the seat in front of him. Tessa sat with mom on the other side of the aisle and was equally good.

This was only a 20 minute flight and we arrived in Detroit very quickly.

To get to the correct concourse at DTW, you have to go down this really long underground tunnel. The tunnel has moving walkways and these really psychadelic lights all along the walls and some really creepy music. Look, I found some pictures online:





Since I thought it was kind of creepy, I did what every other mother would do and I started singing "There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. There's no knowing where we're rowing, or which way the river's flowing" If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a clip from Willy Wonka:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zail...eature=related

Yes, that's one seriously creepy tunnel. However, my children and mother totally missed my Willy Wonka reference. Which I guess is a good thing.

When we finally got to our gate, I took a look at our seat assignments....and....I.....totally....FREAKED!!!! NONE of us were sitting together!! They had Sawyer sitting in between some people, Tessa sitting in another row, and Mom and I in different rows entirely. I've never seen such a thing!

I'd tried to choose our seat assignments online ahead of time and wasn't able to do it. So, I called customer service and they said that seats are assigned at check-in. I expressed concern that I would be seperated from my children and he said that they ALWAYS make sure that parents and children are seated together.

Well, I guess he was wrong. I calmed myself down and waited for the Northwest person to show up at the desk at the gate, so I could switch our seat assignments. When she got there, I went up and explained the situation. She said "I have a wish list a mile long and I'm not going to be changing your seat assignment." I explained again that I had a 5 year old and a 2 year old. She said "You'll just have to try and get someone to switch with you once you board." WHAT?? She flat-out refused to help me.

Many people have since told me that it's illegal to split up parents from their young children on an airplane. But, I don't know if that's true.

So, not only did I have the stress of flying with 2 young children, but I had the stress of trying to figure out how I'm going to board with the 2 kids, my mom, 6 carry-ons and a car seat, without knowing which seats we're going to sit in!

I decided I was going to try and fix this BEFORE I got on the plane. So, I went to every person in the waiting area asking them if they were in row 8. I was trying to find 2 people that would switch seats so I could at least sit by my kids. I assumed these people wouldn't be together since Sawyer was seated in a middle seat, with 1 person on either side.

I finally found a man who was supposed to sit in the seat next to Sawyer. Apparently, he was split up from his wife and she was sitting several rows ahead of him. He was very sympathetic and agreed to switch with me. I tried to find another person to switch with me, but couldn't find the elusive passenger in 8C.

Once on board, I carried Sawyer's car seat and guided Sawyer and Tessa to row 8 where I came upon a nice looking woman. I told her that I had been seperated from my children and asked her if she would be willing to swap seats. She begrudgingly agreed, but almost changed her mind once she found out the seat I was switching her with was in the middle of 2 strangers. But, she did go ahead and switch with me. I thanked her and then thanked her again.

I am still mad that I had to do this!!!! I got my tickets 6 months ahead of time. Why was I not given seats with the rest of my family??? Why should I have to beg passengers to trade seats with me?

Once we were seated (mom was in front of Sawyer, so he could kick her seat), we noticed this kind of mayhem going on all around us. Parents and children were split up all over the airplane. No two traveling companions seemed to be seated together. I have never seen so many people switching seats and moving bags and such. There were SO many nice people on that airplane that were willing to inconvenience themselves for other people.

You think that's enough drama for one boarding? Well, NO! I have more!!

When everyone was FINALLY settled and all buckled up, 2 guys in workman-type uniforms and tools boarded the airplane and walked to the back. We sat and waited for about 20 minutes with no explanation. Then, the guys got off the airplane and the pilot announced that they had been fixing a door. I later found out that it was the bathroom door, which they didn't fix. They just locked it so we only had 1 bathroom for 200+ people and lots of children on a 3 hour flight.

So, it was time to start taxi-ing. Yay!! We sat for another 10 minutes or so and then pulled away from the gate. Then, we pulled back into the gate. The pilot announced that there seemed to be a fuel leak and they wanted to check it out. YIKES!!! So, we sat and sat and sat and sat. Then, the pilot announces that they want to run the engines for 5 minutes to make sure that they weren't leaking TOO much fuel. TOO much fuel?? Isn't any amount of fuel leakage TOO much???

They turned on the engines and my mom, who was sitting at the window, reported huge amounts of fuel gushing out of the engine. GREAT!

But, the pilot came back on shortly thereafter and announced that the fuel leak was fixed and that we would be departing momentarily.

So, 1 1/2 hours after we boarded the airplane, we were finally ready to take off! Yay!

Or so we thought. We taxied for a while and then the pilot announces that we need to de-ice. He said it would only take a minute.

Twenty minutes later, we are still de-icing...

Let me explain, I do not mind at all that they took all of these safety precautions. I am grateful for them. But, I hate not knowing how long I will be sitting idle. I just want to know approximately how long this will take. I didn't expect to sit in the airplane for 2 hours before we left the ground, so I was really antsy. If I had known, it wouldn't have been so bad. Or, if he had explained the whole door thing ahead of time, or not said that it would just take a minute to de-ice when it took closer to 1/2 hour.

FINALLY, we are actually ready to take off. We are third in line for take-off to be exact. This time, we actually take off!

The good news is that the kids were being really good this whole time. I was so proud of them! Actually, most of the kids on the airplane were being really good.

After we were in the air, I broke out the laptop and stuck in a movie. Then, I plugged in the ONE headphone??? I had never stopped to consider that there was only one headphone jack in the laptop. So, they couldn't both hear it at once. There is a new rule that you can't have any electronic device on unless you're using headphones, so as not to bother the passengers around you. We also had a small DVD player that I planned on using after the battery died on the laptop (it only lasted an hour). Sawyer didn't seem to mind that he couldn't hear Finding Nemo, though. He was content to watch it.

After a while, Tessa started playing her Leapster and Sawyer watched the movie- WITH SOUND!





They were happy as could be. The chicken flavored crackers in the photos were NOT a big hit.



Look, I was there, too!! Yes, I'm sharing a terrible picture of myself, wearing glasses.



Sadly, my mom doesn't take very many pictures, so most pictures of me on this trip are going to be self-portraits.

The flight was about 2 1/2 hours long (they shaved some time off since we were so late). The kids were great! We got off the airplane with no issues and headed on out to find the Magical Express!!!

We were all SOOO excited to be there! The kids stopped at this wall that looked like it had fish swimming on it. When they touched it, it looked like water rippling. So, we let them play for a few minutes.





Then, we headed to the monorail-type thing that takes you to the baggage and transportation area.



Mom was much more excited than she let on in this picture.

Sawyer and Tessa were so proud to be able to help us with the rolling bags. They pulled them all over the airport for us!









We walked for quite a while and then we found the MAGICAL EXPRESS desk!!! Yay!! Mom and the kids went to the waiting area while I took the stroller, piled high with the carseat and bags to check in at the desk. When, I got there, a very unfriendly woman with a very large white hand told me that I couldn't bring the stroller in and that I needed to hand it off to someone else in my party. I told her that my mom had both of the kids and that I didn't want her to have to keep track of our stuff, too. But, the snotty woman with the big white hand insisted that there wasn't room for me to push my stroller up to the desk. So, I took it over to mom.



They were sort of snotty at the check-in desk, too. I asked a question about something and they shoved a paper at me and said "Here. This will answer any questions you might have. Just follow the red carpet to the Magical Express."

I was not going to let these people ruin my day, so I just smiled and said "Thank you." Then, I waved mom and the kids over to the red carpet!

There was a very nice man there with a big white hand who called us all by name and said "Welcome!" He directed us to the front of the queue where we waited for a bus assignment.

A very rude woman with a big white hand told us to go to a bus outside.

Once at the bus, a very nice woman with a big white hand told us that we needed to go down to a different bus.

Once at that bus stop, a very rude man without a big white hand got on his walkie talkie and argued with someone about taking "all these people". He rudely told us to show him our boarding passes and then said we were all set. We had the stroller and another bigger carry-on, so we didnt' know what to do with them.

We saw where the luggage compartment was open, so mom started loading her stuff into it. The mean man without the big hand came over and yelled at her and said "You don't even know where you're going!" I stepped in and told him he didn't need to be rude and that no one told us where to put our bags. He said "You're not supposed to put them in the bus. We have to do that." So, I said "That's why you need to tell people these things."

In the meantime, there was a frantic woman standing by the bus. She said to us "Good luck getting a room! I booked this vacation 6 months in advance and when I got to the hotel, there was no room for us!"

Oh great! Now I'm panicking about THAT!

We got on the bus and waited for quite a while for it to go. It was already packed full when we got on. So, the kids and I shared 2 seats.



The bus driver (the mean man without the big hand) didn't talk with us at all and didn't even play Disney music on the way to Pop Century. But, we were excited and we weren't going to let these jerky people ruin our vacation.

Hold onto your seats, people. I am about to drop a bomb.....







THESE WERE THE LAST JERKY CMs WE ENCOUNTERED ON OUR TRIP!!!!



You're shocked, I KNOW! After our last trip, I was resigned to the fact that we would have to put up with the grumpy CMs for this trip, too. But, that didn't happen! I might think of a couple more as we go, but the vast majority of CMs were in a chipper mood on this trip!

Where were we, oh yes. We were crammed into a bus with a BUNCH of other people and we see THIS!!



Okay, you can't see much in this picture. But, it was the welcome to Disney World sign!

Eventually, we pulled up to Pop Century. Tessa was literally bouncing in her seat. So, Sawyer had to bounce in his seat. So, they almost bounced me out of my seat. But, that was okay because I was bouncing in my seat, too!! Mom wasn't bouncing (since she was sitting by a stranger), but she wanted to, I just know it!

I dropped mom and the kids off at the wonderful video viewing area and I went to check in.

I had the sweetest CM named Gwen from China. She was "earning her ears", but she did a great job. When she gave me my room assignment, it was in the 70's building, on the 4th floor (we'd requested first floor because of my mom's knees). The last I knew, preferred rooms were only in the 60's building. So, I told her I'd paid for a preferred room. She said that the 70's building is a preferred building now and so are several of the others. Oookay...that's stupid. I didn't tell her that because she was being very nice about it.

I asked if we could have a room in the 60's building. Tourguide Mike doesn't have a clue what he's talking about when he says the CMs at check-in have nothing to do with room assignment. This woman was new and she was able to get us a room in the 60's building, first floor, close to the main building. It wasn't poolside, but I actually preferred that because I was paranoid about Sawyer sneaking out of the room and falling in the pool.

She gave me my keys, a map, and my $200 gift card- YEE-HAW!!! I picked up the kids and mom and we were off to find our room!



Would you just look at those awesome sparkly floors!?



We found our room, 4116, on the back side of the Playdough 60's building. We were the 4th room down. Very nice! We assumed this was going to be a quiet room since it wasn't even poolside (and our poolside room had been remarkably quiet on our first trip in 2/2006).

First things first- potty break. Take a look at this soap!!



The rooms at Pop are pretty unremarkable, so we didn't spend too much time in here before we decided to get something to eat in the food court.

It was kind of chilly, but we noticed people swimming in the pool.



Wait, did you catch that?



That lifeguard looks like she's ready to go on a ski trip!

I just love this picture!



Sawyer and Tessa were so excited, they were skipping their way up the steps.

We ordered a pizza because it would make a fairly cheap meal for a family of 4. Plus, we were doing a fridge swap (Marcia's Poppin' Fridge Swap), so we could keep our leftovers. Unfortunately, Tessa HATED the pizza. Sawyer didn't like it much either. My kids aren't usually picky when it comes to pizza, but I guess the sauce was too tomatoey. I liked it and so did mom.

I had brought my old Pop Century mug from the last time we were here, but I decided I'd buy a new one for Tessa and Sawyer. Mom surprised me and bought me my very own new mug, so we each had the new ones. I was a little disappointed that they were still the Year of a Million Dreams themed. But, they were cute.





Little did I know that these mugs were going to see a LOT of hot chocolate on this trip...

After we were full, I waddled over to luggage services to pick up the fridge. After quite a long wait, I was told that they didn't have the refrigerator. I told her that it had to be there and that it should be in a cardboard box with a lime green paper taped to it, with my name on all 4 sides. She went back and looked again and came back out saying "Sorry, it's not there!" She could see that I was worried, so she said I could come back and look for it myself. I was shocked that she let me do that!

I went back there and sure enough, there were no fridges with my name on them, nor were there any fridges in a box with lime green paper taped to it. There was a guy back there that was being really helpful and he pulled one down that wasn't in a box and then started putting it back up saying "This one just says Mar-see-uh" I said "Wait! That's the one!" Sure enough, it had "Marcia's Poppin' Fridge Swap" written on it, along with Marcia's phone number. YAY! I was so appreciative that they were so helpful and that they let me take it, even though it didn't have my name on it!

I hauled the refrigerator back to our room (it was bigger than expected) and then opened it up. PEEEEE-UUUUUUU!!!!!! Whoever had this fridge last did NOT clean it out at all!! It smelled like rotten food and beer. Plus, it had what appeared to be beer spilled in it. It was also missing the box (obviously) and the disinfecting wipes and tape that were supposed to be inside of it. Someone did not follow the rules of Marcia's Poppin' Fridge Swap!

Mom and I managed to get most of the stink out and cleaned it up pretty well with soap and a washcloth. Then, we stuck our pizza, string cheese, and yogurt in it (we'd packed a bunch of string cheese and yogurt in our checked backage in a little soft sided cooler).

With the fridge drama over, we decided to get the kids dressed in their Disney outfits and head on over to THE MAGIC KINGDOM- my most favoritest of all the parks!!



This picture was taken at home, but you get the idea of what they were wearing anyway.

Sawyer has a Homecoming!

Here's a map of our room location. The little green arrow is where we were last time we stayed here and the red line is the path we took to the buses.




We headed on over to the buses and only had to wait a minute or 2 for the next bus to the MK! I love the buses at Pop Century! Here's a borrowed picture of the bus stop.



I also discovered that there are 2 different types of buses at Disney. One of them has a wide aisle that is easy to get the stroller down



and the other kind has a very narrow aisle that's really hard to get the stroller down.



Unfortunately, on this, our first attempt to get on a Disney bus, it was the narrow aisle kind. I'm pretty sure I scraped up a few knees on my way to our seats. I felt really bad! I wish they'd open up the doors in the middle of the bus and not just the front ones! We made our way to the back of the bus and sat down in anticipation of our first sight of the castle!!!



My mom has a knack for smiling really cute and then making a weird face as soon as I take the picture.



The ride to MK seemed really short since it was our first day. It was so cool for me to go to a park on our first day. I don't think I've ever done that before! But, we had 7 day park hoppers, so we had to go every day to use them all!

What has Tessa spotted??



I think it's the castle!! She's always the first to spot it. She always wins.

Another thing I love about Disney buses is that they take you right to the MK! No TTC, no transferring to a monorail. They just drop you right off near the entrance.

We went throught the ever-so-thorough security (does anyone else feel like this is a total waste of time and man power?) and swiped our tickets. No rude CMs telling me I was swiping my tickets wrong this time!

Then, we were walking right down the middle of Main Street USA!!! We stopped for photopass pictures, but I don't have them yet, sorry! I'll add them once I get them. Rest assured that we have a cute one of all of us looking at Tinkerbell and several really stupid looking ones of us with our arms out.

As we were walking down Main Street, we passed a group of people singing and dancing. There was an old woman, probably in her late 80's and a person I presumed to be her daughter. The daughter was holding her mother up and they were dancing to the music. The old woman had Mickey ears on. She was laughing and seemed to be having the time of her life. Mom and I both looked at each other with tears in our eyes. We were both thinking that we hope that is us someday. It was such a sweet moment! I'm crying right now, just thinking about it. I wonder if that mother and daughter have any idea how much joy they brought to our hearts.

Okay, I think I can see through the tears enough to go on....

We were bound and determined to go to Tom Sawyer's Island on this trip. My kids have never been there and Sawyer loves the Disneyland Fun video where they goof around on the island. It was then that I looked at the park schedule and saw that it closed at 5:00!! It was almost 4:00! So, we rushed straight over there.

We just missed the raft to the island, but we got to talk to a great CM while we were waiting. She was great because she said how cute my kid's outfits were and then she gushed about how cute my kids were. You gotta love a CM like that! She wanted to know if I sold clothing and I told her that I never have. Then, my mom started telling her about the Big Give and how both of her daughters make clothes for Make a Wish kids. It embarassed me a little bit, but mom seemed really proud. The woman told me to make sure to stop at The Country Bears on the next day (where she'd be working) because she wanted to see what the kids had on!

The raft finally arrived and we walked on board. It was then that I realized that SAWYER was going to Tom SAWYER's island!! I had never made the connection before. He was going home! I told him we were going to Tom Sawyer's island and he said "No, ME!" He says that a lot.

We were peacefully standing on the raft when all of a sudden, we saw....



THIS!!!! COMING STRAIGHT FOR US!!!!!



We all start yelling "Turn! Turn!" Phew, disaster was narrowly avoided! (yes, I know it wasn't going to hit us, but it was fun to pretend)

Once the kids figured out they weren't in imminent danger, they started waving. Tessa practiced her "elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, pearls" wave.







After a minute, we docked at the island with a THUNK and a jolt and we made our merry way off board.

I know he has a dippy look in his face, but he was happy, darn it!





The first thing we came to was a scary looking cave. We cautiously entered it, holding hands along the way.



The poor cave had a tumor!



Then, I decided to get a picture of everyone else from the front, since I always seemed to be getting pictures of their backsides. My camera was in a screwy setting.



Mom told the kids to look scared and I got a good laugh out of this one.



We wanted to find the rope bridge because mom said that Sawyer was excited about going over it. But, on the way, we passed a checkerboard. It made me think of my dear sister and I wondered if this is where they paused to pass some time on their last trip.

Then, we wandered over to the bridge!! Oh my gosh, the kids and mom were SO excited about it. It was so cute!!



Tessa got some serious AIR!



Do moms come any cuter than mine? I think not!



We found another cave that had some scary "whoo-whoo" sounds coming out of it. Tessa really wanted to go in, so we stepped foot in it and Sawyer FREAKED out! He said "NO NO NO!!" and started running out. So much for that!

We then came upon a fort thingy. What do you think we were looking at??



Bet you didn't guess it was HORSE BUTTS!!



Mom and the kids took off playing while I called Henry to let him know we had made it there okay. I was already missing him and I wouldn't see him for another week!

Then, I went looking for the kids and mom.

Not in here...



They were in the last place I looked, in a tower, shooting some guns.







You want to know what they were so excited about shooting? What brought such joy to their little faces?



They were shooting at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!!! How dare they?

Some other kids arrived and we thought we'd give them a turn.

I am sorry to report that I have no more pictures for this installment. I don't know why! I could have swore I took more pictures on the island and such, but I guess I didn't!

We wandered around a little more and found another bridge. I don't know who the lady in this picture is because I just found it on google. But, I like her. She has a pal mickey, a fanny pack, a name tag, some comfy walking shoes, and it looks like she could have some pins. My kind of girl!



I wasn't too crazy about this little bridge. I had Sawyer with me and with our combined weight, these barrells went WAY down, like far enough down to get into the water. So, we had to step way up to the next one, only to sink way down again. It took us QUITE a while to get across it!

Once we were done with that bridge, I was just about done with the island.

But, we swung by that spooky cave one more time. This time, Sawyer wanted to go in. He did fine this time and really seemed to enjoy it. His mother just kinda wanted to get out of there. Have I mentioned that I really don't like caves too much? I especially don't like it when you get to the parts where it feels like you're just squeezing through. I really don't like that!

We came upon a teenage boy and his 10 year old (or so) brother that looked like they were ready to jump out and scare us. So, mom beat them to it and said "BOO!" The poor kid jumped so far, I thought he'd hit his head on the top of the cave. His big brother was laughing so hard he could barely breath.

That's my mom...always being mean to kids.

We went on out of there and decided to head back to the main land.

Tessa had a hankerin' for some adventure, so we decided to ride on Thunder Mountain. Mom said she'd take Sawyer to Country Bears while we rode and we'd meet her over there.

She was so excited and she seemed to love the time alone with me. We practically walked onto the ride, even though it said there was a 10 minute wait. The park wasn't very crowded at all.

I took this picture by my ownself. Or, I found it online. You decide.



Tessa just loved the ride and she squealed and laughed the whole way. It was adorable!

We took off to find mom and Sawyer at The Country Bears. They weren't out yet, so Tessa wanted to look at the little shop across the street. She found something she HAD to have. You see, this trip was all about finding things that her cousins bought on our last trip, and buying them for herself. She had saved $40 of her own money to spend on souvenirs.

This picture was taken later on, but it fits here. This is what she HAD to buy for $16.



Mom and Sawyer exited The Country Bears with mom carrying a sleeping Sawyer. I have never taken my kids into The Country Bears without one of them falling asleep! She said he loved it right up until he dozed off.

She was surprised to see that Tessa had already spent 1/3 of her money on the first day.

We headed over to Adventure land in the hopes of finding Peter Pan, and hopefully the Wendy of questionable gender. They weren't over there, but we figured we'd ride on Pirates of the Carribean.

Everyone was piling into the left line, so we took the right side- and walked RIGHT on!! Seriously, the boat wasn't even full! Sawyer had woken up when we got him out of the stroller and he was a little nervous about the ride.

He sat facing me the whole time and peeked out to the side. He did seem to enjoy it, though.

After that, we were pretty much done for the day. We were coming back the next day and we wanted to get there before opening.

It had been a LONG day! As we sat on the bus going back to our resort, we talked about all the different forms of transportation we had been on.

Car to airport
Airplane
Moving walkway at airport
Another airplane
Magical Express to hotel
Bus to Disney
Raft to Tom Sawyer's island
Runaway train
Boat on POTC
Bus to Pop Century

Phew!! We were ready to rest! We went back to the room and unpacked, even though I just wanted to lay down. The kids were looking pretty tired, too.

I gave the kids a bath and we were all in bed by 8:00!

Unfortunately, we didn't go right to sleep. You may have heard that Pop Century is a LOUD hotel. We thought that was silly because it wasn't loud the last time we were there at all. But, this time we got the full ambience. We could hear EVERYTHING! Every toilet flush, every person to walk by outside, I could even hear someone sneezing! I am so glad I brought our little white noise machine. It helped to block out some of the noise.

I also had Tessa sleeping with me. It made me realize why I never let her sleep in bed with me at home. She is the most restless sleeper! At one point, she was upside-down with her feet in my face, making running motions. NOT good! Ugh!

I did manage to get a pretty good nights sleep, amazingly.

Dissing Pooh in his own restaurant

Feb. 4, 2009

We woke up bright and early on Wednesday morning. I put on my concealer to cover the bruises from Tessa's kicking feet (no bruises, but I was surprised).

No, really we woke up bright and early to get to Magic Kingdom for rope drop. Both of my kids LOVE Dumbo and I will not wait longer than 20 minutes for ANY ride, much less Dumbo!

The first thing Tessa did was put on her new Mickey ears.



Then, she and Sawyer got dressed in their matching Dumbo outfits. Mom and I also had matching Dumbo shirts with our names on them. I made them all on my embroidery machine and even digitized the little Dumbo myself.



Yeah, those were taken at home. I never got a good shot of them in their oufits.

Then, Tessa put on her bracelet from "her Lukey". You see, she has a little boyfriend. One of my friends on the disboutique thread (Jeanne, also known as jham) has an adorable little boy named Luke. I once posted pictures of Tessa shadow boxing in an Ariel dress and Luke was mightily impressed. When Tessa saw pictures of Luke, the feeling was mutual. I think it might have something to do with the fact that they look a bit alike and perhaps they're a little narcissistic. Anyway, Luke made Tessa a beautiful bracelet and mailed it to her. She wears it almost every day and LOVES it!

Tessa thought she'd try a new way to put the bracelet on and tried to force it over her hand instead of hooking it around her wrist. This was the result.



That's right, it broke. She was devestated. She still is! It took her quite a while to calm down, but she did when I told her we'd keep the beads and maybe Luke's mommy could help us fix it.

Amid the drama, mom and I got ready and fixed the kids a breakfast of oatmeal and string cheese. We brought our own instant oatmeal, bowls, and spoons. Mom brought a hot pot so we could heat up the water. It worked out great and saved us time and money on breakfast. She also ran to Everything Pop to get us both a hot chocolate/awful coffee/creamer concoction. It's pretty yummy if you mix all 3.

Then, we stepped outside. Brrrr!!! It was chilly out! So, we all had to grab our jackets. Then, we headed over to the buses.

We had a very short wait and boarded a nearly empty bus.



We decided to call Daddy and wish him a good morning while we took the ride to MK. He cried and told us how badly he was missing me. He said he now knows how much work I do around here and he doesn't know how he'd ever make it without me. What? You don't believe me??



Look! I was there, too!



We were all excited that we got there in plenty of time to watch the opening ceremony. Mom and the kids were skipping along so cute!



But, they came to an abrupt halt when Sawyer noticed the Mickeys on the pavers.



While he was checking out the Mickey pavers, I noticed a family with 3 little girls, all dressed in minnie dot embellished overalls! I went up to the mother and said "I love your girl's outfits. Did you make them yourself?" She said "Thank you, yes!" I thought about telling her she should join the disboutiquers. But, she was in a hurry and I didn't want her to think I was crazy.

We went through unsecurity and scanned our tickets (again, without incident). A woman stopped me and asked me for my zip code for a survey they were doing. I happily obliged. Then, we moved to the left entrance.

The kids checked out their pins and talked about which ones they wanted to trade.



Okay, Sawyer just pointed at the ones he wanted to trade.



We struck up a conversation with two women who loved the kid's outfits. They were from Cleveland. Nope, I have no reason for sharing that with you, other than the fact that I'm proud I remembered it!

After a bit, the show started. Heya Mayor!



Well, good morning to you, too!



Mickey and the gang!



The show was cute, but I was mostly concerned about going through here:




Finally, it was time for the countdown- 5...4...3...2...1...and we're OFF!!

Look a horse! It's blurry because we were practically running.



There were tons of smiling CMs on our way to the castle, waving their big, friendly, white hands!

Look, the castle! Those people in the picture were the ONLY people in front of us. How cool is that?



We went right through the castle and then had to stop once we were almost through. I wasn't expecting that one. But, they made us wait about 5 minutes. It was agonizing. We could see all the rides going, with no one to ride them!

Then, the CM dropped the rope! Yee-haw!! I parked the stroller while mom got in line with the kids. I caught up to them before anyone else was in line and we were there- at Dumbo! We were in the first group to get on!



They gave everyone little green plastic tags to hold onto. Then, the guy came around and took them back before he started the ride up. I thought it was odd and I'm not sure why they do that. Anyone else know?

Sawyer was SO excited to finally be on this ride! When I say he loves Dumbo, I mean the movie. He's never ridden the ride before, but he kept talking about it before we got here (as in saying "Dumbo" when I asked what he wanted to ride at Disney World).



This is the face he made when I told him to smile.



This is the face he made when the ride started moving.



He LOVED it!! He giggled and squealed through the whole thing. It was adorable! Some of my best Disney moments with my kids have been on Dumbo.

Here's my favorite picture of Tessa from our 2006 trip. Dumbo was our first ride and she was positively giddy with excitement.



To this day, she'll tell you that Dumbo is her favorite ride at Disney. She's only rode it twice!

Here she is on her 2nd time ever on Dumbo.



What can I say? They sat too far away to get a good picture. My mom doesn't understand that pictures are a very important part of trips! That's why I have so many pictures of them all from behind because if I try to hurry up and get in front of them for a picture, she starts racing me! LOL!

The ride was over pretty quickly (which is one of the reasons why I will NOT wait in line for it). We decided we were heading to Peter Pan next because the line gets long pretty quickly over there.

But, Sawyer wasn't so sure about Peter Pan. He started crying and protesting as we walked up to the ride. The woman at the entrance handed him a sword, which I thought was awesome! She told him that he was to use the sword to protect his family, but not to hit them with it. He took the sword, but was still very leery of the whole experience.

There was absolutely no line, so there wasn't much time to calm him down. We got on the ride and he was still scared. I kept trying to reassure him. Finally, once we got inside of the ride, he calmed down and really enjoyed himself.



He will now tell you that his favorite ride is "Pan!" when you ask him.

He also decided that he really loved the sword! That sword made him happier than almost anything else at Disney. He LOVED it!!



As you can see from that picture, we decided to ride Cinderella's carousel next. Again, no line!



Look at these little angels.



Errr....



I have lots of carousel pictures because the kids looked so darn cute!





I thought my nephew, Corey, would be proud of my use of thirds in this picture.





The kid just couldn't take his eyes off of the sword!





Here's a picture I love from our 2006 trip. This was the last time we rode the carousel as it was closed when we were here in 2008.



This was Tessa's first ride on the carousel in 2004. She was 14 months old!



We got off the carousel and I went to fetch the stroller so we could get on Winnie the Pooh. When I caught up, Tessa was doing her very first pin trade of the vacation!



When we got to Pooh, guess what we saw? That's right, no line! There was also a really sweet CM who was handing out princess and prince stickers to the kids.



There was a couple with their children behind us who I recognized from both Dumbo and Peter Pan. I said "Hey, you're following us!" She said "We're doing Tourguide Mike's plans." I said "We kind of are, too!" We talked as we walked up to the ride and she was really very sweet. I should have asked if she was a Diser, too.

This is the kind of smile I got out of Tessa whenever she knew I was taking a picture on this vacation- UGH! She really does have very pretty eyes, when she's not scrunching them up!



I held the camera up in the air and tried to catch Sawyer in it (I was in the back seat and he was up front with mom).



That Tigger's a tad bit obnoxious.



We all really enjoy this ride!



Next, the kids got stuck in a circus wagon. It said something up above, but I cut it out of the picture.



Mom needed to use the facilities, so we started heading over towards the Pinnochio restaurant. Then, I saw that people were going into Ariel's grotto. I thought it opened at 10:00, but it was only 9:40!

I told mom we were going in and she could meet us in there.

When we were walking in, Tessa got really upset and said "That's not the real Ariel!" I didn't know what she was talking about until I realized she was looking at the statue in the middle of the grotto! I assured her that the real Ariel was inside of the cave. She was suspicious, but she trusts her Mama, so she followed me in.

We have never met Ariel before! I know! She's Tessa's favorite princess and she's a close 2nd for me, after Cinderella. But, we've never met her. The line is always too long for me! Tessa decorated the cover of her autograph book with Ariel pictures and stickers and it was fitting that she was our very first autograph!

While waiting in line, I overhead the women in line behind me (2 women without any kids with them) discussing whether or not Ariel's shells were heated. I busted out laughing and I'm sure they probably thought I was nuts. Mom (who was back from the bathroom) quipped, "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if Sawyer checks that out for himself!"

When we got to the front of the line, Tessa could hardly contain herself!

She told Ariel that she had been waiting for 5 years to meet her! It was so sweet and reminded me of that commercial where the kid tells Mickey "I've been waiting my whole life to meet you!" Ariel checked out Tessa's autograph book and was very impressed that she was on the front, and that Tessa made it herself!



Tessa just loved her, and honestly, so did I! She was just an extra special princess. She actually seemed happy to be there, sitting on that rock, and talking with my Tessie. Plus, she didn't do that really awkward, stupid pose I've seen her do in so many other pictures.



Sawyer was a bit more leery of Ariel and he quickly handed her his book and quickly took it back. He wasn't sure what to think of the whole fin thing and he wasn't about to check to see if her shells were heated!

Next, we thought we'd go over to toontown because it was just about time for it to open (almost 10:00am). I wanted to get right in line to meet Tinkerbell because I know how long that line can get!

But, first we stopped to get a picture in Dumbo. I think waiting to take this picture was our first real line of the day!



Look a picture of the front of them! Look at how happy Sawyer is with that sword! You should have seen him when he realized the sheath came off!



Sadly, when we got over to Toontown, we saw that it had been open for some time. I really should have taken a look at that times guide! We went straight for the tent to see how long the wait was for Tinkerbell. It was already an HOUR wait! But, the princess line was 1/2 hour, so we got in it. It was really only about a 15 minute wait (but I have no doubt the Tinkerbell line was at LEAST an hour).

The first princess was Aurora.



She was happily smiling and chatting with Tessa, until....she broke our pen!



The pen was just starting to break apart in that picture. I found it to be pretty hilarious. She kept apologizing and such. Then, she got us a new pen to use.



Sawyer was very forgiving of her.



Next, was Cinderella. As I said earlier, Cinderella is my favorite princess. So, I hold high expectations of her. However, more often than not, she has let me down. This occasion was no exception.



Yeah, um...I think she wasn't feeling so well...



But, she was very sweet to Sawyer.



Here's some video of Sawyer's quick autograph moves.



Belle was an absolute sweetheart. She gushed over the kid's outfits and Tessa's pins.



She really took her time to talk to them.



Even Sawyer felt comfortable with her!



He even gave her a HUG!



Look what she gave HIM!



If you ask him who kissed him at Disney World, he'll say "Belle!" and point right to this exact spot on his cheek! I think the boy is smitten.

Next up was Sawyer's very first roller coaster. He was bursting with excitement!



Still excited...



Still excited...



Still excited...



Maybe I'll even put my hands in the air...



Hmmm....we're kinda high up...



I.....WANT.....OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I forgot how fast this little roller coaster goes!



Hey, mom must have some pictures. I haven't seen them yet, though!



Sawyer was okay, he didn't actually cry, but I think he enjoyed it a little less than he thought he would! Tessa loved it, though!



Tessa loves Minnie's house, so we did that next.



Sawyer was fascinated by the little figurines.



We had to get the requisite Disboutiquer sewing machine picture.



I always have to take a picture of one of my kids in this chair, too.



Look at itty bitty Tessie! She was 14 months old in this picture.



Sawyer really wanted to play in the kitchen, but wasn't sure if he should.



But, Tessa had no qualms about messing with Minnie's stuff.



So, Sawyer tried it,



but still wasn't sure if he should.



I know we took pictures in those "wicker" chairs in the sun room. But, I can't find it! I always get a picture out there. Maybe it's on mom's camera.

I thought the kids looked cute by the gate in the garden.



Until Tessa fell through it. Tee-hee-hee



By this point, it seemed to be getting even COLDER! I thought it was supposed to get warmer as the day went on, but it sure wasn't! We thought we'd head back to fantasyland to finish up over there before our 11:45 ADRs at Crystal Palace.

First, we stopped at the spinning puke machines, otherwise known as the teacups. As usual, I sat this one out!

As I was waiting for the kids to take their spin with mom, I noticed a curious sight. Alice and the Mad Hatter were in the teacups with a family and there was a camera crew filming them. I could see the mother in the teacups doing a pretty poor impression of someone trying to have a great time. Then, they all got out and the camera crew filmed them exiting with their big smiling faces. They were all dressed up and didn't quite fit in since Disney isn't exactly a "Sunday best" kind of place. I have no idea what they were filming for, but I really wish I would have asked!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (because it was FREEZING), but was only a few minutes, the kids and mom came twirling around the area. See, this is where mom doesn't get the picture thing, too. I wish she would have gotten into a teacup that was close to me, so I could get their picture before it started turning. But, I really can't complain since she rode instead of me!



After the teacups, I thought it was only fitting that mom get to ride her very favorite ride. Plus, it was FREEZING, so I wanted to get somewhere inside. Even if it was....It's a Small World. NOOOOO!!

There was absolutely no line, once again. But, I noticed that the line for Peter Pan was up to 40 minutes. I think it's funny how Sawyer and Tessa always look scared in pictures from this ride.





Maybe they were wondering who goosed this guy!



Look at me, trying to look excited to be on my least favorite ride.





Hey baby! Whatcha been drinkin'?



As usual, the ride stopped and we had to wait a while to go again. This time I welcomed it because when the ride was through, we'd have to go back out into the FREEZING cold weather. It may not have seemed so bad if I had wore my winter coat. But, we just had sweatshirt type jackets (Mom brought a heavier one because she's smart).

We still had a little bit of time before our ressies, so we thought we'd see what kind of wait there was for Snow White. The wait time was a big fat ZERO minutes, so we stepped right on board!

Sawyer was really getting the hang of these rides and he wasn't scared at all!



Neither was Tessa!



Not even when a rock almost fell on us!



The ride stopped right in front of Dopey, so we waved at him for a while.



When we exited the ride, I was stopped for a nother survey. This one was a little big longer and asked what I thought of the ride, etc... I basically told her that I felt the ride was dated. I said that most adults don't love it and it scares a lot of children.

On our way over to the Crystal Palace, Tessa paused to pull the sword from the stone.



She and Sawyer made a valiant effort, but they were unsuccessful.



I parked the stroller at the Crystal Palace and went to a little desk outside and gave them my name and reservation time. She told me to wait around and they would call our name.

We went up on the veranda, hoping the building would block the cold wind. When we were up there, Piglet came to the window and started "playing" with the kids. It was SO cute!



Then, Tigger did the same thing! I love the look on the face of the little girl in this picture!



After this, I noticed my fellow Tourguide Mikers and I asked if they had also made 11:45 reservations. Of course they did!

You Disboutiquers may be wondering why my kids aren't wearing Pooh customs for this meal. Well, it's because they've never really liked Winnie the Pooh. They don't watch the movies or the show, so I decided to go with Dumbo outfits. My mom really wanted to eat at Crystal Palace and I'd heard really good things about it. So, we thought we'd try it.

We hadn't been waiting too long. But, I noticed that most people had little buzzers. I was confused about this, and by the fact that there was a 2nd check-in area on the veranda. So, I got in line to see what was up with that. But, before I got to the front of the line, we were called in to our table.

Yay!! Warmth!!

It worked out perfectly because the characters were just making their rounds at the table we were seated at. So, we were able to get all the character stuff done first and we didn't have to stop eating to get pictures!

When the characters came around, I was wondering if my kids liked Pooh more than I thought!

We all loved us some Eeyore!





We also loved us some Piglet!



Tigger, too!





They ESPECIALLY loved Pooh. I'm sorry we dissed you on the outfits, man!





Tessa just couldn't stop hugging him. Wait a minute! I just now realized something. Both Tessa and Sawyer had a Winnie the Pooh mobile in their crib that played the Winnie the Pooh song. I wonder if that's why they're loving on him so much!



The Crystal Palace was beautiful! We had a window seat with a nice view.



The food was DEEE-licious!! I LOVED everything! Tessa was absolutely apauled (sp?) that I was eating "ratatouille"! She was convinced that it had pieces of rat in it. Well, if it did, rat meat is really good!

The only thing I didn't like was that the beef they were carving was REALLY rare. I mean, it was still moo-ing kind of rare. I do not like rare meat, and it looked like they just had the beef LOOK at the pan instead of actually putting it on there.

The best part was that almost all of the desserts had CHOCOLATE in them!! YUM!!!! However, there were none of the delicious chocolate bars that were a cross between fudge and brownies here, like there was at 1900 Park Fare. I had promised Teresa I would smuggle one out for her if they had one. Sorry Teresa!

Let me just say again, everything was SOOOO good! I highly recommend this place. Everything was perfect! My kids also enjoyed the desserts!





Here's more proof that my kids have the most wonderful grandma in the world.







How cute are they?!

As we were leaving the restaurant, Piglet started following us. Tessa was convinced that he was going to follow us around the park for the day. She was giggling and walking backward so she could watch him. But, he turned right as we got to the door. Darn!

Let's Shoot Grandma! MUWHAHAHAHA!!

When we stepped outside of Crystal Palace, I instantly noticed that it had gotten warmer. It certainly wasn't WARM, but it was warm-ER.

I noticed that Sawyer's diaper was sagging. We were right next to the baby center, or whatever it's called. I had never been in there, so I thought this was a much better option than doing the "amazing standing diaper change" that we had done up to this point. You see, there is generally only 1 or 2 changing tables in the Disney bathrooms. There is always a baby on the table and a line of 3 more waiting to be changed. So, I generally just take Sawyer into the stall with me and change his diaper while he's standing up (as long as it's just wet). Hence, the "amazing standing diaper change" was born. I called it such because it made him laugh when I said it.

It was a really cool place! A sweet woman met us at the door and asked us how she could help. I told her I needed to change Sawyer's diaper and she directed us to a large room full of big, padded, changing tables. They had huge sheets of paper that you put down under the kid so as to not get all germy. It was like diaper changing heaven.



We were the only ones in there! After I was done changing his diaper, we all needed to use the bathroom. There was a unisex bathroom adjacent to the changing area, so we went in there. I was very surprised when I saw that it was just like a regular public bathroom. You know, the kind with the slats that you can see through, if you are looking, and multiple stalls. I used it, but I was really afraid a man would walk in!! I really don't think that should have been a unisex bathroom!

We peeked around the rest of the baby area and saw a room with lots of baby stuff- formula and everything. There was everything you could possibly need in there. There was also an area with high chairs for feeding babies. I hope there was a seperate area to nurse your baby, but we wouldn't have went in there and disturbed them.

Sawyer had been looking forward to riding Buzz Lightyear since he saw it online (mom had been showing him videos online for months). So, we went to check out the wait.

First, we saw that it looked like there wasn't much wait for the Laugh Floor, so we got in line. However, Sawyer was fading fast and I wasn't sure he would stay awake for the whole show. So, we got back out of the line and went over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

The line was very short- maybe 3-4 minutes.



Mom got to take Sawyer on his first spin since she got him so excited about riding it.



Deer in the headlights!



Sawyer LOVED it!!



Tessa took it very seriously.



Here's my redneck photo of a photo. Notice how I cut our scores out? You didn't need to see my pitifully low score. I believe it wasn't more than 4 digits long...



Mom is actually pretty good at this game. Her score is always WAY higher than mine.



As soon as we got off the ride, Sawyer was jumping and saying "Again! Again! Again!" He got upset with me when I wouldn't let him get right back on the ride at the exit. But, I assured him that we were going around to ride again. First, we had to pose for the standard "Imprisoned with the Evil Emporor Zurg" pictures.





This time there was absolutely no line at all. I mean NONE! We walked right on and there weren't even any people in front of or behind us! I got Sawyer this time. In the weeks leading up to the trip, he was really looking forward to shooting grandma on Buzz Lightyear. Sick, I know. So, I turned our car around and let him fire away.



He was laughing and giggling so hard, he practically fell out of his seat. He was having the time of his life! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him! It was SO cute!

I'm thinking we rode a 3rd time, again with no line at all!!

When we got off our final spin with Buzz, we saw BUZZ HIMSELF over by the Carousel of Progress. I told mom to get the kids in line and I'd go to the stroller and get the autograph books.

We definitely waited longer to see Buzz than to ride the ride! But, it was worth it! Buzz was hilarious and kept doing these silly poses and such.



I don't think the kids thought he was as funny as I did because they were just looking at him like he was crazy.



I wish there had been a photopass photographer with him! I would have gotten in the picture.



Sawyer was very unsure about the whole thing, even though he LOVES Buzz!



We noticed that below us (we were up on the walkway to COP), Stitch was signing autographs. So, we got in line for him, too.



Stitch was really funny, too. (Tessa chose the totally unrelated decorations for this picture)



Stitch took Sawyer's autograph book and put it on his pen and started spinning it around.



Then, it flew off!



He proceeded to pick it up off the ground and "lick" it clean. It was SO funny! I was "EWWW"ing and "gross" ing. So, when he went to hand Sawyer his book back, he really didn't want it. (Sawyer really liked the Bolt decoration and insisted on it for this pic)



I had to go and take it for him.



We were done in Tomorrowland and I wanted to head over to The Jungle Cruise because it was closed for part of our last trip and I didn't get to ride it.

However, Tessa started having a meltdown because she wanted in the stroller and she didn't want Sawyer in there with her. We have a wonderful Peg Perego Pliko P3 stroller that the incredibly generous Stephres gave me. It has a little platform on the back for Tessa to stand on, so she wasn't doing much walking. But, she wanted to get IN the stroller. We let her get in, but Sawyer had to be in there with her because he was tired, too.

This did NOT make her happy.



You really must watch this video of how mom and I react to such things.



We could see that she actually thought we were pretty funny, but she wasn't about to admit it.



I warned her that she needed to stop acting like that or we were going to go back to the hotel. She really didn't want to leave, so she straightened up for a few minutes.

But, when we got in line (it was really short) for the Jungle Cruise she started acting naughty again. I was starting to think we would have to leave the park after the Jungle Cruise.

Anyway, Sawyer got a 2nd wind after resting in the stroller and he was LOVING the Jungle Cruise. I wanted him to sit on my lap so he could see better, but he insisted on sitting on the seat like a big boy.



My mom HATES snakes! This one's for her.



Pouting Tessa:



Lions! Oh my!





Sawyer LOVED the whole ride! It was so cute!



We had quite a long delay docking the boat. I don't know what was going on, but we waited for around 10 minutes to dock. But, our captain was great! He entertained us with jokes, trivia, and just chatting.



I wish I could remember some of his jokes because they were rather funny.

After the ride, Tessa was still acting up. So, I took her in the bathroom for a "discussion". She decided that she'd rather be a nice girl than have to go back to the hotel for a nap. So, she straightened right up.

I am happy to say that this was the ONLY no reason, tired, meltdown that we had on this trip! That is a reason to rejoice!!

We wandered around and saw that the line for Pirates of the Carribean was way too long and there was still no Peter Pan or Wendle around. So, we headed to Frontierland.

As soon as we crossed into Frontierland, we saw Donald Duck, right next to a DVC station. We quickly got in line. There was a guy standing at the DVC station smoking a cigarette and it was blowing right at us. I was very irritated. Then, this same guy knocked a big thing of popcorn over and it spilled into our stroller. It wasn't a big deal and he felt really bad about it. So, I ALMOST forgave him for smoking in a non-designated area. ALMOST, but not quite.

I've never seen Donald Duck over here and it was pretty cool that we just happened upon him!





Tessa stopped at the DVC center for a little pin trading. The guy there was less than enthusiastic and very impatient when Sawyer decided that he wanted to trade, too. Sawyer was really excited about it, so it irked me when the guy was rushing him (it's not like there were people lining up to hear about the DVC).

We saw that they were getting ready for the parade to start, so we staked out a sweet spot right there in Frontierland. We were about 1/2 hour early, but we were happy to have a seat and rest for a while.



Sawyer was starting to get tired, so I reclined the stroller in the hopes that he would take a little nap.

It wasn't happening.



Tessa suddenly gave me a hug and said "Thank you so much for taking me to Disney World. You're the best Mom in the world."



...and all was right with the world. :

I just love that girl!



Finally, the parade started. Here comes the family of the day. Who do you think it was???



Yes, that's the family from the teacups! It is also the camera crew that was with them. I find this to be very curious...Looking at the picture again, I just realized that I don't see the mom or the girls from the teacups- just the dad, the boys, and the camera crew. Very curious indeed...

Tessa was quite impressed with the "pretty dancing girls".





Sawyer tried waving at everyone, but he was fading fast...



You will notice in the following pictures that a great number of characters on the floats looked right at us and waved or blew kisses. It was awesome!









The parade stopped for a while when Ursula was right in front of us. Tessa had a good time with that at first. She would stick her tongue out at Ursula and Ursula would put her claw-like fingers in the air like she was going to get Tessa. It was all good fun until Tessa realized that this was REALLY URSULA!! She suddenly got really scared and hid behind me until the float moved again.

Seriously, what is up with the costumes these poor guys have to wear? They're very similar to the costumes the guy in the Disneyland Fun video (circa 1989) are wearing.



"Line up on the curb, come on everyone. Here the excitement and fun has just begun. As your Disney friends come dancing down the street. This show is a show that can't be beat."

Bad picture, but I just love the theme of this float!



Hi Alice! Nope, that doesn't look like my good friend "Wendle" in the background.







This video of Tessa is too cute!





That was a wonderful parade! We all loved it. Well...Sawyer was asleep, but the rest of us loved it!

Since we were so close to the Haunted Mansion and Sawyer was sleeping, Tessa and I headed that way. Mom said she'd meet us by the exit (she doesn't do the Haunted Mansion for religious reasons).

I was afraid that the line would be REALLY long since the parade just ended. But, we got right in! This was a GREAT MK day!

Tessa hated this ride on our last trip. But, she said she wanted to ride it again. I made sure she really did want to ride it and that she wasn't scared. She said she did!

So, we did! She did great! She didn't seem to be scared at all. She told me that she knows it's just pretend. Our doom buggy stopped twice during the ride. I found this to be rather creepy. I admit, this ride scares me a little bit. So, when the car stopped in the darkness with the sounds of ghosts and freaky things going on around us, I was a bit nervous. I even could have swore I saw someone standing in the darkness beside us...



But, I don't think I let Tessa in on what was going on in my mind because she was fine.

Our doom buggy started moving again, thankfully, and I was fine, too.

When the ride was over, Tessa wanted to do some shopping. She had been wanting to buy a baby Dumbo that she had seen in the Pooh dump shop. I made her wait in case she found something else she wanted. That Dumbo cost over $20!! So, that was pretty much all of the money she had left.

We started doing some shopping and saw these jewels that she wanted (um...$7 for a little bag of plastic discs, I don't think so). We didn't buy them, but we told her to look like she had just found some treasure.



Not quite....try again...



There we go!

I decided to let her buy the Dumbo at that point. It was her money and she REALLY wanted it. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Arminda got this very same Dumbo on our last trip.

Mom noticed on the Times Guide that Storytime with Belle was about to start. Tessa told me that she didn't want to be in the show this time. She just wanted to watch. I told her that she could tell them that if they asked her to be in the show. In case you missed it, last time she was Chip in this show! Here's the video evidence!




Mom wasn't real enthused about sitting on a cement bench, in the cold shade, to watch a show. So, she sat on a bench out in the sun with a sleeping Sawyer.

Man, it was really cold in there! I thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad since it was more sheltered. But, it was windy, with no sun, on a cold cement bench. BRRR!!! Tessa really enjoyed the show and was relieved that she didn't get chosen for it.

There was a woman behind me who had 2 little girls dressed in Minnie dot. I asked her if she had made the outfits, but she said she had a friend make them for her. I told her they were really cute. She seemed very dissapointed that her girls weren't chosen to be in the show. But, her husband ended up being chosen as The Beast. Here's most of the cast:



Tessa really enjoyed the show and loved watching it this time instead of being in it.

Sawyer was still sleeping, so we thought we'd try once more to meet Tinkerbell and Co. When we got over to Toontown again, the line was still an hour long, and looked even longer than last time. Ugh! I just couldn't do it! Instead, we browsed the gift shop for a while.

I was looking at the magnets to add to my super-cool magnet collection. I thought I'd spotted one I liked and went to grab it. At that moment, a woman came up right next to me, and turned the revolving rack I was looking at! HOW RUDE! I said "Excuse me, but I was looking at those" and proceeded to turn it back. This woman actually grabbed the rack so I couldn't turn it back! I couldn't believe it! What a total and complete jerk! I said "You are behaving very rudely and I'm not going to fight you for control of the magnet rack." and I walked off. I'm not sure if she spoke English, because she never said anything to me at all.

In the meantime, Tessa had taken off with mom and had found an Ariel bank that she really wanted. She said it was just exactly what she was looking for since she broke her glass Cinderella bank. She even tapped on it to show me it was plastic! I told her that she'd already spent all of her money, so she couldn't get it. I know, I'm cruel!

Sawyer was interested in one thing, and one thing only, CANDY! He really wanted some overpriced Disney candy. Again, being the cruel mother that I am, I told him "No."

Then, I remembered that I had a $200 gift card!!! I went and got the bank that Tessa wanted, the candy that Sawyer wanted, and the magnet that I wanted. Yay! "Free" stuff! Mom came over to me and said she'd already bought the kids the suckers. How sweet is she? So, I put mine back. Tessa saw the bank and squealed with delight. She actually asked "Mom, is that for me or the Wish kids?" You see, lots of times when I buy fabric and things, it's for the Wish kids, and not for her. I assured her that it was for her and she was just as happy as could be.

After our shopping excursion, we decided to take the train back to the entrance. Sawyer had been wanting to ride the "Choo Choo" the whole time we'd been there. So, we thought he'd love it!



Ummm...not so much... The train's whistle blew and it scared him to death as we were getting on. He cried for a few minutes. The poor thing!

Tessa was just happy that she had candy to eat!



Sawyer calmed down after a while and tried to enjoy himself.





It was 6:00pm and we were done for the day. So, we headed back to Pop Century for supper.

Mom offered to get the cups for us if we wanted to wait in the food court for her. I readily agreed because I was still freezing and pretty darn tired. I sat with the kids for a while and we talked about what a great day we had together. Sawyer said "Pan" was his favorite ride and Tessa said hers was Dumbo.

When mom came back with the mugs, she looked really excited. She whispered to me "We have a towel animal in the room!" She was positively giddy about it! Honestly, so was I! We never got a towel animal at all on our last trip to POP.

I don't remember what we ate, but we told Tessa that there was a surprise in our room and that we had no idea how it got there!



It's a bunny! It had a teeny little heart sticker on it's ear, too. So cute!



Tessa's headband was on the pillow, spread out all pretty (she wasn't wearing them today because I wanted her to wear the bow that I made to match her outfit).



Baby Simba (bought on our last trip and has slept with Tessa every night since) was wearing mom's Mickey ears.



It was so cute, and the perfect thing to come back to!

I had made some window decorations and printed them on transparent window paper. So, I went about putting them in the window. It was REALLY hard to get the backing off of those suckers! But, I finally did it and decorated the window all cute. I thought I'd wait until morning to take a picture from the outside.

We were all in bed and asleep by 9:00! The next day we were going to Animal Kingdom.

No, It is NOT Better Than Home!

Feb. 5, 2009

From the Orlando Sentinel:
"If this morning feels colder than it has all winter, you're right. The National Weather Service issued a wind-chill warning for the Orlando area until 8 a.m. today. Forecasters expected winds at 10 mph to make it feel as though it's 15 to 20 degrees outside."

Sounds like a great day for Animal Kingdom!

We got up bright and early because we wanted to make it to rope drop at Animal Kingdom. I hopped in the shower and I heard my mom say "Oh no, Heather, there is green ink running all over the window!" As I was indisposed, I didn't know what she was talking about until I got dressed and came out.

This is what had become of my window clings:



They were turned into a pile of lime green mush and had gotten ink all over the window. Luckily, the window came clean really easily. But, I was upset that I'd wasted $10 and a lot of time on those stupid things! Apparently, when it's cold out, there is so much condensation on the window that it makes the ink run. Lesson learned!

As we were cleaning up the window mess, the kids got ahold of my camera and took some lover-ly photos.





At least this one's cute! This was taken by Tessa.



Then, my mom got ahold of the camera and tried taking a picture. We got this adorable video of Sawyer instead.



We got the kids ready, all dressed up in their Chip and Dale outfits. I knew we wouldn't be seeing much of the outfits, due to the weather forecast, so I got a picture of them before we left. Sawyer's shirt has Chip appliqued on the back and Tessa's shirt has Clarice (their girlfriend) on it. The lighter fabric has little Chip/Dales all over it.



When we headed out the door in the morning to get on the bus, it was a balmy 30 degrees with winds of 6.9mph. Feels like home! Let me explain: several times throughout the day, I heard people say "Well, it's better than home!" NO, it's NOT better than home! If it's 30 degrees out at home, I stay inside! I don't go galavanting all over the place and stay outside all day in frigid weather! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SOOOOO COLD!!!!!!!!

We got onto a nearly empty bus and called daddy again on the way to the parks. Notice what Sawyer is holding?





Tessa was very excited to see the talking palm tree. She remembered it from the trip we took when she was 3 years old! But, the palm tree was nowhere in site. We got there about 20 minutes before the park opened, so we had to wait in line at the turnstiles for a while. There weren't even any characters out yet. We did a lot of jumping up and down to stay warm.

Finally the bundled up CMs ventured out to take our ticket and they let us in to watch the opening show.

The show is just okay. Actually, it's a little bit stupid, especially if it's 33 degrees with winds of 10 mph (I found a cool site that shows what the temp and wind speed was at different times on any day in Orlando).



Once they let us in, I followed mom over to Expedition Everest. She knows this park much better than I do, so I told her she was in charge for the day. She knew a shortcut to get over there. She was right because we were early enough to get in the first car of the day! Sawyer and I stayed in the gift shop where it was warm while mom and Tessa rode on the first coaster of the day.

Sawyer wasn't very happy that he didn't get to ride. He figured since he rode the Barnstormer that he could go on all of the roller coasters! But, we passed the time looking at the pins and such. Did you know that the pins at Disney start at $7, for the really plain ones??? I'm glad I stocked up when they were on clearance at disneyshopping.com!

I had my camera ready, hoping to catch Tessa's exhuberance when she got off the coaster. But, she stopped inside to get a certificate for being on the first coaster of the day!



She was very pleased about that. She said she loved the ride!



We were doing the child swap, so I took Tessa back on with me. She was excited at first. But, once we actually got ON the roller coaster, she started to psych herself out.



She clung to me for the whole ride. She was really scared and mad at me for "making" her go on it again! Huh???



BRRRRRRRR!!!!! It was SOOOOOO cold up there!!!!!!



Yikes, is this ride up high!



This part actually scares me! I always think "What if....."



I don't find this part, or any part with the yeti to be very scary. But, poor Tessa did!



Let's just say that Tessa didn't have an enjoyable time on this ride, with mommy. I'm not sure why riding with Grandma was great, but riding with me was scary!



When we got off the ride, the CM working at the photo area said that in the 5 years she had lived in Orlando, this was the coldest day she had ever seen. Aren't we lucky to have shared it with her? Of course, someone chimed in with "It's better than at home." grrr....

Here's my redneck shot. You can see me because I have the bright pink hoodie on and a 5 year old with a death clutch on my arm.




We wanted to catch the first Lion King show of the day because we thought it'd be warm in there. But, on the way, we saw Pocahontas. Pocahontas was looking rather chilly. She had on a couple of layers under her outfit. Who could blame her. Doesn't she look like she's ready to punch Tessa in this picture?



Next, we saw Lilo and Stitch. Tessa had really wanted to meet Lilo on our last trip, but she never got to. So, this time I let her get in line.



I was so glad I did! We used to watch the Lilo and Stich show on the Disney channel EVERY morning! She still loves Lilo and Stitch. So does Sawyer. While Tessa was hugging Lilo, Stitch was kicking the ground and pouting. So, Tessa had to hug him, too.

He was very excited to see himself on one of her pins!



I thought this border was appropriate for the day.



Next, we continued to head to Camp Minnie Mickey. Unfortunately, I had read the times schedule wrong and it was Nemo that started at 9:45, not Lion King. D'oh! So, we were there about an hour early for the first Lion King show.

We thought we'd make the best of it and get in line to see Minnie and friends. However, they weren't scheduled to arrive until 10:05. So much for getting there at rope drop! We weren't about to walk across the park and then come back. So, we just got in line and waited for Minnie to show up. In case you're ever in this situation, the signs for each line has the name of the character that will be there on the back of it. I just peeked around behind the sign to make sure we were in the right one.

According to the handy-dandy website I found, while waiting for Minnie to show up, it was 37 degrees with winds of 10mph.

Mom and Tessa thought they'd use the facilities while we were waiting. When they came out, they reported that they had met a famous dog in there! She was with a woman who has seizures and the dog can alert her 10 minutes before her seizure starts (how cool is that?). Anyway, this dog had been in a movie. I can't remember the name of the movie, but Tessa said that she had watched it on tv.

After what seemed like an eternity, Minnie finally arrived at the meet area! We de-iced ourselves and gathered at the entrance. Tessa was the very first one in line!





She got extra special treatment and Minnie walked with her down the path.







I was grinning like a doofus the whole time. I get so stupid around the characters! See, here's proof. Do I look cold, too?



I am wearing Thumper ears- not Roger Rabbit ears, Eeyore ears, Bugs Bunny ears, Brere Rabbit ears, or Rabbit from Pooh ears. Only one person guessed right all day! It was fun because lots of people tried to guess and lots of people said they liked them!

Sawyer was really cold and didn't want to get out of the stroller. So, Minnie Mouse came to HIM! Another kiss from a character!



Next, we got in line for Goofy because we had all sorts of time. Tessa did some pin trading with the CM that was working the line. He saw that her hands were shaking because she was so cold (she had gloves, but wasn't wearing them yet). So, he reached into his coat pocket and handed her a little packet. It was a hand warmer! She was thrilled with it and I was so thankful that he would give that to her! What a sweet guy!



It was hard to tear her away from the joy of a new hand warmer. But, she did give Goofy a hug. I thought this would tide over the "Henry Fanny Club" for now.





Next up, came one of the most magical parts of our whole trip!!! It really made our whole day!!!!!

As we were exiting the Goofy meet line, we saw that guy that walks around and sings. So, my mom just went up and asked if he'd like to sing a song about Tessa and Sawyer from Michigan. He did!! Plus, my camera worked pretty good and I got the whole thing on video!!

I just love that video!! We've watched it so many times that we know the song by heart! Can you believe that Chip and Dale even walked up during the song!! How perfect was that!?!?! I wish I would just keep my mouth shut when I'm video taping! I sound so obnoxious!!

I know this one's blurry, but just look at her smile!







If you watched the video, you will know why there are no pictures of Sawyer!

That was such a magical moment!!!

What a great way to spend some time before the Lion King show! Yes, I know it's called the Festival of the Lion King show. But, whatever! Tessa was just hoping that we didn't end up in the warthog section again. Apparently, she doesn't like to snort. We ended up sitting in the lion section, which we'd never done before.



Sawyer was much happier inside where it was warm.

They chose a guy to come out and impersonate a warthog for the show and who do you think it was??? It was the guy from the teacups and the family of the day at Magic Kingdom!



This was looking really fishy to me. : This time he was seated with the woman and girls who had been on the teacups, plus the camera crew. How did this family keep getting picked for everything? What was up with the camera crew?? Oh, how I wish I had asked!

We really enjoyed the show. It was much better than when we had been there in May. The singers were on tune and in time with the music. It was great!

I had never seen the Nemo show, so we decided to do that afterwards. I had heard mixed reviews on this show, but mom really liked it when she was here in May. I have a total of one picture from the show and it stinks- sorry!



I thought the show was cute. Did I think it deserved a giant auditorium? Probably not! The kids really enjoyed it, especially Sawyer. He was bouncing and dancing along to the music. He just loves Finding Nemo! Finding Nemo was also Tessa's very first movie ever in the movie theater. She was about 6 months old and she actually watched it! She even laughed at the jokes!

At this point, it was 43 degrees, with winds of 9.2mph and I could no longer feel my rear end. Seriously, I was wondering if it was still there. Sawyer had gloves, but he refused to wear them. So, I tried to keep his coat pulled down over his hands.

We had run out of indoor things to do, besides the Conservation Station. Oh, we also were skipping It's a Bug's Life because I thought it would freak the kids out. So, we decided to get something to eat at Pizzafari.

I got the most delicious sandwich in the world. I LOOOOVED this sandwich! Here, I found it on the menu for you. If you like this kind of thing, you must try it!!!

Hot Italian Style Sandwich with Carrot Sticks or Chips - Turkey, ham, Swiss and Provolone Cheese topped with Caesar salad and pesto marinated tomatoes - $7.49

Maybe my enthusiasm came from the warmth of the restaurant and the fact that it was a hot sandwich, though. The kids got breadsticks because they don't like Disney pizza. Those little pizza snobs! They were only $3.99, so it was a cheap meal.





We stayed in Pizzafari for quite a while, hoping that it would warm up while we were in there.





There was a little girl that kept waving to Tessa while we were eating. She looked like she knew who Tessa was. I didn't recognize her and she wasn't dressed like the child of a disboutiquer. She came over when she was done eating and said "You're Tessa! I saw the man sing a song about you!" It was so cute!! Tessa was thrilled. They talked for a while and decided that they were friends.

Mom and I were both ready to leave the park if it hadn't warmed up yet. Mom didn't have any gloves and her hands were getting really cold, too. But, when we came out of the restaurant, it was 48 degrees out and the wind had died down. So, we thought we'd make the treck out to the Conservation Station and Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Sawyer was excited to ride on this train and wasn't scared this time.





I don't know what it is about these elephants, but we always have to stop to play on them! They must have been really cold to touch!!



I got a kick out of my shadow.



We looked at our times guide and saw that the talking trash can was supposed to still be out. But, he was nowhere in sight. Tessa loves the talking trash can. It was the highlight of her trip in '06! She talked about it for years!

Here's Sawyer running around like a maniac while we looked for the talking trash can.



What's up with his foot configuration there?

We didn't see it and I REALLY wanted to get out of the cold, so we went inside. The first thing we did was to listen to the sound of the rainforest in one of the little booths. I always think that is so neat! We actually had to wait a little while for a booth. It seems that everyone wanted to do inside things today. I wonder why!

When a scary sounding animal came across the headphones, Sawyer grabbed his and threw them off. But, he bravely put them back on a minute later.

There was a really friendly CM outside of the booths that asked me if I liked hidden Mickeys. I told him that we love to find hidden Mickeys and that Tessa was an expert at it. So, he pointed to a little area on the wall and asked if I could find the smallest hidden Mickey in the park.



Did you see it?

He also showed me this one, which I thought was particularly cool!



We wandered around a bit and saw a bunch of people gathered over by the window where they do animal surgeries. I have never seen anything in there before. But, this time they were actually operating!!



They were working on a 450lb turtle. They said she hadn't layed any eggs and they were concerned that they were compacted inside of her. So, they were doing exploratory surgery. She also had some weird stuff in her bloodwork, so they thought something was wrong. They didn't find any eggs and she had been on the table for 5 hours at this point, while they tried to figure out what was wrong.

Suddenly, her flipper began to flap. A bunch of people ran over to try and hold the flipper down. There were 4 people on each flipper and they couldn't hold it still. The flipper kept flying around and hitting people. It hit one woman in the chest pretty hard. She had to leave the room. I didn't realize how strong turtles were! We watched for quite a while, completely fascinated!

Then, I heard a familiar squeaky voice- it was Tessa's old friend, the talking trash can!



As soon as we saw him, he had to go take a break. Tessa was pretty disappointed by it.

But, as soon as he was gone, we saw Jiminy Cricket.



This was turning out to be an exciting place!



Sawyer has been on a Pinocchio kick lately, so he was pretty excited to see good 'ol Jiminy.





I wonder why we never get to see Pinocchio anywhere? Sawyer would have loved that! The only place I've ever seen him is in the parade.

Rafiki was also there, so we got some autographs. The handler with him was barking out orders, as if Rafiki were the most sought after character at Disney. "Have your autograph books opened to a blank page, have your pens out, and your cameras turned on before you get to the front of the line." I automatically add a "please" for people like this who seem to forget that word.

We were ALMOST thawed out when Tessa started begging to go pet the goats. Come on!! We can do this at our local zoo! But, it's something she really loves to do, so we braved the cold weather to make the kids happy.





We didn't stay out nearly as long as we usually do over here. When a woman yelled at Tessa for trying to feed the goats grass, we decided it was time to go.

But, we heard that familiar squeaky voice again, so we had to stop for the "show". I was really annoyed because the voice of the garbage can was standing right there about 3 feet from it. So, we could all clearly see him talking, and even hear him talking. It was stupid! It kind of ruined the "magic" for me, but the kids didn't seem to notice. It was all I could do not to turn and talk to the guy instead of the garbage can. But, I let the kids hug a garbage can and we were on our way.

Right around this time, I notice my camera started doing some really weird things. I didn't notice this until we got home. But, it started putting green auras around stuff and making things look really weird!



From this point on, Sawyer checked out every garbage can at Disney World, just to see if it would talk to him.

Guess what, guys? It was still REALLY cold! The temperature had went up to 48 degrees, but there were wind gusts up to 16mph, so it felt almost as cold as it had in the morning. We were frozen and we were DONE!

But, since we were right by Kilimanjaro Safari, we thought we'd check on the line. Line? What line? There was NO line! I've NEVER seen that before! We just walked right up to the front and hopped on a car. This driver was SO much nicer than the last time we were here.

Did you miss that adventure? Well, that was then and this is now (which is also a book by S.E. Hinton).

There were lots of animals out. We weren't sure with it being so cold out, but we saw quite a few. Most of the deer-looking animals weren't out in the fields, though. Sawyer and Tessa both enjoyed it.







This guy was in there with the flamingos the last time we were here. Is he planning on living with them and studying them like the wolf man on tv?





After the safari, we really were done. It was just too cold to stay around and watch the parade. I really wanted to see it, but it just wasn't worth it. So, we headed out of the park. But, we had several photopass pictures taken on the way out. They're lovely, no?





I called Henry on the ride back to Pop and he said that it was below zero at home. Well, at least he didn't have to stay outside in it!

Mom once again offered to get the cups while I waited with the kids. She's so sweet!

I attempted to get in line with the kids to get their chicken nuggets and fries. Well, that didn't work out so well. Sawyer had gotten REALLY hyper on the ride over and he wanted to run, run, run. Tessa was being silly and giggling and I had a heckuva time controlling the 2 of them while I balanced a food tray. Ugh!

I did manage to pay for the food without dumping my tray. I just got chili fries for myself, minus the cheese (I despise processed yellow cheese-type substance).

We all got lots of hot chocolate. This time I drank it straight up, with a little bit of creamer in it. YUM!! Warm, creamy, chocolate goodness! I have a feeling this may be why I put on a few pounds during this vacation!

While we were eating, I noticed that some women came in with a frozen pizza. I was very curious as to what they were doing with it. They took it out of the box and carried it over to the beverage area. Then, they broke it into pieces and stuck it in the toaster oven!! That did NOT work!! We saw them dump the pizza in the garbage and sheepishly sneak away. When we went over to the beverage area later, we saw that there was melted cheese and pieces of pizza crust all over the oven, right next to the sign that says the toaster oven is for toast and bagels only.

Also while we were eating, I looked up and noticed a mannequin wearing this sweatshirt with lime green mickey head buttons on it. I thought my fellow Disers would enjoy it!



We went back to our room and discovered that "the maid" had put Tessa's gloves on her Baby Simba.



Tessa was amazed because she had been wearing her gloves all day, so how did they get on Baby Simba? She decided that it must be Disney magic!

She didn't remember that mom had borrowed her gloves when she came to the room to get our mugs.

We relaxed in our nice, warm room for the rest of the night while the kids watched some tv. Aaaaahhhhh.....

February 6, 2008

After watching the weather forecast and seeing that temperatures were supposed to be in the 30's and 40's all morning, we decided to wait until a little later to head to Hollywood Studios.

Thanks to my friend, Piper, we had an extra 30 minutes at the arcade! So, we went over there after breakfast to pass the time and let it warm up a bit outside. The kids had a blast!! You couldn't play any games that had tickets with the 30 minute arcade card. But, that was fine with me! That means no waiting in line to cash in tickets for worthless items! Always a bonus in my book!

My kids LOVE air hockey, even though they both stink at it. More often than not, they score on theirselves than the other way around.







Yep, more air hockey pictures. They played this for most of the 30 minutes we had!





It was pretty funny to see Sawyer trying to play this driving game. He insisted that he didn't want any help pushing the pedal down. So, he was trying to push the pedal and then he'd hurry up and sit up so he could see where he was driving, and then move down to push the pedal again.



Did you see mom's mug of hot chocolate?

Tessa had a better vantage point for the driving games.



They had no idea how to play this dancing thing, but they sure had fun trying!!





I think they were riding a roller coaster or something here, and taking it very seriously.



Our 30 minute pass was over before we knew it. But, they still played around for a while. I don't know what this game was, but it sure looked cool!




How does Sawyer twist his limbs into those positions??

Thank you so much for the arcade card, Piper!!

After the arcade, we walked around in the lobby or a bit. Mom wanted a picture of herself with the display from "her" decade.



She never had a poodle skirt, but she always wanted one. She did have saddle shoes, though. She said her mom bought them after they were out of style and they lasted FOREVER!

We headed back to the room to grab a small lunch and pick up the stroller and everything we needed for the rest of the day. Here's the outside of our building.



And the walkway to our room.





The kids were pretty excited to finally be heading to one of the parks. I had them stand outside the door so we would always remember which room we were in (and which one to avoid in the future, due to the NOISE).



As you may have noticed, the kids are dressed up as Jessie and Woody. Castlecreations made Tessa's Jessie outfit and I made Sawyer's Woody vest. Mom and I were wearing matching shirts with our names on them, surrounded by Disney characters. But, we never got a picture together.

I had always wanted to eat at the Sci-Fi Drive in, so I made ADRs the night before for 3:50. Weird time, but that's what you get at the last minute! So, besides heading straight to Toy Story Mania for a fastpass, that was our only real plan for the day.

The weather was fairly nice at this point, in the 50's. So, we were happy to be outside in the sunshine.

When we got to the park, we noticed something odd. There were matching people ALL over the place. Mostly girls, wearing matching outfits and carrying matching bags. What WAS this? Please insert scary Jaws music here....

THE CHEERLEADERS HAD ARRIVED!!!

From this day on, we feared our hopes of walking onto any ride without a line were dashed to the ground. A group of 50 or so cheerleaders were always in front of us. It was SO crowded!

I had never seen this new Pixar sign. So, I snapped a picture.



I wasn't sure why it turned out so blurry. But, I found evidence of tampering when I went to put the pictures on the computer.



A close-up of the carpet in our room. I wonder who took that one?



Yes, Sawyer's self-portrait gave him away. It's really no wonder my camera takes screwy pictures now!

When we got to Toy Story Mania, we saw that the wait was an hour long and there were NO fast passes left for the rest of the day. STINKIN' CHEERLEADERS!!!! Don't they know that Sawyer had his heart set on riding this ride?

We were not about to wait an hour in line with 2 kids, so we headed away in defeat. We checked on Tower of Terror to see how long the wait was. Too long! So, we got fastpasses for later. The fastpass return was for quite a while later, so we weren't sure what to do until then. Here's a picture of Tessa looking dorky because it's the only picture I have for this point in the trip report.



We thought we'd check and see what time the Beauty and the Beast show started. I walked up to the guy outside of the auditorium and asked. He told us it would start in 20 minutes. Then, he looked at Tessa and said "How would you like to be the princess of the show?" Tessa had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew!! I was practically hopping up and down. Tessa didn't say anything and acted all shy. He then said "You don't have to do it if you don't want to." So, of course I spoke for her and said "She wants to do it!'

We were given a card that said that Tessa was the princess of the show that we were to present to the woman at the top of the auditorium steps. She then led us to the VIP seating area, which was in the 3rd row. She told Tessa that at the end of the show, she would come and get her and take her up to the stage so Belle and the Beast could give her a rose!

By this point, Tessa was catching some of my excitement and couldn't wait for the show to start!



We were pretty early, so we had lots of time to chat with the people around us. There was a nice family behind us who had never heard of the disboards (my shirt said "Do you Dis?" on the back of it). They said they thought they'd been to every Disney website imaginable. I told them if they hadn't been to the disboards, they hadn't been anywhere!

The mother was really sweet and seemed almost as excited as me that Tessa was chosen as the princess of the show. She also said my kids looked really cute in their Toy Story outfits!

After the show started, we sat in awe at the great view from our VIP seats!



Here comes too many bad pictures!

Wait, I even took a video to show how close we were!



Gaston was NOT real handsome.



Here's the part where Tessa yelled "No, don't kill the beast!" the first time she saw this show in 2006.



The Beast was pretty cute, though! Does anyone know if the beast has a name?



The show was wonderful! I just love this one!! But, the whole time I was waiting in anticipation for the end, where Tessa would have her moment!!! It finally came and I GOT IT ON VIDEO!!!




Tessa was thrilled (yes, that is her thrilled face, believe it or not) and she has cherished that rose ever since.







We all left smiling big, goofy, smiles!

We headed to the Great Movie Ride since it wasn't time for our fastpasses or dinner yet. We walked right onto the ride- much to the dismay of a group of people that had accidentally gone the wrong way once inside and were being held back by a CM until we passed through.



Both of the kids really enjoyed it and they didn't even get scared during the Alien part! This was the first time (at least that I remember) I'd ridden this ride where it's a gangster that takes over the car instead of a cowboy. I thought that was interesting!

We went over to check on Toy Story Mania again since it STILL wasn't time for our fastpass return. The line was still obnoxiously long. But, I spotted a line across the "street", so we went to check it out. It was the line to meet Buzz and Woody! It looked like the actual meet was inside a building. I had never seen it set up this way, so I was curious to see what it was all about.

We waited quite a while outside. The people behind us in line had no concept of personal space and the guy kept coughing right on me!!! EWWWW!!! The mom even stepped on Sawyer at one point!! She apologized and seemed to feel really bad about it. She better have! We were in an unmoving line! See my reflection in the glass? That guy "next" to me was supposed to be behind me!



Finally, they let us into the building. They had told us we had to park our stroller before we got in line. But, there was a woman at the door with a stroller. She was holding up the line and calling the rest of her family to take the stroller- which she then exchanged for FIVE kids! What? We waited in line for 20 minutes, but she just strolls up to the door with 5 kids?! I took the kids and stepped around her, into the building. I don't think she was happy about that, but COME ON!

I regretted this decision when her five kids met up with the obnoxious kid with the no personal space family behind us and they all started running all over the place and almost knocking us down. I would have rather had them in front of us where I could see them coming!

Anyway, there were some cute photo opportunities once we got inside.





Captured by the evil Sid!





The kids were having a blast posing in all the cutouts and such. They really love Toy Story. Several times during the day people said something to the effect of "They really must like Toy Story a lot, huh?" Who doesn't?







It took a while, but we finally got to the front of the line. Sawyer seemed to be in awe the whole time. He couldn't believe he was actually seeing Buzz AND Woody!

Buzz and Woody kept pointing to their outfits and acting excited! The handler said they don't get very many kids dressed like Woody and she couldn't recall ever seeing another Jessie! We asked if there was anyplace that we could meet Jessie and she said she wasn't there today.



Woody wanted to know where Tessa got her rose, so she told him about being the princess of the show.

Sawyer was just so surprised to see Woody, but he really wanted to give him a hug!



It was such a cool character interaction! I loved every minute of it! It was worth the 1/2 hour or so wait.





We checked the Toy Story Mania line on our way out and it was still over an hour wait! It wasn't looking good for us!

Our fastpasses for Tower of Terror were finally good, so mom and Tessa decided to ride while I did the parent swap for Sawyer. Tessa was really looking forward to riding it this time. In 2008 she kind of liked it, but the kid screaming "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!" next to her kind of sullied the experience.

Sawyer and I sat on a bench and people-watched for a while. I have never really looked at this side of TOT. It's really pretty!



Sawyer was having a nice time just watching people, too.



As we were sitting there, a little boy, about the same age as Sawyer, came up to me and said "Hi Momma!" and sat right down next to me. When I looked up, I saw his mother rushing over, trying to chase him down. When she got over to us she said "Well, I guess he's found a new family! He does that a lot!" The little guy was so cute! He sat with us for a while before moving on to his next family.

It took longer than I expected for Mom and Tessa to come out of the ride. By the time they came out, it was time to head over to the Sci-Fine Dine-in theater for lupper (lunch/supper). It was just as well because Tessa declared "I HATE that ride and I NEVER want to go on it AGAIN!!!" Mom said she was terrified the whole time. Poor baby!



I planned to ride it after we ate. Since, as every good Diser knows, fastpasses don't expire until the end of the day.

The Sci-Fi Diner is a very unsuspecting looking building. It just looks like it would be some sort of warehouse when you walk in. But, when you round the corner into the dining room, you are transported into the dark of a drive-in movie theater! It is really awesome!!

A weird guy on roller skates showed us to our car and whisked my stroller away to parts unknown. The seating is really cool in this place because each family has their own car. It's set up like a real car, but you have a table in front of you. Mom and Sawyer were in the back seat.



Tessa and I were in the front.



Sawyer absolutely loved the old cartoons and parts of movies they were playing.



This was his kind of place!

Here is a video of him dancing to the music. He's so stinkin' cute!



I ordered a hamburger because there was nothing much else on the menu. I also indulged in a shake because Henry always scoffs if I order something like that at a restaurant. We usually just get ice water!

Tessa and I were really enjoying the atmosphere, when they brought my food. Then, she had to use the bathroom. Why does she always have to go as soon as the food comes?? The problem is that there is no bathroom IN the restaurant, really. You have to go out a side door and go to a restroom that is shared with the ABC Comissary. So, you step right out of the drive-in theater, and are smacked with the real world again. I really didn't like that! The bathroom was really crowded and full of CHEERLEADERS!

When we were done eating, the waitress brought out the kid's dessert. I've got to mention that this was after she had a VERY long, 10 minute or so, conversation with the table next to us- AFTER she told the kids she'd be right back with the desserts.

She redeemed herself by offering to take our picture.



Here's Sawyer's ice cream. It has cute little Mickey shaped sprinkles in it. Unfortunately, it would make a return appearance very shortly.



Thankfully for you, I have no pictures of the next part of our journey.

Yes, shortly after the desserts were brought out, Sawyer threw up. It was a MESS! I turned to get the diaper bag so I could get the wipes to clean him up. However, the diaper bag was in the stroller, that was whisked away to parts unknown. So, I had to try and get someone to bring some napkins to the table for us and to get my stroller.

It took me a while to get someone to actually pay attention to me. But, finally I was able to tell a guy that my son just threw up and I needed something to clean him up with. He got a panicked look in his eyes and started apologizing. He said "Don't worry, we'll clean it up, don't worry." Then, he sent a manager over to our table who also apologized and gave me a voucher good for a free kid's t-shirt at any gift shop in the park. I told them that they didn't need to apologize and thanked them for the voucher. Then, I asked again where our stroller was so I could take Sawyer to the bathroom and start cleaning him up. They finally brought it back from parts unknown and I headed to the "other wordly" bathroom.

As we walked into the bathroom, I was stopped by no less than 3 people and told how cute the kid's outfits were. Umm...thanks....I guess they're even cute when covered in puke! To be fair, Sawyer had pretty much missed his shirt. But, his pants were covered in stuff. I wiped him up as best as I could. I hadn't brought any extra pants with us!!

Just so you understand how stupid this was on my part, Sawyer throws up a LOT! He especially throws up when we are eating at restaurants and such. Something in restaurant food does not agree with his little tummy. Either that or he eats too fast when we eat out. We haven't figured it out yet. But, it's really unwise to take him out somewhere without an extra set of clothes.

He acted like he was feeling fine, so we went to a gift shop to look for a new outfit for him with our handy-dandy voucher. However, there were no pants anywhere that were his size. They either had baby pants or big boy pants, no toddler sizes.

While we were looking, I got a call on my cell phone from someone at Sci-Fi asking if I left my camera at the restaurant. I had my camera, but mom checked and hers was missing. So, she had to go back to the restaurant and get it. I still haven't figured out how they had my cell phone number. Maybe I gave it to them when I made reservations??

While we were waiting for mom, Sawyer spotted a Buzz Lightyear bank and he fell in LOVE. It was the first thing he had wanted, besides candy. So, I bought it for him. Of course, I forgot to use my gift card to pay for it.



While I'm at it, here's a picture of Tessa's bank that she got at MK.



When mom returned with her camera, we decided to go back to the hotel to clean Sawyer up and then we'd come back to the park.

While waiting in line for the bus, I spotted a lime green Mickey head! It was being worn by a girl of about 11 or 12 years old. She had a twin sister with her who was also wearing a lime green mickey head (I think she was, at least). I asked her if she was a Diser and she said "No, but my mom is!! She is going to be so excited that we met another Diser! She's been looking for lime green Mickey heads all week and she is really disappointed that she hasn't see any." I looked at the person next to them because I thought that must be her mom. But, she looked decidedly unfriendly, so I figured it wasn't her. Then, the girl said that her mom was back at Pop Century and the two of them had taken the bus over to DHS by themselves! I hope they were older than they looked!! They were really sweet girls and we chatted with them for a while. I don't remember their mom's name. But, random Diser!

We got back to the room and gave Sawyer a bath and changed his clothes. We talked about it and decided that we really didn't want to go back to DHS since it was SOOO crowded. We thought that maybe MK would be better since it was a green day, according to TourGuide Mike.

Tessa saw other kids posing inside of the "0" at Pop Century, so we stopped to take a picture, too.



When we arrived at MK, we decided that the cheerleaders were making every park crowded, not just DHS. It was at this moment that I decided not to come back again on this week in February!

Tessa still really wanted to meet Tinker Bell, so the first thing we did was head over to Toon Town. We walked in to see the dreaded "60 minutes" sign. We thought the line looked shorter than the last time it had said 60 minutes. This was going to be our last day at MK, so we decided to bite the bullet and get in line. It was the longest 60 minutes of our trip! UGH! That line did NOT move for 30 minutes- at ALL!

Sawyer was bored out of his skull, as were mom and I.



Tessa had found a little girl to play with, so she was pretty happy. There was a tv screen playing something from The Tinker Bell movie, but we couldn't really see it from our location. So, there was really nothing more to do but stand and wait....and wait....

Finally- the line MOVED! We took 4 steps forward...and we stopped. UGH! This was looking like it was going to be a REALLY long wait.

The line moved at fairly regular intervals after that, but always by painfully few steps. I was whining about it more than the kids were, thankfully. So were the other adults in line. Quite a few people gave up and left the area. Unfortunately, they were all BEHIND us in line.

We finally made it to the front of the line and with a big to-do the woman let in a small group of us. We thought we were going to be going right in to see Tinker Bell. However, it was a devious trick!! We were just led into a different waiting area!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!

We waited in this area another TWENTY minutes! At least there was a cool forest theme in this waiting area.



Sawyer and Tessa were having fun trying to "catch" Tinker Bell (a little light that sped around the waiting area). They were playing with this little girl dressed as Aurora. We found out that she was also from Michigan.



FINALLY, after 1 hour and 20 minutes, we made it to the REAL front of the line. A perky CM came out with a wand filled with pixie dust and sprinkled both of the kids with it. She told them they had to flap their wings and fly like a fairy and follow her.

Tessa rather sheepishly flapped her wings and followed this perky CM. We were lead straight to...



,,,this fairy that we had never seen before. Tessa tried walking straight past her to Tinker Bell. But, there was another family with Tinker Bell. This fairy was very nice, and very pretty, anyway. We have since learned that her name is Silvermist. No, we hadn't seen the movie before we came here.



Silvermist talked really fast and she also talked a lot! Tessa had no idea what she was talking about most of the time since she hadn't seen the movie. Poor Silvermist probably thought we were real duds.

The photopass CM spotted Sawyer's Chip and Dale shirt and asked where I got it. I told her that I had made it and she told me I should make them for adults. She said she'd buy one!

Then, came the main event- TINKER BELL!!



She also talked really fast and said things that we didn't understand. She decided that Tessa was a Tinker like her because she had all sorts of "found things". : Yeah, we get it now, but we sure didn't then!

Here's some video of our experience.



I don't remember what this look was all about, but I thought it was funny.



Tessa told Tinker Bell that when she was a little girl, she wanted to see her fly off of the castle. But, then she didn't fly because it was too windy. That girl can hold a grudge! Teresa had bought Tessa a Tinkerbell necklace when she was 2 years old. It was her first "real" jewelry and she really cherished it. So, when we went to Florida in 2006, all Tessa could talk about was seeing Tinkerbell fly off of the castle. She was crushed when it was too windy for her to fly. However, in 2008, she got to see her fly off the castle. Unfortunately, we were too close to the zip line where she comes down and Tessa was insistant that it wasn't really Tinkerbell, but "just a bunch of lights". I am sure it wasn't Tinkerbell, more like "Tinker Bill". But, it was a real person.





When it was time for hugs, Tessa just couldn't wait! She looks like she's going to pull poor Tink right over! She was a tiny little thing!



But, she was thrilled when it was her turn to get a real hug from Tinker Bell. She had been waiting her whole life for this!



First Ariel and then Tinker Bell! Does it get any better than this??

Next, we were whisked over to the next random fairy.



We also had no idea who she was. But, she was very pretty and very sweet. Sawyer took an instant liking to her. Maybe it has something to do with what she was whispering to him here.



Once we looked at the autograph book, we figured out that her name is Rosetta.



Then, Sawyer got another kiss on the cheek! He was racking them up on this vacation. He was happy to reciprocate with a big hug.



Tessa was also happy to give the random fairy a hug.



All in all, it was a great experience! It was almost worth the wait....almost.

Since it was getting kind of late, we thought we'd go ahead and stay for Wishes. We didn't think we were going to get to see them on this trip, so we were happy that we were at the right place at the right time. We had just enough time to take a spin on Sawyer's favorite ride first! We thought he deserved it for how good he was in line for the fairies.





This time, I picked him up at the picture spot so we could actually see him in the redneck photo!



Obviously, this is why I had such a pitiful score. You know, I'm always thinking of my kids and all.

In 2006 we had stayed for Wishes, but didn't get to watch them because Tessa was terrified of the fireworks. So, we had to hide out in the bathroom until they were over. Then, we had to go and stand in line at the buses for what seemed like hours (and probably was close to it) with a tired, cranky, 2 year old.

This time, we decided to watch them by the flag pole so we would be close to the exit and one of the first ones to get to the bus stop.



This was a great move, in theory. But, this vantage point just wasn't as magical as the spot we had staked out in 2008. We were too far away, with too many people in front of us. It just wasn't the same. I didn't shed a tear.



Honestly, the whole time I was just worrying about how long we were going to have to wait in line for that bus. When the show ended, we booked it out to the bus stop. Of course, Pop Century's bus stop is the very furthest away that you can possibly get at MK. Thank you very much, Disney! Never did it feel longer than at the end of this very long day!

We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the bus stop that there weren't very many people in front of us! We managed to get on the 2nd bus that pulled up and got a seat. We had already decided that we weren't standing and if there were no seats, we'd wait for the next bus. Sawyer was asleep at this point, so I wasn't going to stand up and hold him.

I sat next to some random guy. But, one of us noticed the other's lime green mickey head. I had found another Diser!! He was also a Tourguide Mike-er! So, we became instant friends and we chatted the whole ride back to POP. I don't remember his username, but it involved numbers and such, I believe. We talked in the TGM lingo, such as referring to uninformed people as "them". It was refreshing! His poor wife was sitting with random strangers in the back of the bus, with his 2 sleeping kids. I never got to meet her. So, random guy on the bus and his wife and 2 kids!!

We were SOOOO very tired by the time we got back to the hotel. We had planned on getting to Epcot the next day by rope drop. But, we decided to just sleep as long as we needed to. I slept really well, even with Tessa's feet in my face and the sound of people pulling luggage up the stairs.

True Love At Mickey D's

February 7, 2009

Today was the day! The day she had waited so long for!

After a year of engagement, Tessa would finally meet Luke today! You see, it all started when I posted this picture of Tessa in February of 2008:



Luke fell in love with her super-cool boxing moves. Then, Tessa saw a picture of Luke with a fish...



and it was all over. They were head over heels. They decided they would marry each other.

Tessa was bouncing off the wall in the morning because she knew she was meeting Luke today. But, she didn't realize that we weren't meeting them until around 7:00pm at Downtown Disney!

So, I let her down easy by telling her we were going to Epcot to ride Soarin'! She rode this on our May trip and LOVED it!

We all got ready and made it to Epcot around 9:00, but not in time for rope drop. We rushed over to The Land to grab our Fastpasses for Soarin'. I was hoping that we could get in the standby line and then ride again with the fastpasses, but the line was already 45 minutes long, so we passed.

While we were waiting to use our fastpasses, we decided to jump in the Living With the Land ride. Yes, there was actually a short line. It was only a few minutes long and we were on our way. I actually like this ride and the kids really enjoyed it.

It was while we were on the ride that I realized that I'd left my camera outside in the stroller. So, I stole some pictures from various sites around the internet, just for you!

I got a kick out of this Mickey pumpkin with the tag:



This tomato tree reminded us of our garden last year. We had TONS of cherry tomatoes! YUM!



We still had a while before our fastpasses were good, so we actually...went...into...The Circle of Life!!!! I KNOW!!! What were we thinking? I knew everyone says it's really bad, but I didn't remember it. We didn't want to leave The Land and then come back because we're too lazy. So, we went and waited for the movie to start. Do they really need a sign announcing that this movie is 100ft ahead?



We were sitting next to a family who had a baggie full of food. The mother was holding the baggie out to her kids and saying take ONE thing, just ONE! I was confused because the bag had whole prunes, along with raisins and nuts. So, what were they supposed to do if they wanted nuts? Take one peanut? I'd say the kid who likes prunes was definitely getting the best end of that deal.

Any-hoo. We watched the movie, which was SOOOOO annoying. Then, we left. The kids enjoyed it a reasonable amount, I suppose. What I found stupid about this theater is when you leave, you have to walk down (or up, I don't recall) a flight of stairs. How safe is it to have a whole theater full of people trying to navigate a fairly narrow stairway?

It was finally time to ride Soarin'! Poor Sawyer couldn't ride it because he's just a bit too short. He stayed with mom while Tessa and I got in the fastpass return line. The very long fastpass return line. The very long, unmoving, fastpass return line. We waited in line for 25 minutes in the fastpass line! I was un-pleased! Tessa made a new best friend in line and they were busily chatting away. The little girl's mother was decidedly unfriendly, so I chatted with her daughter instead.

We finally made it to the queue area and the little girl ended up in a different row. Tessa was upset about that, but what can yah do? We watched Putty (or is it Puddy?) tell us about the ride and then went in and took our seats. The ride started out great with Tessa squealing with delight and the guy next to her smiling at her like she was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.



Then, it started...



"HOLY ****!! Did you see that ****? My feet almost kicked the **** out of that ****!" This was coming from a guy in the row next to us. He was probably in his 60's and appeared to be with his wife and family. I was upset about his language, but assumed that his wife would "shush" him and that would be the end of it. But, NO!!! The guy's filth spewed all the way through the ride. He was having the time of his life, but using 100's of expletives to express it. It was torture. I said rather loudly "Sir, there are children on this ride, please watch your language." Either he didn't hear me, or he didn't care, because he just kept it up. I didn't see anyone talk to this man when the ride ended. So, I imagine he went on to foul the air for the rest of the day. I planned to give him a piece of my mind when we got off, but I couldn't catch up to him. Plus, I was thinking he might be some sort of nutcase, so that wouldn't be a good idea.

UGH! I'm still mad that he ruined one of the best rides at Disney for us! I don't know if Tessa even noticed him. She never said anything about it, so that's good!

We went to find mom and Sawyer and they were sitting on a bench enjoying a bag full of Mickey pretzels. Apparently, you can get a little bag of pretzels for less than $1.00!! A total bargain for Disney!

We swapped kids and Tessa and Mom went off to ride. Sawyer and I were sitting next to a grandma who was taking care of her little grandson who was about 7 months old. He was happily cooing and such at his grandma until he realized that his mommy was nowhere to be seen. Then, he started crying. The grandma instantly tensed up and started frantically jostling him around, trying to get him to stop crying.

Watching her with her grandchild made me thankful once again for my wonderful mother. My mom just knows what to do with babies. I don't think I've ever seen her get that way because a baby was crying. She is just a natural born mother/grandma/nurturer. *sigh*

Mom and Tessa also waited 25 minutes to get on the ride. What was up with the fastpass line? When they came out, we headed over to Sunshine Seasons (which is right inside of The Land) to eat lunch. This place has 4 different areas where you can get different types of food. Everything looked pretty yummy, but I was in a sandwich kind of mood after the delicious sandwich I had at Animal Kingdom. So, I tried this little beauty:



Remember, I had to steal these pictures, so I didn't have that yummy looking dessert, just the sandwich. They had some REALLY delicious looking desserts in the bakery area, but I refrained. I planned to get my first Mickey bar of the trip later on.

The sandwich was pretty good, but not as good as the AK one. I got Sawyer a mini sandwich. That thing was AWFUL! The bread was so hard he would have broke his teeth on it if he had tried to eat it. The cheese on the sandwich was also rock hard. The only thing he ended up eating off of it was the turkey. Mom and Tessa shared some chicken.

We had a really nice time just sitting and people watching while we were eating. So, we took our time.

I looked over at Living with The Land and realized that there was a LOOONG line! It was actually going through the entire queueing area! Yes, people were waiting for Living With The Land- in February!!!

I was missing Teresa, so we gave her a call. We chatted for quite a while and talked about all of the really cool things that had happened so far (Tessa getting a rose, the song guy at AK, etc...). I also got to talk to Lydia and Arminda for a little while.

I had to use the restroom, but I thought I'd wait until we got to The Seas. However, as soon as I stepped out of The Land, I knew that wasn't an option. I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants. I must have drank more water than I thought! We couldn't find a bathroom right there, so we had to wander to find one. I thought I was gonna die! Then, I spotted one!!

This is where I took the very first picture of this day.


Crisis averted, we went out and looked at the water outside. The kids were just thrilled with the fish and ducks below.





I held the camera down towards the water to get this picture of Tessa.





Sawyer is a Nemo lover, so he was really looking forward to the Nemo ride. I got this picture of him as soon as we got in our shell.



The CM working that area made sure to tell me in a not-too-friendly voice "There is NO flash photography on the ride."

So, I took this picture of myself.



I took this one without a flash, because I can be a good girl if I wanna be.



Sawyer "oohed" and "aaahed" over the fish and the Nemos. It was adorable! He was a little leery of the part with the sharks, but overall he loved it!

We went straight over to Turtle Talk With Crush and got right into the waiting area. The kids joined some fancy princesses and looked at some stingrays.





Both kids sat up front (I wasn't sure they would) and Mom and I sat in the front row.



It was then that I realized I had to pee AGAIN. REALLY BAD! Sheesh! I don't generally have these issues! So, I don't even remember the show.

All I could think about was getting out of there and using the bathroom. But, I didn't want to stand up and exit and have Crush call me out!



After what seemed like an eternity, I made a mad dash for the exit and headed straight for the bathroom.

The kids were happily watching the manatees with mom when I returned.



We wandered around and looked at fishies for a while. Is it wrong that I think this place is pretty darn boring? I like the manatees and I could watch them for quite a while. But, besides that it all looks kind of dull and ugly.

Sawyer loved finding Nemo and Dory in the little tanks.

Sawyer was REALLY wanting to go see the sharks. The Nemo sharks, that is. So, we went over and played for a bit.







I think one of the longest lines we stood in was the line to get this picture!



Well, he THOUGHT he wanted to see the sharks!



I thought Tessa put on a very convincing scared face in this one!!



Then, I had to use the bathroom AGAIN! I was seriously starting to worry that I was pregnant. I never have to go this much unless I'm pregnant. I obsessed about it quite a bit for the next few days. But, alas, that is almost certainly never going to happen again. So, I think someone must have snuck a diuretic in my water at Sunshine Seasons!

I wanted to get a picture of the kids with the fake Nemo outside, but there were tons of people around it. So, I just sat them up near it to get their picture. But, there were all sorts of little kids running around up there with the sculpture and I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to do that. So, I wouldn't let my kids run around up there. But, Sawyer insisted that was what he was going to do. Hence, he got kicked out of the picture.



Next up we wanted a line-free ride, so we went to Journey Into The Imagination. I had told Tessa that there's a part where a skunk sprays you. So, she did this the entire ride.



Hey, it's Figment! I promise, this is the only bad picture I will post from this ride.



I actually enjoy the ride, as lame as it is. I do miss the old version where they had a big 'ol contraption type thing at the end and the song was WAY better.

We went and played with the e-mail a photo things. Can you say outdated? Tessa kept insisting on putting huge things all over our faces so you couldn't even see us anymore, so we didn't e-mail them to anyone.

When we walked out, we spotted a Mickey bar cart. YAY!!!! It was time!!!



Mom fished through her purse for a while, but couldn't find her credit card. So, I got her a Mickey bar, too. She kept looking for it after we sat down, but she couldn't find it anywhere!! She thought she must have left it at Sunshine Seasons. I was freaking out about it a little bit. But, she sat down and leisurely ate her Mickey bar.



Poor Sawyer, he doesn't know that you don't get that silly kind of popsicle when you could have a MICKEY BAR!! But, he was happy, so who am I to spoil his joy?



I know his shirt is way too big, but I wanted us to match and that's the only size they had.

I took a picture of my nifty stroller bag while we were sitting there. I put an iron-on lime green Mickey head on it before we left. I screwed it up a bit, but it's readable.



No, my kids don't usually use sippy cups, but it's much more convenient at Disney!

Tessa put her little Dumbo in the flowers and asked me to take a picture. Isn't he adorable!?



Mom went back into The Land to look for her credit card. They told her to go and check guest services. She was in no big hurry to get over there. She said "If it's there, there's no sense in hurrying and if it's not there, there's nothing I can do about it." What a great attitude! Although, I could just imagine someone charging up all sorts of things while we leisurely strolled through Epcot.

We stopped by Club Station Cool first and I gave my kids their first taste of the Beverly! I accidentally erased Sawyer's video, but let me assure you that it was hilarous! I just loved the awful face he made and he actually spit it back out. I'm lucky he didn't throw up!

I managed to hold onto Tessa's first taste. I love how she is frantically trying to find a place to throw the cup away as soon as she tastes it.



Here is my tribute to UtahMama.



My mom could not understand why I wanted her to take this picture. But, all UMama fans will understand!

Next, we hung around a pole. Okay, I admit, I didn't take notes and I don't remember what the heck we were doiong. But, we got some pretty cute pictures of it!









I'm pretty sure Sawyer was doing his weird "tense up every muscle in your body thing" in that last picture. I would find it really funny if it didn't concern me a bit.

Next we went to guest services to find mom's credit card. I told her to try and look a little bit concerned for the picture. So, this is what I got.



It took a while for them to look and the guy at the counter was trying to be funny, but just came across as creepy and weird. He finally told her that he found it, but she had to describe it first. She couldn't remember if it was Mastercard or Visa, but he gave it to her anyway. YAY! Crisis averted! Here's the kids having a grand 'ol time while we were waiting.



We wanted to go back to the room to rest a little bit since we'd be out kind of late with Jeanne (Luke's mom) and family. But, we decided to take a trip on Spaceship Earth first. I could NOT resist taking a picture of these women in front of us.



Where did they think they were going that morning? Did they mistake "Epcot" for "Rodeo Drive"?? Seriously, ladies! You are WAAAYYY overdressed for Disney! WAAAYYY overdressed! But, I must admit, they did look fabulous!

Here's the picture I snapped to cover up the fact that I was taking pictures of miscellaneous strangers' hineys.



Sawyer really liked the ride, but he was really fascinated by something on the seat.



I took a minute to see what he was doing...he was playing with GUM!!! Someone had stuck gum to the seat, and it was rather fresh! I hurried up and picked him up to put him in my lap. Of course, then I was worried that maybe he had gum on his bum and I'd just put him on my lap. So, I might have gum on my lap now. But, I tried not to let it ruin the ride for me.

Tessa was starting to get a little pouty and tired.



The good thing about me picking up Sawyer is that you could see him for the picture.



I don't recall what we picked, something about fitness, it seems.





When we got to the end of the ride, I told the CM that there was gum on our seat. She looked at me very suspiciously and I said "It wasn't ours, I promise!" She still eyed me skeptically.

When we got off the ride, Tessa started whining about all sorts of things. I really wanted to have a photopass picture taken, but I was thinking it wasn't going to happen. I finally grabbed her arm and told her to straighten up.

At that moment, I heard a man's voice say....

"Heather, is that you??"

OH GREAT!!! Here I am yanking my kid's arm and at that very moment, I have my first disboutique meet!

It was TOM! I was so embarassed! He was with Leighanna and his wife, Angela.

Tessa was immediately drawn to Leighanna and the feeling seemed to be mutual! I think she recognized her from the pictures online.



Tom and I chatted a bit while the kids played. Tessa LOVED Leighanna's deer and had to know where she got it.



They were just so cute playing together! Tessa had totally snapped out of her "mood" by this point.



Tom was on his way to meet some of the other disboutiquers at the flag pole for Wishes and Spectro. But, we had a different meet-up planned, so we parted ways. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Tom and Angela. I suppose I didn't want to freak out poor Angela too bad! She was wearing a really cute iron-on shirt, though.

Thanks to Tom and Leighanna, we were able to get a few good photopass pictures!



Well, good enough so you can see our matching outfits....and no one is pouting.



We continued on to the buses and got right on one. Sawyer was out almost as soon as he sat down.





When we got to the room, I had planned on the kids napping or resting a bit. But, since Sawyer had already had a nap on the bus, he wasn't about to go back to sleep. So, mom offered to take them on a little tour of the resort while I kicked back and relaxed in the room. I happily took her up on that offer!

But, I didn't get much rest because I was all excited about meeting Jeanne! I was restless, so I just started tidying up the room and such. They weren't gone too long and then it was time to leave for Downtown Disney. We were meeting Jeanne at McDonald's. Yes, we were going ALL out for Tessa and Luke's first meet!

Jeanne had mentioned going to Rainforest. But, they were going to be arriving that evening, right before we met. So, I suggested McDonald's because the kids would probably be tired and wouldn't want to wait for the food. She didn't know there was a McDonald's at DTD. So, it was a learning experience!

Tessa wanted to stop for some more 0 pictures on the way to the bus stop.



Sawyer kept trying to run up the side of it. He didn't get too far!



I called Jeanne on the bus and she said they were just checking into the hotel. But, that they would try to get on the next boat to DTD. I felt bad that they weren't going to get any time to rest before they headed out again.

We got to DTD and it was PACKED!!! There were CHEERLEADERS EVERYWHERE!! There were also all sorts of other people out. I guess that's what you get for going to DTD on a Saturday night! We weaved our way to McDonald's and staked out a table right by the door. Jeanne called me and let me know they had missed the first boat, but they were hoping to get on the next one. No worries! We were enjoying just sitting and people watching.



I recognized the flushed look Sawyer had to his cheeks. It's not usually a good sign right before he eats...



But, we were meeting Jeanne, Luke, Jayden, Lily, Seth, and Mike! YAY!



Suddenly, in walks one of the cutest families I've ever seen!!! Notice that Jeanne has her camera out and ready!



I wanted to get it all on video, but my camera kept screwing up and switching from video to picture mode. Luke and Tessa looked at each other and there wasn't a hint of shyness! They went right up and hugged each other! 

 I wanted to get it all on video, but my camera kept screwing up and switching from video to picture mode. Luke and Tessa looked at each other and there wasn't a hint of shyness! They went right up and hugged each other! I managed to video their first hug!



You must watch the video, I set it to Teresa and Brian's song.

How cute are they??? I really thought they'd be more shy with each other the first time they met!



NOPE!



Jeanne and I were having such a great time watching the kids that we didn't actually say "Hi" to each other. So, I turned to her and said "hi" and we hugged. It was like we'd been friends forever and had seen each other 100's of times. She was just what I thought she would be! Although, she was even prettier than in her pictures.

We then had the dilemma of trying to find a table big enough for all 10 of us in a packed McDonald's. There was no such table to be found. So, we had to settle for a table that was big enough for about 6 people. It was...interesting...we were all quite cozy! Tessa, Luke, Seth, and Jayden yacked and yacked the whole time. They all seemed to get along great. Jeanne really does have wonderful kids! I loved every one of them! Lily was a little bit quiet because she was really tired from the trip. But, she was just as sweet as could be. They all looked so cute, too! Mike was great and I really got a kick out of his sense of humor. I think he and Henry would get along pretty well!

That flushed look on Sawyer's face proved true as we revisited his supper. I tried to cover it up with napkins so as not to make anyone in the vacinity nauseous. Luckily, it all landed on the tray this time. I was trapped at the table and couldn't get up to take care of it until everyone filed out. It was just as well because the kids were getting a bit crazy- and did I mention it was CROWDED in there?





We walked over to the Lego store, which is right next door.



Yes, they held hands the whole way. I think Tessa was getting a bit too silly.



Once in the Lego store, we immediately regretted it as it was PACKED and the music was really loud. Mike had to run to the Virgin store to pick up a phone charger. I know Jeanne was happy to try and keep track of all four kids on her own in packed, noisy store! She told him to be back in 1/2 hour. He told me to make sure Jeanne didn't spend any money. So, I told him that if he wasn't back in a 1/2 hour, the spending spree would begin!

We somehow managed to keep track of all the kids and then ushered them outside to play with the Lego.



This was a good move because it kept them all in one spot and kept them busy.





It also gave Jeanne and I an opportunity to stand around and chat. She is so easy to get along with and easy to talk to. I just love her! I only wish we lived closer to each other.

Mike did really well and he arrived back just when 1/2 hour was up. It was getting pretty late, so we headed out soon after that. Luke and Tessa gave each other hugs, with the assurance that they'd see each other the next day.





Tessa filled me in on the bus on the way home. Apparently, Luke had kissed her, on the head, TWICE! I had warned her that there would be no kissing, so I think she was pretty sure she was going to get in trouble for that.

There really ARE others, just like me!

WARNING: My camera was doing really weird things again, so some of the pictures are really bad!

February 8, 2009

We started out kind of slow in the morning. We slept as late as we wanted and took our time getting ready. I talked to Stephanie (Stephres) and we planned on meeting up at The Land to eat lunch together. Tessa was really excited about this! Stephanie and her kids, Jacob and Megan, flew up from Florida and stayed with us for a few nights in December. Her kids got to see snow for the first time!



Yeah, I know, that was a pitiful little bit of snow. That's Megan in the pink and green and my friends kids with the sled.

Tessa and Megan got to be good friends. Both of the kids really liked Jacob, too.

In case you're wondering- Stephanie and I met on the disboards! We met in person in May 2008 when I was there with my whole family. So, the natural progression is for her to fly up to spend a few days with us in Michigan, right? We may be nuts, but it worked out great and we had fun!

The plan was to eat lunch together and then meet up with the rest of the Disboutiquers in front of China at 2:00!

Yes, we were meeting 11 of those crazy women and 1 man that we had been chatting with on the disboutiquers thread for over a year! So, I guess this means I'm going to have a LOT of guests next December, right?

I snapped a few pictures of the kids in the room before some sort of catastrophe befalls their outfits.





Sawyer's Pinocchio shirt says "REAL boys wear lederhosen". I thought of that myself.

By the time we were all ready to go, it was about 64 degrees out. Not too bad for cold blooded Michiganders like ourselves!

As we were leaving, mom remembered that she didn't bring her ticket, so she ran back to the hotel room to get it. In the meantime, I took some pictures of the kids outside of our room.



In case I haven't mentioned it, Stephanie GAVE me that Peg Perego Pliko P3 stroller when she came up in December!!!

The kids started bustin' a move to the awesome music that was always playing at Pop.





Sawyer discovering that he was wearing his Pinocchio shirt for the first time.



Doin' the booty dance.



By golly, I even have video of it! I really, really wish I would learn to keep my mouth shut when I'm taking video!



We called Henry while we were on the bus. He said it was -4 degrees at home!! BRRRR!!!! We were really lovin' that 64 degrees at this point!

We were planning to ride a couple of rides before we met up with Steph. But, the lines were pretty long (that's what we get for not getting there at rope drop).

Plus, I had a nasty realization as it started warming up outside.

I HAD FORGOTTEN MY DEODORANT!!!!

I was going to meet a bunch of people I had never met before and I was most likely going to hug some of them, leaving my stinky pits exposed! It would be the end of "HeatherSue"... I'd be "StinkyPitGirl" from here on out!

So, instead of having fun and riding rides, we went on a hunt for some deodorant!

I asked someone in guest relations and they sent me to one of the gift shops. They said I'd have to ask for it. Ugh, how embarassing! However, I can think of a few more things that would be MORE embarassing to ask for.

It was pretty crowded in the store and I had to wait in line to ask. My mom struck up a conversation with 2 handsome young men. She seems to have a knack for that! However, all I could think of is that I was going to have to ask for deodorant in front of these two handsome young men my mom was talking to.

When I got to the front of the line, I found out that there was only one counter in the store that had it, so she sent me all the way over there....to wait in ANOTHER line!

When I got to the front of that line, guess who the CM was? That's right, it was a handsome young man- UGH!

When I asked him for deodorant, he looked at me like I was a pariah and he dug around looking for it. He then yelled over to another CM "Do you have any deodorant over there?" Then, he asks me if I want women's or men's deodorant. Then, he yelled again

"SHE NEEDS WOMEN'S DEODORANT!"

I felt like crawling into the middle of a display rack and staying there for a while. But, I purchased my $3/oz deodorant stick and snuck away to a bathroom to refresh with some baby wipes and apply. Aaaaahhhh....much better!

Now, it was time to meet Steph. She may never know what kind of stench she dodged by agreeing to meet me for lunch instead of first thing in the morning. Then again, she'll probably read this....

We spotted Stephanie, Megan, and Jacob right away in the middle of The food court area. Unfortunately, I had to give her a drive-by hug because Sawyer had just messed his pants.

After I changed his diaper (and washed my hands), we got some lunch. I ordered the same thing I had the day before because it was pretty good.

Tessa was so excited to see her friends and I was too! She and Megan just chatted away the whole time. So did Steph, Mom, Jacob, and I. That Jacob is such a sweetie! He's like I was as a kid and likes talking to the adults.

I have no pictures of this and I think it must be because I left my camera outside again!

Stephanie suggested we take a ride on Nemo since all the other lines were so long. Sawyer was all for this because he loves him some Nemo!

I took several pictures- without flash of course.





The kids took a gander at the fishies while we chatted.





Whoa, that's a big 'ol fish!



The Seas were much more enjoyable with my friend Stephanie along!

It was getting close to 2:00, so it was time to meet "the others" in China! That's right-

CHINA!!! 2:00!!

I was so excited and a little nervous, too. We had all been friends for a long time online, but would we all get along in person? People can really present a different side of themselves online. Sometimes they come across as a much different person than they really are. Plus, would they like me? They seemed to like me online, but would they like the "real" me?

So, I walked over to China with a little bit of trepidation and a lot of excitement.

We were the first ones there and we saw Mulan and Mushu signing autographs! We'd never met Mushu before and Mulan is my favorite princess to see in person (we've yet to meet a snooty Mulan)!

Plus, Mulan has NEVER broke our pen.

I was a little distracted, looking around for the other Disboutiquers. But, I do remember how warmly Mulan greeted my children. That is why she holds such a special place in my heart.









As soon as our special meet with Mulan and Mushu was over, I spotted KRISTINE (Tnkrbelle565) and STACY (sohappy)!!!!

Those two had been rooming together at Pop and they looked like they'd been friends forever. They could even pass for relatives! But, they had just met in person at Disney!

Next up was PIPER (Piper), in her grand chariot! She was at Disney all on her own. I think that's very brave! She brought magical gathering pins for all of us. She is such a sweetheart!

We stood around talking a little bit. I was still nervous, so I don't know what I said, or if I said much of anything! Most likely I giggled too much and said lots of stupid things. That's what I generally do when I meet people.

Then, a ball of energy bounded up, in the form of KATHY (NaeNae), with her hubby, Jim, tagging along!! She said "HI!" and gave me a big hug (good thing for that deodorant) and all the tension was broken. How could you not be comfortable around these people? From that point on, I felt at ease with my friends!

A few minutes later, there was CATHY (twob4him) and her friend!! She was so cute in person, just like the rest of them! She just said a quick hello and said she'd stop back later to chat a bit and then meet up with us after ESPN.

It was getting hot in the sun and they were getting ready to start a show, so we moved our group across the walkway over to the shade.

Stephanie was so sweet, she offered to get my kids some Mickey bars to keep them busy while we waited for everyone. She had no idea that My Kids+Mickey bars= MESS!





Surprisingly, we managed to keep their clothes clean and they weren't "RUINED!!" like the children on Jon and Kate Plus 8.

After a bit, TOM (princessleighsdaddy)showed up with LeighAnna and his wife, Angie. Luckily, I wasn't yelling at any children at this point.

Tom was wearing the Prince Charming outfit I made him and he looked great!





Then, there was CINDEE (livndisney), Morgan, Shel, and Jord!!! I had met them in May 2008 at McDonalds in downtown Disney. We had a great time yakking away. I fell in love with little Morgan. It's obvious that this angel child can do no wrong, despite what her mother might say. Jord is Morgan's doll, and my close personal friend.





Morgan showed me her gorgeous sparkly hairdo and how Jord even matched!



Cindee had been riding some rides with JESSICA (jessica52877), Dallas, and Lin! So, they all showed up together. Meeting Jessica was just like seeing an old friend again. It was like we'd known each other forever. It's funny how it was meeting these people! It was like we weren't really meeting for the first time!

Wow, we were looking like quite a group! Jeanne called me and let me know they would be here soon, but she said not to wait around for them. She said T-beri and kids were with them, too!

We had talked about touring Epcot together, but this group of people was pretty massive and it would be pretty hard to actually get any touring done. I'm thinking people thought I had some sort of master plan for the day. But, I was happy to just stand around and talk! So, we did a lot of that!!





I was really having a great time!! Everyone was so great! They were just like they were on the internet. It seems that no one had made themselves out to be anything other than their true selves. I was actually pretty surprised about that!

The kids were getting along great! Apparently, LeighAnna was feeling very relaxed!



Tessa had not stopped talking about LeighAnna's deer puppet from the day before. So, grandma decided to spoil her and buy her one of her own.



Soon, everyone was buying a puppet from the cart! I bet that person wondered why he was selling so many that day!



Would you look at these sweet kids?



Perfect angels, I tell you...



At first Morgan wanted no part of the silliness, but then she decided that she wasn't going to get in trouble for it.



She decided to give Jessica some dancing lessons while we waited. She was very particular about us doing it "just so". LOL!!



Finally, JEANNE (Jham), her hubby, Mike, Jayden, Seth, Luke, and Lily showed up. They had TIFANI (t-beri), Gavin, and T's Lily with them.

Megan seemed to be pretty happy to see Gavin.... Who can blame her? He's a really cute kid and he has a great personality, too.

Here's Jeanne's Lily, otherwise known as "cupcake" for obvious reasons:



We did some more hanging out.





This poor guy wandered into our midst without realizing it. I didn't know he was there until someone pointed out to me that Tessa was talking to a stranger. Apparently, she assumed he was part of "our crowd".



Tessa made sure to show everyone there her deer puppet.





The problem with the puppets was that they constantly got tangled up. So, Luke, being a little gentleman, tried helping out his lady love.



There was still one person who's absence was rather conspicuous. The famous KAREN (karebear1)!! She was the one who decided to meet up at China at 2:00. Meeting at ESPN later on was her idea, too. But, she wasn't here!! She called to let us know that she would be meeting us at ESPN later.

Tom had decided to continue touring the world earlier on and said they'd meet us at ESPN, too.

Around 3:30, we all decided it was time to move along. We thought it would be fun if we went to ride the Maelstrom together! It was quite a process moving a group that large over there.



I think Luke spotted Dallas and Tessa holding hands and felt he needed to get in there, too.



However, when Dallas went to give Tessa a hug, things got ugly.



Luke got in there and broke it up!



I don't think Dallas had any intention of stealing his girl. He's just a sweet little boy who wanted to give her a hug! It was all pretty funny!!

They got over it pretty quickly and were hanging out together again.



Here's a line picture for yah. Notice the rather peeved looking woman in line behind Jeanne? She and her husband got trapped in the middle of our huge group and she seemed pretty unhappy about it. I think we let them cut in front of us eventually.



The line wasn't too bad (but longer than usual for this usually empty ride). Our group took up 2 boats. It was pretty cool to all be together! Steph had to take Megan to the potty, so I was in charge of Jacob. He's sitting on the other side of Sawyer in this picture.



Jacob was VERY concerned about Sawyer riding this ride. He kept telling me that he couldn't believe I was taking Sawyer on it and that it was really a very scary ride and that maybe I shouldn't have brought him on it. I assured him that Sawyer was pretty brave and that he would be fine. But, Jacob told me to hold onto him tight when we went down the "big drop". That kid is so funny!



Luke had his arm around Tessa for most of the ride, trying to protect her. From the looks of this picture, he may have been a bit scared himself!



When the ride was over, Luke kept asking Tessa "Are you okay? Did you like the ride? You weren't too scared were you?" It was so sweet! That boy is positively smitten!

When the boat behind us pulled up, we discovered Kristine and T's true identities. We always knew Kristine was sweet, but we didn't know she was an ANGEL! T's angel status was the most shocking, however (you know I love you, T)!



We all nimbly skipped the post show movie and headed directly to the trolls! You'll see who got into the dress-up the most-



Yep, Mike!

But, the kids had fun, too. I think some of our group went outside to wait and didn't realize we were in here trying to catch lice from the Nordic helmets.



Don't you love Sawyer's long blonde pigtails?





We caught up with the rest of our group outside and decided to head over to ESPN for dinner. Most of us didn't know which way to go, but you can always count on Jord in a pinch.

T's Lily wasn't feeling very well and she wanted to be carried. But, as you may have noticed, T was rather pregnant! So, she was getting really tired, trying to carry her everywhere. So, we thought we'd take the boats over instead of walking. This was probably a silly decision because we could have walked there in the time it took to wait for the boat.

Cindee and Co, along with Mom, Tessa, and Stephanie walked over.

Kathy really touched my heart when she helped me get the stuff out of the stroller so I could fold it up. It was just such a natural thing for her to help someone out. Her husband, Jim, seemed to be the same way. They were such a wonderful couple!

But, I just wanted T to sit down for a minute and she's too stubborn to do it unless we force her. I'm going to include this terrible picture of me just so you can see T sitting peacefully behind me.



We all had a nice, leisurely boatride over to the boardwalk. No matter what, I can never remember the name of this area. Is it the Boardwalk? The Boardwalk Villas? I know there is another section that has another name. It's all too confusing for my poor little brain.



Mike and Jeanne are just about the cutest couple ever. They are high school sweethearts and I love the way they are together. Aren't they sweet?



When we docked and got off the boat, the wonderful Kathy let her inner grandma out and automatically started pushing my stroller for me. It was so weird to think that we had just met 2 hours earlier, but I already trusted her enough to take off with my kids! After a minute or two, she realized that she was pushing my stroller and we both started laughing about it.

Karen was at ESPN waiting for us all to arrive. We were all very disappointed that she wasn't wearing her signature pink boa.

She took a head count and there were 31 of us!! I must admit that I was very skeptical about this plan. I thought we'd be waiting forever for tables together with such a huge group. So, I tried to stake out a spot in the shade to wait it out.

Poor little Lily had fallen asleep and poor T looked pretty whupped.



Surprisingly, in about 15 minutes, they were calling us in to our tables!! I was so relieved that it wasn't a long wait because the kids were getting hungry! Karen, I bow down to you, oh Queen of Everything Disney and Beyond, Including, but Not Limited To the Cricut. Please forgive me for my doubt.

I'd never been to the ESPN club, but it seemed pretty nice. They had a little area of the restaurant, just for us! I got Tessa settled in to eat with some of the other girls and then I turned around to take a seat for myself. But, they were all taken! The only place left to sit was with the kids. That didn't appeal to me for some reason...

But, Cindee quickly made room for me down at their table, so I got to sit with Cindee, Shel, Morgan, Mom, and Sawyer.



Steph sat with Tom



Some of the "single" gals sat together. That's Karen on the left.



Our little "cupcake" really enjoyed her cupcake!



The kids sat for a while, but then they were up playing together. Thankfully, we were up out of the way, so we weren't bothering any of the other guests.



It's too bad none of the kids really liked each other...





Someone thought to get a picture of the picture takers.



We were all wearing matching t-shirts that were designed by Tracie on the DISign board. Here's a closeup of the design.



We thought it would be fun to get a group shot of all of the disboutiquers and our kids. It was quite an undertaking trying to get us all together in the shot. Little Stacy tried standing in the back, but I made her come up front or we'd never see her!



I wish I had a picture of Jim, who was taking most of the pictures. Everyone wanted a picture of all of us on their own camera. So, he had both arms laden with cameras. He'd take a picture or two with each camera and then move on. He had cameras coming out his ears. It was great! He took it all in stride, and with a great sense of humor!



I wish I would have had my picture taken with everyone there. But, I didn't think to do that. Cathy showed up when we were done eating and she thought to get a picture of the two of us together.



We decided to stop terrorizing the poor waitstaff at the restaurant and take the show on the road. They really did handle this huge crowd well and they were really nice to us. They didn't seem to get TOO irritated by all the craziness.

Once we got outside, I finally got to talk to Karen for a few minutes. We're both big fans of Jord.



REALLY big fans!

Sawyer was starting to get pretty tired and he layed in the stroller for a bit.



The rest of the kids had a great time playing duck, duck, goose.





My awesome mom kept my kids in check while I got to talk with all of my friends. We decided that most of us would stick around to watch Illuminations together.

Steph was getting tired, so she took off with the kids and went back to the hotel.

The rest of us played a quick game of poker. Karen kept her cards close, so she was raking in the dough.



Piper, Tom, Cindy, and Karen parted ways with us before we headed back for Illuminations. I wish everyone could have stayed because we had such a nice time together!

We took our time walking back to Epcot, chatting the whole way. A few people needed to use the potty right before we entered Epcot, so we stopped to wait. One of the kids (who I won't call out in public) decided they needed to use the bathroom when everyone else was done. Let's just say we waited a while after that!

I called Teresa and passed her around to everyone while we were waiting. I felt bad that she was missing out on this. It would have been perfect if she had been there!

We were finally all ready to head out again and we passed through the gates to Epcot. We weren't sure where we should watch the fireworks from. But, then we came upon the bridge and thought it would be the perfect place to watch them from. We couldnt' believe we scored such a great spot!

Jim asked if anyone wanted something to drink and he took off to get refreshments. I thought that was so sweet of him!

We all plopped ourselves down on the ground and laughed and talked and had a great time!



Stacy helped Tessa untangle her deer once AGAIN! Shel had untangled it for her at the restaurant.



Sitting with everyone out there was just magical. It was like we were a little family. We all seemed so comfortable with each other. Sawyer was fussing and hungry, so T gave him a little bag of pretzels. Little things like that were happening all of the time. It was just natural for us to be together.



T was freezing because she didn't bring a coat. You'd think she'd never been to Florida before.



The whole feeling of family was emphasized by the fact that Kristine reminded me so much of my cousin, Marna. Her mannerisms and her sense of humor are so much like her! I love Marna, so this was a good thing!



We were pretty early, so we got to get a lot of chatting in before the show started. I took one piddly picture because I knew it would be bad.



I was right! But, Kristine took some awesome pictures!



The kids were mesmerized by the show.





When the show was over, it was time to part ways. It was sad to leave all of our friends and not to know when we'd see each other again. Jeanne was holding a sleepy Luke and I was holding a sleepy Tessa. They gave each other a mid-air hug goodbye.



Then, Jeanne hugged Tessa and told her that she loved her. I just about cried. I thought that was so sweet! I really loved her kids, too.

We said goodbyes all around and then we headed off towards the buses. I wasn't looking forward to the long wait I thought we'd have once we got there.

Sawyer was distracted by these cool lights in the sidewalk on our way out.



So, we let him play for a little while.



By the time we got to the buses, the line was pretty long. Stacy and Kristine were up in front of us a ways and I think they were surprised to see us behind them since we had left first!

Shockingly, we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get on the bus. There were 6 buses that came 2 at a time, right after each other. The POP bus system is AWESOME!!!

We got back to the hotel and fell into bed, absolutely exhausted.

Unfortunately, I was in severe gastrointestinal distress ALL night. I felt so sick and I barely got any sleep. I had hoped to meet up with some of the disboutiquers at Hollywood Studios the next day, but it wasn't looking too good for those plans...

I can't spend our last day at Disney in the hotel room!

February 9, 2009

4:00am- For the 20th time- so we meet again...



5:30am- Finally fell asleep.

7:00am- Sawyer throws his arms around my neck and gives me a big 'ol hug.

"Good Morning!"

I'm thinking my plans for the day are going to have to change...

I wanted to meet Steph and some of the other Disboutiquers at DHS this morning. We didn't get to see much of it after the puking incident.

But, there was no way I was up to walking around a park. It just wasn't going to happen. I was feeling better stomach-wise, but I was SO tired.

I gave Steph a call to let her know I couldn't meet up with her. I felt so bad, but she was really understanding.

The kids and mom had some breakfast in the room while I lay on the bed trying to decide if I was actually feeling better because I was too tired to tell. I lay there pondering which one of the disboutiquers had poisoned my pulled pork sandwich.

I suspected Karen... I had doubted her ESPN knowledge. Then, I picked on her for getting a pulled pork "sandwich" with no bun. Yes, definitely Karen.

It was really nice out and Tessa had been begging to go swimming every day. Even on the frigid Animal Kingdom day she said, as her teeth chattered, "It's so hot out. We need to go swimming!" So, I thought that would be a good way to spend the morning. Plus, I would be assured that there were bathrooms nearby!

The kids were thrilled with the change of plans! But, Tessa didn't realize this meant that we wouldn't be seeing her friends again until who-knows-when.

I LOVE the kiddie pool at Pop Century! It allows me to let the kids get in, without my having to sear the image of me in a bathing suit on the eyes of unsuspecting passersby.

We've actually never been in the big pool because it's always been too cold when we stay here!

The kids got in very carefully.



But, it wasn't long before they were fully immersed in the fun.





Sawyer was fascinated with the water shooting up.





I'm surprised he didn't get it up his nose!



Tessa!



You'll never make it onto the olympic synchronized swimming team if you don't point that toe, boy!



Video! While watching, just guess what surface material the pool is made out of.



I always assumed it was some kind of rubbery stuff. The kids jump in it and land on their knees and slide around on the bottom of the pool.

So, when I rolled up my pants and walked into the water, imagine my surprise when I realized it's cement! Just cement! Yikes! I can't believe their knees aren't all tore up!

Mom had went to go get some coffee and she said she'd get me a little hot chocolate/coffee/cream combination, too. She is so great! So, I just enjoyed playing with the kids, while trying not to get my pants too wet. Then, I sat in the lounge chairs to relax for a while.

Sawyer came over with me for a few minutes and got his toe stuck in the webbing of the chair. Being the loving mother that I am, I snapped a picture before I helped him out.



That is when I saw it.

A hefty woman sat down across from me and proceeded to yank the top of her tankini up past her large white, stretch marked, and I'm pretty certain a little bit hairy, cellulite ridden belly. It weren't purty. Perhaps if she had just lay down and got a little sun, it wouldn't have been so bad.

But, my eyes had no such luck. She sat up and the rolls spilled everywhere, totally obscuring her tankini bottoms.

Then, she got up and started walking around!

It was at this moment that mom returned with my nice warm hot chocolate mixture. Her eyes immediately looked to see what was reflecting the light so brilliantly. When she saw the belly that was the source, her eyes widened and she looked away quickly before she was mesmerized by the sight of the undulating ripples

Thankfully, the kids were ready to try out Goofy's water jet area. So, we packed them up, with our eyes mostly looking at the ground, and headed out.

The first thing Sawyer did was go up and give Goofy a big hug.



Then, they both checked out the cool ride.



They were pretty disappointed that they couldn't get in it. But, Tessa said Daddy would love this car (he did), so she wanted me to take pictures.



Sawyer was so patient, waiting for the water to shoot up. He stood like this for a LONG time.



Unfortunately, this appeared to be a non-functioning hole.

We moved him over to another one and he was not disappointed!





I was definitely feeling better. So, I thought I could handle going to Downtown Disney for lunch and a little shopping. Tessa had some money that was burning a hole in her pocket, so she was all too happy to get dressed and head out.

By the time we got ready and made it over to the bus stop to Downtown Disney, the kids were getting pretty hungry. So, this was the perfect time for Tessa to do the 'ol "I'm invading your personal space while trying to look like I'm not trying to bug you" thing.



Sawyer was not impressed.


(sorry about the weird looking pictures- camera issues again)

But, after the time-out...



Things looked much better.



Sawyer is wearing cute little Mickey crocs. I bought them just for the trip, but this is the only day he wore them. Then, he outgrew them before summer. Darn it!

Mom saw me struggling to take this picture of myself with the kids.



So, she offered to take a picture of us together. Yay! I am more than just a face!



If you read my last TR, you might recognize my shirt. It's an iron on I made with my name on it.

We were having a nice time, just sitting on the bench and waiting for the bus. It was such a beautiful day- perfect weather! I was wishing I had the energy to go to one of the parks.

When the bus arrived, we were the ONLY ones on it!! BONUS!


(doesn't Mom look cute in that one?)





Oh no, Sawyer! What have you spotted that has made you look so forlorn?



What?? What??? NO!!!!!!!



CHEERLEADERS!!!!!!

WHO let them into Downtown Disney??? Huh? Who???

Thankfully, there were no lines at Downtown Disney, so they didn't cause too much of a problem. There was only the annoyance of the occasional burst of spontaneous cheering.

I forgot to get a picture of the kid's matching outfits. I made these for Sawyer's 2nd birthday party.



After I took that picture, a sweet man came up and pantomined for me to take his picture (he didn't speak English). I was happy to do so and he even gave a thumbs up when he viewed the fruits of my photography skillz.

We were all pretty hungry, so our first stop was at Wolfgang Puck Express.

I had some sort of pasta that sounded DELICIOUS and cost way too much for a plate of pasta. But, I thought since it was Wolfgang Puck, it would be worth the price.

The kids were splitting a kid's meal. But, the guy at the counter was extra nice and gave them 2 kid's cups for their drinks, without charging me. I was touched by his kindness.

When they brought out the food, mine looked really good. That's it right there in the left hand corner.



But...it tasted similar to...nothing. No, I don't mean that I had never had anything this delicious before. I mean it didn't taste like anything! It didn't have any delicious seasoning or special cheeses or anything. It tasted like pasta with butter on it. I was so disappointed. Mom had a salad that turned out to be pretty yummy.

I was feeling a little queasy after we ate, so I sat on a bench and watched the kids play for a few minutes while mom browsed in a nearby store. Thankfully, the feeling passed and we moved on to find some good deals.

We went to that store where everything is $10 or less (or some such price). Mom picked out some gifts and Tessa found a stuffed Ariel that she just HAD to have. She hasn't touched it since we got home, of course. Mom bought Sawyer a cool little Buzz Lightyear toy. It looked like the car on Space Ranger Spin with little lazer guns attached just like the ride, and it had Buzz riding in it. Unfortunately, both guns broke off within 3 minutes. Grrr....

We did get these pictures of the kids while the toys were all in one piece, and had the potential of being loved for a lifetime.



This is why Tessa wears leggings or shorts under ALL of her dresses.



In one of the little shops we stopped in, one of the employees said that she loved the kids' outfits and asked where I got them. When I told her I made them, she was amazed. It was as if she had never considered that someone could make clothing. It was really very sweet, though. She kept telling me that I need to sell them and that I could get a lot of money out of them. She just couldn't understand that I wasn't interested in sewing for profit.

I'll let you all in on a little secret. When you consider the amount of time that people put into making clothing, and the cost of supplies, even the people who sell for big $$ on ebay are working at way below minimum wage. So, I mostly just sew for my kids and for the Wish kids.

Okay, where was I? Ah yes, we were doing some more shopping. We had to stop in the pin shop to see all the rediculously expensive pins that we were never going to buy.



I love how Tessa posed for this one.



Then, we saw the Big Guy himself. It was Sawyer's hero- Buzz Lightyear!



Did you see how he was trying to show Buzz his new Buzz? How cute is that kid?

Buzz took a liking to Tessa's Ariel.



I took this picture for all of you weirdos out there that don't like Johnny Depp, but you like Captain Jack. What-EVER! This is pretty cool, though.



Sawyer spotted some Buzz Lightyear stuff and we bought him a little Buzz that has wheels on his tummy that allows him to fly along the floor. He still loves that toy and it hasn't broken yet!

He REALLY wanted a Buzz lazer gun that made the most irritating noise in the world. I told him it was too big for our suitcase. Sounds good, right?

However, his darling cousin, Arminda, who is one of the sweetest girls in the world, bought him this same gun on their trip in May. You should have seen Sawyer's face when she gave it to him. He was positively speechless. He gave her the biggest hug I've ever seen him give. Those two are so adorable together! Arminda also bought Tessa a monkey Webkinz with her own money. That girl is so special!

Sawyer found a comfy spot to rest while Tessa perused the princess section. He thought he was SO funny for sitting in there. He just kept giggling.



We then headed over to World of Disney, where Fairy Godmothers in Training were waiting to spread pixie dust on any unsparkling girls. They were very sweet and talked with Tessa a little bit before asking if she wanted some pixie dust. If only the FGITs that we had actually paid to do her hair were so friendly last May! I think they told her to say something and then close her eyes to get the pixie dust.



It was very pretty! Sawyer wanted some, too. But, he received pirate dust. Odd... it looked very similar to the pixie dust, in both sparkle capacity and application. Hmmm...

There were some more FGITs that were sitting on the ground outside the store. They asked the kids if they'd like to color a picture. I told them I'd like to go into the store for a bit, but we'd be back. I thought it was a little weird that they were just sitting on the ground with crayons. But, okay.

I did a little shopping inside. I was hoping to find a clock for my sewing room, but I couldn't find anything that I loved.

I was feeling pretty exhausted and starting to get a little dazed as I wandered the store. All of a sudden, there was a wonderful ball of energy in front of me. It was Kathy (NaeNae) and Jim (Kathy, if I'm getting your DH's name wrong, please tell me)!! She was looking for a little something for the grandkids, I believe. I felt bad because I was seriously out of it at this point and I don't even remember what I said to her. I hope I didn't come across as too weird.

I had told Tessa that she could spend $25 of my free gift card at DTD. So, she was searching for something to buy. Finally, she spotted the Tinkerbell movie. You may recall that we hadn't seen it and didn't have a clue who the fairies were, besides Tinkerbell. So, this was a sound purchase.

I also bought Sawyer a Nemo cup with watery glittery stuff inside. Tessa has a cup like this with all the Disney characters on it that she got when she was 3. It still has all the watery glittery stuff inside, despite numerous dishwasher trips. Sawyer's Nemo cup, however- not so much. It cracked and all the stuff came out after the first trip through the dishwasher. It wasn't turning out to be a very sturdy souvenir trip for poor Sawyer.

The kids were anxious to get back outside to color. It made sense because where else besides Disney can you sit on the concrete and color pictures out of a coloring book?



You might notice that the crayons are shaped like princesses. Sawyer was really not happy about this. He wanted boy crayons and refused to color until we found him a non-princess crayon. Pirate dust in the hair? Yes! Princess shaped crayon? NO!

One of the FGITs by the coloring area was really sweet, so we told her about our experience in May. She was very sympathetic about the whole thing. Not sympathetic enough to offer a free do-over, though.
The other FGIT was just anxious for the kids to finish coloring so she could go on her break.



I was hanging by a thread at this point, so I thought we should probably head back to the hotel. But, first I wanted to take a trip to the Christmas store. I'd never been in there, but I was always intrigued by it. Tessa came along with me, after I forbid her to touch anything. Here's how she took that bit of advice.



I found a beautiful display of castle ornaments that I just loved. Some of them were crystal-looking and expensive. They even had lights in them!! But, one was only about $10. I loved it. But, did I buy it? No, I sure didn't. Why? Because $10 is too much to spend on an ornament. Even if you have a free gift card and you won't find that ornament anywhere else, and you love that ornament.



Instead, I bought the clearance ornament that I kind of liked that was only $2.50.



In case you hadn't noticed, I'm still kicking myself over that one.

I found mom and Sawyer looking at the 'gator at The Rainforest Cafe when we came out. I think Sawyer could watch that thing all day.



But, I could not. I was about ready to fall over. So, we went back to the bus area to wait for our bus. We were the first ones there, which I took as a sign that the bus had just come. Unfortunately, I must have been right. This was the ONE time on our whole trip that we had to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus. UGH! We waited for about 1/2 hour before the bus pulled up.

By this time, there were tons of people waiting for the bus, but no real line area to keep track of who was there first. Well, I didn't need no stinkin' line to remind me that I was there first! I wasn't about to let all those people on in front of me. So, without knocking over TOO many people, I made sure I was on that bus before it got too full to get a seat. I got a few glares, but I honestly didn't care.

Did I mention that I was REALLY tired? It didn't help that I knew I had a whole bunch of stuff to pack up in the room before we left. We also needed to get something to eat.

You may notice that from here on out, I only took 2 more pictures on this trip. I apologize. But, I will do my best to find other people's pictures to use!

Mom offered to get our mugs while I got some food with the kids. I think they could smell my exhaustion because they started acting like a couple of little maniacs while we were in line. Running around, pulling on the little seatbelt looking ropes in the lines, almost knocking into people.

Here's the line I was standing in.



I finally managed to grab both of their hands and give them a "You have a crazy mean mom and you are going to get it" look. That's my alternative to the eyebrow arch. When I try the Miss Cammie arch, I just look like I need to use the bathroom.

OH MY GOSH! I don't think I ever told you one of my favorite stories from the trip. I don't remember what day this happened. So, you'll just have to insert it into whatever day you think would be appropriate.

===================
Tessa met a little girl from England in line at the Food court. They chit-chatted and I chatted with the dad. Then, we all sat near each other and I chatted with the mom a bit. They were really great and interesting and it's always fun to hear that wonderful accent!

After they left, we noticed that there was a laptop on their table. It looked like this one, but considerably smaller:



We sat there for about 20 minutes eating and waiting for them to come back for it and they never did. So, I told mom I was going to take it up to the customer service desk and tell them that someone left it in the food court. I didn't want these nice people to get their laptop stolen!

I took it up to the customer service desk and explained the situation and they said they'd make sure it got to the righful owner.

When I came back into the food court, I noticed a disturbance near our table. Apparently, there was a Spanish speaking woman who was very upset that her laptop was missing from the table where she had left it. UH-OH! She was speaking in Spanish and mom was trying to tell her that we took the computer to the customer service desk. But, she didn't understand. So, they were trying to find someone who spoke Spanish that could explain to her what had happened.

All of a sudden, Tessa realizes what's going on. A proud look of confidence spread over her face as she went up to this very upset woman and said "I speak Spanish! Hola!" The woman was NOT impressed! I had to try SO hard not to start laughing. Rest assured that I laughed about it later.

We finally found someone who could explain to the woman what had happened to her computer. She shot death glares at me as she exited the food court to find her laptop. I didn't feel bad for this woman AT ALL.

Who in their right mind leaves a laptop sitting on a table in the very crowded food court for 20 minutes while they dink around?? That's nuts!
==========================================

Okay, back to my mean look at the kids... the mean look worked and they held my hand nicely while I ordered their food.

Tessa noticed that the cashier in the foodcourt was wearing a lanyard with pins. She looked an awful lot like the gray haired woman in this picture.



This woman had a pin that Tessa REALLY wanted. But, she didn't tell me about it until we sat down. I told her that when we were done eating, we'd go back to see if this woman would like to trade.

However, when mom took her back up there to trade with the woman, she was gone! Tessa searched the lanyards of all of the other people there and didn't see the little Belle as a toddler pin that she was searching for. She wanted her to complete the set of toddler princess pins.

I took her over to the gift shop area- right inside of this entrance.



She looked at all of the lanyards of the people working there and didn't see the one she wanted. But, one of the CMs noticed her looking. He came out from behind the counter and kneeled on the floor so she could get a better look at his pins. He asked if there was something in particular she was looking for. She shyly told him that she was looking for baby Belle. He said "I know I've seen her somewhere. You stay right here and I'll be right back." I wasn't sure if he was going to get a pin off the rack for us to buy, or what he was doing. But, we waited for a few minutes.

When the man came back, he handed Tessa 3 pins- one was toddler Belle, one was toddler prince Eric, and one was toddler Ariel (who she also didn't have)! I thought it was so awesome that he went and found these just for her! Tessa was so excited! She asked him which ones he wanted her to trade for them.

This is when the magic really happened! He told her that they were special pins, just for her, and that he didn't want anything in return. I just about burst into tears. It was such a kind gesture, and it meant so much to us both.

THANK YOU SO MUCH EXTRA NICE MAN AT THE POP CENTURY GIFT AREA!

That really made my day! We found mom and told her what had happened and we were all beaming when we left to go back to our room.

This feeling of euphoria passed pretty quickly when I saw ALL the stuff in our room that needed to be packed up.



It may not have looked JUST like this, seeing as how this isn't our room, and it doesn't even look like a hotel room. But, it is messy!

We started packing up and I called the Diser who was going to pick up the fridge for Marcia's POPping Fridge Swap .

Hi mistypnc!!!

On a side note, I was disappointed to find out this swap (and all the other fridge swaps) was already full for our October trip. You'd think they'd clear the schedule for me since I saved it from being lost forever in baggage claim. Plus, Marcia and I go WAAYYY back. We met in the bathroom at Epcot in May '08. But, no, they think the person that thought ahead and signed right up should get the fridge instead of me. WHAT-ever! I'm watching you, Halloweenqueen. I hope you enjoy the fridge.



OOOhhh...that got a little creepy! Sorry 'bout that!

Misty was so sweet and friendly and she brought the whole family to our room to pick up the fridge. They were so excited to be there. I think she said they'd never been to Disney. I was so excited for them! We chatted for a while. How is it that just about every Diser I've met was wonderful?

After she left, Tessa started to panic. She couldn't find her Baby Dumbo!! We looked all over the room for him, but he was nowhere to be found! She was SO upset. She started crying and begged me to unpack our bags, just in case I had accidentally packed him already. Since she was so upset, I did look through the bags I'd already packed. He wasn't there! She asked Grandma to look through her bags, but she was sure that she didn't put Tessa's Dumbo with her stuff.

I thought she must have left him on a bus or something. The last day I remember her having his for sure was when we took this lovely photo of him. We were starting to think this was the only thing we'd have to remember him by.



I went to guest services to see if they had found a Dumbo. They told me to call when I got home to check and see if he had been found on any buses or anything.

Tessa was SO upset about her Dumbo. She gets really attached to her stuffed animals. She even cried herself to sleep. Poor thing.

It looked like we had everything else and we were ready for check out in the morning.

I was feeling sad to be leaving, and even more sad that I missed out on going to DHS again. But, I was also looking forward to getting back home to my Disney-hater.



------------


February 10, 2009

The first thing Tessa asked in the morning is whether we had found her Dumbo after she went to sleep. I had to tell her that we hadn't found him. She was sad, but she didn't cry again, thankfully.

I took our bags down to luggage services while mom waited in the room with the kids. I just LOVE the Magical Express! It's so freeing not to have to worry about your luggage when traveling! Everything went smoothy and we were ready to get on the Magical Express bus.



Tessa was pretty happy to be going home to see her Daddy. We were all missing him. Well, I guess Mom was missing my dad a little more than Henry.



Yes, those were the last 2 pictures I took on the trip. How sad!

The bus was there pretty quickly and the driver started loading everyone's bags up. I was amazed that this guy could pick up all of these bags and load them up so quickly. There were probably 100 bags and strollers and car seats there. But, he picked them up like they were as light as a feather and carefully put them in the baggage compartment. He was not a "fit" looking man, either. I was highly impressed!

The bus driver was pretty hilarious and he kept us all entertained with Disney trivia all the way to the airport. My favorite was "Do you remember what Disney's Hollywood Studios used to be called? Yep, MGM. What does MGM stand for? Nope, it stands for Mickey's Got your Money! "

I forgot to mention earlier that when I got our boarding passes from luggage services, guess what I saw? Yes, we were ALL seperated again! NONE Of us were sitting in the same row with each other this time. Also, none of us had a window seat, which was very important with Sawyer in his car seat. They told me I'd need to talk to the gate agent at the airport.

Well, I did just that when we got to our gate. She was incredibly unfriendly. She didn't respond when I told her what the problem was. She just said "Stand over there." So, I did as I was told and I waited for about 20 minutes for her to call me back up to the desk (yes, it was very annoying that I had to stand there and wait for that long).

When she called me back up, she handed me my new seat assignments. She had put us all together, in the same row! Mom would be right across the aisle from us. Yay!! She never spoke a word to me, but I thanked her anyway. Those Northwest agents are FRIEND-ly!

The flight and the trip home were uneventful, thankfully. Tessa and Sawyer watched the new TinkerBell movie on the laptop until the battery died. But, they were both asleep at that point anyway!


(yeah, I horked this picture from the journey there- but it looked almost the same, but different shirts)

When we arrived back at our hometown airport, we were all so excited to be home! We walked out into the terminal and there was Henry, sitting behind a desk with a sign that read "Please do not sit behind this desk".

He was even more handsome than I remembered and his smile when he saw the kids was brilliant! The kids yelled "DADDY!!" He kneeled down and they ran to him and threw their arms around his neck. I cried, I really did! It was the sweetest thing! Mom was hugging Dad, who was also there. But, I missed all that! Henry and I hugged and I told him how happy I was to see him. I'm sure the feeling was mutual.

Then, we walked outside to the FRIGID Michigan winter air. BRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe that day at Animal Kingdom wasn't so bad after all. Then again, yes it was!

We unpacked our bags and spent some time together before we went to bed.

In the morning, I got a call from Mom. Guess what she'd found in her bag?? Baby Dumbo!!! Yay!!!

This was yet another truly magical Disney vacation. It was so awesome to spend the week with Mom and the kids. I loved watching her with them and watching their eyes light up when they saw new things. It was absolutely wonderful!

Every trip to Disney brings so many wonderful new memories. Tessa loved visiting her old friends Cinderella and Belle and meeting Ariel. This year, Sawyer was the perfect age to experience the magic of Disney. He really believed!!! I don't know if any other place in the world where you can experience this feeling!






















































If you made it all the way to the end with me, please post to let me know you were reading!

It may help me decide whether to write a TR for our October trip!

Thank you for sticking with me!