Home again

We've been home from Disney World for a week. Actually, more than a week - we got in on Friday night (the Friday before the Halloween that we ignored). What I've been doing since then is, mainly, laundry. Despite the cuteness of my blog header, I actually fully despise laundry. I hate it so much that I once created a scrapbook page about how much I hate laundry... and then had that scrapbook page published. And the absolute worst thing about a vacation is that it requires about 693 loads of laundry. See, before you leave, you have to wash Everything. Then pack it into suitcases. Then when you get home you have to get it OUT of the suitcases again (and the suitcases now smell like stinky laundry - thank goodness for Febreze) and sort it and wash it all AGAIN. And, mind you, even a three day vacation is responsible for creating this phenomenon... and we were gone for a full week.

(Interestingly, the same thing applies with cleaning out the car. You have to clean and vacuum and Febreze the whole car before you leave... and then again after you get home, because the van is full of lost Cheerios and dried up french fries and empty water bottles and lost raisins and tiny Legos and all the marker caps that I would have liked to have found BEFORE the markers in question all dried up, but whatever. And the van is starting to acquite a distinct 'odor' now that it's approaching 90,000 miles. Fortunately, my dear husband has graciously put himself in charge of car cleaning and de-stinking, as it's sort of an extension of automotive maintenance. If you stand on your head, and squint.)

Another one of the tasks following any vacation, but especially 6 days in Disney World, is dealing with all the photos. Now, digital is a boon for a lot of reasons, but I swear our computer is so slow, it almost takes as long to get the USB port to realize there is something plugged into it, as it did to drop off film (remember film?) and wait a week and pick up your photos. I blame Windows Vista. But we do have a lot of photos - I took 257, which actually didn't feel like that much spread out over 6 days (well, 5 1/2 days really) crammed into the park, and Matt took a lot of video. Although most of his video didn't count because his camera was somehow turned on in his pocket and recorded for two and a half hours. And our video isn't terribly high quality. We do have a nice camera that we bought in 2003, so it shoots 8mm tapes, but Matt didn't want to bring that because it's complicated and takes up space. So for his birthday I found him the cheapest digital video camera ever - it was $25 at Big Lots - that he could stick in his shorts pocket and use on our trip. But when you buy a camera for $25, the resolution isn't terribly high. Still, we didn't have any video from our previous trip (in 2007, the one where I was pregnant with Amy and couldn't ride my favorite rides) so this was an improvement.

So anyway, the point to all this rambly, introductory-type stuff is: Look! Pictures! Yes, last time we went to Disney I wrote massively long posts detailing each and every one of our days in the park. I probably won't this time because a) you will get bored, and b) I just don't blog as much as I used to. There, I said it. I blame the fact that I learned how to sew and now I have more hobbies than I can conceivably make time for. But anyway: Look! Pictures!

(These won't be in any semblance of order, because Blogger always thoughtfully jumbles them around when uploading, and after 4 1/2 years of having a blog, I am sick of trying to fix it.)

Betsy's all time favorite ride: the Rock & Roller Coaster (Featuring Aerosmith). Yes, my first baby is big enough to ride on a ride that goes upside down. Sigh.

I just really like this picture. We were waiting for the Beauty & the Beast show and having a frozen pink lemonade (except Porter, who wouldn't drink it on the grounds that it was pink) and I think I had just gotten off the phone with Catherine. This was our first full day in the park and we were really living it up.

Family photo by the Muppets fountain. It's a family tradition, in the sense that I had a picture taken there (by myself) on my first trip to Disney when I was 17, so every time I've been back, I've had to repeat it. First with Matt (honeymoon), then with the 2 kids, now with all 3.

Also note that in the above picture, I am wearing my Route 66 skirt. I've mentioned before that every time I wear that skirt, I get a ton of comments on it. Interestingly enough, the same holds true even in Hollywood Studios, where there are a LOT of interesting things to look at - I still got comments on my skirt.

The queue for the new Toy Story ride was a really neat and detailed one - and we should know, we spent about an hour and a half in it. (Don't worry, that was our longest wait by far. Mostly, we used Fastpass.) The giant Candyland board made me realize that they have changed the Candyland board more than I realized since I was a kid. Ice cream floats?! I remember that!

Amy's first time on a roller coaster - she was JUST barely tall enough for the Barnstormer. (And remember what I said about the photos being out of order, because this was our first night in the park. When Matt was making our reservation, he figured out that for an extra $12 we could get a 6 day pass instead of 5, and we could do a few hours in the Magic Kingdom the day we arrived, provided we drove really fast through Georgia and Florida. Which we did, and we got to ride Winnie the Pooh before it got closed for renovations, and Splash Mountain, and we saw the night parade and fireworks and generally got our $12 worth.)

The kids coloring, at Epcot. Good thing we spent two days in the car to get there and two days back, because they certainly couldn't have stayed home and colored. I kid, I kid! I actually love that there are interactive/crafty things for them to do.

Fishy faces! The Nemo ride is always a favorite (unless you are someone with an irrational fear of aquariums. Luckily I don't know anyone like that.)

It just so happened that we were there during the Food and Wine Festival. Or just the Food Festival for us, since we are Mormons. And funny story about the big golf ball thingy: Amy thought that that was Epcot, and not the whole park. So whenever she saw it she'd go "Look! It's E'cot!" There is actually a ride inside, which is long and soothing and good for putting toddlers to sleep.

My friend Cid got us VIP seats for Fantasmic. I wish I got to be a VIP more often. We got to walk right off to the cordoned off seats even though it was standing room only. Thanks, Cid!

Matt bought a whole bunch of glow sticks before we went - they turned out to be a great idea, not only for finding the kids when it was dark, but also for keeping them entertained when we were waiting for nighttime stuff (and we did a lot of nighttime stuff). Since we had a lot of extras, we were able to give glow sticks to other kids, too - a great way to make friends.

Amy being cute. And that hat got lost somewhere. And yes, she did insist on wearing a skirt or a dress every day.

Amy being cute again. Actually, we were just sharing a treat while waiting for Dad and the big kids to ride their turn on Soarin. But I love this picture because my baby is dang adorable, isn't she? And I love how the Florida humidity made her hair, which is normally a bit on the wavy side, CURLY. So cute I almost couldn't stand it - almost makes up for what the Florida humidity does to MY hair.

Meeting the princesses - get a load of my kids in their cute Mom-made outfits. The girls' princess dresses got a lot of comments, too. I wanted them to wear something that was princessy but still comfortable in the insane heat. I always feel sorry for the little girls who have to wear a heavy polyester costume all day long (and I guess I feel bad for the character actors, too, but at least they are getting paid).

Porter was insistent that he wanted nothing to do with the princesses. But he totally flirted with Sleeping Beauty.

Watching a lady make Japanese rice candy shaped like animals. It was completely mesmerizing. I think the Japan pavilion is my favorite even though they don't have a ride or anything.

Another reason to love the Japan pavilion is that they have the most adorable salesgirls who will dress up your little girl in a kimono and fix her hair and everything. And again I didn't buy Betsy a kimono even though I really really wanted to.

Porter wore his Mickey Mouse shirt just for the occasion. It was a coincidence that they were both plaid.

The nice thing about having a character meal is that you can see Mickey Mouse without having to wait in a seriously long line for the privilege of doing so. And the nice part of having Free Dining is that you get to meet characters AND have a lot of really awesome food without having to pay for either. Also, we had a really great server at the Garden Grill and I am using the word 'really' a lot.

Dale was the silly chipmunk. He made my kids laugh.

We didn't necessarily plan to have three character meals in a row, but that's how it worked out. And I know it doesn't look like it here, but Amy actually loved the characters. What she doesn't love is having her picture take (she's not too keen on bib-wearing, either).

We promised our kids Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles, and the Crystal Palace delivered.

Amy calls this character 'Tiger'. How do I explain to her that she's wrong? I don't, that's how.

Obligatory castle picture. Like Amy, I'm not crazy about having my picture taken.

But Matt is okay with it.

My kids are at the age now when they are totally into cheesy jokes, so they really liked Jungle Cruise. Actually, I really liked it too.

Space Mountain was one of the rides I was really looking forward to, since I hadn't been on it in almost 10 years (thanks to being pregnant with Amy on our last trip [totally worth it]). Only this time, when I went on it, I actually found it to be a bit too much. I started having a problem with motion sickness right around this point (it got even worse the next day) and I had to close my eyes for most of Space Mountain. Betsy and Porter, on the other hand, rode it twice in a row (thanks to baby swap) with no problems. I guess being young has its advantages.

I should also mention - since we didn't take any pictures for fear of losing the camera - that the kids flat. out. LOVED Splash Mountain. We rode that one both days we were in the parks (I brought ponchos the second day we went) and the kids got to do it twice. I think collectively that is our family's favorite Disney World attraction (and poor Amy couldn't even go).

Another thing we had promised the kids was ice cream shaped like Mickey Mouse. We made good on that promise our second day at Magic Kingdom. We were actually waiting for our Fatspass return time so we could ride Peter Pan and then leave. The park was going to be open for several more hours, but we'd done everything we wanted to do, and we were exhausted, so we decided to go back to the hotel and swim and pack up our stuff for the trip home. So. Those Mickey Mouse ice cream bars really hit the spot.

And the kids got hilariously messy while eating them. This photo doesn't even begin to show the filth and sticky smear that is created when you combine ice cream with the hot Florida sun. So we just got good and messy and had a good laugh and cleaned up everything afterwards with baby wipes (don't go anywhere without baby wipes or you have to do that stereotypical Mom thing where you lick a napkin and use it on your kid's face, which eeewwww).

Our last day - Animal Kingdom. We did the whole 'picture by the Tree of Life' thing. And if it seems like I didn't post as many pictures this time around, it's because a lot of them are redundant with the pictures from our last trip. (Only with Amy in them.) Animal Kingdom was also the day when I went on four different rides within an hour... I really don't recommend that... by the time we got off Expedition Everest I was within inches of tossing my cookies (which we got for free from the dining plan). So I swore off rides after that and we stuck with shows.

I also got to meet up with my awesome friend Cid, and thank her personally for the Fantasmic seats, but I didn't take a picture. Matt took the kids on one of the puke-inducing rides and I talked Disney and NCIS and fan fiction with Cid while Amy played adorable peek-a-boo with her.

They have the same thing for apes here as they have for the orangutans at the National Zoo. Like the Japanese rice candy lady, this was something else I could have watched for hours.

The kids like this section of the park, because it's dinosaur-themed. I always have a hard time with it, because the pavement reflects back the sun and there's no shade and there is a high concentration of puke-inducing rides. But, again, the kids like it.

Betsy and Porter being dinosaurs.

This is the hotel we stayed at. Betsy liked it because she's planning on becoming a rock star someday.

And then we went home. THE END. (Unless you want me to write about the epic poop blowout Amy had once we crossed the state line into Georgia on the return trip. It was like someone had poured twenty or thirty cups of Snack Pack into her britches. We had to bathe her at the hotel and throw out her clothes and I used an entire pack of wipes and half a can of air freshener trying to render her car seat habitable again. But that was pretty gross, so I won't tell you about it.)

Disneyworld, part 5: The thrilling conclusion.

Thank goodness for evening flights!

We had a relaxed evening the night before, and we were able to take our time in the morning. I picked up a delicious breakfast from our hotel food court (we didn't eat there very much, although it seems like everyone else did, because it was always crowded in the mornings. But the food was actually pretty decent.) and Matt took the kids outside to play while I finished packing.
Here's a pretty good view of our hotel - the resort is called All Star Sports, and each of the buildings is themed after a different sport. Serendipitously we ended up in the Tennis building, which is Matt's favorite sport. (I totally picked the Sports resort for Matt's benefit - I would have gone with Music. The truth is, though, they're all pretty much the same.) The All Star Resorts are the cheapest rooms that Disney offers, so while the rooms are more or less like a Motel 6, everything is still themed so you remember you are at Disneyworld. Plus, Betsy liked the Mickey Mouse soap.
Once we had checked out - and hooray for the airline check in right there inside our hotel - we went over to Downtown Disney, which is a sort of outdoor mall, only it's Disney. Probably not worth making a special trip, but it's a good way to fill some time before your flight. The other attraction, of course, was that I got to meet up with some old friends.

Tricia used to babysit us when we were kids, and Tracy and I were in Girl Scouts together (plus their mom was the troop leader). Much like me, they got out of Rochester a while ago. It was really fun to catch up. Tricia hasn't lost her touch with kids, apparently. (She teaches fourth grade now; she says that the Blinn kids were the best preparation for that.)
Tracy (the very pregnant one in the photo) also has a little girl who's just a bit older than Betsy. Betsy kept referring to her as "that little kid" until we convinced her that her name is Alex. The two little girls seemed to be kindred spirits and they had a great time playing with all the girly princess stuff (there is a LOT of girly princess stuff) at the giant Disney store.
Porter is actually standing next to me right now yelling, "MUSSER Tayo Head!" Just in case I forgot to write about it. My kids are Potato Head fanatics. I had bought one to keep them occupied on the plane and they spent the flights basically trading it back and forth. See, at Disneyworld you can get special parts for Mr. Potato Head. Like a Mr. Incredible costume, Mickey Mouse ears, a balloon, a camera, and yes, pirate accessories. Ask me how much I spent on Mr. Potato Head parts. Or better yet, don't.

We all had lunch together at Downtown Disney - I ate basically the best grilled cheese sandwich ever - before we had to get back to our resort, to catch the bus to the airport, so we could wait in the security lines again. The kids were seasoned travelers by this point: they did fine, and slept most of the way back. We got to our house at a little before 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Needless to say, we all took naps that day.

So, how would I sum it all up? Three words: Best vacation ever. I was actually kind of dreading the whole travel-with-little-kids thing, but they were great. We definitely got our money's worth - even more so, because of the free Dining Plan - and we saw everything we'd planned to see, and more. I did learn that some of my planning was a bit excessive. It was helpful to have a general idea of the paths we were going to take through the parks - especially in EPCOT, which is huge - but we also deviated from it a lot, because of show times or shorter lines or whatever. Also, I had brought a lot of snacks from home and we ended up not needing most of them (all my little snack sized baggies of crackers got smashed to bits) but you can never have too many juiceboxes.

It surprised me how much having the kids along actually enhanced our experience. When Matt and I were in Disneyworld on our honeymoon, we kind of had the feeling of "We'd better enjoy this while we can, because next time we come back here we'll have kids." And while I'm glad we went there when we were childless - we had the opportunity to go on the more grown-up rides like Space Mountain and Tower of Terror that we completely bypassed this time - our enjoyment this time was more centered on seeing our kids have fun. Everything is fresh and new to them, and things that we might have ignored before - like princesses, or the talking recycle bin - were totally captivating to them. We spent the days on our honeymoon trying to squeeze in every last bit of enjoyment; we went at a more relaxed pace this time around but still had pretty much nonstop fun. Also, we aren't quite as poor as we were when we were first married so I think that helped.

I know some families actually take a trip to Disney every year, and we're definitely not one of those families. I do hope it won't be another seven years before we make it back, though. I hope it will be sooner than that. We're probably going to Utah next year so that will be our big vacation for a while. Not so much with the Mickey Mouse. But I took over 400 pictures at Disneyworld, so I think that will be enough to sustain me for a while.

Disneyworld, part 4: Magic Kingdom - Rides, rides, rides.

Our last day at Disneyworld. And although I like the World Showcase the best, I think that the most fun we had was at the Magic Kingdom. My kids were so happy, meaning it was worth dragging them all the way down to Florida with us. We decided to focus on the rides that day, since MK has the highest concentration of kid-friendly rides. There are some shows as well but we opted to bypass those. I think the kids were really sick of shows and we were really sick of dealing with them being sick of shows. But we found more than enough rides to keep them happy. And the lines were short enough that almost everything we liked, we went on three times.

(Porter, look at the camera. PLEASE.)

Because of some promotion aimed at preschoolers - I guess, who else is visiting Disneyworld when school is in session - the Fantasyland section opened an hour early that day. At eight o'clock in the morning. Fortunately Porter got me up at 6:30 so we had no trouble making it to the park within a few minutes of its opening. Fantasyland has a lot of the rides we wanted to go on, anyway. We started off with Dumbo
which if you ask me, is slightly overrated. Unlike the dinosaurs at Animal Kingdom, each elephant only holds 2 people, so the line moves very slowly. And the line was long. I think everyone wants to go on Dumbo because it's tradition, not necessarily because it's mind-blowingly great. That was one of the longest lines we had (listen to me complain, it was still only a 10-15 minute wait) so we only went on it once.
Betsy liked the topiary, though.

The kids really, really liked the Winnie the Pooh ride. It's very closely based on that 'Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day' video we watched over and over when we were kids, complete with the very trippy Heffalumps and Woozles segment. The line for this ride moves pretty fast so we went on it twice in a row, and then once more right before we left the park.

Betsy and Porter particularly liked the ending because Piglet had a birthday cake.
Next up we went on the teacups. I think that's one ride that's more fun for adults than for children. We were pretty crammed with the four of us in one cup. (I think we could have split our party up, since they were running the ride half empty.) I kept yelling at the kids not to spin it too fast, because I didn't want anyone to puke, including myself. Still, Betsy thought it was cool to go in a life sized tea party.

After we had gone on most of the Fantasyland rides (and we caught the rest of them, like Peter Pan and Snow White, at the end of the day) it was only 9:00. The rest of the park was opening by then - except for Mickey's Toontown Fair, where there's a kiddie coaster we really wanted to try. However, we were also adjacent to Tomorrowland. Now, when I was obsessively planning out our days, I always figured we wouldn't have time to go to Tomorrowland (silly me) and I thought it wouldn't be worth it, since the kids couldn't go on Space Mountain anyway. But we once again found ourselves in the slightly surreal position of having time to kill since the lines were so short.

So, we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Can you guess how many times?

Buzz Lightyear's face is animated and it doesn't show up well in photos; that's why he looks like that. Actually Porter always calls him Ghost Lightyear (a combination of Buzz's name and the Ghostlight, which is one of the extras on the Cars DVD) and I think that in this case the description is apt. The ride is pretty sweet: if you've never been on it, it's actually interactive. Each ride vehicle has two space blasters, so you get to shoot at targets located all over the ride, and the vehicle keeps track of your score. (Holiday World has a 'turkey shoot' ride which is very similar, and which the kids also loved.) You can also work a joystick to make your car spin around, which is mostly what occupied Betsy. The ride is continuously loading (much like the Nemo thing at EPCOT) so it only took about twenty minutes to go on it three times, and on the last ride I finally beat Matt's score.
Here's Betsy with an alien. She's into aliens right now, for reasons I can't fathom.

It was still only 9:30 at that point, so we had more time to kill before we could go on the rollercoaster. We ended up going on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority - one of those completely overlooked attractions. It's just sort of a slow-moving train that cruises around the second level of Tomorrowland. But the ride does pass through Space Mountain, so at least I can say we went on Space Mountain, kind of.

It was finally 10:00 and time for Goofy's Barnstormer. Porter was too short for the kiddie coaster at Holiday World and he was just barely tall enough for this one. He's like 35 and no tenths inches tall (with shoes on). But he was really excited to go on his first roller coaster ride, even though it was broken. According to him. Despite the facial expression, Porter really did love the ride (we went on it once, and then we went on it again, and then we went on it a final time). And Betsy has learned the fine art of screaming on a roller coaster. She was really funny.

Our lunch reservation was at 1:00 so we still had some time to kill after the roller coaster. We were planning to go in 'It's A Small World' later, when the kids were really tired, but we also stopped in on our way over to the restaurant. I remember riding 'Small World' at Disneyland when I was 5, so we have to go mostly for nostalgia's sake. (I suspect that's why most people are there.) Betsy liked the dolls and singing along with the music; Porter liked the goat, the elephant, and the giraffe, all of which were broken.

I liked the short line, and the fact that it's very relaxing (plus air conditioned). And Matt... umm, tolerated the ride. Enough that we rode it two more times that day.

We had a delicious lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern. The whole Liberty Square section is modeled after places like Colonial Williamsburg, and we actually visited Williamsburg in 2003. The Disney version is obviously more, well, Disney, but it was a fun trip down memory lane for us. And the kids got to have ice cream for dessert. I popped in the Christmas store after lunch and picked up an ornament - my usual souvenir from any trip. (Fortunately we don't travel that much, or I'd have to get a whole separate tree.)

We split up after that, because Matt and Betsy had FastPasses for Splash Mountain and Porter's too short. I took him on Pirates of the Caribbean, because he a pirate. Arrg!

The ride actually broke down shortly after we went on it (something actually was broken) so Matt never got to go on it. But I think Betsy wouldn't have liked the pirate ride. It's a lot like Small World, only scary. Porter actually didn't seem to notice: not just the scariness, he didn't notice the ride at all. (He did really like playing in the gift shop after, though.) I Think that was mainly because he was tired. Porter fell asleep while we were waiting for M & B to get back from Splash. He slept through Jungle Cruise,
he slept through the parade (now we will never know if Mickey Mouse was functioning correctly or not), he slept through the rain, and he slept through the delicious orange slushy the rest of us shared while we were waiting for the rain to stop. Sorry, buddy! He did wake up in time for the third trip on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin,
or as Betsy called it, the Jasmine ride. (Note: there was no Jasmine to be seen. She was extrapolating.) The magic carpets were very similar to the dinosaurs from the day before, complete with really short lines. Porter actually liked the ride a lot: he was mad when I took the picture because he had just woken up, bless his little heart.

We had gone on almost everything, and it wasn't even 5:00. (The park was open until 7 that day.) So we went back towards Fantasyland to hit the rest of the rides over there. Matt and Betsy went on Peter Pan because they had FastPasses. (That's one of those rides like Dumbo that has inexplicably long rides. It's similar to the Pooh ride but you don't see people standing in line for 45 minutes for Pooh. Huh.) I took Porter over to the Snow White ride which, despite being (marginally) princess-themed, she wouldn't have really liked. It was scary. As I was making our way back to the stroller, Porter spotted Cinderella's Golden Carousel.

Now, I hadn't planned on riding the carousel, because we can go on the one at the Children's Museum pretty much any time we want (we have a membership, so rides are free). Two things changed my mind: 1) There was practically no line, and 2) "MAYGWOUND!" That was Porter.

So we got in the line, but the ride was already going so we couldn't get on it right away. Do you think that sat well with Porter? No, it did not. He was full on, throwing himself on the ground, square-mouthed crying. We didn't have to wait very long before Porter was seated on his 'horshey' (at the museum, he usually rides on a giraffe; the Disney version only had horses, but he didn't seem to mind) and with still a slight wobble in his voice told me "Maygwound broken." He was one happy little boy, I tell you.

We went on the carousel one more time as a family after M & B came back, and then it started to rain again so we went and had dinner. We ate at the Pinocchio themed restaurant, which was cool because it overlooked the Small World ride. And once the rain let up a bit, we rode Winne the Pooh and Small World one last time (for a total of three). Usually I'm consumed with regret when I know my vacation is finally at an end, but really, we had done everything we'd planned to do. In triplicate. And we wanted to get in line for the bus back to our resort before 7:00 so we wouldn't have to wait as long. So, I shopped a little along Main Street as we were heading out, and we left by 6:45.

And that was that, really. It was an extremely satisfying day and the kids had a really great time. We took them back to the hotel so they could play with some of their new toys and have baths. I think we all went to sleep early that night.