...is it December yet?

It hits me about this time every year. I am so ready for the Christmas season to start. Not physically ready - not a single gift has been purchased (at least by me: Connie brought all the kids' gifts when they were here last week) - but emotionally. I think that the moment the weather starts to turn cool, I am humming Christmas songs.

It doesn't help, of course, that Hobby Lobby has their Christmas trees up already. Or that I got the Scrapbook Trends holiday book the other day (my layout is on page 48, in case you're looking) and I've been drooling over the products and ideas. (As if I didn't have enough Christmas-related papers and embellishments. Seriously, it's kind of embarrassing.) I'm sure that pretty soon, the ward choir will start rehearsing for the Christmas program. I'm tempted to start listening to Christmas music, but I do feel that October 15 is a little early for the Muppets.

So, I've been releasing my pent-up holiday lust by flipping through magazines of cookie recipes. Cookies are pretty much suitable year-round, right?

It didn't always used to be this way. When I was a kid, I was adamant that the Christmas season does not start until December 1st. Period. No negotiations allowed. Not that I didn't love every minute of it - I think it was because I loved it, that I was afraid of seasonal overkill. Now, of course, I see the error of my ways. There is no way that Christmas could ever wear out its welcome. I've revised my hard-and-fast stance a bit... now the season begins the day after Thanksgiving, but if I need to start listening to the music or watching the Charlie Brown special a few weeks ahead of schedule, that's okay too.

However. I do still need to get through Halloween first, right? And it's possible, just possible, that I may be a crazy person. I need to do a scrapbook layout to purge my feelings... just as soon as I can figure out a photo that appropriately conveys the sentiment "I'm so obsessed with Christmas that I want it to start in mid-October even though I know that's wrong. Wrong." How on earth am I supposed to take a picture of that?

Whew!

Just coming off the end of an incredibly busy week. All we did yesterday was lay around and listen to General Conference!

On Monday, I cleaned. And cleaned. Have I ever mentioned that I don't like cleaning? I also watched Chuck, one of the new shows on NBC. I really liked it, and not just because Chuck's Nerd Herd car is a Yaris hatchback like my husband's. (Pam Beesley on The Office drives one, too.)

On Tuesday, my mother and sisters got here. Mom brought books for the kids and hand knitted washcloths with their initials knitted right in. Betsy had her first dance class that night. I found dance classes that are actually affordable; the Tuesday night session is taught in the dining room of an assisted living center. The seniors sitting in the lobby loved seeing Betsy come in all decked out in her dance attire. I left Porter with my mom so that I could actually sit in on the lesson. Betsy was actually the only kid in the class that day. Twenty bucks a month for a private dance lesson? That's not a bad deal! She was really cute, but she's still having a hard time with paying attention.

Mom and I watched NCIS, or tried to anyway. Somehow - I think Porter changed the settings on the VCR - we were getting the audio commentary for the blind. It was kind of funny at first - "Ziva gives Tony a scathing glance." - but it got super annoying. So, I muted the TV and we just read the captions which are, you know, for the hearing impaired. We all applauded when Tony threw the note into the fire. If you don't follow the show you have no idea, but if you do watch NCIS you probably hated Jeanne as much as I did.

On Wednesday, we had a fun girly day of shopping. I took Mom to the sweet new fabric store that's opened up near the library. They have Amy Butler fabric! I still didn't buy anything, because yeah, it's like $9 a yard. But my mom came out with an armload of fabric, plus we left a trail of drool all through the store. Had Steak & Shake for lunch, because that's what you do when Cindy's in town. The dark chocolate milkshakes are delicious, are they not? We hit up the local Goodwill, but no spectacular finds this time. Wednesday night, I watched another new show, Pushing Daisies. I've been really looking forward to that one because I'm one of the approximately 19 people in the world who watched Wonderfalls. Mmm, I loved it. Bryan Fuller is still a genius, Lee Pace is still very tall and funny, and pies are delicious. (I did actually make pies a little later in the week.) We also saw Life, mainly because it's got the guy from Band of Brothers in it. I'm liking a lot of the new shows this fall - like I didn't have enough to do, right? But I haven't watched Cavemen.

This is the dress we made, when we weren't watching TV. I really need to get my own serger.

Thursday my mom & sisters left in the morning, so I had a little time to regroup before Matt's parents arrived that night. I made a big old pot of chili. Wally and Connie exercised their grandparental right (that's a word, isn't it?) to bring the kids candy and toss them in the air. Porter loves his grandpa, they are like two peas in a pod.

Matt took Friday off from work (I am having a little too much fun with the bold tag, can't you tell?) to spend some time with his parents. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning (everything looks good, baby's heartbeat is 165-170, and I am NOT going to tell you how much weight I've already gained) and we went to the pumpkin patch. It felt slightly un-autumnal, hayrides notwithstanding, because it was like 85 degrees.

Had Chinese buffet for lunch, and then I went home and napped for a long time.

We started listening to General Conference on Saturday. Also got to see Mark (Matt's brother) and Jenny again, for the first time in over two years (when they moved to Texas). They were stopping in on their way home from Cleveland, where they went to a neuroscience conference at the Cleveland Clinic. Jenny was answering questions about her stroke and the aftereffects. It sounds like it was pretty interesting. Anyway, I learned that two things have happened in the last two years: 1)Jenny can finger spell really fast and 2)I'm actually slightly better at interpreting what she says. (I found that Sesame Street sign language book at the state fair, and I've been practicing. I still mix up G, H, P, and Q though.)

While the guys went off to Priesthood session, we had sort of a girls night in. A lot of Jenny's friends from their old ward came over. That was also the ward that Matt and I were in when we were first married, so I knew everyone too, which was pretty nice. It was just a really fun time. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. They guys didn't get home from conference until after 11 at night, though, which was crazy. But not too late to eat pie.

And on Sunday, everyone cleared out. And now it's Monday and I'm sitting here writing this.

the cat's out of the bag...

Yep, I'm pregnant. It seems to be working this time, and I can't really conceal it any longer, unless I start wearing muumuus. And caftans. Maybe I could sew myself a long flowing caftan and a really kicky turban to match. Or, maybe I could just come out of the gestational closet and start wearing my elastic-belly pants, which is what I'm doing now.

Anyway, I'm having a pretty busy week, which is why I haven't updated in forever. My mother and the little girls just left for Rochester. They got here on Tuesday, so it was a short visit: just long enough to go to Goodwill and the sweet new fabric store, eat lunch at Steak n Shake, and sew a dress on Mom's serger. But don't be sad, because my in-laws will be arriving later tonight. Also, Mark and Jenny will be passing through on their way home from Cleveland. That's a lot of visitors in one week. But the good thing is, I've only had to clean my toilets once.

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.