Catch up...

So we've been writing about our trip and in the meantime a month has passed us by! I thought it was time to write about the every day of getting back into the school flow of things.





We celebrated Courney's birthday again by making her a birthday cake and Nonna's birthday gift arrived too. She loves her dress and Papa, you can see we did need it that long. She's growing up so fast! She had already gotten a camera and a trip to the World so don't think she didn't get much.

The week after we got back from Florida, Pete had buisness travel from Tuesday to Friday. I worked on getting the kids ready for school on time and trying to dig my way out of laundry. (Love that work after a trip!) Tueday I took Connor to the music store and he chose a trumpet that he wanted to play. We had to wait because we choose one that was older and needed some t.l.c..Friday I went to Ikea with Kim2 and Lisa. We had breakfast (YUM) and had fun shopping. Unfortunatly I didn't see Kim2 all that much during the outing but scored when Luke said he wanted to come home with me. We didn't do much once we got home so I probably blew it for him. Sorry Luke! He did have fun with Hershey at least.

The weekend flew by and Pete had to leave again. This time it was Sunday evening to Friday night. For him it was a different experience. His brother Bob had the same schedule so they were able to see each other through the week. That hasn't really happened before. For me the week was LONG. I didn't really recover from the trip quickly and I have a rough time of it when Pete's gone so I was running on a low tank. Sorry kids. I did however find time to put up my cool Ikea finds and kept working on putting the house together. (I still have a ways to go.) The kids held up pretty good and were happy to be back in school. Kim2 gave us a break on Wednesday with a dip in the pool. We didn't know how long the weather was going to last. Friday I took Mallory to the doctor's to check her vision. That turned out to be just fine but she needed a shot. Surprise!! To make her feel better we went to Krispy Kreme's and got everyone a donut. That help the tears dry. The funny comment this week was provided by Connor. I was doing a haircut and we were talking about how we get when our hubbies are gone. Connor yelled down the hall, " yeah, you always have you're worst days when he's gone!" Too true son.

Again the weekend flew by but not before we had our family dinner on Sunday. I'm so glad we do get that in our schedules. Kim 1 had a surprise for the girls. She brought over beads and all the trimmings to make bracelets that could help the girls remember that Jesus loves them. They were really cute and the girls helped her make them. Thank you Kim.

Well onto the week. Pete was still home but was to be deemed gone until Thursday. Everyone had to come here for their meetings and so Pete was obligated to do all the after work dinners and such with them. Connor started band and we finally started to feel the begginings of a schedule. Before the end of the week however Connor wanted to know, "When is this going to stop?" He, the girls and I had had it with Pete's abcence. We all missed him. ALOT. His week was over Friday after lunch and now he's home. At least for a little while. I appreciate how hard he works but man I don't like him gone! What a month!

Day 7 - Blizzard Beach

Another down day at the waterpark and the family goes wild. The kids just love the waterparks, so we made time to hit them both while in the world. We had really been excited about and very happy with Typhoon Lagoon, but felt that Blizzard Beach deserved it's own day too. And now that the day is done, we're glad we did.

At first look, we were concerned that it just had too many thrill type rides (more for me, less for Julie and the kids). It turned out that the rides actually suited us better than the set over at Typhoon Lagoon. We were also a little worried that it would be much hotter than Typhoon because the theming wouldn't have as many trees (more trees in the south pacific than on an iceberg) and the white "ice" would act as huge reflectors. The worries turned out to be unfounded, but we were still willing to risk not getting there for rope drop to allow the kids a little more sleep. We had accumulated a few extra meal credits (because we have been so full), so Julie and I snuck over to the restaurant to grab waffles, pancakes and eggs for breakfast. It was a chore carrying it all back, but we survived.

Even with breakfast and a little more sleep, we still arrived before the park opened. Julie and I made our guesses to where we should head to get a good spot and when the park opened Julie, Connor and Mallory made their way to find a spot, Court and I headed for the park's headliner, Summit Plummet (the world's tallest and fastest free-fall body slide, 120ft tall). When a slide has a title like that, I can't pass it up and somehow, I talked Courtney into it. It was intimidating making the hike up, but once on the slide, it kind of all slinks away. From the top of the slide, we looked down at Animal Kingdom's Everest, Magic Kindom's Thunder and Splash Mountains, Epcot's giant golf ball and Hollywood Studios' Tower of Terror. So atleast the view was nice. The ride takes no time at all, but was fun.

Julie had found a great shady spot right next to the pre-teen area. So with that off our minds, we jumped on the ski lift up to the family raft ride. Teamboat springs was very cool, probably our favorite in the park. It's a super long ride (1400 ft, just looked it up) that we could all ride together and we didn't have to tote our raft. They load them up for you, nice. There are lots of turns and splashes without feeling like you are drowning, just enough to cool you down and be fun. We liked it so much, we went right back before the ski lift got too crowded.

We walked over to the tubes. The rides were fun, but you had to lug your own tube up the hill. Our second time up, I carried 3 tubes. That put an end to that set of rides. Next up was the racing area. The tube race was fun and it gave your times, but the line was too long. I got a little competitive on it and ended up flying off the tube at the end. I'm sure it was pretty funny to watch. The favorite race ride was the mat race. It was an eight lane slide, straight shot with three hills. Again, bringing out the competitive nature in me wasn't too hard and I showboated across the finish line.

After another filling lunch, Julie and I let the kids play in the ski patrol area (three tube rides, a T bar, a small obsticle course and pool. While the kids played, we enjoyed a nice nap. Can't tell you how much we enjoyed the nap. Great spot Julie, nicely done.

We jumped on the slalom rides, the other slides, the lazy river and the small wave pool after the nap. All in all, we actually liked Blizzard better than Typoon. Good thing we found time for both parks.

When we got back, we changed and headed over to downtown disney. We found our souvenier set of christmas ornaments at the Christmas shop, at dinner ate Wolfgang Puck's and saw the cool stores and clubs in Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island. The Lego Store and soon to be opened TRex Restaurant were big hits. We made our way back to Disney Quest to have another go. This time it was much less crowded andit made all the difference, that and knowing where to go. Virtual Pirates was very cool. We manned our own boat. Julie captained us and the kids and Ishot down the other pirate ships for booty. It was very fun. That was followed by virtual jungle cruise where you have to paddle your own raft, the Aladdin ride where you fly around on magic carpets and everyone turns into monkeys, Buzz Lightyear bumper cars where you shoot rubber balls at your opponents along with crashing into them, human pinball, Star Wars podracer, and an assortment of video games. Julie doesn't normally like video games, but even she had a good time. Could be because she killed me at everything we did, but I think she'd have had a good time either way. We had to drag the kids out. We had another busy day planned.

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom

Happy Birthday Court! When we started planning this trip, we initially were looking at a week later on in September. But, it would have cost us another chunk of money because the Riverside wasn't available. So that pushed us into this week and into Courtney's birthday. We let Court choose which park she wanted to go on her birthday and she chose the Magic Kingdom. We were a little concerned that the park would be crowded on Labor Day, but the tour books all said that since schools in the south mostly start in August, Labor Day wouldn't be bad. And.....they were right.

We arrived at our normal 45 minutes before opening and rushed the park at rope drop. It seems a little less important here than at Disneyland because the rope drop is just after the gates rather than on mainstreet. We headed to Fantasyland and hit Winnie the Pooh, Indy Speedway (Autopia's Eastern cousin), Snow White (much better in WDW than in CA), Small World (much better in CA, seemed really scrunched together because of the inside queue), the tea cups, Goofy's Barnstormer,Peter Pan and Mickey's Philharmagic (something new for us and one of the family favorites). The lines were all pretty short, so when Julie saw that the line to see Ariel was short too, we jumped in that line too. Courtney was very excited to get a birthday greeting from one of her favorite characters.

We were able to squeeze in the Haunted Mansion, Aladdin's Magic Carpets (Dumbo-like ride) and the Jungle Cruise before our lunch reservation. The jungle cruise was a little different at WDW, a few more animals/sites and the cruise operator actually let Mallory drive the boat through the big tunnel. She cruised by the cobras and tiger like a pro.

We ran over to the Crystal Palace for lunch. Winnie, Tiger, Eeyore and Piglet each took turns wishing Court a happy birthday and even left her a signed birthday card before we left. We stuffed ourselves pretty good and wobbled over to the castle. As I grabbed some more fastpasses, Julie and the kids walked through the mosaics of Cinderella's story. We met at a small quiet spot next to the castle for Belle's story time. Court wanted to sit up front for the story, but unfortunately, Connor and Mallory were both selected to take part in the story. Connor as Gaston and Mallory as Cogsworth. Julie's favorite part was watching the wife of the guy picked to play the beast, she was cracking up. After the show, Belle was able to wish Court a happy birthday in person. We were successful in seeing both of Court's favorites, one happy little girl.

We went over to Tomorrowland and cruised through the full selection: Space Mountain, Monsters Laugh Floor (big hit), Buzz Lightyear and we introduced the kids to the people movers (called the TTA in WDW). You can see from the picture that they weren't impressed. We didn't subject ourselves to Stitches Escape this time through. We'll just say we weren't big fans. But at least is wasn't as bad as the horrible contraption that they made the Tiki Room into. It was atrocious. But back to the positive. We headed back over to Adventureland and Frontierland to hit Pirates, Splash Mountain (twice), Thunder Mountain (twice), the magic carpets again, root beer floats during the parade and the Country Bear Jamboree. The kids had no idea what to expect with the country bears, so we had to use Papa and Grandpa's names to convince them that it was going to be okay. Well, it was a bit rundown, but Big Al and the gang still delivered. It could use a little updating, but it was still fun.

After seeing a show at the castle, we grabbed dinner at Pecos Bill's. It is the best counter service restaurant outside of Epcot in our opinion. Court was named Sheriff for the day at Pecos Bill's to close out her birthday. On the way to the bus we found another gem, funnel cakes in Liberty Square. Yum. Back at the hotel was Courtney's last surprise, a signed picture of Ariel. Another night of swimming finished the family off. Good night.