Solo day and family trip... two, two, two reports in ONE!

[bumbershoot]

OK, last time we were there the dishwasher was so gross, like a dirty fish tank with algae in it! I was sad to see that, but it looks clean now! I hate it when Disneyland isn't perfect.


THANK YOU!! I have never in my 4 year-old's life ever "lost" her until WWS! It was super crowded and I couldn't find her anywhere. I was shouting her name in the seating area and just about to grab a CM and yell CODE ADAM as loud as I could. I started running for the door to block the exit and there she is behind that wall, oblivious to my panic...it was kind of crazy, and she really didn't leave the restaurant so I couldn't scold her too much.

OH yay, maybe there's hope for the stove.

Augh, the no-answering thing! Ms PacMan has a hold over them, even when they aren't actually PLAYING the game, that just makes them incapable of speech. Or perhaps they just don't hear us, our voices starting "normal", then getting perhaps a bit higher and thinner, then quickly getting more panicky (but trying to stay cool 'cuz you don't want to look like a dork if they are right behind you or something) and just as you're about to flip out, there they are. 4 year olds....:confused3 pirate: princess:



Robert's workplace isn't letting him come home! Ugh. I just worry about him slipping and slidding while walking to the train, ya know, and then missing it. :( There will really be no other way home if he misses that train.

[bumbershoot]

I really should be out playing in the snow with Eamon, but he seems to be having a grand time with his variety of toys, so right now I'll continue just a bit.




As we left WWS, we took the GCH entrance into DCA. And that's when Robert realized how incredibly close WWS is to DCA, and he confessed that his wish to go through DTD was because he didn't realize that. Poor guy, did all that extra walking in his painful Crocs and neither of us talked further about it to solve his situation. Then again, going through DCA might not be THAT much closer, since you have to pass Soarin' and all of that.

We left DCA and headed towards Toy Story Midway Mania! Along the way we took one of the two photopass pictures from this trip, E with the tree. After that I convinced Robert to have his picture taken on the bridge, so that he has Mickey ears. I figure since they'll be getting rid of those in the future, might as well have fun with them!

And even though I haven't ordered them yet, you'll have to take my word for it that the picture was actually really good! Even he thought so, and since his self-esteem has been in the tank for the last 2 or so years (not that mine is that high), it was great to see a good picture and to see him like his picture. :goodvibes

Finally we got to TSMM, and the sign said that the line was 40 minutes long. For Single Rider lines only, I can't wait for E to be a few years older! But since he can't ride solo yet, into the standby line we went. We didn't time our wait, so we'll just stick with 40 minutes.

Totally worth it!!! That line is sneeeeeaky, but I can't help but admire the queue-designer. When I went on it in November, it was long enough, but this time the whole outside courtyard was full and the extra inside line was full. I imagine the CMs could create some more switchbacks for when it's even longer, though!

Before seeing it, I didn't really understand how the Single Rider line missed seeing Mr Potato Head, and for anyone else like me, the SR line is over to the left. The queue itself starts on the right, and as you get into the proper line you go past MPH. He's pretty much the first part of the line. He's also really close to the pathway, so he can (and did) comment on people just passing by, or those standing at the fence but not in the line.

Eamon was fascinated by the guy.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5813645388c00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Alas, that part of the line, both times we went, was the shortest part, so there was no interaction with E, even though he wanted to talk to him.

The line moves in clumps. They load several cars, and of course each vehicle has two sides, and send them off all at once, so you don't move constantly, but you move quite a bit when you do move. So you have to have one person in your party looking forward! There's at least a women's bathroom right next to the line, so there were several people who jumped out then came back into line, after bathrooms breaks. Seemed convenient. We aren't they type, or rather haven't yet been the type, to come back into line after a bathroom break. It once took us three whole times to get on Jungle Cruise, because we aren't the type to re-join the line... But maybe someday we'll do that, and it's good to know it's right there.

Anyway, we all just loved the ride. Fantabulous. Had yet another difficult time in the giftshop, but did survive the experience.


Oh, here are some pictures I took while in line. Then I've got to get us bundled up and go outside or there will be a revolution on my hands.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_2975.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_2976.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_2977.jpg

[bumbershoot]

I just noticed I mentioned the train last night.

Robert left work at his usual time and got to the train station in record time. And then found out that the 5:55 train was canceled, but the 6:45 train was expected. There is no inside area there. Then the transit's website kept going down, and their phone line was of very little help. He decided to stick it out, and from what he said, everyone else was looking to him. They don't have the Sounder's phone number listed at the station, and he was the only one with a schedule to get the number, and he was the only one with someone sitting at home with nothing else to do but click "refresh" and call them every so often.

Thankfully, the 6:45 train was "only" 25 minutes late (so since hubby got there at about 5:40, you can do the super-fun math of how long he and those who got there at the same time got to stand out in the windchill factored temperature of about 21), and he was SO happy when he called to tell me he was on the train. I got the feeling that everyone was just so happy to be in the warmer train that they all nearly had a party. :)


But this morning, hubby said he got off the train in Seattle, and then slipped and fell. So he's hurting today. Guess my prediction was right, just for the wrong day! :(

[kaoden39]

I really like those pictures. They are so much fun. I like the different views and angles.

[kaoden39]

I just noticed I mentioned the train last night.

Robert left work at his usual time and got to the train station in record time. And then found out that the 5:55 train was canceled, but the 6:45 train was expected. There is no inside area there. Then the transit's website kept going down, and their phone line was of very little help. He decided to stick it out, and from what he said, everyone else was looking to him. They don't have the Sounder's phone number listed at the station, and he was the only one with a schedule to get the number, and he was the only one with someone sitting at home with nothing else to do but click "refresh" and call them every so often.

Thankfully, the 6:45 train was "only" 25 minutes late (so since hubby got there at about 5:40, you can do the super-fun math of how long he and those who got there at the same time got to stand out in the windchill factored temperature of about 21), and he was SO happy when he called to tell me he was on the train. I got the feeling that everyone was just so happy to be in the warmer train that they all nearly had a party. :)


But this morning, hubby said he got off the train in Seattle, and then slipped and fell. So he's hurting today. Guess my prediction was right, just for the wrong day! :(


Thanks for the update after hearing on the weather channel how bad the snow is up your way I was concerned he may get stuck away from home.

[bumbershoot]

I liked the pictures too. There's so much going on above you while in line for TSMM!

I was getting afraid he'd be stuck, too. The closest motel to the station is super-expensive, so I was getting worried for his health and our finances! He's left work as of now, and so let's all hope that his train isn't too late, and that he skips all the icy patches while walking from the downtown Tacoma lightrail station up to our condo.

[kaoden39]

I liked the pictures too. There's so much going on above you while in line for TSMM!

I was getting afraid he'd be stuck, too. The closest motel to the station is super-expensive, so I was getting worried for his health and our finances! He's left work as of now, and so let's all hope that his train isn't too late, and that he skips all the icy patches while walking from the downtown Tacoma lightrail station up to our condo.

Poor guy. I hope he made it okay. It would be awful if he had another spill. Is he okay from the other one?

[daisy_77]

TSMM is one ride that I did not get to try in June. It was not open yet, but MPH was putting on a show. I cannot wait to try that ride on my next trip.

Great pics, too! I love E's face when he is looking at MPH.

Poor Robert! I had a spill on the ice this year too. I was lucky the only thing I hurt was my bum, it cushioned the fall.:rotfl:

[bumbershoot]

He was still pretty sore last night. Turns out he actually fell in Tacoma, while walking to the Link, the lightrail through downtown. And he carries a messenger bag which had both his personal computer AND his work computer (so he can work from home if snowed in), and he didn't want to damage them, so he twisted while he fell. Ouchie.

Today he could get into work again, but is leaving at the FIRST sight of snow. He is the ONLY one in his department who has come in each day this week, and he's already gotten a free latte out of it from a manager who was very happy with him. And he's gotten kudos for being so dedicated recently. He's the only one with a young child; everyone else is unmarried no kids, or much older with grown kids, and they are impressed at how he's always there and never has to leave for kids (one of the bennies for the worker bee when there's a go-to person at home). So this "I came into work while everyone else stayed home" thing is REALLY looking good for him. And doesn't even reflect badly on others, as they don't live in Tacoma, and so their weather was completely different than our weather; he COULD come in, they could not. So it's nice like he's messing things up for others. And even if someone else lived here, if they lived outside of downtown, they probably couldn't get in, because they would have had a hard time getting to the transit station. It's a win-win. Well, except he wishes we'd been totally snowed in, of course. :)


Well we gotta go out in the frozen slush, b/c it's very likely going to snow later this afternoon, and we gotta go to the store. I'm in the mood for SOUP! But hmm, do I want to bring home potatoes to make potato/leek soup? Those things are heavy.... Ooh maybe celery soup (better than it sounds!) instead...wait, that has potato too. Hmm.



Anyway, I'll update more later on the trip!

[kaoden39]

You know it shows a company that you are a company person when things like this happen. Good for him.

[bumbershoot]

Definitely. Alas he's going to have to work from home tomorrow...unless we lived right there across the street (and there is a luxury apt/condo building right there) I can't even imagine how anyone will get in. Jinkies!


Ruh roh, I'm hearing the first person having difficulties getting up the semi-main (though only one lane each way) street outside our balcony. Except for maybe half an hour since we've been up (and since we celebrated Yule today, we've been up since excited-boy woke us up and dragged us out of bed!) it's snowed All Day Long.

[kaoden39]

Definitely. Alas he's going to have to work from home tomorrow...unless we lived right there across the street (and there is a luxury apt/condo building right there) I can't even imagine how anyone will get in. Jinkies!


Ruh roh, I'm hearing the first person having difficulties getting up the semi-main (though only one lane each way) street outside our balcony. Except for maybe half an hour since we've been up (and since we celebrated Yule today, we've been up since excited-boy woke us up and dragged us out of bed!) it's snowed All Day Long.

How nice for you to have him there tomorrow and not having to worry about him. I love kids this time of year it's so exciting for them. Even my 12 year oold son gets excited for everything still. I hope he stays that way. My oh so sophisticated 14 and 15 year old daughters acted so ho hum about decorating the tree. And once it got started they were like little girls.:goodvibes

[bumbershoot]

Well I guess ONE guy made it in to work today. And it was the guy Robert was working for! They swapped days so R could have an extra day for DLR and the guy could have an extra day with his family this week, but they called and begged him, and he lives close to the train up a few towns north, AND has chains on his car, so he could get to the station. Hubby *maybe* could have gotten there but it would have been miserably difficult to walk on the snow, since the snow had a layer of ice underneath yesterday, and it kept snowing after we got home from our long walk.

But no one from Seattle or the surrounding communities could get into the department today. Zoiks!

I guess Robert and Eamon did well today! They let me sleep in, but they knew that they were to get me up if E got into R's stuff or was too difficult. I like sleeping in. I like sleeping. Just not between midnight and 2; being awake is much more fun then. Hmm.

MIL's TV went kablooey today. Her bedroom one, a very small TV. We personally don't believe in having a TV in our bedroom, but she's a widow and it's cold in her place so I understand how upsetting it was for her. She called for R's advice, and I ended up offering to go in on it with her, so she could get a Toshiba instead of Dynex (they got good ratings on cnet, but we'd never heard of them and MIL balked big time at the unknown brand). Ordered it through my rewards program, and R and E went off to pick it up and take it to MIL. And I had a photobook for MIL. So even though I don't speak to her (she's MEAN) I still take care of her. And as long as she's nice to Robert and Eamon, and doesn't get on R's case about anything while E is there, I'll keep on taking care of her from afar.


So I don't get my own thread locked up b/c I'm posting but not continuing, I'll give you this. What ride did E finally get so excited about that he kept trying to leave us behind and just get to the front of the line?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581521538ee00000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

[travelmel]

So I don't get my own thread locked up b/c I'm posting but not continuing, I'll give you this. What ride did E finally get so excited about that he kept trying to leave us behind and just get to the front of the line?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581521538ee00000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

What do you mean get your thread locked up??

That looks like SPACE MOUNTAIN to me!

[bumbershoot]

Oh, I've seen the occasional trip report on the WDW side get locked and even deleted, when things got too chatty instead of being just about the trip. It's kinder and gentler on this side of things, but I didn't want to push it. :)


Any other guesses for the ride? :upsidedow

[kaoden39]

I'm gonna guess Soarin'.

Wow the weather sure is something up your way. We have had blustery up here in the bay area but nothing compared to your weather. My MIL and I are not the best of friends either. Hmm. Note to self be better MIL.

[prettyprincessbelle]

I'm guessing Soarin' too!!!

[Sherry E]

It looks like Soarin' to me too! Are we correct?

[IngridRalph]

Love reading your trip reports!
~Ingrid

[bumbershoot]

Soarin' is right!

Ok where did my notes go? Be right back.

[bumbershoot]

OK, I can't find my notes. Harumph. I have receipts and collected fast passes (never used one other than hubby with CA Screamin') but no notes.

So expect some retroactive updates in the future.

*******
It was still Sunday, December 7th. We'd had breakfast at WWS after a few hours at DL. TSMM was experienced and enjoyed. And then, from my pictures, it seems we made our way over to Soarin!

DS had been very hesitant to ride this. I think it's because it's in the building, with no idea what is in there. But with the help of a Samantha Brown special along with telling him about the little boy I sat next to on my solo day, I convinced him that it's just a "sit there and FEEL like you're flying ride", and he said he would go on it. He did flip flop a couple times, but finally we were walking by and he said OK! Along with that, there was NO line.

So we went inside, and he just saw a line of people and the flying stuff on the walls, and he got excited. And kept trying to get in the pockets of the people in front of us, LOL. Not that he was putting his hand in their pockets, just that he was getting soooo close to them it was like he wanted to be with them instead of us.

He didn't recognize the voice of Patrick Warburton (or whatever his name is) even though he's seen the Buzz cartoon series and everything else (OK-for-kids) Patrick has been in. But he did enjoy the ride! He liked the smells. He tucked his legs up cross-legged, and didn't want to stick out his feet, but he did put his arms up when I did, to really get the feel of flying. He didn't seem scared at all, and he said he really liked it when we were done! Yay!


Well, I have a picture from that queue at 1:33, and then my next picture is at 4:59 pm in the hotel room. What were we doing there? Ayep, changing clothes and shoes, because we'd gone on Grizzly FIVE more times! I can't believe I'm forgetting those rides already!

I do know that this day, DS was wearing his Crocs, and it turns out his Nikes have a MUCH bigger sole than the Crocs, and with the Crocs it wasn't so obvious that he made the height. He had to stand there each time. Luckily he LIKES being measured and seems to think he has to be measured everywhere (at soarin' they didn't have ask but still he lined himself up with the stick).

Also this day, E got soaked. Early. And E wanted a poncho b/c he was cold. I thought I remembered that I had taken the ponchos back to the hotel at breakfast, but now I'm remembering that I had Robert's poncho from our '05 trip, and Robert managed to rip it when I said "pull it up a bit in the back so he can put the hood on", and R just pulled instead of gently helping DS pop up on the seat a moment and pull the poncho up. :rolleyes1

Anyway, I had to give up my poncho at one point, so we really all got sopping wet, but still, we LOVE Grizzly. Even if I get the name wrong sometimes (I seem to really want it to be Rapids not Run).

And because we were soaking we had to go back to the hotel to change.

Soon enough we were warm, dressed, and gone, because we got back to DCA in time for the parade! Actually we walked up there, realized the parade was almost there, and I decided I *had to* have a TSMM popcorn bucket. Of course they are the same cost with or without popcorn, so I tempted corn syrup fate by getting some. I got back just in time for the parade to start! The parade was spent with Robert taking pictures as I ate a ton of the popcorn. Robert had some too, and we managed to keep knowledge of it, or so we thought, from Eamon.

R and E had seen the parade on our May trip, but I missed almost all of it. E was tired and didn't enjoy it then.

But this time we liked it all. I'm amazed by those stilt walkers! And the people who swing around on stuff, yikes! How do they do that? While moving, and while moving on something that they could fall off of, and NOT onto nice cushy mats?


I was surprised at how dynamic the Incredibles were on their machines (I assume those are Segways underneath?). Still shots like this don't show the movement.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec580516fd97100000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/






Loved these guys. I'm still not sure if there are people inside of them or not, but it was cute watching a boy older than E have his mom get his Little Green Alien (or whatever they are called) hat so he could match them.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581a642b9f300000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Here's one of the gymnastic types I was talking about. Until now I hadn't realized how much it looked like Rex is biting her bottom! :rotfl: He has the bar in his mouth and she was swinging on that. When I snapped the shot I thought "I wonder if she thought about the fact that her bottom would be in trip reports online, when she got the job?"

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5807415998100000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


We were very glad that they weren't doing anything more watery than bubbles. Whew.


After the parade, if memory serves, E and I decided to go on TSMM again while hubby went on Screamin'. We had a 30 minute posted wait time, and I think hubby was able to go on Screamin' twice. E and I had lots of fun, we LOVE that ride! How can we have more than one Best Ride Ever? I don't know, but we do!

Robert had fun, but then... we got off the ride and out of the giftshop, and saw him looking sad, dejected, and like he was about to cry sitting on a bench outside.

What happened? What was wrong????

[bumbershoot]

While re-reading I looked at the Incredibles shot, and remembered Mrs Incredible's butt pad. Whe E first met her last year, we were in awe of her bottom. And we couldn't tell if they'd chosen a particularly "stacked" Mrs Incredible, or if she was enhanced in some way.

Well, we still don't know about the one we met, but the one on the transporter/segway/scooty thing was having an issue with one side of her bottom, because there was a big football-pad shaped thing in the WRONG place under her tights. Ok that's making it sound like she was having a really weird Kotex moment, but I'm talking about padding for her hip/bottom area. :) The right side was perfect, you couldn't see where a pad might be, but the left side just looked wrong.

Poor Mrs Incredible!

[kaoden39]

Poor Mrs Incredible!

How funny though!

How cute that Eamon likes to be measured.

[Sherry E]

Don't leave us hanging! What was wrong with Robert?

I don't blame you about TSMM - it IS the best ride ever! I usually get beaten badly by whomever I am playing against, but one time I beat my friend, and the other night I got my highest score of 94,700 (which is good for ME since I have lousy hand-eye coordination) and the other night I beat the single rider next to me, so I felt a bit triumphant! Some of the little firing guns/devices work better than others - don't know if you have noticed that. Some of them have more 'give' on the string when you pull, and they don't snap back as quickly or as firmly as others, therefore affecting the ability to hit as many targets. And some of them snap back into place as they should and allow you to hit more targets. I definitely noticed differences in some of them.

We won't even get into my horrible scores on Buzz Lightyear - the highest score I have ever gotten on that was 15,000 and some change. Usually, I am hovering at a pitiful 3,000, 6,000 or 9,000! I just can't master that game, but I enjoy it. And when I try to spin the vehicle, I am doing it to improve MY score, but my friend asks why I am spinning the thing "the wrong way," meaning that it is not to HER advantage! I said to her, "You DO understand that we are competing, right? I am spinning to help MY game, not yours!!!"

[bumbershoot]

I'm glad he doesn't mind being measured, because it shows he knows that he might not get on a ride he's already been on, if he squishes down or if he's borderline and goes on something jolting before, etc etc.


Well I found my notes and they weren't helpful. I'll keep winging it.

*******

So I see big strong hubby on the bench, near to tears. What has happened? He said "I feel so stupid", and told me that while on Screamin' the second time, he thought his lanyard was in danger, but then he figured that it was stuck under the harness and would be fine. But just as they started the loop, he felt it tug, and then the pouch went flying past his face.

His pouch, containing his and Eamon's APs.

:scared:

So we spent the next who-knows-how-long seeking out the guest services people inside DCA, and she was really kind. After we waited for a large group to get some mysterious issue solved, she was ready to help us quickly. Told us that they search the tracks with flashlights every night, and turn things into lost and found. So if it's found it would be over there before the park opened the next morning. If they find it, although they'll destroy the card, they would mark it in the accounts so that R and E can get free replacements. If they do NOT find it, it's just considered lost, and we will get to pay the $20 replacement fee each.

For that night, as we were heading back over to DL, she gave them cards to use that night. And boom, we were done with the official AP stuff that night. Robert was still really upset, and still is actually. Even the knowledge that so many people lose things on Screamin' that they have a protocol for it isn't helping him feel less bad. I think it's that he had a strong feeling there would be a problem, but continued on anyway, without asking to have the harness reset, or holding on to the lanyard. I understand that, we have that feeling about a tooth accident Eamon had at only 6 months old and we KNEW he was getting too tired to sit in the highchair (he'd never sat in one before), and then the food came and we focused on that instead, and whammo, E's face hit the table and he lost a brand new tooth. But this is just an AP, just $40 if they aren't found (they were NOT found that night), and it's easily solved, unlike E's tooth and the problems he had with two teeth that came through shortly after that accident (they disintegrated and had to be pulled, which is why he has the gap toothed smile).

It took quite awhile to do all that, to talk R down from his ledge, so to speak, and to continue on with our happy evening.

My last picture of the Pixar Play Parade was taken around 5:42. Then there was TSMM and Screamin', then the time getting to Guest Service and the time there. I then have a totally black picture taken at 7:52.

Aha! I have now figured it out.

Yeah, this is the Not Pretty part. It's possible you guys will figure it out MUCH quicker than we did. I've given you some hints, and there's a total absence of something that you might have noticed, especially given how obnoxiously detailed I like to make my reports.

So we were having problems with E having "the wants". If you read a different post of mine, you know that Robert was in charge of money, and was having problems curbing his giving in to the wants, and I was being ignored, so the kid who wasn't supposed to get more than ONE souvenir and some pressed pennies had already charmed his way into a few "those aren't really souvenirs, no, he needs those" take-home-things along with the pressed pennies. It was driving me BATTY.

E was starting to talk about getting another build your own lightsaber, and I had told him many times that that wasn't going to happen. MAYBE it will happen during our visit to WDW, whenever that happens, but it was not going to happen at DLR for quite awhile, because it was just too big and bulky.



As we walked towards Tomorrowland, knowing that E had been in the stroller since the parade and we'd been munching behind him in crowded circumstances, I will still NEVER know how he knew to ask for some of the popcorn in the "Potato Head bucket". Kid's amazing. I don't know how he knew it was back there, let alone what was in it (we've never bought popcorn at DLR before. ever.) . He had a handful or so, and then dumped it on the ground accidentally. Whoopsie! In the past he would have been upset, but this time, as we moved it with our feet over towards the fence near Plaza Inn, he said that it would be for the birds. I remember that things were gearing up, yet again, for the parade, and we had to squish over and work fast so as not to be swept up ourselves in the "you can't stand here" pre-parade stuff.



So we decided to go on Star Tours. Which, of course, has no way out but into the "dump shop".

Now our flight to the Endor moon was quite exciting; but YIKES it was our pilot's first time, and he got us into all sorts of trouble! But we made it back safe and sound, despite almost hitting something at the very end, and that was good. We decided not to get on another starship, after all, trip insurance would pay us back since it was the pilot's fault we missed the moon entirely, and we decided to call it a day, in terms of space flight. E still loves the ride.

Then we hit Star Traders, and the fun began. Whining? Check. Yelling at us? Check. Stomping his feet? Check. Doing a new thing of crossing his arms in front of his chest and turning his back as we talk to him? Check check triple check.

I'm tempted to say "and that was just Robert!" and make it a joke, but it wasn't R and it wasn't funny.

We told him that he could choose ONE souvenir "tomorrow" after thinking about what he wanted. E decided to say that "tomorrow is an idiot!" over and over and over. Robert was getting angry. I was getting bewildered. Eamon was getting outta hand. E started to YELL about tomorrow being an idiot.

We took it outside. Where E proceeded to have the mother of all tantrums (though still nowhere near as bad as he used to have before we knew about corn syrup products...those were the great great grandfather of tantrums). Robert was getting really angry, and the look on his face was scary! I was worried about what passers-by were thinking about R's face and his intentions.

So I stepped in, because I'm quite often better with the tantrums, and I have long practice in smiling through them because my resting face is stern so my stern face is scary, and I like to NOT be scary, especially when already concerned about passers-by! Well of course that never sits right with Robert; he never quite gets it, in that moment, why I'm taking over, and gets insulted that I would even THINK anything bad about it, and here I'm going to say "blah blah blah", not to be disrespectful of Robert, but this happens each time it happens, and then later on, Robert admits that he was really angry, that he's sorry for looking scary, thanks me for taking over, I did such a good job, etc etc etc. Someday he's going to remember this right then, but for now, I'm just trying to ignore it.

So I stepped in, ignored Robert's protests, and held my 43 inch tall, 42 pounds, screeching passel of kiddo while he flailed. It seemed like it went on for.ever. We were sitting near the DVC kiosk across from Star Traders. Just like when I was still nursing him in public, I was so focused on him I didn't look at anyone walking by, but I imagine some nasty glares were thrown our way. Possibly some "poor thems" too. I like to think it was more "poor thems" with a smattering of "what a great job she's doing", but I don't know. I was focused on my kid.

I'll have to ask Robert or Eamon what I said that finally calmed him down. I really can't remember, but I remember being VERY proud of myself afterwards. I've remembered with the help of E. I reminded him that he loved Robert and didn't want to hurt him, and somehow that pulled him out of it. Turned things right around. We slowly figured out that on the NEXT day he could choose his souvenir, and he slowly agreed (note: he had agreed to this countless times before and during the trip!), and it ended up in a HUGE family hug that went on and on.


And of course in that time, we realized that it had been Way Too Long since we'd eaten, though we did have some popcorn, and depending on the popcorn's ingredients, that might have been part of the problem. But hunger was a definite problem.

We hadn't eaten since our late breakfast, and maybe a MoJo bar and a bit of water, and that popcorn. Those things were tricking ME, making me not think about my stomach, and might have tricked the guys' stomachs, but ultimately we needed real food.


Alas, when 3 people NEED food, that's a bad time to figure out WHAT food! In the role I've been taking on more and more since hubby's diabetes diagnosis, I've slowly realized that his orneriness when hungry isn't just orneriness, but a real problem and condition, and that any nasty mood swing needs to be ignored as NEEDS are met, I decided that Royal Street Veranda would be good, if the line weren't too long.

We got to Frontierland, where Eamon called a halt to the proceedings as he very very very much wanted to shoot the guns in that gallery thing. We had put him off off and more off on several trips with it, and frankly, even though it was NOT the time to wait to eat, I also didn't want to get screamed at again. So we did something they both like to do. I went off to the Rancho bathrooms, and discovered that there were NO lines inside Rancho. When I got back they were talking about running low on quarters, so I got $5 more at the machine, but when I turned back around they were gone! Of course, they tell the same story. They saw me, then turned around and I was gone.

We all found each other and I told them of my Rancho discovery, so we went in there asap. Had our usual, E having the bean/cheese burrito, and the adults sharing the no-meat Burrito Sonora. All was deeeelicious. E was freezing, but refused to sit near the heat lamp thing, so cuddled up next to me, which made eating difficult!

While cuddling and eating, E got really sentimental about being there at Disneyland. And insisted I take a picture of what was left of his food, to "remember the trip".


http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec58025ea58fe00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

[kaoden39]

The Disneyland tantrums. Oh I know them well. I have been on the receiving end of more then one of them in my time. It is the curse of DL. It's amazing how much more patient Mom's are as a general rule with them.

[bumbershoot]

Tantrums, sigh...

Got a minor one yesterday because he got xmas money from his grandma, and we wanted to maximize the playmobil he would get (his fave toy other than lightsabers). So we ordered the bigger thing he wanted direct from playmobil (lowest price we could find) and then walked down to the downtown toy store for a few little things. He got a knight leader, 3 Roman legionnaires, and he'll get the pirate treasure chest AND the one-eyed pirate for his money, but if we'd just bought the chest he would have gotten the chest and maybe the knight leader and that's IT. But he's really peeved that the chest isn't here already (this was all only yesterday!), and yesterday let me know that he was VERY annoyed that we didn't come home with the chest.


He'll like it when it gets here and he has all the "guys" playing in it, but I just have to get through the next 7 business days or so.

*********

I forgot the most important part of the food stuff.

That picture of the rice was taken at almost 9pm. We ate at 10:30am and shared a snack or two, but had eaten nothing else all day. Bad bad bad.

[bumbershoot]

Food was paid for at 8:18. Rice picture was taken at 8:39.

Finished up dinner, got things re-organized, got DS in the stroller and all covered up since he was cold. Got out of Rancho (we did take the umbrella stroller into Rancho b/c it was SO quiet in there...normally we would have parked it outside the restaurant). Walked along the pathway.

We were thinking about going on Pirates before Fantasmic, and looked down at him to check with him, and he was...absolutely totally passed out. To the point where we both, at different times, checked to see if he was breathing, that's how asleep he was.

Okey dokey! There were tons of people already ready for Fantasmic, and it was getting close to being time for it, so we figured it was as good a time as any. We had NO idea where we would stand, and I never really got the concept of the secret good spot behind the bank of speakers.

So we were wandering along, and we noticed a big empty spot "inside" a roped off spot. We walked past and saw a CM, and I asked if that particular spot was a special spot, or if anyone was allowed to be there. He said it was for anyone if there was room! So we went back, asked the people inside the ropes if the empty spots were actually empty (but we didn't ask when the 3 o'clock parade was, LOL), they said YES, and so we ducked in there. Excellent!

We stood near a lovely family from BC, and it was fun to talk with them. They are HUGE fans of Fantasmic and were excited that we were seeing it for the first time.

And then it started. Good start, but then it got really really dark and scary. I wasn't really expecting that. We were VERY glad E was asleep (and he slept through ALL of Fantasmic, barely even moved) because he would have HATED it. And not that sort of "I hate it but I'll close my eyes" hatred, but "we have to go NOW hatred".

Hubby is telling me right now that along with it being too scary, it was TOO big and TOO extravagant. Too much, he said. I think I agree. I can't believe they show it often, when I think about it. But that's not my issue, my issue is that it was just scary. Why do we need an epic battle of good and evil at Disneyland, ya know?

We had good spots, they seemed to be behind the reserved seating area, or maybe the handicap accessible seating if they have a roped off section for that for Fantasmic. We saw Mickey and everything really well.

We just didn't like it.

Of course we said we loved it, to the excited Canadian family, because we didn't want to make them sad. And it was amazing. Just...not good. To us.

That said, we DID like the part when the ships came out. I like how they have Mickey in black and white. I'd like to see that costume up close, b/c it doesn't just look like black and white, but some sort of special black and white. I can't describe it at all.

And the PP vs Hook battle was cool!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581321cb9e700000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/



After F! was over, we went against the crowd by going up towards HM. Although I didn't need to ride it, since I had just been there in November, I knew that Robert needed to go. So sleeping boy and I hung out while Robert went on the no-wait HMH!

I was standing facing the river, back to the entrance of HM. And I noticed the fireworks. OK so I'll tell you this, my sense of direction is absolutely blasted to pieces at Disney. People post these pictures that show you can see Maliboomer from the Mark Twain and I get confused. They say this attraction is one way when I thought it was the other. So the idea of seeing the fireworks when looking towards the river is massively confusing to me. I would have thought you'd need to look back towards the entrance of Frontierland.

But I was wrong.

So just in case anyone ever gets it into their heads to watch while in NOS facing the river, this is an example of your view. Hint: it's not so good. So at least stay over closer to Pirates instead of towards HM.


I keep forgetting you can hear things on the recordings my camera makes. :) So you'll also notice that the fireworks music is piped in!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/th_december72008.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/?action=view&current=december72008.flv)



Robert finally came back, and he thoroughly enjoyed HMH. He loves the movie and loves the normal ride, and loves HMH. He was happy to go on it again.


We decided we really needed to go back to the hotel. We were exhausted. But before that, we needed a little something to sip on. With Eamon absolutely wiped out, Robert ran over to the French Market outside window. He got me a Mint Julep and did a silly thing for himself, buying a Halloween themed mug, and instead of just getting the coffee that came with it, got a latte instead. That was an expensive latte! But he loves his mug, just like I love my own mug.

The Mint Julep was....um...weird. I could see that it COULD grow on you. I could see it growing on you especially if it had liquor in it. But at first it just tasted like toothpaste water! I had to sip itty bitty sips of it and I never did finish it. Oh well. Was worth knowing what it actually tastes like.

Eamon didn't wake up during all of this. We walked out of the park, slowly, to the hotel. Put E in bed, he never stirred. Robert says I surfed a bit, might have gotten on the dis, but he passed out. I'm sure I went to bed rather quickly too.

Up next, our last day.

[Sherry E]

If I recall correctly, Jasmine (WazowskiLOVER) has also said the mint juleps taste like mouthwash (or similar dental products!) and she is not a fan. This definitely kills ANY urge I had to try one (I like peppermint, but not dental-mint so much), not that the urge was great to begin with. However, I am almost half-curious to take a tiny sip of one just to see how minty fresh the julep actually IS!!!

[bumbershoot]

If you have 3 or 4 bucks to play with in your budget next time, it's worth knowing if you like it or not. I kinda wish they'd give tiny tastes so you know before spending it, but then again, it had a maraschino cherry in it and I love them but very rarely have them, so that was worth it. Even though it was sort of minty.

[bumbershoot]

No update on the trip today. Too weirded out by convo with my dad, who told me that my half sister, a freshman in high school, is going to be one of the (dreaded) cheerleaders there for a competition in March.

Twitch twitch twitch. Says the former Drama Geek who wanted all the cheerleaders at her high school to fall in dark holes and be QUIET.

And says the person who went to her 20 year HS reunion, which was organized by the former cheerleaders, and the organizers decided to SCREAM (as they did in HS to our apathetic crowd who was, despite not being noisy, AT all the football games) at us because they couldn't figure out that their sound system wasn't very good, and that people away from the bar area couldn't even hear that anyone was speaking into the system, let alone know that someone was screeching (with nasty swear words!) at them to be quiet and listen to them telling the guests to talk to old classmates and have a good time (which is what they were, in fact, doing at the time).

Twitch twitch twitch.


And it looks like it's going to be right around hubby's b'day, which means we will VERY likely be there at the parks, and might have to see my sister be the "flyer" in her squad.


Twitch twitch twitch.

[kaoden39]

We went one year in March during a cheer competition. I am not a cheerleader fan, sorry. I swore after that trip that I would NEVER go near the parks during that time again. I so wanted to cheerfully throttle myself some cheerleaders by the end of everyday. They were rude, and ill mannered as a general rule and loud oh my. I am so glad my girls are not cheerleaders.

[bumbershoot]

:)

I know there are cheerleaders (well, former cheerleaders) around and I don't want to offend them, but I think they'd really have to have gone to my high school to understand why I have the feelings I have. Since they are the only cheerleaders I've dealt with (the ones in college were easily ignored and I did so) that's my only knowledge.

And I don't want to see my sis get thrown high into the air!

My dad says that he wants to contribute to a trip if we go during the cheer thing (looking at the convention center site, it's either usacamps or something called varsity), so it's hard to turn that down! And even though my dad's getting weirder and weirder (he's not actually mentally ill, he's just WEIRD and comes up with the strangest things...like he really needs to have both of his knees replaced, but he tells his orthopod that he only wants them replaced if the guy will put Frankenstein bolts coming out...I gave him a really good halfway ground there involving proper knee replacements then some elaborate piercings with magnets, LOL...that would be a kick to go to a piercer with my dad if he visits!) and my stepmom's an emotionless automaton, I do miss that part of my family, especially my half sibs.


Maybe I'll have to have my old Drama buds come out too, and if anyone starts cheering too loud, we can start doing our own old obnoxious things right back, LOL.

I was looking at the usacamps and varsity sites, and I do wish someone would explain the ribbon thing. The ribbons in the hair of these young women...shouldn't those corker ribbons be reserved for 3 year olds?????

[toocherie]

Food was paid for at 8:18. Rice picture was taken at 8:39.

Finished up dinner, got things re-organized, got DS in the stroller and all covered up since he was cold. Got out of Rancho (we did take the umbrella stroller into Rancho b/c it was SO quiet in there...normally we would have parked it outside the restaurant). Walked along the pathway.

We were thinking about going on Pirates before Fantasmic, and looked down at him to check with him, and he was...absolutely totally passed out. To the point where we both, at different times, checked to see if he was breathing, that's how asleep he was.

Okey dokey! There were tons of people already ready for Fantasmic, and it was getting close to being time for it, so we figured it was as good a time as any. We had NO idea where we would stand, and I never really got the concept of the secret good spot behind the bank of speakers.

So we were wandering along, and we noticed a big empty spot "inside" a roped off spot. We walked past and saw a CM, and I asked if that particular spot was a special spot, or if anyone was allowed to be there. He said it was for anyone if there was room! So we went back, asked the people inside the ropes if the empty spots were actually empty (but we didn't ask when the 3 o'clock parade was, LOL), they said YES, and so we ducked in there. Excellent!

We stood near a lovely family from BC, and it was fun to talk with them. They are HUGE fans of Fantasmic and were excited that we were seeing it for the first time.

And then it started. Good start, but then it got really really dark and scary. I wasn't really expecting that. We were VERY glad E was asleep (and he slept through ALL of Fantasmic, barely even moved) because he would have HATED it. And not that sort of "I hate it but I'll close my eyes" hatred, but "we have to go NOW hatred".

Hubby is telling me right now that along with it being too scary, it was TOO big and TOO extravagant. Too much, he said. I think I agree. I can't believe they show it often, when I think about it. But that's not my issue, my issue is that it was just scary. Why do we need an epic battle of good and evil at Disneyland, ya know?

We had good spots, they seemed to be behind the reserved seating area, or maybe the handicap accessible seating if they have a roped off section for that for Fantasmic. We saw Mickey and everything really well.

We just didn't like it.

Of course we said we loved it, to the excited Canadian family, because we didn't want to make them sad. And it was amazing. Just...not good. To us.

That said, we DID like the part when the ships came out. I like how they have Mickey in black and white. I'd like to see that costume up close, b/c it doesn't just look like black and white, but some sort of special black and white. I can't describe it at all.

And the PP vs Hook battle was cool!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581321cb9e700000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/



After F! was over, we went against the crowd by going up towards HM. Although I didn't need to ride it, since I had just been there in November, I knew that Robert needed to go. So sleeping boy and I hung out while Robert went on the no-wait HMH!

I was standing facing the river, back to the entrance of HM. And I noticed the fireworks. OK so I'll tell you this, my sense of direction is absolutely blasted to pieces at Disney. People post these pictures that show you can see Maliboomer from the Mark Twain and I get confused. They say this attraction is one way when I thought it was the other. So the idea of seeing the fireworks when looking towards the river is massively confusing to me. I would have thought you'd need to look back towards the entrance of Frontierland.

But I was wrong.

So just in case anyone ever gets it into their heads to watch while in NOS facing the river, this is an example of your view. Hint: it's not so good. So at least stay over closer to Pirates instead of towards HM.




Molly--I don't get Fantasmic either. It's --ok--but I wouldn't sit on the ground for three hours waiting to see it. And I could see it would be totally scary for little kids.

[toocherie]

No update on the trip today. Too weirded out by convo with my dad, who told me that my half sister, a freshman in high school, is going to be one of the (dreaded) cheerleaders there for a competition in March.

Twitch twitch twitch. Says the former Drama Geek who wanted all the cheerleaders at her high school to fall in dark holes and be QUIET.

And says the person who went to her 20 year HS reunion, which was organized by the former cheerleaders, and the organizers decided to SCREAM (as they did in HS to our apathetic crowd who was, despite not being noisy, AT all the football games) at us because they couldn't figure out that their sound system wasn't very good, and that people away from the bar area couldn't even hear that anyone was speaking into the system, let alone know that someone was screeching (with nasty swear words!) at them to be quiet and listen to them telling the guests to talk to old classmates and have a good time (which is what they were, in fact, doing at the time).

Twitch twitch twitch.


And it looks like it's going to be right around hubby's b'day, which means we will VERY likely be there at the parks, and might have to see my sister be the "flyer" in her squad.


Twitch twitch twitch.

Oh drat--when is the cheerleader convention? (so I can avoid it?)

[bumbershoot]

There's one March 20-22 and another the next weekend, it seems.



I want it to either snow heavily again or just melt. Walking in this "don't know when it will be slippery or not" gunk on the ground is getting difficult.

And I'm tired of the doofuses who think the "road closed" sign doesn't apply to them, and risk their lives, the digger halfway down the hill, and gosh if they got up enough speed, those of us living at the condo building at the bottom of that hill, by trying to get up it. Wonder if I have a picture so I can share their idiocy....

[prettyprincessbelle]

My grandparents came over for Christmas morning and them and my Dad were talking about when they used to live in Cincinnati when my Dad was a kid and how snowy it used to get and how nobody would drive slow with the icy roads. Well, I guess they lived on the top of a hill and when you would get to the bottom of the hill there was a turn and people wouldn't slow down at the turn and the icy roads would made them swerve into the neighbors yard all the time running over their plants and trees. They said that the people who lived there were lucky their house wasn't any closer to the road or it would have been smashed by a car. :headache: How scary.

The mountains (hills?) behind my house were so pretty the past couple of days covered in snow, but it's been starting to melt. :sad1:

How's Robert doing with his fall, Molly?

[kaoden39]

My husband rides his bicycle to work most days and I cannot count the times her has been run off the road even in the dryest of weather. I will never understand how people can drive so irratically. Yes, how is Robert? And I wasn't trying to offend any ex-cheerleaders in my past post either but they were way too perky at the end of the day for me.:goodvibes

[bumbershoot]

Robert is sore and isn't feeling well. Poor dude. I'm feeling fine though my knees are a bit twingy from my own falls last week.



Digger on the hill last week.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/IMG_3143.jpg


***********

Ok! Monday the 8th. Our last day. Waaaaah.

It wasn't a MM day so we got to sleep in. :)

On our way out, who was in the lobby?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581fab1381e00000070O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

The little girl before E had Santa sign her autograph book, so E did the same. Only at Disneyland does Santa get asked for his autograph.


From there, we headed...to Autopia. E had been asking to ride it, but every time he brought it up the line was tremendous. Having waited in a long Autopia line with him once before, I wasn't keen to do it again. Interestingly, despite it being very early, there were people coming in with FPs for it. They did weird FP things, too, but I can't even describe it. Autopia and FPs...confusing combination.

The line was longish feeling, but ultimately pretty quick.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec58100ac387e00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


On Robert's request, this time we got the sticker pictures for Eamon's license. :) That's a weird little experience. Difficult to get his face framed just right, and they are TINY stickers! Not sure it's worth $5, but that's OK.

For any amorous couples who see those curtains, unless you're into exhibitionism, just walk away. The curtains are open towards the machines, so everyone can see what you're up to, at least everyone also inside a curtain.

omg I hope they take off the curtains for Grad Nights....



Just in case, I ran back to get FPs that of course we never used.

From there, it was very obvious we were going to have breakfast. So onto Tomorrowland Terrace it was! The guys got the seats while I got the food. French toast sticks and, hmm...something like the Sunrise b'fast but wihtout bacon. Two coffees (included with the meals) and a special chocolate milk for E (surprisingly, Nesquik is OK ingredient-wise for E).

We ate just outside of the Jedi Academy area, to watch the proceedings.


We saw a girl who almost HAD TO BE the daughter of a Dis'er. No one but dis'ers would do their kid up to be a double of one of the Jedi CMs, with funky side pigtail poofs, a perfect costume down to boots, and smiling BIG the whole time. Of course she got chosen.

Although I am normally against scared-looking children being chosen, there was one LITTLE boy who got chosen at the very last minute that I was glad for. He actually did just fine, even though he was close to tears when it looked like he wasn't going to be chosen.

Word to people with kids who might be like that? KEEP CHEERING, keep waving, keep SMILING. That's what this little boy did, and I think it made the difference! He had sadness in his eyes, but a smile and a wave (omg I'm telling people to be cheerleaders) and he was finally picked. Second to last, I think.


Again, it was fun to watch. Again, the dude was hilarious. Love him.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5813f0ef96b00000070O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


I don't remember if I wrote this before, but at one point this was said:

Darth Vader: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Jedi Master: "I find your BREATHING disturbing."

good times, good times.


Darth Maul, scaring the crud out of grown adults.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec58095afd9d300000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


After that? What else? Star Tours. As usual, excellent despite Rex steering us wrong.

And then...the gift shop.

It was quickly decided that E wanted the light-up makes-noise blue Mickey-themed light saber. Good choice little dude.

They had the YOMD stuff on a 50% sale, so we got the dorky...license plate holder thing. :rolleyes1 Robert is very excited about it! That on our silver Grand Marquis...ooh...that's hot. ha ha. Just a couple years ago he was getting invites to race on the streets of Federal Way when he drove my golden Golf (the young men would ignore the babyseat in the back), and now he's in that car....

We also got two YOMD retractable "fast pass holders" for the price of one.

Thankfully we had cash, as their computers for cards were down!


But at long last, E had his proper souvenir, and didn't whine again. ONe might think that we should have gotten it at the beginning, but no, he still would have wanted the other things he got. We've tried it just about all ways now.

Next time? We're giving him x dollars (either real, voucher, disney dollar, or disney giftcard I don't know) and he can use that and that will be IT. Harumph.


He and Robert had lightsaber wars against the wall between Star Traders and the Star Tours entrance. I guess people were cracking up at them. They practice quite a bit at home, and their moves are good. E does a wrist-twisting move with his saber that he learned from Kenobi in Phantom Menace and it looks amazing, especially from a 4 year old.

While they did that, I ran over and got what ended up being a stocking stuffer for E, a Buzz Lightyear lanyard. He didn't have any "fun" lanyards...he had the costco travel one and the lanyard he won and was mailed from YOMD, but nothing cute.

And then, a cookie was calling Eamon, so we headed to the ranch... but were delayed by...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_3068.jpg

[bumbershoot]

Looking at that castle compared to real snow (which I rarely see), I'm thinkin' they did an OK job.


As we walked into Fantasyland, I remembered! The walkthrough! We must do it. I looked around...where is it, where is it? Aha, there's a door! With stairs! Come on guys, I have a surprise!


As I parked the stroller (why is there no stroller parking there?) a line was forming. And in front of us was a whole crowd of....Taiwanese Buddhist Monks. Female monks no less! It sounds really stupid, but they were really cute. :) Loved their robes, they looked incredibly comfortable. And they each had a matching messenger bag. I'm sure many people thought they were men because they had shaved heads, but later on we saw a group of matching male monks and you could tell, even though they were all very thin, the differences in facial features and body size. And of course we were right behind them so we could hear the women's voices. Robert likes listening in when people are speaking Chinese, because in general people don't expect those around them to speak it.

So we slowly went up the stairs and saw the Sleeping Beauty stuff. The story doesn't seem to be in any good order. I kept reading things ahead of other stuff because their idea and my idea of where a person goes first were opposite.

Got this one picture!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_3070.jpg


I'm glad it's open again, but it's definitely NOT a "must see over and over" for us.


And from there it was finally off to the Big Thunder Ranch. Robert was in charge of finding a proper cookie, and he strangely chose a gingerbread one. They did have the ingredients for the cookie on the box, but NOT for the frosting. I was shocked. Thankfully we knew not to touch it.

I had brought Nutella and sunspire "m&ms" for decoration purpose. Yes the red white and green frosting looked cute (and yummy) and yes sprinkles are lovely. But not at the expense of DS's mental and physical health.

So he had loads of fun decorating his guy!



http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5809935d94f00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Here's the cookie, almost finished.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581e59bf99300000070O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


And here it is, totally finished.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5807953d95900000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


What's that you say? Can't tell the difference? Look down at the leg area. See a yellow and orange candy that isn't in the second picture? Ayep, he added a "bottom" and a, um, boy part. Which he said. Loudly. :rolleyes1


The combo of gingerbread cookie and Nutella is surprisingly good. Well, that's if you like the cookie to begin with, which I didn't. So I smiled and said "mmm" and moved on with my day.

Oh look, those are cool decorations!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_3072.jpg



And then some fun began. E ran over to the stage area and I followed while Robert cleared out stuff.

They were having a little game, sort of like hot potato but with Pluto's bone. So they got a bunch of kids up there and started.


If the other kids belong to anyone else, let me know if it bothers you and I'll take the pictures down. I don't have photo editing software.

The lady leaning over was really funny and learned the kids' names fairly quickly, but towards the end she started seriously messing up E's name. "aaaaaay-mun" is his name. NOT Amen. Ugh.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5800ef8995100000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Nervous, and with a good haircut but his father's hair growth pattern. The bowl look, no matter what, unless you nearly shave it.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5812a66b99100000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Notice the way his lanyard is. Pirate-style. Or cowboy style. The musician noticed it right away and that made E happy.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5802760d94500000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Playing the game. The girl passing it to E seriously did NOT want to give it to him. She was absolutely adorable, and when E had to pass it to her he had the same problem. They really wanted to keep ahold of it!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5818486381600000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/



The game was getting frustrating for E, because he never had it in his hand when the music stopped! But then, a cool thing happened...he was the LAST one!


So the lady called "Amen" the "Big Winner". He got exactly what everyone else got, a sticker and a hug with Pluto-as-reindeer, but he was the very last one.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581051df96500000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec58147e5788c00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Remember, we are homeschoolers and I'm a hermit, so his times of playing with other kids like this aren't common. He loves them, and I'm an awful person b/c I let my own fear of other mothers (they always want to talk about their births and that's a HUGE trigger of sadness and grief for me...at 4.5 if they only have the one they don't talk about it anymore, but really, most people have more than one if their oldest is almost 5, so it can still be "up" for the women) keep him from more interaction. BUT it's amazing because he can just jump in and play a game like this, even though he has never heard of it!

And this was cool because, of course, it looks like a preschool class picture with a few elementary school kids thrown in.

They had everyone look at their OWN parent's camera, so that's why everyone is looking in different places.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec580a06418aa00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


Reindeer.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581865cb9fd00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


And that was that for the RoundUp.

[prettyprincessbelle]

What's that you say? Can't tell the difference? Look down at the leg area. See a yellow and orange candy that isn't in the second picture? Ayep, he added a "bottom" and a, um, boy part. Which he said. Loudly.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: How funny funny funny. Kids are just funny. ;)

Yay for Nutella! :lovestruc I would have never paid attention to Nutella if I didn't go to Italy after I graduated high school. They eat that stuff like crazy over there. Here, they sell it at the regular grocery stores, but I never noticed. :confused3 That was a smart idea of you guys using that for frosting than you making your own in the hotel room, I know you mentioned you thinking of doing that.

Yay for 'Amen' winning hot Pluto's bone! That's too funny. I think that lady's name is Miss Kriss? We saw her earlier this month and she walked by us and wished Jesus a Happy Birthday and I looked at her name tag (I have a habit of constantly looking at CM's names and their locations). When you read Eamon's name I automatically think it's pronounced Eeeee-mon. But, I remember in school that in EA E is usually silent.

The reindeer's eye looks all crazy.. Eeee! :eek:

[bumbershoot]

Well, after that fun, we realized we had another thing we needed to do. Pirates!

So we headed over to NOS.

This is what the light-up, makes-noise, blue Mickey-accent lightsaber looks like in the dark part of the queue for POTC>

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec58094b6186200000050O18CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


That was at just after 1.

Had a great ride. Missed the pirate with the cats, and I hear he is still missing. Yo ho yo ho.... At some point during the trip E realized that Santa says "ho ho" and pirates say "yo ho" and he started saying them together. :)


I have here a receipt from 1:32 showing that *someone*, someone who is a nightmare fan and who didn't yet have these gloves, got matching gloves to his son.

Some women dress like their daughters. I have a husband who gets all matchy matchy with his son.

After we were done at Le Bat en Rouge, Robert went to get us some Veggie Gumbo in a bread bowl, while I basically forced E to head to the bathrooms. There was much hesitance, despite my knowing that soon he would need need NEED a bathroom, and aside from the "you must go with me" there was also a bit of "but Pirate Eamon, I'm a damsel and I need you to protect me" in there. :upsidedow


We met back up and ate over looking the river. Ahhh, veggie gumbo. By the way, we shared. All that bread isn't good for one of us, and with half the bread and half the gumbo, it's quite filling! E had more of his cookie, as the gumbo looked funny to him. Had some sourdough too, the parts not sullied by funny looking soup.


And so it was time to run over to DCA. We were approximately two hours behind my little schedule, and I was kinda of really trying to hide how stressed I was. We were sauntering through Adventureland when E saw Jungle Cruise. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the cruise! But we've gone on it several times in the last couple years, and it really doesn't change, and I thought we could get away with skipping it.

Ah, E really wanted to go. All of you family types here say that we really shouldn't do the commando thing and make our kids upset, so we checked the board. It said 5 minutes, though it looked longer. We said "if it's really 5 minutes in line, we'll do it". It was agreed upon.

In front of us, we saw... http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5817484386c00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

:rolleyes1


And so we moved a little bit, perhaps made one turn. And then we stopped. Stopped. Stopped....no moving. No moving no moving. Just as it hit about 5 minutes in line, they announced that the ride was closed, and we should turn around and head back the way we came. :headache:

Well, we said, it certainly was only a 5 minute line!



And so we hopped.


This was a very short jump to DCA. I had pretty much one thing on my mind, now that I knew bug's land was NOT going to happen (no time!). And that was the Muppets AP hunt doohickey. I had to find the rest of my answers (I'd done some number sequence thing over in the Golden State area already), and those answers were in Hollywood. So off we went.

I don't even remember where the bulk of the questions were, all I remember was that one bunch was in the Muppets waiting area, and the other bunch was in the Animation/Crush building.


Forgive me but I don't know the order here. At some point, this was taken, after playing hide and seek with E (who was absolutely rejecting my need for speed):

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5815e9ab95700000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


And after that I have a blurry picture taken in Monsters Inc, so I suppose we went on that!


I also know that Robert went on TOT, which was probably while E and I rode Monsters. OK it's coming back to me. IF I haven't mentioned this already, IF E and I hadn't already been on monsters 18 million times, then that is the time we went on it. Many many times. If I've already mentioned that, then it's a false memory and ignore it, because it obviously happened earlier in our trip.

Regardless, R did go on TOT and E and I must have done something.


Although I meant to watch Muppets, we got there just as it was starting. So R and E went on in, and I hung back, doing the little answers I was supposed to do for it. It involved looking in the 'box office' after the CM/turnstile area, and then comparing that to something in the waiting area. There were 3 of us working on it. :)

After that, I waited outside. Finally got bored and waaaay too antsy, text Robert where I was going, and went to the animation building.

I saw the zoeotrope! It was very very cool. At first I really didn't get it, but then it slowed and stopped and I could really get the coolness of it all. I went in to the area where more questions could be answered, and that's where my guys met me. With more of E's help than I care to admit, I got my questions answered, texted it all one by one, and was finished with that and could relax.

Showed them the zoeotrope, went into the Belle's library area. The guys figured out which character they were...I didn't want to. Too antsy. Had to carry E through Ursula's Grotto. Too scary.

As we got to the main area, the Animation Academy was starting! That was VERY fun.

E was having troubles following the instructions, and instead of asking us (he refused our offers) he popped his hand up and told them he needed help. Actually I think he asked a detailed question about how to do what he was trying to do, or explained why he coudln't do it, but ultimately asking for help is asking for help, and Bryant (?) came over and helped and encouraged him. Yay for Bryant.

We all finished up, and a family below us went up to Bryant to talk to him. OK actually we were first, but they jumped in. :rolleyes1 Their little one, younger than E, had made noise throughout, moved around, paid little attention. But then somehow knew to ask the animator for his picture of Mickey. Sorry if you're a Dis'er, but dude, uncool. The kid didn't know what he was asking for, and also, you cut in front of us.

At last everyone else cleared out and Eamon wanted to thank Bryant. Totally on his own, without being asked, B gave E a drawing he had made. That was very cool. Way better than if we'd asked for it. And he appreciated E's thanks. We were all very proud of our pictures of Mickey Mouse.

We headed over to Crush, but I could tell that Robert didn't want to do it. He wanted to draw some more! So E and I went to Crush and we went Robert, the wannabe animator, back to the academy. Because of that we now have 3 pictures of Mickey, one picture of Goofy, and one professional's sketch of Mickey on our wall. :)

Crush was good. I sat in the front row of seats while E sat on the lily pads. Completely against what I had JUST told him AND what the CM had just said, E popped a piece of chocolate in his mouth. :headache:

The adults next to me had kids near E. For some reason the dad was talked to by Crush, and Crush of course was saying how few kids they had. At the time and even now I have NO idea what exactly the dad said, but he basically told Crush that he'd had a vasectomy. Something about his coral being snipped? I dunno. Crush got the most hilarious look on his face and basically just said "duuuuude, TMI". :rotfl:

E really wanted to be called on, but he wasn't. When Crush came out with the bikini top and asks what it is, E was saying clear as day "a bra! a bra! A. Bra.!" Kid isn't an extended nurser for nothin'. He knows his female undergarments well. But Crush officially asked someone else.

For some reason I was having a huge reaction to E asking for help in the Animation Academy and wanting to talk in Crush. During the AA I went bright red, as though I were asking the question myself. (I'm very shy and I blotch easily and school was an absolute nightmare for me) I need to disconnect in that way, and boy oh boy was that shown to me! He's a kid, a person of his own, he's not ME, and his asking a question in "class" shouldn't embarrass me. Whew. Personal growth AT DCA! Who knew?

He enjoyed Crush, but will enjoy it more when he gets called on some day. Perhaps we should work on some good questions to ask, so when he does get called he doesn't just "um, um, um, um" like I'm afraid he's going to do.

omg I just won't quit! It's OK Molly, you'd think it was cute if another kid did that. Seriously woman.

After that we all met back up!


It was getting seriously late. Really late. Badly late. We really really needed to go.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/mollyeilis/DLR/december%202008/IMG_3112.jpg

[bumbershoot]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: How funny funny funny. Kids are just funny. ;)


Yay for 'Amen' winning hot Pluto's bone! That's too funny. I think that lady's name is Miss Kriss? We saw her earlier this month and she walked by us and wished Jesus a Happy Birthday and I looked at her name tag (I have a habit of constantly looking at CM's names and their locations). When you read Eamon's name I automatically think it's pronounced Eeeee-mon. But, I remember in school that in EA E is usually silent.

The reindeer's eye looks all crazy.. Eeee! :eek:

Yes he's very much into talking about "parts".

Miss Kriss, that's totally right. Definitely. Someday we have to go to Ireland so I can have them say his name so I can get it totally right. Our pronunciation book I think write it more as "eh" and "mon" more than the way I wrote it earlier. But it's certainly not like what you say after a prayer! Though that's not the first time we've had that reaction to it.

Yes, crazy reindeer eye. Someone else caught a pic of a reindeer peeing in the background, so at least it wasn't doing THAT! Though I'm sure E would have piped up if he'd seen that.

[toocherie]

I love the Ms. Kriss and Pluto Bone game--I'm not even a Mom and I find it so fun! The fiddler's name is Farley and he is really really good--actually they both are! And how she remembers all those names I'll never know. She must have some trick she uses.

Did you get to see the magician too? Usually between sets of Ms. Kriss/Farley there is a magician who performs too.

[bumbershoot]

The magician was doing his thing while E was decorating the cookie. We weren't really paying attention though.


Just thinking about the end of the trip brings my shoulders up to my ears, it was so stressful. So I'm going to wait a tiny bit longer, at least until my headache goes away.

[bumbershoot]

Here is our wall with our pictures on it. :)

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc06b3127ccec5a3756cea8500000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


This is E's, which of course is crazy, but for a 4 year old following instructions and doing his best to make a picture come out, it's quite good! The helper CM only gave him encouragement and showed him where to make the eyes darker, so really all of that is his work.

As a kid I wouldn't have even attempted it unless forced to by grades, so I think it's marvelous.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc06b3127ccec5a3d0e6aac500000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


And here's Robert's version:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc06b3127ccec5a2b89a8ac100000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


And mine!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc06b3127ccec5a3435beaa900000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/



As long as they keep it open, I can see this becoming a long-standing tradition for every trip. It was VERY fun.

[bumbershoot]

When I left off last night, I was done with the Muppets hunt, we knew we couldn't go on anything more or see anything more, we really needed to GO.

But I did need to get the little prize for finishing the Muppets hunt! So I sent the guys to WWS to get some chicken-free nachos to hit the road with while I rushed over to the Blue Sky Cellar. That's where I had been directed to go after I sent the last answer in.

I got there fast, but I had problems figuring out how to get in! Finally I found the entrance, then I found a CM. He was VERY into the whole thing. The premise is that some Muppets are lost, and professor honeydew asks you to help find them. They have hints for before you get to the park. You answer the online questions, and then you are sent a series of questions. Once you figure those out, it gives you a location. So when I got there, the CM acted like he only vaguely knew what I was talking about, and went off to look at the letter he received a few days ago letting him know that someone would come to him for something. If I hadn't been so pressed for time it would have been wonderful, but as it was I just got more tense. I tried to not let that show, though. He gave me the prize which was nice (I don't know if we're allowed to tell people what it was! I think they might be doing this for non-AP holders so I don't want to ruin it for people).

And I nearly ran out of there. Again I hit the pre-parade stuff so I got really nervous I would get stuck somewhere.

Thankfully I didn't get stuck and I made it to WWS. For some reason, our sense of time was WAY off, and instead of getting OUT and messily eating the nachos in the car, we sat and ate there. Oh what an error.

After that we still had to get to PPH, get the car, get the luggage, and get to LAX! OMG.

Traffic was, of course, not so great. We had no directions back to the rental place. I had to figure it out. We had to get gas and Robert, well, let's just say he's not generally good under pressure, and by that point even getting gas in an unfamiliar car was under pressure. It wasn't pretty. Finally found Avis, and we frantically got unpacked. Missed the first shuttle but as I was arranging things there another shuttle was. Which was good, but I wasn't ready.

Threw things on the shuttle and I was still rearranging things as we drove. Then E spilled his chocolate milk on his shirt and I had to pull out some clothes for that and be totally tacky by having his take off his shirt, if only for a brief second, in public.

We got there fast and I was still unsure where everything was. We got into the airport as FAST as possible, and I hadn't been able to print our boarding passes. So I was frantically doing that and trying to figure out what things should be checked and what shouldn't.

Our flight was SO close. Although we got there before the flight left, compared to how we usually travel we were late as we could be.

The checkin lady was SO nice. I don't know about for other airlines, but for Alaska at LAX you take your bags over to a different area to put them through the mega xray machines. She came out from the counter to help Robert take everything.

As they were on their way back, I found my pair of souvenir scrapbooking scissors. AUGH. The checkin lady knew that I had been looking for them, and her advice to me was to put them in and under things and hope TSA would overlook them. Yeek. But what else was I going to do, other than throw away something that really could not be used as a weapon (they cut Mickey heads into things and aren't sharp at the end)? So I put them in the TSMM popcorn bucket, surrounded by other safe things, and put them into one of the Disney shopping bags that I was using as carry-on (I hate doing that but oh well).

So we rushed to security, and the TSA people were basically great!

Robert had something making the machine go off so they took him away to be wanded. E went through and of course was fine. The guy had E stand just out of the way. I went through. Something on me made the machine beep. I did the "wallet watch spectacles *you know what*" check on myself and I had NO metal! Went through again and again, still beeping!

The TSA guy lost his brain for a second and wanted me to go be wanded too, and was going to move me away from DS, and I firmly told him that I knew they couldn't separate kid from adult.

Thank goodness right then the lady behind me reminded me of my barrette! My Goody brand, 1.5 inch tiny silvertone barrette in the back of my hair. Oh gracious.

I took it out, thanked her, went through the metal detector just fine. Robert joined us. Turned out it was the zipper on his shorts.

Might just be me, but I think those metal detectors are set a *little* too sensitive!

We went through the absolutely panicking frantic process of getting our stuff together, and the TSA agents helped us tremendously. After they helped us and while I was putting on my shoe, I heard one of them tell the other that his wife wanted to go ON xmas day, and I hope I was able to convince him that that would be a very busy time, and perhaps it wouldn't be the best time to do a one-day trip.

We went as fast as possible to the gate. By their estimates the plane should have been boarding by then. Oh we were stressed!

We made it. They weren't boarding, thank goodness. The gate agent was nice and gave me gate-check tickets for the stroller and carseat right there, instead of when they usually do it, as you're going down the ramp.

We got ourselves together...tried to calm down...started to laugh about it all...considered how a barrette nearly got me wanded, but I was going on board a plane with scissors (no matter how difficult it would be to harm anyone with them). Started to breathe again.

Very quickly they announced boarding, and we did so when it was our time.

Goodness gracious, never again if I can avoid it will we get to an airport so stupidly late! I am normally a "get there 1.5 hours ahead of time" person. I like to relax. I do not like to rush at airports! Especially now that some airports are doing the "face stress" monitoring, I don't want to be red and sweaty and frantic. Never again...


But we made it on, and just b/c we're us we waited until we were nearly the last to board. Especially with assigned seats we just don't see the point. Our carryons are generally small enough to get under our seats so we're not generally fighting for overhead space anyway.

As we got on board, the pilot was standing right there. E was wearing his Peter Pan hat, and the pilot liked that. He invited E into the, well i don't think the board is going to let me type the name of the area where the pilots sit so I'll say... area where the pilots sit and fly the plane. It was a bit tight in the front of the plane so I took much of our stuff and went to sit, to arrange what we would need for the flight. Robert came back to snag the camera, and then it took AGES for him to get back b/c he's a big guy and wasn't going all "not without my daughter" on people which means he didn't tell them that his son was at the front of the plane and he needed them to MOVE.

He did get up there eventually, and got these shots.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5805038188e00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec5810839b9df00000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/



Now how cool is that?



Finally they made their way back. In the meantime, I had to deal with cellphone guy who was sitting in one of our seats. He moved to where he was supposed to be (directly in front of me), and promptly put his seatback all the way back. And continued to talk. During the flight he moved directly behind us, into the furthest back row where he couldn't recline. Robert tried to get ME to recline, but I don't enjoy reclining and while the dude was rude (he was talking about us and Eamon who was being rather whiney and not really up to our normal standards of behaviour (though we were making massive efforts to STOP him from doing it)) I didn't think it was worth making MY experience more negative in order to 'get back' at him for it.

Anyway, they got back, we got seated, we took off, we flew. The lady across the aisle from us had a little girl who slept most of the trip in her mom's arms, and the lady had to do her best to do everything one handed. At one point I asked if her arm was asleep, and she said yes and we laughed.


Sleepy boy.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cc31b3127ccec581c07238c000000040O08CZMmjFq1bA9 vPhg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


E's ears bothered him this flight, he was tired, cranky, and didn't, it turned out, have enough food at dinner. He was difficult. If any of you were on our flight, I apologize.

At last we landed. Got our luggage, found another abandoned smart carte, found the place to get the carpark shuttle. Found our car despite having temporarily lost our "ticket" they give you. Got everything in the car, got home.


Whew.

[Sherry E]

How cool that E got invited up to where the pilots sit! That must have been awesome for him!! The whole experience sounds like it was great and pretty well-rounded with everything you all did, including the Muppet hunt and all that, and I love the drawings you guys did at the Academy - yours came out particularly well! How do they work it there? Do they give you a pattern to trace over, or what happens? I used to be able to draw reasonably well when I was much younger, but now I think my Mickey Mouse would come out looking more like Kermit the Frog!

[bumbershoot]

The animation CM has his sheet of paper on an easel on stage, and it's projected onto a screen.

Then he first has you draw lines, the up and down lines you can probably see, and then each part of the character is described one at a time, and you do your best approximation of it. Each person has their own interpretation of it, which is how you can see such a difference between mine and Robert's. Both of us have parts that are good or correct, and we also have bad or incorrect parts, it's interesting.

When you have someone walking you through it, you can see how each part of the character is actually fairly easy and simple, instead of just intimidating to think of the "whole".

The hardest part for me was the light hand and how you're actually supposed to go over your lines and circles again and again. You don't just draw a circle and then you're done. They want you to lightly draw a circle then perfect it by drawing around and around. And so on, for each line, oval, arc, etc. Then at the very end you make a darker set of lines/circles/whatever. It makes sense, but it's HARD for me, since I want to do it perfectly one time and be done with it. :rolleyes:

Oh and it's in a college science type of auditorium with each tier of seats raised up. Quite comfy actually. They have big plastic hand held easels on each seat with a very sharp pencil. The easels have three pegs on the bottom for the holes you can see in the pictures, and a clip at the top. There's one animation CM drawing on the stage, and one wandering to be of assistance (and encouragement!). At the end we each held ours up proudly (as they ask you to do), because we did the best we could and that's all that matters in such a situation.



The trip was a good one, there's no doubt about that.

But we kept getting into weird time sucks where the hours would just sail by. And for some reason, the feet of the adults HURT the whole trip! Robert is so much thinner than he was in May and especially since last December, and he has new shoes that actually fit (he had been squeezing his feet into 10.5s until our chiro sold him special orthotics which fit his feet exactly, and when we went to find new shoes, he realized he was very much not that size, and he's now much more comfy in a 12), so he shouldn't have hurt. I don't know why my feet hurt so much, since even though I'm definitely not in shape and waaaaay heavier than I should be (hence the utter lack of pix, unlike our Sept '07 trip), I am active and don't feel that pain in normal life even while walking around downtown. We also started at a severe sleep deficit which is never fun.

I am sad we missed bug's land, and I wish I had been in the mood to do the big DCA rides, but since I had just been on them in November I just wasn't interested. :confused3


And would you believe my shins are still recovering from the Grizzly water???? The weather has a lot to do with it, but this is above and beyond what normally happens to my shin skin in winter. Yucko. Still, we love the ride and it was great fun going 10 times (OK I went only 9) on Grizzly over the weekend.:dance3:

[kaoden39]

Missing Bugland seems like a good reason for a return trip soon. When there is nice weather.:goodvibes And as far as separating you from Eamon. Are they nuts? Do they not realize that you don't do things like that? Jerks. Sorry I would have raised heck over that one too.

[bumbershoot]

I think the guy just lost his mind for a second. There was quite a line forming behind me. Though I have heard of TSA agents purposely doing it, even though their website info states quite clearly that parents will NOT be separated from children. I was thankful the lady behind me spoke up right then to remind me of my barrette, b/c I didn't want to have to say more than what I did, which was pretty much "my son is with me, his father is over there, we can't both be away from him at the same time".

Other than that one moment, the folks at LAX have been very kind to me, on our way back on this trip and the way back on my so cal trip.

[kaoden39]

Things like that make me so grateful that we live close enough to drive. I hate to drive anywhere as a general rule. I walk to the store whenever I can and DH Scotty rides his bike to work. We do drive for things like that. I wish public transportation was better here. We have to drive almost as far as San Francisco to take BART to go there making it almost a redundancy for us but I love BART.

[bumbershoot]

Someday we'll just take the train down and it will be good. But if the 3 of us go, if we want a sleeper we have to get the family sleeper, and that's $$$$.

I like being on a track. Plane...no track. Car...no track. Train, ahhhh, track.

[bumbershoot]

A thread on the main forum reminded me of something I forgot to mention!


This wasn't something the guys got to see, but while rushing to get popcorn before the Pixar Play Parade, and doing something else that I don't remember, I saw Push! It was really fun and funny to watch.

And I tried REALLY hard to find his voice, but I could NOT find the person. No one with a messenger bag, no one just leaning somewhere, hand suspiciously near mouth. No one! Except for me, and if I'm the voice of Push I wish someone would send me my paychecks!!!!



And that officially ends my trip report(s). Hope it was useful!

[kaoden39]

A thread on the main forum reminded me of something I forgot to mention!


This wasn't something the guys got to see, but while rushing to get popcorn before the Pixar Play Parade, and doing something else that I don't remember, I saw Push! It was really fun and funny to watch.

And I tried REALLY hard to find his voice, but I could NOT find the person. No one with a messenger bag, no one just leaning somewhere, hand suspiciously near mouth. No one! Except for me, and if I'm the voice of Push I wish someone would send me my paychecks!!!!



And that officially ends my trip report(s). Hope it was useful!

I wanna see Push. And yes, I have enjoyed your trip report and I can hardly wait for the next one.:goodvibes

[Sherry E]

Molly, are you going to do your own Trip Report (on this thread or any others) for the upcoming Ladies Trip? What about for your next DLR trip after that?

[auntiegem]

Molly -- I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your trip (and pre-trip) reports. Until my next trip . . . whenever that may be . . . I know I can live out my Disney trip fantasies through you. (Ooooooo, that sounds a bit creepy, but you know what I mean!) :upsidedow

[heatherleigh]

Finally, got to read your TR. Loved it! I've been away from the boards for a very long time so I missed out on a lot. Glad to be back.