FreezinRafiki
Cold enough for ya?
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2009
This is Ryder. He's 5 months old.
There, now that I've used the oldest trick in the book - cute babies - get your attention, welcome to the Trip Report.
As I said above the picture, that baby you see up there is Ryder. He's our 3rd child, but since I've introduced my family from oldest to youngest for the past 6 trip reports, I thought I'd start in the crib and work my way up. Ryder was born back on March 29th - right smack dab in the middle of my previous Trip Report. I guess I should have had a section at the end for production babies, like Pixar does with their movies. Opps. I'm sure you can guess that this was Ryder's first trip to Disney World. I would usually include fun little details here about favorite characters, rides, etc but, well, he's a baby. His favorite ride is "being carried", his favorite character is Mickey Mouse (only because that's the one all over his room and he really has no idea what it is anyway) and his favorite place to sleep is daddy's left shoulder. Yes, he's quite picky about that. It has to be daddy, and it has to be his left shoulder.
Next up the family chain is Evan.
Evan is 5 and just started Kindergarten a few days ago, and like all of us (except Ryder) is a Disney World veteran. He's been there 8 times, starting when he celebrated his 1st birthday there by...napping in his stroller most of the time. But on all of the other trips, he's been active and engaging with all of the things going on around him. Yet, still, every time we enter a park, he has to grab a map. He collects them. He has a old plastic Chuck E. Cheese lunch box in his closet full of park maps - Disney World, Busch Gardens (which the kids not-so-affectionately call "Busch-Wacker Gardens"), Sea World, Gatorland, Six Flags, etc. If Walmart put out a map of their stores, Evan would have a copy in his map box.
You may be curious as to why Evan is all fancied up in that picture. You might also be thirsty. Go grab yourself something to drink - the Beverly is free at Club Cool - and keep reading. All will be made clear in due time.
And the final child... she's number 1 in the birth order and number 1 in your hearts (she makes sure of that)....Madison.
I like to describe Madison this way: Instant Best Friend, Just Add Madison. She's certainly not a shy child and seems to instantly bond with almost any one she meets. She's currently 7, going on 17. Recently we did some room swapping at home and she moved out of her light pink and lavender colored room into one that she (I) painted dark purple and sort of a deep wine/burgundy color. I thought maybe she was growing out of the princess stage, but she insisted on (me) hanging all of her princess pictures on her new walls and insisted on going to all of the princess meet and greets on the trip. She'll always be my little girl.
Oh, and look at that. Madison is also dressed very fancy in that picture. Hmmm...I wonder why that could be? Enjoy your Beverly a little longer and all will be revealed.
But if you're in to guessing, I'll give you a clue. They were all dressed up at the same time. I hope that helps. It probably doesn't.
Penultimately (it's a fancy word that means next-to-last. I got it off my word of the day toilet paper) we have the matriarch (that's another fancy word. Means "mom in charge") of the family, Bambi.
Bambi: A mild mannered mother of three by day, a cape-wearing protector of the innocent by...well, also by day. She's a social worker specializing in helping children and families. Also, she refuses to wear the cape. About as big a Disney fan as you'll find anywhere, which is not a good thing for our bank account because whenever either of us bring up going to Disney World, the other rarely has an argument against it.
And by golly, look at that! More fancy clothes! If didn't already know, I'd be on the edge of my seat trying to figure out why we're all such snazzy dressers! Maybe you're saying to yourself "maybe they always dress that way?" Well, maybe we do. Or maybe you'll just have to find out a little bit later.
Because we have another introduction to make - me. Barry.
For the record, I'm 5' 10½". I never viewed myself as exceptionally short or exceptionally tall. My feet reach the ground when I sit in a chair and I can reach things on the top shelves, but I don't have to duck when going through a door.
The reason for that descriptive paragraph (and the Trip Report Title) will be revealed in due time. It's actually a pretty small event when you consider we were in Florida for 11 days. It really had no bearing on anything that happened, but it was one of those things that just sort of stuck in my head that said, yup, that's the title of my trip report.
So, while I finish sorting through a couple thousand pictures and a couple hours of video, go ahead and refill your Beverly. I'll be back shortly with the first update.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, there will be quite a few cute baby pictures. If you're into that type of thing.
Up Next: Recombobulation.
I'm in! I admit it, I fell for the cute baby picture trick.
