Surprised the kids, wife, and my readers w/ a 2 week trip to AoA!(*NEW* 11-7)

[FauntleroyFAN07]

The stinkiest cruise that ever sailed. At least it's a short ride!

Nice mad dash skills to beat the parade!

The fireworks pictures turned out really well. I love Wishes.

It definitely was more crowded than I'm used to for that time of year! Is there such a thing as low crowds at DW anymore?

that is a appropriate title for that cruise.

well i think the fall is off the radar for low time, although i saw alot of pictures from october around the second week and they seemed to be pretty low again. so might just have to push the trips back a few more weeks to hit those up.

Impressive! Nice job on beating the parade.



Dang, the one I picked out doesn't work anymore. Darned smiley owner/creators who delete their smileys without consulting me.

I think we're looking for something between this

and this

Your fireworks pictures turned out really well too.

thanks glenn.

yep i like the middle ground of those smileys...well done glenn. i figured you could come up with something.

i was happy with the firework pics but not thrilled guess we need to work on those.

Another fantastic ending to a day! I have to say Cosmic Rays is one of my favorite places to eat, there's so many options!! Something for everyone! Yay!

Love the hugging photos, so cute!!

Nice job with the parade! I'm impressed!! It definitely takes some weaving around people (and easier to do on your own) to get through crowds at Disney, I'm definitely the designated fast pass runner because of it. Good job on getting the light up toys in time!

How awesome that the busses were so efficient, I definitely noticed that AoA busses were a little bit better than the Pop busses have been in the past, they seemed to be prepared for that!

i love cosmic rays a few years ago they were one of the only places left that still had the hot cheese on the topping bars, now that is coming back at more of them.

it does make you hone your skills weaving through those crowds and you cant have tunnel vision have to see the bigger picture.

waiting in long lines at the end of the day i did notice there were more buses for AoA than others, wonder if having all sections opened when we went helped with that, didnt want quests to have bad experiences with the resort via bus routes right away.

 

[tinkgurl]

The kids hugging picture is just so precious! Remember that moment when they get older and fight!

Wow, you made it back fast! Awesome job!

I've never seen a Mears bus doing that before!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

The kids hugging picture is just so precious! Remember that moment when they get older and fight!

Wow, you made it back fast! Awesome job!

I've never seen a Mears bus doing that before!

i plan to put them all in an album for them and when they are fighting with each other for punishment they have to sit hold hands and look through it together. seems good to me.

i have never even seen a regular ME bus before pick up people so it was really different thats for sure.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

None other than everyones favorite, the happiest little cruise that ever sailed.

and also this point that we "smell" what the hug and standing was all about.

Obviously Noelle was simply giving you an accurate assessment of the ride.

The lady who is making it has to stop ringing people up and make a new batch,

score one for us on a new batch,
score minus one for waiting for that batch to pop.

what was my hurry you may ask well i realized that the main reason we got that locker that morning was to stash away the kids light up toys for the night parade and not carry them around all day.

D'oh!

5. take popcorn back to kids, you leave right away to get the toys, you make it back in time.
= kids love you, wife loves you, you win dad of the year award and they name something after you.

Let's see how this plays out.

well, i take popcorn back, quickly to the kids, tell candi the situation with the toys, she says all nuts, gives me her version of option 1 saying the kids will forget, i tell her to look around at all the other kids with light up toys, parker over hears me say that and asks where his is at.

Use your inside voice, dad!

a family next to us was listening in on the conversation and before i departed the dad gave me the look like "yeah right dude no way you are going to make that"

i took that as challenge accepted.

Nobody calls me chicken!

I use candis PMS skills (people maneuvering skills)

It's amazing how well you can use unsuspecting people as a fullback.

Once back with the family i could not resist i glanced over at the dad next to us and gave the yeah thats right, i crushed it look.

on with the parade...i was pretty pleased with my pics with my new camera...no flash on any of them, just pulling in all light available to take these.

The pictures turned out great!

So, what did they name after you?

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Obviously Noelle was simply giving you an accurate assessment of the ride.



D'oh!



Let's see how this plays out.



Use your inside voice, dad!



Nobody calls me chicken!





It's amazing how well you can use unsuspecting people as a fullback.







The pictures turned out great!

So, what did they name after you?

i like your break down of the scenario....i def. used my fair share of fullbacks on the way there and back, i like that wordage thanks.


thanks, i was pleased with the night pics as well, just have to perfect the craft fully now.

they sent me a mears bus to ride home in that night.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Chapter 29. Water Park Teaser

I dont have time to do a full blown update on the water park so ill do a teaser right now.

Hey something is better than nothing right.

Friday the 28th of Sept. was a nice warm florida day and perfect for a water park day.

We Slept in and all were up by 7:15...thats good for us.

Breakfast was the Sampler for Candi, which had a little bit of everything, parker had the kids waffles which had a choice of matter and mqueen or the little mermaid, he chose mater and mcqueen. I had the make your own omlette with ham cheese, and little bit of peppers it was very good.

Hopped back to the room to get ready for the water park.

Parker was out the door first and ready to roll.

According to the time stamp took us 8 minutes to get to the busses.

And since i dont think i have shown the bus stations here yet, you can see for the most part they are fully covered so you will be out of the sun.

our bus arrived and we were making our destination with 20 minutes till park opening.

i have lots of pictures from this day to show the themeing for those that have never been.

we stuffed the locker full with our gear. and waited not as long as the BB day but still 5 minutes after the regular opening for the guards to get there positions.

it was to the crush and gusher first to ride...the kids and the other adult waited in the little splash pull and played around while we took turns each going down once.

then it was over to the kids splash area for a while via the lazy river. the kids were having a ball in the splash area so i went back really quick with parker to get the camera

he wanted to stop and get a picture in front of the wave pool

zoomed in a little more to see the wave pool

and what the paths look like in TL. very tropical.

thats all i have time for now, but still have about 40 more pics of this day in TL...so will share more in the continuation of the water park day.

have a great weekend everyone.

 

[FancyNancy]

I'm all caught up with your report. I seriously neglected the Dis over the holidays!

 

[KatMark]

Nice little teaser for Typhoon Lagoon. The kids look so cute in their "water park clothes and hats."

Have a great weekend; can't wait to read more about the water park.

 

[Trentmom]

Thanks for mini update

Kids look cute in their gear

Can't wait to hear about your day

 

[jedijill]

ITA with the others, the kids are so cute in their waterpark gear!

Jill in CO

 

[eandesmom]

The kids are adorable in their waterpark gear and I love the closeup of Parker. Ah, Typhoon Lagoon and a warm day sound like heaven right now!

 

[marvali]

Okay, so finally all caught up.............

After a joyful ride on splash mountain it was time to head back across the park and use up a fast pass for winnie the pooh we had gotten earlier after we went on Peter Pan.

So looks like we are all ready to go. Well Noelle had other plans, something else tickled her fancy.

Yep our plan to just her fall asleep wherever and whenever worked, she knocked out cold on the walk back to Pooh.

That is too cute! I guess there are many places it is appropriate to say......."When you gotta go..........."

these are some of my favorite pics with parker this trip glad we stopped.

In spite of how wonderful it is to have digital cameras and see all the colors so well, there are times that a Black and White picture just WORKS......and that is one of them! I also love how well the Mickey addition to the color picture really sets it off.

a few of the peanuts that parker found in the ground.

So cool............need to look for those next trip!

less than 5 seconds before the dad came back the kid stopped, it went on for at least 5 minutes straight.

we vowed to not let it faze us and moved on to our next destination...coming up in next chapter.

That is just crazy, but good for you guys not letting it bother you and ruin your day. I guess even at Disney there are any number of times our days could be ruined if we let them.

next up we hit an all time family favorite. along with captain EO i remember riding this over and over again as a kid.

noelle thought it was an opportunity to wave to her fans down below.

Such a Cutie pie!!!

noelle was feeling her out but parker dropped right into his routine of autographs and eating up the interaction.

Yeah, well what red-blooded male could resist THAT smile!!!

then came time for the official princess wave...

yep looks pretty legit to me. but i am a little biased on her.

Have to agree......great job for the little Princess!!!

and then the whole group was able to join minus ol dad of course.

Four cuties..........I guess they didn't want to mess up the picture...............

Our spots were getting a little more crowded but we had frozen delite to keep us company.

Now, that's no way to talk about Candi...........

noelle isnt impressed.

Looks more like that "soaking it all in" expression..........

best part of the day for parker came next.

the sneaky ol' crook captain hook.

he walked over from the other side of the road, passed every kid before us came right to parker and asked for a high five.

Parker should have held up one crooked finger on his other hand and asked for a High SIX instead!!!

when we got off i was thrilled to tell candi my score, she just looked at me smirked and said i got 750,000
something about that ride is hard to beat her, i mean look at this determination even while holding noelle.

Didn't you try to use Noelle as your excuse on the previous ride???

here is the following conversation.

parker "dad"
me "yeah buddy"
parker "can you hold me?"
me "why?"
parker "so i can see"
me "see what?"
parker "just see" ( one of the answers you give when you try and brush something off because it is getting later in the day and even though you are in disney and having fun, you are tired)

Enjoy that while you can. The day will come..............

for desert, parker ate my chocolate cake, or at least the frosting part then gave it back to me and said here dad im done.

Too funny..........

Hey Dan, who ate the icing off of YOUR cake???

Hmm...moving on, we are soon loading our seats and noelle seems to think that she needs to stand hmmm something seems afoot here.

I hope aFOOT is a little lower than this situation seems to indicate...........

Its about this point that we can see our lunch location where we ate in the second window over from the right hand side.

and also this point that we "smell" what the hug and standing was all about.

It's a world of laughter, a world of...............

Ah yes, the sights, sounds and smells of Disney!!!

Get in locker grab items close locker. check phone, head back. All I need to do is beat the Parade out of its starting gate and Im good to go.

Well No need to keep you in suspense, I could have stopped for a photopass pic with mickey i was crushing the time.

Same skill set on the way back to the family, i made it back in 11 minutes flat. Still had time to catch my breath before they even started on main street.

Once back with the family i could not resist i glanced over at the dad next to us and gave the yeah thats right, i crushed it look.

Nice..............

they were sure ushering buses towards our line pretty fast, we counted 5 buses that came and went and we were still a few rows back in the line.
looks like the tiredness got the best of her.

Such a sweetie! Great job she hung in there that long with such a busy day.......

he wanted to stop and get a picture in front of the wave pool

That kid is such a "poser" but I guess when you are that cute.............

zoomed in a little more to see the wave pool

Yeah, I see what you were trying to zoom in on...............

 

[Poolrat]

All caught up here. So much to comment on, I think I may have missed 4 updates.

Noelle seems to be taking to the princesses when she figures out whats going on.
However she may not be a IASW fan.


CoP and no pictures of the bulliten message board?

Need to get back to Cosmic Rays- Always seem to be over by CHH instead.

Not one but 2 parades- and a great time at that.

Wore the kids out and tossing the stroller under the bus- that must of felt good.

Wave pool huh? I see what you are doing......

 

[englishrose47]

The Wave Pool would be my favorite and the Lazy River !! The kids looked sooo cute all dressed for the Water Park!!! Looking forward to more pix !! I really think we need to add the water parks next family trip !!

 

[englishrose47]

I thought I'd missed another update then I realised Marv had come out of DISretirement !!!!

 

[marvali]

I thought I'd missed another update then I realised Marv had come out of DISretirement !!!!

DISretirement.............you are proud of that one aren't you??? How many threads does this make you've used it on now???

 

[emilyindisney]

All caught up after my trip!

Love the quick TL pictures! I've always liked that park so much more than BB but I suppose it all comes down to what type of water thrills you enjoy. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

I'm all caught up with your report. I seriously neglected the Dis over the holidays!

its okay things come up and get in the way, glad to see you back and all caught up, hope you had a good holidays.

Nice little teaser for Typhoon Lagoon. The kids look so cute in their "water park clothes and hats."

Have a great weekend; can't wait to read more about the water park.

thanks, they enjoy them as they love the water.
thanks it was a good long weekend, and almost time for another weekend to get here.

Thanks for mini update

Kids look cute in their gear

Can't wait to hear about your day

thanks, hope to have it up tomorrow, just got back from a long weekend and almost time for another weekend.

ITA with the others, the kids are so cute in their waterpark gear!

Jill in CO

thanks, water park days are great nice and relaxing and usually means we have a meal at one of our favorite dinner spots for the night.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

The kids are adorable in their waterpark gear and I love the closeup of Parker. Ah, Typhoon Lagoon and a warm day sound like heaven right now!

it sure does when we are sitting in this teen weather. i could go for it right now.

Okay, so finally all caught up.............
now i have a ton of work to catch up on your catching up responses.
That is too cute! I guess there are many places it is appropriate to say......."When you gotta go..........."

In spite of how wonderful it is to have digital cameras and see all the colors so well, there are times that a Black and White picture just WORKS......and that is one of them! I also love how well the Mickey addition to the color picture really sets it off.
i really do enjoy that black and white on that one as well. thanks
So cool............need to look for those next trip!

That is just crazy, but good for you guys not letting it bother you and ruin your day. I guess even at Disney there are any number of times our days could be ruined if we let them.

Such a Cutie pie!!!

Yeah, well what red-blooded male could resist THAT smile!!!

Have to agree......great job for the little Princess!!!

Four cuties..........I guess they didn't want to mess up the picture...............
thats why im in a total of 14 pictures from the entire trip.
Now, that's no way to talk about Candi...........

Looks more like that "soaking it all in" expression..........

Parker should have held up one crooked finger on his other hand and asked for a High SIX instead!!!

Didn't you try to use Noelle as your excuse on the previous ride???
it works when i describe my score, but she helps when describing candis score.

Enjoy that while you can. The day will come..............

Too funny..........

Hey Dan, who ate the icing off of YOUR cake???

I hope aFOOT is a little lower than this situation seems to indicate...........

It's a world of laughter, a world of...............

Ah yes, the sights, sounds and smells of Disney!!!

Nice..............

Such a sweetie! Great job she hung in there that long with such a busy day.......

That kid is such a "poser" but I guess when you are that cute.............
Yeah, I see what you were trying to zoom in on...............

yep trying to zoom in on the wave pool, why what are you talking about.

honestly glad to see you around again though. stop being so busy next time.

All caught up here. So much to comment on, I think I may have missed 4 updates.

Noelle seems to be taking to the princesses when she figures out whats going on.
However she may not be a IASW fan.
hope she doesnt try and use that to get out of it next trip, otherwise we might have a cop out move by her.

CoP and no pictures of the bulliten message board?
i totally forgot about the board, will try better next time.
Need to get back to Cosmic Rays- Always seem to be over by CHH instead.

Not one but 2 parades- and a great time at that.

Wore the kids out and tossing the stroller under the bus- that must of felt good.

Wave pool huh? I see what you are doing......

you have the same mindset as marv, i actually didnt see it until i looked at home. if i did i might have tried to zoom more before i took it.

The Wave Pool would be my favorite and the Lazy River !! The kids looked sooo cute all dressed for the Water Park!!! Looking forward to more pix !! I really think we need to add the water parks next family trip !!

i do enjoy a good lazy river, but usually not a good idea to fall asleep now with the little ones, maybe when they get older in there though.

i think you guys would enjoy them they are a ton of fun.

I thought I'd missed another update then I realised Marv had come out of DISretirement !!!!

ohhh burned marv

DISretirement.............you are proud of that one aren't you??? How many threads does this make you've used it on now???

this is the only one i saw it on so far so i enjoy it keep up the good work rosie.

All caught up after my trip!

Love the quick TL pictures! I've always liked that park so much more than BB but I suppose it all comes down to what type of water thrills you enjoy. Can't wait to hear more!

hope you had a great time, how was it?

plan to have the rest of thew ater park day up tomorrow.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

real life intermission.

didnt have time to finish the rest of the water park chapters but will finish them up tomorrow...

also like the past two years i have been shaving my head to help raise money for childhood cancer research...

last year my tally was a little over 1,600 i raised the event went for over 65,000 so that was awesome.

if you would like to make a donation to this send me a PM and ill get you the link that you can donate online for the cause. ill post pictures as the time comes when it is shaved.


sorry no new update earlier this week, candi and i dropped the kiddies off at grandma and grandpas and hit the road. we went to a state park and stayed at the inn for a few days tagged onto the weekend.

but first on the way down we stopped at a local brewery and had a little beer sampling.

they were good and we talked to many locals, which were very friendly.

then we figured we were driving through another town that had a winery so might as well stop there as well we were in no hurry to get to our destination.

finally that evening we made our destination. very cool bed.

had two tables and a TV stand around the corner.

as we enter the bathroom we see the Jacuzzi tub that i knew candi would enjoy.

but we didnt see the fridge that was suppose to be in the room, then we found it...it was hiding. behind the bathroom door.

i can say this is the first time i have ever seen a fridge on the counter in the bathroom...it cracked us up the whole time.

"whats that hun, you need a drink, hold on let me go to the bathroom and get you some more wine."


this state park has awesome trails so when the temperature gets down to the low teens what are you too doo, but bundle up super good.

thermals, long sleeve, sweatshirts, snow pants, hats, gloves, cant move good time to roll out.

some things to consider when hiking, first is get prepped which candi did.

then find the trail.

check
observe your surroundings in case you get lost so you can find your way back out.

check


take a self portrait so you can be identified if something happens to you. (dont mind the dumb colts hat, thats what i get for letting a colts fan pack my bag and she leaves out my bears hat.)

check

make sure you take many breaks to not get over tired in the cold temps.

check

find a suitable shelter in case you get stuck and need to spend the night in the woods.

check

get a ice dagger to throw at animals in case they are charging you for disturbing there winter hibernation.

check.

practice ninja kicks on ice so you are limber enough to fight off those crazy animals you may encounter. this is a video.

check

checklist complete.

enjoy the hike.

we came upon the ladders.

then our favorite trail with the walls to climb up with footholds, and walk across the ledges.

it was at this point we heard a shallow/muffled breathing and sort of grunting of a animal. so i yelled back to show i meant business and to not mess with us.

after climbing down the wall ledges and the stream this is shows what we just climbed down.

then an older couple took our picture farther down we warned them to not go up the falls as it was pretty slick and we didnt think they had good enough shoes to hold there traction...he told me later that night by the lodge fireplace that he was happy i told him as it was slick and they turned back before they went to far.

when we got back to the nature center we spotted a wall that had the animals that could be found in the park, and we think this is the guy that was up in the hallowed out wall of the cliff that was making the noise down at us...glad we got out of there.

so all the time for today but will be back tomorrow with more, hope everyone enjoyed and sees why i wasnt around this week...it was a good relaxing time to sit back and do nothing.