"Who wants to sit in the Yak chair?" Sheesh it was hot. An August 2015 TR Updated 11/7

[nilla]

Great update, and great first day! We must shop at the same place, since Emily had one of those Minnie dresses when she was smaller.

They had Simpsons minis at the Lego Store? I missed that! That does remind me of a great scene from the show, when Lisa was at the "Blocko" store. Unable to find any non-themed sets, she asked the cashier. Nope, nothing. So she says, "I guess I can just buy this one, and build something of my own out of it." "You do, and you'd better build yourself a lawyer!"

I always get a kick out of the mountain of stuffed animals!

Tiana needs a spellchecker

Can't wait to read more. We were at POR on our first trip, 9 years ago, so I forget A LOT about the place. Looks really nice, though.

 

[MissMaryQC]

TROUBLE! Your girls are trouble... Especially that little Maura, and I LOVE it!

See what I mean?

DIVA poses!

The only way to sleep.

We were woken up by Baymax at 7am.

I still don't know how to do this. i better learn before our next trip with DD.

Spooky!

She actually did a decent job!

Yeah she did! That second one is especially great!

Good looking bunch!

Nice, I love a good selfie.

Look at that refurb wall around the castle. I know it's for the greater good, but it was still sad.

At least it isn't the crane!

the line for Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was really short

Jealous! We never saw a short line for Pooh on our trip.

Honey Wall! This was the favorite for sure.

Totally, mine too.

She got an Eeyore that you can actually take the tail off of!

Cute! We had one like this as kids, he was filled with saw dust too. I know cause we gutted him. We were terrible children.

Remember this!

Ut-oh!

 

[Clarf]

Great update, and great first day! We must shop at the same place, since Emily had one of those Minnie dresses when she was smaller.

I remember it from a past, TR I think. I actually ordered those from Lisa (mickeystoontown) before our trip LAST year. They love those dresses.

They had Simpsons minis at the Lego Store? I missed that! That does remind me of a great scene from the show, when Lisa was at the "Blocko" store. Unable to find any non-themed sets, she asked the cashier. Nope, nothing. So she says, "I guess I can just buy this one, and build something of my own out of it." "You do, and you'd better build yourself a lawyer!"

Hah! I remember that episode. And yes, they had Simpsons minis. We've actually found them at Walgreens and Target too, and the Lego store at our local mall. They're not going to have them much longer though, so start looking!


I always get a kick out of the mountain of stuffed animals!
You should see their beds at home. They have a bunk bed and you can barely see them sleeping in it. I'll try to remember to take a picture.

Tiana needs a spellchecker

Yep, you're right! She totally does. dang it. Thankfully, they didn't notice.

Can't wait to read more. We were at POR on our first trip, 9 years ago, so I forget A LOT about the place. Looks really nice, though.

It was gorgeous and we really enjoyed it there.

TROUBLE! Your girls are trouble... Especially that little Maura, and I LOVE it!

Oh, she is. She totally is. Lucy is usually very well behaved, but she had some hilarious moments with the characters this trip. Stay tuned!

See what I mean?

Oh yes. She's nuts.

DIVA poses!

Totally. It's hard to get a normal picture from them ever1

The only way to sleep.

They sure think so1

I still don't know how to do this. i better learn before our next trip with DD.

It's so easy! I think you hit like #7 on the phone and just follow the instructions? Sometimes you get a live person, sometimes a recording (to set it up).

Spooky!
I know! I think my lens was "sweaty", but it looks cool!


Yeah she did! That second one is especially great!

Sometimes they turn out great!

Good looking bunch!

Well, it was early. GIve us a few hours.

Nice, I love a good selfie.

I kept taking them and posting to Facebook, but it was so sunny I'm squinting in all of them!

At least it isn't the crane!

I know! We missed it by a few weeks this year thankfully!

Jealous! We never saw a short line for Pooh on our trip.

We never saw a short line again, but it was early so we went for it!

Totally, mine too.
It's really cool.


Cute! We had one like this as kids, he was filled with saw dust too. I know cause we gutted him. We were terrible children.

I think I had him too! But I didn't take mine apart. Actually, I still have him and recently gave him to the kids. He was my souvenir from Disneyland.

Ut-oh!

OH yeah. Just wait.

 

[Clarf]

So my kids have off school today so I took a vacation day so we didn't have to pay for childcare. So, what better to do on a vacation day than write about vacation!

We left off after riding Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We all enjoyed it and it was a fun first ride for Indy. It was time to use our first FP+, which was also located in Fantasyland. We headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle. My girls loved this one last year, and Maura was brave enough to try for a part this year! We scanned our bands and were in. WE didn't eve have t wait for the next show to start because it was starting right now!

We headed into Maurice's workshop. I grabbed a few quick shots in there that turned out horribly.





Jason got a better one of the magic picture frame:



Soon we were through the picture and into the room with Mrs. Wardrobe. She quickly started assigning parts. Lucy really wanted to be the Beast, and her roar was by far the best, but they chose s little girl who barely roared at all instead. Whatever. Don't ask for the best roar if you aren't going to pick it! Just sayin'.

Lucy did get picked to be Mrs. Wardrobe, and Maura got to be Chip! Indy was a picture frame. The best part? This.

We were so hoping Bill would get picked to be a knight and he did! He actually volunteered for it which was fantastic!

Here are some pictures from the show!

Here's Indy as the picture frame.

Bill. He's crazy.

HEre's some PP from the show.

Lucy curtsied to Belle! It was awesome.

The show was great and the two CMs in the room with Belle this year were MUCH nicer than the red head we had last year. They were funny, and nice and really seemed to be enjoying their jobs. Our friends loved the show and Indy was so happy she had gotten to meet a princess. We headed out, and headed over to Gaston's Tavern for a snack. We were all getting hungry!

As Indy was getting in her stroller, she asked me if she could borrow the "big black pen" I had. I gave it to her, figuring she was going to draw in her autograph book or something. She handed it back to me not 10 seconds later with a "thank you, Clare." I looked confused and said "You're welcome." About this time, Karyn starts cracking up and this was probably my favorite moment of the trip. Karyn shows me the princess sticker book Indy had brought and we saw this.



Belle had a big black X through her! We couldn't stop laughing! It was like her princess hit list and she was crossing them off as she saw them! This picture was actually take a little later after she had seen Jasmine from the flying carpet ride. I guess that counted. This might have been one of those moments where you had to be there, but almost 2 months later, I STILL find myself laughing about it if I happen to come across the picture.

continued in next post.

 

[Clarf]

It was a little after 10am by this point and none of us had really eaten breakfast. We headed over to Gaston's Tavern, where we hadn't been before, for a snack. Bill thought he heard you could get beer there (and actually, I did too), but no dice. He got the Lefou's Brew instead and enjoyed it. Maura got the largest cinnamon roll I have ever seen in my life. Lucy got a chocolate croissant. Indy got Hummus and Jason went to the bathroom, of course. Probably to make sure his hair looked okay. He went into the bathroom more than any of us this trip.

We of course had to take a few pictures by the fountain.





The giant cinnamon roll:





That's only about 1/4 of it in that picture!

Fingers work best for hummus.



A scenery shot:



And then we saw it. Bill discovered it first.



Well, once he sat in it, everyone had to. I asked "Who wants to sit in the Yak chair?," and my whole family came a running. Never ones to pass up the opportunity for a picture in a unique resting spot, we all had to have our turn. And now, I don't actually know that it's a yak chair, but that's what I called it and it stuck. Yak. Buffalo. Large horned animal. Whatever you want to call it. To us, the yak chair.

Heaven forbid Maura sit in it normally.



She even had to steal Jason's thunder and sit NEXT to the yak chair for his turn.



Lucy's being tough.

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Me too. And God forbid Jason try and focus the camera. Maybe he should have used his phone. I got 2 pictures, though!





I guess Karyn and Indy didn't want in on the yak action. Their loss.

After our fun in the yak chair, we left Gaston's Tavern to slowly start heading to Adventureland for our Splash Mountain FP+ and our Pirate's League appointments. I checked the MDE app though, and saw that Splash must have been down because we now had a FP+ that was good all day for any of the rides they listed. I believe Splash, BTMRR, Space, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, IASW, and a few others were on there. We decided just to wait and use it for Splash when it was running again, since that was a must ride for our friends and for us. Since it was good all day, we didn't have to hurry.

We walked by Under the Sea and saw the line was short. Less than 15 minutes, so we got in line. We pretty much walked through the line only stopping for a few pics.

Hidden Mickey!









We were on the ride in no time and our clam mobiles were taking us under the sea! I tried to get a few pics, but they didn't turn out too good.



We had to get one of Ursula for our friend and hair dresser, Randy, who if you remember has my girls convinced that Ursula is his girlfriend.





We all enjoyed the ride, and afterwards found King Triton so we had to get some pics of course!





Now we started heading to Adventureland as our appointment time was getting close!

continued in next post.

 

[Clarf]

On our way to Adventureland, of course we got distracted by something. This time it was the stocks in Liberty Square.

Karyn and I wanted to leave them there for a while.



Maura and Eeyore.







She looks too happy to be in the stocks.





Not sure exactly what's going on here.



Now notice that Bill is no longer wearing his t-shirt. Bill is known for "losing" clothing. At weddings, he's almost always down to his undershirt by the end of the night, and sometimes even ends up shirtless. Obviously he wasn't going to go shirtless at Disney, he knows better than that, but he would have if it was allowed! I don't think the t-shirt reappears at all this day.

FINALLY in Adventureland, we still had just a few minutes, and the girls saw the spitting camel by the Magic Carpets and wanted to show Indy.



I have no idea who that family is. Just wanted a pic of the camel!





After that, we headed over to Pirate's League, but you'll have to wait for another day to hear about that!

 

[accountingbabe08]

Great updates.

 

[Chicago Mo]

Love the fact your in Disney with a really FUN family! I am just SURE you are all having a blast!!!


And this:

little after 10am

Bill thought he heard you could get beer there

Nothing like looking for alcohol at 10am!!!

Glad you had better CM's this time around with Belle! We will be doing enchanted tales this November! we have never done it!!!

Yes the cinnamon buns are the size of you head aren't they?!?!

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

ETWB looks like such a cute show - we haven't seen it yet. It's one of those things where we say "next time" but then never do it. It's cool that so many in your group got to participate!

Jason cracks me up - when he makes his silly faces he reminds me of George Costanza.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Those girls....cutie pies to the extreme and such great posers! They look so cute in their matching dresses. It's too bad that you missed the opening show but there's always another day to shoot for seeing it. Everybody looks like they are having the time of their lives this morning as well they should. You're in the Magic Kingdom sitting in a Yak Chair!

 

[MissMaryQC]

You guys look like you are having a blast!

And that little Indy is too cute.

Sorry that Lucy got snubbed for the part of the beast; she'd have done a top notch job I'm sure. I bet she was a great Mrs. Wardrobe though!

Can't wait to see Pirates League photos!!!

 

[DISNEYMOON10121991]

Hi!
Just wanted to come out of lurking to tell you I'm following along again. Enjoyed your last TR and noticed you had another one started.
I followed last time since you are 'near' by and you had Bucky.
It's fun reading life updates that I'm familiar with.
I'm in northern IL but work in Janesville WI. Have gone to Milw. State Fair every year with hubby since before we were married!
You have such a fun family. You and Jason seem to really enjoy making this such a great trip for the girls.
Can't wait to see what else you do through this adventure!
FYI: Gurnee Mills is large (two food courts) and a variety of stores and yes RFC.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

DISNEYMOON10121991 - love your name!

We got married 10-05-1991 and left for our DisneyMoon on 10-06-1991.

 

[Leshaface]

I'm here and all caught up now!

That was 2 1/2 weeks ago. And then school started. And gymnastics. And Brownies. And I just couldn't find a spare minute. But finally, here I sit! No more excuses!

Man, I hate that life gets in the way of our DIS time.

Clare aka Clarf. Recently 40. Trip planner. Assistant Patron Services Manager at a professional theater company. PTO volunteer. Personal chauffer. Mom. Wife. Animal lover. Also exhausted.

'Also exhausted.'

Here is the video of them finding ou

Aw that was cute!

Our goal was to leave by 5:00. We pulled out of the driveway at 5:22 which was pretty good in my book!

That is definitely good! Anything within 30 minutes of departure time is good for me!

Very pretty! I'd love to go to Chicago one day. Had a quick layover there once but that doesn't count.

At 11:28 we passed Flloyd's Knobs, Indiana. That holds no significance except I thought the name was funny and snickered like a child.

I believe the movie-of-the-moment was Napolean Dynamite. I love that movie.

Yes!

Love those seatbelt covers.

I don't know that I reminded him. He was probably making out with his phone.

This is DH for sure lately. Between his Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Fantasy Football, I rarely talk to him anymore

e went in and got our OJ sample. Because it's so yummy!

That would be a great reason to stop!

At 12:01pm, Jason and I heard this from the back seat: "Lucy, stop, your breath smells like poop. Like string cheese." ???????? Not sure what the heck that means, but Jason and I laughed so hard!

WTHeck!?

Aw looks like such a sweet man.

Those pillows are amazing! I'm surprised there wasn't a sheet in the binder with the prices I know in most every resort i've stayed in it always has the option to purchase the linens and robes. But usually the prices are outrageous!

I love all the artwork for the Murphy beds. So brilliant!

Yep, Jason is totally stoked on taking the bus.

Every 15 minutes or so at T-Rex, there is a meteor shower, and all the dinosaurs and other animals move and growl and the lights go on and off. It thunders and the ice cave changes color. Really cool!

DH and I visited back in 2010 (well, visited the bar) and thought it was really cool. I think DS would enjoy it!

Totally forgot about Stitch. DS is totally loving Stitch at the moment and i'm sure he'd love to see this!

Next we stopped into Basin.

Ugh Basin!! This place is so magical. Maybe almost as magical as WDW itself. I especially love the one located in the GF.

What a fun idea this is!

Love the picture AND no one is walking behind you!

Belle had a big black X through her! We couldn't stop laughing! It was like her princess hit list and she was crossing them off as she saw the

Oh my gosh, so adorable!

Maura got the largest cinnamon roll I have ever seen in my life

YES! The cinnamon rolls are ridiculously massive! And I love them so

 

[Clarf]

Great updates.

Thank you!

Love the fact your in Disney with a really FUN family! I am just SURE you are all having a blast!!!

We were! We loved going with them and hope to do a longer trip in the future!


And this:




Nothing like looking for alcohol at 10am!!!

Bill would have alcohol at any time of the day. Wait until we get to Epcot with them!

Glad you had better CM's this time around with Belle! We will be doing enchanted tales this November! we have never done it!!!

They were a stark contrast to crabby pants from last year. I'm so glad you guys are doing that! You will all enjoy it! Maybe Tom can be a knight.

Yes the cinnamon buns are the size of you head aren't they?!?!

Holy cow, yes. And really good. I hardly got any because Maura didn't want to share. I got NONE of Lucy's croissant because I think she scarfed it down before I even got to my seat!

ETWB looks like such a cute show - we haven't seen it yet. It's one of those things where we say "next time" but then never do it. It's cool that so many in your group got to participate!

Totally do it if you can. It's really a fun time for all ages.

Jason cracks me up - when he makes his silly faces he reminds me of George Costanza.

Totally. You aren't the first person to say that! He does have some good ones.

 

[Clarf]

Those girls....cutie pies to the extreme and such great posers! They look so cute in their matching dresses. It's too bad that you missed the opening show but there's always another day to shoot for seeing it. Everybody looks like they are having the time of their lives this morning as well they should. You're in the Magic Kingdom sitting in a Yak Chair!

Hahahahahahaha! Yep, that Yak Chair will be a regular stop for us from now on! And the girls seriously love those dresses. They wear them often. Even in winter. They just put a long sleeved shirt and leggings on with them!

We'll get to the opening show next time. Lucy won't let us miss it. She was bummed.

And we had a great time! So much fun to be there with our friends.

You guys look like you are having a blast!

We totally were.

And that little Indy is too cute.

She is so hilarious. Such a dry sense of humor for such a little kid. I was laughing at her humor constantly.

Sorry that Lucy got snubbed for the part of the beast; she'd have done a top notch job I'm sure. I bet she was a great Mrs. Wardrobe though!

She totally did. She was glad to have a part, though.

Can't wait to see Pirates League photos!!!

I really hope coming soon.

Hi!
Just wanted to come out of lurking to tell you I'm following along again. Enjoyed your last TR and noticed you had another one started.
I followed last time since you are 'near' by and you had Bucky.
It's fun reading life updates that I'm familiar with.
I'm in northern IL but work in Janesville WI. Have gone to Milw. State Fair every year with hubby since before we were married!
You have such a fun family. You and Jason seem to really enjoy making this such a great trip for the girls.
Can't wait to see what else you do through this adventure!
FYI: Gurnee Mills is large (two food courts) and a variety of stores and yes RFC.

Hello and ! So glad you came out of lurkdom! Glad to have a "neighbor" reading along!

Wisconsin State Fair is second only to Disney in our family. We look forward to it all year!

Thanks for saying we look like a fun family! We like to think we are, and Jason and I try hard to make sure the girls have great trips. They'll only be "babies" for so long.

I hope to get another update done soon. Dang life keeps getting in the way.

We LOVE Gurnee Mills. Don't make it down enough, but we have no excuse. We're 45 minutes away. We were in Lake Geneva over the weekend, so almost in your neck of the woods!

DISNEYMOON10121991 - love your name!

We got married 10-05-1991 and left for our DisneyMoon on 10-06-1991.

I wish Jason and I would have had a DisneyMoon. We had a "Hey-we-just-spent-all-our-money-on-a-wedding-so-lets-go-to-Wisconsin-Dells-for-the-weekend" honeymoon. Fun, but NOT the same!

 

[Clarf]

I'm here and all caught up now!

Hi Alicia! So glad you made it over!!!



Man, I hate that life gets in the way of our DIS time.

It's totally unfair.



'Also exhausted.'

This isn't a lie! I am most of the time, but it's usually good exhausted.

Aw that was cute!

It was so much fun to do that. I was glad we could surprise them.

That is definitely good! Anything within 30 minutes of departure time is good for me!

I was happy. Jason is usually the one holding us up, but he was excited to hit the road!

Very pretty! I'd love to go to Chicago one day. Had a quick layover there once but that doesn't count.

I love Chicago! It's such a cool, pretty city. Milwaukee is great too, but Chicago is great in a different way.



I know, right? Flloyd's Knobs. Totally not appropriate.

Yes!

One of the best. And we realized it's pretty kid friendly since there is no swearing, violence, or the other thing I don't know if I can say on here.



Love those seatbelt covers.

Thanks! I think we got them at Babies R Us a million years ago. Since Maura will be in a 5 point harness until she's 18 since she's so tiny, we figured she should be comfortable. (I know you have a pug so I added that.)

This is DH for sure lately. Between his Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Fantasy Football, I rarely talk to him anymore

I swear. He just got himself a new tablet with money he got for his birthday, so now he has ANOTHER reason to not talk to me.

That would be a great reason to stop!

So good. And it's fun in there. They have a lot of stuff to see!

WTHeck!?

I have no idea. I stopped asking most of the time.

Aw looks like such a sweet man.

He was. I"m still kicking myself for not getting a picture. I'm so surprised Jason didn't. He takes pics of everything!

Those pillows are amazing! I'm surprised there wasn't a sheet in the binder with the prices I know in most every resort i've stayed in it always has the option to purchase the linens and robes. But usually the prices are outrageous!

I bet there was and I missed it. I did look through the binder, but I bet I skipped over that section. I'll have to look again next time and bring an extra $200 to buy one!

I love all the artwork for the Murphy beds. So brilliant!

I know. It just adds that extra little touch.

Yep, Jason is totally stoked on taking the bus.

He was so mad. Also he was probably starving so that didn't help.

DH and I visited back in 2010 (well, visited the bar) and thought it was really cool. I think DS would enjoy it!

I bet he would! It's such a cool place. Loud, but cool.



I know, right? I told you he was hungry.

Totally forgot about Stitch. DS is totally loving Stitch at the moment and i'm sure he'd love to see this!

STitch is like #1 in our house. We all love him.

Ugh Basin!! This place is so magical. Maybe almost as magical as WDW itself. I especially love the one located in the GF.

We've not been to the one in GF, but I could have spent a ton more $$$ and time in this one!

What a fun idea this is!

We like to make it as magical as possible while we can still get away with stuff like this.

Love the picture AND no one is walking behind you!

What are the chances of that? Slim to none! We got lucky. I think it was because that area just cleared out after the welcome show.



Bill. He's a riot. I was so glad he volunteered for this. He loved every minute of it and hadn't even had a drink!

Oh my gosh, so adorable!

Still. I STILL laugh about this regularly.

YES! The cinnamon rolls are ridiculously massive! And I love them so

I wish I would have gotten more of it! Next time I'll get my own.

 

[sbeets]

can't wait to see the pirates league pictures.

 

[Clarf]

can't wait to see the pirates league pictures.

They are coming right now!

 

[Clarf]

So where the he!! have I been, you might ask? I don't know. Halloween is what I'll blame. The prep got to me. Though that's a lame excuse. We usually do it up big, but this year we've been so busy with other stuff we didn't even carve our pumpkins until tonight! That's okay, though, it's unseasonably warm here (73 today!), so we can enjoy them outside for a bit longer. We were Pirates of the Caribbean this year. Lucy was Jack Sparrow, Maura was the dog from the ride and movie, I was a pirate from the crew, and Jason was Jack's bottle of rum. The girls told him to be that! We didn't get a good picture of the 4 of us, as the rain hampered our efforts, but here are the girls with their cousin.



Lucy did her own make up. Maura is missing her keys hanging from her mouth to make the costume complete!

Here we are carving pumpkins tonight and the finished products. Both girls carved their own this year, and we have a Jack Skellington every year.



Our pug, Bowser wanted in on the action in the last one, too.



But enough about Halloween. Let's get back to the trip!

Okay, it's Pirate's League time! It was finally 11:00 and time for our appointments. I had asked Karyn months before if this is something Indy would be interested in. She said if there was make up involved, she'd be in. So, I made all 3 of them their appointments 180 days in advance. We checked in and first things first, they asked us if we had any clothes we wanted to change into. Of course we did, and we had even brought an extra mermaid dress for Indy. She was stoked. They changed clothes, and then Maura and Indy, who would become mermaids, needed to sign the Mermaid book.





Maura holds her pen like a caveman. We're working on that!

Then Lucy had to get her pirate name. They asked her birthday and had her spin the wheel to roll the dice inside of the treasure chest. With some combination of her birthday and the number she rolled, she was dubbed "Mary Goodwater."





Next they were each whisked back to their respective chairs to start their transformations. Maura was with Sarah and they hit it off immediately.



Indy was with Heather, and they also got along very well.



Lucy was with my favorite, Ashley Michelle. She was just a riot and I wanted to bring her home with us.



She treated Lucy just like an adult and was super sarcastic and smart alecky, just like I like them!

Here are a few atmosphere shots of the inside. It's really cool! This was our second time visiting Pirate's League, but I still found things I hadn't noticed before.





That map in this one gets red lights shone on it every few minutes. We never got a picture of it though. It shows something on the map.



More shots of the beautification.











The pictures were taken by both Jason and I, so sorry if they go back and forth a bit. They didn't upload to photobucket chronologically.









Everytime I came over to take a picture of Lucy, Ashley Michelle would yell "Take cover, she's shootin' cannons!" or "Here comes that cannon lady again. Everyone look out." Comic. Gold. I seriously loved her.



continued in next post