A Daily Lesson Part II: The CampbellScot's take on Animal Kingdom Lodge*update 6/5*

[Lovemy3babes]

Great update! I love the flipflops pictures, since I too love flip flops. So comfy, so easy. The picture of Teddy and his daddy is just precious.

 

[jillyb]

That's a serious flip flop collection! My SD was wearing a pair of slides last time we had her and she left them here...and they fit me. They are just really cute (I think) and are so comfortable. How crazy is it that when I saw them I 1) thought of you and your flip flops and 2) that they would be great for WDW. LOL I've got to find out where her Mom got them. I did a search on the brand but can't find any the look just like the ones SD has. The brand name is Grendene and they're made in Brazil. Anybody else have this brand?

 

[karenell]

 

[justplaingoofy]

So when I saw the flip flop picture I thought it was everyones shoes together. Then when I saw the pic of Teddy I noticed his shoes were under the bed...?

How many pairs of flip flops do you pack..girl?


Love the updates... thank you very much for taking the time

 

[castmemberb4]

Great update MissCammie
I'm just back from vacation and was excited to see a new CampbellScott chapter.

Love the pic of Teddy and Jay on the balcony

I felt like the rooms at AKL were small too and there were just two of us.

When Teddy was wanting to go swimming I just knew you were going to get some alone organizing time, I could feel your bliss even before you confirmed it.

Can't wait for the next chapter and glad you're including more pictures this time.

Lynn

 

[CampbellScot]

sorry for the delay everybody! Sally had surgery this week (very minor, she's totally fine!) so everything was a bit hectic! She was too cute when she woke up...grumpy grumpy and wanted "this STUFF off of me RIGHT NOW...please" Even in her doped up state she was attempting to be polite!

I'm almost done with the next chapter...thanks for being patient everyone!

hope everyone is having a good Saturday so far!!!

 

[29apr00]

Poor Sally! Many positive thoughs for a quick recovery coming to her!!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Prayers and good vibes coming Miss Sally Rally's way! Surgery is never fun for kids. Hope she has a speedy recovery! Will wait ever so patiently for the next installment as you take care of your girly!

 

[jenb1023]

Glad Sally is okay! Surgery no matter how minor is always scary. Looking forward to your next update whenever life is a little less hectic and you have time to get to it.

 

[redsox721]

Hugs and best wishes to Sally. Hope she is doing well.

 

[kafitty]

best wishes to Sally!

 

[micandminforever]

Thoughts and prayers are with Miss Sally.

 

[jillyb]

Hope Sally Rally is feeling better soon.

 

[catherines_mama]

Glad Sally is okay. Gotta love waking up from being under and she's still trying to be polite -so sweet!

 

[Bibbidi]

So glad to hear that Sally is OK. Hope she is feeling much better.

 

[WDW Fan]

Glad to hear Sally is ok from her surgery and hope that your cousin is doing well too. The pics of the kids are so cute and I love the safari shorts outfit Teddy is wearing! This stage is just so sweet because they love all gifts that you get them and are so agreeable when you go on vacation! Can't wait to hear all about your dinner at Chef Mickeys

 

[catherines_mama]

So Cammie - how is Princess Sally doing? Will she let the Whicked StepMOM away for some therapy... err I mean trip-reporting LOL.

Hope all is well with ya'll. We are all [im]patiently awating the next chapter!

 

[Fluffypants]

Sending Sally some "Quick Recovery" vibes! Glad it was nothing serious!

 

[Christy LOVES Disney]

i am the most impatient person when it comes to waiting for miss cammie's trip reports. so i am waiting as patiently as an impatient person can wait. lol cause i know once it posts i will be like this.

 

[CampbellScot]

Hey everybody!!! Sorry this chapter took so darn long! Things have been hectic. The kids birthdays are coming up (four days apart!), Jay's parents are coming down for Easter, and Sally has to have surgery AGAIN. grr.

It's nothing life threatening. She has a cyst just above her upper lip...you can't see it but it causes her to bite her lip a lot. It's a tricky little thing and hard to get out completely in just one surgery. We were hoping, but the plastic surgeon wants to go in one more time before Sally heals up totally so he can get all of it. It's a bummer of a way to spend the last part of her spring break. The surgery is set for Thursday next week. Prayers would be much appreciated! General anesthesia scares the bejeebers out of me. (Sally handles it like a champ and wakes right up...but I'm a worry wart!)

Anyhow...sorry for being so late with this chapter!!!

Happy Easter Everybody!!!
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As the rain began to fall steadily, I fired both kids through the shower b/c it was time we got dressed and ready to go! It was time for Chef Mickeys! We needed to be there by 5:25…which meant we had to shake a tail feather if we were going to get to the bus by 4:15ish. That was still cutting it a bit close for my taste. We had always stayed at MK resorts in the past. Animal Kingdom Lodge was a quite a ways from the Contemporary and I did NOT want to be late! So I got into overdrive mode!!

Jay had to take *just one more* work call…rar. I burned a couple of holes into the back of his head as he was exiting the room.

I don’t think he noticed.

*grr*

Okay, getting the kiddies dressed…I laid out a cute pair of shorts and a tank for Sally and some denim shorts and a polo for Teddy. I sent Sally into the bathroom to get dressed and instructed Teddy to please change by his bed. This is always kind of funny to watch. Teddy is fully capable of getting dressed on his own…but the process takes FOREVER! He gets distracted. He needs prompting to get moving. Sure enough, when I went over to the sink area to grab Sally’s hairbrush, I came back to find Teddy laying on the bed, shirt off, one leg into his shorts the other leg dangling over the bed. He was staring at the top of the bunk bed.

“Teddy…what are you doing?”

“I’m looking at the wood grain.”

Obviously.

“Teddy what do you need to be doing right now?”

“MissCammie did you know that trees have rings that tell how old the tree is and if you cut the tree you can see it, but I don’t know if I can see the rings on this board or if it’s a real board and do you know….”

“TEDDY…get dressed. PRONTO…”

“and guess what else about trees…”

“Teddy, shorts on please”.

“they grow around stuff if you leave something in a tree and…”

“Teddy shirt now please…”

“things get stuck in the bark and…”

This is a newer thing for Teddy…he’ll prattle on about a subject with no awareness of how much or how loud he is talking. He's always been a chatty Charlie, but this was different. His teacher has said that Teddy “is very verbal with a tendency to monopolize conversation” read: your kid talks too much!



We are currently working on polite conversation skills and “active” listening!

I ended up “helping” Teddy yank the shirt over his head. He talked and talked and talked...finally I had to nail him with an eyebrow.

He gave me an impish little smile and finished with "Trees are interesting..."



indeed.

Sally came out of the bathroom and I brushed her hair and pulled it back for her. If Sally had her way she would wear her hair hanging in her face. But we all know that MissCammie’s way is the only way that will do.

And my way is “Hair out your face sister!” I can’t abide a messy head of hair. It makes me crazy…er.

Neat and Tidy is always the way to go!

After both kids were bright and shiny and ready to go, I got myself ready.

Which took about ten seconds…I’m low maintenance that way believe it or not! Seriously…sundress, flip flops, hair up in a pony. Voila! Disney Glam.



FINALLY…rar…Jay came back from his phone call.

He hustled into his clothes…that I had laid out for him b/c his consequence for not being in the room to pick out his own clothes was I GET TO CHOOSE!

Jay doesn't mind... I have impeccable taste!

I do.

*ahem*

Once Jay was dressed we were ready freddy to head out! Our first bus ride from AKL was just around the corner. I grabbed my “Park Bag” and did a quick check through…

Wallet...check
Ponchos…check
First aid kit…check
Shammie towel…check
Camera…check
Pin lanyards…check
Autograph book and pen for Teddy…check (sally was carrying her book in her HSM bag!)
Sticky roller…check
Clorox wipes…check
Purell…check
Ibuprofen I would soon need b/c this bag was so heavy…CHECK!

Good…ready to go.

(unfortunately this park bag did NOT get an A. I should have stuck with the diaper dude…and we had ten days of this wretched thing…after two days it started SQUEAKING when I walked...oh well, lesson learned!)

We all exited the room and made our way down to the lobby at a rather quick clip…don’t want to be late!

On our way out of the building I noted with much dismay that it was POURING. Grr. Oh well. We are at Disney.

I hate rain.

*ahem*

We took a left turn. Then we stopped dead in our tracks.

Sally clamped her hands over her mouth.

*sigh*

A few yards away from the walkway there was a designated smoking area. There were about five people smoking(in the pouring rain )…and the wind was blowing all the smoke towards the walkway that we had to walk down to get to the bus.

Really? Was this good planning? I’m going to say no. There is no other way to get to the buses. If there is, we never did find it and believe me…we looked. The only walkway tromps right through the smoker’s area. This meant that every single solitary day we had to walk through a wall of smoke at LEAST twice. Again…did Disney not realize we were coming?!



Before Sally could even get a head of steam going, I gave her a look that said “Do not start. I know you hate smoke”. Then I grabbed her hand and we RAN as quickly as flip flopped feet can run. Jay was laughing as he caught up to us. He also thought it wasn’t overly bright to put the smoker’s area in that particular place…but Jay was over dealing with smoke today.

Sally made a big to-do about sniffing her hoodie to make sure it didn’t smell like smoke.



Then we waited. We waited and we waited…every bus that came was not the bus we needed.

Jay was starting to get hungry. Hungry usually leads to grouchy. I knew he was good and grouchy when he started calculating how much each minute we waited was wasting in monetary terms. Jay tends to do everything that way. Time is money. Being away from his practice is difficult for him. Every minute counts. And when he’s hungry and grouchy it counts even more.

To make matters worse, Teddy started singing. Normally this would not bother Jay…Teddy sings a lot. I am known to break into song at random moments…it’s just the way we roll…

It wasn’t the singing that annoyed Jay…it was the song.

I’m laughing as I write this. Jay would NOT be laughing.

Okay so…quick side story…while we wait for the bus…

This summer I worked with a program called Broadway Kids. A friend of mine from college was head of the choreography department and she asked if I would help. The kids were doing selected songs from Hair Spray. I had been in that particular musical in college so I knew a bit of the choreography for “You Can’t Stop the Beat”. (great song!) I was glad to help out…any opportunity to sing and dance, I’m THERE!

On a number of occasions I took Teddy with me to practices. There were lots of kids and Teddy enjoys anything with music and lots of action. (Sally was usually at a play date with a friend during these particular times.) This song in particular is very fast paced and there are a lot of dancers and lots to watch. Plus the song is just darn catchy!

After about five or six practices, Teddy had the music down flat. He knew every word…he even picked up a lot of the choreography…which he would break into at random moments.

I personally found this ADORABLE. Jay not so much. I think he’d heard that song one too many times. Between practices at our house, the frequent request for the song in the car, and Teddy singing…he was up to HERE with that song! I also think the guy side of him did not so much appreciate his son singing a song with words like…”ever since this whole world began a woman found out if she shook it she could shake up a man…” Poor Jay.

(If y’all aren’t familiar with the song, I would encourage you to maybe find it on YouTube. The movie version is my favorite and it’s the version that Teddy learned. Listen to the words and then imagine a six year old boy belting that out!)

SO…in addition to being hungry and grouchy and impatient…jay had to listen to a song he was sick to death of.

The mean part of me laughed a little bit.

But only a little bit and completely to myself…

*ahem*

FINALLY the dang bus arrived. I’m glad we came down to the bus stop when we did. Had we waited we might have been extremely late for our ADR!! A large crowd of VERY wet people exited the bus. Wow.

It was raining to beat the band as we climbed on to the bus. Scary raining…sideways raining. Uck.

Teddy took that particular moment to remind us all that Donald probably LOVES the rain!

I'll bet!

Without missing a beat, Sally headed to the back of the bus, checked to make sure her seat wasn’t wet, and plopped down. A smile made it’s way to her eyes and it said “The seats are still warm!” WooHOO!

I took my place beside Sally and Jay sat across from Teddy. Sitting next to Teddy can be a chore. As he has little body awareness he tends to bump into, climb onto, crash his elbow into anyone within a few feet of him! Of course in a packed bus situation Teddy would sit nicely and sit still…or suffer the dire consequences b/c his step mother is mean …but the bus wasn’t packed. So we let him squirm and wiggle as he pleased!

At one point we played a little game of musical chairs…Jay got up to sit next to me and Sally decided she’d sit where daddy had been sitting so that “MissCammie and Daddy could be romantic…”

Whatever that means!


Sally is checking her bag!

Teddy is checking out "the rain patterns on the window!"

Once we were well on our way, I started handing out the ponchos…as they would CLEARLY be necessary.

Quack.

The bus let us know that we were nearly there! Even in my annoyance over the rain, my heart skipped a beat. We were finally here! The Magic Kingdom was in our sights! Sally gave a happy little shake as the bus pulled up and stopped.

“We’re HERE!! We’re almost at Magic Kingdom and Chef Mickey’s!! Remember last summer when we went to the Pirate and Princess Party? Remember that? How you wore Snow White’s day outfit and I was Belle’s twin? That was fun!”

Teddy chimed in with “Yeah and I was Captain Jack in his summer outfit!”



I heard Sally mutter under her breath “But you didn’t look like Captain Jack as much as I looked like Belle…”

I gave her a sideways look and tried to keep myself from laughing. But Sally saw the smile and she responded with raised eyebrows and a shrug of her shoulders. Clearly she was saying “What? I speak the truth…”



Truth indeed.

We made a bit of a mad dash for the monorail...we might as well have left the ponchos off b/c we got WET thanks to the high winds! The inside of the ponchos got soaked as well as the outside.

*note to self: REAL rain coats next trip...long rain coats...that zip...and have real sleeves...and hoods that stay up...*

Once we made it to the monorail platform we stripped off the ponchos and handed them to Jay. I handed him the shammie towel and he soaked up the water. Then he began the "folding of the ponchos". It's really quite remarkable! Jay is the master poncho folder. It's his OCD nature that allows him to make such small perfect squares. A+ Jay!!

We were stuffing the ponchos back into the bag as the monorail pulled into the station!

We hopped on and took a seat. Teddy took a deep breath and said "It still smells like elephants and giraffes in here!"



It wasn't a complaint. Teddy was thrilled!

Sally wrinkled her little nose. She wasn't nearly so thrilled with the zoo smell! I will always find it an odd smell that is unique to the monorail at Disney...and animals parks.

*ahem*

It wasn't long before we were zooming in to the Contemporary. I said a silent prayer of thanks that we were getting off the monorail INSIDE. Seriously...it was absolutely out of control outside. I was getting the moodies back. This was so not the evening I had mapped out in my head. We quite literally watched a TREE blow over...snap and break and fall to the ground.

I think we all were feeling it b/c when the CM checked us in and asked if we wanted a family picture, we all said "No thanks" at once. We just didn't have our Disney smiles on yet. Mostly b/c we were hungry and tired...and damp.

my word, everybody had their fussy britches on didn't they?!

We took our seats and waited for our pager to buzz.

Teddy was bouncing all around looking at everything. Sally had murder in her eyes b/c Teddy was "NOT respecting my personal SPACE!"

she's right...he's not!

Sally was attempting to melt her little brother into a puddle with her eyes, so I grabbed my camera and said "Disney Smile Sal!"

That is a great Disney Smile!

FINALLY our buzzer buzzed! We hopped to our feet and followed the nice CM to our table...that was rammed up against a temporary wall.



Really...there were a ton of tables all smashed together next to a temporary wall. It looked odd more than anything.

Oh well...we're at Disney. And we're hungry...so lets get to EATING!!!

Teddy sat down next to me and Sally sat beside her daddy. Sally reached across the table and took my hands and said,

"I promise not to cry this year MissCammie. I'm not sad. I'm just excited to see Minnie, but not upset...so I promise that I'm not going to cry."

I'm not sure if she was trying to convince me or herself.

the fact that she felt the need to tell me that she wasn't going to cry meant that most likely she was already feeling emotional.

Y'all realize things are fixin to get SAPPY right? good...just checking!

The fact is, Sally WAS excited to see Minnie. She wasn't sad or anxious...but she was feeling something more than "Oh cool...Minnie Mouse..." It was a bit more complicated than that.

We placed our drink orders and Jay took Teddy to get his first round of food. I was having a bit of a deja vu moment. I was watching Sally and she was watching Minnie Mouse who had entered our section of the floor. I could see the emotions racing across Sally's face. She was trying with all her might to remain composed and unruffled. I was debating whether or not I should say something to her. I wanted to tell her to take a breath, that it was okay to feel however she wanted to feel. I wanted to free that child from all the emotional baggage she is entirely too young to have. But I didn't say any of that. I just reached across the table and patted her hand. That did it. The dam broke. The tears were falling and Sally, rather suddenly and forcefully, launched herself into my lap and buried her face in her hands. As we had done this several times already this summer, I knew that Sally just needed a minute to compose herself. (Heaven help us if this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of adolescent mood swings!)

I think Minnie had been waiting to see if it was okay to come over. I smiled at her and she swished herself up to Sally. Minnie reached out and patted Sally's head. Sally looked up and said "Hi Minnie..."

I really love Minnie Mouse. She's a kindred spirit. She kissed her hand and pressed it against Sally's face. Sally smiled and felt okay enough to stand up and give Minnie a hug. I heard her say "I love you Minnie".

There is a reason I rarely bother with mascara.

I took a few pictures and Sally held Minnie's hand and she smiled her Disney smile. The smile that lights up the room. She was smiling her daddy's smile. The emotional frenzy had settled itself and she felt better. She felt the relief that emotional outpouring often brings.

Regardless of the tears that the first sighting of Minnie Mouse invokes, we'll always be her biggest fans! She is the key holder to Sally's happiest moment in the world. I have no doubt that Sally will ALWAYS get teary eyed around Minnie Mouse...even when she's a grown up taking her own kids to Disney World. And that's okay.

They are happy tears after all.

up next: Pop art and a WET Castle!