(Forgive my shorter posts. I'm paranoid about losing a long post!)
We got to FOTLK right before show-time. We used the Stroller = Wheelchair here. This worked out great! We had front-row seats. There was a little girl and her mother sitting with us. The girl was about 3 and wearing a Snow White dress. She was obviously being chosen as a "special guest" because they kept making a big deal out of her. (Maybe they had opened the park???) Anyway, I love this show. It's one of my favorites at Disney and one of the main reasons to go to AK. Jessica was given the opportunity to dance during the last part of the show but she turned all shy on me.
Oh, and Zachary totally fell asleep in his stroller during the show. Poor kid!!! That made having the stroller = wheelchair worth its weigh in gold!!!
After the show we decided to head over to Kali River Rapids. I had never been on this ride (I stayed with Zachary the last time that Tom and the kids rode). Zachary was still sleeping in the stroller. We went to the CM and requested a baby swap. She asked about our t-shirts (Perry the Platypus and they say, "yes, yes we are..." which is a quote from Phineas and Ferb). We explained the meaning of the shirts and got our Baby Swap pass. Zachary and I went for a walk while Tom and the kids rode. I didn't know this until later but the nice CM apparently gave Tom and kids a 2nd baby swap pass so they could go straight into the FP line without riding stand-by (and I hesitate to even write that because I'm sure it'll stir up major controversy if that info leaks out widely enough). I think it pays to be friendly and nice!
Zachary stayed asleep the whole time and we wandered around the area. Nothing too excited to see or do in the immediate vicinity, especially with a sleeping toddler. I did stop in the DVC booth to ask some questions (we've been considering DVC on and off for 3 years!). The DVC guy recognized Tom by the matching t-shirt.
The kids were soaked and ready to ride again with me. And Zachary slept on....
We used the baby swap pass and got on quickly (for the record, the stand-by line was pretty short anyway). Luckily both kids are tall enough that we didn't need the special seats (if you're under 38 inches there are 2 special seats that you can use). The kids sat together and I was by myself. The ride was really fun and refreshing on a hot AK day! We were totally soaked!!! We exited the ride and found Tom and Zachary sitting near a little water play area. We sat on a bench to re-group. I didn't see Nathaniel but Tom had said he was playing in the water. This didn't sound like typical Nathaniel behavior but Tom said he'd seen him. We decided to head over to Rainforest Cafe for lunch (Tom had called for an ADR that day). I went to get Nathaniel and he wasn't there.
We had probably been sitting for 3-4 minutes at that point and Nathaniel was NOWHERE to be found. When we got off the ride he told me that he wanted to go back to BC to get dry clothes so I was worried that he had headed to the front of the park. Tom left me with Jessica and Zachary and went and found a CM. The CM had a very laid-back attitude (which didn't make me feel any better at all!). Tom went searching the whole area to no avail.
Another CM came over to help. She called the lost child center and they didn't have Nathaniel. I told her that I was worried that Nathaniel would try to leave the park to get dry clothes. (And he's the kind of kid who could and would do that!) That was the first time a CM looked nervous. Eventually (maybe after 10 minutes) the CM and Tom found Nathaniel. He had taken he's Who's Shoe ID off his shoe and was looking for someone to call us. Between that and the matching shirts, the CM instantly knew it was him.
I think I lost 10 years off my life at that moment! I was SO worried!!!! I was also a little unimpressed with the way Disney handled our lost child. I'm sure that lots of kids get lost but they didn't instill confidence. My mom lost Nathaniel at the
Lego Store last year (at DTD) and the store personnel immediately put out a walkie-talkie alert. The manager walked around looking for Nathaniel (making it sound like he's won a prize!). They were SO helpful and concerned. At AK it felt like they didn't think it was a big deal and he'd just turn up. Thank God he was ok!!!
After that drama we headed to Rainforest for lunch. Unfortunately we were all soaked (note to self: Don't ride Kali right before a meal!). I like Rainforest Cafe despite some not so good reviews. The salad I had was huge and yummy. They have the most extensive children's menu I've ever seen (the kids loved the mini hot dogs). The server was nice and it was a good way to recover from our trauma.
After lunch we headed to Dino Land. Tom took the big kids on Dinosaur and Zachary and I rode Triceratop Spin (is that what it's called?). Unfortunately Zachary had a small poop explosion and was left without wearable shorts. I searched every store around for a pair of toddler shorts (for which I would have been willing to spend a ridiculous amount of $$$) and gave up. Zachary was left with a t-shirt and diaper. White trash baby it was!
We met the gang at the end of Dinosaur. Jessica was not pleased by her ride experience (I've never been on Dinosaur). The kids bought some Vinylmations at the store and we headed out.
Amanda
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But we have to do what we have to do. 
It's taking long enough that I think he'll probably outgrow them before he ever wears them! I was surprised more people didn't give us a hard time about having a stroller in The Land pavilion. 
Jessica's wandered off a few times at local carnivals and the town pool. We have her pretty well trained now so she knows exactly what to do. Nathaniel's been lost at DTD, AK, and Target in the past 18 months. Impressive, huh? 
Glad you found DS!!!
The family in front of us told us that this other family had done this before (apparently they had been on the same bus the previous day). The dad of the 1st family in line explained to the other family that there was, in fact, a line for the bus and they should feel free to get in line rather than trying to cut the whole line. The family got all huffy. Sometimes I just hate people. The line wasn't that long so they would get on the bus but might not get seats (which is what happened). How are you more important than the rest of us???
