Just a quick check in to say hello to all! We did have a great time. It was hot, but not unbearable. It was crowded, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we have a pretty good game plan in place before we go, so you will see empty street pictures along the way to prove that even though there may be twelve thousand people in one area, there may only be twelve in another.
On the 4th, as we were leaving Magic Kingdom, I made the comment that we were going out by tens and they were going in by the thousands. A bus driver did tell us the next day that Magic Kingdom did close on the 4th a little before 6 p.m. The Poly beach was pretty crowded, but everyone was great at sharing space and remaining friendly in the heat. Everyone was orderly, and it was quite a nice evening.
It is a great feeling to take your first walk into the lobby of your resort, knowing that all the fun is yet to come. It is not so fun to board the Magical Express or drive out of your resort's driveway for the last time. I took pictures as we drove out of Pop, and then as we stopped at Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs to pick up other travelers. I tried to capture every last second of Disney that I could. When you leave Disney boundaries, it only takes a few seconds to see the difference in Disney World and Real World. The music, the colors, the smells - they are just not the same, not as intense.
We were able to get in most everything we wanted to do this trip, but we had already determined that there would be a lot of down time, too. Brooklynn did very well when she got in some swimming and a good nap, and then we were ready to go for the evening with her in a good mood. I tried to allow some time each day for the three of them to just be a family and have time at the pool alone, and I gave Jill and John a few chances to do things on their own while I spent time with Brooklynn. I do regret that Jill and I did not have mother-daughter time, though, because even though she's a big girl, she's still my little girl, and I like having her all to myself sometime.
The weather was better than we expected. We did not have every afternoon rains that are so common in a Florida summer. A couple of times we heard from CMs that severe weather was approaching, but it missed us every time. It was near and around us, but not on top of us. I pulled out the ponchos three times - twice for very short, light rain times and once to ride Kali River.
Yeah, I do that...especially when I'm taking the camera and trying to get pictures!
The food, as always in my opinion, was good and more than ample. Too many times Jill and I ended up saying we should have shared a meal, because we threw away a sinful amount of perfectly good food. I truly did feel guilty several times, yet we never seemed to learn our lesson. We would get into a restaurant and convince ourselves that we could eat a whole meal, but we rarely, if ever, finished it all. Our best meal, Jill and I agreed, was Crystal Palace. If every meal is as good there every day, I would highly recommend you putting it on your ADR list. The characters were great with Brooklynn, as well. Other than Tigger trying to make off with my sunglasses, all the characters were friendly. Get your own shades, oh striped one!!!
I have enough pictures to fill about every photo album they had for sale in Everything Pop. I will start getting them put onto Photobucket so we can begin sharing our good times with you. I've already started washing clothes, and I have to go camp shopping this week. I also have to catch up on what's going on on trip reports I was in the process of reading.
I will give you a few glimpses of what is to come, though. Jill and Brooklynn were highlighted in Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, some of us won Dream Fastpasses, and one of us learned what it meant to fall flat on your face. Literally. Someone got drenched on Kali, and someone else refused to go on it at all. (Since I already revealed the poncho info, you know it was either Jill or John.) One of us
still refused to taste Beverly. Fireworks were spectacular. We met nice people along the way and a few Grumpy Guses. (There are some poor kids out there somewhere who have a father who made their Disney trip just fabulous. NOT. At least not from what we saw in the line at Fantasmic. He whined liked a baby and yelled at them the entire time. The couple I was standing next to started making fun of him, and we were all laughing at what a fool he was making of himself, but it was sad for the kids.) One of us cried on the plane.
Here are some of the 'years' posters I took as a request from someone on the Pop Pictures thread. I thought I'd just go ahead and share those with you tonight.
I am sooo upset 
I was thinking of you guys all week and I totally forgot to check your old thread. So I happened to check tonight and Jill had put a link up to this thread and I missed all your daily updates and you're already on page 6.....oh the horror of it all.....please know that I was thinking of you all week and I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July....love those fireworks. I absolutely cracked up 
over the frenchfry pic....omgosh that is so cute....and the piggy tails with the hug from Mickey....just so precious. 
So now that I have subscribed I am really looking forward to more and I will check back daily!!!! 
Can't wait for more!
i can't wait to hear about all your fun. sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip. so glad to hear it! if i had to guess, i'd say that memom is the one that had the tears on the plane.....if it was the plane going back to nashville. 
