~A XMAS STORY~decorations, crowds, pixies..AND A BLOODY NOSE~ACTUAL UPDATE 11/9 p190

[MAGICFOR2]

Dawn, thanks for sharing your videos of Margot and Brett. Yes, she is a cutie pie! I'm glad the hearing is soon, and I look forward to more pics!

I updated, too - just forgot to change the title again.

 

[VandyFan10]

This cracks me up!!

Kona looks SO good!!

Funny story I had my neice Makayla this weekend and we were looking at our TR from Sept. She said 'WHY do you have pictures of food!!' I thought it was so funny, and coming from an 8 year old....well she just thought we were crazy!

and then i saw it......the first time i saw the castle lights!!!! they were SO PRETTY!!!!!! i knew i'd see it closer the next night but i had to get a couple of pictures from the opposite end of main street. it was just breathtaking!!!!!!

Isn't it AWESOME!!!!!!!

i felt so bad that night because i was supposed to take a picture of the castle with ray's phone and send it to erica. but because ray didn't come in with me, i couldn't! sorry, erica!!!!

Oh no worries!! Didn't he forget his phone the next night too .

But don't you worry I will be taking PLENTY of pictures of it in a little over 6 months

 

[Buckeye Princess]

I just found your trip report and have been catching up the past few days. I read it whenever I'm nursing my little one. (She's 3 months.) Our trips overlapped! We arrived in Disney on Sunday and went to MVMCP the same night as you. I'm excited to read that section of your report. I'm loving all of your pictures as we didn't take nearly enough. I was 8 months pregnant and I guess I was preoccupied with where the bathroom was and when our next snack was going to be. haha

 

[DisneyLaura]

Those videos of Margot are great! I love the way newborns sound when they cry. I totally understand Brett when he wanted to rip the needle from the doctor. I cried with all of my kids when they were that little. She's absolutely precious and prayers are being said for Brett to have a REAL date with his DD.

 

[punkin413]

The videos of Margot are so cute. My son (who is 20 months) heard her crying and came running to my computer, where he kept staring at me like "what is wrong w/ her?" He LOVES other little kids.

It made me remember when I was in the hospital w/ him and how special it is for everyone to hold the baby for the first time. Babies are truly little miracles. Don't know too much about the situation w/ your brother, but I am hoping that he will soon get more extended visits w/ her. They change so much in those first few months, and I'm sure he wants as much bonding time with her as possible.

so cute about your DS! thanks for the good thoughts.

She's a very sweet baby!
I am praying that everything works out very well in court and that Brett and all of your family can be more active in her life.

Margot is so precious!!!! I will be keeping Brett in my prayers for his hearing soon!

Margot is so adorable! I'll be thinking of your brother and praying that it works out for him!

Thoughts and prayers with Brett and your family.

I'm hoping and praying too! Your brother needs more time to luv on and care for that sweet baby girl!

I noticed you have 6 Days until NYC!!!

Dawn, thanks for sharing your videos of Margot and Brett. Yes, she is a cutie pie! I'm glad the hearing is soon, and I look forward to more pics!

I updated, too - just forgot to change the title again.

thank you all so much for your good thoughts and kind words! you have no idea how much they mean to me.

This cracks me up!!

he's so silly!

Kona looks SO good!!

it is! you and matt must go there next time.

Funny story I had my neice Makayla this weekend and we were looking at our TR from Sept. She said 'WHY do you have pictures of food!!' I thought it was so funny, and coming from an 8 year old....well she just thought we were crazy!

i guess it's kinda tough to explain food porn to an 8-year-old!

Isn't it AWESOME!!!!!!!

YES!!!!

Oh no worries!! Didn't he forget his phone the next night too .

he actually had his phone that night but he didn't come inside MK with me to get my package. he stayed out front in front of the train station. i didn't even think about it until i got inside and saw the castle all lit up. but the next night is the night he did forget his phone.

But don't you worry I will be taking PLENTY of pictures of it in a little over 6 months

I just found your trip report and have been catching up the past few days. I read it whenever I'm nursing my little one. (She's 3 months.) Our trips overlapped! We arrived in Disney on Sunday and went to MVMCP the same night as you. I'm excited to read that section of your report. I'm loving all of your pictures as we didn't take nearly enough. I was 8 months pregnant and I guess I was preoccupied with where the bathroom was and when our next snack was going to be. haha

hi! thanks so much for reading!!!! keep an eye out for yourself in my MVMCP pics and let me know if you're in any of them! i'm getting ready to start sunday but we were at AK all day before MVMCP so it'll be awhile before i start on that.

Those videos of Margot are great! I love the way newborns sound when they cry. I totally understand Brett when he wanted to rip the needle from the doctor. I cried with all of my kids when they were that little. She's absolutely precious and prayers are being said for Brett to have a REAL date with his DD.

thanks so much! i appreciate it.

 

[punkin413]

two things before i start the update:

1. earlier today i was walking through the living room and i looked down to see this on my couch....

that would be eli with my mickey throw on top of him.

2. one week from this very minute i will have just taken in some awesome views from top of the rock and will be heading to dinner at blue fin in NYC!!!!!!! my throat has been sore all day. i REALLY hope i'm not getting sick.

on with the update.......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a couple of pictures i forgot to show you from saturday night. the first one is luke holding up a cookie that anna and chris bought him from the gingerbread house at the GF. anna said they picked out a cookie that was like $2 and then he saw this one and liked it better. so they got that one instead and when they got up to the counter to pay for it, it was $10!!!!!!!! she said wanted to see if it was 10 dollars worth of yum and she tasted it later and it tasted like crap. it's really supposed to be an ornament so now it's in the basement with all her christmas stuff with a bite taken out of it.

and anna took this one later that night before we all went to bed....so sweet!

so sunday morning came and of course, as always, it was very bittersweet because we had an entire day of disney fun ahead of us and yet it was our last day. i woke up feeling a lot better - still kinda blah but much better than the night before.

two sleepy boys! i think luke is eating something that the tinker fairies brought him the night before.

we got up and got ready. the plan today was AK until around 4:00, then go check out the WL christmas decorations and then head to MK for MVMCP. we had a breakfast ADR at tusker house so there was no breakfast to be had that morning at the condo. we got to AK around 9:45 and the first thing we saw was the awesome tree!

i loved the things they had at the bottom of the tree. here's eeyore for erica and memom.....

and here's my favorite cricket! i think he looks odd without his hat.

so pretty! i love all the animals in the tree.

we stopped in front of the tree to get some photopass pictures. you can tell how exhausted ray is here. it takes awhile for him to wake up! he was having some bad insomnia this trip and he probably got an average of 2 hours of sleep each night.

now this picture is HILARIOUS!!!!! the photographer told us to put our hands up and say, "WOOOOOOOOOO" and this is what we did. this is one of my favorite pictures of ray - he's so goofy!!!!

next was anna and company's turn.....except that luke wasn't in a picture-posing mood. so they just didn't even try and took one without him. he was too busy checking out all the things under the tree!

the photographer made chris and anna do the same thing!

then time for a group shot (minus luke)!

and AGAIN the photographer made us do his favorite pose. this guy was nice but maybe it's time to come up with a different pose!

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31868976&postcount=1887

 

[punkin413]

here we go! i love the decorations above the sign.

as we were coming into the park we saw flik walking out to do some meet and greets.

at that point we split up. ray and i went to grab fastpasses for EE. we were gonna get anna, luke and chris's tickets to get them some, too, but they wanted to stop to see the characters that were coming out and since we hadn't gone through the turnstyles yet, they needed their tickets to get in. so off ray and i went.

at some point luke got to check out some cool bugs which i'm sure he really loved. he's ALWAYS finding new bugs down at the lake around his house. such a boy!

anna snapped this on the way to africa. i love this view of everest!

our destination!

this area behind the entrance to tusker house is so quiet and pretty!

meanwhile ray and i were heading to asia to get our fastpasses. of course you have to take one of these on the way into the park!

hey, EE....we'll see ya later today!

we headed towards africa to meet up with anna and company at tusker house. on the way i saw a crowd of people gathered and i realized what they were gawking at immediately.........

IT'S DEVINE!!!!!!!! i'm SO GLAD i got to see her! this was my 5th trip to AK in two years and this was the first time i'd seen her. she's SO cool and just really graceful and haunting. i loved it! that's one job i think i'd LOVE doing, especially seeing all the reactions she gets.

here's some video ray took of her.



we saw chris while we were watching devine and he was headed towards EE to get them some fastpasses. he said anna was checking in at tusker house so we headed that way. on the way over we saw baloo and king louie. i always see them here but i've never waited to meet them. maybe one day! this one kid turned around and saw big baloo standing there and starting RUNNING away at full speed. his parents were like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?????" it was really funny!

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31868993&postcount=1888

 

[punkin413]

we found anna and headed back to the area behind tusker house where people wait to be called to their table. i'd never been back here before and it's really nice and peaceful.

this was our view......

our ADR was at 10:25 and we checked in around 10:15. we didn't take the picture because the background looked dumb to me and i wasn't about to pay the money to buy the picture. so we just sat down and waited. chris got back pretty soon with their fastpasses to EE.

check out anna's expression in this picture....

i don't know what luke was doing but when i showed her that picture she was like, "that's awful!!!!!! i look like i hate my son!" so she made me take another one.........

then it was time for ray and i to pose. i won't tell you what he did just before this was taken because it's a gross boy thing.

around 10:40 i was starting to get aggitated with waiting. we were all STARVING because we hadn't had breakfast. i went to check on our table and - what do you know - we were called about 3 minutes later!

here's the area where the buffet is. really authentic and pretty. it's like a little market.

our server was excellent here. i think we all got that jungle juice stuff to drink and anna, chris and me had coffee, too. the juice was yummy! wish i had some right now. here's my first plate. clockwise from bottom: cornbread, apple crepe, croissant, breakfast potatoes, some sort of breakfast casserole, tater tots, bacon, grapes and some sort of bread pudding type stuff with vanilla bean sauce. it was all REALLY GOOD!!!!!

soon after we got our first plates goofy showed up. he took a picture with luke....sorta.

then he headed towards us and said hi and as i was getting ready to get up to get a picture with him, he turned around to the other table.....

in all the character meals i've done this is the first time i've been snubbed by a character and i was really peeved about it. as soon as this happened i looked at anna and said, "i'm gonna say something because i'm not paying $20 a pop for breakfast food - part of that price is for the character interaction." he must have heard me because he came back to us after he was done with the table behind us and we got this picture, which still didn't turn out good. you could tell he was in a hurry and it was just really rushed.

i asked anna if they wanted one and she said yes so he stopped quickly for another picture.

we love goofy but this guy was just not in the mood that day or something.

next it was time for a parade and dancing!!!!!! the CMs handed out musical instruments to all the kids and donald started a parade around the restaurant. so cute!

go donald, go donald!!!

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31869024&postcount=1889

 

[punkin413]

i think it's so cute that chris was the only adult out there with luke!

ray got the video camera out and filmed some of it. i love stuff like this at disney. so much fun!



luke ended up with like 5 plates by the time chris and anna had gotten all of his food! i think he's making pirate faces here.

next up with the characters was the main mouse himself, mickey!

they look so cute in all their safari gear!

gettin some mickey love!

the host of our breakfast was next, donald duck!

next up was daisy.

as she was signing luke's autograph book, someone said something about daisy being donald's girlfriend. luke thought that was so funny and the interaction between he and daisy was SO cute! they were both giggling and just feeding off each other. he really bonded with her!

i'm always taller than daisy!

after the characters came by i got one more plate. clockwise from bottom: bacon, an orange-flavored cake, ham with some kind of honey-flavored sauce (SO GOOD), mealie pap (which i was iffy about but it was SO GOOD too!!!!), ham and cheese breakfast casserole.

i got another plate of pastry-like stuff but i forgot to take a picture of it. i know i got some more of that pap stuff. it was SO GOOD!!!! i was really surprised i liked all this stuff so much.

i'm really glad we ended up with an ADR here. i wanted a character meal for luke and this is the one that just ended up working best for our schedule. the food was EXCELLENT and the service was good, aside from the goofy snub, the characters were really good too. ray even made the comment that this was the cheapest of our TS meals and it was the best as far as the food and experience go.

up next.....my favorite - the gorillas!!!!

 

[Happy Elf]

Breakfast looks yummy! Your pictures are great! We are headed there in June. Can't wait!

 

[KatGarcia]

I always miss divine!

I would have made a complaint about the Goofy as well! Glad you sort of got the picture.

I think I should grab scott and show up somewhere where you guys are when in NYC- LOL Just jokin!

 

[hlrababy]

I was about to say, I Hope Goofy came back!!!! Ugh!!!! I remember before we had Hollie, Chad and I would go to character breakfast all the time! I love them! I would have been very upset if I was snubbed by one!

I know your excited about your New York trip!!!

 

[VandyFan10]

2. one week from this very minute i will have just taken in some awesome views from top of the rock and will be heading to dinner at blue fin in NYC!!!!!!! my throat has been sore all day. i REALLY hope i'm not getting sick.

You better NOT be getting sick!!!! You need JP+!!!!!!

I can't believe your trip is this close!!

i loved the things they had at the bottom of the tree. here's eeyore for erica and memom.....

Love him....and I'm not so sure why...I'm not a

person

In fact I'm probably more like

Ohhh....I would like to meet Flik!!

that's one job i think i'd LOVE doing, especially seeing all the reactions she gets.

You could hug tree's

Love the Mickey pic!!!

i'm always taller than daisy!

Gotta love that!

 

[shannon47142]

great update!!
cool pictures of Devine--we loved her last August when we saw her, too

 

[IluvXU]

Thanks for sharing Tusker House. I would love to have fit that in with Daisy. We enjoyed it in the old location! Awesome seeing Devine! I am beyond sad this is your last day..

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

I have tears in my eyes after watching those videos, and I don't even know you, let alone your brother! What a tender sweet moment, thank you for sharing it. Good luck to him at the hearing. And don't forget...status quo stands for a lot down the road. Don't let her make a status quo situation that your brother will not be able to get around later!

I love that she stopped crying when your brother held her.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

LOVING the pic of Luke and Donald!!! And way to go Chris, he rocked the house with his Donald Dance. LOLOL (and totally something I would do. hey, at disney we are all just big kids!)

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Great Update! I loved the parade! That breakfast looks really good - much better than breakfastsaurus was, and you got such cute pics!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Oooh oooh is this the last day/my first day? So I could possibly spot myself in some of these pictures! Okay I have to start with that pic of Luke and his daddy in his MICKEY PJ's. How cute is that? He's this big buff guy with piercings and Mickey pants. I love it. Luke looks exactly like him. If they have a little girl she'll look just like Anna.

That spider!!! Chimere would freak! I have to get her there at opening next time. LOL

We love Tusker House! The pic of you and Ray with Mickey is so good! You guys must have been one of the last tables. It looks empty. Fooey on Goofy! I always get that treatment from Pooh at Crystal Palace. THREE TIMES! I'm not planning to go back, ever!

 

[MaceysMom]

I am just now getting caught up. The videos of Margot are so cute! Jordan is so mean not to let anyone take any pictures. And I feel so bad for Brett that he has only seen his baby three times. Hopefully it will be a lot more soon. She sounds crazy.

On to the report. Chris and Anna look like such fun parents! They are always taking funny pictures and acting goofy with him. It is so cute and you can tell that they adore him.

Devine looks so awsome. I hope that we get to see her while we are there. But if you have been there five times and only seen her once it doesn't look good.

I think I have the same shirt as you. The pink striped one, is it from old navy?