Baby and the Tramp...and a Pop (half) Century! Where Did It Go???

[MeMom]

The tree and entire lobby at AKL was beautiful. I wanna be a Disney tree decorator. I loved the decorations everywhere!

We sat down by the fireplace.

"That's hot, Brooklynn."
"Haaah."
"Yes, very hot."
She grinned a big grin.

I hope she never has to find out the hard way about hot. Her mommy did once when she was about seven and spilled a 425 degree pot pie right out of the oven on her leg. She had third degree burns, a doctor's visit every day for a week to clean and re-bandage, AND she missed a whole week of swimming lessons!
Poor Jill. She could only walk around and around the pool with her bandaged up leg while Trent and all the cousins frolicked happily in the cool, sparkling water. Oops, sorry for rubbing it in, Jill. Anyway, we hope Brooklynn will just understand "haaah" without the traumatic experience.



Yummy! If you haven't had a zebra dome, you must! I can just taste them right now as I am looking at them. Soooo GOOOOD!

One of the story signs.

Maybe some sibling rivalry going on here? Note that the giraffe is paying them no attention at all.

The view from the lounge chair in which I sat while Brooklynn pool hopped. Since there were empty chairs everywhere, and I wasn't taking needed space, I didn't feel too guilty.

Brooklynn making a new friend....and thinking about pool hopping.

It's official. Blow the whistles and call the Disney police! We have spotted a baby hopper at the entrance!

I'm hoping it doesn't really count if the adult never gets more than ankle deep. Of course, this is probably a really bad habit, because when she gets older and can't really go pool hopping officially - I mean total body in, more than knee deep, she may not understand why.

Some pretty birds we walked by in the bushes. They were deep blue and sparkling in the sunlight.

A little more walking around to see zebras before we left.

"Zheezha."

Note that the one zheezha in the background is mooning us.

Rocks, trees, and a beautiful Florida sky.

I want to try Boma someday, but I'm having a very hard time convincing my crew to do it. It gets great reviews, and I think it would be something very different, but they aren't very adventurous with their food, I guess. Hopefully, in time, we will get to experience this. Maybe somebody could show them some good food pictures and help convince them.

With one more quick run through the gift shop to see if there was anything we desperately needed, and then we headed back to Animal Kingdom.

They do have an awesome gift shop, and it always makes me want to do a really cool unit on Africa at school sometime. But, boy, oh boy, could I spend a lot of shells in there if I decided to! It would be dangerous. I would have to have one of every carved animal, and then there's the masks. Very neat stuff.

 

[LurrrvtheDuck]

OOOOhhh!!! Am I FIRST!!!!

Are you back MeMom? Welcome back!

Great shots of AKL. I wanna stay at AKL one day.

Boma=GUD You HAVE to try Boma. It is in my top 10 places to dine at WDW. If I ever get around to getting to that trip in my TR you can get food pics.

Great animal shots, we went at night so couldn't see many animals.

Love Brooklynn speak.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Zebra Domes...YUM!

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

baby pool hopping, what r u teaching that little girl. SHAME.

I have never been to AKL, maybe one day I will get there.

 

[carrieannie]

Those are terrific pictures MeMom! Brooklynn is having the time of her life in the pool!!
I understand the Hot thing very well. but that is a pretty fireplace. Does Jill have any scars on her leg from her hot Pot Pie?

 

[carrieannie]

Zebra Domes...YUM!

Whats in a Zebra Dome?

 

[Tinkergurl20]

I haven't posted in a very lond time, but I just got caught up and have loved taking all those trips with you and watching Brooklynn grow. I am headed the the World in 29 days with my 14 month old godson and can not wait. Those Zebra domes look amazing but I'm sure they are a no no for me, as I was just diagnosed with a wheat and milk allergy, so just looking at them in your report will have to do. I can't wait to hear more about your trips!

 

[BrittBritt]

I haven't read this entire report yet, but I'm half expecting Brooklynn to be driving by the time I finish! You all are such a great family, and it's been so wonderful to read about your different Disney adventures. When are you going in July? (I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere, I just haven't caught up to that point yet. We'll be there the 21st-25th at the POP! Your pics and descriptions of how much you loved the POP sold us on staying there.

 

[VandyFan10]

VandyFan10 - I'll try the setting change, for sure. We are actually going to Animal Kingdom the first part of the first day we're there, then we're heading to MK for the evening. Maybe it'll also help with Spectro shots.

Woooo Hooooo....Lovin' the colors

For the spectro pics....I had a 'low light/action' type setting on my camera...I remember it had a dancer on the setting pic...which would definitely be good for recital type things where you don't want a flash but need good background lighting for the pic.....but it's definitely for action and low lighting....dont know if you have one of those, or even a fireworks setting might work ....I'm sure you have figured out you really can't use your flash b/c it just makes everything washed out and you really can't see the lights on the floats...I LOVED that camera of my dads....guess I just need to get my own

You need to cheer HARD for us tonight...we will NEED it!!!

GO DORES!!!!

 

[LurrrvtheDuck]

Whats in a Zebra Dome?

Liquor!!!!

 

[MeMom]

Liquor!!!!

What are you (hiccup) implying here, little girl? Surely you don't think MeMom is a drunkard?!?!?!

I did have a sip of beer once at Busch Gardens. It was so nasty, and it was my first and last sip ever.

Zebra domes are made of cream and chocolate and Kahlua and a soft sponge cake, and they are delicious! Sinfully delicious! I've never been drunk in my life, but if I ever did, this is what I'd get that way on, because they are just incredible.

I think if Oprah ever tried them, they'd be in her favorite things shows. She'd be saying, "EVERYBODY IN THE AUDIENCE GETS SOME!!!!"
And the audience would be looking like this:

VandyFan - You've got your work cut out for you with Tennessee. Good luck!

Swans - So glad you are back and feeling a bit better. We've had a lot of sickies on the boards.

Tinkergurl - Too bad our trips won't line up. You're going a little later than us. I am glad you are enjoying watching Brooklynn grow. It is fun to scroll back through and see how much she has changed. I talked to her earlier, and she said, "Bumbo!" when I said we're going to Disney World soon. Jill said she also says, "Moocal," when Jill plays her High School Musical CD, but I haven't heard her say that yet.

Feel free to post more. Sometimes I think people are getting bored with us and no one is reading, so it's nice to have the feedback. I have to give Scott the Encourager Award. He is so good at commenting on everyone's reports.

carrieannie - For a long time, Jill had bad scars on her leg. And for many years afterward, she said you could see the splotch when she showered, but I'm not sure now if it has completely gone away with no sign at all. I'll have to ask her.

twob4him - No pictures yet, but I'll take some during the actual events. The kids are enjoying the decorations so far. I have all of my Mickeys and Minnies and Donalds and Goofys with their World Showcase flags on a table outside my door. I'll try to get a picture of it, too.

declansdad - I'm sorry you got left out of the trip. What are they doing while they're there? And as for being jealous of me going again, just remember you'll be consoling me all next year when I don't have an AP and I'm on here whining all the time. I'm down to my last two trips, and I'm already wishing I could squeeze in just one more before they expire, but there's no way.

mandy200587 - That was at Pizzafari. I had never had breakfast there until the boys and I went in November. I don't think I even realized they were open for breakfast before then. I always thought they just had lunch and dinner food. We thought about trying to eat at Tusker House, but it was pretty expensive, so I chickened out. The boys would have liked it, though, I'm sure.

BrittBritt - I hope you love Pop as much as we do. It is home to us, but I really did like ASMusic at Christmas, too. Thanks for posting. I hope you will continue to enjoy the report, as I enjoy sharing it. We have to leave on the 7th, so we won't get to meet. I have church camp in July, so we either have to go before the 4th or late in July. Since we did the late trip last year, we decided we'd like to do the 4th this year. We want to see the special fireworks, even though it will be crowded.

I hope I covered everyone. I'm going to go fix chicken and dressing, potatoes, corn, and peas for supper. Drew is back in his room doing something with tools and Trent is working out at the gym. They'll be ready to consume mass quantities soon.

 

[declansdad]

declansdad - I'm sorry you got left out of the trip. What are they doing while they're there? And as for being jealous of me going again, just remember you'll be consoling me all next year when I don't have an AP and I'm on here whining all the time. I'm down to my last two trips, and I'm already wishing I could squeeze in just one more before they expire, but there's no way.

They will be in the Tampa/St Petes area visiting some relatives. They actually left for Maine about 2 hours ago, trying to beat a storm. I think the trip will be mostly beach with a day at Busch Gardens.

 

[MeMom]

They will be in the Tampa/St Petes area visiting some relatives. They actually left for Maine about 2 hours ago, trying to beat a storm. I think the trip will be mostly beach with a day at Busch Gardens.

I used to live in St. Pete when I was a teenager. My dad was stationed at MacDill AFB. I really liked it there because we had a great church home with a very active youth group. I was very upset when we got orders to leave. We ended up in Warner Robins, Georgia at Robins AFB and a church that was nowhere near as exciting and involved. As a teenager, I was pretty mad to be uprooted from things I loved and shipped off to somewhere else. I had to leave close friends and a sweet boyfriend named Jimmy. My heart was broken. I can still remember us sitting out under the palm trees in my front yard the night before I left. I cried myself to sleep.

We ended up here in TN after my dad retired, because his elderly mother lived here, and he felt he should be here to care for her. We had really planned to go back to St. Pete, and I was sure counting on that. Everyone in the family wanted to go back there, including my dad, but since he couldn't talk his mother into going down there to live with us, he felt he owed it to her to be here for her. I know he did the right thing, in spite of what his heart really wanted to do. It was a heartwrenching time for all of us, but we survived.

I do love Tennessee because it has four distinct seasons. We get a pretty spring, heat in the summer, a beautiful fall, and a cold enough winter.

I do have very fond memories of St. Pete. It was nice to get up on a Saturday morning and drive over to the beach for breakfast. I still love palm trees and orange trees! We had three palms in our front yard and two orange trees in the backyard down there. We squeezed OJ often. We'd also go over to the groves when visitors would come and pick baskets full for them to take home. When you live in Florida, you have lots of visitors! We went to church with the Haslams, and we would go to their bookstore often. We enjoyed the celebrations they had in downtown St. Pete at Christmas and throughout the year. We loved to go to Ft. DeSoto and Gainesville and St. Augustine. We went over to watch Apollo 11 go up in 1969. That was pretty cool. We managed to see a lot of Florida on weekend trips, and I have really fond memories of seeing all those places.

I got to go to Disney World the first year it opened. Back then, you bought books of tickets and had to choose which rides/attractions you wanted to do.

But since I ended up here and I have the kids I have, I guess this is where I was meant to be. I'm jealous of people who live closer to WDW. I think if I lived closer I could go more often, but this is home, and it's a good place to be.

I hope your sweeties have a great time. Busch Gardens was nice the last time I was there, but it has been a bunch of years, and I've read reviews that indicate it has gone downhill. I'm anxious to hear what Ma has to say about it. Tell her to show us some pictures on this TR. I loved the animals and all the African stuff, but now that I'm so Disneyfied, I don't know if it would compare any loonger. I really do want to see pictures and hear what her opinion is. Declan will probably really enjoy it. They have my prayers for safe travel and a great time with family.


VANDYFAN - WELL?!?!? What did you think of that excitement???? Was that you I heard screaming on the other side of town last night?


Congratulations!!!! That's definitely one for the books. Vandy beating UT is good enough. Vandy beating a No. 1 UT is totally off the charts awesome!

More wonderful news on the homefront this morning - It's a SNOW DAY! We finally get our first one this year!

 

[MeMom]

We left AKL and went back to Animal Kingdom.

First stop was Flights of Wonder. (Warning - rare MeMom Disney complaint ahead.) We sat in the front row of the back section toward the left as you go in. We would have had a nice view, but for the first ten minutes of the show, the manager CM was so intent in getting another fifty or hundred people in that they kept walking in front of us. They were dragging people in and squeezing together people who were already sitting down plenty close enough , and they kept interrupting people to move. It was very distracting, and I really don't know what the big deal was. It's not like she was getting any more money for squishing in a few more. That would have been my one complaint about the whole trip, because it was more than just a bit of inconvenience for a minute or two. It kept going on and on, and they were talking over the people on stage yelling at people to slide in. Finally, she was satisfied, and we were able to see the rest of the show.

"Bud," Brooklynn said.
She was not asking for an alcoholic beverage. She was talking about the thing with wings.

It is an enjoyable show. It's a good chance to sit for a while, and kids who like animals will like it. They invite you to come up to the stage at the end, but we haven't done that yet. I'm sure we will, now that she's a bit older. I think she'd love seeing them up really close.

Then we headed over to this place for a little running around time.

Even in the dinosaur pits, this girl finds her wawa.

After a little play, it was time to spin around and around on a prehistoric creature.

I was in the back. Here are the girls on the flying triceratop.

I can't remember if we looked at or did much else, but pretty soon we were on our way out of Animal Kingdom.

One last picture. I will say again that I loved all the decorations in Animal Kingdom. And everywhere else.

We decided to go visit our Disney home, Pop Century.

Brooklynn feels right at home there.

Assorted Everything Pop pictures.

Then we headed to wawa.

Instead of playing in the pool, we let Brookie play in the Goofy jets.

It took a few minutes to get over her fear of what was happening, but then she went nuts. She loved these so much that she didn't want to leave. When we go this summer, we're going to have to get a room that doesn't take us near these on our walk to Classic Hall, or we'll never get out of there!

So long, Pop!

See you again in March!

 

[declansdad]

More great shots MeMom. Love the POP pics.

 

[twob4him]

Awwwww Me Mom....great parting shots! My Brooklyn calls all pools "Big Pool" (as opposed to the baby pools). She really likes looking at your pics of your Brookie! She is really looking forward to going back to Disney someday just to play in the pool!

 

[VandyFan10]

"Bud," Brooklynn said.
She was not asking for an alcoholic beverage. She was talking about the thing with wings.

It took a few minutes to get over her fear of what was happening, but then she went nuts. She loved these so much that she didn't want to leave. When we go this summer, we're going to have to get a room that doesn't take us near these on our walk to Classic Hall, or we'll never get out of there!

'Bud'....that's HILARIOUS!!!

Cute pic ....thanks for the pop pics I think that's where Dawn and I will be staying in September

VANDYFAN - WELL?!?!? What did you think of that excitement???? Was that you I heard screaming on the other side of town last night?

Congratulations!!!! That's definitely one for the books. Vandy beating UT is good enough. Vandy beating a No. 1 UT is totally off the charts awesome!
[/COLOR]

Very well could have been I was just a little excited!!!

But that WAS me that you could see hanging off the balcony when I got my 3sec's of fame on ESPN!!!

I think this pic just says it all

But this one is pretty good too

I'm definitely very proud of my boys....and I just LOVE Shan Foster....he is a precious, precious person and will REALLY be missed next year!!

GO DORES!!!

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

her face with the water jet is too cute.

Nice to see Flights of Wonder, not a chance in you know where I will see that in September with Biff. He is deathly afraid of birds.

 

[Glendamax]

Hey Mom! Just checking in! I am soooooo behind! I'm trying to catch up!

 

[scottny]

Hey Mom! Just checking in! I am soooooo behind! I'm trying to catch up!

Hey Glenda, have not seen you on the boards lately. Hope all is well.