birthday trip report...now finished!

[prettyprincessbelle]

I love goat cheese too.

That's lousy about the waiter at CO. We had a slow waiter last time we ate there, but he didn't charge us a split plate fee and he gave us two containers of Monte Cristo dip, so we were okay. He wasn't that slow and the no split plate fee made up for it.

I wanna know what you got with your fun card too!

 

[kaoden39]

I made pizza one time with goat cheese and it was extraordinary. It makes a good veggie pizza.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Awe! I love reading your report. E is such a goer in the parks, as is Nathan. Nathan wanted me to carry him at the end of the night, but he is a solid 70ish pounds and this Mommy can't do it anymore, at all.

 

[BillyFan]

Great update, Molly! But I have some bad news for you. The cars are gone from the Boardwalk.

 

[bumbershoot]

Awe! I love reading your report. E is such a goer in the parks, as is Nathan. Nathan wanted me to carry him at the end of the night, but he is a solid 70ish pounds and this Mommy can't do it anymore, at all.

70, wow! I wouldn't have guessed 70, though he's a tall, strong, and solid kid!

Great update, Molly! But I have some bad news for you. The cars are gone from the Boardwalk.

Oh that IS bad news!!!!



I should also say that the waiter did not charge the split plate fee either. He asked if we wanted him to put it on two plates or not, and we chose "not". Who knows, maybe it was *that* that caused his bad attitude. I noticed that we had some full tables around us...appetizers for everyone, desserts for most, etc etc. So maybe he figured "lower bill, lower tip", and that might be true, but he could have had at least 2 people through that table in the time he made us sit there...sigh.

 

[bumbershoot]

I meant to finish this up, but now I've lost my notes/receipts. So just give me a bit more time...

 

[bumbershoot]

Not sure where my notes are, but while in the middle of some house-straightening I found one of the things I got in DTD, and wanted to mention it.

For anyone who likes Sephora and either lives/works near a store, or who routinely orders items, sign up for their Beauty Insider program and get their emails. Right around your birthday every year, you'll get a little gift. Well, they email you the certificate for the gift.

So if you make an order, I think there's a code on the email, and they'll send you the item. But if you walk in with the printout of the email, you get it then.

Since we'd be right there, with Sephora just outside our path to Disneyland anyway (or to GCH if going the other direction), I brought my email. And this year I got a little set of 3 small tubes of lipgloss. Cute colors, sparkly, 2/3 taste/smell good. The third smells and tastes good BUT, it turns out right now since I just re-found it, is making my lips kinda numb, and my throat got irritated. About 3 minutes ago I gave E a big lip smooch ('cuz he thinks it's funny when my lips have glossy goop on them), and he started coughing about a minute later. So THAT is odd.

But the other 2 don't do the same thing, and they were free. Last year I got cupcake-scented bubble bath. Year before...can't remember.

It's fun! So sign up for that if you like Sephora stuff and can get the stuff easily without a big trip (I tend to force a trip to Seattle around my b'day for it, but didn't have to this year).

 

[Sherry E]

I wonder what chemicals were in the one lip gloss that made you and E have (what sounds like) an allergic reaction. Hmm. Otherwise, I love lip gloss so if it is free, even better!! And cupcake-scented bubble bath or anything else cupcake-scented sounds delightful. I may just have to revisit Sephora. I have not ordered anything from them online. I thought I had, but now I think I had planned to order online and I never did.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yeah, the reaction was weird. It was the red one; the other glosses in the set were pinkish.

The birthday Sephora thing, allergies aside, is pretty cool. I have bought stuff from them in the past, but even in the years I don't, I still get my b'day email. And they were SO sweet.

In Dec '08, due to hubby flying down alone and having carryon, and lack of total planning, he had no hair gel for the trip. Well, that's not acceptable with his hair. He went into Sephora and asked for a sample of some good hair goop, and they gave him a really nice sized glop of hair stuff that lasted him the whole trip.

And on this visit, when we went in to pick up the "gift", a sales associate saw E's lips and brought him right over to a skincare section, and gave him a sample to put on his lips. She was so worried about him and felt so bad for him! The stuff didn't work, but it did get some goop on his lips, which let him open his mouth without pain, which is something he hadn't allowed before. (his lips were so messed up that they'd itch or feel weird, he'd open his mouth to stretch the itchy skin, it would split the already hurt skin, he'd cry, repeat and repeat and repeat, and he decided that Chapstick was for girls only...)


I still don't know where I put my envelope with notes, sorry. Spent yesterday making the house better and better, which was so great, but now my muscles are sore!

I'd blather on more but I gotta give Roberto a hair cut.

 

[bumbershoot]

Decided I don't care about the notes. I can always fill things in later. I have some time, since Robert's going up to Seattle to show a co-worker (from elsewhere in the world) around, but E and I are being unsocial and ungracious and just want to stay home. Lucky you!


On the 12th we were just SO tired. I really probably should have cancelled the trip, b/c going so soon after being sick didn't work for us. Not enough energy. And with such a short trip, we did feel we had to go go go.

So as I fell into bed, or rather, climbed up onto the too tall bed and then fell down, after making sure that the enormous pillow was squashed down so I didn't feel as though my head were falling off the next morning, i turned off the alarm.

Sure, Tuesday was a Magic Morning. Sure it was our last day. Sure, we hadn't yet swum (swam?) or packed or anything...I just couldn't make us get up early again. When will I learn???? And frankly, when will WE learn? Because this isn't just on ME anymore. In the past, I've forced the guys around, making them wake up and go go go, but now the little and big guys are doing it too.

But since I was in charge simply by being last to sleep, I chose this.

I don't remember when we woke, but it surely wasn't in time to be early for MM!

Once waking up happened, everyone was very happy with me. Yay!

As I posted on the 13th....

We decided to just STOP today. We're checking out and being the parks was just too addictive the other days...hubby and son (and maybe me not sure) are going to go ride Grizzly several times in a row, until they are sopping, then come on back and we'll swim. They've said we can use the pool after checkout, so as long as I plan out the bags correctly it will be good.

If I don't go on GRR, I can use that time to pack, and then we can go shop with birthday fun card and then maybe Lego (don't tell DS yet).

I got most of it figured out just in time. But then, they were SO cold (only three runs on GRR right at DCA opening, but got drenched!) that there was absolutely NO interest in swimming. I'd called the CMs downstairs, and they told me that checked-out guests could swim until 2, but it just didn't seem to be a good idea.


I do hafta say...especially in OUR rooms...it's all well and good to say "oh having the hotel Right There is so great when you're getting off of Grizzly drenched!" but frankly...it didn't seem to help much when you have freezing people. Getting to our room wasn't all that quick; they could have gotten to the Tropicana quicker, IMO. And they wouldn't be dripping on fancy floors in doing so, either. It sounds good in theory, but I'm not convinced of the GRR/GCH factor. I'd rather bring warm clothes and switch wet to dry in the nearby bathrooms.



So I changed the items in carryon/what I needed that day bag and so forth, we called for the bell people, and got out of the room just at checkout time. OH, and while we were getting ready, Housekeeping came by SO many times! So annoying. Days later I read the checkout slip more thoroughly, and it said to call when we were out of the room, whoopsie! But they figured it out anyway.


As you can tell...we didn't set one foot in the pools on this trip. I am SO bummed about this! But it just felt like there was never any time...even when we planned on having time for it, it didn't work out. This isn't a surprise to anyone who has read my reports, but it was for us, b/c we really planned on swimming, as a family, this time.


So instead of going swimming, we sent our bags away and went off to shop.

 

[kaoden39]

Ooh shopping. I love the shopping portion of the trip. Do tell what did you buy? Call when you check out? The DLH is the same way.

 

[bumbershoot]

When I found the GCH bill checkout thing when I got home, and saw the 'call when you leave' mention, I looked back, and it's on the other bill checkout things too. Never noticed it before! They don't really seem to need you to do it, though, and we had checked over what was charged anyway, they had our debit card on file, it was all fine.

Now see I need the the envelope with the receipts in it, to make sure I write it all down for you.


OMG Eamon can reach the kitchen sink faucet. He just did it. Sure, he's tall, but he also has these long monkey arms, and the combo makes it hard to put things out of his reach. Though this new development could be useful, LOL.

 

[kaoden39]

Soon though it will be like it is at our house and my 13 year old son is getting taller than I am.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh I'm so lazy today. Haven't even gotten up to look for the envelope. Looking through the WDW pretrip forum b/c eventually I'm going to have to get one of those going for 13 months from now. I don't even know how we're going to do it, but it WILL be done.

Everyone on that forum comes up with a clever title, and I'm horrible at that. It's holding me back from starting. That and, of course, it being 13 months away and I don't even know when EXACTLY we'd be going! The little things'll trip you up every time (ooh that's a good title, though it makes no sense).


OK now E is looking in the fridge, wondering how mayo, mustard, and salted butter would taste altogether. Maybe we should bake something while Robert shows the world of Fry's Electronics store to his foreign co-worker...



Oh so anyway, I've been saying for about a year that I expect E will hit my height by the time he's 10. He's not as relatively tall now as he used to be, but still, I'm fairly short. It's not that hard to get to my height!

I know he'll hit Indiana Jones height well before we can actually get to where they keep the Indy ride...argh.

 

[kaoden39]

I always thought Loren was really tall until he started kindergarten. His best friend was at least 6 inches taller than him. I am not that short, I am five-five. Loren's best friend who will be 14 in a month is about six-three already. Loren is only about five-seven.

 

[bumbershoot]

So I came over to see if anyone had replied, and of course you did, and hubby and son are watching the Food Network and there's music on it. And the music is on the same beat that your middle turkey is walking to!

Talk about weird!


I just cleaned up SO much stuff!

And still can't find the envelope with the notes and receipts in it. Where the heck did it go???????


I just had to go and be antisocial today...Robert and his coworker went to Zoopa! On company's dime (and E and I were allowed to be part of that). I love love love Zoopa! Now that I've finally decided that it's a fair price for soup and salad, and I don't feel the need to absolutely stuff myself, it's even better.

 

[kaoden39]

At first I was wondering what a Zoopa's was and I guess it is like Fresh Choice is here. I love Fresh Choice, even salad haters like my DH like it there.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh absolutely, yes it is a Fresh Choice brand, just with a different name.

When I lived in SC and would go to Atlanta for seminars, we loved going to the soup/salad places down there...I remember one called Lettuce Souprise You.

I have *always* loved salad and salad bars, always. A fave place to go when growing up in San Jose was the Burger....hmm, something. Burger Pit! That's what it was. And I would ALWAYS get the salad bar, even when I was shorter than the sneeze guards. And I would load it up with beets, love beets.

One time at Zoopa they messed up and had *pickled* beets on the salad bar. Oh man that was an interesting taste! Not horrid, after all, I love beets of all kinds...but not the flavor I was expecting.

 

[kaoden39]

Beets have such an earthy taste, I am not fond of them pickled. I think the two tastes don't mesh. I am craving a good salad now, maybe I want to have lunch out.

 

[bumbershoot]

I figured that I'm just going to work it out in my mind, and maybe ask Robert...still can't find the notes or receipt, but this report deserves to be finished before I get too far into my preprepre WDW trip planning.


This was the morning I had coffee delivered. I thought of the price difference of the big pot of coffee vs getting two cups of coffee each from WWS (two cups each b/c I'd just want to run down for them and bring them back, not sit so I could legally get refills if that is even legal), and decided on the pot. Well, with included tip, delivery charge, and pure cost of the pot, the 4 cups of coffee would have made more financial sense. I'd had my time on the balcony while the guys figured out their Grizzly thing, and that was nice

Even though we were hungry already, once they got back and informed me that swimming wasn't desired, we decided to wait on food until we hit a park, and just go shopping.

First we went to the Lego store! Woo! E didn't even ask for anything, he just wanted to play. So while they played and Robert stood around (the play tables are too deep even for E's long arms, so sometimes E would need help to get a certain piece from the bucket in the middle), I checked out prices etc. When I came back to them, I offered the pick-a-brick cup, and a base plate, as the cup seemed fun and the base seemed less expensive than on the lego site! E was VERY excited that he was going to get to buy things.

So we spent some fun time getting lots of little Lego pieces (he got something like 8 clock faces, LOL). Surprise to us, we got a discount by using the Disney Debit card! Woo!

Since the Tortilla Jos window was closed for refurbish/remodeling, we didn't go there, but if it had been open it would have been good!

From there, we were really in a quandary about how to work in my FunCard shopping. Not helped by hunger.

Oh criminy, I really have to ask Robert about what came next, but he's not on the (internet-enabled) train home yet...I'll be back!