I had to hurry up and write this installment because Teresa went and posted hers first. We made a deal that we won't read the other's installment until after we post ours and I'm dying to read hers!
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The rest of my family had brought lunches into the park, but I wanted to eat at Pecos Bills. Okay, that's not quite the reason...
When we were kids, my parents would never buy us food in the parks. We always had to go back to the car to eat. Yes, lunch time would come and we'd have to get back on the monorail, take the tram, and sit in our HOT car and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (or, more often, turkey sandwiches). It is not a childhood memory that I cherish. I always wanted to eat in the restaurants like the other families. So, I avoided packing a lunch on any day of our vacation, even if we weren't going to go out to the car to eat it. It's just a childhood dream type thing.
As I said, the rest of the family had their lunches already and I wanted to eat at Pecos Bills. So, we got out our 2-way radios and gave one to Teresa and co. We said if we couldn't contact each other on the radio, we'd just meet back in front of Expedition Hall at 3:00, for our 1900 Park Fare ressies. We tested the radios and they seemed to be working, then we headed out on or way. This picture was taken earlier, but here is Tessa using the radio:
Hmm...not too sure why I felt compelled to share that picture with you, seeing as how we don't look so good in it and it's not the right time or place for my story. But, I resized it and uploaded it to photobucket, so I might as well take it all the way.
As we were nearing Pecos Bills, look who we saw!
No, not the CM in the white Mickey shirt. Look! It's Woody, in front of him! Sawyer and Tessa both LOVE Toy Story, so they were both really excited. Sawyer was gibbering away about it and pointing and such. Woody was teaching the kids how to be cowboys. We missed most of it, but Tessa got to be sworn in.
After she was sworn in, she turned to me and said "MOM! I'm an official call girl now!!" That's right folks, she's a "lady of the night"! I bet you didn't think they taught classes in
that at Disney!
She's always said Cowgirl this way and I'm trying to break her of it. She must have forgotten the correct pronunciation in the heat of the moment!
He doesn't look excited, but he really was! He was starting to melt in the heat somewhat, though.
There's Jessie, the call girl!!
There's....um....THAT guy!
We followed behind the crowd and walked into Pecos Bills. I have fond memories of eating at this place when Mom, Tessa, and I took our last trip to WDW. I LOVED the BBQ pork sandwiches. Plus, it was pretty cheap and a cool place to sit. I told Henry what we wanted and I took the tired, overheated, hungry kids (and their tired, overheated, hungry mother) to go sit down.
Easier said than done, it was pretty packed. I finally found a little table tucked back in a corner all the way across the restaurant from where Henry was ordering. We sat down and waited for Henry and our food. And we waited, and we waited....and we waited.
Tessa started to get a bit crabby. I told her that if she didn't stop the whining I was going to take her picture and show it to Luke (her future husband
) and my friends on the internet. Since I always keep my promises, here you are.
She finally knocked it off so I let her use my camera for a little while. Here is some Tessa photography.
A lovely picture of her mother.
Sawyer trying on my super-cool dollar store shades.
Hey, that picture seems familiar.
Corey took that picture of Sawyer with the SAME sunglasses on when he was 5 weeks old!
Okay, now go back up to the first picture of Sawyer with my super-cool shades on. That poor woman in the background was sitting there all by herself, the entire time we were in the restaurant (which was over an hour). I think someone just wheeled her in there and left her. No one ever came to sit with her.
I still feel kind of guilty that I didn't ask her if everything was okay. She looked happy, but who knows.
Finally, after about 1/2 hour, Henry arrived with a tray full of food and a very irritated expression on his face. Apparently, he would have rather entertained the tired, overheated, hungry kids while I ordered the food. I guess my mind reading skillz weren't in play that day. Personally, I would have MUCH rather been standing in line to order food than sitting on an uncomfy backless chair with some cranky children. He started handing out the food, which was NOT the cookie Tessa had asked for. Luckily, she didn't remember that she had wanted a cookie, so all was well. I gobbled down my BBQ pork sandwich. MMMMM....it was very tasty. Inexplicably, Henry had ordered himself 2 kids meals, along with a hamburger.
: I chose not to comment.
After we ate, I called the family on the 2 way radio. No reply, so I called again, and again, and again. Then, I realized it was making a weird "click, click, static" noise when I wasn't even pushing the button. So, I gave up for now. We meandered around, not sure what to do next. Then, we saw that there was no wait for the Country Bears. This is not my favorite attraction. I'd say once every 5-6 years would tide me over. But, I thought the kids would really like it, so in we went.
Aaaahhh...more air conditioned bliss! Tessa spotted a squished penny machine inside, and burst out cheerfully "A SQUISHED PENNY MACHINE!!!!" She then asked for her "squished penny tube". I had used an empty mini-m&m container and put a sticker that said "Tessa's squished penny money" on it. Then, I filled it up with quarters and pennies.
Unfortunately, the squished penny tube was still packed in our luggage back at the house. Henry and I had 2 quarters between us, but no penny. So, she was kind of sad about that.
A childless (at least they didn't have a kid with them) couple nearby saw us rummaging for a penny and looked sympathetically at Tessa. They started rummaging through their pockets and purse looking for some change. I thought that was so sweet that they were going to offer Tessa a penny. I stood nearby, not letting on that I heard them looking for a penny. They found one!!! Then, they went over to the squished penny machine, got themselves a nice, shiny squished penny, and put it in their pocket!
So much for anticipating a little Disney magic!
Sawyer was getting really sleepy by this time, but he was excited and fighting to stay awake.
We only waited a few minutes and then they let us file in for the show. I was surprised when they said "Please move at least 2/3 of the way down the aisle". I'd never heard them say that. It's always "Please move all the way to the end of the aisle." Anyway, Tessa was REALLY excited about the show. The last time we were there, she slept through the whole thing, so she didn't remember it. She couldn't BELIEVE that those animals had stuck their heads through the wall.
She leaned over and whispered "Mom, are they real?" Here was my opportunity to dip into the wisdom of "The Great Miss Cammie" (if you haven't read her TR, you really should). I said "That depends, do you believe that they're real?" She said "Yes." So, I said "Well, then they are real. That's Disney Magic." She looked at me and smiled a huge smile, her eyes all lit up and just said "Wow!"
We finally got our magical moment, and it didn't take a crabby 'ol CM to give it to us!
We continued watching the show, and saw the very real Trixie (don't know for sure if that's her name, but it sounds good).
Sawyer was clapping his hands and bouncing along to the music. He absolutely LOVED it!!
Next Page
I KNOW that she is a REAL FGIT!!!
She was asking her family (about 10 of them, all together) what kind of ride this was- was it a roller coaster or what? None of them knew, they'd never been there. 
I was just writing along and couldn't remember what we did after POTC. So, I went to the place where I keep my little book of trip report notes and it was GONE!!!!! Henry helped me clean for Sawyer's birthday party yesterday and I was sure that he threw it away. I even called him at work to ask if he had seen it. He said he hadn't seen it, which I took to mean that he threw it away. But, I just frantically searched the house anyway. I finally found it shoved down in the recliner where I usually sit to write my TR. PHEW! I had forgotten that little nugget about teasing the woman in line above, so it's a good thing I found it! On with the TR. 
