Ducks, Mermaids, and a 2 YEAR OLD! OH MY! (Aka-What were we thinking?!)*DAY 8 ADDED!*

[Tasha+Scott]

Well, slight change of plans. Kylie doesn't want to go to daycare today afterall so I probably won't be able to finish Day 7 until either tonight or maybe even Thurs. at the latest. I have a lot to do and it will be difficult enough while entertaining Kylie. I will finish it by Thurs. at the latest (I hope!). Right now I promised Kylie some breakfast and that we would watch The Little Mermaid for the gazillionth time. Thanks for your patience!

 

[Trentmom]

Day 7 (May 16, 2007)

On this particular day we had to get up early and head to MGM. Kylie had been looking forward to this breakfast. We do not have the Disney channel and she has actually never watched JoJo and Goliath once in her life but she loves lions and I had told her that we would see a lion at breakfast that morning. I had also shown her toys of him and pictures and things like that. She was excited to see him. So we all got up and ready and headed to MGM.

The park had not opened yet and we were directed to Hollywood & Vine. We parked the stroller and headed inside. I spotted Goliath right away and Kylie nearly went nuts. He was in the section we were being seated at but, unfortunately, he was about to head to the other side of the restaurant. I reassured Kylie he would be back in a few minutes and that others were coming and that we should eat until then.

My mom and dh went to get their food and both of the Little Einsteins came by while they were gone. Sorry, I don’t know the name of these particular characters. I’ve never seen the show. Kylie called them “girl” and “boy” and that seemed good enough for me so they have now officially been dubbed “girl” and “boy” in our household. For the record, as much as she was liking the characters by this point in our trip, it was very hard to get a shot of her facing the camera from where I was sitting. I was the only one at the table so I had no choice. After these 2 stopped by I put dh in charge of the other photos since he was in a more ideal position.

I have to tell you now that this character breakfast is perfect for little ones. It is definitely geared toward them. There is tons of singing and dancing and stuff in there. It seemed like every time a character would enter our section they would not make it very far because it was time for the singing/dancing part. This might not be ideal for someone who doesn’t like a lot of that type of thing. Kylie didn’t really care about that part either but she’s still pretty little. She just wanted to see the characters. I think it’s perfect for preschoolers, which I’m sure is the point.

I went to make Kylie a plate and then went to get something for myself. I left strict orders with dh to take Kylie’s picture with Goliath if he came by while I was gone. Well, he did and I watched from afar. Kylie was fascinated with him. She wasn’t thrilled when he left.

She kept asking me where the lion was but I managed to get her interested in JoJo before long. She actually really liked her too and she could say JoJo so I am sure that made it even better for her. The picture with JoJo kind of creeps me out but it may just be me. She came up behind Kylie and was playing with the back of her neck but, to me, it looks like she’s about to strangle her or something. Kylie loves the picture though of course.

Hollywood & Vine was okay. Same food as pretty much any other breakfast buffet and I’m not a huge breakfast person but it was decent enough. It was noisy and perfect for kids.

After breakfast, my mom and I had planned to go ride ToT and then head back to the resort. We saw Donald and Daisy near the “hat” though and I just could not pass up the chance for Kylie to see them. She loves Donald and he is so hard to find sometimes. We had not seen him at all on this trip. We got in line and just as we got there the CM said he was closing it. We were the cutoff point. I begged him to let us see him and he was adamant that we couldn’t. He said he’d be back at 10. I said we wouldn’t be though. I admit that I was a bit huffy. I knew he was just doing his job but I just couldn’t believe the one time we might actually see Donald and we were too late. The park had only been open about 10 min. and he was already being closed off. There wasn’t many people in front of us either. I was a bit miffed to say the least.

I shook it off and my mom and I split up from Kylie and dh. Kylie really wanted to watch The Little Mermaid show again so dh took her to that while my mom and I headed to ToT.

Mom and I had a great time in line. She was nervous and the girl in front of us was as well. I had so much fun tormenting the 2 of them about how they used to carry ‘I Survived the ToT’ t-shirts but that I had noticed they didn’t have those anymore. I told them that it was because WDW was afraid of getting sued due to the fact that most people don’t survive it. The girl we had met was acting nervous and all but she was a thrill ride junky and some of the stuff she mentioned riding in the past made ToT seem tame by comparison so I really didn’t buy that she was as nervous as she was pretending. We had fun in line though. Her boyfriend was enjoying my antics as well. He played along and got in on the act, on my side of course.

I had assured my mom that the ride wasn’t bad. I had told her, as well as our new friend in line, that the back row was pretty tame and you didn’t come off the seat like you do in the front. I really believed this since that had been my experience when I had ridden by myself. We were seated in the back and my mom said she was glad. I had told her that she would scream, that there was just no way that she could ride and not scream. She is so stubborn and always trying to prove a point and was determined that she would not scream on this ride. She told me this later. She was going to be brave while I screamed my head off and she laughed at me. She actually thought this would happen. I snicker now just thinking of how naïve she can be sometimes.

Oh, geez. I don’t know what happened when we rode this time but it seemed like we went up and dropped all 13 stories on every single drop. I had nothing to hold on to since I was kind of in the middle of the aisle in the back. There was no chair in front of me to grasp. I kept grabbing my mom’s arm on each fall. We were all screaming as though our lives were really in jeopardy. Actually, it kind of felt like they were at the time. My mom screamed too of course. So much for her plan. Our butts did come off the seats, much to my surprise. And it seemed a lot scarier during the day when the window opens so you can see the park below than it had at night, believe it or not.

My mom was so funny though. Between falls, when we would be lifting back up and preparing for another drop, she would say, “Whew! Whew! I can’t handle this!” And she had the most panicked voice I’ve ever heard. Thank God we didn’t have the extra drop sequence this time or I really think she would have passed out.

When the ride was over I asked the girl we had met what she thought about it and she loved it. She asked my mom and my mom was white as a ghost and, very serious-like, said, “I didn’t like it.” She looked like she’d pass out at any second. The girl asked me my name so she could “put me in her scrapbook.” I feel honored and famous over that! Her name was Kelley and I wish now that I would have asked her if she was a DISer but I was a little afraid of her relaying how awful I was in line by scaring her and my mom the way I did.

My mom was not too happy with me since I had told her that her butt would never leave the seat. I really didn’t lie; it hadn’t when I had sat in the back row the last time. She thought I was grabbing her arm to reassure her. I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her I was grabbing her arm to save myself, that if I went flying out she would be going with me. Almost was the key word. I actually giggled in delight when I told her. I am such a wonderful daughter and any mother would be lucky to have me, right?

A Photopass photographer saw us coming and looked straight at my mom and said, “Oh! Which one you’d just do, RnR Coaster or ToT?” My mom said, “Is it that obvious? ToT!” I said, “Yeah, and it didn’t seem to agree with her.” And I snickered again.

I told my mom she needed to tell dh that it was quite tame, nothing to it. She wanted to play along but every few steps she kept stopping, putting her hand to her chest, and saying, “Whew!” I asked her if she was okay and she said yes but she told me her legs felt wobbly and she had to regain her composure. I am so awful but that had me laughing the rest of the trip and I am giggling as I type this as well. You just had to hear the “whews” she did. I kept teasing her about it the rest of the time and at least she could laugh too…eventually.

She did manage to regain her composure somewhat and we saw dh and Kylie waiting on us. She told him that it was the tamest thing she’d ever been on and he was a wimp, etc. He wasn’t buying it and told her she could keep riding it then but he wouldn’t be joining her. She didn’t keep up the act long before she ratted me out for being the worst daughter ever. She told him how I had lied and said it wasn’t bad. In my defense, it wasn’t bad to me. I also had told her that very morning she didn’t have to ride if she didn’t want to but she insisted she did. I am glad she did. It is one of my favorite memories. Her reaction was classic. It took her a good hour to really recover.

I noticed the time and it was 10 a.m. and Donald and Daisy were back. I felt sheepish because I had said that we would be gone by then to the CM but we were still at the park afterall and we headed to get in line. I felt bad. I wasn’t exactly mean or anything to the CM, don’t get me wrong. I was a little miffed though and he knew it. I felt kind of bad about it but he probably didn’t even know who I was. If he did, he didn’t acknowledge it. I’m sure he’s been through worse anyway.

My mom had not completely recovered from ToT so she said she was going to sit on a bench while we did the pictures. Donald was really hamming it up. The guy in front of us had a little Mickey Mouse and Donald grabbed it by the tail and headed toward a garbage can. He was really funny. Kylie was very excited to see him. My mom eventually joined me to snap a few pics of her own of Kylie and the Ducks.

My mom actually took this picture of us waiting in line while she was sitting on the bench. Can you spot us? I may have resized it too small for you to find us easily. Guess we’ll see.

Donald was so goofy and Kylie really enjoyed seeing him so I’m glad we managed to go back when he was there again.

It was only a little after 10 when we were through with Donald and Daisy and we headed to the bus stop to go back to our resort. Kylie delighted in taking her shoes off while waiting. She was going through this phase where she would take her shoes off, usually after I asked her not to, and then would say, “Mama! See! Shoes!” with a big grin. Little pest was so proud of herself. Ignore the big grin. She’s trouble, I tell you!

We headed back to our resort and decided to rent a surrey bike. I had really been looking forward to this. They looked like so much fun to me. Kylie really enjoyed sitting in the little seat in the very front and trying to ring the bell. She didn’t have to pedal and only had to enjoy the view and the breeze so it was great to her. Dh and I sat up front and my mom sat in back. There are 2 steering wheels but only one of them actually steers. Dh was steering but I kept trying to with my non-functioning wheel. I was so frustrated; I wanted to steer too!

Well, I noticed right away that it was kind of hard to pedal this thing. I was a bit surprised. It really became obvious when we got to the first hill. Oh, man, it was extremely hard to pedal up this hill. I was pedaling with all my might and wondered why my mom and dh weren’t really helping me. They swore they were. We were starting to roll backwards back the way we had come and we all started to laugh which really set us back.

We FINALLY made it up that hill and were so tired, sore, and sweaty by that point. We noticed other surrey bikes passing us at the speed of light. Then, a surrey bike with a set of parents and 2 little girls pedaling passed us. Geez, were we really that out of shape?

Dh was shooting me dirty looks and saying, “I thought you said this would be relaxing!” I was surprised these things were so popular. This was one of the hardest workouts I’d ever had. We were on our 2nd loop when we got to the big hill again. Dh says to my mom and me, “Don’t laugh so we won’t roll backwards again!” That was it. My mom and I just burst into laughter and then dh did as well and we rolled back down the hill. We were laughing so hard by this point that we could hardly breathe and our bike was at a complete stand-still by this point.

Right about then a golf cart with a couple of CMs got behind us. The guy asks us if we need some help. “Nope, we’re fine,” I said between fits of laughter. And yes, the guy asking if we needed help had me laughing even harder. Dh was laughing too and jokingly said, “Yeah, maybe you could use your golf cart and push us up this hill.” Well, the CM actually comes up behind us and he and the girl CM start pushing us up the hill. We are all giggling like idiots by this point and I’m sure they must have thought we were on drugs or something. We were a bit embarrassed that we were so out of shape and needed their help.

The male CM tells us to let the lady at the rental place know that we are pedaling with a flat back tire when we get back. OH! A flat tire…so that was it. Why hadn’t we thought to check that ourselves? We weren’t so out of shape afterall thankyouverymuch. We made it back and all 3 of us were exhausted. Dh told the lady what had happened and she apologized and asked if we wanted to go again on a different bike for free. Dh looked at her between his sweat, blood, and tears and said, “Uh, no, not right now anyway.” The good news is that we weren’t charged for it. Kylie would have gladly gone again of course. It must be nice to be so little and just sit back and relax and not do any of the pedaling!

The funny thing was that all 3 of us were secretly thinking that the other 2 weren’t pedaling and we were doing all the work ourselves. It is really funny now but at the time it was pretty exhausting. I would like to eventually rent another one and see how it is when you don’t have a flat tire. I wonder if it is actually fun. We will be checking the tires next time for sure. Live and learn.

I will finish the rest in a while. Kylie just woke up and I need to get her ready for daycare. I will try to finish this in a few hours.

TO BE CONTINUED:
Up Next:
Our evening at AK (Will I FINALLY get to ride EE?)
Our dinner at RFC (complete with reviews)

Great update.

DS was not into Little Einsteins meal at all...maybe because it was early and he liks to sleep late..He loves the show at home..

The girl is June and the boy is Leo....

I love the surrey bike story..

I literally had tears in my eye laughing as I pictured the four of you.

Keep it coming

 

[wils]

Another fab day's report.

Hopefully booking H&V breakfast on Friday - looks fun

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Day 7 Continued…

After our “interesting” surrey bike experience, we all were exhausted, with the exception of Kylie of course, so we headed back to our room with the intention or resting for a moment or 2 or 10. However, when we got there we noticed that Mousekeeping was in our room. We decided to head to the food court and give them time to finish. We bought drinks and quite possibly snacks, although I can no longer remember.

After we were through we headed back to our room and Mousekeeping was just leaving. We walked inside wondering how they would have Kylie’s toys arranged this time. Every single day Mousekeeping had been having a blast organizing Kylie’s dolls. A couple of times they had all of them sitting on the bed facing the tv, which would be turned on, and one of her dolls would have the remote in her hand. Another time we came back to see all of her dolls greeting us from the window.

Well, we walked in and this time it was story time.

Kylie thought this was absolutely great of course. We rested for a bit and then dh, Kylie, and I decided to head to POFQ and use their pool. I had been dying to go there but it seemed like it was never going to happen. Time was going by far too quickly on this trip. My mom was still a little worn out. She joked that I was trying to kill her. First with the ToT experience and then with the exhausting surrey bike experience. Okay, she probably wasn’t totally joking. At any rate, she told us to go ahead and she might meet up with us. She needed to rest a minute.

So dh, Kylie, and I took the boat to POFQ and Kylie fell asleep almost instantly. I woke her up when we got to the pool and asked her if she still wanted to swim or if she wanted to go back to sleep. Well, we were at the kiddie pool by this time and she woke right up and was excited. The kiddie pool here has the alligators and she thought those were great. Her nap would apparently have to wait.

We were having fun when I saw my mom walking toward us. She didn’t want to swim so she just sat with her feet in the water. She watched Kylie for a few min. while dh and I went into the “big kids” pool. A few min. later, I saw my mom walking towards the main pool with Kylie. Kylie was looking for us. I asked her if she wanted to come in the water with us. “COLD!” she exclaimed.

I must go on record here and say that we have forever tainted Kylie’s mind when it comes to pools. If you even mention the words water, swimming, or pool she will automatically let you know it will be cold before she even knows if it is. Her daycare has “swim days” in little inflatable kiddie pools every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the summer and I’ve taken Kylie to a few of those and her teacher tells me that she has informed them that the water will be cold before they ever get in it. Ey yi yi.

Anyway, getting back to the TR, Dh asked Kylie if she wanted to go down the water slide with him. She said yes. So they headed down. I wasn’t sure if she liked it or not at first because her face was so serious. BUT when dh asked her if she wanted to go down it again she said yes. I had my mom snap a picture.

Now that we are home Kylie has seen several local water park commercials and she tells me every time that it is Disney World. You can not convince her otherwise. She apparently loved the water slide and when she sees the commercials she tells me she wants to go on it again. Apparently, the water isn’t cold when a slide is going into it. Hmmm…

We are thinking about taking her to a water park in Aug. after my summer classes are over but before I start my fall classes. It’s great for kids too because it has a couple of kid areas and a beach area. So it’s tame enough.

Anyway, after the 2nd time down the slide the lifeguard told dh that he and Kylie had to go down the slide one at a time. It didn’t matter that Kylie was only 2 and couldn’t go down by herself. It also didn’t matter that this same lifeguard had watched them go down together the first time and didn’t seem to have a problem with it then. And so, the waterslide adventure abruptly came to an end.

We headed back to the kiddie pool to let Kylie play a little longer. I swear I think dh thought these pools were designed just for him. He seemed to like it more than the kids. He got a few looks from some of the parents but he was oblivious.

You know, I have a few pictures of Kylie in the kiddie pool too and they are pretty cute and give you an idea of what that pool is like, but they are mysteriously missing from my computer. I could have sworn I put them on my computer but they aren’t there so I don’t know. It would take me forever to find the actual copy and scan it but trust me when I say the kiddie pool here is much better than the one at the main pool at POR. Kylie definitely had a blast.

It seemed like our day was flying by. I had wanted to get to AK a little earlier than we did because I wanted to take Kylie to the petting zoo and I wanted to walk the trails. I also wanted to let her watch Mickey’s Jungle Jammin’ Parade. We’ve never seen it and I thought she’d probably enjoy it. The plans on our trip just never seemed to go exactly as I thought they would this time though. First, it had been kind of an exhausting day and we all had to rest and, second, Kylie fell asleep again on the way to AK.

We got there just in time for the parade if we wanted to see it but she was asleep so we skipped it. Instead, we headed for the new Nemo show.

I had heard good things about it and was excited to see it. People had actually compared it to being as good as Festival of the Lion King. Well, let’s see, how to put this? It is okay. Kind of cute in a really weird type of way. I don’t want to ruin the show for those who haven’t seen it so that’s all I will say. Due to the way it was scheduled we had to pick between this Nemo show and the Pocahontas one. If I had to do it again, I’d go with Pocahontas in a heartbeat. I was pretty disappointed in the Nemo show. The singers/actors were definitely talented. It was just kind of strange the way it was performed. I would love to give you more of an idea of why but don't want to spoil it. It is definitely no where near as great as FOTLK. BUT I guess some people would disagree since it does get great reviews. You will just have to judge for yourselves.

I still have never seen the Pocahontas show. We always end up missing it. We rarely do a full day at AK and always end up going for EMH. One year we will have to go a while longer I guess. We also did not get to walk the trails or do the petting zoo. I was kind of disappointed but that’s my fault for not making more time for it. I really did think we’d go earlier but it didn’t work out.

After Nemo, we headed for the safari ride. I do not know what happened to our driver that day but he seemed to think that he was a race car driver. I swear to you he was driving so fast and bumpy and hitting the breaks suddenly. He’d say, “OH! Look there! I’ll give you time to take a picture of that.” And before anyone could actually click their camera we’d be off again. As a result, dh ended up with a lot of pictures of blurry animals and was pretty disappointed. He did a few decent shots though.

After the safari ride, we rushed to FOTLK. Let me just tell you, Kylie really became a show off before the show started. She kept flirting with an elderly man behind us and he was loving every minute of it. Then she would start dancing and clapping for me and those around us. She then would go up and down the bleachers (just the one we were on and the one in front of us if you want to get techical; she wasn't running wild or anything, just to clarify). She may have liked that more than the show. That being said, she did really enjoy the show. I did too. I love this show. It’s my favorite.

After the show was over, dh was excited to finally be able to go on Kali River Rapids. He loves it. This year he was smart and wore his bathing suit to the park as he knew he’d get wet. Last year he insisted he wouldn’t and quickly learned he was wrong. This year he thought he was being clever and he probably was. My mom walked with me toward Expedition Everest.

Those of you who followed along with my TR last year know that I tried to ride last year but something always kept me from getting to. They had a lot of technical issues with it last year since it was so new. I never got to ride and was determined to say I had been on it this time. My mom and Kylie waited on me and I got in line.

I finally did ride EE. Honestly, it was okay. I guess I’m just not as much of a coaster fan as I was at one time. I thought it was overrated. The Yeti part is neat. The one big drop is fun but the rest seems to go far too quickly and I just can’t see waiting in a long line for it. That is why I had decided to do it during EMH. I only waited about 10 min. I’m glad I did it and I would probably ride it again if the line wasn’t too long but I don’t feel it’s a “must-do.” I guess I’m more about rides with drops now or something. I feel like I am a traitor for not agreeing with the majority and saying this is the greatest ride of all time. I’d be lying though. It was just okay to me and that’s all there is to it. But hey, I finally got to see what the hype was about anyway so I was pretty happy. Oh, and I did like this one a lot better than RnR Coaster.

We went and found dh and he was pretty soaked. He had ridden Kali River Rapids twice in a row. My mom noticed how wet he was and was worried. She really wanted to eat at the Rain Forest Café. She’s wanted to try it for a while. She even offered to pay. However, she was worried because she was sure the restaurant would be cold inside (they all seemed to be!) and he was dripping wet. She asked him if he wanted to just eat at the food court or something instead. He said no, he’d be fine. He knew before he ever went on the ride he’d get soaked. He also knew that we’d be eating in the restaurant. Well, we hoped we would be anyway. We had no reservations so we were hoping it wouldn’t be too crowded since it was getting late.

We did ITTBAB before leaving the park. It's cute. We always do it because dh loves it. Me and bugs don't go together though so I could take it or leave it. I must sound like I don't like anything right now. I love most of the rides and shows actually. It just seems the ones I'm not crazy about are all mentioned in this post. Now you see why we only do a half day at AK though.

Now it was time to see if we would be able to eat at RFC or not. We were crossing our fingers. It was getting late so we were hoping that would help. I walked into the restaurant and asked the lady if we would be able to get a seat and she said yes. We were seated about 10 min. later in a section with the monkeys.

Dh has this ongoing joke where he says my mom is a monkey. No idea now what even started it but he and my mom have had fun with practical jokes over the years and a lot of monkey type jokes have been used. It can be funny sometimes. So he thought it was great that we were eating near my mom’s “relatives.” Kylie also found the monkeys fascinating.

It was freezing inside too. I actually brought Kylie’s blanket this time and she let me know right away that she wanted it on her. She was much more comfortable and able to eat since she wasn’t cold this time. Dh was of course freezing in his wet trunks but he sucked it up and enjoyed it anyway.

I can’t remember exactly what I ordered now or what my mom ordered. I do know that dh got ribs and steak…I think. This is what happens when you don’t write down details and then try to recall them 1.5 months later! But at any rate, it was pretty good. Man, it was expensive though and I didn’t feel right having my mom pay for it. She insisted though. She also ordered the Volcano dessert.

If you have ever eaten here then you know what I’m talking about, but basically the volcano is a huge chocolate cake type dessert shaped into a volcano with vanilla ice cream. It’s huge. It costs about $15 and could easily feed 10+ people! The waiters/waitresses all have to yell “VOLLLCAAANNNOOO!!!” when they bring one out. I seriously suspect people order it just for that fact alone. Our waiter was really nice and seemed to love that part of his job.

The volcano was good but I was honestly full by the time it came so I didn’t eat tons. Kylie liked it of course. Hey, you could spoon feed the kid sugar and she’d be happy. Dh loved it and has raved about it since getting home. He has told me that he actually wanted to eat more but didn’t want to look like a pig. I told him he should have eaten more. It cost $15 so my mom would probably have been happy to see him eat the whole thing. He is the main reason we even ordered it.

I think the RFC is pretty good and has a fun (noisy) atmosphere. I’d eat there again but I do wish it was offered on the dining plan. I’m not even sure if I would definitely do the dining plan again. It’s just too much food but it does help with costs and it would be nice to see the RFC on it, but I digress (as usual).

Anyway, after we finished eating, the park was closed and the RFC was about to close and we headed out. There was a CM asking the last remaining people coming out of the restaurant where they were staying. He would then see if any bus driver was going that way. I think our bus driver took us to our resort, a group to OKW, and another group to another resort. I always wondered how they did this with those that stay a good 2 hours after the park closes and still need to get back. Okay, I’ve never really wondered about that but I did during dinner when I knew the park had been closed for 2 hours and we’d need to catch a bus. It worked out great.

We got back to our room and got ready for bed. We would be leaving the next day to head home but we had a lot to do before we did. We would need all the rest we could get. Knowing that this would be my last night sleeping at POR, I drifted off to sleep right away. My belly was full, my girl was beside me, my mom and dh were snoring, my earplugs were firmly planted in my ears…life was good.

TO BE CONTINUED:
Up Next:
Breakfast at CP (complete with reviews)
Our final day at Disney
Heading home…

 

[Trentmom]

Great installment!!

Love the dolls pic...you had a great mousekeeper!!!

I can not believe that lifeguard would expect your 2 yr old to go down that huge slide by herself..what a jerk!!

 

[Jrabbit910]

Great trip report. I just read each page and loved every minute of your trip. It sounds like everyone had a great time. I loved the thought of bringing the glowsticks w/ you; I thought that was a great idea. I will def put that on my list of things to bring.. I also hope that grammy is okay and like you said no news is good news. You took great pictures! Cant wait to read more!

 

[Tanya90210]

Those doll pics are just the cutest!!

I know what you mean about AK it's not one of our faves either... we usually do it once... for a half to 3/4 day depending ... most years just a half so we can do the biggies...


EE is pretty OK in my mind... I don't see the excitment of it myself... a hint for you if you did want to ride during normal hours... they have a single rider line you can do... it's a little further up than the normal one...


Tanya

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Thanks again, everyone! The latest with my grandmother is that she is not doing well. The dr. says she may start experiencing pain at this point. The end is near, I'm afraid. We are all just at the point of praying that she passes peacefully and doesn't have to suffer or experience the pain at all. Please continue to pray for her and that she goes before things get too bad. Thanks!

Okay, we went to my mom's yesterday and my mom mentioned that it is taking me forever to get the last day of my TR up. (No more than it took to get the other 7 days up, mind you, but she's getting impatient. ) And since I start yet another summer class tomorrow I figured I better try to get this done today while I am not yet swamped with more schoolwork. Kylie is napping so I am going to try my best to finish this report today. I can't believe I'm almost finished!

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Day 8 (May 17, 2007)

Let me just say that this is probably not going to be the most interesting day as it was the day that our trip was winding down but here goes anyway.

We woke up bright and early, knowing that our trip was coming to an end. We all got ready and loaded up the car. We then left our room at POR for the final time and headed to the bus stop.

We went to the MK and checked in for our breakfast reservations at CP. Kylie and I took a spot near one of the little glass windows near the door and she was quite entertained because she could see the characters walking around inside. She was pretty anxious to get in there herself. We had planned this particular meal especially for Kylie. She loves Pooh and friends. I am thankful we saved this meal for last since she was a bit petrified of characters the first couple of days on our trip.

Our buzzer went off and we were seated. You know, I really can’t remember which characters came first or when they came or any of that stuff anymore. Too much time has passed and, like I said, I didn’t make notes this year. So I will just tell it the best I can. I think Eeyore was first. Kylie started calling for him as soon as she saw him. She loves all of the Pooh characters so she was thrilled to see him.

I am fairly certain Tigger was next.

Piglet was after him.

Right after Piglet left our table, they started the parade. This time I asked Kylie if she wanted to follow him like the other kids were doing. She said yes. I lifted her out of her highchair, grabbed her hand, and we ran after the line of kids and Piglet. Kylie didn’t completely comprehend why we were doing this. She seemed to think we were supposed to catch Piglet but that thought process helped her keep up with the other kids and she looked like she was “in the know” about the whole thing. She enjoyed that part but wasn’t completely sure why we stopped following him when the parade was over. She was a trooper and didn’t complain though.

We returned to our table and Pooh bear was next.

Pooh must have sensed my mom and dh needed a little bear type affection so he hurried over to them and I snapped a picture. My mom has the craziest grin on her face like she’s absolutely thrilled that he is visiting with her. She insists she was smiling at Kylie and that’s why she has that look. Sure. We know. Uh-huh. Right. Moving on…

We had a lot of fun and Kylie was definitely her old self at this meal. She was having a blast, was in a great mood, and was really loud. This is how she normally is at home too. My mom went up to get something to eat and Kylie could be heard all over the restaurant yelling, “Nana! NANA! NAAANNNAAA!!!” My mom was not responding so Kylie figured she’d just keep calling and would get louder. My mom was laughing all the way back to the table. Kylie did the same thing when dh and I got up as well. She was so loud. I enjoyed it. So much better hearing her call for her mom or dad or nana than to hear her screaming or crying.

The food was decent. I think pretty much all the breakfast buffets are the same but I did like this meal a bit better than some of the others. My mom kept eating the French toast off the little kids’ meal section. She thought it was really good. I told you she acts like a kid herself.

Our meal was over and it was time to go. Dh and Kylie enjoyed a father/daughter bonding moment before we left.

We left the MK and headed back to the bus stop. Kylie took her shoes off again and was pretty happy about her naughty act.

We then headed to DTD so we could get souvenirs. We all headed to the RFC to look around. I ended up getting a couple of plates for Kylie. She did not want them at the time but I knew she would appreciate them during meals at home. I got her one with an elephant and one with a monkey and I was right. She loves them. About this time, my sunglasses fell off my shirt and broke. I tell ya, I have the worst luck with sunglasses at WDW! My mom ended up buying me a new pair from the RFC. We also got Kylie a little stuffed lion. They had a deal that you could get it for only $5 if you spent so much while there and my mom did so I gave her $5 to get the lion for Kylie.

We then started to head to World of Disney but before we did we stopped to snap a few pictures of Kylie with Mickey, Minnie, and Donald and Daisy. Okay, not the real ones but Kylie had fun with them just the same. We let her play with these last year too.

We then headed to World of Disney. I wanted to get Kylie a t-shirt or something but could not find one that she or I liked in the size she needed. She and I separated from my mom and dh and set out to explore. She liked a lot of things but didn’t really want any of it. Dh came back and showed me a Pirates shirt that he wanted but they didn’t have his size either. He found another one and settled on it. I think I actually like it a bit better anyway. Kylie showed dh a little baby Cinderella with a crib and told him, “Mine!” He said, “No. It’s $14. It’s not yours. Put it back.” I said, “Aw, she hasn’t wanted anything else. She really wants that so why not?” His reply, “It’s $14!” Okay. So she lost interest in it and started looking at other things. I didn’t see the big deal. His shirt cost more than that but since she had already gotten a few souvenirs he wasn’t thrilled with spending much more on her. He was afraid we were getting low on money but we weren’t. He worries a lot about stuff like that.

Well, dh headed back to another room to look a bit more and Kylie and I headed into the girls’ room. Kylie found a Minnie Mouse doll that was dressed in Belle’s gold gown and fell instantly in love. She cost $14 ironically. This time Kylie was really, really set on getting it. Dh was not around and I had the money so…you know where this is going, right? Well, dh found us right about the time I told Kylie she could have it. He asked me how much it cost and I said, “Not too much.” Okay then. She could have it. Kylie smiled victoriously and hugged and kissed “Mimmie”.

We then went to find a shirt for me. My mom told us she was heading to the Christmas store and to meet her there. I found a shirt and we went to pay for our things. Dh saw that Minnie was $14 and shot me a look. I heard about that for quite some time after our trip. I figured we spent just as much on his souvenirs and she wasn’t begging for things so it wasn’t a big deal. It did not set us back financially and I had the money set aside for souvenirs so I’m not really sure why this one thing bothered him so much. He’s over it now thankfully. He really wasn’t all that upset to begin with actually. He just loves to give me a hard time sometimes. Perhaps it is revenge for all the hard times I have given him over the years? Hmmm…

We headed to the Christmas store and could not find my mother anywhere. Finally, a few min. later, she is walking toward us with a look of surprise on her face. We had beaten her there. Apparently, she also got a shirt and a couple of hats at World of Disney and she went through a cashier that was slower than ours. She wanted to get her name embroidered on one hat and her dh’s on the other. I was so thirsty by this time so Kylie, dh, and I headed to buy drinks at a vendor while my mom waited on her hats.

After her hats were finished, we all headed to the bus stop and back to POR. We still had 5 counter service credits left so we decided to go to the food court and get sandwiches, chips, desserts, and drinks to go. We really got way too much food on the dining plan this time around but it came in handy on the drive home.

As we were walking through the food court and I was pushing Kylie in her stroller, I hear my mom shout, “Tasha, look out—” but it was too late. My foot was already sliding through something slick and I could feel myself about to go flying. Thank God for that stroller. I managed to hold on to it for dear life and caught myself right before I nearly fell. I went about halfway down but didn’t actually hit. I have a feeling I would have been injured without that stroller.

After regaining my composure and silently thanking God that I am not the type to embarrass easily, I looked behind me to see what the culprit of my slip and slide was. It was spilled yogurt in the middle of the floor. My mom told one of the cashiers about it and what had happened. The cashier looked slightly annoyed and was in no hurry to find someone to take care of the problem but we waited to see if she would. She finally found someone who did clean it up. All was okay after that.

We went to get our sandwiches and then headed to our car. On the way there, Kylie fell asleep. We also saw a mommy, daddy, and baby ducks (just like last year on the day we were leaving) and I snapped a couple of pictures.

It was now officially time to leave WDW and our vacation behind. It was time to head home. We had reservations to stop in Dothan, AL, for the night. I just did not want to drive straight through the night again. I am glad we stopped.

My mom and Kylie slept a lot in the beginning.

I have a picture of my mom too but she’d kill me if I posted it. And, yeah, she was snoring.

I didn’t want dh to feel left out, even though he wasn’t sleeping. That’s probably a good thing since he was driving.

I was starting to get tired and dh was too and we’d been driving a few hours so we stopped at a rest stop. Dh slept for a bit while my mom, Kylie, and I got out and stretched our legs a bit. We also ate a sandwich that we had brought from the food court and Kylie had a candy bar out of a vending machine. After we ate, my mom headed to the bathroom and Kylie found a bird that she was just crazy about. It was looking for food so I let her feed it some of the leftover bread from my sandwich. She had a blast with that bird and was sad to leave it behind. I was also glad we had stopped because it gave Kylie time to act goofy and get it out of her system a bit.

Sometimes I think things just have a way of working out. After we headed back out onto the highway we saw a really bad wreck. We had just missed it, probably because we were at the rest stop. It was really bad. I have a hard time believing the driver survived.

I wish I could tell you that something interesting happened but it was pretty uneventful. We stopped somewhere in FL so my mom could buy my brother lottery tickets. Then we stopped at a Checkers in Dothan, AL, and ordered dinner before checking into our hotel. We ate in the room and then Dh and I were going to go swimming that evening but Kylie was exhausted and only wanted me to lay down beside her in the bed. I had this bright idea that I would lay down beside her until she fell asleep and then dh and I would sneak out. Not going to happen. Kylie fell asleep instantly but every time I tried to get out of the bed she would roll closer to me to keep me from leaving. She was asleep and still managed to do this. So we nixed that idea and called it a night. Dh slept with Kylie and me and my mom took the other bed. Kylie's feet were in our faces but we were both so tired and simply didn’t care. I’m glad we didn’t go swimming after all.

The next day is probably just as uneventful. We drove all day and headed to my mom’s house and dropped her off and then dh, Kylie, and I ate at the same little local Mexican restaurant in my mom’s town that we had eaten at on the day we left to head to WDW. Then we too went home.

We were exhausted and ready to be home. I was sad that our trip was over but glad to be home. Kylie was happy to have her crib back and all of her toys. Dh was just happy to have a couple of days left to recover before heading back to work.

All I can say is that we had a great trip and we were glad we got to go. We were thinking about going back next year but I am not sure that we will now after all. We have a few other ideas about what we might like to do next year instead. Nothing is definite yet so who knows what will happen. We won’t know until closer to then.

Kylie must’ve also had a really good time because she has talked about WDW a lot since we got home, which has surprised me a bit. She also is starting to talk in sentences now and it’s both great and exhausting. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up. I am glad that we have the pictures and memories that we have from this year too. I know she will be 21 before we know it. I am just trying to enjoy every moment with her while she’s little and innocent and while I have it.

Despite some of my earlier complaining about dh in this TR, he is truly a wonderful husband and the best father. Kylie adores him and he adores her. I can’t believe we have been married almost 8 years now. They have been the best years of my life and I am not exaggerating. I feel so blessed to have him and Kylie.

My mom was a great help to us on this trip but we also had a great time enjoying the parks and stuff with her. Dh got over whatever was bugging him in the beginning and came around and we all ended up having fun together. I am glad we were able to take her with us this year. I am also glad she and I had the opportunity to see my grandmother one last time since it doesn’t look like there will be any more opportunities to do so at this point. These are the moments we can look back on and cherish.

Thanks everyone for following along with us on this journey. Thanks for all the comments and compliments. They were much appreciated. I hope that all of you have a great time on your future trips as well. Maybe one day I will be back with another TR to share. Unfortunately, we will have to start paying for Kylie by the time we go back as she turns 3 in May. But don’t worry, there will be other trips (if not next year, then hopefully the following year). The Disney addict in me would not survive otherwise.

 

[daisy_77]

I just discovered your TR and I have been reading it all morning! I loved it!
Your little girl is too precious! I think that is so sweet how see talks about Disney World. My DD just turned 2 when we went in January and she talks constantly about it! I love it....a little Disney Addict in the making! Unfortunately our next trip is not until Fall 08.

Just a side note: I think it is awesome that you are in school and almost done! I know that can be hard, especially when you have a family.

Thanks for sharing your TR and pics!

 

[zalansky]

Great job Tasha! I especially love the last photo of Kylie sleeping and also the ones of her sleeping in bed on mothers day! You're right, a total angel! I have to say I am so jealous of Kylie's hair, my almost 2 year old DD has hardly any hair on top at all. She is just precious.

I am sorry to see your grandmother is not doing well. I will pray she is not in pain. Hugs to you all. Thanks for sharing your vacation!

 

[vald1977]

Great report, Tasha ! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[ryan840]

Loved it Tasha! I had lots of comments but my "hooligans" as you called them are geeting a litle rowdy and need to go to bed so I have to go.

 

[Tanya90210]

Fantastic final chapter to a fantastic Trippie.... Glad to see all ended up well...

 

[Alice28]

Yay Tasha! Great report- great details, pictures, descriptions. Kylie Girl sure is growing up!

 

[llij]

Tasha - What a great trip report! You are an excellent writer and I loved hearing all about your adventures in WDW!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Great trip report, Tasha! I'm sorry I didn't get to it sooner.

I'm glad you and Kylie had a good time!

 

[Thumpersmom]

Tasha-Thanks for sharing your wonderful report.

We are going to be at WDW in about a month and it will be a first visit for our who will be 21 months old. It was great to see what your DD loved to do and to know that you survived. We are bringing our Grandma too!!!! We are also on the DDP and visiting some of the same places.

 

[SerinaEmily]

I loved reading your trip report Made me want to start one of my own .. I'll have to post a picture of the bag you inspired me to make

 

[Tasha+Scott]

I loved reading your trip report Made me want to start one of my own .. I'll have to post a picture of the bag you inspired me to make

Please do! I am very curious about the bag you made now...actually, I am beyond curious.

daisy_77~ Thanks! There are days when I still struggle with whether I made the right decision going back to school while Kylie is so young but, since I am almost done, I am sure I did. Honestly, I am seriously contemplating taking a little time off before going back to work after graduation though. It depends on how quickly I get bored on how soon I will begin the job hunt. I guess we'll see!

llij~ What a nice compliment about my writing. You are always so sweet! I hope all is going well with all of you.

Thanks again everyone! I'm glad I could share another trip with all of you. I have no idea when we will be going back yet so it's nice to have the memories saved for future reading in a report like this. Thanks for following along with us!