Wednesday, February 11th
We slept in a little today, as much as you can with four kids! This would be our first attempt ever at a non-park day. I'm usually just too commando in our touring to take a WHOLE day off. But, John really thought we needed to plan some down time so I gave in. He had also requested a real breakfast so I called the day before to see what they had available. There were a few late breakfast slots open at Cape May and O'hana. We had been to Cape May for dinner in the past so we decided to try something new. We had never been to O'hana so we decided to try it out.
Anabelle was feeling the pirate vibe in her new Captain Sparrow hat.
We drove the van over and had one of the last breakfast times. We checked in and had a few minutes to wait.
I call this one "Boy Annoying Sister", he's quite skilled at it.
Rebecca in trouble with her dad for something, I believe it had to do with dancing around in circles in a small area and bumping into people after being repeatedly told to stop. Or something like that. This is her pouting about it.
We took the BBB bun out the night before, but she wanted to keep the multi-layers pony tail in. It looked kind of genie-ish to me.
Apparently, John was already ready for a nap. You can see our pack mule, I mean stroller, in the background.
My mom enjoyed catching up on the world at large. I prefer to remain in an alternate world when we are on vacation. I see the headline on her paper says "Trillions Aimed at Recovery". The more things change the more they stay the same....
We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with Mickey and Stitch. It was nice to be able to sit and not worry about what we were missing at the parks! We thought the food was pretty good. I do like the family style meals with kids, no jumping up to the buffet every two minutes. The kids loved the potatoes and the waffles. I liked the bread basket they brought out first. I have to say that Disney bacon is terrible. I don't know what they do to it to make it so tough and flavorless. Every time we have the bacon, I am not impressed. But, overall we enjoyed the food and the character interaction. The CM behind the kids was the manager. She was oohing over the baby and told me that was her first day back on the job from maternity leave. She had a little boy (her first) the same age as Natalie. She was trying hard not to tear up.
This is one of Natalie's very first smiles. So apropos it happened at the Happiest Place on Earth!
My mom headed to the monorail to start her journey back to the Lodge. The rest of us were heading out on a fieldtrip. One of John's old friends (high school buddy, college roommate and frat brother) is a DC comic book author (Tony Bedard) and was having a signing in Orlando that day. His first issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. was being released.
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=13361
He lives in Tampa and we had not seen him in 15+ years. It was a great coincidence that he would be in Orlando on our non-park day! It took about 30 minutes to find the Comic Shop, but we had a nice visit and picked up signed copies of his latest book for the kids. He has always been such a nice guy and it is so cool that he is living his dream.
Leaving the store, John mentioned he might like to have a "real" meal for dinner, not just counter service. Nothing like planning last minute, sweetie! But, I dutifully called Disney Dining and secured us an 8:00pm ADR for Whispering Canyon. A little late, but we figured it would be OK. We stopped at Winn Dixie on the way back to replenish our bottled water supply and headed back to enjoy the pool. My mom had a much more restful time, napping and doing a crossword puzzle in the room.
Cheetos by the pool, does it get any better?
Well, yes, if you add a drink from the bar!
Natalie in her towel nest.
The geyser, I really thought it was cool. The kids were not as impressed as I was.
The kids all enjoyed the pool, the girls were happy to be there when the slide was open since it was usually closed by the time we got back from the parks. We headed back up to the room for baths and headed down to the WL lobby. When Anabelle was about 4, she had her caricature drawn at our local themepark, Carowinds. Rebecca and Andrew really wanted one of their own and since there was an artist in the Lodge lobby each evening we decided now was a good time to do it. After the pool, we cleaned up and headed down for our 8:00pm ADR's at Whispering Canyon. He did a quick job with Andrew and started on Rebecca when we had to head over. He said he could fill in the rest while we were eating.
He did not move a muscle while posing. I guess he didn't want a blurry picture! Andrew loves the Wiggles and the artist drew him as a Wiggle jamming on the guitar.
Rebecca wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl.
We checked in at WC right before 8pm and waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently, WC had our ADR down for 9pm and didn't tell me when we checked in. My mom went up to check around 8:30pm as she needed to eat soon, she is diabetic and was beginning to have some blood sugar issues. That's when she found out they had our ADR for an hour later. They did squeeze us in right then and brought my mom some OJ. Our server was great but the food was only OK. They were out of several flavors of milkshakes, which really disappointed the kids. The chef had to come out because my mom is allergic to all kinds of peppers (bell, chili, etc.) and since she is diabetic so she can't do much pasta and she doesn't eat beef. Every single thing on their menu she could eat had peppers or a chili based rub or marinade. She ended up with a plain grilled chicken breast, grilled veggies, and mashed potatoes. It was OK, but nothing special. They did do their best to accommodate us though. Now we know that it is not really the place for us when she is with us.
We were all exhausted after dinner. John took the kids back to the room. My mom and I stopped by the Mercantile andpicked up the kids' caricatures, another 1/2 gallon of milk. She also found some Wilderness Lodge hoodies on clearance so we each got one of those. We headed back to the villa to crash. Next time we plan an off day, a late dinner will not be apart of it! We had a date with a Yeti in the morning!
about the "It's not very boyish in here" comment. My boys would feel the exact same way! In fact I'd have trouble getting them in the door! Great update!
I hope it's not the same costume
One of life's mysteries I suppose. At least you were at the pool so the water will clean up the mess that is little boys and cheetos
Great update!
Too funny about our sons! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about as a mother of four, but it is so fun to get to know each one of your kids and their individual personalities. They all come a little different, and yet in some ways they are all the same
