MacDaddy's and the MacDiddies Fall Break Fantabulous:I'm back! 8/17

[Krisscot]

nebo told me about your bucket/hammock story. I would have been furious!

glad I could check in with you and find out more about you guys!!! great looking family.. I always wondered what it would have been like to have girls!!!

well, I finally have a granddaughter! cnat' wait to read more!!!

Hello and I was pretty steamed! I will admit sometimes I can get pretty snarky but I had to hold myself back. I was so mad!!!

It is actually pretty funny that we have two girls... Scot hasn't had a girl in his family for 5 generations. He was convinced he would have boys and voila! Two little princesses. He is a great girl dad but man.... He is sooooo not going to be fun when they start dating. OOOOOO granddaughters are so fun and then you get to send them home. Now that I gave Scot's grandma two girls she is convinced I am a saint. I'm glad you guys might jump over here so I can keep up with all of the fun adventures.

 

[smidgy]

I am So boy oriented.. I admit I have SO much fun with my 5 year old grandson, and we got to see him quite a bit (since his dad, our oldest, was living with us after their divorce) . I wish we got to see Kaylee more, but they live 40 miles away. she is going to have anew baby brother in a few months! but I just LOVE having a PRINCESS in the family!! actually, she loves tinkerbelle!

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed Coral reef. we have eaten there 2 X (at lunch) and I have always ordered the catfish and loved it! but it's not on the menu anymore.

it will be lunch again for us. I'm sure there will be something I like! love the aquarium!

 

[Krisscot]

I am So boy oriented.. I admit I have SO much fun with my 5 year old grandson, and we got to see him quite a bit (since his dad, our oldest, was living with us after their divorce) . I wish we got to see Kaylee more, but they live 40 miles away. she is going to have anew baby brother in a few months! but I just LOVE having a PRINCESS in the family!! actually, she loves tinkerbelle!

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed Coral reef. we have eaten there 2 X (at lunch) and I have always ordered the catfish and loved it! but it's not on the menu anymore.

it will be lunch again for us. I'm sure there will be something I like! love the aquarium!

It is really nice to be close to the grandparents! My parents (nana and papa) live about 2 miles from us here in Arizona. I don't know how I would do it any other way! Scot's family still lives in Cali but we even lived with my parents while our house was built so we are very close. I think they actually have decided to go with us next October to WDW. This would be the first time for either of them. My brother and his wife and son live about 40 miles away too and I know it is a lot harder for them. My girls definitely have a close relationship with my parents.

We did really like coral reef. I was excited to see the sea turtles! They were awesome! There are just so many restaurant choices at WDW it makes me stomach hurt just thinking about all those yummy calories! The one thing I really miss at Epcot is the Beaver Tails! Does anyone else remember those in the stand in front of Canada. They were like a pastry with maple frosting yummmmmmmy!

 

[Krisscot]

SO....After such a jammed packed evening and the all around excitement from daddy coming to save us we decided to take it easy in the morning. We knew that Epcot at EMH and we would be there til midnight and it was also our very exciting evening of our VIP seating at Epcot for Illuminations. We had reservations at Biergarten at 5:40 and I was really excited to try the pretzel bread. It was the perfect location too as we were to check in at 830 with the cast member by the Italy pavillion for our special seating.

So we mosied on down to OPR for breakfast....I was coveting all three of the refillable mugs at this point for diet coke. If anybody wanted anything to drink maybe I would share one of them. The kids I had discovered weren't huge breakfast eaters and they just made use of snack credits. We also discovered at this point that counter service credits don't really matter if you are child or adult as long as you aren't buying over the adult amount on your account. So we would just always use a couple of CS on breakfast. This is also when Scot found out that breakfast CS includes 2 beverages and those beverages could be MONSTER energy drink AHHHHHHH YOu would have thought the heavens opened up and sang. So I happily refilled Diet coke away and he had 4 monsters each day to pack in the backpack.... Maybe we would let the kids have something to drink too. hahahah just kidding ...I gave them a sip. As I happily munched away on Mickey waffles the kids didn't want anything more than fruit. Man if only I could be that good. We thought we would just share some lunch too so we could be hungy hungry hippos for our dinner res.

We made a couple of stops that morning to stock up our fridge with water and it always excites to me to see this sign beginning, middle or end of our trip.

We made our way to Epcot and parked, walking in again. We took our obligatory picture at the ball again... This time everyone was awake...

Don't they just look so sweet in pictures

They so have everyone fooled. We spent some time riding spaceship earth again, looking around the land and the living seas.

As we were walking by the Epcot fountain a nice group offered us their soaring fast passes becuase they were leaving. We don't usually make the mad rush to soarin becuase we have at the DR but hey if it is just handed to us sure!!!
Byt his time we were getting a little hungry again but we were distracted with something. We wanted to make it over to Norway and ride Maelstrom and start some Kim Possible missions so we put off the warning signs. But we have always loved Maelstrom Back Back Over the FAlls! Even Perry got into the action...

By this time, hunger had begun to set in. And ayone with small children or food grumpy spouses knows exaclty what I mean... Everyone was getting CRANKY!!!! So at this point bad food decisions start to happen. We were sooooo hungry that the first thing that was in front of us was Mexico and then the nachos and empanadas and churros began calling to us (well escept Katie who already had decided she wanted chinese food)

... Eat us Eat us Eat us... Who cares about your dinner res. And I screamed back NOOOOO it is 245 we have to eat again really soon!!! and this is the first time the dining plan was out to kill us. Or make us seriously gain 10 pounds. SO we ate away blissfullly. Until I turned to Scot and said... You know we have to eat again in 3.5 hours right?

UP Next: Don't make me eat again... PLEASE!!!!

 

[Krisscot]

I was honestly feeling like I was going to burst. I know I had been starving but what was I thinking!!! My brain started going over options. I could run around Epcot 10 times pushing the stroller and maybe the food would settle into my feet... IF only... So I looked at Scot and said
I cannot eat at Biergarten at 5:40. And this is when we discovered the APP. Apparently you can log on to WDW dining reservations with your iphone and make new reservations. So what to do... I cancelled Biergarten and decided to make a reservation to Via Napoli on one of our last days when we were at Epcot. Little did I know this is just hte first time our reservations would change. This little app came in WAY handy.

So with this stressor off (I know the stress of vacation) we were off and ready to play again. We picked up KP Kommunicators and where off to begin our mission in China. Last time we had gone to Epcot, It was Katie who was really into the missions. This time it was Isobel. Katie has moved on to ipods and real cell phones so not as much novelty, but Isobel thought she was hot stuff. If we had let her do this the whole day she would have. We saw Mulan while we were in China and Isobel had to take a pit stop.

A funny side note about Mulan... A year ago today..one day before our yearly family photo...my sweet little innocent Isobel watched Mulan. And decided at 11 oclock at night while we were nestled all snug in out bed to crawl up into the cupboards, get down the scissors and cut off all her hair. AHHHHHHHHHH Isobel why would you cut all of your hair?? To which Isobel said in her sweet innocent voice.... Well Mulan did it. So we had to make sure Mulan knew... and I wasn't going to hold her personally responsible.

We then made our way around the world...stopping in Africa to buy an awesome world cup shirt for scot on super sale! Love it! (I was just in Africa on a missions trip during the world cup and could not find a single one) Then on to Germany and Italy. Perry needed to show his participation.

In Italy we checked out the menu for Via Napoli for our other reservation and checked out the spot we would be watching Illuminations from. Isobel also probably spent 10 minutes spinning on this raised little circle stage. Man I wish I had that much energy.

We wandered over to America. I wanted to make sure the kids could see the American Journey. They had never seen it before and I also wanted to see it specifically because this year I am teaching American Lit.

Waiting in line and Perry posing

Look at me I am too cool to wait in line.. I have to text my friends.... Geez she is sooooo a tween

American Journey was fabulous. I always tear up at the end. I think I found the show on you tube. I want to show it to my classes. Isobel kept leaning over and whispering....(loudly) MOM when are those people on the side going to talk!!! You know you are in Disney when your kids think any inanimate object should move and speak.

At this point it wasn't Isobel that was tired it was Katie and she began to vy for the stroller. I have never told an 11 year old child so many times that she was too old for a stroller!!! The problem always is...Katie has always been tiny. She is 72 pounds soaking wet. So the next thing I know she is curled up ASLEEP in the stroller!!! URGH. Oh well come on Isobel lets go see France!!! I hear Belle lives there (her favorite namesake of course). Don't mind me I am just pushing an asleep 11 year old. ....

Up Next: Crepes!! Did I say I wasn't hungry?

 

[Krisscot]

We were off to France to find Belle. Isobel acutally was happy to not have to compete for attention. And then we passed them. Crepes. I have a weakness for crepes. When I visited Paris a coupe of years ago I think I spent a day eating them at every meal. Yummy! So when we passes the crepe stand I was just pulled like a tractor beam into the line. Scot looked at me like I was crazy. I thought you weren't hungry. I'm not...but these are crepes and they count as a snack. Besides I am sharing them with Belle. Come on Belle you want some crepes I know you do.

We never saw Belle but we saw her "bushes" so Isobel was pacified.

So with Katie still asleep we proceeded to England. We hoped to get in to see Pooh and friends. SOmething Katie would probably be too "cool" for. Scot loves browsing around the England store looking at the soccer and rugby apparel. We are headed off to Scotland again in March to take the high school group so he was taking in a preview. I sat with Isobel while she colored another Duffy the bear. I think this is so funny. They hadn't released these bears yet with their "wardrobes" while we were on our trip, but I bought one of these bears probably 6 or 7 years ago at Disneyland. Same bear. They must be recycling...

Visiting with Pooh

Now it was time to shake Katie out of the stroller and get ready for our FANTASTIC seating of Illuminations. We weren't really sure how to check in and how many people were VIP's so we wanted to make sure we had a great spot. So back to Italy. What globe trotters we are.

Up Next: Back Away from my VIP seat!!!!!

 

[PirateKate]

Hi! Great TR. We love Tonga Toast, so I enjoyed your pictures although they did make me very hungry. Your girls are so cute.

 

[dawnbu40]

Great update! I love the matching tees! You all look so cute in all the pics

I can relate to the Mulan story. When Caitlin was in kindergarten she decided to cut her bangs one day. By the time we got them evened out there weren't any bangs left

 

[Krisscot]

Upon arriving at the Italy Illumination seating place there was a perfect area directly across from the ball roped off for the VIP section. A nice cm checked off our name and told us to stand wherever we wanted. We got there about 830 and only one other family was there already so we staked out "our spot" in the corner area. It was an awesome place to view Illuminations...

We were very considerate as to only take enough room for our family to see and put the stroller behind us. The kids began to talk to a family next to us and Scot and I were talking and eventually he went to get a drink. The section started to fill up and before long a woman began to inch her way closer and closer to where the kids and I had set up. I was like OH NO this is sooooooo not going to be another hammock incident. So I just moved back by the rail and watched as she steathily tried to sneak into our spots. Pushin and pushing to move to the front. So that was IT!!!!! I was like I am sorry this is our spot... we have had our stuff here for a half an hour. To which she gave me a totally dirty look. Then she motioned for like 10 other people on the other side of the rope to move in with her. AHHHHHHH I hate this. So Scot had returned and I told him stand right there and don't let that woman in. And if she pushes one of my kids I am going to take her down. He couldn't believe it. I was like Honey flash her your badge.. Arrest her. He's like I am not the Epcot police geez.. phfftt So the minute the fireworks started she tried to make her move...her and her army that jumped rope. But WHOOO HOOOO the Epcot police did show! THe cast member who was so niced turned into super enforcer!! She kicked that real estate grabbing woman to the curb. WHOOO HOO. I hate when people do that. This always seems to happen to me at DIsneyland parades too. If people want to sit close. Come early. Even in special seating. Play fair. I might have had to "accidently have a diet coke spillage" But what a waste of diet coke. Anyway we had a great show ... hahah

Up next: Soarin Over the End of Day 5 and An Almost DISmeet

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Ooo, what a great, long update! When I was there in Sept, the two drinks with your CS breakfast meal was news to me too. I stoked up on water for sure. lol about the Monster drinks!

I'm glad you were able to easily cancel your ADR. That's so handy!

Great Illuminations photos! And yay to you for not letting some rude person take your spot!!! Love it! You are hilarious!

 

[smidgy]

kudos to you for standing our ground!!!!

your illuminations pictures are great!

you Do realize your oldest daughter is a beauty? she has "classic" look about her.

 

[Dsnygrl1205]

Awesome pictures from Illuminations. What kind of camera do you have? I really hate when people try to encroach on the area I saved for the hour before the show starts! It happens every time!

 

[Krisscot]

Hi! Great TR. We love Tonga Toast, so I enjoyed your pictures although they did make me very hungry. Your girls are so cute.

All of this food pics makes me starving... No wonder I can't carb detox since I have been home. They are very cute but a handful those two..whewh all day long for their diva ways

Great update! I love the matching tees! You all look so cute in all the pics

I can relate to the Mulan story. When Caitlin was in kindergarten she decided to cut her bangs one day. By the time we got them evened out there weren't any bangs left

Thanks! My husband actually created them and had them printed. They are haunted mansion mackenzie vinylmations. Oh and her hair was short like that all over her head. It was a MESS trying to get it to resemble anything picture worthy. But of course Mulan did it in the movie.... so why shouldn't we think too? I don't know what would have come over me.... Like REASON or SANITY

 

[Krisscot]

Ooo, what a great, long update! When I was there in Sept, the two drinks with your CS breakfast meal was news to me too. I stoked up on water for sure. lol about the Monster drinks!

I'm glad you were able to easily cancel your ADR. That's so handy!

Great Illuminations photos! And yay to you for not letting some rude person take your spot!!! Love it! You are hilarious!

The drink thing was awesome because I only refilled my mug and so Scot would always just take my drinks. On particulary tiring days he would grab six from three meals and then we just brought them into the park in the backpack. The wierd thing is you can't buy Monster anywhere in the parks that we found and DH lives off those things. We were chilling at the HISTK playground at DHS waiting for the kids to play and this guy was doing the same thing charging his camera in the restaurant area and he was like where did you get those??? You could tell he was in bad shape in the energy dept. Well we saw him again the next day at MK and he joked with us that he still hadn't found the monster so Scot just gave him one of his. He was like "man you look like you need this" I have never seen someone so happy... ever hahah

 

[Krisscot]

kudos to you for standing our ground!!!!

your illuminations pictures are great!

you Do realize your oldest daughter is a beauty? she has "classic" look about her.

I know that is the one thing that makes me the angriest is people being pushy and just thinking they have either the right to sit wherever they want or place their kids right in front of you when you have been waiting patiently forever. The pool thing is right up there too. It almost makes cruise pools unbearbale to me. I can see setting your stuff down and then swimming but the whole putting your towel out 5 hours before you even come down to the pool is just wrong.

Thank you about Kaitlin... She is seriously going to be my little heartbreaker. Her blue eyes are huge and soooo blue it is crazy. This is when I will be glad my husband is a cop and can meet boys at the door wearing a gun.

 

[Krisscot]

Awesome pictures from Illuminations. What kind of camera do you have? I really hate when people try to encroach on the area I saved for the hour before the show starts! It happens every time!

YOu know amazingly enough someone of those were taken with my iphone 4. The other ones I have a small casio g shock camera. It is a 12mp but more importantly when I bought it (at costco) it was dust, shock, and waterproof up to 10ft. I bought it for my trip to Africa because the dust was outrageous!! But it is small and works great!

 

[HEYJULIEBEAN]

Could you tell me if the refillable mugs are still the red ones?? I read somewhere they switched and had snowflakes on them??
Thanks

 

[Cameo818]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! I have two little girls as well, although they're a little closer in age (7 and 5). Your girls are simply beautiful!!

It's been so long since we've been to WDW, but I do remember making all sorts of trips to refill the mugs. We're a Classic Coke family (none of that diet stuff ), and those mugs were soooo worth the cost!

Looking forward to more updates to your report!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Hope you're doing well and had a Merry Christmas!

 

[Krisscot]

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to reassure that I haven't forgotten my trip report and I am not dead. I am just an English teacher and finals hit and 100 research papers came in and I have been swamped!!!! But I sshould have those all wrapped up next week...cross your fingers... and I will be posting again!!!

Godd news is I booked my trip for next fall break and my parents are coming too! I wanted to get in on the free dining so I booked the value just to make sure I got a spot. So here's to preplanning. I need to finsih my TR so I can start a PTR haha Anyway... I miss you all and I will see you in a week!
kmac