We shepherded the kids past through the gift shop as quickly as we could to avoid spending money. I really wanted to ride Spaceship Earth this trip I hadnt ridden it since 1992! We checked the line, but it was up to 40 minutes
nope. So we decided to head to the Imagination pavilion, since our kids hadnt ever ridden that, either. Of course, it was pretty much a walk-on.
(I could've done without the skunk smell, though...)
I thought the ride was cute and I kinda like the song, too (I know a lot of people find the whole thing either lame or annoying). The kids enjoyed playing on the way out.
We were in this particular gift shop for a little while. This was where Haley found her first set of Silly Bands. You know, those little elastic bracelets that are so popular now that come in all different shapes? They were the bane of my existence the last few weeks of school
all my students wanted to do was trade those silly things. Id made a point of not buying them for Haley because they bugged me so much
she still managed to come home with several that shed bummed off her friends, though. Now here they were in front of her she couldnt pass them up! I had made myself promise not to interfere too much in what the kids bought. She bought the bands (Toy Story), and to her credit immediately gave one to Jack and several to Ruby. This was the beginning of a trend. I shudder to think how much of her money she spent on those silly things they were something like $6 a pack!

Thats when we decided to head to Sunshine Seasons, since we had about 45minutes before our Soarin Fastpasses were good. I was glad to go wed never eaten there before, though Id always wanted to.
We met up with my mom and aunt at that point. Theyd had a ball wheeling around World Showcase on their Segways.
They were also excited, because theyd been ready to wait the 70 minutes that Soarin was posting for stand-by when some gentleman came by and handed them his Fastpasses! They were so excited when I saw them. I asked if they wanted to eat first, and then our passes would be good and we could go together. This is when I had a bit of a Disney Newbie moment. Mom was insistant that their fastpass time would end by the time we were done eating. She had seen the CM turn someone away, and she was afraid that was the case. No amount of me trying to convince her that wed done this before (wed hit TSM three hours after our window yesterday) would do it. I finally took her to the information desk there next to the ride to ask the CM. He gave the same answer I did, but he was wearing the Flight Attendant uniform, so he had a bit more clout.

We headed back to where the rest of the group was already sitting to touch base, then decided to go look at the menu.
When we first got there, we had a bit of a food meltdown. Ive mentioned my kids are picky, right? Well, Will isnt, but the other two are. Horribly. Believe it or not, theyre better than they were. But thats not saying a ton. There were no hot dogs, or plain pasta, or chicken nuggets on the menu
therefore, Haley informed me we needed to go somewhere else. I admit
I didnt handle it extremely well. I tried to calmly tell them that wed get them a rotisserie chicken meal to split, with mashed potatoes theyll eat all of that at home. Haley looks at me, though, and asks if the chicken comes from the same store we buy it from at home. ?!?!?? Thats when I became Ugly Mommy and told her that was fine, she could go back to the table and sit and watch the rest of us eat.

I know, not very Disney of me
I had more of those moments than Id care to admit on this trip. Bryan came up to us then, though, with a more level head, and took charge of Haley. Jack needed some cajoling, but he ate the chicken (as you saw in Shelley's report, with chopsticks
hey, whatever works). Haley ended up, I think, with a kids turkey sub
that she took all the meat and cheese off of and ate the bread with some butter.

At least she ate Bryan made sure she got some kind of a fruit or vegetable. I ended up with some really tasty ginger beef with noodles and stir-fry veggies. I got a really nice fruit tart for dessert, too. Bryan, once he got Haley settled with Ruby and Norah, enjoyed his lunch too (though I cant remember what it was at this point). I do know that he got a yummy cheesecake with a chocolate crust
which I sampled a few too many times for his liking. I really needed to take more food pictures...I have almost none! Anyway...Will didnt get a meal of his own unless it was a buffet this trip, since we werent paying for him. But he got extremely good at mooching off of other people. Here he is with Mom and Aunt Dee after we had pretty much finished.
Once we got done, we decided to hit Soarin in shifts since Will was too short to ride. Jack and I went with my mom and aunt. Neither of them had ridden it before, and they were both excited about it after hearing me talk about it and reading about it. It didnt disappoint! It was fun to ride with Jack, as well, who couldnt remember his ride from 2007. I did notice quite a bit of junk on the screen, though. I hope they clean the film or the screen I wasnt sure what it was soon. Its too good a ride to let things like that spoil it!
As soon as we were done, we headed back out to take charge of Will. It turned out that they had split up even further, and only Bryan, Will, Uncle Tim, Norah, and Ruby were left. Bryan had been riding Wills new favorite ride with him repeatedly
the escalator!
We quickly relieved him and let them enter the Fastpass queue. Mom and Aunt Dee took Jack with them to hit Nemo since they hadnt had a chance to ride yet,
and Will and I went back to Sunshine Seasons to get a drink and a cookie to pass the time. When everyone came out, Will and I headed back to the bus with them and Bryan ran to MouseGears (Tim had seen Star Wars stuff on sale, and he had to check it out). We caught the bus back to CBR we had a bit of a wait, but it was 1 or so in the afternoon, so I figured the buses wouldnt be running as frequently. Mom, Aunt Dee, and Jack met up with us there theyd managed to hit Spaceship Earth as well, so it had been a productive detour for them.
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