Spinal Dalmatians, Eliminations, and The Merry Go Round of Life...June 2011 New 2/19

[teachermommy78]

To the pool!

Scott and his mom decided to throw in some laundry, and I had the bright idea to take all three kids by myself to the pool. All three kids who can't swim. Smart. So we all stayed in the shallow area, and I worried and stressed the entire time until Scott got there. Actually, I did let Sophie venture off, but then I freaked out worrying about her when I couldn't see her a few times. Finally some life vests became available and I got them on the boys. Then I felt a bit better. Finn was still so clingy, so I was really useless.

I noticed a splash area in the back, so after a bit I coaxed the kids over there. When Scott came back, he took Sophie to the pool and let her play for a bit.

And then it happened. Ethan got a MASSIVE wound on his leg. We thought we'd have to call 911 and possibly have it amputated.

It seriously felt like that though! He was screaming SO HARD! I took him to a CM and we got him cleaned up and applied a bandaid.

When the kids were sufficiently waterlogged, we headed back to the room. I had some fun with Donald before we left and Sophie just noticed!

The kids were EXHAUSTED and fell asleep really fast. It was 8:00. Scott and I looked at each other. We checked EMH's and silently cheered! Magic Kingdom was open until 3am! We opened the connecting door to his parent's room and asked them if they could keep an ear out for the kids, and they agreed. We were off...ON A DATE! In DISNEY WORLD! YAY!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I had the same experience with the Zebra Domes, they were okay but not what I was expecting.

Love what mousekeeping did with the window. It is wonderful when they play around like that, a nice surprise when you get back to the room.

I laughed at the life threatening wound, kids are funny like that. I was just reading about it in one of my nursing textbooks.

 

[shocky5]

Oh I hope you are going to tell us about the EMH date night in Magic Kingdom!! We need to live vicariously through you!

We have never seen DeVine before - I had no idea she had vines coming off of her? I think that's what I'm seeing in your picture? She looks interesting!

Another great day! We have an ADR at Boma so I was interested in your take on it. The AK resort looks really cool! And of course - your pics and your kids are adorable. Still jealous of your date night!

 

[Kat in GA]

We ate at Boma a few weeks ago - and just loved it. But I do agree about the zebra domes - I was not that excited about them. And I don't know why I had it in my head that they had oreos in them. Now, we did have oreo bonbons at Cape May - oh my word - delish!

And how exciting for you and your husband to get a date night!! Yipee for knocked out kids, grandparents, and connecting doors!

 

[reelmom]

OOOHHH...Disney Date Night! Serious Pixie Dust.

 

[anjalee6]

I love the bread pudding at Boma. Can't wait to have it again in a few days! Yay!

 

[teachermommy78]

I had the same experience with the Zebra Domes, they were okay but not what I was expecting.

Love what mousekeeping did with the window. It is wonderful when they play around like that, a nice surprise when you get back to the room.

I love their creativity!!! It's the little things that make Disney so special.

I laughed at the life threatening wound, kids are funny like that. I was just reading about it in one of my nursing textbooks.

I love their creativity!!! It's the little things that make Disney so special. And yes, Ethan is a tad dramatic!

Oh I hope you are going to tell us about the EMH date night in Magic Kingdom!! We need to live vicariously through you!

We have never seen DeVine before - I had no idea she had vines coming off of her? I think that's what I'm seeing in your picture? She looks interesting!

Another great day! We have an ADR at Boma so I was interested in your take on it. The AK resort looks really cool! And of course - your pics and your kids are adorable. Still jealous of your date night!

Date night coming up!!! DeVine is SO COOL! As we approached, there was a bunch of people pointing into the trees. You could barely see her as she was super still. Then she came out. She was so graceful! As for Boma, we probably won't go again for awhile. Good experience to do once.

We ate at Boma a few weeks ago - and just loved it. But I do agree about the zebra domes - I was not that excited about them. And I don't know why I had it in my head that they had oreos in them. Now, we did have oreo bonbons at Cape May - oh my word - delish!

And how exciting for you and your husband to get a date night!! Yipee for knocked out kids, grandparents, and connecting doors!

OOH..zebra domes would be much better with oreos inside!!! We had fun on our date!

OOOHHH...Disney Date Night! Serious Pixie Dust.

I love the bread pudding at Boma. Can't wait to have it again in a few days! Yay!

The bread pudding was AMAZING! My stomach is growling thinking about it! And I'm very jealous you will be back in a few days!

 

[teachermommy78]

Kids asleep, and the night ahead of us, Scott and I headed off to the Magic Kingdom for a much needed date night.

We headed straight for my favorite ride, Splash Mountain. However, the wait time was 40 minutes, and I decided I didn't really want to wait. So we headed out to everyone's favorite... "THE HALL OF PRESIDENTS!" Scott was actually psyched about this. He didn't go on the last trip and this was one of his must dos. He isn't really a history buff, so I'm not quite sure what the deal was, but he was excited!

The we had JUST missed the show, so we decided to look around a bit and then come back later. We headed to the Haunted Mansion. That's a fun ride on a date! It's "eerily romantic" har har har. We got to hold hands without a kid in between us.

After that we went back to the Hall of Presidents and watched the show. We were so glad we did that then. Had we brought the kids later in the week we would have been in for complaints! It was informative, but not terribly exciting.

Having eating a hasty dinner at 5ish, we were both hungry. We didn't want a whole meal each, so we decided to head to Cosmic Rays and split a meal.

We headed outside onto the patio and took a castle seat.

From here we could kind of watch the parade.

Scott and I were REALLY giddy at this point. We were laughing so hard at the stupidest stuff. Scott is pretending to eat the castle here. Aren't we mature? Sophie would just die if we acted this way around her!

From there we went to Stitch's Great Escape. I know...everyone says to avoid this ride, but of course, we had to see it for ourselves. And there was no wait. UGH...it was TERRIBLE! I've never been on a ride that actually HURTS! If you haven't been on it, please don't do it. They press these hard bars into your shoulders, which is uncomfortable. Then the ride goes black and at one part, "Stitch" runs around and "hops" on the bars. My eyes were tearing! Live and learn.

My feet were killing me. My Teva Mush sandals were PHENOMENAL, don't get me wrong. But we had been hitting the park HARD and I had super sore spots at the base of my foot where the strap goes between my toes. I wear tan mickey crocs all the time teaching and they were all worn out. I decided to splurge on a new pair.

Here is a huge highlight of our trip...Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory...this place also is a highlight LATER in our trip as well!

We thought this show was pretty funny. If you haven't been, they choose members of the audience and project them onto the screen in front and interact with them. Like a live TV audience. Well, the girl monster starts talking about how one of the audience members had been making googly eyes at him throughout the show. Of course, they pick Scott!!! He was really hysterical. He flirted with her a bit, and answered the questions based on what he thought she'd want to hear. His answers made the guy monster have the funniest reactions. Then of course they put me on the camera and now we are all double dating in the near future.

After this I think we may have waited standby for space mountain and did a run on the people mover.

On our way out, we noticed that the line for Mickey and the princesses was 5 minutes. So we went for it! We saw Mickey and Minnie first.

That was honestly a bit awkward without kids.

The princesses were more fun. There was this preteen boy with his family ahead of us who was SO EMBARRASSED! It was pretty funny. The princesses were playing this up so much. Actually Aurora was super lame, but the other two were really funny! I remember Cinderella being really cute with her conversation. I wish I would have brainstormed some things to say so I wouldn't have been so goofy. Oh well.

Then we decided to head out.

Monorail on the way back

We're getting old. We made it to maybe 1 am. We had good intentions though! Morning comes fast with 3 little ones at Disney, and we had a full day at EPCOT ahead of us!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sounds like a wonderful date night. It was nice seeing pictures of you two.

 

[shocky5]

Aww loved your date night for you! Glad you both had a good time and could cut loose without embarassing your kiddos!

Great pics of you two together!!!

 

[PirateKate]

Date night at MK sounds awesome! It's always nice to remember what it was like to be there without kids and strollers and all that. I'm sure you all could have made it til 3, if the kids might have slept in.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to go to AKL to try some Zebra Domes our next trip. Your description of them sort of makes me want to skip it, but I'll probably read someone else's TR who says they're wonderful and then I'll want to go again.

The pools at Pop are so nice for kids. I would have been nervous with three non-swimmers in the pool, too, if I was the only one watching them. Poor Ethan, I'm sure it seemed like a very bad injury.

Landon and I appreciate the shoes picture from the Dig Site. :

 

[teachermommy78]

Sounds like a wonderful date night. It was nice seeing pictures of you two.

Thanks so much! I HATE pictures of myself. I really had to bite the bullet and just do it. I'm glad I did, but still self conscious!

Aww loved your date night for you! Glad you both had a good time and could cut loose without embarassing your kiddos!

Great pics of you two together!!!

Thank you! We really did have fun. We need to do dates more often. My MIL watches the kids (well, only Finn half days now that school has started) and we always feel bad asking her to come over extra. She does so much for us already, and we can't afford a babysitter. But it's a goal!

Date night at MK sounds awesome! It's always nice to remember what it was like to be there without kids and strollers and all that. I'm sure you all could have made it til 3, if the kids might have slept in.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to go to AKL to try some Zebra Domes our next trip. Your description of them sort of makes me want to skip it, but I'll probably read someone else's TR who says they're wonderful and then I'll want to go again.

The pools at Pop are so nice for kids. I would have been nervous with three non-swimmers in the pool, too, if I was the only one watching them. Poor Ethan, I'm sure it seemed like a very bad injury.

Landon and I appreciate the shoes picture from the Dig Site. :

MK is a GREAT place for a date! We had lots of fun just being silly. No better place! Yeah, I wouldn't go to Boma just for the zebra domes, which is kind of what we did. But I WOULD go for the bread pudding. It was so good! We are not very adventurous eaters, so the buffet didn't do much for me. It is scary being at a pool with kids who don't swim! We really need to get some swimming lessons in. Or at least once Ethan is able to touch the bottom in most parts it might be better. I was always a fish, so it's hard for me to have kids who are clingy! And yes, I hoped you showed Landon that sign! We can't have anymore incidents with shoeless kids, can we?

 

[teachermommy78]

It's another glorious day at Disney! After our late night, we woke up bright and early for an EPCOT day! We would be spending the day with the same cousins. Another group of cousins was scheduled to arrive this day as well. We TRIED for rope drop, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. We entered the park and headed for Mission Space, which would be our meeting place!

The dad cousin, his son, Jaclyn, and I decided that we wanted to try out the orange side. I'm not going to lie. After all the talk about it, I was SCARED! In fact, in line I ended up picking at my nails, which I had grown for the first time in my life. I was so mad about that! I didn't even realize it did it! While in line, I began asking Jaclyn about her adventures the next day. I asked her if she was excited about the dolphins. Then I got the look from the dad cousin (who is her uncle). Apparently her EPCOT dolphin excursion was a SURPRISE!!! I had NO IDEA! BUT...luckily, she knew there was something she was doing with the dolphins, but her mom kept the fact that she'd be able to get into the water a surprise. Jaclyn has Down Syndrome, and was just so excited about the ride and the dolphin conversation that she didn't even notice the looks I was getting. OOPS.

The son was getting very nervous about the ride. Right before we were getting on, he decided he didn't want to do it. He's 10, and at that age where reason starts getting in the way of things. He basically psyched himself out. So he ended up leaving the ride. I sat next to Jaclyn and helped her with her controls. I thought the orange side was fun! I thought it was going to be overwhelmingly intense. It wasn't. I didn't even really feel much pressure. I was pleasantly surprised, as I was CERTAIN I would surely perish on the ride. I have no idea where Ethan gets his dramatics from.

From Mission Space, we headed to Ellen's Energy Adventure.

I really liked Ellen's ride! Sophie did too. Whenever she sees Ellen on TV it makes her so happy. This is also where Ethan got another dose of wind turbines, and was happily chatting away about it to dad cousin.

Then we went to The Land once again. While we were on Mission Space, Scott had run for Soarin' FPs, and we had a pretty quick return time! We weren't terribly past rope drop on this day, so that helped. Before our time was upon us, we went on Living With the Land again. Again, Ethan was a chatterbox due to his love of this ride! And then he had to pose with the limes.

It was time to get in line for Soarin'! Finn didn't complain this time, thankfully. There were 12 of us in line for it! It's so fun waiting with a large group. The time flies.

We had a blast, as always. Unfortunately, we were in the middle. Boo.

After Soarin' we headed to Test Track.

Then we decided to take the boat across the water.

We walked around a bit and then it was getting close to lunch. Another early ADR coming our way that evening, we decided to eat a bit earlier. The family decided to head here.

With everyone settled, Sophie and I decided to take a little walk to GERMANY. For our highly sought after CARAMEL. Sophie and I are both caramel FIENDS. On our way, we stopped at Italy. I head you can get quick service at Via Napoli, but I was wrong I guess. We decided we would go check out the caramel place and then get a pretzel again.

The caramel store was empty! We were able to browse and point and drool. I was looking for the Chewy Caramel Bar, which Pirate Kate had me craving. But I couldn't find it! We decided to just go through the line and ask. I saw something on a display that I wanted to check quickly and told Sophie to wait by the register for the lady (she had stepped to the side). Well Sophie took 2 steps away from her spot (I was maybe 3 feet away at a table), and I stepped back into the line JUST as the lady returned to the register. At this point there was a mom and son behind Sophie in line. Well the CM gave me the BIGGEST attitude. I asked her if she had any chewy caramel bars and she said, "You do have to wait in line, you know." I told her I WAS in line, but no one was at the register. The lady behind me informed her that we were indeed there. So she asked me again what I wanted and I told her. Then she looked and went and whispered to the other CM. Then they both stood and looked at me. The CM went to the back and came out with it. That creeped me out a bit! Was that the batch that fell on the floor or something? I totally wasn't rude, so I hope not! Sophie also got a caramel rice Krispies treat. We got our pretzel and tucked our caramel away for later (though we did each have a bite of the chewy caramel bar and LOVED it!). Then we headed back to America.

Outside they were doing hula hoop contests. Sophie was, of course, psyched.

We decided to head to Norway for the Maelstrom, and who do we meet? The other cousins!!! Both sets of cousins were staying at Yacht and Beach, and they had just arrived and decided to walk through EPCOT for lunch. We had a quick reunion.

We then split off from the newly arrived cousins as their room was ready and they were going to unpack. We went to Norway and Mexico and had lots of fun on both boat rides.

After this, we found Club Cool. I had never been before, and was looking forward to trying the different drinks! The kids thought it was Christmas! They couldn't believe their luck. Though none of them really LOVE soda, it was still super fun to be free. I did try The Beverly, and didn't quite get the hype about how awful it is. To me, it tastes just like selzer water. I'm not a FAN of seltzer water, but I don't think it is nasty. Maybe it's because I was EXPECTING a vile drink. Who knows.

At this point it was time to split off! It almost time for our ADR!

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

I am getting all caught up today! So great that you and Scott got a date night in the MK. How wounderful! Cute pictures of you both with Mickey and Minnie and the princesses.

What is it about the CM's in the caramel shop? Tom had a similar experience. He was in line and they asked what he wanted. We only wanted a bag of popcorn he was holding and nothing from the bakery so the CM told him to go on to the register. Another CM and a customer had a fit. They need a better system in there in my opinion.

Love Sophie's Belle dress in the window. How cute that Mousekeeping did that! They do some neat things.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[lbuzz52]

i love you picture for Kate
what a great date night! that's awesome that you got to ride big people rides together and be giddy!
so what is this dolphin thing you spoke of?

 

[kittylady1972]

Finally catching back up with you. I'm also way behind on my TR but trying to get it up this week. My memory is not that good but some of it is coming back to me.

I *LOVE* the idea that you got a date night. Although I know it's strange to be in the Disney parks without kids, my DH and I cherish our non-kid trips. We're hoping to plan another one in about 6 months!

 

[teachermommy78]

I am getting all caught up today! So great that you and Scott got a date night in the MK. How wounderful! Cute pictures of you both with Mickey and Minnie and the princesses.

What is it about the CM's in the caramel shop? Tom had a similar experience. He was in line and they asked what he wanted. We only wanted a bag of popcorn he was holding and nothing from the bakery so the CM told him to go on to the register. Another CM and a customer had a fit. They need a better system in there in my opinion.

Love Sophie's Belle dress in the window. How cute that Mousekeeping did that! They do some neat things.

Can't wait to read more.

Thank you!!! I hate seeing pictures of myself, but I'm trying to get better. Otherwise there will be no proof of my existence for my future ancestors!

That's odd about the Germany CMs isn't it? I tried to let it roll off my back, but the staring and whispering really made me feel awkward!

I thought the dress was super cute. We left it there for the remainder of the trip.

i love you picture for Kate
what a great date night! that's awesome that you got to ride big people rides together and be giddy!
so what is this dolphin thing you spoke of?

We had so much fun on our date. Having 3 kids close together has been stressful, and we are snippier with each other than we should be. Those brief dates do wonders! I don't know what the dolphin thing is! I know that they got into the water and got to pet the dolphins and they got a picture at the end. And it was in the $200s.

Finally catching back up with you. I'm also way behind on my TR but trying to get it up this week. My memory is not that good but some of it is coming back to me.

I *LOVE* the idea that you got a date night. Although I know it's strange to be in the Disney parks without kids, my DH and I cherish our non-kid trips. We're hoping to plan another one in about 6 months!

We both really want to do a Disney trip without kids!!! But it's always me who backs down. We've never even gotten close to planning, though. For one thing, we'd have to drive (Scott won't fly) and that alone tacks on 4 days to the trip (2 days both ways). I just feel bad leaving anyone WITH the kids for that long! They aren't bad kids, but they are a handful. Maybe when they are a bit older. I think I could get over then not being there. It's just the logistics of actually going that stresses me out!

 

[teachermommy78]

I'm going to try to do two updates today, and catch up a bit. I'll do one this morning and one this evening. I don't know how well that is going to work, but if I add it to my plan, it MIGHT happen!

Where we left off, we were headed for dinner! We were going to:

I am blanking, but I THINK this is the only repeat we had from the last trip. We love the intimate character interaction. The way the tables are set up, you really feel private, and the characters spend a lot of time at each table. In fact, both times, the characters all came around twice. We, as a whole, however, are not terribly fond of the food. I think we'll be trying a new character meal next time. I'm sure we'll get back to the Garden Grill someday, though!

Beforehand, the kids played some games while we waited.

We were seated almost immediately and the kids...and Scott got right into coloring!

Mickey was first!

Then came Pluto! FInn was very happy he wore his Pluto shirt, and Pluto loved it as well.

Chip was next!

And then Dale!

And then Finn and I hightailed it out of there to go to the bathroom!!! He was potty dancing the whole time, but didn't want to leave in case he missed a character.

Continued in the Next Post...

 

[teachermommy78]

When we got back, our food had arrived! Since there were 7 of us, they brought out double of EVERYTHING.

Mickey came back, but I didn't take any pictures because I honestly thought he was just passing by. I didn't realize they were officially making another round! The restaurant was pretty empty, so I don't know if that was the reason.

Then Pluto returned!

I didn't get any pictures with Chip & Dale either. They really didn't do anything new, but the kids loved them!

Dessert!

Up next, an evening at EPCOT, and Finn slowly melting into a poor little mess!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I always read such great things about the character interaction at Garden Grill. I always hesitate to book a meal there though because of the food offerings, not my kinda food.