Suzy & Perla’s Battle Against the Lines The Saga Continues! We're baaaaaack......

[Bengalfan32]

Charming, here. Contrary to what the ladies said, I think that $20 was some of the best money I've ever spent . JK, I guess I really paid for being too nice at the cash register. The people in front of me had a bag 1/4 the size of mine and they paid $8. I almost got out of the line then, but then I thought "What AM I going to do with this already filled, very expensive bag of jellybeans?" There weren't any trashcans in there, so I decided to face the scale mano a mano. I felt like I was on the biggest loser, and the scale was beeping. So I decided to pay em' and not make a complete fool of myself. I shared the beans w/ the family and by the time we got all the way home, there were only a few left.

YAY!! My 1st EVER post!

 

[Bengalfan32]

 

[estherhead]

Welcome, Charming!

And I'm glad to have photos of your fort trip, Suzy. Who knew Jack Sparrow spottings started at Amelia Island?

 

[estherhead]

I'm sitting here watching G-Force with the kids and really gerbils and bugs and moles and whatever as spies isn't really my thing so I decided to post another chapter.

After getting our snacks we vacated Goofy's and found some tables outside in the dark. Since Boo had slept through dinner she was hungry. So I set her up with her meal that I had boxed up and ate the rest of my sandwich. Donald had been looking at the under $10.00 store and told me I needed to go in there. So I went to the photo/tiny scrapbooking store and got a $20.00 kit for my paper collection and bought a few things in the $10.00 store.

While I did that, Donald ran around taking photos of Boo who was suddenly ALL about posing with the plastic characters.

Ariel eating her Goofy creation:

And Mulan:

And after a little sugar pick-me-up everyone was ready for plastic character photo ops.

After this we did our obligatory search for pins which always results in us totally not finding any pins (since we're only ever looking for ones with cats on them) and then we were off to the vehicles.

We got everyone settled in our hotel room with Donald with their new purchases and Suzy and I headed into the wild blue wander of Walmart to pick up supplies. Suzy had stayed at the hotel we were at before and knew the lay of the land so even though I felt we were driving into nowhere, we were very quickly in a cool little area.

Before we knew it we had spent $200 on coffee, a coffeemaker, diapers, goldfish crackers, breakfast items, bottled water, etc. It's hard to believe you would need $200.00 of such items when you have free dining, but I assure you we used almost all of it.

I then talked Suzy into going into a discounted tourist Disney store. You know, the Disney Outlets? We didn't know there was one down the street where we were, but there was. Hello? How could we not go in? So we bought another set of matching shirts. They were sooo cute. I'll point them out when we wear the. And we wasted a bunch of time. Kid free time.

As we pulled into the hotel my cell phone rang. I picked it up and Donald said quite calmly: "OK, I'm ready for you to come home now." Oops. Guess I was gone too long. I don't recall feeling too guilty though.....

We then put the refrigerated items in the fridge and prepared ourselves for our first Disney day. I mean, our first REAL Disney day. With tickets and room keys and free food.

So up until this point I had been really liking our hotel. Our room was awesome. It was a fabulous location. Great staff. But as the lights turned out things changed. First of all I noticed we were facing I-4. Not sure how I missed this when we entered. But I swear our room was in the middle of I-4 it was so loud. You people who complain about Disney rooms being loud have clearly never stayed here.

At about 2 a.m. some woman walked up and down our outside hallway in what I think were Dutch clogs. It was soooo clippity cloppity and she talked sooooo loudly. I can't remember now what she said but I could repeat the entire inane conversation the following morning. I did manage to fall back asleep despite my Disney excitement. Then at like 4 am there was drag racing on I-4. Now I can't promise you it was drag racing as I've never been a witness to such things but it could only have been that. Imagine trying to sleep in a garage with engines revving. That is what it was like. After about 10 minutes of zipping and zipping and then more zipping this was all followed by 10 minutes of huge amounts or police sirens.

At about 5 a.m. I though Value resort Schmalue Resort. Bring it on. They may be uncomfortably small, but at least I can sleep there.

Since it's already morning, I'll just wrap up. I did manage to fall back asleep but not for long as it was Disney day. Our intention was to be at All Star Music at 7:30 a.m. I was still nursing my cold/infection so I got up and too a wonderful hot shower and meditated on all that was before us. Then I got up and we started getting ready.

Suzy and the boys came over for breakfast and we tried to have them use the individual boxes of cereal as bowls but I guess they don't actually make them to do that anymore so it took a lot of creativity on our part to get the cereal down the children. Somehow, though, we worked it out. Then we all took the luggage back out into vans. We were surprisingly able to get the kids to cooperate and this was a fairly painless exit from our hotel.

Within two minutes we were inside the Disney gates and headed to a glorious week of Disney fun.

 

[buzz for boys]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo you cant leave it there !!!!
seriously cant wait to hear the rest x

 

[houseful of boys]

I actually slept pretty well this night. The Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista had been remodeled and the rooms were very nice. Each room has a fridge and microwave and in value season you can get a room easily for under $50. But I did notice that the highway noise was a little loud and remembered that the week that my family had stayed here a couple of years ago I had of course done my research on disboards and requested a room facing the parking lot. This time however we were only staying one night and i hadn't done any research and forgot this tip. Sorryabout that, Perla. But we slept fine...I think it was because Milo wasn't with us and there was plenty of room for me and 4 quiet little boys (although Jack-Jack did fall out of bed some time during the night....just scooped him back up and we were back asleep ).

We were definately up and ready to go in plenty of time for Disney though. A quick breakfast and drive to All-Stars.....

 

[Katnmouse]

Enjoying your report! My niece was just like Boo on our first family WDW trip. She was scared of everything that she could not directly control...that included ALL characters, ALL rides, ALL dark places, ALL loud places. It was an extremely difficult week of "fun". No amount of talking or cajoling or showing could convince her that it was okay and there was nothing to be afraid of. She did not trust anything we said and would pitch the biggest fits. She is 14 now and we have enjoyed many Disney trips since that first rough one. She has kept the control issues her whole life and to this day will not try anything new just because you ask her to. She has to have time to process the request you are making and come to a decision on her own. She simply cannot be talked into anything. Hopefully her stubborn nature will make her less likely to be a victim of teenage peer pressure.

 

[estherhead]

Enjoying your report! My niece was just like Boo on our first family WDW trip. She was scared of everything that she could not directly control...that included ALL characters, ALL rides, ALL dark places, ALL loud places. It was an extremely difficult week of "fun". No amount of talking or cajoling or showing could convince her that it was okay and there was nothing to be afraid of. She did not trust anything we said and would pitch the biggest fits. She is 14 now and we have enjoyed many Disney trips since that first rough one. She has kept the control issues her whole life and to this day will not try anything new just because you ask her to. She has to have time to process the request you are making and come to a decision on her own. She simply cannot be talked into anything. Hopefully her stubborn nature will make her less likely to be a victim of teenage peer pressure.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping with Boo, dogged determination to do what's right. My eldest was like this to a lesser degree and she is nine now and an amazing kid. She still needs some transition time and still gets scared (she says she'll never ride Haunted Mansion again because what is the point?) But she was nothing like the clawing, screaming, craziness of Boo. But I think if I took Boo back right now she wouldn't cry. I really believe that. The only characters she is still scared of are Mickey Mouse and Tigger. I'm not sure what's up with Mickey, but Tigger was just too bouncy for her. But even fireworks (later in this story) fascinate her and loud noises don't scare her. She just says, "Fireworks?"

I think she feels like she's been to hell and back and nothing could ever be as terrifying as what she's already experienced.

 

[estherhead]

So, we were on Disney property and we were soooo excited. We had checked in on line and were really hoping that made things fast and smooth as we had big plans to accomplish a crazy amount of things at Animal Kingdom before heading to Magic Kingdom for a Crystal Palace lunch.

Here we are pulling into All Stars!

Passing Sports:

Wait for it.... wait for it....

Music!

So we parked and then we all rushed into the building. And yes, I mean rush. We dumped out of our vehicles so fast it was breathtaking. Let's party

And in we went. There was no line which is what you get at Disney when you get up at the break of dawn. There was one person in the on-line line but they quickly cleared out and it was Suzy's turn. Our front desk CM was not really with it. But she gave us good news & bad news. The bad news was we were in Country. It was not exactly choice real estate but we didn't put any requests so I figured we be in no mans land. We needed connecting doors between Suzy & the kid's rooms so we didn't want to have to work around anything else. That was too critical.

The good news was... our rooms were ready! Ready! It was awesome as we had this big elaborate plan on how to unpack before dark but this was way better than any plan we had, lets just do it now.

Here is what the kids did while we checked in:

So we, of course, drove to our rooms. There was an irritating thing about Country. They have the parking all marked off. You cannot park in the Country area. Which is ANNOYING! I really didn't mind Country at all. It's quiet, we had a car, and it's not that far away from the front. But parking was an issue. We tried every combo of walking to our rooms and parking but none of them were as good as getting to park where we were actually staying.

So while we were in the parking lot I realize that the front desk CM hadn't given me our parking pass. So I decided to push the babies to the front in the double stroller and grab it while every one else unpacked baby free. This seemed a great idea for all involved.

Man were they heavy! It was ridiculous. That is when I realized all the tires were flat on the stroller! It was almost impossible to push. But by the point I understood my issues I was halfway to our rooms and the front. I decided I'd just head to the front and see if they had a bicycle pump (cause we had forgotten ours.)

While I was walking by the pool:

I passed by an adorable three year old who asked her daddy while they boil the pool at night. I thought it was so cute.

So I finally made it to the front desk. It was the same lady and she seemed even more out of it than before. I'm not sure if she just hadn't had her coffee or what but she was not the best front desk CM ever, I'll say that. It took FOREVER to get my parking pass. The printer was out of paper & ink and then printing weird things and, and, and. But finally I had it & I headed out to luggage to see if they had a bicycle pump.

They said the engineering department pumps all their tires which is exactly what the landscaper in the golf cart had told me when I asked him on my walk to the front. But at each park where they rent strollers/wheelchairs they should have an air compressor. So I called the clan and they agreed to pick me up & we'd try at the park.

Here is where we waited:

And now, my friends, you must wait. I had intended to get more done as it is a snow day but my mom just called and is picking me up so we don't have to "waste" a snow day not doing anything. Me? I was OK with wasting it. But I'm also OK with leaving the kids with dh for a day while I have freedom.

So you get what get and you don't have a fit.

Next up: Can you really get your tires pumped at AK or will we push flats all day? Can you really do all the highlights of AK in 4 hours?

 

[preschoolmom]

LOL... Enjoyed this installment... I can't wait to hear about your AK morning - and I hope you enjoy your time away with your mom!

 

[estherhead]

LOL... Enjoyed this installment... I can't wait to hear about your AK morning - and I hope you enjoy your time away with your mom!

Thanks! I'm going to carry on to AK later today, I just have to load some photos.

Mom & I had a nice time. It really was pretty bad, though, and now it's snowing again. We visited my grandpa who is in a nursing home and he really appreciated it as it's lonely on days when no one can visit. And we visited a friend of ours who is pregnant and kind of having a hard week. And, of course, we went to Wal-Mart where I bought some scrapbooking tape so I can carry-on with some projects. And we also called 911 because we saw the tail end of an accident where a car flipped over. The girl had to crawl out her window & was very shook up. She just kept saying, "I just dropped my baby off at the sitters, Thank God I just dropped the baby off." And really it was because the car seat was not in that great of shape.

Anyhow, I'm home & safe now. Back to Disney! On second thought, who is glad they aren't at Disney right now? I normally would always prefer to be at Disney World but last night it was 28 degrees there!!! Brrr... It's OK to be that cold when I'm here, but at Disney? No thanks.

 

[praisehisname]

And we wasted a bunch of time. Kid free time.

Kid-free time is impossible to waste!!!

As we pulled into the hotel my cell phone rang. I picked it up and Donald said quite calmly: "OK, I'm ready for you to come home now." Oops. Guess I was gone too long. I don't recall feeling too guilty though.....

Great updates! Looking forward to hearing about your AK day!

 

[estherhead]

So, Donald came and scooped up the toddlers and I and we were happily on our way. Animal Kingdom is very close to All Stars and by 8:36 am we saw the following sign:

Now that you heard me whine about the parking at our resort I will reverse things and say we had amazing luck at parking in the parks. You know how in the parking lots there are those long lines of cars, some of them close to the walkway & some so very far away & how just as you pull in the CM inexplicably starts a new line and you are as far away from the tram as you could possibly be? I hate that.

But for us, this week, that never happened. It seemed the parking CM's loved us. The moment we would pull in suddenly a spot would open right next to the tram. The worst we did was about the middle of the row. So that was nice. I guess it made up for being miles away from the walkway to our hotel room!

Anyhow, back to AK.

We were there. The plan was for Donald & Suzy to take all the kids to ride Dinosaur & Primeval Whirl while I took the toddlers to get the tires pumped up, EE FP's, and to ride Triceratop spin. The goal was to have this accomplished by 9:30 a.m.

But I didn't push the stroller on the walk to the front. I'm not a martyr. And Donald has way bigger muscles than me. We did bag check & then we used our fancy schmancy full of free food key cards to enter the park and grabbed some maps & show times. I took everyone's cards. The morning show was beginning so the gang rushed off to find good spots and Donald got some amazing footage of this.

Boo & Jack-Jack and I went to the stroller area. The CM working there said that yes, they did that but that she doesn't know how to work the compressor. Fortunately I do know my way around a compressor & within 5 minutes I had tons of air in all 3 tires. Soooooooo much easier to push. It was unbelievable.

We also caught the morning show but we were way behind the crowd. Boo & Jack-Jack loved it & kept pointing and getting excited. I was distracted because in the double stroller next to me was a 9 month old screaming her head off. It was such a shame that that early in the morning they had a screaming baby. And let me tell you, this baby had some lungs. And the 4 year old next to her just ignored it. Poor kid. Poor parents. And, of course, I wondered which day I would begin with a screaming child. Or maybe end with one.

But I had a mission: FP's for EE. Now for you previous readers of mine you may well remember that I got FP's for EE last year and dumped Jack-Jack out of this exact same stroller onto his head. So I was focused on getting there, being successful, no concussions. But even with this intense mission I was persuaded by a CM to go see Pooh & Tigger who had no wait. At the corner of where they were there was a spot where we could see them and so I stopped there.

This was our view:

Now I was thrilled to have this moment because we had ADR's at Crystal Palace and I REALLY wanted to go but I wanted to make sure Boo wasn't going to have a seizure when she realized Pooh was there too. So I had to make absolute sure that her absolute terror of characters wasn't as strong in reality as it was in her imagination.

She immediately started pointing and saying, "Pooh! Tigger! Eyeore!" Which made me super happy. However if you don't like characters touching you or walking towards you this is a really bad thing. I had taught her to put her hand out & say, "No, NO!" So we practiced. If you look in the photo above you can see Tigger has spied us & is making his way over. Boo practiced, Jack-Jack did NOT say no, no & very much would like to see Tigger as you can see from the photo below:

A very nice CM came over at this point and started to tell us there was no line, which we knew already. So I explained that we didn't want to meet them, etc. She then gave me some advice which I nodded to knowing that it would not work since I had already tried it. In the end, we left without meeting Pooh & with me having knowledge that the characters were kind of OK, but really not OK. And that is what I needed to know.

So that mission out of the way, we headed to Everest. On the way another challenge was out of my way. Boo had not forgotten that Dinosaurs are our enemies and should be avoided at all costs. This greatly concerned me as we all know there are also dinosaurs in Chester & Hester's area. They are friendly but still... Well, Jack-Jack & Boo both pointed and said, "Dinosaurs scary!" but didn't freak out. So we were good to go on that to.

And then we saw:

There were just TONS of people here:

So did I dump Jack-Jack? Nope. There was a really nice CM standing there and said, "How many FP's do you need?" I said, "8" and she gave them to me out of the back of the machine. And that was it. Awesome!

So I made my way back to dinoland. It was time to ride Triceratop spin. We had been so successful in the fear factor this morning that I didn't give it another thought. Triceratop Spin is clearly just like Dumbo & who doesn't like Dumbo? Look how friendly these dinosaurs are?

Well, Boo thought they looked friendly. But looking friendly from a distance is a lot different than looking friendly up close & personal & "gasp" TOUCHING them. She totally was NOT getting out of the stroller. Jack-Jack, of course, was out of that stroller like a shot, ready to ride.

I finally talked Boo into it & we chased Jack-Jack through the turnstyles. It was at this point that Jack-Jack decided maybe he agreed with Boo. And this is what they looked at & were BOTH saying, "No, NO!"

How in heavens name I got them into a Triceratop I'm still not sure. But CM's were helping me & we managed. Here is how we looked at the end of the spin:

So we headed over to Primeval Whirl to see what the rest of the crowd was doing & they were just getting off. They had a great time! And then little Boo says, "AGAIN!" She wanted to ride Triceratop Spin again! Amazing! So the big kids rode Primeval Whirl again & we rode Triceratop Spin again and all was well in the world. If we hadn't ridden again we would have been done at 9:30, right on target. But we didn't really get done till about 10:00. It was totally worth it.

And at this point I need to stop because I can't seem to find some photos. Be back later...

 

[estherhead]

Sorry for the errors & typos in the above. I don't really feel like editing it, but I'll at least apologize. And I'm back before any of ya'll missed me.

OK, so now for the missing photos & an explanation. I got a great idea to take some awesome photos of the gang riding the Primeval Whirl since we got over there just as they were getting on. You know how you just stand there waiting for the perfect photo? You wait & you wait & then click, you get it? Well I did the waiting but not the clicking. My SD card was full! This is not the kind of mistake I make & I methodically checked to make sure I had enough room that morning. But I didn't realize that there were non-photo files on it that you can't see when you turn the camera on. Grr.... So I had to switch to Donald's camera as soon as he got off & he had to use his i-phone.

Anyway... Nothing worse than not having a camera at Disney World!

So we're back with photos off camera B:

Just to catch you up here are a few photos from the end of the last chapter.

Here is Boo on her second ride of Triceratop Spin. We learned a valuable lesson here which is she hates things the first time. She loves things the second time. Which is not good on a week long trip at Disney. Because the reality is other than rides, you only get to do things once. We simply weren't going to be able to meet Marie twice or go to Crystal Palace twice or see Illuminations twice, ya know? We knew that she would really want to do these things, like them even. But we quickly learned she would hate them. Because things are only good once you've tested them thoroughly and had time to decide it was fun in retrospect.

Notice the difference in her happiness level:

Hmmm.... Maybe everyone hates things the first time through?

Not McQueen. This was his first time on Primeval Whirl and he had no doubts it was gonna be awesome.

And my Primeval Whirl photos once I had a working camera:

I'm leaving this one big so you can see expression:

Lots of questions with this one, like why am I letting the children run (so I can get a photo, of course) and why does the guy in front of them have a suitcase (I have no idea & wondered at the time.)

Up next: The rest of AK (hopefully though as you can see it's not even 10 am and I managed to make 3 hours into 4 chapters!

 

[praisehisname]

I'm glad Boo ended up enjoying Tri Spin. Hopefully as the week went on, she enjoyed things the FIRST time?

 

[houseful of boys]

Good job so far Perla. I wondered if anyone noticed that Jack Jack has a "bagelful" in his hand at all stars music while we're checking in.....now scroll forward to the line at Triceratops Spin.....same bagelful. He was holding that thing for over an hour????? Too funny.

 

[estherhead]

I'm glad Boo ended up enjoying Tri Spin. Hopefully as the week went on, she enjoyed things the FIRST time?

You would think she would have gotten over it, wouldn't you? And yet....

Good job so far Perla. I wondered if anyone noticed that Jack Jack has a "bagelful" in his hand at all stars music while we're checking in.....now scroll forward to the line at Triceratops Spin.....same bagelful. He was holding that thing for over an hour????? Too funny.

Too funny! I remember that while we were there, wondering just how full of germs it was. But it made him happy so who am I to complain?

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Great trippie so far. I can't wait to read more.

 

[estherhead]

So, I may get the rest of the story out of order as I get a little confused once chaos rules & we're all together again & our camera's clocks are all off from each other so I can't check the order. I'm sure Suzy will correct me if I go too crazy.

After Primeval Whirl and Triceratop Spin I was ready for some riding of my own. I LOVE roller coasters but Primeval Whirl is not my favorite as it is a bit too jerky. So I said no matter what I got to be in on the first EE ride. Suzy needed to go also as it was going to be Mcqueen's first time on it. So Donald sat out with the toddlers. I think his plan was to get himself some coffee but that didn't happen, I'm not sure why.

Anyway we got our baby swaps & the rest of us dashed to the FP line and were quickly in position for the next car. And guess who rode right up front???? ME! I was soooo excited you have no idea. I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed a ride at Disney as much as I enjoyed my first ride of this trip. I could have stayed in that car over & over.

So prepare yourselves for a million photos cause I was a snapping fool.

Mulan & I thrilled with our seats:

See the car coming out of the mountain?

Bring it on!

What in the world is going on?

The view from the tallest Mountain in Florida:

An a photo of all of us, especially me with my camera. lol. That's pretty much how I look all the time on vacation.

So after my first real ride of the morning Donald took the big kids back on & my kids were complaining of hunger. Seriously? A pitiful bowl of cereal at 7:00 am didn't last them past 10:30 am? Shocking. Since we weren't eating lunch until 1:30 it seemed reasonable to get some grub. I know 10:30 in the morning doesn't really sound like lunch time, but I went ahead and got Chinese food.

I can't remember exactly what I got but I think I used 2 entrees and 2 snacks. I know I got fried rice & spring rolls and I think I also got orange chicken and some other meat. Not sure. If I truly loved you, I'd go get my receipts down stairs and look. But I'm under a warm snuggly blanket and I simply don't love you enough.

At first everyone was kind of tenative about eating. Suzy & fam weren't sure it was for them too so I had to assure them it was & Donald wasn't sure Chinese mid-morning was a great plan. But eventually everyone dove in and ate every bite. The fried rice was good enough that later in the week when we ate here again Donald was disappointed in the food and asked why I didn't get what I got last time. I mean, not super disappointed, but he really missed the fried rice when I didn't waste a snack on it and he didn't know it didn't just naturally come with the entrees.

Suzy & I can forget to feed our families regularly and then wonder why everyone has suddenly gotten cranky, not at home so much, but at Disney it's pretty easy to do. So I was glad we had done this as I think getting the food later would have taken away appetites for our Crystal Palace lunch and there is no way the family could have gone that long without food and not gotten cranky.

Anyhow, after this we pow-wowed and decided to do It's Tough to Be a Bug and Suzy took Jack-Jack to KS and got FP's for it. In retropect I REALLY should have had her take Boo. I think my biggest mistake of the entire week was taking Boo to see ITTBAB. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she would have been distrustful and scared anyway, but I wish I hadn't done it. She loves bugs and I thought without wearing the 3D glasses and sitting on my lap she would enjoy it.

And she did. She sat right there and enjoyed it. But after that she never trusted me again. She already had been not really wanting to do Triceratop spin and meet the characters, etc. So maybe I'm putting too much weight on this decision. But I really feel that there was a shift after this show. She was absolutely suspicious of every choice Donald & I made. Suspicious and unco-operative.

But it is a good show. And I enjoyed the Tree of Life more than normal. We really looked at it this time & it is very cool. Plus I should mention there was almost no wait for this. That was nice.

So moving on, after that we headed through the forest and ran into some interesting characters.

The above shot is a good place to stop a moment and talk about our Bengals outfits. We decided on this Sunday to wear our matching Bengals gear. We knew it would show our support and we knew it would help us find each other, what we didn't know is what a distraction it would be from Disney World.

Disney World is a fairly inclusive place, a place to lose yourself totally in Disney magic. I think in years past we would have just heard a few "Who-Dey's!" to show their support of the Bengals and that would have been it. But we live in the age of the i-phone. And 10 people wandering around in matching NFL gear had a distracting effect.

Take EE, for example. We were standing at the CM waiting for our baby swaps and a guy in a Patriots shirt stops & starts talking to us about the Bengal's success and how happy he is for us and that the Patriots aren't doing as well as normal. Then a Steelers jersey guy stops and tells us some stat off his i-phone about today's game. So instead of the jumping up & down "I'm gonna ride EE!" excitement I was all distracted by NFL talk. I'm just saying, it was a good thing & a bad thing and I will ponder more deeping wearing matching NFL gear to Disney again.

This comes up again later in the day...
Back to the photos

This was just a perfect AK walk. Real animals, interesting vegetation, and fake animals. Perfect. It's not a short walk but it felt short because we were meandering.

But before we knew it, we were at KS and parking our strollers and using our FP's.

Then Donald pointed out this sign:

He was baffled. What shape? Square people can't ride? Triangular people? Are there body shapes we are unaware of? Oh well, I guess it's hard to be politically correct and still protect yourself legally.

I thought nothing would top last year's KS ride. It was awesome & we had a great driver and I forgot I was in Disney and thought I was in Africa. But this year was spectacular too.

This is not zoomed, we're this close:

Again, not zoomed:

Yup, it's a baby elephant drinking:

OK, I'll stop with the animal photos. Suffice it to say, this was an awesome ride. Loved it.

But our AK morning had come to an end. It was time to go meet Winnie the Pooh. And have what, in my opinion, is the best buffet food at Disney World.

 

[houseful of boys]

I actually loved the "who-deys" as we walked by other fans. Maybe because I have boys and Charming who wore a smile on his face everytime football came up. And I also like the pictures. We're all wearing different styles and outfits but still have the same theme. It's cool.