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

[estherhead]

It's snowing here today. 23 degrees. And you know what? I'm cranky about it. I'm willing to admit that. I love where I live. I love snow. I love snuggling. But for some reason today I am cranky about it and would love to be back where it is warm. Maybe it's just post-trip depression. I'm back to my house. I had to clean out the kitty litter this morning. Boo needs to be potty trained. I gained 3 lbs on vacation so I'm restricting my diet so I fit into my jeans again. And it's too cold to run out to the mailbox without a jacket on.

So there.

But that is not what this thread is really about is it? How cranky we get post-vacation?

Nope, it's about how great it is to leave and be on vacation. So I'm going to drag you all back with my to just over two weeks ago when we were packing to go.

I was panicking a la Woody and we were running around like chicken's with our heads cut off. But when Tuesday night came, I actually was calm enough to sleep well. And when Wednesday morning came Donald and I just smoothly and quickly worked. The kids went to school and we packed up.

I do want to make a tiny aside as to my state of mind that morning. A couple good things: we had a really cool woman house sitting for us and I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to worry there (which was true, she was awesome!) and money was nice and secure. We had this vacation paid for already so money was a non-issue. Very nice.

The big negative was that Donald had been having severe sinus issues for about 4 months. He'd been to the doctor but it hadn't been much help so he just wasn't on his A game. And a variety of us had colds. Which in my case means strep throat (see previous TR for more info on this) and can mean some sever respiratory issues for McQueen and Jack-Jack. It's a bummer but it's our reality. So as a precaution we had made sure all the kids had swine flu shots and I was a walking pharmacy.

This is a total aside but I really didn't want to get sick all the way so I was doing some pretty serious self-care. Emergen-C warm 4 times a day, a heated neck roll, hot showers for the vapors, neti pot (gross but effective) etc. Pretty much anything I had ever read about how to keep a cold from turning into an infection I was doing. As a final straw I went to our local natural store and bought Oregano oil that you sniff up your nose. It makes you sneeze and hack and behave very grossly but in retrospect I will use it every time I have a cold. Not in replacement of the other stuff I do, but in addition to. It's a pretty intense experience and Donald was highly amused at me several times.

So that is where we were two Wednesdays ago. Sick, but on top of things. We were supposed to pick the kids up at noon from school. But I called Milo at 10:00 to ask him a question (I can't even remember what I was asking now) and he said, "We're ready whenever you are." Yippee!!!!! Totally ahead of schedule. So Donald & I were ready by 10:30 and headed over to their house to load up. We have a car top carrier which is pretty roomy so we ended up having plenty of room despite the giant jogging stroller and coolers holding all our food.

It didn't take us long and we were at the school grabbing the kids. I ran outside to find Mulan and Buzz. McQueen was easy to find and Ariel was just leaving lunch. Suzy went to the middle school to grab Charming. And pretty soon all 7 kids were buckled in and we were headed south. Donald checked the official itinerary and was thrilled to discover that we were supposed to be leaving/picking up kids at 11:30 and it was 11:29 a.m. We were ahead of schedule! This actually set a very nice pattern for us on this trip.

It was 11 hours to Amelia Island where we were staying our first few nights. It seems like a long time to be in the vans. But it ended up being pretty nice. Boo refused to truly sleep in the van. She watched Lion King multiple times and snacked. She did take a little snooze but it wasn't what I would have preferred.

Here we are on the road.

It looks really late at night but I think this is like 6:30 p.m. It just gets dark so quickly right now. We stopped 5 times for food and potty breaks and gas. And before we knew it, we were on Amelia Island. Suzy & I hopped out to get our condo keys out of the lock box and there was a map. Donald & I took the map and tried to type in the address to our GPS but it was being funky and there were these two traffic circles and we were confused. So we gave the map to Suzy & Milo. Who quickly left us in the dust and to our own devices. And our cell phones were only getting sketchy service to we were lost & alone.

Let's just say that had it been the Amazing Race Donald and I would have been eliminated. Sad, but true.

But the coolest thing was we went down the wrong road into this little cul de sac and in the middle of the road was an owl! Donald's like, "It's an owl!" and then it turned and looked at us and put it's wings out full and swooped off. I've never seen an owl in the wild and it was awesome. I was pretty pumped.

We got to the condo and there was no parking. It also seemed windy and cold. But we parked in the loading zone and got mostly everything on the elevator. And then Donald found a parking spot (kind of.)

Our condo was FAB!!!!! Loved it, loved it, loved it. It was only two bedroons but it had a two room loft with bunk beds. And I had bought an air mattress so everyone had their own space. It was totally perfect. The only unfortunate thing at all was the loft was a tiny bit dangerous as Boo is a bit of a monkey and quite easily could have flipped herself over the side. It made it hard on the big kids because they would have enjoyed looking over the side a lot but we couldn't really let them or we would have a broken baby for sure. It was truly the only negative at all.

Anyway, I went to bed nearly immediately (after oregano oiling and hacking for a few minutes) to the sounds of Milo, Suzy, and Donald in the living room watching t.v. and chitchatting.

And now I leave you for the next morning. And mostly from here on out there will be a ton of photos.

 

[estherhead]

We awoke the next morning at our leisure and had cereal and milk and all kinds of breakfast things. Bagels, fruit, etc. Suzy & I had a great food plan for maximum deliciousness with little money and little time and we didn't want to go to the grocery store on beach days. So the morning began just as planned.

We told the kids to put on shorts & we would go to the beach. We were pretty sure the water would be cold but thought we could enjoy the sand and sun and maybe wade in the water a bit.

Here's our condo:

Suzy is waving. She stayed behind as we were making turkey breast and she was babysitting it (more on that in a minute.)

We love you Mickey!

To our shock, the water was warm! So we all got in clothes and all:

We were beyond covered in sand so we used the handy hose on our way back.

So after we headed in I started cooking with Suzy. Whenever you cook at an unfamiliar kitchen there are issues. We had tried desperately to have very little to cook. We had Stovetop & I had made freezer mashed potatoes that just needed baked and the other turkey fixings in pre-made but still delicious form. It's just such an easy, yummy, feeds a lot of people meal. This all proved true. The problem was mainly that the stove was super tiny and inconsistent.

I'll spare you too many details but I'll say that Suzy & I were doing a very elaborate cooking dance in a very tiny space to make this meal work.

Here we are enjoying the fruitage of our labor:

And the carcass and pies waiting to be eaten:

A little note about pumpkin pie: I'm not experienced in frozen pumpkin pies as it is such an easy thing to make I'm not sure I've bought one before. So we had no idea that there would be a huge difference in quality. We had two no name brand (we are all about the generic brands since it means more money for Disney trips) and one Sara Lee. And we discovered that when it comes to pie, name brand is better. Just a heads up for those of you in the market for a frozen pie, spend the extra $1.00 and get Sara Lee.

We watched football, ate, I read an Agatha Christie book, etc. It was great. We all play fantasy football (yes, kids too) so football is important to pretty much all of us. We also spent some time playing around with our video camera as we are planning on making a really cool video this time and we were testing our shots and music, etc. That was really fun. I also took a nap and continued my self care. Donald took the kids to the pool too.

It was a great day. And as the stars popped out we headed back to the beach to star gaze which was lovely. Lots & lots of stars.

Amelia Island was proving to be a great pre-Disney stop. Just what the doctor ordered.

 

[estherhead]

Pajamas don't normally provide profound insights to myself and others. They are the nice comfy things I put on when I'm ready to get into sleep mode and that I leave on when I don't want to accomplish anything. That's about all the thought I've ever put into pajamas.

But little did I know when the morning dawned that pajamas would be forever changed to me.

The first thing I did was make breakfast. Suzy and I were determined to not spend out vacation in grocery stores or the kitchen so we'd come prepared. But after I got my delicious pancakes and sausage and bacon ready to go I realized my critical error. I had forgotten the syrup. Now I know that of all things to forget this is not the end of the world. But when you have 7 little kids looking at you, pancakes in hand, it doesn't feel that great to have no syrup. No jelly. No butter. Yeah, it was a bad moment.

Fortunately they all got creative and did different things. I unwrapped and melted some Hershey Kisses and spread it on some of them, which I thought was quite yummy and quite the treat. I found the syrup in the garage when I got home.

Suzy and I had worked out a deal that she would stay home with Boo while our family enjoyed baby free exploring and then I would stay home with Jack-Jack while they enjoyed baby free exploring. It was a great plan as shopping is simply not fun with a toddler.

So Donald & I and the big girls got up and decided to check out the historical areas of Amelia Island. There were nature preserves and a lighthouse and a fort and a quaint old area with the oldest railroad in Florida, etc.

The preserve we went to was nice but we didn't feel like hiking and we could see the lighthouse from the parking lot and it looked cool. It was down this tiny little residential street and guarded by a GIANT fence and an even more GIANT dog or dogs plural. I don't know but what I do know is the Coast Guard owns it and they are very serious about no one going near it. Very serious.

So we decided to check out the historical area first and then if we still wanted to explore then we would go to the fort.

Did I mention it was Black Friday? That ends up being key.

We pull up to the cute, upscale shopping area and see this lady in this crazy outfit. She had reindeer antlers that lit up and what looked like old fashioned pj's. It was not an attractive look. I started laughing and said to Donald that people think they can get away with anything. He deemed her insane. And then we saw the next man who was wearing flip flops and a robe. And honestly, I think nothing else. I looked away before it was made clear to me.

By this point we were a bit confused. And then we realized that everyone, and there were a LOT of people, was in pajamas. There was a giant sign that said: "Amelia Island Pajama Friday 9:00 am-noon."

We were in jeans and were terribly overdressed. And after an hour or so I realized something I never need to learn again. Public pajama parties are a terrible idea. I have NO desire to ever see random people in pajamas again. Never. It was terribly frightening and I do not have very high standards.

Here is a book we found in the bookstore:

We still had a good time, it's a lovely, lovely island and I would go back in a heartbeat. I need to go back because I didn't get to go to the fort as it was inching up on noon and I was getting hungry. So we hopped on back to the condo, making a quick stop for a few more supplies. I made the ten tons of taco meat Suzy had made and frozen back at home and made lunch for the crew.

I spent the rest of the day giving pedis & manis. It was awesome. I had brought all kinds of nailpolish and my spa treatment stuff. Foot bath. Neck roll you heat up in the microwave, etc. While Suzy & Milo were gone I did my girl's nails and mine. It took about an hour per person. I wanted to do a good job so I wouldn't have to think about them at WDW. You'll have to wait till later to see them as it didn't occur to me to take a photo until many days later in the trip. But we put Mickey heads on every nail. Sooooo cute & so very Mickey. Loved it.

Then the rest came back and I did Suzy & her boys. The boys I did with glow in the dark polish and a black Mickey head. It was very masculine and really cool on the rides. In the daylight you can only see the Mickey head, not the glow in the dark polish. And the longer it's on the better it glows. Very cool effect.

I also gave Boo the first of her many bubble baths on this trip. That girl and her bubble baths! And then I took this cute photo of Jack-Jack piling pillows on his mom.

The next day we would leave for Disney....

 

[estherhead]

Sorry about the variety of photo sizes. I'll get it together shortly.

 

[praisehisname]

I'm joining and loving it so far!

 

[NMW]

subscribing

 

[estherhead]

Welcome Praisehisname & NMW! We'll get to Disney World soon and that, as we all know, is where the real fun begins.

I'm hoping to have a bit of time today (I uploaded the photos last night) to do our Downtown Disney day. Full of frights and highlights.

 

[preschoolmom]

Hi! I loved your last trip report! I'm glad you started another!

 

[estherhead]

Hi! I loved your last trip report! I'm glad you started another!

thanks preschool mom! I'm sure you're all too busy to read any more today anyway but I just wanted to say I intend on really getting this TR going this week. I promise!

 

[estherhead]

So I know you are all humoring me by reading my non-disney posts. But today we finally made it to Lake Buena Vista.

Two important thing deeply affected our day. The first was that Milo had an engagement come up which he had no choice but to fulfill. He and Donald are men with many irons in many different fires and they just have to do what they have to do.

The second is the Boo is a big ole scaredy cat. Both of these things become important as our day continues.

So we got up and got to packing. It was much more leisurely than I thought it would be. I think we're just all used to working our butts off so it's not as crazy packing anymore. Just par for the course.

Our next order of business was to drop our keys off at the condo office. As we were leaving I grabbed anything and everything that seemed remotely important and jammed it in the van. As we pull into the condo office I see Suzy and Milo ripping their van apart. It took my brain a bit but I thought perhaps the papers I had grabbed might be important and ran them over. Sure enough it was Milo's airplane tickets and car rental ressie numbers. Oops! Guess I should have looked at them closer. Anyway, their heart attack over Suzy & I went to return the keys and tried to be smarter than the lock box.

Buzz hopped in our van, we got a movie going, and like a band of sloths, we were off.

Our vehicle stopped at a McDonald's and filled everyone's bellies and I had to stop at a rest area too. Yes, bathrooms are always critical to my vacationing. A little side note here is that with the threat of swine flu in the news everyone washes their hands. Donald said it was so cool to even see 100% of men wash their hands in the bathroom. He's kind of a neat freak so this made him especially happy. One of the bathrooms I used on this trip was truly disgusting and it was full of women and it cracked me up to see a room full of women literally holding their hands above their heads for a relatively long period of time. No one touched anything, paper towels & shirts and anything they could use other than skin was used to touch all surfaces. Times have changed, for the better in my opinion.

Anyway as we neared Orlando Donald brought up a valid point that it was really silly for both vehicles to go to the airport and go in circles. So we called Suzy and told her to call us when Milo was properly dropped off and we would meet her at our hotel for the night: Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista.

We checked in but didn't get keys as it was too early, maybe around 2 pm? Then we went to some souvenier stores across the street and ended up being totally underwhelmed. They were expensive and junky and we ended up not buying anything in either one except I bought a Nemo bathing suit on clearance for Boo as both that I had brought for her were too small so that was a good purchase, but still I was disappointed. I was ready to shop and had money to blow and nothing to blow it on.

Suzy then called and was checking in so we popped back and grabbed our keys but our rooms still weren't ready so we headed to Downtown Disney. Yippee! Onto Disney property.

It was crowded and their were lots closed signs everywhere (it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving after all) but after me turning us down the bus only street Donald recovered by finding us a killer parking space. SCORE! Suzy found a delightful spot as well and we were 10 crazy Disney lovers ready to party.

Our first stop was World of Disney. Yeah, it was crowded. And we were 3 adults with 7 kids. We kept rearranging ourselves trying for maximum shopping and minimum losing children. It was crazy and we were insane for attempting it. But it was fun and we never did lose a kid. In World of Disney I had McQueen, Buzz, and Mulan and we went to jewelry and toys. Suzy had Jack-Jack and Charming. Donald had Boo and Ariel and they mainly hung out in stuffed animals. The grouping of children changed eventually as Buzz and McQueen got bored with me plus the necklace that I had just bought broke and I had to exchange it and Suzy got in the world's longest line.

I really didn't have much time or hands to take photos but I got a few:

I stood in line under this little beauty:

And found Mcqueen the perfect t-shirt which was unfortunately not in his size:

Boo found her perfect friend which she carried everywhere on this trip and is still currently carrying it everywhere a month later: Simba!

Donald took all the kids outside while Suzy and I were finishing up. It seems like he had a better time taking photos. Though Boo was terrified of the plastic characters and refused to take her photo with them. I was begining to be concerned. I knew we had troubles before we left home with characters and things in general being scary but I was hoping once she experienced it she would appreciate the imagination of it all. This will be a theme of this trip report and the many different tactics I attempted to try and make Boo happy and comfortable while still enjoying things that she should enjoy if she only would let herself enjoy them.

Sigh.

Anyhow, the look on her face in the above photo pretty much sums up the look and her feelings towards Disney World. She is just sure in her every day life and in her imaginary life that the world is stacked against her and we are all out to attack her and ruin her life. She has some serious control and trust issues. I know that's impossible really in a 2.5 year old but I don't know how else to explain it. We've been working and working on this and honestly we made amazing progress at Disney. We knew we were making progress but it's an exhausting process of trying to make her feel safe and yet take away control and let her experience the "scary" world which is not scary at all! Like, for example, the figures of Disney characters all over Downtown Disney.

So we chose to let her stay in her stroller and take in the overwhelming views that Disney must surely be to a toddler, at least for the first few hours.

So here is a Boo free photo we took at the beginning of the day:

After World of Disney we went to Lego which was INSANE. Here I put Mulan in charge of Buzz, Charming had McQueen, Donald had Ariel and Boo, and I hung out in line with Jack-Jack because the line went around the building. Suzy came to the insanity a little later and nearly had a heart attack at the line there!

We ended up spending very little up until this point, this was to be almost our only day of souvonier shopping since once we go to the parks we don't spend much time in stores. My family had spent about $40.00, and that includes the $14.00 of Legos we bought. We were hoping to do better after dinner. If we survived dinner at all.

But that is for my next post.

 

[buzz for boys]

Cant wait to read more. The beach days sound divine !!!

 

[estherhead]

Welcome Buzz for boys! And, yes, the beach was great. I wish we had 2 weeks so we could spend a whole week there and then a week at Disney. Or maybe even the other way around. But, yes, it was amazing.

Coming up before dinner: The Terror of the T-Rex!

 

[praisehisname]

Yay, you're at Disney! DTD sounds like it was crazy!

 

[estherhead]

So as we exited and hung out outside the Lego store we were getting a bit hungry as a Diet Coke and a small McDonald's cheeseburger at 11:30 am simply doesn't last. And what did we see?

We had eaten here last year and it had been one of our favorites and much to our surprise Boo and Jack-Jack hadn't been afraid. Now, I knew that more than likely wouldn't be the case this time, but I was of the mindset that we needed Boo to understand the magic of animatronics and we needed that done ASAP.

Donald went over there first while I was parking a stroller or something and Boo's reaction was less than stellar. Making him comment to Suzy that he didn't think it would work out. But I came charging up, a mom on a mission, and grabbed Boo and crashed past the T-Rex, kind of. As we got closer to the T-Rex Boo grabbed some innocent woman and held on for dear life. I can only imagine what this woman thought. Maybe she thought Boo was a brat or maybe she thought I was a kidnapper, I'm not sure. But Boo, who hates strangers, grabbed this woman's blue coat (which is all I saw of her) and held on with a crazy strong grip and screamed bloody murder.

The woman was shocked and tried to un-pry Boo's death like grasp from her blue coat but couldn't. So I snatched Boo away while snatching the coat the other direction, yelled, "Sorry!" loudly and ran into the restaurant.

Here was my plan, which almost worked: I was going to rush Boo past the T-Rex and into the bathroom which I remember was a haven and lovely. Then when she was calm I would go into the ice room which is so beautiful and the lights would mesmerize her. Then I would show her from that safe point all the animatronic dinosaurs and point out that they were fake and could not hurt her. Then I would promise that we would not see the T-Rex anymore.

It almost worked. Our first problem was her grabbing the woman which delayed my dash and made a 3 year old and her mother step into my way. Why you don't get out of the way of a screaming toddler I'm not sure, but they didn't. It was horrible.

Then we dashed into the bathroom and Boo calmed totally down. The ice room was full so we sat just outside of it in the true interior of the place. She watched the dinos for awhile and saw it was a restaurant and not a dino cave where she was sure to be eaten. And then she saw a child's chocolate milk and agreed to eat there, almost even happy about it.

Whew. That was a close one. So I pulled out my cell phone to tell Donald we could eat there. Only I didn't have cell service. So carrying Boo I walked out slowly trying desperately to get cell service without passing the T-Rex again. Shoot, foiled again. No service till you are OUTSIDE the place. Which, naturally made us pass the dino. Boo did pretty good and buried her head in my shoulder, eyeballing it cautiously.

As I exited and found our group they were just being seated. I told Suzy & Donald all was fine and we went back in. Only to be seated directly, and yes I mean DIRECTLY under the T-Rex!!!! Can you believe that? Of all the craziness.

Boo was NOT happy and thank goodness for Donald as we almost had to leave right then but he saved us. Lion King streaming on the i-phone:

Man, do I ever love that i-phone. So many times it has saved us. Photos, videos, GPS, etc. LOVE it.

So Boo was calm. Jack-Jack on the other hand, was not. So Suzy tried to distract him with toys and love. Which worked. Only McQueen and Buzz were mad because they didn't have toys. Truly, there was no winning.

And then our waiter was not the sharpest tack out there. And, of course, there are meteor showers. That took us to a whole other level of fear.

Plus the people sitting behind me were completely obnoxious.

But, in the end, Boo fell asleep. Jack-Jack fell asleep. The family behind me finally left! My dinner was fabulous. And all was well in the end.

The view from our seats:

Do you see Ariel in the corner of this one shielding herself from meteors?

Would I do this again? I'll do T-Rex again for sure, I love that place. But I'm not sure I'd do it again or not because it did alter our trip, it did alter Boo. That night and the following day I was sure that it had been a positive change, but by the middle of the trip I wasn't so sure. I think perhaps had we just done T-Rex it would have been the right call. But the next day we did It's Tough to Be a Bug at AK and I think that pushed Boo from happy with 3-D and animatronics to unhappy. I'm not sure. It's complicated.

But probably, yes, I would do it again. Because after Boo faced the fear of the dinosaurs she was totally gung-ho to see all the plastic characters.

We started at Once Upon a Toy (Boo's still asleep here, or at least groggy so she stayed in her stroller.)

In this room Boo kept yelling "Woody, Buzz!" and I was looking all around for toys. I even left the room on a Woody Buzz search briefly before looking up. Two year olds are terrible pointers.

And here she is fear free ready for anything in the castle room there.

So, while Boo was having her fear factor melt down the last few hours (and nap) we were picking out Potato Head pieces and filling a box and looking all over Once Upon a Toy. My girls had been given $50.00 by their grandma, each, to get toys. They searched this store up and down and didn't find anything they wanted. I guess they just have discriminating taste. I've trained them well. We don't like spending money on things we won't truly cherish.

We decided to check out Goofy's Candy store as this would be our only trip to DD and we love it. Plus, with it not being on the DDP any more there's no real need to wait, just pay for it OOP.

I was feeling impatient and it was crowded so I tried to talk the girls into not doing make their own, but to no avail. They know their minds and wanted what they wanted. Surprisingly it didn't take that long.

Here's what we did in the mean time:

I don't have photo of this, but Charming also had money to blow and decided to get some jelly beans. He is evidently not as money smart as my girls or else simply can't read signs thoroughly. He intended on getting a $5.00 bag of jelly beans but somehow managed to fill $20.00 of jelly beans It was the largest bag of jelly beans ever. He was quite put out by it all. Lesson learned, I guess. Lesson learned for him. He didn't eat them all either, even by the end of the week. He put a dent in it but I guess even for a 12 year old boy $20.00 of jelly beans is simply too many.

OK, next up: post-Goofy's.

 

[estherhead]

Sorry for the duplicate potato head photos. I can't get rid of it so you all get to see it twice. Hopefully the glitch will be gone and I'll fix it tomorrow.

 

[praisehisname]

You had your hands full getting Boo ready for dinner! Glad she ended up enjoying it, though!

 

[estherhead]

You had your hands full getting Boo ready for dinner! Glad she ended up enjoying it, though!

Well, I wouldn't say she enjoy it, but she did tolerate it and I enjoyed her sleeping!

 

[buzz for boys]

Oh wow we love trex too but we did sit in the nice quiet bit ! Not sure if my dd would have tolerated the big t rex looking down on us either !! Well done Boo !!

 

[houseful of boys]

Hello, everyone. Perla, this is great so far. I'm sitting here with Jack-Jack on my lap checking out the pictures and he loved them. When we saw the T-Rex he inhaled deeply and I asked him if he remembered the "scary dinosaurs." And he smiled at me and said, "no....dinosaur nice." Memories are interesting things aren't they?

Also, I have to say it wasn't quite as easy as you make it seem to keep track of everyone in that crazy World of Disney store. I probably spent half my time searching for the color of Charming's shirt. How much sense does it make to have so many rooms in one store???? I've been there many, many times but I always get turned around.

Another funny note....I still have a bag of jelly beans on top of my fridge from Goofy's candy store. That purchase was Charming's biggest regret of the trip, I think. He's 12 and he had $100 in his own wallet to spend that week and he blew $22 that evening on jelly beans. Lesson learned.

(btw, Jack Jack sees the banana on my screen and has decided to dance like him!)

 

[houseful of boys]

I uploaded a couple of Amelia Island pictures to share. It was such a wonderful way to start our trip. Can't beat the beach, pirates, and a fort when you travel with little boys!