Amy&Dan
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2004
- Messages
- 15,958
This trip really began back in March. You see, last December we went to Disneyland with my brother, his wife and kids, sil's mother, DH's dad , my parents and my family of four. Confusing list of people, confusing trip. It was great but we left feeling we should have just gone with my parents as they need a lot of individual attention we just couldn't give them with so many others around. But alas, they are old, my mother has cancer and is in the early stages of Alzheimers so we just had to be content with our December 2004 Disneyland trip. But then in March we watch our video footage of that trip. Suddenly, DH and I decide lets take my parents with us in October to WDW. Great idea! They will buy their plane and park tickets and we agree to pick up their meals and upgrade to a two bedroom at Saratoga Springs. All is well. Then in April, DH takes a 20% paycut. Ouch. No problem. Then my mother's mental awareness begins to head south. Again, ouch. Then in late August my stepdad (he's 80) begins to have severe head pain. After a stressful two weeks he is diagnosed with a condition called Temporal Artertits and loses sight completely in his left eye. Overnight he goes from being the youngest 80 year old I know, to a little old man. He loses 25 pounds, is on steroids that make him miserable and we think we should cancel the trip. The kids are devastated. But my parents perservere and say they want to go. So on October 14 (my son's 11th birthday no less) we head to Denver International Airport and fly to Orlando. The following is a recap of some of our highs and lows and everything in between!
Friday, October 14:
We pick up my parents at their senior condo complex bright and early. DH goes in with the kids to get them and their luggage. I hop out of the car and snap a picture of all of them. I immediately notice how foggy my mother is this day and how tired my stepdad looks. But we forge on to DIA. We get through security, check the bags and decide to have breakfast at McDonalds. Suddenly I realize that picture I took back at the condo. Does DH have the camera back in his backpack? That would be a no. Uh Oh. Now my husband Dan is a nice, laid back guy. He offers to go back to the car to get it, thankfully we parked close in (very expensive but worth the less walking for my parents, thank God we did it). So I tell him to meet us at the gate. Next crisis: My mother wants to take her medicine with her breakfast. This occurs while my daughter Maria and I are waiting in a second long line at McDonald's. The first time I ordered and then found out they don't take credit cards. So I go back to the table and get cash from my mother (DH has the cash somewhere in the DIA parking structure). I wait in the long line again but I am going to WDW and I don't care, I'm happy. I come back to the table all smiles bearing full, greasy bags of McD's to find my parents really getting into it. Happy Birthday Matthew, look at Grammy rip Grandpa a new one. Apparently in the confusion of checking all those bags, my mother's carryon with her meds gets checked. Now my mother illness has caused her to at times be a bit unreasonable, so it's all Donald's fault she doesn't have her meds. I tell her that Frontier has never lost our luggage and it will be fine. If God forbid its lost, we will call the doctor and have her call in new prescriptions to Walgreens and pick them up in Orlando. Nope, this is the end of life as we know it. I feel sorry for her and am also worried about the meds being lost but don't know what to do. Then she then turns her wrath on me. I am at fault for letting her stupid, old, doddering husband be responisible for her medication, what an idiot I am after all he is so forgetful. I patiently remind her that she is the one forgetful (The woman has Alzheimers for God's sake). I finally move everyone to the gate and talk to a very nice Frontier gate agent. I explain the situation. I show her my parents checked bags vouchers, describe the bags and she promises to go find them. Dan returns all smiles with the camera to find the rest of the family in state of mourning for the loss of my mother's medication. My sweet little boy tries to comfort Grammy, she tells him to shut up. My mohter has never told anybody to shut up that I know of until today. Walt, where are you and can you PLEASE send me some pixie dust ASAP? We board the plane and then here comes my new best friend, Dorrie of Frontier Airlines, she has the bag. I hug her. Roman, our wonderful flight attendant who has also helped with this tells me to take out the medication so they can put the bag back in the hold due to regulation. Fine. I walk down the aisle like soldier returning from a winning battle and hand my mom her medication. She tells me she doesn't need it now. ARRGGGHHHH!!!!! But I take one of her Xanax's because by God somebody might as well take some drugs and it might as well be me. The rest of the flight is uneventful and I decide Xanax is actually pixie dust. We land, get our bags, our rental car and head to All Star Sports. Two nights there before we head to our DVC digs. Long check in nightmare at All Star Sports. It took 45 minutes once I got up to the castmember. Apparently, my husband's cousin had called WDW and charged $50 Disney Dollars to give to our kids for their birthday's (Maria's birthday was in September). Great, but ASSP couldn't figure this out and told me somebody was trying to use my credit card. Finally after some phone calls they figured this out and we got our rooms. Two rooms, Building 1. We had dinner reservations in Epcot for Matthew's birthday. My mother is tired and doesn't want to go. Matthew, being the sweet, mature human being that he is asks my mother what she wants. Well she needs bland food, not spicy Morroccan food (we had an ADR at Marrakesh, Matthew's choice). Okay, Matthew says, lets just stay at Sports, eat at the food court and relax by the pool. I go with my 11 year old's flow because secretly I am too tired to navigate the whole crew through World Showcase anyway. My mother eats her bland food in the form of Nachos loaded with jalapenos and we have a great evening swimming and checking out the resort. My parents absolutely love all the theming, they've never seen anything like it. So thinkgs end up on a very positive, fun note thank goodness! We are here and all things considered, I'd say its going to be a great vacation!
Saturday, October 15:
We have breakfast at the food court. We decide we will just relax by the pool and head into MK around 3:00 for our 4:00 ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern. It turns out to be a great day although my mother mentions she is homesick. I know this is typical but tell her wait until she sees that castle, she won't be missing her condo anymore! We end up having a wonderful dinner at LTT. My parents have a ball seeing the characters. I had arranged for a birthday cake to be brought out to Matthew. I see the waitress (we are right near the drink station) preparing the cake with a candle so I know its coming soon. Well Matthew decides he needs to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW. I tell him to please wait just a minute. He just loses it. His bladder will literally explode, how can I be so mean, why can't a guy just pee, what is the fun of making somebody wait in agony. He puts is head in his hands and cries. Suddenly, all of these people are standing at our table ringing a loud bell and singing Happy Birthday. He is thrilled, the cake is chocolate and wonderful and he is happy. Incidentally, his bladder apparently wasn't about to explode because he didn't go to the bathroom until about 20 minutes and two pieces of cake later! We then headed to Hall of Presidents then over into Tomorrowland where we saw Carousel of Progress and rode TTA. My parents are really enjoying themselves and I begin to relax thinking maybe we are going to have a great trip. We head back into Liberty Square for Spectro and Wishes which they love. Our first full day is over and it went very well. Tomorrow we check into SSR and go to MNSSHP! My mother tells me she had a great day but is ready to go home. I remind her we still have a week and all the fun things we have. She looks none too certain but I am still optimistic!
Sunday, October 16:
I wake up to see my bill under my door. I know I will have a zero balance since I paid $212.56 on Friday night for the balance on our two rooms. But the bill is showing exactly $50 more being charged to my mastercard. I realize that those Disney Dollars Dan's cousin charged on his credit card that caused a 45 minute delay on Friday, are now charged to my credit card. I call and spend 20 minutes dealing with this. At first the CM tells me to call my cousin and tell him to give me $50. I tell her this is stupid and I am not going to call, they just need to credit me $50 and call Mr. Witulski and get his cc# again that they have apparently lost. They actually do this so we are fine. Now while I am on this 20 minute call my stepdad is trying to call me (why he didn't just knock on the door I still don't know). My mother can't find her drivers license. She is frantic and nasty and calling him every name in the book (all part of the Alz. ritual we live with). She has forgotten that yesterday I had helped her put her license, one credit card, kleenex and lip gloss in the fanny pack I bought her for the trip. I had forgotten to tell Donald so he would know, big mistake, I should totally know better. Now she can't find it in her regular wallet and goes ballistic. This is the kind of frustration that is so sad to see. Maria, who had slept in their room finally came over and knocked and tearfully explained to me what was going on just as I was hanging up from my call. I go over to find my mom really upset and being pretty awful. Before she can lay into me, I pluck the fanny pack off the top their tv, whip out the driver's license, hand it to her and leave the room. This incident is never mentioned again, since she forgets about it. Occasionally a bad memory is a good thing! We leave ASSP, head to SSR and find they have a two bedroom in the Paddock section all ready and its only 11:30. I am thrilled. Dan and I can go grocery shop, Donald can take a nap and we will take my mom with us so she can't do anymore damage, berate poor Donald amymore or lose anything. So we head over to Goodings (SSR security guard told us its the closest grocery store). This has to be the most expensive grocery store on the planet. Oh well, we are still saving a bundle on buying our own water bottles, snacks and breakfast items. But next time I will find a Wal Mart!
Now its time for MNSSHP. I had actually bought tickets for this on the 16th and the 20th since I think this will be a great way to ride rides at MK. Last year I noticed the crowds seemed thick but the lines were non existant. I can't wait, thinking my parents will love the Halloween party. Wrong. This was the lowest point of the trip. This made the whole medicine crisis at the airport look like a picnic. The park is dark. Remember, my stepdad is blind in one eye now. He begins to grumble about how dark it is and how this place is a law suit waiting to happen. All of those happy little trick or treaters running around become tripping hazards for both my parents. We ride Buzz first. They hate it, they don't understand it since they don't know about video games etc. As we exit the ride, my mother is ahead of me. She is turning around telling me how much she hates the ride when I realize the moving sidewalk is ending. I scream to her to turn around but its too late. She loses her balance and almost falls but the nice CM catches her. I get off so she can yell at me for taking her on such a dumb ride and then I turn around just in time to see my stepdad doing the same thing. He also trips but nobody catches him and he goes down. I feel awful. They cannot stress enough how much they hate this ride. We head to Mickey's Philharmagic. They had loved this on Saturday night but this time they are not so appreciative. We decide to head over to Casey's for hotdogs and the fireworks. We get stuck due to the parade. We sit on a bench on the walkway that connects Tommorowland to the castle hub. We all look dejected, my parents are exhausted and we can hear the parade music but can't really see the parade. Over and over the "Happy Halloween" diddy plays. My stepdad is hunched over, Maria is craning her neck desparately trying to see some of the parade, Matthew cries a little saying how much he was looking forward to this. If I could have transported our family of six back to Denver I would have. I had thought this evening would be perfect, how did things get so off? Finally the parade passes, we head to Casey's and see the fireworks. My parents enjoy their hotdogs and the fireworks were great but I realize this evening is just not happening. We are tired and staying to get our money's worth is just plain stupid. We head into Adventureland which is much less croweded, ride the Magic Carpets and POC and then head back to the bus. I beg Dan to stay with the kids and ride Splash Mountain and some other rides but he decides we should just all leave. The good news is that its so early we get right on the bus and are home in bed by 10:45. I reflect on this evening and realize the problem with being really, really excited about anything is that you will just be disappointed. I tell Dan as we have a pow wow, just the two of us on the balcony with a six pack, that we need to have no expectations of anything else the rest of the trip. Also, on Thursday, my parents should leave the halloween party right after the first parade and we will stay just the four of us so the kids can finally ride some things. Tomorrow is another day and will be spent at Animal Kingdom!
Monday, October 17:
We sleep in until amost 10:00 and all wake up in better spirits. I had bought my mother some Krispy Kremes at Goodings and tell her if she warms it up for a few seconds in the microwave it will taste nice and fresh. She warmed it up for around a minute, bad idea since the donut pretty much incinerated and left a weird smell in the kitchen. No problem though, we hang out some and then get to AK around 12:45, head to the 1:15 show of Lion King. My parents really enjoyed this. Also, I notice that the wider walkways and fewer people at AK combined with the ease of driving and parking at the park are making for less stress where my parents are concerned. We have a fun lunch at RFC and really enjoy the afternoon. We ride the safari at around 3:45 and then I pull out my trick learned from the Lloyd's on Ultimate Fan's Guide. We will see the parade as it makes its second trip through Africa and won't have to stake out a spot in the sun. It works great. Dan snags a chair for my mom from a nearby restaurant (we saw others doing it and thought why not). She has a front row seat and she and my dad really enjoy the parade. This has been an absolutely wonderful day. When the parade is over Dan and I find a nice shady spot for my parents so we can take the kids on Kali. Its around 4:45, there's no line. My mother immediately forgets the wonderful day and pouts. She is extremely dependant on me and doesn't want to wait with just my dad. The kids are begging me to go on Kali with them and Dan. My dad tells me to go, so I do. We get to stay on and ride again, what a treat! We come off dripping wet and laughing and find my parents. My mother is frantic thinking we have left them in the park and headed back to Saratoga Springs without them. My dad is frazzled from her meltdown. Then she tells me what a lousy mother I am to let my kids get so wet. I just ignore her and we leave. Its 5:15 when we get on the tram and we have an 8:30 ADR at Chef Mickey's. Plenty of time for Grandpa to rest. Dan and I decide to take the kids for a swim. This also irritates my mother because now she won't have anybody to talk to, but she won't come to the pool too. I decide to give her a little treat. I pull out a bag of fritos (her favorite food), turn on the news, pour her a nice big glass of wine and tell her I'll go get Dan and the kids settled in and be right back. Naturally, I know once she starts eating her fritos, drinking her wine and watching tv she'll forget all about me. She does and we come back an hour later to a much more mellow Grammy. Wine is also pixie dust. We head to Chef Mickey's but Maria announces after we sit down she doesn't feel good. Her throat hurts. She begins to shiver. I think its probably allergies (she had them all day at AK) and the AC at Chef Mickey's is set at about 60 degrees. My mother, the one who can't remember anything now remembers how dripping wet we all were from Kali. Wouldn't you know she can remember that? I sweetly ask my mother if she would like another glass of wine (I should have brought some fritos). No dice. I contemplate putting a xanax in her soup but instead Dan goes to the gift shop at the Contemporary, pays $36 for a fleecey sweat shirt with princesses on it, I let Maria have some hot tea with honey and she begins to feel better. My mom decides maybe Maria isn't sick, just a victim of an overzealous ac system and we end up having a really fun evening. My stepdad whose name is Donald really has fun hamming it up with Donald Duck. And Maria gets a really nice sweatshirt out of the deal so things end on a pretty good note! Tomorrow is Epcot!
Friday, October 14:
We pick up my parents at their senior condo complex bright and early. DH goes in with the kids to get them and their luggage. I hop out of the car and snap a picture of all of them. I immediately notice how foggy my mother is this day and how tired my stepdad looks. But we forge on to DIA. We get through security, check the bags and decide to have breakfast at McDonalds. Suddenly I realize that picture I took back at the condo. Does DH have the camera back in his backpack? That would be a no. Uh Oh. Now my husband Dan is a nice, laid back guy. He offers to go back to the car to get it, thankfully we parked close in (very expensive but worth the less walking for my parents, thank God we did it). So I tell him to meet us at the gate. Next crisis: My mother wants to take her medicine with her breakfast. This occurs while my daughter Maria and I are waiting in a second long line at McDonald's. The first time I ordered and then found out they don't take credit cards. So I go back to the table and get cash from my mother (DH has the cash somewhere in the DIA parking structure). I wait in the long line again but I am going to WDW and I don't care, I'm happy. I come back to the table all smiles bearing full, greasy bags of McD's to find my parents really getting into it. Happy Birthday Matthew, look at Grammy rip Grandpa a new one. Apparently in the confusion of checking all those bags, my mother's carryon with her meds gets checked. Now my mother illness has caused her to at times be a bit unreasonable, so it's all Donald's fault she doesn't have her meds. I tell her that Frontier has never lost our luggage and it will be fine. If God forbid its lost, we will call the doctor and have her call in new prescriptions to Walgreens and pick them up in Orlando. Nope, this is the end of life as we know it. I feel sorry for her and am also worried about the meds being lost but don't know what to do. Then she then turns her wrath on me. I am at fault for letting her stupid, old, doddering husband be responisible for her medication, what an idiot I am after all he is so forgetful. I patiently remind her that she is the one forgetful (The woman has Alzheimers for God's sake). I finally move everyone to the gate and talk to a very nice Frontier gate agent. I explain the situation. I show her my parents checked bags vouchers, describe the bags and she promises to go find them. Dan returns all smiles with the camera to find the rest of the family in state of mourning for the loss of my mother's medication. My sweet little boy tries to comfort Grammy, she tells him to shut up. My mohter has never told anybody to shut up that I know of until today. Walt, where are you and can you PLEASE send me some pixie dust ASAP? We board the plane and then here comes my new best friend, Dorrie of Frontier Airlines, she has the bag. I hug her. Roman, our wonderful flight attendant who has also helped with this tells me to take out the medication so they can put the bag back in the hold due to regulation. Fine. I walk down the aisle like soldier returning from a winning battle and hand my mom her medication. She tells me she doesn't need it now. ARRGGGHHHH!!!!! But I take one of her Xanax's because by God somebody might as well take some drugs and it might as well be me. The rest of the flight is uneventful and I decide Xanax is actually pixie dust. We land, get our bags, our rental car and head to All Star Sports. Two nights there before we head to our DVC digs. Long check in nightmare at All Star Sports. It took 45 minutes once I got up to the castmember. Apparently, my husband's cousin had called WDW and charged $50 Disney Dollars to give to our kids for their birthday's (Maria's birthday was in September). Great, but ASSP couldn't figure this out and told me somebody was trying to use my credit card. Finally after some phone calls they figured this out and we got our rooms. Two rooms, Building 1. We had dinner reservations in Epcot for Matthew's birthday. My mother is tired and doesn't want to go. Matthew, being the sweet, mature human being that he is asks my mother what she wants. Well she needs bland food, not spicy Morroccan food (we had an ADR at Marrakesh, Matthew's choice). Okay, Matthew says, lets just stay at Sports, eat at the food court and relax by the pool. I go with my 11 year old's flow because secretly I am too tired to navigate the whole crew through World Showcase anyway. My mother eats her bland food in the form of Nachos loaded with jalapenos and we have a great evening swimming and checking out the resort. My parents absolutely love all the theming, they've never seen anything like it. So thinkgs end up on a very positive, fun note thank goodness! We are here and all things considered, I'd say its going to be a great vacation!
Saturday, October 15:
We have breakfast at the food court. We decide we will just relax by the pool and head into MK around 3:00 for our 4:00 ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern. It turns out to be a great day although my mother mentions she is homesick. I know this is typical but tell her wait until she sees that castle, she won't be missing her condo anymore! We end up having a wonderful dinner at LTT. My parents have a ball seeing the characters. I had arranged for a birthday cake to be brought out to Matthew. I see the waitress (we are right near the drink station) preparing the cake with a candle so I know its coming soon. Well Matthew decides he needs to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW. I tell him to please wait just a minute. He just loses it. His bladder will literally explode, how can I be so mean, why can't a guy just pee, what is the fun of making somebody wait in agony. He puts is head in his hands and cries. Suddenly, all of these people are standing at our table ringing a loud bell and singing Happy Birthday. He is thrilled, the cake is chocolate and wonderful and he is happy. Incidentally, his bladder apparently wasn't about to explode because he didn't go to the bathroom until about 20 minutes and two pieces of cake later! We then headed to Hall of Presidents then over into Tomorrowland where we saw Carousel of Progress and rode TTA. My parents are really enjoying themselves and I begin to relax thinking maybe we are going to have a great trip. We head back into Liberty Square for Spectro and Wishes which they love. Our first full day is over and it went very well. Tomorrow we check into SSR and go to MNSSHP! My mother tells me she had a great day but is ready to go home. I remind her we still have a week and all the fun things we have. She looks none too certain but I am still optimistic!
Sunday, October 16:
I wake up to see my bill under my door. I know I will have a zero balance since I paid $212.56 on Friday night for the balance on our two rooms. But the bill is showing exactly $50 more being charged to my mastercard. I realize that those Disney Dollars Dan's cousin charged on his credit card that caused a 45 minute delay on Friday, are now charged to my credit card. I call and spend 20 minutes dealing with this. At first the CM tells me to call my cousin and tell him to give me $50. I tell her this is stupid and I am not going to call, they just need to credit me $50 and call Mr. Witulski and get his cc# again that they have apparently lost. They actually do this so we are fine. Now while I am on this 20 minute call my stepdad is trying to call me (why he didn't just knock on the door I still don't know). My mother can't find her drivers license. She is frantic and nasty and calling him every name in the book (all part of the Alz. ritual we live with). She has forgotten that yesterday I had helped her put her license, one credit card, kleenex and lip gloss in the fanny pack I bought her for the trip. I had forgotten to tell Donald so he would know, big mistake, I should totally know better. Now she can't find it in her regular wallet and goes ballistic. This is the kind of frustration that is so sad to see. Maria, who had slept in their room finally came over and knocked and tearfully explained to me what was going on just as I was hanging up from my call. I go over to find my mom really upset and being pretty awful. Before she can lay into me, I pluck the fanny pack off the top their tv, whip out the driver's license, hand it to her and leave the room. This incident is never mentioned again, since she forgets about it. Occasionally a bad memory is a good thing! We leave ASSP, head to SSR and find they have a two bedroom in the Paddock section all ready and its only 11:30. I am thrilled. Dan and I can go grocery shop, Donald can take a nap and we will take my mom with us so she can't do anymore damage, berate poor Donald amymore or lose anything. So we head over to Goodings (SSR security guard told us its the closest grocery store). This has to be the most expensive grocery store on the planet. Oh well, we are still saving a bundle on buying our own water bottles, snacks and breakfast items. But next time I will find a Wal Mart!
Now its time for MNSSHP. I had actually bought tickets for this on the 16th and the 20th since I think this will be a great way to ride rides at MK. Last year I noticed the crowds seemed thick but the lines were non existant. I can't wait, thinking my parents will love the Halloween party. Wrong. This was the lowest point of the trip. This made the whole medicine crisis at the airport look like a picnic. The park is dark. Remember, my stepdad is blind in one eye now. He begins to grumble about how dark it is and how this place is a law suit waiting to happen. All of those happy little trick or treaters running around become tripping hazards for both my parents. We ride Buzz first. They hate it, they don't understand it since they don't know about video games etc. As we exit the ride, my mother is ahead of me. She is turning around telling me how much she hates the ride when I realize the moving sidewalk is ending. I scream to her to turn around but its too late. She loses her balance and almost falls but the nice CM catches her. I get off so she can yell at me for taking her on such a dumb ride and then I turn around just in time to see my stepdad doing the same thing. He also trips but nobody catches him and he goes down. I feel awful. They cannot stress enough how much they hate this ride. We head to Mickey's Philharmagic. They had loved this on Saturday night but this time they are not so appreciative. We decide to head over to Casey's for hotdogs and the fireworks. We get stuck due to the parade. We sit on a bench on the walkway that connects Tommorowland to the castle hub. We all look dejected, my parents are exhausted and we can hear the parade music but can't really see the parade. Over and over the "Happy Halloween" diddy plays. My stepdad is hunched over, Maria is craning her neck desparately trying to see some of the parade, Matthew cries a little saying how much he was looking forward to this. If I could have transported our family of six back to Denver I would have. I had thought this evening would be perfect, how did things get so off? Finally the parade passes, we head to Casey's and see the fireworks. My parents enjoy their hotdogs and the fireworks were great but I realize this evening is just not happening. We are tired and staying to get our money's worth is just plain stupid. We head into Adventureland which is much less croweded, ride the Magic Carpets and POC and then head back to the bus. I beg Dan to stay with the kids and ride Splash Mountain and some other rides but he decides we should just all leave. The good news is that its so early we get right on the bus and are home in bed by 10:45. I reflect on this evening and realize the problem with being really, really excited about anything is that you will just be disappointed. I tell Dan as we have a pow wow, just the two of us on the balcony with a six pack, that we need to have no expectations of anything else the rest of the trip. Also, on Thursday, my parents should leave the halloween party right after the first parade and we will stay just the four of us so the kids can finally ride some things. Tomorrow is another day and will be spent at Animal Kingdom!
Monday, October 17:
We sleep in until amost 10:00 and all wake up in better spirits. I had bought my mother some Krispy Kremes at Goodings and tell her if she warms it up for a few seconds in the microwave it will taste nice and fresh. She warmed it up for around a minute, bad idea since the donut pretty much incinerated and left a weird smell in the kitchen. No problem though, we hang out some and then get to AK around 12:45, head to the 1:15 show of Lion King. My parents really enjoyed this. Also, I notice that the wider walkways and fewer people at AK combined with the ease of driving and parking at the park are making for less stress where my parents are concerned. We have a fun lunch at RFC and really enjoy the afternoon. We ride the safari at around 3:45 and then I pull out my trick learned from the Lloyd's on Ultimate Fan's Guide. We will see the parade as it makes its second trip through Africa and won't have to stake out a spot in the sun. It works great. Dan snags a chair for my mom from a nearby restaurant (we saw others doing it and thought why not). She has a front row seat and she and my dad really enjoy the parade. This has been an absolutely wonderful day. When the parade is over Dan and I find a nice shady spot for my parents so we can take the kids on Kali. Its around 4:45, there's no line. My mother immediately forgets the wonderful day and pouts. She is extremely dependant on me and doesn't want to wait with just my dad. The kids are begging me to go on Kali with them and Dan. My dad tells me to go, so I do. We get to stay on and ride again, what a treat! We come off dripping wet and laughing and find my parents. My mother is frantic thinking we have left them in the park and headed back to Saratoga Springs without them. My dad is frazzled from her meltdown. Then she tells me what a lousy mother I am to let my kids get so wet. I just ignore her and we leave. Its 5:15 when we get on the tram and we have an 8:30 ADR at Chef Mickey's. Plenty of time for Grandpa to rest. Dan and I decide to take the kids for a swim. This also irritates my mother because now she won't have anybody to talk to, but she won't come to the pool too. I decide to give her a little treat. I pull out a bag of fritos (her favorite food), turn on the news, pour her a nice big glass of wine and tell her I'll go get Dan and the kids settled in and be right back. Naturally, I know once she starts eating her fritos, drinking her wine and watching tv she'll forget all about me. She does and we come back an hour later to a much more mellow Grammy. Wine is also pixie dust. We head to Chef Mickey's but Maria announces after we sit down she doesn't feel good. Her throat hurts. She begins to shiver. I think its probably allergies (she had them all day at AK) and the AC at Chef Mickey's is set at about 60 degrees. My mother, the one who can't remember anything now remembers how dripping wet we all were from Kali. Wouldn't you know she can remember that? I sweetly ask my mother if she would like another glass of wine (I should have brought some fritos). No dice. I contemplate putting a xanax in her soup but instead Dan goes to the gift shop at the Contemporary, pays $36 for a fleecey sweat shirt with princesses on it, I let Maria have some hot tea with honey and she begins to feel better. My mom decides maybe Maria isn't sick, just a victim of an overzealous ac system and we end up having a really fun evening. My stepdad whose name is Donald really has fun hamming it up with Donald Duck. And Maria gets a really nice sweatshirt out of the deal so things end on a pretty good note! Tomorrow is Epcot!
Thanks so much for posting!
we had to postpone the trip to this year. I hope I can have as much patience and grace as you had, facing even more adversity than I will with the Alzheimer's & all. My DH and I have already agreed not to have any expectations. We have been before and will undoubtedly be back, so this trip will basically be all about them. Thanks so much for sharing 
