I'm here.
Where have you been?
Thanks for coming back. It’s Monday morning (and our third full park day) so it’s time to go to the Disney MGM Studios! Hey, they can change the name as many times as they want; we still call it MGM. Don’t you?
This is the day we finally became a Party of 16! My sister the (first grade)Teacher and her two children had arrived at POP the night before and would be meeting us at MGM at our usual before-opening time.
The Gatelatch, Coattail and Fixer families met in the Beach Club lobby for a boat ride over to the Studios. The plan was in place. Everyone had their scream primed for a thriller morning!
It was another picture perfect day and the launch was so comfortable. I ask you, how could I not be blissfully happy in the company of these friends?
Look! The My sister and her family blended right into the short line and our group 20 minutes before the park opened.
The kids were so happy to be together.
I think I have told you that besides one being my family, all these children have gone to school together since Kindergarten. Our families play on weekends, have dinner, camp in scouts, play on sports teams, perform in school plays (much more on that to come!), and share the same large circle of friends and similar lifestyle back home, so we knew they would get along. We never really gave it a second thought, but by the end of the trip we marveled at how it was even better than we could have predicted!
The older kids, the seventh grade boys, really didn’t fight with the tens and elevens as they oh, sometimes, might do back home. They included them when that was a fit. Thirteen year old boys can get a bad rap in this world. I may or may not be one who has pre-judged them in the past. I may or may not owe some teens and adults an apology. I have grown to watch and see that these guys are smart, easygoing, hilarious companions! They also treated the seven year old tagalongs very well. They encouraged, but didn’t pressure, them to try new experiences. They offered to sit with them on rides, make room at tables, and go first on the big Stormalong Bay slide. Yep, they are welcome at my house and on my vacation anytime!
The tens and elevens were a great group! I LOVE these three!
Full of sparkle, enthusiasm, positive energy, and laughter, these future stars were never at a loss for words. They were our unscripted show when we needed a story but kept themselves off and entertained in conversation for endless stints. We trusted them to be independently responsible and flexible when we needed to make a group decision.
Can you tell they are not Oldest Children? They are ready! Let’s go, aybee!!
Walk this way!!!!!!!!!
The Plan called for the typical sprint to the thrillers with a ride on one and a FastPass for the other. A few of our group actually planned to SKIP the Tower of Most Amazing Drops Ever so we had a split-the-fastpasses plan in place. Everyone met at the coaster and jumped in the standby line for a Rockin party of (almost) 16. Abstainers identities will be omitted to protect their embarrassment, but we’ll just say the seven year olds couldn’t wait to ride.
Spotted as we scooted through the short line: Disney landscape offenders.
My Shrek loves the RnRC. He was so glad when Evan started riding it but not the Tower because he could admit the Coaster is his true love and ‘take Evan’ again while Andrew and I go to the creepy hotel. I think in that moment my love believes he’s Steven Tyler racing to the gig in that limo. He taught himself to play the guitar at age 15 and bought himself an electric guitar about three years ago. He loves to plug in all the amps and release his inner rock star in the spare bedroom once a week. I think when he’s spinning through the darkness listening to that music it all comes together for him and he doesn’t even have to play. The adoring fans are just waiting for him!!
His voice is naturally one of the loudest on the planet. His fraternity name was The Prince of Noise. It comes in handy when we need to call the kids in from playing in the neighborhood. I have to turn the phone volume to ‘low’ every time we talk. You don’t want to sit next to him in the bleachers when one of our kids is playing ball or the Vols are on the field. Well, on that dark limo ride, he has some screaming and laughing going on and I laugh the whole time because I KNOW how loud he is and that everyone can hear him!! I always think people have a good time riding with Shrek because they usually get off and comment ‘how much that one guy was laughing and screaming’ and I smile (because he does not listen so he never knows) and appreciate his big voice for a change.
This also happens—in a huge way—on Test Track.
One of our first meeting spots we chose as we made our way around was the Tips Board. Remember we said we were going to keep up with interesting Cast Member names? Well, the whispering and ‘write this downs’ began as soon as we met Taku. I didn’t need to write it down to remember this terrific fella! Taku was the happiest, most helpful man we had ever met. His smile was absolutely contagious as he answered questions coming at him from every side of his head. He was perfectly cast at the Tips and Information Center.
I could have watched him all day except I had other things to do.
Bye Taku! We’ll be back to catch one of your smiles!
The younger and middle age kids had been talking about the High School Musical Pep Rally for weeks. It was the talk of our community where our high school was one of the first in the country to stage it this spring. Like 100,000 other kids, E had seen it, bought the t-shirt, and had it signed by the cast. We had checked the Times Guide and were NOT going to miss it!
Here it comes!!
Uh oh. Caught ya being grumpy. What, you don’t LOVE High School Musical?
Smart Emiline had also checked the Times Guide so our boys could check out Lightning McQueen and Co. at a special appearance time. Good girl! We all scattered but Em, Crush and I got to watch this:
I absolutely hate that these days and photo ops are fleeting and my Disney future holds many more cell phone calls of, “Mom, I’ll meet you at the Times Board in 72 hours.” Yes, Yes, I know I can take Shrek’s picture in front of Tow Mater (he does a spot-on impression) but I will forever miss my little boys racing to see the characters when those days end.
Those days, thankfully, are almost, but not QUITE here yet.
I think I just heard Shrek scream from across the park.
Now, NOW I get to ride the Tower!! I get to d-r-o-p thirteen stories! I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!
It’s a big day and big moment. E and little G have decided to ride! Their big brothers have encouraged them they Can do it and they are ready to face their fears.
Our group approached the hotel gate and presented our fastpasses.
The CM deadpanned :
I can’t read it when your thumb is over the time. Goodbye.
Perfect.
We were ready.
No one was nervous.
I sat next to my baby and watched his face the whole time. Actually, I was next to both boys and their faces said, “Get me off this thing you horrible mothers. This is scary and you lied to us. There are talking ghosts in here.”
Their comments at the end when their brothers got in their faces and asked what they thought were, “That was amazing! That was beastly, awesome, and I can’t wait to do it again.”
By the end of the trip E placed the Tower in a tie for his top two rides.
Apparently, his face can lie as well as his words.
We met the Great Movie Riders for our lunch reservation at one of our favorite stops we must do every trip: Prime Time Café. We can’t go anywhere else in the Studios (there, I said it) because we’ve yet to have a bad experience here!
I approached the podium and kindly asked for our favorite server, Auntie Claire, but she was off that day. I did ask for someone funny (always do that!) and we were not disappointed. Loulaki (call me Luke) from Morocco was great!
He had G (13) sing ‘I’m a Little Teapot’ for putting his elbows on the table. Hey, we had all been warned!
Luke was serious about his elbows-on-the-tables rule and he had a ripe crowd. My nephew B had to stand in the corner with his nose on the wall. The Gatelatches DS13 had to set the adults’ table.
His favorite target from the moment we sat down though, was my sister, the Teacher. Boy, did he get on to her. First of all, she was texting into her phone while he was talking.
I don’t think he liked that.
Then she bantered with him about proper manners and rules.
He called her a Bossy Mom and had the entire restaurant section engage in a You Are a Bossy Mom sing-song when she did something he didn’t like.
He called her Teacher of the Month and kept singing “Yeah, It’s your birthday; fix your bumper. It’s your birthday.”
Oh, he may have referred to me by that name as well when he found out I was her older sister.
He put her in a nose against the wall for backtalk.
Our food came and it was delicious. The kids were nervous they would get in trouble if they didn’t eat all their vegetables or all the food on their plates. In fact, I think I saw some potpie veggies being sneaked into a napkin.
We caught Luke peeking through the bookshelves watching us on the way to the kitchen. He was a hoot!
Then he came back to see if we had eaten all our lunch.
He didn’t think the teacher had eaten enough of her grilled chicken salad.
He decided to talk to her about it.
My sister is, um, pretty firm in her position on things.
Luke wasn’t budging and resorted to some parenting tricks of his own.
They renegotiated.
Guess who won?
Before we left we thanked and applauded Luke and he shooed us out of there.
I even got a hug from my darling niece:
Could this day get any better?
They are both men, why can't they just use their truck keys?
But in those 20 years you have learned important things like Inspect the ring before saying yes 
Now that does sound like a great vision of heaven to me too. 
). This September I will watch them from the CG and I will order a Lemondrop from the bar and take a few drinks to toast you for telling me about it!! 
As a frequent recipient of ear infections, (NOT due to Qtip abuse, FYI 
confused3 ) I missed that the 1st time around. Love it!!
