While Mr. Frick went to his happy place, the ESPN Zone on a college football Saturday in September, the boys and I enjoyed the pool. Have I mentioned how much I love the pool at the Beach Club? I joined them at the sandy beach area and we built dams and sandcastles. We wondered if the sand is really sand. The grains are really big and you dont get that really bad sand in the pants feeling. Kwim? Anywho, we had a great time together and it was sweet.
Mr. Frick came back to say hello and give me a report on the Bama game. He couldnt get a spot at the ESPN Zone so he had been enjoying some football at the Beach Club, or maybe it was the Yacht Club, bar. I listened to his recaps of the game like I cared, ahem, and then he went back to reclaim his barstool. I spent some time in my lounge chair watching my two sweet gifts from God play and I sure was thankful for our ability to bring them to Disney.
Back when I was teaching school, I would be so envious of the families who were pulling their kids out for a week to take them to Disney. I dreamed of doing that for my own family, and I didnt even have children yet. One thing that always squashed my dream was the thought of how we would pay for it. When we first got married, we owned a golf driving range. In other words, we lived off of my teachers salary. A Disney vacation would have been pretty much impossible to pull off. So, the fact that we can do it now isnt taken lightly by me or Mr. Frick. We are very grateful for the fact that we DUMPED that driving range and Mr. Frick took on a new career. Phew. I think the only great thing we took away from that range was a great marriage (because that is where we met) and some pretty spanking good golf swings (well mine is pretty good, Mr. Fricks is awesome) because all we did was practice when we had down time.
Our original plans for the day had us leaving for Hollywood Studios at 2:00. Wasnt gonna happen. Yet again, we had gotten engrossed in the action at the pool and we couldnt tear ourselves away. Mr. Frick joined us around 3:00 and we hemmed and hawed over what to do. We asked the boys what they wanted to do and all we could get out of them was play at the pool. We knew Lil Frick wanted to ride Little Thunder Mountain again since our previous night at the MK was rained out. We also knew Stitch wanted to ride Tower of Terror since he didnt ride it on our last visit. I had never ridden ToT either and I was itching to drop.
After many huddles with the kids and making game plans that included splitting up & going to different parks as well as staying together, we finally decided on the destination for our last night, sniff sniff, at Disney. I did something totally out of character. Mr. Frick had brought our swimsuits down from the room while we ate at Beaches & Cream, and I had changed in the lovely womens locker room. I decided not to make my family wait for me to take a shower and get all gussied up, so I went back into the womens locker room and threw on my clothes that I had worn that morning. *gasp* I was heading to the parks with wet hair, no make-up and wrinkled up clothes. I took one for the team.
The boys did a quick change in the guys locker room and we left our wet swimsuits and pool bag at our lounge chairs and we took off for the boat launch. We were heading to Hollywood Studios to do TWO things
.Tower of Terror and Star Tours. After that, we were going to see where the night took us. We were game for anything. We had a peaceful ride on the Friendship Boat and before we knew it, we were at the park entrance. Have I said how much I love the location of the Beach Club?
We entered the park and headed for the stroller rental area. Dont hate on me, but a sweet family offered to give us their stroller because they were leaving
.and we took it. Thank you sweet family! As we were waiting on the kids to load up, we were approached by another truly kind family. The daddy came over and asked us if we would be interested in taking their Fantasmic dinner package tickets. Their daughter was getting sicker by the minute with a horrible sore throat and they needed to get her back to the hotel. Wow. I felt horrible for them but I felt pretty darn skippy about those fastpasses to Fantasmic. We graciously accepted them and wished the little girl well. The daddy said he would much rather have another family enjoy those passes than letting them go to waste. As we walked away, we marveled over their kindness and we knew we had picked the right destination for the evening. Thank you kind daddy!
We headed straight for the Tower of Terror. I was SO excited to get to ride something that I had never been on before. Stitch and I got in the 20 minute line and Mr. Frick and Lil Frick, who wanted no part of ToT, went to get a lil snack and watch us drop. Stitch and I both had butterflies because we had no idea what to expect. Thinking back to it I just get giddy!
We entered our elevator and braced ourselves for the ride. Let me say the whole thing took me by complete surprise. I thought I could predict what was going to happen because in my mind, I thought it was going to be like Free Fall here at our stinky little Six Flags over Georgia. I could do nothing but scream and giggle like a little girl during the whole sha-bang. I mean I LOVED it! Stitch, not so much. When the ride came to an end, the lady beside me, who knew we were riding for the first time, told me that she loves this ride because you never get the same thing twice. I didnt know that. ToT got two thumbs up from me. Stitch liked the dropping sequence, but he did not like the ghosts and the Twilight Zone deal. This kid isnt scared of anything, but this really got to him. He said he knew he was going to have nightmares for a while. Bless him.
Mr. Frick and Lil Frick were out front watching the doors of the Hollywood Hotel open and shut. They were fascinated by it. I told Mr. Frick he should go and ride, but he decided to pass. It was time to head to Star Tours so we made our way on over. As we passed the big hat, I had to get a family picture. Even if I did look like funk, I still wanted to get a picture. Lil Frick pitched him an absolute fit because he was so done with getting his picture taken, so I told him he didnt have to be in the picture and I wheeled the stroller, with him in it, out of the shot. It turned out to be one of the sweetest pictures! I hate that he isnt in it, but at least Stitch can have it and remember the good times we had that night. Our camera was still drying out, so this was our only picture from the day.
The kids were starting to get hungry and I knew Star Tours wouldnt be open much longer. I sent the guys on their way to ride and I told them I would meet them at the exit with dinner. I had planned on getting us some pizza at Pizza Planet, but I was shut out because they were closing at what felt like a terribly early time. I began walking around the park looking for a counter service that was still open. I ended up at the ABC place and got dinner for the boys and I. Mr. Frick wasnt hungry and he was going to drink his dinner that night. I carried an amazingly large amount of food and drinks through the park back to Star Tours. I plopped down at the dump shop exit and decided I would go ahead and eat. Time was a tickin and we needed to book it on over to the special ticket holder Fantasmic entrance as soon as the guys got out of their rocket ship. When all was said and done at Star Tours, the boys got back in their stroller and ate their meals as we made our way to Fantasmic. What a nice family dinner for our last night in Disney. We had ADRs, but yet again we got pulled in a different direction and we had to cancel them. Hopefully, some other family did a walk up that night and snagged our table and had a wonderful meal!
We loved our special entrance into Fantasmic and thanks to the sweet family who decided to share these passes with us, we got a wonderful spot in the second row. Our area wasnt crowded at all and it was a nice wait for the show to start. We did the wave, Mr. Frick got some more dinner for him and I and we got Mickey Head ice-cream bars for the boys. Now, here is the point where I was thankful that we hadnt showered and gotten all pretty for the evening. It was HOT. It was crazy muggy hot. It was I wish the stinky people in front of me would stop blowing around their funky smell with their little fans hot. As you can imagine, the Mickey bars were all over the boys and my shorts. Lil Frick is a mess waiting to happen, and to this day I still cant get the chocolate stains out of his shirt! But, every time I see that shirt, Im reminded of our night in Disney
.so it is all good.
Fantasmic was absolutely wonderful. I mean it was won-der-ful!! What a great way to end our last night. Seriously, we were all in a fabulous mood and Mickey had saved the day. As we made our way out to the boat launch, we ran. Thats right, we ran. We were the Griswolds. Mr. Frick and I were Clark and Rusty. We were cracking up and acting like dorks all the way. Our children werent even embarrassed because they were loving it. We caught the boat rather quickly. Our big Clark run actually helped us out by getting us to the front of the line and beating all the tired wimps who werent running. The line for the boat was l-o-n-g.
We made it back to the Beach Club and the boys wanted to go for a nighttime swim. We still had our swimsuits on the chairs so they changed and jumped in. Nighttime swims are way fun. Since it was our last night, we sucked as much fun out of it as we could. I had not even begun to think about packing. The old me would have been in the room getting a jumpstart on the packing action so that I would have more free time the next day
.but the new me was enjoying watching our boys swim in the moonlight while I relaxed on a lounge chair by my sweet husband. It was all good. We had no clue about what we were going to do that night, but we were certainly led in the right direction. Life is so strange
.
MEN! 
This is why you have such a great marriage, Fricky. We have to be able to forgive, forget (well, maybe), and, of course, laugh about it in the end!!
.......pages for me to catch up on!!! 
Seriously hate you had a bad experience at 
!!!.....sounded pretty sweet though (except the argument part)!!!!
We need a clapping smiley! Nice job Fricky. I would've been itchin' to get that packing done. GOOD FOR YOU for getting every last minute of enjoyment out of that last night. I can learn some things from you. In fact, I already have.
I think you were just pretending not to care
