Too many kids for Disney? We're here!!!!!!

[estherhead]

So our bellies were full and we were very happy. It was time to take Mom on the much anticipated Soarin'. The first time I rode this ride the entire group of people with me burst into spontaneous applause and cheers. All I could think was how much my Mom would enjoy it. Suzy had felt the same way so we were really excited to go.

On our way we passed by this gorgeous fountain:


Anywhere but Disney this would be something to be stopped at and marvelled at. But at Disney we simply breezed by and hopped into Coke to try out the flavors. I know we enjoyed it, but I don't remember what we tried. Certainly not Beverly!

Suzy and Mom rode Soarin' while I went to see if we could sign up for Behind the Seeds the next day. I'd heard they normally only need 24 hours. Well, low and behold the next tour, which started in 45 minutes, was completely empty! So I used my AAA card & bought 3 tickets.

Then I went to wait for the girls to get off Soarin' and tell them the good news. Here's me trying to sit while not losing Jack-Jack, can you see him?:



How bout now?


So much for me relaxing. It was mainly chasing. That boy can move!

After that we had time for Mom and I to ride Soarin' together. She really did enjoy this ride, but mentioned that with HD at home the film quality was a bit below her normal standards. Later when we went to watch the Canada film (which is new) there was an obvious difference so I do think they'll have to refilm Soarin'. We enjoyed it, though, it really is a great ride.

Then it was time for our tour. Kristie was our tour guide, she was from Nazareth College and originally from Rochester, NY. It took us and hour and a half. The first room was the bug room. The info was very interesting but it was goofy set up with little paper signs. It was at this point, however, that we realized Jack-Jack was in love with Kristie. He watched her every move & laughed & laughed at her every word.

When Suzy would move so he couldn't see Kristie anymore, this is what he looked like:


We saw the world's hottest pepper, twice as hot as an habanero:


We opted out of tasting one.

Here is a Mimosa plant. It bends all up when you touch it. Here it is before we touch it:


And after we touched it:


I thought this was a cool plant. But last week I was watching CSI NY with Donald & this plant was the key to solving the mystery. I kept saying, "I know that plant! I learned all about it at WDW." Donald wasn't much impressed.

Here we are with Kristie checking out a single tomato plant that grows TONS of tomatoes. My dad would have loved this tomato plant. He adores them.



This is a pool full of fish. My mom has gorgeous gardens & a big fish pond. So when Kristie asked us if we wanted to feed the fish we said no. This took her totaly off guard & she said she'd never had anyone say no. We insisted that we had no interest in feeding the fish but she made us. So we fed them. I'm sure it's cool for people who aren't used to seeing a fish feeding frenzy, but Kristie was a bit disappointed in how not into it we were.



We really enjoyed this tour. We took it as we all love gardens and Suzy & my Mom could be professional landscapers. But what took us off guard was how much this tour is about food. It appealed to my foodie side at least as much as my gardening side. I wished Kristie had been a foodie and not just a horticulturist. She really didn't know her food. As fascinating as it is to grow giant food, it isn't fascinating if the giant food doesn't taste as good as the smaller, tender food. And these kind of questions she just didn't know about.

Half way through the tour we had sat down while Suzy nursed. But even still we were tired from the day's walking. So we grabbed some Diet Cokes and found a bench. There were two giant benches with one woman sitting in the middle of one. I asked her if we could join her and we all enjoyed the little break together. She had a cute kid who enjoyed Jack-Jack. Jack-Jack, on the other hand, was interested in the ducks.



After that we went to see O Canada which has Martin Short and is very nice. We chased Jack-Jack all over this theater. There weren't very many people so we weren't bothering anyone which is good as I had to crawl to chase him under the resting bars. It would have been very bad had it been full of people.

Then we paused to hear Off Kilter:


There was a crazy lady dancing that was absolutely cracking the band up. But she was a bit distracting to me. I couldn't decide if she was drunk, literally crazy, or truly crazy with happiness. But it was bizarre behavior by any count. Off Kilter took me a bit off guard. Last time I saw them, they did 6 traditional Celtic songs. This time they did do a bit of Irish stuff, but they also did Canadian band cover songs, bagpipe style. It was enjoyable, but different than I remembered.

At 5:50 we changed clothes in a UK bathroom. It was almost empty and we easily were able to get freshened up. We hit the boat perfectly and were at the Flying Fish 5 minutes before our ADR (6:25.)

We waited maybe 5 minutes, during which I mostly checked out the candy store next door. Why is the Flying Fish's bathroom in the next door store?

Our server was Mikhail. He took amazing care of us. First we had bread, it was warm & whole wheat with perfectly softened butter. Not as good as Jiko, but good none-the-less. Suzy ordered a Shiraz from Walla-Walla. It was both fruity & dry at the same time which I found a lovely combination. I only had a sip but what I really liked is after a minute or two the taste in my mouth was even better than initially. It was good.

For an appie, Mom got Lobster Quesadillas. She enjoyed the tomatilla sauce and felt the lobster was almost an after thought. That in general it was just a very authentic Mexican dish:


I got the Caesar salad with a parmesan crisp. My favorite part was the parmesan crisp. Mikhail asked me if I knew the secret ingredient, which I didn't. I guessed a few, but I didn't get it right. It was pureed capers in the dressing. It wasn't the best salad ever, but I enjoyed it.

Suzy got the carb cake. She oohed and ahed as she ate this so I know she liked it a lot. But I still say her favorite things was getting a plate that actually looked like a professional chef had done it. "It has a front side & a back side!" she proclaimed. It is nice to eat food that is so presented it has a front "pretty" side.



For her entree she got the Potato encrusted snapper. This was the best entree of our three. I don't like fish, and I would order this for myself. The wine sauce was really good.



I got steak. It was amazing with the perfect sauce (the white sauce on top) and great fingerling potatoes, you know those potatoes you always look at in the store longingly & ponder what household really has the funds to spend $10 a lb on potatoes?. I also loved the asparagus. The greens, though, were way too bitter. And unnecessary.


Mom got scallops, she said they were cooked perfectly but for some reason was dissatisfied with this entree. The risotto, I personally had a bite, was AMAZING. It was spectatcular. So I'm not sure why, but she just felt like she would have preferred something else. Maybe it was the strange greasy baby artichokes.:


For dessert I ordered the sorbets. I really only like the fresh fruit & the berry one. The lechee & apple one were yucky. But I was too full to be disappointed:


Mom got blueberry ginger something. None of us like it. The blueberries were too sour & the ginger was too strong:


Suzy got the choclate/peanut butter/banana dessert. It was really good. Really, really good. Not a lot of P.B. but it didn't matter.:



This was a fabulous meal. Truly stellar. The service was impeccable, and the food was all stuff we simply don't have the funds to repeat at home, even if cooking skill wise we could. I can't imagine how much fresh snapper would cost in the middle of Ohio. Or even if it would be possible to buy in my small town. Certainly not a cut like that. Yeah, I just don't have the money to make this meal on my own.

The down side was Jack-Jack was awake for this whole meal and he was a handful to say the least. The only thing that consoled me at all was there was a family sitting next to us that had a four year old daughter who had decided she was a cat of some kind. She was in full character & her parents, despite their best tries, could not pull her out of it. She tried to eat her food like an animal & talked only in animal sounds & crawled around the floor like an animal, the father eventually just gave up & took her outside . So I knew we couldn't be the only ones distracting the poor other diners. This was a very nice restaurant & just look at what we did:



And by we, I mean Jack-Jack. Good thing he is super cute. There is no way I would take my toddler here. But older kids (they are 6 & 8) I think would enjoy it very much.

The next part of our day was a bit on confusion. We were only going to get to see one fireworks display this four day trip & personally I would pick Wishes if I only get one show. So I convinced them to go to the bus. But at 8:00 pm there aren't a lot of buses going to MK from the Boardwalk. So we thought we'd take a taxi. But the taxi driver said he'd have to drop us off at the TTC, not MK. That would not work. So we gave up & went to see Illuminations. We just walked, it was a really short walk.

Oh, but not before I found this Ginormous chair in the Boardwalk lobby. Don't I look skinny in such a giant chair? I LOVE giant chairs:



We found a spot in the UK & I went to France to get myself a Grand Marnier slushie. I really wanted one. I told Suzy I'd just go look for the drunk people & there would be my slushie. This proved very true. There was one girl though who wasn't drunk but was obviously some kind of professional dancer enjoyed the music. I enojoyed watching her while I waited for my drink.

My drink, by the way, was fab!

Illuminations made me cry. Fireworks always do. Even though I think that globe portion of Illuminations is sooooo boring. On our way out was saw Fireworks off in the distance. Turns out Disney was participating in a fireworks competition and they were practicing. It was cool. We wished we'd been closer. It lasted forever.



The entire time we were walking with the masses to the monorail I had to pee. There were lines everywhere to I waited all the way till the TTC! Let me tell ya, that was a relief. Whew. After that we walked to our car. We were so grateful for our close parking spot. I'd been walking most of the time from 6:12 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.!!!!

Back at the resort I was still a bit hyper so I went for a swim and to get my Sprite Zero. By 11:30 p.m. I was asleep.

What a day!

 

[estherhead]

Ah, morning at Disney. What is better? I awoke at 6:15 this morning but since we didn't need to be anywhere till 8:25 I just lounged in bed playing DS & listening to my MP3 player. This was a nice treat as at my house it is wake up, children on the bus, then baby needs day in, day out. So I truly enjoyed laying there in the silence knowing for a fact that no one needed anything from me. How delightful.

We left POP at 8:10 a.m. and easily made it to our 8:25 ADR at Boma. That includes parking, getting out the baby & stroller, and walking up the strange wheelchair ramp at AKL, and taking the elevator down. So that tells you how close it was in a car!

We waited about 5-10 minutes for our table. We were seated next to the kitchen like at San Angel. Here it was a tiny bit annoying as we were in main traffic & we were getting up & down to fill our plates. Our server was Mike from Rochester, NY. He was fast & friendly but really uncomfortable talking about the tipping, which made me uncomfortable. But he was fine. Very much from NY & NOT laid back. I guess a not laid back server is a good thing.

We were pondering ordering the pressed pot of coffee, as that is how my mom makes coffee at home but the regular coffee served here was fine and we were plenty awake so we didn't need a lot of caffeine. So we just drank the FABOO juice. Oh my goodness this juice was good. Mom kept saying, "This is really good juice," like everytime she took a sip. That was the kind of juice it was. You just had to keep commenting on it.

First I had fruit, amazing fruit. Berries, honeydew, and pineapple. Other than that our favorites were: mini chocolate croissants, pap with raisins and brown sugar, ham with the honey mustard, curry with biscuits. The potatoes and omelet were fine, just fine but not great. I did not care for the hash, I thought it was really dry, and I also didn't like the quinua. It was too much like tapioca, which I dislike. Suazy thought the quinua was fine.

After that we looked all around AKL, which took some doing, mind you. We got lost several times & even asked for help and were misdirected. But I think we saw most AKL highlights.

Vultures & antelope:


"Hey, let's go look at animals and not bring binoculars!"


After this we went to check out Windsor Hills via Sherbeth Rd. It was not a bad drive at all and we got really excited about our trip in November.

We popped back to POP & played more DS. On our way in we saw that the big camper we'd been parking next to had people in it. So I went to meet them and ask them if they lived in their camper and if so, why weren't they staying at Fort Wilderness. She was very nice and said her dh was a carpenter and they did live in it as they travelled all over the US for his work. They had two boys who she homeschooled. THey were staying at Pop as WDW doesn't offer free dining for campers at Fort Wilderness so every Sept they stay at POP and just park the camper/Semi truck. Mom & Suzy laughed at me but I just had to know the story behind the camper.

After a little rest we went to the Pop Hall to look at the memory boxes and eat lunch. I got kid's broccoli stirfry. Suzy got hummus and pits chips and veggie soup and Mom got a veggie calzone. Or something like that. I don't know. We all got good stuff that we liked. I'll make two comments, the broccoli stirfry was delish, but not really all that much broccoli. We then really needed chocolate. I went off to find a Snickers bar which I did eventually find, but I also bought a brownie which wasn't really very yummy. The Snickers bar was good.

They had messed up our bill so I went to the concierge and they fixed it immediately.

After that we went to MK so we could do the fews things we had missed that we wanted to do. We started with Philharmagic. Mom loved this, better than Soarin'. It is really good. It makes everyone feel like a kid again. Then we went to pirates and we happened across a tutorial right at the beginning.



Pirates was a bit broken which was disappointing.

We kept getting side tracked by things, first the parade and then these guys:


We had gotten FPs for Peter Pan so we went to do that which was very disappointing as the music was off sinq with the ride. Very strange & not very enjoyable. We especially felt bad for the people in the 30 minute standby line. 30 minutes for this? That is for sure what I would be thinking. I hope it works when we go with the kids.

Then we did the Carousel of Progress which also broke while we were on it. Hmmm, is this a pattern? WDW, what's up? I'm definately taken the kids on this ride, I think they'll like it. Then we did the TTA. After that, it was time for our boat ride. Our boat ride to dinner! We sat inside one of the big boats and it was nice. We were eating at Arist's Point at the Wilderness Lodge.

We stopped to look at Old Faithful and some of the views. This is such a nice resort. I just love it. We then all took turns getting changed in the bathroom while the rest of us just chilled in the lobby. Well, as much as one can chill while trying to keep their eyes on Jack-Jack. He seriously loved chilling in this lobby and really was on the move. Fortunately mostly it was grandparents sitting around who were more than willing to help me keep an eye on him. And he kept looking back to make sure I was there.

Then it was 5:30 and we were the 2nd table seated. We had 2 servers this night which was weird. I really hated that. There were also a ton of babies in this place, I think because of the time. The wait staff was super nice to babies. Unbelievably accomodating to babies.

The only place to give Jack-Jack his own Mickey straw, babies like Mickey too!:


Mom got a Lodge Fizz. This was super duper. It was like a whiskey sour only with raspberry. I got the riesling they recommended with the venison rolls. It was dry & sweet like a champagne only without the bubbles. I liked it.



The bread was amazing. I could have just eaten the bread.

Mom got the mushroom soup which was so amazing I asked for the recipe which they happily gave me. I've already made it, only I did a Weight Watchers version. Donald is a man of very few words so I didn't get any compliments (trust me, I don't expect any) but let's just say the recipe makes 8 servings and he ate it all between 6 p.m. and noon the next day. I'm gonna say it was a hit! I'll probably make it again next week. It's an autumn thing for sure. By the way, mine didn't look this nice. I took f.f. sour cream & flavored it with chives instead of doing sour cream and chive oil. Donald took one look and said, "Why is there some kind of bluish-green goop on this?" I guess garnish isn't needed in my own little kitchen.



I got the venison spring rolls. It wasn't like deer at all. It was perfectly spiced, and really, can anything dredged in sweet and sour sauce be yucky? It had a slaw also which I liked a lot.



Suzy got the salad with bacon. She said it tasted like a BLT without the tomatoes. Actually, her exact words were, "It's a straight forward salad." Which was exactly what she wanted so she was quite happy.



For our main courses, Mom got salmon cooked medium rare. She said it was a good quality fish cooked to perfection. I didn't try it. She wasn't crazy about the pear sauce. She really enjoyed her first bite of potato and commented how good it was so I took a bite and it was weird, which I mentioned. She took another bite and immediatly changed her mind. I couldn't tell exactly what was in them, but definately bits of pork fat. Ick.



I ordered a buffalo steak, medium rare. It was a little too rare for my taste but I didn't send it back as I wasn't going to eat the whole thing anyway so I just ate the parts that were the way I like, and even then I didn't eat all the perfectly cooked parts. It was exactly like beef. I couldn't tell one bit of a difference. The sweet potatoes and onion jam was fabulous. I really liked this and would order it again in a heart beat, but I'd order it medium.



Suzy got the beef tenderloin with wild mushrooms. It was served with a mushroom butter which she adored. She had three steaks on this trip and this was her favorite, the butter of course didn't hurt her opinion! But the mushrooms (I hate mushrooms so I didn't have any, though I did have a bite of the mushroom soup & enjoyed it) were yucky. She also didn't like this chive oil on this, though we all did like it in the soup. The fries were fine with this but she just didn't feel like it added to the dish at all.



For dessert Mom got the berry cobbler. It was so good & fresh, but it was a shortcake, not a cobbler. I felt like they should just call it a shortcake as then people would know what they were getting.



I again got lavender ice cream, can you believe it? It was served with a hazelnut torte which was like pure melted chocolate in a hazelnut crust. Mmmm, it was my favorite. Just a side note, I use lavender oil to relax me when I give birth & this was so creamy & yummy & chocolaty with just the smell of lavender & it reminded me of the three happiest moments of my life, the births of my girls. Talk about comfort food!



Suzy got peach upside down cake. It was un-fooled-around-with. I would have called it, "Peaches in four textures."



My feeling on Artist's Point was that it had strange combinations of food. So it almost was good. So close to good. But the few strange food combinations, the two servers, I dont' know. I can't think of anything to say I didn't like it, and it had the best steak and the best drink of our week. And the only place I was inspired to ask for a recipe. And yet... I was left thinking I wouldn't go out of my way, ya know? So I don't know.

Of the three, Jiko had my favorite atmosphere. Mexico had the second best atmosphere. Flying Fish had the best service. Food? Whew, that is tricky. We had really good food this trip. Amazing, amazing food. How can you make me choose? If I had to choose one to take Donald to, I take him to Flying Fish. Suzy would take Milo to Jiko. And Mom would probably take Dad to Jiko also. They had the best vegetarian options.

Anyhow, after dinner we got on a small boat back to MK which was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip.

Here are some photos:






After this, Suzy & I dropped Mom & Jack-Jack off at Pop and headed to Downtown Disney. I'd never been to Pleasure Island and wanted to go before they closed it. So first we went to Goofy's Candy shop to use all our snack credits on making things for our kids and also to buy them souveniers at the World of Disney. We really had fun with no kids. REALLY a bit too much fun.

Then we went to the Comedy Club. It was hilarious. I laughed & laughed and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I took lots of video. But here are the few photos I took:







After that we went to Adventurer's Club. I had really been looking forward to this. There was a big show going on when we went in which I just didn't find funny. Then I got involved with a show in the mask room. I'm not shy at all so I totally acted my part, but it was just goofy to me. Then they told us the next show wouldn't be for another 45 minutes. I just couldn't take it. I'm old and I'm lame. So we left. I felt like I had had a great no kid time and didn't need more. I guess I'll be like billions of other's on earth who never got to enjoy Adventurer's Club to it's fullest.

We found our car (or tin can) and headed back for a nice, long nap.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thank you so much for your Jiko review, we are eating there for my birthday on Sunday and I cannot wait!

And San Angel Inn looks awesome, glad that is on our list for next week too!

 

[estherhead]

Mickeyniki: I'm so excited for you! You are going to love Jiko, I just know it! I wish I could go back there right now instead of eating my "didn't feel like cooking" dinner that I just ate! Of course, the meal I just ate had only about 300-400 calories in it & I'm pretty sure you better plan for more calories than that at your Jiko dinner!

As for San Angel, if you have a margarita and sit back & relax and enjoy the atmosphere you'll adore it. If you expect the best American-Mexican food of your life, you won't. This is authentic Mexican food (almost) and not the tex-mex that I think most Americans expect at a "mexican" restaurant. That is why I think there are so many negative reviews on here. But I've been to Mexico & other than the cheese (which I think you just can't really duplicate outside of Mexico) I think it is fairly authentic. When we were in Mexico I remember a lot of fish & steak and I have fond memories of picking fresh avacados of a tree (while an evil goose chased me) and I think those memories are fairly well represented in this restaurant. So think Mexico & not Don Pablos and you'll enjoy it.

Have a great trip!

 

[estherhead]

I call this part 1, but in reality it is the only part. I have no notes for this day & very few photos. I was in a terrible mood. In retrospect I realize I was sick this day and I spent the next 4 days at home with unspeakable things happening in my tummy area. At the time I thought I was cranky because of lack of sleep and missing my sweet little Boo. But I cannot be held responsible for the incompletenss of day 4's TR.

So, as I recall, we awoke & had to pack. I went down to the main area to check out & pay our bill (with Mom's money) and get a cart so we could put the fridge on it. Upon arriving at luggage this is what I saw:



Boy was I not happy. Don't send a cranky woman to Pop luggage on a Saturday morning. But there was some guy screaming at luggage services so I was at least proud that I wasn't him. And somehow (I'm yet to really figure the whole line system at luggage out) I didn't have to wait in line. As I was snapping this photo a nice guy (his tag said manager) asked if I was needing help. I said I needed a cart & handed him my driver's license and he went & got me a cart. I guess WDW loves me even when I am cranky.

So Mom & I packed up the fridge. And all our other stuff & we all went back down to the godforsaken luggage area as there was no way we could cram ourselves back into our lovely little rental with all the luggage and enjoy our ride around Orlando. So we needed to do "curbside" check-in & let Disney take our luggage to the airport.

Again, somehow the Disney gods were smiling upon us & we ended up in line behind just one family. The mom of the family had left her baby at home with Grandma so she could enjoy time with her older kids. She was seriously loving on Jack-Jack and I felt guilty missing my little Boo so much when I had been gone less than 3 days and she had been at WDW for 10 days! I could never survive 10 days without Boo. After talking a bit I ran to get some Diet Coke, yeah, I know it's bad in the a.m. but sometimes I'm just a bad girl, deal with it! Chemicals & acid rotting my teeth & insides, blah, blah, blah.

Can you see how cranky I was? I'm so rebellious when I'm cranky.

As soon as I got back it was our turn & it was amazingly easy. Off we went.

On the way to DHS I was complaining about how much I hated the park. There's no shade and it's ugly and my least favorite Disney park, etc. Mom laughed at me and said it couldn't possibly be that bad.

So we parked and got another good tram driver (not as funny as at AK but still a good driver) and got through bag check & ticketing no big deal. Then we were in the park. And crazily enough, we were greeted by a bunch of trees and nice landscaping. And it was kind of cute. Which Mom had to point out. Landscaper that she was.

We went to see if there were any FP's for TSM which there were not. I'm not sure what time this was, maybe 10:30 am? But it was an extra magic hour day so that added to the crowds. So we didnt get to ride TSM which should have added to my crankiness, but actually I really wanted to experience it first with my family so it was fine. Then we did the Backlot tour which said there was a wait but there wasn't. I hadn't done this in a long time and I really enjoyed it. I wished I'd had a bit more time in the prop room, we just walked through quickly and it looked interesting.

At Catastrophe Canyon, though, I got absolutely soaked. Don't soak cranky people, ya know?

OK, I don't exactly remember this whole day very well. We watched a Jedi Academy to see what we should do to have a better opportunity for our kids to get picked. We ate lunch (Mom & I had some kind of argument/disagreement here) and we did the Disney: One Man's Dream. This was the highlight of my day. I'd never done it before & I found the whole thing very inspirational. It made me really love Walt & his amazing optimism. And we did some other stuff. Maybe. I'm not sure. Oh, and we were trying to find the rest of our souveniers for our kids.

We couldn't find everything we wanted so we left and went to find more shopping at the outlets. We were following Sheila's directions but we had the name wrong so we ended up just finding it on our own as Suzy kind of knew where she was going & once she let her intuition lead us we found it no prob. Unfortunately, so did all of the rest of the tourists arriving in Kissimmee this Saturday. And most of them were terrible drivers. There was construction and terrible, terribly slow terrible, drivers everywhere. Finally, we were inside and the outside mayhem of construction and hideousness melted away and it was a very nice outlet mall. I'll be going there next time for sure. Suzy might be able to tell where & what it's called. I can't recollect.

There was a Disney store which I scoured thoroughly and ended up only buying a scrapbook. I also went to a Carter's store and bought Boo an adorable outfit (which she looks adorable in.)

After this we continued our quest to find a bookstore. Sheila directed us to a "Barnes & Noble" which ended up being a Waldonbooks. I guess Barnes & Noble recently bought them out & Sheila got confused. Waldonbooks was not what we wanted, but it would have to do. Here I bought a Hidden Mickey book which I'm looking forward to using in November. I scoured this store for a map of the Disney area that included the housing areas under 192 and could not find one. Irritating to say the least.

By that point we decided it was time to go to the airport which was relatively crowded. We stood in the loser's line for large groups & families since we had Jack-Jack with us. The family in front of us had about 15 people who were from Chile & there was some confusion as passports were handed out, etc. It ended up not taking nearly as long as I was expecting. But still, I was longingly looking at the lovely empty security lines for non-family oriented travellers. Surely Suzy could handle her baby, stroller, car carrier, and three bags alone, right? Oh & don't forget taking your shoes off & on with said baby, bags, stroller, etc. Stupid. Mothers should be exempt from the shoe thing. They should have a special Mother Shoe Scanner so moms with babies don't have to take off their shoes.

Oh, I think we ate before we did security. You guys would know. Is Burger King before or after security? See why I need notes? It's in the details. My blurry, ill brain just couldn't keep track of the details. Anyway, we ate. It was nice. We talked about our trip and Walt Disney.

Then we boarded our plane & flew home. It was an totally easy, breezy flight. I was half afraid our luggage wouldn't be there when we got home. But Disney came through for us and there it was! Yeah for us!

Off to our real car. Thank God for a real car! Mom hit the unlock button on her key chain. Can you imagine? Automatic locks! Yippee! Our luggage fit perfectly in the back! I mean for goodness sake, it was only for 3 nights! It's not like we had a ton of luggage! Then when I went to pay, I hit a button and my window magically went down! I love real cars.

So we drove home. And I climbed blissfully into bed where I promptly spent the next few days. Gross. Mom & Suzy got it a few days later. Triple gross.

So, bottom line? Girl's trips rock. We should have done this years ago. And WDW rocks. I just love it and can't wait to go back in 7 weeks!!!

Which is why I have to end this right now so I can get back to my previously scheduled PTR.

Prepare yourselves, preparation for our family trip will be flying at you left and right. DUCK!!!

Tye dye t-shirts, iron-ons, budgeting, scheduling & rescheduling. It's flying your way starting tomorrow!

 

[ILMICKEY]

Great report! It sounds like you had so much fun. I am 10 days from my girls trip and hearing yours makes me even more excited. I'll get over and check out your pretrip report for your next one!!

 

[ILMICKEY]

Okay, where is it?

 

[estherhead]

Great report! It sounds like you had so much fun. I am 10 days from my girls trip and hearing yours makes me even more excited. I'll get over and check out your pretrip report for your next one!!

Okay, where is it?

It's coming, it's coming! I know you're leaving soon so you're probably trying to get your Disney fix! I just suddenly got really busy. Be forewarned, I'm also changing the title. It's time for Disney-mania to truly begin.

 

[estherhead]

The trip mania has begun around here. The pressure is building and the countown calendars have been begun. To celebrate, I began repainting my daughter's room. Ha! OK, so it may have been a stupid idea and it certainly has added some stress to my life but it'll be so cool when it's done, right?

So here is how my 5 weeks till Disney breaks down:

This week: Finish (or mostly finish) painting the girl's room, Bake and deliver a wedding cake (I'll put a photo for ya when it's done), work at work, go to my in-laws over the weekend.

Next week: Shop for all our "Mickey presents", make all the iron-on t-shirts, sort summer clothing out for Disney & sort out winter baby stuff to sell on e-bay (extra $ never hurts, right?) Have a Disney meeting to perfect the itinerary with Suzy & Milo and all 7 kids (well, Jack-Jack & Boo don't care, but still.)

Week 3: Start wrapping Mickey presents & Ziplocking (yes, it's a word!) each person's outfit & present & itinerary. Make sure we have enough luggage.

Week 4: Start collecting non clothing items to pack and finish the above stuff. There will probably be a shopping trip in here.

Week 5: Start totally panicking & being irritated at Donald for no reason except he is handy to blame for stress. Clean house, do all laundry, throw a graduation party for Milo who will actually have his PhD IN HIS HAND!!!!! How exciting will that be?

And then, we leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the current first 2 days of that:

Wednesday: Pick kids up at school with van all packed. This is a family tradition. It's so exciting to be wearing your official matching "We're going to Disney" t-shirts (Prince Charming, Buzz, Lightning McQueen, Mulan, and Ariel all go to school together so the t-shirts will have an even greater impact that normal!) and then have your Mom show up 10 minutes early to pick you up while all the other loser kids in the classroom whose parents don't love them watch you leave. I know, it's evil but it just appeals to me greatly so we always do it.

Then we'll drive to my in-laws to spend the night. This will take some expert packing as I'm not going to drag all of our luggage into their house so I'll need one carry-on bag that holds our pj's for that night, our outfits for the next day, and our stuff for Blizzard Beach the next day. Blizzard Beach? That's right, people, I said Blizzard Beach!

Thursday: Get up at 4:45 and get ready and drive to airport. Check-in, security, hang around aimlessly chasing the baby and trying to play my DS while chasing the baby. 2 hour flight. Get our rental car from National Emerald Aisle (hopefully better than the cheapo people we rented from) and drive to DISNEY!!!!!!!!!

This is the point that I don't have totally worked out yet. We are signed up for the Royal Carriage Swap #3. I have my arrangements with the girl who we are getting it from but they are a little sketchy as I didn't know how long it will take us to get off the airplane & get our car & we probably will eat lunch. She, on the other hand, is packing & will be taking the magical express at 12:30. So there is a 1 1/2 hour window for us to meet and we just haven't totally nailed down how we're doing that yet.

After all that is said & done, I will be dropping my family off at Blizzard Beach. Then I will be going to Wal-Mart to buy the following list of food. Prepare yourselves. This is gonna get scary!

Groceries

30 Lunchables turkey or ham
8 boxes of Caprisun $20.00
48 bottles of water $10.00
2 12 packs caffeine free Coke
1 12 pack Coke Zero Cherry
1 12 pack Coke Zero
3 bags Tostitoes (one Baked)
2 bags Plain Lays
3 bags Fritos
6 bags Baked Chips
3 boxes Cinnamon Bagelfuls
1 Reg. Bagelfuls
Frozen Blueberry Pancakes
Paper Plates
Coffee
Creamer
Splenda
Paper Cups
Paper towels
Toilet Paper
Napkins
Salt & pepper
A-1
Maple syrup
Salsa
Southwestern or regular chicken strips
Sour Cream
16 Smoothies
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 big bunch String cheese
5 lb bag potatoes
2 things Sliced apples
Bag of apples
2 boxes Uncrustables
Ziploc baggies
Tupperware containers?
2 bags Chips Ahoy rainbow
Skittles
4 things of Hershey’s FunSize
Gum
1-2 box Kashi Trail Mix Bars
2 Fiber One Chocolate Bars
7 steaks
Cooked bacon
Cooked sausage
5 dozen eggs
Spray butter
1 dozen bananas
Grapes
3 gallons 1 % milk
1 gallon whole milk
Throw away sippy cups
Slim Jims
Hotdogs
Hotdog buns
Ketchup
Mustard
French fries
DiGiorno 2 Cheese & 1 Pepperoni pizza
3 lbs Hamburger
3 pkts Taco Seasoning
Refried Beans
Shredded lettuce
Cheese
Black olives sliced
Jalapenos
Chicken nuggets
Taco shells
Flour tortillas
Beer
3 Caesar Salad kits
1 big bag Premarinated chicken
3 bags Frozen birdseye rice
Crab legs
Cocktail sauce
35 calorie bread
Ham
Popcorn
Cashews
5 cans green beans
Birdseye broccoli with cheese
Laundry detergent
Fabric softener
Lysol Wipes
Dishwasher Detergent
Box of 120 Diapers
Wipes
Shampoo
Conditioner
Kid’s shampoo

You can see why I can't have my family with me as it will be tricky to fit all of this in a vehicle without any people in it! I also, depending on what kind of vehicle we end up with from National, may drop off my luggage at Windsor Hills clubhouse before shopping.

How many grocery carts do you think this will be? I'm hoping only 4. Then I can go in & fill 2 up with all the paper goods & drinks & chips & baby care stuff. I'll buy that stuff and check out. Then come back in with 2 more carts and get all the other stuff, including frozen & refrigerated. That's my hope.

Suzy & I grocery shop ALL THE TIME! So we really want to not have to do it too much on vacation. I'm sure we'll have to run back for fruit & alcohol, but those are the kinds of trips men don't mind making.

Anyway, so with groceries in hand, I'll drive to Windsor Hills & check-in and empty everything out. Check-in is at 4:00 but I'm hoping to be done with everything by around 3:30. We'll see. So I'll drop off the food, pick up the luggage from the lobby & drop it off at the house. And then go pick up my family from Blizzard Beach between 4:30-5:00 p.m.

By this time, Suzy & Milo's plane will have arrived & Suzy & her family will unpack all the groceries and make dinner.

Suzy & my goal is that by 6:00 p.m. kids are fed and swimming, groceries bought and put away and we are starting to unpack the suitcases. By 7:00 p.m. we need to be beginning chilling as our first day in Orlando is a TRIP TO MAGIC KINGDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we need to be in bed early. Forget about the kids being in bed early, I'll be exhausted!

I know the above plan doesn't seem very vactiony (yes, it's a word!) but I swear, for those of us travelling with 7 kids, it is important to have such things dealt with before the trip part begins. And my family will feel very vacationy as they'll have spent the day on the beach. And I will have gone grocery shopping without any babies. And that is a good thing.

Coming up: Photos & experience of our tye-dying mickey heads!

 

[houseful of boys]

O.K. I finally registered and can post for myself.

I'm subscribing (Hopefully, if I have figured this out correctly)

 

[houseful of boys]

O.K., after changing my options I'm trying to subscribe again.

Sorry for hijacking your thread for DISboards 101

 

[houseful of boys]

 

[estherhead]

WOW!!! I thought the day would never come! Houseful of boys is none other than the gorgeous & famous mother of four, Suzy! Let's give her a giant Disboards welcome!

As for the hijacking, it was hilarious. I didn't even understand fully what I had written & naturally it got favorable comments which had I any clue what I had said, I would have responded to.

Once we are back & I begin the official TR we'll now all benefit from both Donald & Suzy's comments & their correction of my narrative. It helps, I assure you.

 

[estherhead]

Today is the day. My "before Disney I must" things are all done. From here on out it is all "before Disney I will if I can." That is such a great day when it happens. I have no more wedding cakes to bake. No more events to plan (though I still have two to attend.) It's so exciting. We spent the night with Donald's family last night & they are all HUGE Disney fans but haven't gotten to go in a few years. It seemed like every time it was quiet someone said, "So, Ariel, what's your favorite ride in Magic Kingdom?" "Mulan, what are you most looking forward to?"

Anyhow, before tonight was over they were asking when we could all go together. Donald & I am not planning on another Disney trip next year as we really need a beach vacation, but of course I can already see the writing on the wall when free dining comes around next April. We'll see.... Help me with my resolve to resist Disney just one year!

Wait a minute... who am I talking to here? You all aren't going to help me with such a thing. I need a "no more Disney" support group. I swear my f-i-l might even pay for part of it. How will I resist? HELP.....

Oh, I also wanted to say that I woke up Friday morning at 5:45 am and couldn't get back to sleep as I had my first Disney nightmare! Don't you love Disney dreams? Even Disney nightmares are better than normal sweet dreams. So, in my dream we were in Animal Kingdom (all 11 of us) and there was a new show instead of Festival of the Lion King it was a Cirque show. We really wanted to see it but every time we got there it was closed for the next showing. We tried 3 times! Walking all the way from Asia each time. Anyway, the kids were so upset and it was so horrid by the third time that I woke up in a panic. As soon as I was awake I thought, "I'm going to Disney World!" and then I couldn't sleep. I can't tell you what a mess the kids would be if this dream actually came tru.e

Did I tell you that I bought a new suitcase? I think we have everything we need for packing. I hope, at least, we'll really see when we start packing. I promise I will post photos of our tye die & the presents for my girls so far on Wednesday. I keep promising the tye-die but I don't have Suzy's. I'm going to have her bring me her shirts on Tuesday & take photos & then I will give a complete story of how we did in our crazy tye-dying.

Also, we'll be making our iron ons this week & next. So prepare, the photos and info will start coming very soon.

Yippee! It's finally time for packing lists.

See ya in a few days with some real info & photos. For now I'm off to make sure my stroller swap is all in order.

 

[estherhead]

Love the ticker & LOVE what it is saying!

 

[estherhead]

The Disney mania begins in our household with t-shirts. T-shirts being bought, t-shirts being ironed on, & new for this year: t-shirts being tye-died!!!

We had a lot more to coordinate with so many more of us to clothe, and such a huge variety of sizes. 12 months to a men's large. Not an easy task. One thing Suzy & I knew we were interested in was the tye-die Mickey shirts from the Disigns board on here. So we bought white t-shirts, which was no small matter in Ohio in October. They had switched to long sleeved shirts and it was quite difficult to find all our sizes in a short sleeve shirt. The good news was, they were only $3.00 a piece when I did manage to find some. I also bought 3 packages of different colored dyes as we had 11 shirts and 11 people's taste to satisify and saturate.

We all headed over to Milo & Suzy's and prepared for a crazy evening of crafting with children. Have any of you crafted with kids? I'm sure you have. Well let me just say, it is a lot more fun in theory than in person. In magazines & articles it sounds so simple and easy, enjoyable for the whole family. In person it is absolute mayhem and dirty and messy and not entirely successful. Milo said he had tye-died in high school and his shirt had come out tye-died at all. But completely red. Everyone else had nice colorful swirled shirts. His was all red. It was an omen.

So after dinner we began. We sowed our Mickey heads in the middle of each shirt (only Suzy & I did this) and it took us about an hour to do the 11 together. Mulan helped on her own shirt but felt that sowing was just too hard for her after that one shirt. Then we rubber banded them to death to protect the little mickey heads. Then we gathered everyone around the table to have them twist them into pretty little spirals and rubber band them some more.

This seemed to be too difficult for Milo and some of the kids and Suzy & I ended up doing quite a bit of rubber banding in addition to our t-shirts and the babies' (who obviously couldn't do their own.) After things were pretty much in utter chaos and rubber bands had been fully secured around twisted shirts we started mixing colors. Donald hadn't fully listened to the instructions and also were really afraid of using too much dye and then the kids wouldn't have any. But more about that later.

Once I had all the colors mixed and the men were mostly out of the way, the true chaos began. Having never done this before we had all the kids & dye gathered and no newspapers and only one bucket to squirt into. It really should have been one person at a time. But we had 5 anxious children to have their turn, 2 impatient men, and 2 babies who love to get into everything. So three+ people ended up squirting at once which meant colors were squirting everywhere.

Suzy & I and the babies' shirts were last and there was limited dye left. So we just used whatever colors were left and hoped it would all be fine.

So... how did they turn out? Let's just say I used a lot of bleach to get true mickey heads on mine. And Milo's is very strange. At least it isn't all red. But I think overall they are great. And Donald loves his. He wears it all the time. Pretty much every day as soon as he gets home from work. Lightening McQueen has worn his to school as well. So I think they are going to be a big hit.

Here they are:


Mine is the purple mickey head on the far right. Not the colors I would have chosen but it looks pretty nice. Milo's is the green mickey head next to mine. It looks OK in this photo but if you take away my shirt from being on top of it, it is mostly white with blotched that look kind of like mold. Plus it is an x-large and too big for him.

Suzy's is the sleeveless with the purple mickey head at the top. She loves hers. Donald's isn't in here as he was wearing it . And the rest are misc. kids. The babies' are onsies instead of t-shirts. Boo's is a little more masculine than I would have liked but at least it has a pink mickey head.

So, bottom line? We might do these over someday. I still like the concept and in restrospect it was an OK evening. But I will certainly not be adding tye-dye to my list of super fun things to do. It's on my maybe OK list of things to do.

I'll be posting our other groups of t-shirts later. The only other complete group we have is the Minnie/Mickey day. The girls are in bright blue, the boys in grey:


I think these are great and though they aren't all the same color, they are all the same theme. And they are really nice. Plus, I like the masculinity of the guys being in grey and the girl's in a pretty color. We got them off disneyshopping when they had their t-shirt clearance.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Can't wait to read more!!! I love your shirts!!!

 

[estherhead]

Can't wait to read more!!! I love your shirts!!!

Ahhh, thanks!!! We'll be posting more photos as more shirts get done. We just got the baby's t-shirts in the mail today so we can start ironing-on this weekend. Yippee!

 

[estherhead]

Ready? We have agonized over this, agonized! Months of agonizing. How many of you (you know who you are) look at Tour Guide Mike & Touring Plans for EVER ahead of time. Have to get those ADR's, right? And to get those you have to know where you'll be. So with that in mind, here is our schedule.

And for any who are reading this & going the week behind Thanksgiving, no stealing it! We want the parks to ourselves. Ya hear?

Thursday – Arrive in Orlando
Go to Blizzard Beach (Perla & Donald's family only as Suzy & Milo don't get in till afternoon.)
Go shopping at Wal-Mart for supplies (while my family is still at Blizzard Beach)
Check into house & explore!

Friday – Magic Kingdom for Fantasyland & Frontierland. Get here at ROPE drop. The thinking behind this is twofold. One, who doesn't want to go to Magic Kingdom your very first day to WDW? Two, it's the day after Thanksgiving so MK should have been packed yesterday, not today. We'll see if this last theory holds water once we're there.

Date night: Suzy & Milo

Saturday – Animal Kingdom - our only day here so we'll have to make the most of it.

Date night: Perla & Donald we're going to Cirque du Soleil! I'm so excited as we've never been & I've always wanted to go. I was kind of going to surprise Donald but Milo stole my thunder. It wasn't going to be a big surprise, just here at home I was going to tell him. So I can't tell if he's excited or not but I know he'll love it so pre-excitement doesn't really matter. We haven't been to theater (even circus theater) in a VERY LONG time. Then we're eating at Raglan Road.

Sunday – Blizzard Beach
Stake out a great Beach spot. Daddies take big kids to wild rides. Mommies play with babies on beach.
Meet in Lazy River. Go home for lunch.

Disneyquest. Don’t try to do big stuff, just mess around on the arcade games. We girls will probably go shopping instead of really hanging out in here as we'll have the babies & can't have strollers so we'll be chasing them around a crazy arcade. I can't imagine that being fun for very long! Dinner is back at our house. We're having steak tonight! And not expensive Disney steak eiter.

Monday - Our only DHS day so we'll have to make the most of this too. We're planning on being here from rope drop to close so on our schedule we have race around, race around we'll have to see with the babies. Suzy & I may end up taking some chill time somewhere in the shade.

Tuesday – MK day but not together
This is the day we girls meet Tink. Then we'll do Tomorrowland & Adventureland.

I'm thinking we'll go home to bed after such a full week. But if everyone still wants to race around Disney we might go to DHS or Downtown Disney again.

Wednesday – Epcot for Future World
Home for a nap/swimming
Go to MK for: Spectro at 7:00 pm, Wishes at 8:00 pm

Thursday – Epcot for lunch at Rose & Crown
World Showcase & Illuminations

5th Fri - Disneyquest at opening for all the cool big games. Blizzard Beach again for just the beach aspect, or chill at our own pool. It's our last day at Disney so we'll want to relax probably.

6th Sat - Fly home

So that's our big schedule

It does seem big, doesn't it? My family claims they want to se the world, see the world, see the world. They claim they don't want to lay around. So I'm trusting them. They've vacationed enough. They know what they like. Personally, I'd like to go lay next to the beach & read book after book. I'm tired. But if we were to go to the beach right now I wouldn't be laying around reading book after book. I'd be chasing a toddler around trying to get her to stop eating sand. And then I'd spend the rest of the day sweeping up sand inside our beach house and making 6 small, healthy meals.

So, might as well run around Disney. At least it won't be so painful being so close to a beach and not getting to lay down. Plus, Donald says he's gonna take me on a 15th wedding anniversary trip next year for a whole week with NO KIDS! Yippee! And I'll get to relax when we get all those snow days in January & February.

And in the mean time, I'm gonna work my butt off for the next 3 weeks to get my life & family prepared & ready to go. And then I'm gonna work for 10 days to have the mostest, magicalest, Disneyest vacation ever.

In closing, as a side point, I was hoping to weigh 139 lbs by Disney. I had given up on this goal as I've been eating pretty healthy & not losing weight. But my entire family has spent the week puking (yeah, it's been a great week, thus the desire for a nice kid-free beach vacation) & I'm at 140.2 lbs today. So, I'm going back to the drawing board & am going to start reaching for my goal weight again starting tomorrow (or maybe Monday as Sunday is football day & we all know that means eating.) Cause now I'm only 1 lb away!

 

[estherhead]

Bring out the lists, baby!!!! Packing mayhem has begun. I cleared my pool table of all clutter (because what is a pool table supposed to be used for if not to keep all of your clutter?) And instead filled it up with Disney clutter! Yipee! Disney packing has started.



Here is the list as it stands now. Hmm, what's missing? Oh! Clothing!

I don't have that all sorted out yet & I don't normally put it on any lists. I don't normally forget clothing so I don't worry about writing it down. This is just stuff I very well might forget.

Electronics:

Cell Phones
Phone Chargers
Laptop & Cords
Blue DVD carrier with DVD's & PS2 games in it
Power Strip
Nightlight
Blue Camera
Silver Camera
Video Camera
Nintendo DS & cords & games
Waterproof one time use camera (still need to buy)
Small screwdriver

Toiletries:

Sunscreen, babies 3 bottles of quick spray
Sunscreen, adults 1 bottle of quick spray
Post Sun lotion
Shampoo
Shampoo for kids
Conditioner
Brush
Comb
Pony Tail Holders
Hat for everyone (Bonnet & water hat for baby)
Hair Claws
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste for us
Toothpaste for kids
Floss
My make-up
Q-Tips
Sunless Tanner
Razor & blades
Band Aids
Children's Tylenol
Tylenol
B.C. Pills
Zicam
Vitamin C
Pepto
Bug Spray
Body Glide
Moleskin
Chapstick

Park:

Rain ponchos
Autograph book?
Autograph pens (retractable Sharpies)
Quarters (2 for every penny)
Pennies (pre-1982)
Lots & lots of sunglasses
Baby wipes
Diapers
Pin lanyards
Hand sanitizer, 2 bottles
Hand Fans
Stroller fan
Baby carrier
Stroller
Stroller cover stuff (clips)
Stroller drink carriers
Watch (need batteries)
Glow sticks
Glow in the Dark stuff
Hidden Mickey Book
Pressed Penny list
Pressed Penny book

Paperwork:

Itinerary Packet
Kid's itineraries
Pens
Notebook to TR notes
Ticket/card holder
Disney tickets
Photocopies of tickets
Printed confirmation numbers
Driver's License & copy of license
Rewards Card
ADR's

Pool/Water:

3 swimsuits for me
3 swimsuits for each girl
Yellow Mesh Sling for Baby
Swim wings for Baby
Water shoes for everyone
Inflaltable pool toys
Waterproof Spray on sunblock

House:

Coffee cups (4)
Propel Drink Packets
Granola Bars
Gum
Goldfish
Clothes pins
Variety of Ziploc Baggies
Postcards stamps & labels
AA batteries
antennea ball for our rental car (still need to buy)

So that is what I have so far. In addition, I also have presents for the two big girls each day. I'm going to get the baby somethings also, like books & stuff to entertain her at the house but I'm not going to wrap them. I'm just going to buy a gift bag to use every day & every day I'll put the gift for that day in the gift bag with tissue paper. I'll work on that later. In the mean time here are the big girl's:



I bought them little things, like journals & pens, and big things like HSM Barbie Dolls. I probably spent $50.00 on them. A bargain in my opinion as they feel very fulfilled and don't ask for very much because they already got a wrapped present & once at the parks they are very distracted by the rides & shows! Only at Downtown Disney do we run into wants, but really, I have wants at DTD. Isn't that what it's for?

The negative is these really took up more room than I was intending. Half a suitcase! Yikes. With that & the carseat we don't have a lot of room. Good thing you mostly need shorts in Orlando!

Wanna know what else I did today? Made t-shirts! I spent the morning printing them out which went really well. The baby was cranky all day. Once I met Donald at work where we have a professional shirt press for making t-shirts , lucky, I know, we got started actually making them. We had 17 to make today. It only takes 45 minutes but the baby literally cried the entire time! You can imagine how stressed out this made me. So you will forgive me for forgetting to take a photo of all the finished shirts together. But here are our immediate family's:

Star Wars for DHS. Hoping to get a kid or two in Jedi Training Academy:


Up close:


Our Peter Pan day, only the Peter Pans all went to my sister as the boys are wearing them. You only get to see Tinkerbell & Hook:


We bought the Tinkerbell ones. Only the Hook one was made.




So there ya go. That is what I did today. I feel accomplished. I wish the baby wasn't cranky. I really wish the baby wasn't cranky. And I'm hoping she gets over the super crankiness before 3 weeks come & go. Really hope!

I also decided that in 2 weeks I'm going to start the whole family on a vitamin C & echinacea regime. I really don't want colds & we seem to be cold magnents this fall.

Any other tips? Anything I'm forgetting? Our final t-shirts will be coming up soon, I hope. I had to order some more red ones as I didn't have the right ones. I also still have to make more tye dye shirts. But Donald wants to do that so I just need time to wash them & sow the Mickey heads on & he will do the dirty work. Probably this weekend. Though with tailgating I don't seem to get a lot accomplished on weekends.

OK, I gotta go as I have work tomorrow & the cranky baby is still awake at 9:30 p.m. Darn cranky baby. Dag nab it. She's poopy too. Cranky & poopy. Is there a worse combination?

Gotta go...