Well
so much for a peaceful nights sleep our Everett alarm clock went off at 4:30 this morning and once again there was no getting him back to sleep. DH was really frustrated with the whole situation, and said that we were never taking Everett on vacation again, that this was our last Disney trip. I knew he was angry at the situation, frustrated and tired, but his words really upset me, so I hurried to get dressed and to get Everett and I out of the room as fast as possible. I thought that if he got a few more good hours of sleep that he might reconsider his harsh words.
This morning was much more chilly than the previous mornings, so I after walking around outside for a little while, I gave up and instead walked in circles around the settee in the lobby. It probably would not have been feasible to do this later in the day, but at 5 am, we had the lobby to ourselves. This morning I had also wised up and brought my book along so I could read and walk. I wouldnt have attempted this if there were people up and about, but since there was no one, I figured it was OK if swerved a little reading and walking. I didnt think Id have to worry about losing my stroller license in the Saratoga lobby!
Everett and I walked in circles for a while, and I was pondering why he was having such trouble with sleeping. He was usually such a good little sleeper, and I thought these disruptions were more than just sleeping in a strange place. I really thought he was teething, but I kept feeling his upper gums, and couldnt find any evidence of new teeth. It wasnt until walking around in the lobby, where there was very good lighting, that I realized my error. I saw into his mouth, and I thought I spied a flash of white on his bottom gums. I stuck my fingers in his mouth and felt around his BOTTOM gums, and there I found a brand new pearly white just breaking the surface. All this time I was concentration on the top gums, when it was really the bottom teeth that were bothering him. No wonder the baby origel wasnt working, I was putting it in the wrong place! I felt like such a dope and a completely clueless mother. I was so sure that his next teeth were going to be on the top, I didnt even think to look for his third bottom tooth.
With that lesson learned I kept walking around until he fell asleep, and then I sat on the settee, and pushed the stroller back and forth with my foot while reading more of my book. It is much easier to read when you are not moving
I was reading Alice I Have Been a novelization of the life of Alice Liddel, the real Alice in Wonderland. It was a fitting read for a Disney trip and a really good book. It was written by Melanie Benjamin, and Id highly suggest picking it up if you are looking for a good read.
One of the CM at the front desk had been watching me walk in circles for about and hour, and asked me if there was anything she could do to help out. Of course there was really nothing anyone could do, but I did ask if they had a crib available, thinking that maybe Everett would sleep better if he wasnt in a pack-n-play. She checked for me and found that there was one, but since we were in a studio, we couldnt have it. I was a little disappointed, I still cant really understand why I could have a crib in a moderate room, but not in a DVC studio when there is so much more floor space in the studio! They are the same cribs all over property.
I thanked her anyway for trying to help, but she told me to wait a minute and went into the back room. When she came back she had a balloon for Everett and some plastic toy horses. Everett was still sleeping, but I thanked her profusely, and assured her that they would make Everetts day when he woke up.
A little before 7 I heard him stirring in the stroller and I let him out to crawl around, but I kept a very close eye on him. I didnt want a repeat of yesterday morning!
I let DS get some energy out, and then headed back to the room around 7 am to wake up DH and get ready for our last full day. Even though we were once again up at the crack of dawn, we still managed to be 10 mins late for rope drop.
It didnt work out too bad, because our first stop was Soarin fastpasses, and being 10 mins late we missed the initial FP rush. I left DH outside the pavilion (am I the only one who wishes we could take strollers inside, it would be so much easier! You can take strollers in the shops at the WS and they are much smaller and more crowded), and when I got back Everett has conked out again.
We decided to head over to the exit of Spaceship Earth to play one of our favorite games- power the city! Weve tried and tried and we can never attain the highest level. I know this sounds super dorky, but we had been discussing our strategy and were going to try out a new method that we thought would be sure to take us over the top, score wise, and we were looking forward to putting it to work.
Well, we entered Spaceship earth at the back, and didnt get even a few feet inside when a CM approached us. She told us we were not allowed to bring the stroller inside, unless DS needed it for medical reasons. I was a little disappointed, not only were we denied entrance to the Land pavilion, but we couldnt even play our favorite post-show game.
Not to be deterred, I thought we could try the new attraction Sum of All Thrills at Innoventions. I asked the CM if we were allowed to take the stroller in there (fearing the answer would be no), but she assured us that strollers were welcome in Innnoventions.
We walked in by the Stormstruck exhibit where we were greeted by some very friendly CMs. I can imagine that working innoventions is probably pretty boring first thing in the morning, because everyone is off riding rides. They were asking us about our visit and invited us into Stormstruck, but then realized that we couldnt go in with our stroller- foiled again! Since we had done it on our last trip, we passed up the chance to each try it solo, and headed on to our main objective, Sum of All Thrills.
This was a new experience, it had opened after we moved away from Florida, and we hadnt had a chance to try it out yet. DH let me go first. I chose the jet and the super looper track, and ended up with a thrill sum of 759. It was really fun to build your track, a lot like the attraction at Disney Quest, but with more math and learning thrown in. I didnt really pay attention to the math (being on vacation and all), and just tried to pick the thrills that looked the most intense. I was not disappointed and I found it to be very fun! You get strapped into a single person simulator, and then they let you rip on your ride creation.
DHs was up next and he really got into all the math geek part. It ended up being to his detriment, because he was so busy studying the physics equations that he ended up running out of time and the end of the ride was automated for him. You only get a set time to build your ride, and if you go over, than the computer takes over and finishes for you. As a result, DH only ended up with a thrill score of 500s, which he was a little disappointed with. Next time hell spend less time thinking about math, and more time thinking about what is the most exciting option.
When DH was done, Everett was still sleeping, but it was thankfully time for our Soarin fastpasses. I sent Mark on first and went over to Mousegears to check out the frame selection. We were going to get a frame for DHs parents and put one of the pictures of us inside from our trip.
DH called me when he was done and we switched. I ended up riding with a very nice (and very enthusiastic) family from Birmingham Alabama. This was their first visit to the parks and their excitement was just contagious. One of my favorite parts of any Disney vacation is interacting with other guests. I love how everyone is experiencing the same things and is just in such a happy mood. I always find there is so much to talk about with people in Disney, everything from their hometowns to their resorts of choice. When I was living in Florida I took many solo trips to the world. DH is navy and he spent most of our first three years of marriage away, so whenever I was feeling sad, I would plan a trip to Disney. At home I would often feel isolated from from my friends and coworkers because they couldnt understand what it was like having your husband gone for 7-8 months at a time. I felt different from other people, but at Disney we were all having the same experiences and seeing and feeling the same things. It felt really nice to be part of a group experience where everyone else was thinking and enjoying the same things all together. It really made me feel less alone and helped tremendously during a difficult time. I never felt lonely on my solo trips because there were always people to talk to and have fun with. I met some amazing families, some who invited me to share meals, some who just give me a hug, people who had previously been strangers. Disney friendships are so special and I feel really lucky to be part of such a wonderful community!
When I finished with Soarin and headed out to meet DS and DH, DS was awake. We decided to try out Spaceship earth, since we hadnt been on it in a while. The line was pretty long, and I spent most of it trying to get DS to wear his hat since we were in the direct sun. Of course he wanted nothing to do with it. Im pretty sun sensitive, so Im trying to be very careful with DS. He seems to think things like hats and sunglasses are for suckers, so its going to be a long summer!
I just love this mural, don't you!
We got into the ride and Everett was really excited about the touch screen. We have an Ipad at home, and I have a few baby games that I let him play from time to time, so he is well versed in touch screen technology. His first order of business was to choose where we were from, which was somewhere in central Kazakhstan, and then he tried to choose German as our language, but DH put a stop to that. He also really enjoyed choosing our future, and I thought it was funny that both me and him were in the cartoon, DH was nowhere to be found.
After seeing what the future holds (for me and Everett at least) we decided to let Everett blow off some steam by crawling around a bit.
We took him to one of the hallways around the back of innoventions, the one near the character connection. The back part of the hallway, where the exit is for the fountainview bakery is always pretty empty, so we got DS out of the stroller and let him crawl around a while. He had a total blast!
it was getting near lunch time, so we headed back to the WS to do some grazing at the Food and Wine festival. We decided to head counter clockwise and started at Greece, where DH and I split a souvlaki, which was tasty. We wandered some more, stopping in Morocco for DH to get the beef in a pita pocket, and then finally ended up in America, where we both got a beer and some bread pudding to split. We took our booty, and headed inside the seating area for the America restaurant, and drank our beers and fed Everett.
After Everett was finished with his lunch, Dh and I still were hungry so we pressed on, we sampled the Coconut beef in Singapore- just so-so, I had another lettuce wrap- super yum!- and Mark got the chicken tamale in Mexico- I guess good because it was gone in two bites-
Surprisingly Everett was still awake after our gastronomic tour of WS, so we decided to head under the sea with Nemo and friends. This attraction was a favorite of mine even before baby, so I was excited to share it with Everett. He did great on the ride, and I guess I was feeling really confident, so I thought we should try to take him into Crush.
I had never actually done it before, so I didnt know really what to expect, but I guess I thought it would hold Everetts attention. Maybe I should have been a little more astute, that it was WAY past afternoon nap time, and that there was no reason he should be awake, but I just wasnt thinking. We joined the line and Everett was pretty fascinated with the stingrays right outside. We filed in with the group when the door opened, and took some seats toward the back, but got stuck in the middle of the row.
My first inclination that this was going to be a bad idea should have been when I felt how oppressively hot it was inside the theatre. I think the AC was on the fritz, because seriously, it was like a sauna! My second clue should have been when DS started arching his back and attempting to leap from my arms- but by this point the show was about to start and we were trapped!
He did well for the first few minutes, but it all went downhill from there. I was torn as to whether it would be better to disturb the whole row and get up to leave, or try and shelter in place. He wasnt being particularly loud (I had the paci shoved in his mouth to muffle him, lol!) but he was being completely spastic with limbs failing around and general crazy contortions.
It felt like the looooongest show in the history of WDW, and I couldnt have been happier for it to be over so I could escape with my crazy baby. I apologized to the people around me, but they didnt seem to phased. I guess it takes more than a flailing baby to disturb veteran parents!
Once I got Everett buckled back into the stroller he feel asleep immediately (which I should have realized). We decided to head back to WS so that DH could get the Sam Addams beer flight he had been considering all trip, and I could go into the American Adventure. I asked DH if he was upset he would miss the ride, but he assured me that he was much happier with his multiple tasting portions of Sam goodness.
I was really thrilled to see the American Adventure, it was one of my goals for the trip and not one easily met with a 10 month old! I am a historical archaeologist by trade, so I absolutely adore American history!
After the show we decided to call it a day, and made one last stop at mousegears to pick up the frame I had chosen for DHs parents. We headed back to Saratoga and had yet another dinner at Artists Palate (I was getting a little tired of flatbreads, but we did get our moneys worth on our refillable mugs!)
We gave Everett another bath and I commenced with the depressing task of packing. How is it that packing for a vacation is just about the most fun thing ever, but packing up your clothes at the end of a vacation is the worlds more dreaded chore?
Up next- our last morning- will we ever get some sleep?
