Who knew choking each other would earn us fastpasses?

[KatMark]

Lisa, I'm so glad you guys had a great time camping. And I don't recall any rules about the "size" of the fish...so of course you should count your little oens too.

I am sorry to hear about your brother-in-law...he and all of your family continue to be in my prayers.

 

[Woth2982]

So sorry to hear the news about your BIL. My grandmother was in hospice and accused my mom of putting things in her water to keep her alive, so I understand the talking out of his head thing. They are in so much pain they get dilusional (esp if he is on morphine). I will be thinking of you and your family.

Glad you were able to get away. It definitely helps your mind set to pick up and leave reality for a few days. I agree life is too short. I was struck by a drunk driver four years ago, I was very lucky in that all that happened to me was a hand injury (just had the fourth surgery on it last month), but it could have been worse. If I was not wearing a seatbelt I would not be typing this message. I had an angel on my shoulder that day. But ever since then I have appreciated all life has to offer me and take everything in stride. Everything happens for a reason. I had many friends who didn't think twice about drinking and driving (stupid invinceable 24 year olds), after my accident, that changed.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Lisa, I'm so glad you guys had a great time camping. And I don't recall any rules about the "size" of the fish...so of course you should count your little oens too.

I am sorry to hear about your brother-in-law...he and all of your family continue to be in my prayers.

I didn't see size of small fish in the rule book either.

Please continue the prayers as times are getting rough.

So sorry to hear the news about your BIL. My grandmother was in hospice and accused my mom of putting things in her water to keep her alive, so I understand the talking out of his head thing. They are in so much pain they get dilusional (esp if he is on morphine). I will be thinking of you and your family.

Glad you were able to get away. It definitely helps your mind set to pick up and leave reality for a few days. I agree life is too short. I was struck by a drunk driver four years ago, I was very lucky in that all that happened to me was a hand injury (just had the fourth surgery on it last month), but it could have been worse. If I was not wearing a seatbelt I would not be typing this message. I had an angel on my shoulder that day. But ever since then I have appreciated all life has to offer me and take everything in stride. Everything happens for a reason. I had many friends who didn't think twice about drinking and driving (stupid invinceable 24 year olds), after my accident, that changed.

Thanks for thinking about us during this trying time. It's been really tough on my sister and nieces.

Your story is quite moving. You were definitely lucky to have walk away from the accident with only a hand injury (not that I am making light of it 'cause I am definitely not). If your friends have stopped drinking and driving, then something good came from the accident. I have never understood people who drink and drive. Call a cab! Call a friend! Call a family member! Just don't drive after drinking!

 

[mickeystoontown]

After peering through some of the Main Street windows, we looked at our watches and realized that we could go check in at The Plaza. It had been many years since we had eaten there and we were looking forward to it.

**********************************************************
In true McBride fashion, I have a funny little story about The Plaza. Several years ago, we had dinner there and our waitress was Pam. If I am remembering correctly, she was from China or maybe it was Indonesia. Heck, I can't remember. Anyway, Pam had a little bit of trouble understanding English. Well, she had a little bit of trouble understanding our Southern drawl English.

For those of you who have met John, you may remember that he talks slow and is very Southern. (I can spit out an entire sentence before he can even say two words.). He also tends to flirt with people. That's perfectly okay when he goes to buy lumber and the lady decides to throw in an extra sheet or two of hardwood at no extra cost. But, it's not okay when your waitress is having a hard time understanding you.

Once Pam had taken our order, I told John to just stick with plain old English and not try to add any kind of little joke or compliment or anything into the conversation. He didn't know what I was talking about (yeah right) but agreed. Pam would come to our table while we were waiting on our food and John did a little of his eye batting at her and told her that it sure was hot outside. He was in need of some water. We ended up with...no lie....9 glasses of water on our table.

Our burgers and sandwiches came out a little while later and John told Pam that we needed mustard, mayo and ketchup....lots of it. "Lots?" Pam asked. John said, "Yes please". (blink, blink, blink with the long eyelashes). Back then, the condiments were in little miniature bottles. Imagine our surprise when Pam came out of the swinging doors carrying a tray full of mustard, mayo and ketchup. She put every single one of them on our table. "Here's your lots." Pam said with a smile. When she walked away, we couldn't help but laugh. We had so many condiments on our table it was beyond funny. Of course, in true Disney obsessed fashion, I put the ones that we didn't use in my backpack.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't funny to you, but it was (and still is) to us. We barely had room on our table to eat there were so many glasses of water and miniature bottles of condiments.

**********************************************************
We check in at the podium and were given a buzzer. There really wasn't a good place to sit down because everything was wet from the rain. But, at least it had stopped and we were able to take off the ponchos. I took pictures of our surroundings:

I didn't remember seeing a bathroom in The Plaza last time we ate there. So, Mama and I decided we better make a trip to the bathroom before we were seated.

After about 10 minutes or so, our buzzer went off and our hostess said "follow me". The doors opened and we were hit with a blast of cold air. I mean really cold air. I had flashbacks of being stuck on Test Track. Thank goodness I had made the trip to the bathroom.

Our waitress came to our table as soon as we were seated. I asked her if they had any complimentary throws to cover up with. She admitted that it was a bit chilly in the restaurant but that they couldn't do anything about it. She took our drink orders and left us to peruse the menus.

It was so hard to decide what to order. 1) Because everything on the menu looked so tasty; 2) We couldn't concentrate because it was so darned cold. We had chillbumps on our chillbumps!

Our drink order came out quickly and we placed our order.

John ordered the Angus Burger served on a flour-dusted kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato, and onion. Choose from the following toppings: Cheddar, American cheese, Bacon, Grilled Mushrooms and Grilled Onions and a side of fries.

Hunter ordered a plain burger with fries.

I ordered a Plaza Club: smoked ham, turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise layered on sourdough bread with fries.

Mama ordered a Turkey Sandwish: smoked turkey, bacon, lettuce, vine ripened tomato and mayonnaise on toasted multi-grain bread with a side of some kind of slaw.

All of us had ordered sweet tea. I was beginning to get a little bit of a headache. I get frequent migraines and lemons or lemon juice seems to lessen the pain. Since our waitress had brought a small bowl of lemons with our tea, I ate a few wedges with a little salt. John thought he'd try one as well:

We didn't have to wait too terribly long before our food came out. I had to take pictures of course.

Hunter's burger:

Mama's sandwich:

John's burger:

My sandwich:

The sandwiches were so big and Mama and I immediately knew there was no way either of us would finish our's. We put a good size dent in them though because they were so very good.

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Due to the construction, there was a huge tarp thingie over the building (I know there is a correct name for it but that's all I can think of right now.) all of the windows were covered so we couldn't see out. Had they not been there, we would have been able to see a bit of the castle.

Our waitress came over to check on us several times during the meal. She took our plates away and we ordered our desserts. Funny how we can somehow find a way to stuff in desserts after being so full from our entrees.

Mama ordered a pineapple sundae. John ordered a banana split. I can't remember what the heck I ordered for dessert. I don't have a picture of anything but I know I ordered something. Hunter said he didn't think he wanted anything. He's never been a big dessert eater.

About this time, Hunter said he had to go to the bathroom. Uh-oh, another one of those bathroom breaks that seem to take forever. John had to take Hunter to the restroom beside the Tomorrowland Noodle Station. In the meantime, desserts started coming out:

John's banana split:

Mama's pineapple sundae:

My invisible dessert:

















The waitress brought out a birthday cupcake for Hunter. We told her that he was gone to the bathroom. She took it back with her and said she'd watch for him to come back because she had another surprise for him. Mama and I did the nice thing to do and waited on our men to return before starting our desserts. NOT! We dug right in.

As soon as Hunter and John made it back, the waitress came back out with the cupcake and had the entire restaurant sing happy birthday. She also gave him a set of Mickey ears:

You can see that Hunter had his Mickey ears on top of his ballcap in this second picture. We had all gotten a bit wet from the earlier rain and our hair was a complete mess. Hunter didn't know it until I had snapped the first picture but after that he said there was no way he was taking off his cap where everybody could see his hair.

We settled our bill using the dining plans and when we walked out of the restaurant, we saw the the Spectro Magic parade had already started. We could see a bit of it from where we were standing:

I didn't know whether or not we were going to stay for the fireworks that night or not. I knew that we were going to see them on our last night and I thought that Mama was probably pretty worn out from traveling and our first two days in Disney. But, when we saw the parade had already started, and there was an open table in front of us, we decided to "cop a squat" (as Lacey likes to say) and watch them from where we were. We also knew that there was no way we would be able to squeeze through all of the parade crowds.

More pictures of the parade in the distance:

Hunter kept us entertained doing his signature dance:

***Up next: Wishes! pictures and video

 

[KatMark]

Great update Lisa. I LOVE the Plaza as you know (they were still working on it when we were there two weeks ago). They just have the BEST french fries in my opinion.

I love Hunter wearing the ears over the baseball cap!

And I remember that story from last year with your waitress and John giving it "to her." John...the comedian.

 

[dismagiclover]

The Plaza! My favorite Simple, but tasty and normally a fabulous view of the castle Sounds like you enjoyed it too. I like all the pictures of the parade in the distance. Makes me feel like I'm actually there. I just love MK at night

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm very sorry to hear about your BIL, but what a relief that he accepted Jesus!! That will make things a tad easier, when the time comes, he'll be dancing pain-free gloriously in heaven. I'll keep your family and BIL in my prayers, that's a very tough situation, and I'm sure very, very, very hard on your sister.

The Plaza looks so yummy! We are planning to eat there in March, they have those wonderful steak fries they used to have at CHH, so so good. Plus those sandwiches look amazing!!

I thought the pic of Hunter with just the ears was very cute! Shows how much I know about boys hair! A 3 year old gives two hoots about his hair! I'll get educated as the years go on though....

 

[jusero]

Loved your story about the accent problems. Being married to someone with a pretty thick accent myself, I could tell you some doosies. But the one that sticks in my mind from your story is the Southern drawl.

A while ago when I first got stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, my Mom traveled with me from upstate NY to Atlanta to help move some of my stuff she had been caring for while I was in Korea. Now, she had never really been out of Vermont and Upstate NY, so had never been exposed to the various accents from across our great country. When we stopped at a small gas station in the middle of Southern nowhere, the attendent asked, "Ya'll waunt me ta check tha ole?" My Mom said, "What?" He repeated himself and she, once again said, "What?" Well, I started laughing and that made her even more annoyed ... in addition to the poor guy being annoyed. After about 10 minutes of this, he finally said, "The ole, the OLE...ya waunt me ta check tha derned ole?!!!"

After picking myself up off the floor and wiping the tears away, I finally told her ... "the OIL Ma, the OIL!"

To this day I still ask her about her ole once in a while ... and she slaps me and calls me a not-to-flattering name.

Oh, and I did apologize to the gas station guy and made sure he knew we weren't laughing at him, we were laughing at my Mom. And we gave him a good tip.

 

[BPATSMouse]

if there is one good thing that has come out of all this is my brother-in-law accepted jesus christ about two weeks ago. He's never ever been a person who attended church. John's dad (a retired pastor) went by to check on him and asked him if he wanted him to pray for him. He said yes and that's when he accepted christ. I am so very happy that he did this.

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FYI, There are restrooms in the back corner (only corner) of the Noodle station. We found them last year and are by far the cleanest public restrooms at Magic Kingdom, not that the others are dirty they are just not used as much because most people don't realize thay are there.

 

[natebenma]

Once again, I want to pass along my deepest sympathy for what your family is going through. So many thoughts and prayers are with you all.

 

[natebenma]

Great update on your meal at The Plaza. We have not tried this place so I appreciate the photos. Your food looked AWESOME!!!

Thanks also for sharing your story about last year's visit to the Plaza. I guess WCC is not the only place with condiment antics!

How nice that you could enjoy Spectro without too much hassle.

 

[jenseib]

It sounds like Pam thought she was working at Whispering Canyon Cafe. LOL!

I have heard alot of good things about the plaza. It's on a list of future places to try.

 

[mickeystoontown]

My brother-in-law passed away last night around 10 p.m. My sister was with him and she told my mother that he simply stopped breathing. It was a peaceful death as they were finally able to stop his pain with sublingual morphine. I haven't personally spoken with my sister today as she and her children are making the arrangements for the visitation and funeral. But, I have sent text messages back and forth to my niece who said they are all holding up fairly well.

I ask that you please keep them in your prayers as I know that they have heavy hearts this morning.

 

[shelbys mommy]

I am so very sad to hear that he has passed. His passing sounds alot like my mom's passing. Very peaceful & not in pain. I am keeping you & your family in my thoughts & prayers.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Once again, I want to pass along my deepest sympathy for what your family is going through. So many thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Thank you so very much!

Great update on your meal at The Plaza. We have not tried this place so I appreciate the photos. Your food looked AWESOME!!!

Thanks also for sharing your story about last year's visit to the Plaza. I guess WCC is not the only place with condiment antics!

How nice that you could enjoy Spectro without too much hassle.

I would love to be sitting at The Plaza right now eating one of those tasty sandwiches. They were so good.

It sounds like Pam thought she was working at Whispering Canyon Cafe. LOL!

I have heard alot of good things about the plaza. It's on a list of future places to try.

Poor Pam, she was trying her best to understand John's southern drawl. I guess she really took him seriously when he said "lots".

Great update Lisa. I LOVE the Plaza as you know (they were still working on it when we were there two weeks ago). They just have the BEST french fries in my opinion.

I love Hunter wearing the ears over the baseball cap!

And I remember that story from last year with your waitress and John giving it "to her." John...the comedian.

I wonder how long the construction on The Plaza will last. I thought it was supposed to be over with by now.

The Plaza! My favorite Simple, but tasty and normally a fabulous view of the castle Sounds like you enjoyed it too. I like all the pictures of the parade in the distance. Makes me feel like I'm actually there. I just love MK at night

I had actually forgotten how good the food was there. I love a good steak, a good buffet, etc. but it was nice to get away from those kinds of foods and have a really good sandwich.

I'm very sorry to hear about your BIL, but what a relief that he accepted Jesus!! That will make things a tad easier, when the time comes, he'll be dancing pain-free gloriously in heaven. I'll keep your family and BIL in my prayers, that's a very tough situation, and I'm sure very, very, very hard on your sister.

The Plaza looks so yummy! We are planning to eat there in March, they have those wonderful steak fries they used to have at CHH, so so good. Plus those sandwiches look amazing!!

I thought the pic of Hunter with just the ears was very cute! Shows how much I know about boys hair! A 3 year old gives two hoots about his hair! I'll get educated as the years go on though....

I was so very relieved when he accepted Christ. It made it much easier to deal with.

The multi grain bread was fantastic. It had sunflower seeds in it which are my favorite.

Oh you just wait until the preteen and teenage years hit. It's fuuuuuun! Not!

Loved your story about the accent problems. Being married to someone with a pretty thick accent myself, I could tell you some doosies. But the one that sticks in my mind from your story is the Southern drawl.

A while ago when I first got stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, my Mom traveled with me from upstate NY to Atlanta to help move some of my stuff she had been caring for while I was in Korea. Now, she had never really been out of Vermont and Upstate NY, so had never been exposed to the various accents from across our great country. When we stopped at a small gas station in the middle of Southern nowhere, the attendent asked, "Ya'll waunt me ta check tha ole?" My Mom said, "What?" He repeated himself and she, once again said, "What?" Well, I started laughing and that made her even more annoyed ... in addition to the poor guy being annoyed. After about 10 minutes of this, he finally said, "The ole, the OLE...ya waunt me ta check tha derned ole?!!!"

After picking myself up off the floor and wiping the tears away, I finally told her ... "the OIL Ma, the OIL!"

To this day I still ask her about her ole once in a while ... and she slaps me and calls me a not-to-flattering name.

Oh, and I did apologize to the gas station guy and made sure he knew we weren't laughing at him, we were laughing at my Mom. And we gave him a good tip.

Thanks so much for the funny story. I needed a laugh right now.

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FYI, There are restrooms in the back corner (only corner) of the Noodle station. We found them last year and are by far the cleanest public restrooms at Magic Kingdom, not that the others are dirty they are just not used as much because most people don't realize thay are there.

AMEN!

We have often used those bathrooms. As you said, they are much cleaner than some of the ones that are "well used".

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am so very sad to hear that he has passed. His passing sounds alot like my mom's passing. Very peaceful & not in pain. I am keeping you & your family in my thoughts & prayers.

It was a relief to us to hear that he died peacefully. I was so afraid that he would be in a pain and would be acting like a horse's rearend at the end. (He had a tendency to be one from time to time but we still loved him.)

 

[Woth2982]

Thanks for thinking about us during this trying time. It's been really tough on my sister and nieces.

Your story is quite moving. You were definitely lucky to have walk away from the accident with only a hand injury (not that I am making light of it 'cause I am definitely not). If your friends have stopped drinking and driving, then something good came from the accident. I have never understood people who drink and drive. Call a cab! Call a friend! Call a family member! Just don't drive after drinking!

I didn't think you were making light for a second. I don't understand why people do such things either, I was always very opposed to drinking and driving, and it took my accident for my friends to smarten up. I think knowing they could be the next person to do something so preventable to an unsuspecting bystander changed their lightheartedness when it came to drinking and driving.

So sorry to hear about your BIL passing. It is a comfort to know he was comfortable and has gone to a better place where he can now watch over his loved ones in peace. I wish you all well, and will still be thinking of you all.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I need a little cheering up this morning so I thought I'd post some pictures from our camping trip. It was so very nice to get away from it all for a little while.

Oh wait, before I start the camping trip, I wanted to show you what Oddball had ran up the post at our house the other day. Poor thing was scared to death. He even had his paw up over his face like he was hiding:

Taken from the other side:

We had to put Oddball in his kennel and we went inside so that the raccoon would feel safe enough to climb down. He did, after about 30 minutes.

Okay, so on to the camping trip. John gets off work at 2:30 on Fridays and I get off at Noon. On my way home, I stopped and got the stuff for hamburgers, smores, hot dogs and homemade french fries. When I got home, I packed it all into the totes and Lacey and I started stacking everything up on the carport. We even got firewood to take with us. About 2:30, Lacey went to the school to check Hunter out.

I was hoping that we would hit the road by 3:30 but, in true McBride fashion, we didn't leave until 4:00 p.m. The drive to Hot Springs is a little over 4 hours meaning we would be putting the tent up in the pitch black dark. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time we had done it.

We had to stop and get ice for the ice chest and, fortunately, there was a ice vending building along the way. This is when I started taking pictures:

You can't see it very well but the back of the truck was pretty packed:

Hunter giving two thumbs up:

Once we had the ice, we were back on the road. Somewhere along the way, John said he was super tired. He said he wanted to ride in the back of the truck. I couldn't believe he said that. All I kept thinking was that we would look like a bunch of redneck hillbillies if he did that. We decided to stop in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and take a potty break and get burgers since it would be late when we got to the campsite and we wouldn't have time to cook anything. We didn't want to leave the truck all at one time because we had all sorts of things in the back. John said he'd stay.

When we came back out, John had set up a bed in the back of the truck. He had sleeping bags all rolled out and even had couple of pillows for his back rest. Okay, it was official....we were hillbillies! When Hunter found out that his daddy was riding in the back, he wanted to too. John said "climb in". They rode in the back while Lacey and I chatted about all sorts of wedding stuff, Disney plans and other girly stuff.

We made it into Hot Springs a few minutes after 8:00 p.m. but we still had to drive out to the State Park. I took the wrong exit (like I do every dang time we go there) but it wasn't a big deal because we can just take that highway to the park. I had to turn around so I pulled into a little side road. Lacey jumped out and took these pictures of her daddy and Hunter.

The temperature had dropped quite a bit and they had gotten cold so they were all covered up by the sleeping bags.

Before too long, we were in the State Park. The Ranger Station was closed for the evening but there was a list of the reserved camp sites. I checked the list to see where we had been placed. It was freaking cold outside compared to what we had left at home. Here's Lacey giving a thumbs up because we had finally arrived:

The Ranger pulled up just as we were getting into the truck. He asked if we had found our name on the list and told us that there was a burn ban. What? No roasting weiners? No smores? He did tell us that we were allowed to have charcoal fires in the grills or firepits but we had to put them out immediately after cooking. They were to be used for cooking only. We thanked him and were on our way to find the site. We were very pleased with the one that was reserved for us. It was semi-flat and was just one site down from the bathhouse.

The first thing I did was pull out my hoodie as did Lacey and Hunter. John said he wasn't cold. We got the tent out and started putting it up by the light of the lantern and truck lights. In less than an hour, our tent was up, the cots and sleeping bags were in the tent, the totes of food and camping stuff were unloaded and we were sitting around a non-existent campfire.

When Lacey and I went to the bathhouse for a bathroom break, we saw this spider on the information board:

And this one on the bathroom floor:

Lacey's reaction to the spiders:

I don't remember what time we went to bed but I am thinking it was around 11:00 p.m. or so. It wasn't too terribly late but it wasn't early either.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful day. I made us scrambled eggs, toast and sausage. For some reason, those simple foods taste so much better when you are outdoors. After eating, we put everything away and hopped in the truck to go fishing. First, we had to stop at the marina to buy worms. A few pictures:

I don't know if you can see it or not but there's a granddaddy longlegs spider on this water hydrant.

Walking down to the marina:

There are several places in the park where we like to fish. We stopped at all of them. We were catching a few fish but they were all little. Too little to keep. Pictures:

I don't know if you can tell it or not but there were little waves in the water because the wind was blowing so hard. We couldn't even tell if our bobber thing was going under because a fish was on it or if the current was pulling it under:

We decided to go back to the campsite and fix a late lunch. We thought that the wind might die down a bit later that evening. But, not before I took a couple more pictures:

The kids doing the Tweedle Dum Tweedle Dee loser sign:

When we got back to the campsite, we noticed that we had a neighbor. She was an older lady (probably late 60s or so) and she had a humongous German Shephard with her. We all said that we were pleased that we had someone older next to us. That meant no late night ramblings or music playing, etc. from our neighbor.

I cooked burgers on the campstove rather than over an open fire because the wind was still blowing quite a bit. After lunch, Lacey and Hunter played all sorts of card games and a travel Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. I read a magazine and John did this:

Our tent:

Feeling refreshed and ready to get the "I'm going to catch more fish" game going, we headed back down to the lake. I was so busy taking pictures that I found it hard to find time to fish. The lake is just so beautiful:

You know one of the things that I love about camping? You don't have to worry about what you look like or whether or not you have on any makeup. It's all about having fun and relaxing. Thus, the hat and no makeup pictures:

Those last two pictures were kind of dark and you would think that we had just about lost all sunlight but that wasn't the case as you can see from these next pictures:

***Continued in next post