Who knew choking each other would earn us fastpasses?

[KatMark]

Great update, Lisa. Love the pictures as you were walking to your DIS meet (and what fun...the group pic is great); I can't wait to meet Mary and the girls in September. And such a smart gal you are thinking of having Mama and Hunter do Universe of Energy (which is a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG ride) while you walked over to France.

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Great update. Yay for the Dis meet. Dont you hate having those dreams that you think you gonna mess up or what not?

 

[Bridora]

What a great taaa daaaaaa idea! I didn't realize they were on Ellen while we were at the meet. I'm sure you said that, but.......

And your picture is way better than mine! I guess that's the price you pay: have a not so great pic taken by your 10 year old, but be in the picture, or take a really great picture, but not be in it yourself!

And I'm holding my first slushie in the picture, but mine is not the orange one! DH wasn't sure I'd like it & he was the one who bought it.

Funny about the lady across the way!

I saw you guys walking by after the meet while we were sitting on a wall in Japan eating our Kaki-Goris. I should have taken a stealth picture for the TR, but couldn't get to the camera quick enough by the time I saw y'all!

 

[Kathy Jetson]

Too funny you took a picture of the lady who wasn't very lady like!

The group pic is so nice. The one of you and Dana is to cute you both look so happy to be there (or was that the slushies putting the smile on your faces?)

Can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update, Lisa. Love the pictures as you were walking to your DIS meet (and what fun...the group pic is great); I can't wait to meet Mary and the girls in September. And such a smart gal you are thinking of having Mama and Hunter do Universe of Energy (which is a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG ride) while you walked over to France.

I know that you are excited about your upcoming Dis Meet. Mary and her family are great.

Great update. Yay for the Dis meet. Dont you hate having those dreams that you think you gonna mess up or what not?

I had that dream and it scared me to death. I could just see me walking into the meet and not knowing anyone.

What a great taaa daaaaaa idea! I didn't realize they were on Ellen while we were at the meet. I'm sure you said that, but.......

And your picture is way better than mine! I guess that's the price you pay: have a not so great pic taken by your 10 year old, but be in the picture, or take a really great picture, but not be in it yourself!

And I'm holding my first slushie in the picture, but mine is not the orange one! DH wasn't sure I'd like it & he was the one who bought it.

Funny about the lady across the way!

I saw you guys walking by after the meet while we were sitting on a wall in Japan eating our Kaki-Goris. I should have taken a stealth picture for the TR, but couldn't get to the camera quick enough by the time I saw y'all!

I had never had a Grand Marnier slushie but everybody kept saying they were good so I tried one.

The lady across the way sure wasn't sitting very ladylike. I kept thinking she was gonna flash somebody.

You should have called out to us as we walked by. I would have stopped and chatted a minute or two.

Too funny you took a picture of the lady who wasn't very lady like!

The group pic is so nice. The one of you and Dana is to cute you both look so happy to be there (or was that the slushies putting the smile on your faces?)

Can't wait to see what happens next!

That lady sure didn't know how to sit in a skirt. Even the one of her with her legs crossed was a little risky.

The smiling pic of Dana and I was one of just joy. We had only had a sip of the slushie.

 

[MHTeacher]

I chuckled when I read about you wanting to buy that "Mine, Mine, Mine" shirt for Lacey's mission leaders. One day soon, they'll know exactly what we already know!

Great DIS meet---hate that I missed that one. I had to smile when you said that about Walt being proud!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hello everyone! I hope that you all are having a good weekend. I had thought I was going to get an installment written this evening. But, John's brother and family are in town and will be over soon. I did a little errand running this morning and then spent the afternoon cleaning house. That's one good thing about having company over or having a party......you get your booty in gear and clean house from top to bottom.

Maybe I can get something written tomorrow afternoon after church.

Have a good rest of the weekend!

 

[shelbys mommy]

I am all caught up. I would love to do a DIS meet one day! I think that would be awesome! You always take the best pics!!! Have a great weekend!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while!! I love seeing Hunter and your Mom together. It's so sweet! The DIS meet looks like it was fun! I felt the same way with an earlier DIS meet. I was so nervous. But it was so much fun.

 

[nessz79]

I'm here! I'm here!

I followed your link from a CBR thread on Dis Resorts. We are heading to CBR this December. I haven't stayed there for about 15 years, when I used to go with my family as a teenager. I'm so excited!

I love your style and family- it's like I've known you for a long time . Looking forward to more!

 

[CoolMom2112]

I am a total noob on the Dis boards, but I stumbled across your TR and am very much enjoying it. I'm planning our trip at the end of Sept. and my DH is tired of me talking about it, but I need my Disney fix! Thank you for writing in such an inviting, friendly, and welcoming style.
Can't wait for the next installment!

Amanda in TN

 

[Mombits]

Mama asked me "what does this one taste like?" . "This one" being the Beverly. I told her it was yucky but to try it. Here's Mama's reaction to the Beverly:

Our glider rose to the top of the theater/screen and we were Soarin' over California. I could hear my Mama giggling like a little girl. She would say something to John and then she'd say something to Hunter. We floated back down to the floor and unbuckled. John asked Mama how she liked it and she said "I loved it!". I looked at John and he was grinning ear to ear. He was so glad that she had enjoyed Soarin' since he had been telling her about it for so long.

***Up next, a ride on Living With The Land!

I love your Mama's 'Beverly' face!!! She's very polite! You should see my DH's Beverly face!!!! LOL.

I, too, just loved Soarin' and it's so neat that you could hear your Mama giggling like that, that is a wonderful memory to have!

 

[Mombits]

[SIZE="4
[B][I][COLOR="SeaGreen"]We're eating our food and talking about heading over to World Showcase when I feel a pop in my mouth and I hear a "ding, ding, ding". Holy Smokes! My temporary crown had fallen out of my mouth and onto the table! I immediately drop my burger and grab for the tooth which is bouncing it's way across the table. What is this? A grasshopper crown?

John and Hunter are looking at me all crazy like and ask me what I am doing. I hold out my hand and they see a tooth! "Where did that come from?" they asked. "Where the fart do you think it came from?" I shrieked. Then they started giggling and then they started laughing. I mean almost hysterically laughing. Why would my loving family start laughing at me in my time of need? Because the temporary crown was my front tooth! I now had a gapping hole in my smile with just a wire sticking out of my gums. Right now, I am laughing too but I wasn't laughing when I had a tooth in my hand and I'm sitting in the middle of Epcot.

I made my way out of the bathroom back to the still laughing fartheads, a/k/a John and Hunter, and went back to the bathroom with my compact. After spending a few minutes sitting on the toilet and balancing the compact on the tissue holder, I got the tooth reattached and it looked quite professional, if I do say so myself. I have to tell you though that it was quite annoying to lean up, look into the little compact mirror and have the automatic toilet flush. This happened several times and my tushy had sprinkles of water on it.

Head held high, I go back to the table and smile really big! No gapping hole any more. John and Hunter attempt to apologize but they kept stiffling a grin. By this time, too, I was getting a bit giggly too and all was fine and dandy once again.

COLOR][/I][/B]

I'll give ya'll some time to stop laughing, catch your breath and wipe your eyes. In the meantime, I'll be organizing my photobucket account. Be back later to post replies!

[/COLOR][/SIZE]

OMG, I had totally forgotten about that and it was hilarious the way you told it- including calling them fartheads!!! Loving your TR Lisa!!! P.S. I LOVED the Gran Marnier Slush!!!!!

 

[ChefDisneyLu]

Great TR!

Thank you for sharing.

Lisa

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good Lordy Miss Jordy! It seems like forever since I've really posted something meaningful on my trip report. Much less reply to everybody. Hope that everybody is still with me.

I thought I was going to write something this weekend but John's brother and his family were in town. The visit resulted in something very very good. His brother has been voted in as pastor of John's Dad's church. John's Dad is retiring as a pastor and they had several pastors come and preach including one of John's brothers. They have been pastoring a church in Mississippi for four, maybe five, years and have wanted to move home for a while now. So, not only will another McBride be pastoring the church but John's brother will be back home which is a good thing. John will have his fishing and hunting buddy back.

My boss is still away at lunch so I am going to try and write up an installment. I may have to stop if he comes back in but I'll just minimize the screen and finish writing when his 2:00 appointment gets here.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh and I forgot to say that we have decided we are going to try to work in another day to next year's trip to Disney. I think we're going to arrive on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday. The boss is probably going to be ticked off at me but I am thinking he'll get over it.

 

[Believeinfairytales]

Oh and I forgot to say that we have decided we are going to try to work in another day to next year's trip to Disney. I think we're going to arrive on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday. The boss is probably going to be ticked off at me but I am thinking he'll get over it.

This is wonderful news, Lisa. I think that any extra time in Disney is worth the boss being mad for a moment or two!

 

[MissLiz]

Congrats to John's brother! That is great news!

Also, congrats on adding another day to the trip!

I asked for my September days off, but I haven't told the bosses where we are going for hubby's grandma's birthday. They already think I'm Disney nuts for going once a year....they are going to really love a second trip. LOL

Can't wait for a new installment!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I always seem to start off an installment with "Let's See" or "Let's do a recap" or "When I last left off" so I've been trying to think of something different to say but, like I said before, when I think too hard, my head starts to hurt.

So, let's do a recap of what we had seen and what had been done in my last installment. John drank this:

while across the way from us, a woman sat like this:

and a Disney castmember did this:

As planned, a lot of us had a meet that looked something like this:

Once the meet was over, Dana and I got this:

Oooohhh, I could have started off with "my last installment went something like this". That sounds better so just forget that I even typed :let's do a recap".

Now that I've gotten that over with, let's move on. Dana had decided to walk around World Showcase with us because she had a Fastpass for Test Track too. If I am remembering correctly, Dale and Dallas had ditched her and headed back to the resort to cool off.

As I said before, it was hotter than heck outside and we were sweating by the time we got back to the front of the park. I called Mama and Hunter and Hunter tried to describe to me where they were. I couldn't understand what he was saying and Mama didn't know where they were so she couldn't help describe it to me either. Finally, we spotted them. We decided before we'd go on Test Track that we needed to take a tinkle break. You know me and tinkle breaks. Well, Dana is a tinkler too so we all stopped. I knew there was a reason that we got along so well.

After the bathroom break, we started over to Test Track. I think we had about a ten minute wait until we could use our Fastpasses. Hunter had been doing the cup stacking thing like crazy before we went to Disney and was getting pretty good at it. You'll remember that he got a few of the mini-Coke cups from Club Cool. He also got some of the condiment cups from the Electric Umbrella. Hey whatever floats your boat and keeps you happy in Disney. And, the cups were free as they came with the price of admission to Epcot.

Here's a video of Hunter trying to show Dana his cup stacking skills. The wind was blowing and the cups were so light that he wasn't doing such a good job. Still, it passed the time:



We stood around a few more minutes waiting until we could use the Fastpasses. Dana pointed out that the track above us was moving every time a car zipped by. What? I had never noticed that before. The track actually moved back and forth a little. Kinda freaky!

Finally, it was time and we could enter the building. Here's a picture of Mama and John waiting.

See how John is holding something in his hand? No? Well, he was holding coins in his hand. He had picked up this habit of stacking the coins up and letting them fall in his hands. It wasn't so bad at first but after a while, it drove us nuts. And we told him so! That was a big no-no because once he realized it drove us crazy, he made sure he did it even more.

Anyway, we were let into the screening room and I think I remember that Dana got a phone call from her men asking where she was. I think that's right. I looked down on the floor and found somebody's camera card. I picked it up so that I could turn it in to Lost and Found later. I know if I had lost my camera memory card, I'd want somebody to turn it in. Think about those precious family memories being lost forever.

We watched the film of the vehicle testing and then were let into the next waiting area. This would be Mama's first time riding and I was anxious to see how she did. You all know that you have to step down quite a ways into the vehicle and then sit down. This would be another test. We got to the front of the line and they asked how many. When we told them five, they called for a single rider to sit with us.

Mama and Hunter would be in the back and John, Dana and I would be in the front. In hindsight, I should have sat in the back so I could have seen Mama's reaction. The little gate opened and Mama stepped into the car as easy as pie. Check getting into the Test Track car off our list of worries. Okay, so that little smiley isn't actually checking anything off but it was the closest smiley I could find that looked like they were checking something off a list.

The single rider looked like he was about Hunter's age and he talked to Mama and Hunter the entire time we were on the ride. He would tell Mama when we were going to stop, when we were going to go through brake testing, etc. He even told her when we were about to go outside.

We reached a speed of 64. something miles per hour and Mama loved it! I was so happy she liked it. We got off the ride and walked over to see the picture. I know good and darn well that I took a picture of the picture but I can't seem to locate it right now. I do know that it is on Photopass though and I'll be getting that soon. When I do, I'll post it.

Dana said she was going to head back to the resort and to Dale and Dallas. She had Dale and Dallas' Fastpasses and asked John and Hunter if they wanted them. Of course they did! We told Dana goodbye and Mama and I did a bit of shopping in the Test Track store. I'm glad that we got to spend some extra time with my Dis friend. After meandering around in the store, we saw John and Hunter. They looked around but didn't see anything they needed so we headed over to Mouse Gears to do some serious shopping. I love Mouse Gears!

Mama doing a bit of shopping:

I found a silver Mickey and heart necklace that was on clearance for just $3.99. It was really cute and I declared right there on the spot that I had to have it. I mean, hey, who can pass up a deal like that?

Mama wanted a t-shirt. She found several that she liked but they were all too long. So, we kept looking. John and I knew that we wanted to get the Mickey kitchen utensils for Lacey. For those of you who don't know, she and Jesse are planning on getting married either late 2011 or early 2012. We have already started buying her things and putting them away for her. The utensils were something that we really wanted to get to go in her "hope chest" (that's what we used to call them when I was a teenager).

We found a spoon rest, a pizza cutter, measuring cups, measuring spoons and a spatula and I put those in our basket. John also buys a coffee mug every trip so we went in search of a new one. You'd think that it would be easy-peasy to find a coffee cup in Disney. Well, for the average Joe, it would be. John, however, isn't the average Joe. There was a whole dadgum wall of cups but he didn't really see one that he liked. We did find his Dad and Mom cups though.

Our family has grown so much over the years that we draw names for Christmas. I brought along our list of names so that I could try and find my "names" a unique gift while at Disney. Last year, I had my older sister's name and I bought her a Mickey kitchen timer for just $10.00! It was a big ceramic one and was the cutest thing ever. I was excited to see if I could find something for my Christmas names this trip.

Mama also found my brother-in-law a Disney mug and she bought that for him as she has his name this year. She said she would look for something to go in it. I suggested some Disney coffee or cookies but she was afraid she would get the wrong kind of coffee and all of the cookies we saw had expiration dates before Christmas. By the way, we call food expiration dates "rot dates" at our house.

As we were looking around, Hunter and I spotted a Mickey gnome rain gauge that we just had to get for John. If you read my pre-trip report, you'll know that we have a garden and rain has been pretty scarce around our house. But, when it does rain, John likes to see how much we got. He and his daddy have this thing where they ask each other how much it rained at their house. I know....odd thing to try one-up each other with but it's what they do.

Mama spotted some really pretty Christmas ornaments and got a gorgeous silver one for my sister.

I saw that they had a baby section so I texted Lacey and confirmed that her Mission leaders were having a girl. She texted back and said yes. So, I bought them the cutest little pink onesie that had all of the princesses around the neck. It was so sweet. I found all sorts of stuff that I could have bought them but limited myself to just the one thing.

By the time we got through, I had a plethora of stuff in our basket. Mama put her stuff with our's so that she wouldn't have to wait in line. I had everything sent back to the resort and we were good to go.

(I send my sisters a copy of my trip report so I'll have to edit this part out when I send it to them so nobody knows about their Christmas gifts.)

Here are a couple of pictures that I took while we were shopping:

Looks excited to be shopping doesn't he.

And another:

****Okay, so I need to get back to work and this seems like a good place to stop. Up next, a visit with Figment the purple dragon!

 

[Mombits]

Great update, love all the little details you always give. It makes me feel like I was there- in fact I kept looking for myself in the background of the pictures, lol!!!