Who knew choking each other would earn us fastpasses?

[brookelizabeth]

Oh my goodness! That is just awful!!!! I'm so sorry you have to deal with this! I hope you don't find any "hidden damage" and the cost is minimal. Did you loose any big ticket items like electronics or appliances?

 

[3LittlePirates]

Oh no! I am so sorry, that is horrible! Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon!

 

[Kathy Jetson]

Lisa I'm so sorry to hear about the water damage. How horrible to have to wake up in the middle of the night to that. I hope you get it all cleaned up ok and that it doesn't ruin any of your Christmas.

 

[jenseib]

OH no!! How awful.
I've been there too. We've had our basement flood several times, and I have alot of stuff down here, including my computer. One time it was right after Christmas, and it was awful. some of Claire's new things were reuined (they were under the tree in the basement still, since I hadn't put it all away.) Paige's dads company poored our basement, so I always blame him. LOL!

 

[jusero]

Just getting back from a week at Mom's up in the Adirondacks and catching up. First of all, let me sy how sorry I am about the water damage. Hopefully it isn't too cold there.

As for your pics from AK, LOVE them. I really loved the one you got of the gorilla's rear end facing the camera and then the very next photo he has turned around and looks like he is chastising you for taking a pic of his bum. And the one with the gorilla at the top of the waterfall is frame worthy. Just crop it down a bit and frame it.

 

[jusero]

Here are some cropping ideas:

 

[deedeew80]

So sorry to hear about the water mess....again! Hope all the cleanup is going ok so you can get back to normal!

 

[Woth2982]

So sorry to hear about the water mess! What a nightmare. I remember at our old house the water heater exploded.....and by exploded I mean flooded, we had water every where. It took weeks for the carpets to dry out. Fortunately it was only the basement and nothing major was ruined.....that I can remember, I was only like 11 when it happened. Hopefully it all gets fixed fast.

 

[PittypatBR]

Oh, my gosh! I can't believe you had to go through all that flooding AGAIN!! I remember your posts about the last time it happened, and you had my sympathy then, but I can't imagine waking up to the same situation. I think the washer HAS TO GO!! A new one would have to be cheaper than all the new flooring, etc. That is why I never go to bed or leave the house with my washer, dryer, or dishwasher running. It just isn't worth the risk! Oh, well, don't let it ruin your Christmas! I know you will be glad to get the boss off to Spain on Monday.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Morning all! Thanks so much for the sympathies about the darned water/washer situation.

We have everything pretty much cleaned up. We bought a new washer Friday evening and it's installed.

John and Lacey pulled up the wood flooring in the bathrooms and reinstalled the baseboards. Luckily, we still had our vinyl flooring underneath the wood flooring so we didn't have to buy new flooring. Speaking of flooring, I wish I knew what brand we have in our house because I would scream it's praises from the rooftops. This is the third time parts of the house has flooded and there's not even a little wrinkle in the flooring.

My niece has a steamer vac so we borrowed that and started cleaning the carpets yesterday afternoon. It looks like it is going to work and we won't have to rent a commercial cleaner or have someone come in and clean the carpets for us. I don't know if I mentioned it or not but the rooms with the carpet weren't wet all the way. The water only came in about three feet underneath the doors.

The Christmas decorations around our house are spare this year. Needless to say, we have had a lot of other things on our minds besides decorating. But, all of the Christmas shopping is done!

My boss wasn't supposed to come in today but he is. He isn't actually leaving for Spain until Wednesday morning but he wasn't going to come in today or tomorrow so that he could pack and pick his girlfriend up from the airport (she arrives from S.C. tomorrow some time and she's going with him to Spain). I came into the office today to see the desk that I left spotless Friday covered in piles of files. Apparently, he worked this weekend. But, I would have rather him work this weekend and get stuff done than wait until today or tomorrow and think we are going to get everything out in just a few hours.

I do have some very good news! Yesterday, it was decided that Lacey would be going to Disney with us! The cost to add her to the vacation was less than $300 since we booked with free dining. We are so excited to have her going with us again. It'll be out last hoorah with her before she gets married. Mama is still on the fence on whether or not she is going. She hasn't canceled but she's talking about it. She's not finished with her dental work and they are estimating that, by the time it's all done, the total cost will be approximately $4,000.00.

So, it looks like things are picking up around the McBride household. Thank goodness!

I hope to get an installment written today or tomorrow. Just depends on how much more work my boss gives me.....hopefully not too much.

 

[natebenma]

I'm so behind that I have a rollercoaster of posts to respond to:

Love your animal kingdom photos- some of the favorites I have seen. The ones of the gorilla with the waterfall are amazing! I also love the rhinos on the safari and how clear the water is in your alligator photos.

BOO to people who have no concept of good manners! Of course you should step aside to give others an opportunity to take a peek. SHEESH! We had the same problem in the Washington Monument too. There are just a few small windows up there, and people just camp out there.

I am so so sorry to hear about your washer. What an awful thing to wake to and to have to deal with. AGAIN! Glad you got the new washer and that you have taken care of most of the flooding.

Yeah on Lacey joining you on the trip. That will be so special for all of you!

Wishing you and your family a joyous Christmas!

Dee

 

[Practically_Perfect]

I do have some very good news! Yesterday, it was decided that Lacey would be going to Disney with us! The cost to add her to the vacation was less than $300 since we booked with free dining. We are so excited to have her going with us again. It'll be out last hoorah with her before she gets married.

So, it looks like things are picking up around the McBride household. Thank goodness!

That is so exciting!!

It will be so nice for you all to have one last McBride family vacation before Lacey gets married. If Mama's able to come it will just be icing on the cake. Enjoy it!!

 

[Bethislucy]

Yay glad your whole family is going to get to go with you. That will be nice.
If I don't make it back on before the end of the week I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.

 

[Caretames1]

I know the last hurah feeling. Samantha will be going off to college this fall. She can't leave college for Disney, so this trip will be our last as a family, unless we go somewhere in the summer months, which doesn't happen a lot due to no income on my part (summer vacation from school)

Gald to hear your pretty much cleaned up atfer the "flood".

Carey

 

[mickeystoontown]

For some reason, I am missing a lot of my Animal Kingdom pictures. I remember that we went to Rafiki's Planet Watch because I took tons of pictures of hidden Mickeys and we talked about what a welcome respite the air conditioned building was.

I know that we saw It's Tough to Be a Bug because I took a bunch of pictures of the Tree of Life.

I know we ate at Pizzafari and that I took pictures of the pepperoni pizzas Mama and Hunter ordered, the Italian stack sandwich that John ordered and the chicken caesar salad that I ordered.

Where are the pictures? Somewhere on a CD that I burned and I put in a safe place. A safe place that is so safe that I don't remember where it is. This is where I should point out that having two cameras is sometimes a bad thing. Why? Because I now have multiple memory cards and I am too darned lazy to organize my pictures before burning them to CDs. Thus, the missing pictures.

Since I don't have my pictures, I don't remember when we did certain things. At some point, we wandered over to Asia to see how long the wait was for Kali River Rapids. I didn't really feel like getting soaking wet but we told Hunter we would ride if the wait wasn't too terribly long. Well, you guess it, it was long. 75 minutes long! No way Jose'!

Hunter wanted to go on the Maharajah Jungle Trek but Mama and John were getting tired and they were hot and decided to sit it out. They told Hunter and I to go ahead and go and they'd just wait on us. It was so stinking hot that day so they found a nice shady spot to sit and people watch.

We entered the trek trail and this I have pictures of. Well, I have some pictures. The others are on the hidden CD.

I took pictures of Hunter standing underneath the prayer flag tree and in front of the hidden Mickey (our annual picture). The tigers were all lying in the shade since it was so hot. We were able to spot them through the windows but, again, there were window hogs and we weren't able to look too long.

Once we finished the trail, I called John to see where he and Mama were sitting since they hadn't found a place to sit prior to us starting our jungle trek. He told us where to find him and, after a little looking, we saw that they had found a nice little shaded area near one of the carts.

***Boss is calling me. Be back in a bit.

 

[charming23]

Finally caught up. First I love your animal kingdon pics. The ones of the gorillas, especially the one by the water fall are great. I love gorillas and was sad not to get any pics when we were there.

Second so sorry to hear about your mini flood but glad that you got it cleaned up.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Ugggggh! I hate not having all of my pictures. They are what helps me remember what we did and when we did it.

The next picture that I see is this one:

which was on our way to see Festival of the Lion King. This would be the last thing we did this day because we had an ADR for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show that evening.

I took a couple of pictures while walking over:

A mother duck and her babies were also seeking shelter from the blazing sun:

And, a few more pictures:

We were all kind of lagging because it had been so hot that day but Mama especially so. I think this is the only time (so far) that she felt like she had overdone it. The misting fans were spraying down on the guests waiting in the line. When I say spraying, I mean spraying! Almost too much. Remember when I said I didn't want to get soaked on Kali River Rapids? Well, these misting fans were blasting so much water that I felt like I had gone on the rapids. While we welcomed the cool mist, we didn't really care for getting soaked. I know....I know...we should have been thankful that they were at least misting (we've been in the lines before and they wouldn't even be turned on) but I think this would come back to haunt Mama later on.

***Up next: Festival of the Lion King!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm so behind that I have a rollercoaster of posts to respond to:

Love your animal kingdom photos- some of the favorites I have seen. The ones of the gorilla with the waterfall are amazing! I also love the rhinos on the safari and how clear the water is in your alligator photos.

BOO to people who have no concept of good manners! Of course you should step aside to give others an opportunity to take a peek. SHEESH! We had the same problem in the Washington Monument too. There are just a few small windows up there, and people just camp out there.

I am so so sorry to hear about your washer. What an awful thing to wake to and to have to deal with. AGAIN! Glad you got the new washer and that you have taken care of most of the flooding.

Yeah on Lacey joining you on the trip. That will be so special for all of you!

Wishing you and your family a joyous Christmas!

Dee

I've been behind on all of my subscribed threads too so I totally understand.

Thanks for the comments on my pictures. I couldn't believe how good some of them turned out. Of course, for every good picture, I had about three or four not so good pictures.

I hope that your family has a wonderul Christmas as well.

That is so exciting!!

It will be so nice for you all to have one last McBride family vacation before Lacey gets married. If Mama's able to come it will just be icing on the cake. Enjoy it!!

I know! We are so happy to have her going with us again. Hopefully, Mama will come along for the ride again. I've been using sob stories to get her to go such as "Lacey acted like she was jealous that Hunter got to spend time with you at Disney and she didn't." You know, those kinds of things get to a Mamaw's heart.

Yay glad your whole family is going to get to go with you. That will be nice.
If I don't make it back on before the end of the week I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.

I'm so glad that she decided to go with us next year! Hope you have a good Christmas too!

I know the last hurah feeling. Samantha will be going off to college this fall. She can't leave college for Disney, so this trip will be our last as a family, unless we go somewhere in the summer months, which doesn't happen a lot due to no income on my part (summer vacation from school)

Gald to hear your pretty much cleaned up atfer the "flood".

Carey

Lacey is taking three of her last four courses online so, even if they aren't done by the time we leave, she can still finish them up. Isn't it sad knowing that our babies are growing up and leaving the nest.

Finally caught up. First I love your animal kingdon pics. The ones of the gorillas, especially the one by the water fall are great. I love gorillas and was sad not to get any pics when we were there.

Second so sorry to hear about your mini flood but glad that you got it cleaned up.

Thank you! I like the waterfall/gorilla picture too. I think it's one of my favorites of the entire trip.

I'm glad that we have the house cleaned up from the flooding. I think we're going to have to put in some new carpet padding right around the doors because I can't seem to get the funky smell to go away.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The hidden pictures have been found! You can imagine my surprise when I opened my desk drawer this morning and there was the CD. I had put it there so I'd remember to upload the pictures to Photobucket before writing more on my Animal Kingdom day. Oh well, I have them uploaded now so I'll go back and add them to my report.

As I said before, I knew that we had done quite a bit at the Animal Kingdom but I couldn't remember in what sequence until I looked back at my pictures.

I found more safari pictures:

As you can tell and as you already know, I am a picture taking fool. I just can't seem to help myself because there are so many things to take pictures of.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

After the safari, we figured now was as good a time as any to take the train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. If I am remembering correctly, it was sprinkling a little so we were walking a little faster than normal.

The first thing we did when we got into the Planet Watch building was to start looking for hidden Mickeys in the murals. Some of these pics have Mickeys in them and some do not:

We have taken a picture of Hunter doing this every year. It's neat to see how much he has grown from year to year:

***Continued in next post