On The Road Again - Day 1 & 2

Ummm, hello?

Does this thing still work?

[Knock, Knock] Anyone still there?

Bueller? Bueller?

Okay, so it's been a while. Or something. I'm sorry. Really, I am. There's been school, planning, Disney, rain, more rain, 7 month old, and first day of kindergarten. We have a LOT to catch up on. I have no less than 434 pictures to commemorate the above events. I'm really not exaggerating. I counted. There are 434 pictures. I don't think google will let me post that many.

Anywho.

School is going well. Thank you to those of you asking (and questioning my sanity). I'm questioning my own sanity, believe me. This is certainly not my choice, but I think it will probably be better for my career in the long run. Having said that...grrrr, I do not want to be in school. So, my first 3-hour class is 5 weeks long and we begin week 5 today. I'm almost done. Only 13 more hours to go. Yes, I will be counting down for your enjoyment.

Disney was amazing. We were in Orlando for a week. Precisely the same amount of time as our close friend Tropical Storm Fay. We got tight with Fay. We saw her every day. All day. She did keep the heat and humidity away, and Disney closes for NO ONE including little TS Fay, so we actually enjoyed it! Katherine was tucked away in her stroller cover so she stayed dry and non-hot, the rest of us had ponchos and raincoats, so we were all fine. There wasn't any lightening or thunder, just steady rain. It actually wasn't bad and now we have a fun story to tell!

David had an amazing time. He's quite the daredevil. He rode all the big coasters. Well, except the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. He wasn't tall enough to ride that one and believe me, we heard about it. He rode several of the other big ones multiple times. Of course, John rode with him while Mommy & Katherine stayed very safely on the ground. If you don't know this about me, I get VERY motion sick. John has made 3 (yes, THREE) trips to Six Flags, rode one ride with his wife, and then (literally) carried me to the car and took me home to recover. I actually blacked out 3 times while riding the Titan. Ouch. Mommy is WAY better with two feet planted firmly on the ground. So, plant we did.

Day one was Sunday at Animal Kingdom. This was our shortest day. The only pictures we took were in the "Boneyard" which was a playground for the kids.

We saw the Lion King show which was fabulous. David loved it, and Katherine fell asleep during the break with the A/C. It actually didn't rain on Sunday. Fay was still hanging out on the Florida coast at that point. We saw the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show which was very cool - it's a 3D show with stuff spitting at you and it feels like a bug crawls under your seat - that made Mommy jump! I did ride the River Rapids with David. It was pretty tame and it gave John and Katherine some quality time. For those of you Dallas-ites, it's very similar to the Roaring Rapids at Six Flags. John and David also rode the Expedition Everest - aka "the Yeti". They rode it at least twice, but maybe more times. It was super fun.

This was by far our shortest day. Our travel day on Saturday was something slightly worse than a nightmare. By the end of the day, non-confrontational Cindy actually lashed out at a poor defenseless woman who happened to make the unfortunate mistake of getting between me and a rental car line after an 8 hour travel day with an infant. We didn't get to our hotel until about 11pm and we were at the park pretty much when it opened the next morning, so we were grateful to have a short day. We needed the rest!

Monday was Epcot day. This was our 12 hour, open-to-close day. Wow - we were BUSY! I'm pretty sure we did pretty much everything there. Soarin' was first on the list and they all said it was great. You'd have to ask someone else, Katherine and I went on a marathon walk. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! The order of the rest of the day is fuzzy, but we all did Spaceship Earth, the Nemo ride, the Crush Show (which was GREAT), Living with the Land and a character lunch. The riders also did Test Track (about 100 times) and Mission: Space. For lunch, the 4 girls...

Oops, did I mention that John's sister & her family went too?!?! So sorry, must have forgotten to mention that. Yes, John's sister Amie and her wonderful family all came too. It made the trip so much more fun to have them there with us! David and his cousin Lauren are two peas in a pod and they had a great time.

So - the four girls, Cindy, Amie, Lauren and Katherine all went to a princess lunch in Norway. Katherine slept through the whole lunch, but Princess Lauren had a GREAT time!!

If you're wondering, I think the boys went to a character lunch with Mickey Mouse or someone like that. Not sure of the details.

At the end of the day, we stayed for the IllumiNations show (thanks to the Baby Care Center!!) which was amazing. David and Katherine both loved it, but by the time we were leaving the park, it was about 10:00. It was a FULL day. Here's David and his Daddy walking with David's new Mickey Mouse.

And this is what the kids looked like when we got back to the hotel:

Whew, I'm worn out.

That was Day 1 and Day 2 at Disney World. More to come...promise.