Better Late Then Never

I finally found some time to sit down and go through pictures so I can order copies for our photo albums. Gulp. I haven't printed a single picture since January. How in the world does that happen? I haven't figured out just how many there are waiting to be printed at Snapfish.com, but over 800 of them are from our Disney Vacation. Guess, I'm going to have to be really picky about which ones I end up printing.

Anyhow, the rest of our Disney pictures are up at at Flickr now. Happy Viewing.

Disney Vacation Slideshow

The DVD slideshow I've been working on is now completed, but since I've been having a hard time posting videos on here, I'm just going to give you the link instead. So click here if you would like to check it out.

Pictures Loaded

Day 1 & 2 of our Disney World pictures are up at Flickr. I'll try to finish the rest soon.

Ryan Takes On The Dark Side!

Ryan vs. Darth Maul at Disney's MGM Studios Star Wars Weekends!


Try this link if the video still doesn't work!

Day 5: June 10, 2007 - The Day My Son Became A Jedi

This morning we woke up at 7:15am and were all very excited to get to MGM so we could catch the Star Wars parade and take another shot at getting the kids into the Jedi Training Academy.

We were downstairs for breakfast (I'm sure you all know where we ate by now.) by 8am and at MGM by 9am. Whoo hoo! We made it! The lines were long to get in once again, but we really didn't mind because there were storm troopers positioned over head and I never realized that they were so funny before. They were communicating to each other about all of us in line, poking fun here and there. During our wait, Ryan had a little fun with them. He pointed a pretend light saber at the one standing just over us and the Storm Trooper pointed his finger at him and took aim with his gun and pretended to shoot at him. Ryan was all over this and they kept it up for a few more minutes.





Once we were admitted to the park we headed straight for the Jedi Training Academy stage for their first one of the day. Instead of standing in the middle of the lined up kids the way we had before, we had Ryan, Quentin and Skyler all stand in the corner right along the rope, closest to the stage and where the characters enter from behind the billboard. The show began and the two Jedi's came out and start picking kids from the audience.



Ryan was the second one to get picked! Quentin and Skyler were both picked soon after. All three were out on stage putting their robes on and receiving their "training" light sabers! One of the Jedi's stayed up on stage with Skyler's group and the other came down to where Ryan and Quentin were.



The training began. "Aim for the right shoulder, then the left. Now duck, then go for the right leg, now the left and then aim for the head!" they were told repeatedly as they practiced. Unfortunately, with Ryan's hearing loss he could only hear the Jedi onstage using the microphone so he was turned around the wrong way facing the wrong Jedi. Too cute.



Just then the Jedi's felt a change in the force.



Could it be? Two storm troopers enter the stage to secure the area as the Jedi's move the padawan learners safely to the side of the stage. It is! Darth Vader strides out in a cloud of smoke from behind the billboard and enters onto the stage.



He tells the Jedi's that the force is strong with these kids. He then asks the kids to come with him to the dark side and he'll show them all of the ways of the sith and make them the most powerful Jedi's ever.



The kid's refused and out comes Darth Maul and the battle begins.



Each padawan on stage takes their turn at Darth Vader as each one on the ground below goes up against Darth Maul. All were instantly mesmerized by how graceful Darth Maul is in battle. Unfortunately none of us actually have a picture of our kids battling them because our cameras were busy in video camera mode. Ryan's turn came to go up against Darth Maul and he was pretty awestruck, I think. He did what he was suppose to do, but once again the hearing aids came into play and all he could hear were the instructions that the kid on stage fighting Darth Vader was hearing. As their battle came to an end, Ryan stood at the side while others took their turns just in complete excitement. He was loving every minute of it!



The battle had ended and no Padawan had given in to the dark side. Yoda's voice emerges through the music as he tells Darth Vader, "Strong with these young ones, the force is." He basically tells Vader to get lost and then the head Jedi tells the young Padawans that they are now true Padawan Leaners and to follow the ways of the force. Certificates were handed out and we had three very happy kids on our hands. What a truely awesome experience!



After the training was over we had 45 minutes left until the start of the Star Wars Parade so we grabbed a bench nearby and claimed it as our own. While waiting for the parade, Bret & Scott took the kids across from where we were sitting to meet characters as they came out.





The parade began and we snapped pictures like crazy!







When the parade ended we fought the crowds back over to the stage and snapped more pictures and then headed down to Mickey Avenue to find Jabba's Hut. On the way there we ran into Greedo who was done taking pictures, but agreed to a couple more, but after finding some shade first. I can't imagine how hot they get in those costumes. Ryan was in total awe. Greedo is his favorite character. I think he was starting to believe that they were real.



We went into Jabba's Hut in hopes for a better selection of merchandise, but were really disappointed. We headed back to Tatooine to buy Ryan a Jedi robe and a storm trooper gun. Bret found two t-shirts for himself and Ashley found one herself. I had pretty much decided on getting a T-shirt and a sweatshirt that I had seen back at the gift shop at our resort and bought those later on our way back in.

Done with MGM now, we hopped on a shuttle to Epcot. We went back to Sunshine Season's for lunch because it had been so good the first time. It was even better the second time! Next we headed over to catch Honey, I Shrunk The Audience. Once again there was no wait time. I think that was the nicest surprise throughout this whole trip. You could walk up to any show and not have to wait. The show was good, but I guess I had been expecting some kind of backyard scene from the original movie.

After the show we stopped to check out the cool fountains and thought about how refreshing they looked. Obviously, we didn't think about it for very long.









And to think that before lunch we were so tired and exhausted that we were planning on eating and calling it a day since we had to be up at 3am to catch our flight out the next moring.

Looks like we didn't think much about how dark the skies looked off in the distance either...

Leaving the fountains behind and feeling much more refreshed, many stopped us to ask where the water rides were. He He He. Our next destination was The Living Seas and we stopped for the only complete group picture of the entire vacation.



We headed inside to ride Nemo and start to freeze our behinds off because we are so thoroughly soaked but we head over to watch Turtle Talk With Crush anyway. We promise ourselves that we are going to go back to the resort and start packing after this. Crush is probably my favorite show in all of Disney. He was so incredibly funny - a definate must see.

So we leave the show and head to the door to leave when we hear the thunder and see all the people come running in. It's storming outside and while we secretly know we should leave because we're never going to be able to get up at 3am at this rate, we stay because that's what any normal and sane person would do, right?



So while checking out all the cool fish I am still a bit bummed that I haven't gotten to ride Soarin' since the standby lines have been 85 minutes all day and fast pass return wasn't until 7:30pm. I suddenly had a great idea! It was raining pretty good outside, but we were right next door to The Land. Surely every other sane person at Disney was waiting out the rain indoors. So why don't we just run over there and see if the line for Soarin has gone down? Everyone jumped on that idea, threw on their rain ponchos and out the doors and into the rain we went. We got inside and went downstairs to find that the line still said 80 minutes, but it didn't look as busy as before so we went through. Twenty minutes later, we had ridden the most awesome ride of the day - two times! Whoo hoo!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped and took one more picture of the kids in front of the big golf ball since the rain had stopped.



Sadly, we walked up to our room at Pop Century for the last time, taking pictures along the way.



Ryan cried the whole way up in the elevator because he said he never ever wanted to leave.

Our wake up call came at 3am and we groggily got out of bed, dressed and dragged our 5 suitcases downstairs to check out. The shuttle came at 3:45am and the plane took off on time at 7:15am. We arrived in Bloomington, IL, after an hour delay in Atlanta due to poor visibility, at 12:30pm our local time and were glad to see our minivan still there in the parking lot.

I knew I was home and the vacation was over when not 5 minutes into the drive back to Peoria, the kids had already started fighting.

Good-bye, Orlando! (Sniff Sniff)

Day 4: June 9, 2007 - Hot, Humid and Exhausted In Animal Kingdom- But, Hey! No Rain Today!!!

Last night was a very late night. It was about 2am by the time we fell into bed and gave in to exhaustion, so this morning we decided to sleep in. I’m not really sure what the plan was for in regards of when to wake up, but I think it was something to the effect of whenever we could pry our eyes open and still make it to MGM to try and catch the Star Wars parade we missed yesterday and maybe give the Jedi Training Academy one more try.

We woke up at 9:15am to the sound of my cell phone announcing that I had a text message. It was my mom responding to a picture text I had sent her the night before. We got out of bed and quickly dressed and were ready to go. However our friends next door were still dragging from their late night so we waited until they were ready and went down to eat breakfast at 9:45am. (I am so glad I took detailed notes while I was there or I’d never remember all of this right now.) Things were moving pretty slowly and we didn’t make it to the gate at MGM until 11am. By the time we were ready to enter the park we heard the parade already starting. Bummed and not sure what to do, we quickly decided to head out and go to Animal Kingdom instead.

We got to Animal Kingdom at noon and it was packed and already blazing hot and the air was dripping with humidity. The kids had their water misting fans that we had found at Walgreen’s back home and they paid for themselves in minutes.



Before going through the gates we found that Chip and Dale were giving out hugs so the kids got in the short line to take their turn. Ryan said they were excited to see him because they remembered him from the parade at MGM yesterday. Ashley was almost as tall as them.





Bret and the kids and I went off on our own to Dinoland and had good luck with the lines there. Ashley and I rode Primeval Whirl, which was a blast while Bret and Ryan went and rode TriceraTop Spin, which Ryan loved and Bret handled well too since there was no spinning involved.



While in line for Primeval Whirl, Ashley and I almost got to experience a Magical Moment. A group of twenty or so in front of us in line were directed in a different direction and awarded a Magical Moment lanyard and pin. Then the next group of twenty received the same. We were in the group of the next twenty or so and getting really excited when they lifted the rope – and sent us on our merry way in the OTHER direction. The other direction! Can you believe that? (Sigh) At least we got to witness someone else having a Magical Moment.

We next ran into a couple of cute looking dinosaurs.



Our next destination was over to Dinosaur where we met up with Teri, Scott and the kids. They rode the ride while I took Ryan over to the Boneyard to play. I sure wasn’t going to push him to do that one. They came back saying it was pretty scary. Bret said that Ashley kept her head down most of the time.



We were ready for some air conditioning next so we headed over to Finding Nemo The Musical. The kids and I thought it was a great show, but Bret fell asleep during it, saying that he though it was boring. We’ll just blame that one on heat exhaustion.



We decided to eat lunch at Restaurantasaurus, which is pretty much a McDonald’s – just more expensive and with a very long wait for your food. The food was good and after eating we were reading to take off again.

Next we contemplated if we had the guts to go on Expedition Everest. We were planning on getting a fast pass for that and then waiting in line for Kali River Rapids. That is until we got a close up of Everest and heard the Yeti roaring and the people on the ride screaming. And wouldn’t you know it? They closed down the ride for some reason or another as we were walking past it, so we took that as a sign to keep on walking.







The wait for Kali was another long one – 80 minutes. Everyone wanted to ride it and the fast pass time was for 6:30-7:30pm. That’s the thing about those fast passes – unless you get them in the morning, they either give you return times hours from now when you have plans to be elsewhere or they’ve just plain run out of them. The other thing is that when you’re in the stand by line and the fast pass line starts to fill up, it brings your line to a complete stop while they load those people. It was great when we used it on Space Mountain, but just too hard to plan for when you’re with a group of 8 people that all want to do different things. So we got in line and waited for Kali. It actually only took 40 minutes to get through and we did get incredibly soaked. The ride was fun but didn’t last long enough. If we had fast passed it, Ryan could definitely have ridden that one.



While we were waiting for Kali, Bret and Ryan were off with Bret back in Dinoland in his favorite place there – The Boneyard.



They rode TriceraTop Spin again and even found Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore without anyone else in line. Ryan got a bit ticked off at Tigger though, because he poked him in the eye. Poor Tigger.



We all met up again and took turns seeing It’s Tough To Be A Bug. Great show, but it would have freaked Ryan out.





After the show, we left the park, but stopped at the Rain Forest Café so Quentin and Skyler could get some souvenirs.



Exhausted and overheated, we went back to the resort and stayed in the pool all evening. Teri and I ran into Everything Pop and brought dinner out for everyone. (I know we probably missed out on a lot of other great food, but it was just easier to eat there and it’s where we happened to be each time without having to wait in long lines for food in the parks.) The kids swam a bit longer with Bret and Scott (Teri and I were freezing at this point).



We headed back upstairs and bathed the kids and were getting them ready for bed when the worst thing possible happened. We couldn’t find Ryan’s blanket anywhere. He hasn’t slept without it a single night in his life and the heartbreak and hysterics were already beginning to start. We had left it in the bed and I had this sinking feeling that housekeeping had gathered it up with the bedding when they came in to clean the room earlier. I called down to Housekeeping and was told that there was nothing they could do about it because they send their laundry out to be cleaned elsewhere and that I could check with lost and found in the morning. Have you ever had a child try to go to sleep thinking his blanket is lost forever? Not a lovely sight. I tried nicely to explain to her that this was an emergency and that we had to find that blanket! I was surprised at how rude she was to me. I kept asking her if there was some possible way it was still there somehow and what the chances were of it being returned and she became very impatient with me. Ryan was full out crying his heart out at this point and I couldn’t take anymore. Feeling helpless I told her I’d call in the morning and check back. After hanging up the phone Ashley grabbed a pillow off of the chair by the table and guess what was under there? Yes, the blanket. I was relieved (as was Ryan) but still put off by the way the lady had talked to me on the phone – as if some poor little boy hadn’t lost his blanket there before. I never did give my name or room number so I didn’t see the point in calling her back so we tucked a relieved and overtired Ryan into bed and hit the showers and turned in ourselves. This lack of sleep and pure exhaustion was getting to us. But behold – tomorrow was to be the day of all days – more Star Wars for the kids – and Bret & Scott, too.

Day 3: June 8, 2007 - Star Wars Weekends

Today is the day we have all been looking forward to – Star Wars Weekends at MGM. We woke this morning at 6:45am and got dressed and headed down to eat breakfast at 7:15am. We ate quickly and were in line for the bus to MGM by 8:15am. The line was very long and it was already very hot and humid outside – probably the hottest it’s been here so far. Already sweating, we boarded the bus after watching 1 already fill up and pass by us. We were on our way to meet Ryan’s favorite Star Wars characters. Today was his day – okay, and Bret’s, too.



We spent maybe 10 or 15 minutes waiting to get into the park and the magic had already begun. Star Wars theme music played from every direction. Ryan was already more than excited. He didn’t like the delay, but we stopped for a picture in front of the big hat anyway.



We headed straight for Star Tours and rode with only a 10 minute wait.



Ryan was nervous because of his experience with Thunder Mountain Railroad yesterday, but he did get on and seemed to enjoy it. The ride let us out at the gift shop and we browsed, pulling Ryan away from the action figures that he already has hundreds of that are so much cheaper to buy at Wal-Mart. (I’m cracking up here because I left the hyphen out of the word Wal-Mart and spell check caught it. Did you know that word was in the dictionary?) Anyway, he settled on a navy blue t-shirt that says Jedi Academy on it and talked us into letting him use his Disney Dollars to buy a Storm Trooper costume. It was a bit pricey, but I figured it could double as his Halloween costume this year as well.

Here’s a picture of him in it from later on this evening.



We left the store and continued on in the park and stopped at the Muppets 3-D show. It was nice and cold in there and there was no wait for the show. It seemed there was never any wait for any of the shows – very impressive. The show was cute although I’m so brain dead right now that I can’t seem to remember much of it other than the fact that we’ve found Disney’s 3-D shows amazing. I’d love to know how they do it.

Next, we walked through the Streets of America set and got some great pictures of the kids.



The Lights Motor Action Stunt Show wasn’t starting until 11:50am and the big kids (adults included) wanted to find some rides so we headed over to Aerosmith’s Rock n Roller Coaster.



The standby line was (ouch) 85 minutes. I wanted to Fast Pass it and come back later but was out voted. So we stood in line. Then we stood in line some more. And more. Finally we reached the inside of the building and were next to load. Now I’m not sure why I didn’t realize this before, but I’m just finding out 2 minutes before getting on the ride that it loops upside down. I’ve done rides like this before, but it’s been a loooong time – and I have to pee. Badly – and I have no choice but to get on. The 0-60 mph in 2.78 seconds was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Wow – and I had managed not to pee my pants. I even started rocking out to the music during the ride. (Don’t tell anyone…LoL) Once the ride was over, we unloaded and went to check out the picture screens to see our take off pictures. OMG! I didn’t realize Ashley’s jaw could come unhinged and her mouth could open that big. I just looked plain scared and in pain. Way too funny.

We had talked the big talk of going on Tower of Terror, but all chickened out instead. It was time for the Stunt show to start so we headed over there to meet back up with Bret and Ryan who were doing their own thing while we waited in line.





On our way to the Stunt Show we found we had missed the Star Wars parade. It had started at 11:15am and was already in full swing as we walked back. I guess I thought it was the same as the 3pm Stars and Cars Motor Parade. We decided right then and there that we were changing our plans for tomorrow and were going to make sure we saw the Star Wars parade.

We got to the Stunt Show and the guys were all amazed by the action. I though it was cool, too but was starting to get hot and tired. We were in definite need of a cool break so we headed over to Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade for some lunch. The lines were long and moved very slowly and we couldn’t find a table that we could all sit at, so we let the kids sit while we stood and ate. The pizza was good, but even counter service in the parks is so expensive. Could have really used that Dining Plan!

With full tummies and ready to go again, we headed back to the Star Tours area to see if the kids could get picked for the next Jedi Training Academy.



They didn’t get picked and were pretty bummed, but they all went nuts when Darth Vader and Darth Maul came out. The crowd went crazy. I went crazy and I’m not really all that into Star Wars. It was so life like and the little Padawan Learners looked so cute up there fighting Darth Vader and Darth Maul.





We did get to see the Disney’s Stars and Cars Motor Parade. The kids loved seeing all of the characters and I was really impressed with how well they really pay attention to their fans.



After the parade, we stopped in a gift shop and bought Ashley a blue tie dyed Disney t-shirt and then headed back to our resort for a refreshing swim in the pool. We had pretty much wilted in the Florida heat and needed a break desperately.

By 4:30pm, we had been swimming in the Hippy Dippy pool for about 15 minutes when from a close distance you could see a storm moving through. Thunder was rumbling and now there had been two lightning strikes. The lifeguards closed the pool and we headed upstairs to our room to get dressed.

We ate dinner again at Everything Pop. As I said before, the food there is great and with our refillable resort mugs, we’ve been saving a bundle on drinks and getting our money’s worth out of them as well.

Skyler and Ryan finishing up their dinner.



The space shuttle was scheduled to launch tonight and we heard that we might be able to see it so we headed over to the top floor of one of the 80’s buildings to see if we could get lucky. We did! It was one of the most amazing experiences we’ve ever had. When will we ever have an opportunity like this again. I am so glad my kids got to witness it. (Although I did pray that nothing would go wrong resulting in us having to explain a horrible tragedy to our kids.)



At a little after 8pm we arrived at the Magic Kingdom and grabbed a spot on the sidewalk on the corner of Main Street right outside one of the little candy shops. We had great seats for the Spectro Magic Parade which was starting from right around the corner. We all really enjoyed seeing the brightly light floats holding all of our favorite Disney characters. The parade lasted about a half hour and we decided to stay put and wait for the Wishes fireworks show.





As the park began filling up even more, we left our corner on the sidewalk and sat down right smack in the middle of Main Street to wait for the fireworks to start. Ryan was already tired and not looking forward to another night of fireworks, but we had really been looking forward to Magic Kingdom’s huge show so he had to make do. He fell asleep with his head in my lap and my hands over his ears 10 minutes before the show started. Everyone stood up as the sky started lighting up and Ryan and I were the only ones left sitting on the ground. All I could see was the top of each colorful blast in the sky. I tell you – the things we do for our kids. Everyone is enjoying the show when all of a sudden someone walks over and stands right in front of me and I can no longer see ANYTHING. Ugh. And if that’s not bad enough, another person tries to squeeze past her completely stepping on Ryan and falling over us. My hand went up to shield us as she started to fall, but thankfully Bret had seen it happen and caught her before she landed on us. I feel really bad because my first instinct was to react to my child crying (more out of fear than pain I later learned) and I snapped at her. She was really truly sorry and I could tell she felt really bad which made me feel like an even bigger idiot. But everyone was fine and no one was hurt so no harm done, right? I did pretty much miss Wishes though, so that’s a big bummer right there.

(Warning: I gave up on my hair the second day there. I lost the battle against the Florida humidity.)



Bret was nice enough to take some pictures of it for me. LoL.



The show was now over and tonight was Magic Kingdom’s EMH night and we had already gotten our bracelets upon entering the park earlier, so we headed out to Tomorrowland so Ryan could ride Buzz again, but the line was still really long so we walked over to Fantasyland and checked out Mickey and Minnie’s houses.



Ryan then discovered Pooh’s Playful Spot and was suddenly wide awake and running around like it was 12pm instead of 12am.



Once we were able to pry Ryan out of there, we went and saw Mickey’s Philarmagic. I have never seen a better 3-D show in my life. The wind blows in your face and you smell the scents of all the yummy looking food that floats right up to your face.

Next we rode Peter Pan’s flight and then It’s A Small World – a song I will probably never get out of my head now, but a cute ride nonetheless. Both kids were wiped out by now so we were making our way to the exit when we passed Tomorrowland and Ryan suddenly perked up and said, “Let’s go ride Buzz Light Year!” So we did.



And then we left – after taking a picture with the Indian on the way out for Grandma who has been teaching Ryan about Indians lately.



The day doesn’t end here though. We left the park at 1am and got on a shuttle that would take us back to our resort. We had already planned to sleep in tomorrow morning since we were staying up so late tonight. The bus was standing room only. Now you would figure that this late at night when you see two kids standing on a bus, holding on to the pole, one nodding off to sleep and the other one sliding down to the floor with his father holding him upright against his leg, that someone would get up and let them sit in a seat. Nope. We got a lot of “how cute smiles” but no one offered up their seat. Now our neighbors who had caught a bus a bit earlier had better luck. Their driver told everyone on the bus that they were to give up their seats to children and pregnant woman. We did make it back, though Bret had a crick in his neck the rest of the night while sleeping. I don’t think the kids have ever stayed up that late before.