November 2008 Disney Trip!

Source: 2008 nov..doc

November 2008 Disney Trip!

Wow this trip was actually perfect. The only thing that would have made it any better would be if it had been warmer!! There were a few days it was VERY COLD! But if you exclude the weather it was a GREAT trip! It was 8 nights of non stop GO GO GO! And it was FUN FUN FUN!

As I start this trip report off I will say that we weren’t going this year. No really we weren’t! Olivia is a SENIOR and we didn’t want her to miss school etc etc. But every year for the past 4 or so I have read about the free dining plan which is only offered for FREE during the hurricane season of Aug./Sept. and it is so HOT then we never want to go and in the last 2 years they have even narrowed it down to only Aug. But this year with the economy going to pot there are less people traveling so in late September when I read that they were offering FREE dining for one week in Oct., two weeks in Nov. and 5 days in Dec. I called mom immediately! I said this is too good to be true you HAVE to go then I got online looking for frequent flier flights and though we usually book these at least 6 months ahead of time the fact that less people are traveling meant there were still some flights out there. I also looked up flights for mom and dad. I called Alan during all of this and told him what was going and that we were going in Nov. because Oct. was too soon and Dec. it’s only good for 5 days which isn’t enough time. He told me he would have to check because there is big work stuff going on in Nov. but I said well with or without you WE are going and I think he knew I was serious.

Well this free dining package couldn’t be booked till the next morning so I spent the rest of the day and all night dealing with extra fast planning. I put our FF seats on hold chose dates based on that and then looked into flights for mom and dad and also had to plan our meals because as soon as people book their hotel they will book up all the restaurants. I was in a frenzied panic! I ran back and forth to moms a couple times with info and never mentioned meal plans because that would seem so trivial to them and flights were what they needed to worry about right now.

Finally sometime after dinner I got on the phone and called to make all my dining reservations because even though I couldn’t book the package yet doesn’t mean I can’t book the meal reservations! Now tomorrow I will be one step ahead and will only have to sit on hold for the package and not for this too. I was pretty pleased with myself for thinking of this.

So the next morning the alarm went off and while I was making sack lunches I was already on hold. When I was done with the lunches I got on the laptop at the kitchen table to check my Disney site and see that everyone else was on hold but with a few people reporting that they had gotten through. Those that had gotten through were also reporting that Pop Century was not available for this promotion! That really ticked me off because in none of my planning last night had I even thought about what hotel it was just assumed it would be Pop! As I continued on hold mom walked over and gave me a piece of paper since she couldn’t email me as our email and main computer were out of order! She asked who I was on the phone with and seemed surprised that it was with Disney! I guess she didn’t take me seriously when I said I’m calling 1st thing in the morning! So she leaves and I read her paper which says that her and dad aren’t going they talked it over and I can’t remember why right now but at the same time that I get done reading this paper there is a woman on the phone saying can I help you??? I am thinking well CRAP! I have written out in front of me what all I need to tell her. 6 people, 2 rooms, etc etc. and I had no time to mentally adjust to finding out they didn’t want to go before booking so I told her OUR info and booked 8 nights for the four of us and got it at Pop Century! Yeah to that!

Hang up the phone happy that I got it booked and where I wanted it at but slightly ticked at mom because now I have to call and change all our meals! Well 1st I called Alan who was still driving to work and told him I was on hold 40 minutes and finally booked it and mom and dad aren’t going so he had better figure out if he can go or not otherwise it’s just me and the kids. And as much as I’d hate to do it…………..I would! Haha!

Then I posted online telling others that I had booked at Pop to give others hope then I wasn’t in the mood to sit on hold for another 40 minutes or who knows how long so I thought I’d wait till after I showered and ate breakfast. Then around 9:30 am I called to make dining plans for 4 only to find out that EVERYONE had spent the past 2 hours booking tons of stuff. I couldn’t get Chef Mickey’s at all not for any of the 8 nights and same with O’hanas! So I booked some other stuff and decided not to cancel O’hanas and just show up and say that 2 of our 6 couldn’t make it and hope they would take us. Those Disney restaurants aren’t big on that stuff the tables either seat 4 or 8 and they make reservations for every table to be full all night and take it very seriously. But it was only for that one place so we’d hope for the best.

*Alan called that afternoon and said he could go and I said somehow I knew you would! He can’t let me go to Walmart without him he’s not about to let me go to Disney without him! Haha!

So there I was all done with all my planning. Just did the stuff that normally takes me a few months in less then 24 hours! Holy Crap! I had booked the hotel, had the flights on hold, booked the meals, and even booked the rental car because our flight would be into Tampa and out of Orlando so we would need a car one way. Oh and I had also looked up all the park hours for each day so that I could coordinate all the meals to go along with that. Gee now what am I going to do?

Well I did end up changing the rental car reservation about 5 times before the trip because I would find better rates. But other than that, nothing.

So with the flights that we have the kids will miss 6 days of school we fly out at the crack of dawn on Friday Nov. 14th and fly home late in the evening on Sat. Nov. 22nd. And truth be told I was bummed that it wasn’t long enough. The last couple trips were over Thanksgiving time and we were gone 10days and the kids only missed 5 days of school. So 8 nights didn’t seem like long enough to me! (crazy, I know) At one point I remembered that last year we were at Sea World for the first 3 nights so we only stayed at Disney for 7 nights and that somehow made me feel better.

This trip will fall over Super Soap weekend which Olivia and I have been to twice before and really enjoy going to so we are excited about that but they made us wait till only about 2-3 days before the trip before they posted the schedule online. In the past it was posted a couple weeks ahead. They also announced that this is the final super soap weekend!! WHAT!! That ticks me off but then again I am glad we will get to be at the very last one. I warned Olivia that since our #1 guy (Jason from GH) won’t be there like he was last time we will not be getting up at 4am for this and we will not be spending 12 hour days at Super Soap. So do you think I held up to any of that ???? have to wait and see.

Ok so fast forwarding to the week of the trip. Alan has been going back and forth to Iowa for work. One week here one week there and the week that we are planning on leaving he is in Iowa. I didn’t really like that idea at all but he thought it was good because he would actually manage to get home early the day we leave. (that didn’t matter to me!)

We are leaving here on Thursday evening after the kids get out of school and Alan gets home from work. If he was at work in Decatur that would have been 5:30 but he had left Iowa on Wednesday after work and drove 3 hours before stopping for the night and then on Thursday he got up and drove the rest of the way and home. He had to unload in Decatur and return the rental car though so by the time he got here it was 2:30.

Well so departure day is Thursday but at almost midnight on Wed. night I had just finally went to bed after doing a bunch of stuff and I hadn’t been in bed more then 10-15 minutes and was almost asleep when I heard this weird noise. Now usually a weird noise would cause me to lay awake all night and think about what it was but I had been really busy all day and was very tired so I just ignored it. Then I heard it again and it sounded like a growl! Ok now I’m freaked out! I got up and made my way to the hall and saw the bathroom light was on and the door was shut! This was weird because I know Olivia wouldn’t bother to shut the door if going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and everyone who knows Owen has the bladder control of ?? I don’t know what but he can ride from here to Florida and never have to go! So I was still freaked by this noise but I figured who would break in and use the bathroom? So I slowly opened the door so see poor sweet baby Owen sitting on the toilet surrounded by the most unbelievable about of vomit I have ever seen in all 18 of my mothering years!! HOLY CRAP!! Now I also know that the growl sound I heard was actually a massive heaving sound! Gross! I looked at him and took just a second to take it all in as I was amazed and he looked up at me and said just two words “our vacation”. Which at that point hadn’t even entered my head yet and that tells you just how astounded I was by what I saw!

My 1st instinct was to yell for Alan then I remembered he’s all warm and cuddly in a hotel bed in Iowa! I thought about yelling for Olivia to help me but quickly came to my senses and realized that was just not worth the trouble. Alan and I have always had an unspoken pact when one of the kids vomits I take the kid and clean them up and all that that entails and he cleans up the bed/floor/ whatever else there is! He goes into commando mode and gets it done! (probably cause he wants to go back to bed huh!) I do better with the kid because well I find the whole thing totally disgusting but as long as I am looking at the poor child who looks pitiful I have enough sympathy to get through it.

But tonight I stand alone!

I cleaned Owen then I cleaned him again because yes it took twice to get the job done. I just had to ignore the bathroom and deal with getting him all settled in on the couch surrounded by towels and a “bucket” and then I went back and had to deal with the bathroom and that took almost an hour!! Not counting that the next day I had to do it all over again because turns out that at almost 1:00am I must not have the best eye sight! I checked on Owen over and over during my cleaning spree but he was sound asleep on the couch. I really didn’t think there could be much else left in him anyway. So once I was finished I put a sheet down on Alan’s side of the bed (just in case!) and brought Owen in to sleep with me. I kept one eye open and on him all night long. I was afraid he’d get sick again or that he would give it to me! Then I could in turn give it to Olivia and she could give it to Alan! So Owen continued on sleeping like a baby while I lay awake and thought about what could very well end up being the trip from hell.

So on actual departure day Owen didn’t end up going to school he slept in and I called his teacher because he was supposed to bring home his make up work today and told her I would come and get it at lunch time. Olivia heard about my disgusting night and then went to school pleased to be leaving the infested house! Alan called in a very chipper mood because after all today was a non work day and then he was on vacation for the next 10 days! I put a cork in his happiness with my news of sickness and vomit! I hated to do it but it wasn’t my fault.

So as the day went on Owen just hung around the house asking for food and I kept him on crackers and toast. I spent the day cleaning the bathroom over and over and thinking that I will never walk into that room again and not have that vision pop into my head. I also did laundry which I wasn’t expecting to have to do today since I had been all caught up until last night. I went and got his homework and he worked on a lot of it while I continued packing more stuff. It turns out that Owen never did get sick again and I am pleased to announce that there will be no more mention of the word vomit for the rest of the trip! YEAH!!! WooHoo!! However, we didn’t know that at the time so we spent the 1st several days being cautious.

So Alan is home and Olivia got out at 2pm today for teacher conferences and she stayed a little late to take a test she was going to miss while we are gone. Then she came home and had Tim with her. Why she does this when she knows we are in a hurry to get things done. I understand saying goodbye here instead of at the school but they just hang out like it’s a regular boring day after school!! Alan spent some time doing something with her ipod that was taking forever, literally and then finally got mad and gave up. I spent the same amount of time trying to find the little camera case that has a certain kind of strap on it but couldn’t find it anywhere. I had about 5 other kinds but not the one I wanted. FINALLY I found it inside the bigger one! Smart! So we are loaded up and ready to go at 4pm but we had to go over and tell mom bye so then we decided to wait around until dad got home to say bye to him again. We had done it last night but it felt rude to leave when he would be there in a few minutes.

So on our way at 4:15pm. We drove to Vandalia before stopping which is better then we did during the summer as we stopped in Effingham! But anyway we stopped for dinner in Vandalia at the KFC/ Taco Bell place. Yeah I know, sounds gross but I didn’t get to vote! Olivia wanted taco bell and Owen is all crazy over fried chicken these days! Plus I knew we would be getting plenty of good food at Disney soon. I was a little worried about eating taco bell with the stomach thing possibly going around though. Olivia had the taco bell and the rest of us had chicken. Actually I had a bite of chicken! I ordered the 3 piece chicken strips that looked so good on the colorful picture! HAHA!! These things looked like a kids meal and I mean a 4 year olds kids meal. Even Owen would have needed more! It was so small that it was funny. We all just had to laugh at it. Owen was happy with his meal he had 2 chicken legs, fries and a biscuit and his tummy is officially better. Alan had some kind of “bowl” thing where they take all the food and pile it on top of each other and serve it in a bowl it was awful looking but he loved it. I thought to myself but made no comment on what it reminded me of! So $25 and 30 minutes later we are on road again. We arrived at the St. Louis Marriott Renaissance by the airport at 6:30pm. We parked in the lot and were able to haul all of our crap up to the room without help and without unloading at the door and waiting for Alan to go park. I was impressed with my limited amount of packing on this trip! And by that all I mean is that I left the 2 slice toaster at home. (Seriously!)We are living dangerously!

Checked in and up to the room where we as usual drop everything and headed to the concierge lounge because it was early enough for the free appetizers and we are never here this early. I am particularly excited because after that tiny kid’s meal I had I am still hungry! So up we go and what a let down that was! They have mixed nuts, some very warm wet cheese, crackers, and some kind of quiche’! YUCK! So I got a free soda and some nuts.

Olivia tried the quiche’ but I think she just played with it so after our soda and nuts we headed back to the room. When we got to our floor Alan didn’t get off the elevator he said he was going to the lobby to use the rest room and we were grateful! But then as the kids and I were walking to the room Olivia and I decided we had to do the same thing and she ran ahead and beat me to the bathroom and the taco bell must have hit her cause she was in there FORVER! So long that Owen wrote in his daily journal that his sister was in the bathroom crapping, his dad was in the lobby crapping, and his mom was waiting her turn!! I later read it and said well now you won’t be turning that in for extra credit!! So once Alan came up to the room which was by the way while Olivia was STILL in the bathroom!! Think about that!! He said that he had not only used the bathroom in the lobby but had stopped by and felt the water in the pool and it was very warm. (time for all that yet Olivia is still in the bathroom!) And gave me the eye ball about maybe one of us should take Owen for a swim. I voted for him to do it since I was still in line for the bathroom!! Plus my suit takes forever to dry and I didn’t want it all wet and in the luggage for the whole day tomorrow. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Words can’t describe how shocked Owen was to learn that he got to go swimming!! We never have time for that at this hotel he thought we were joking with him. They left for the pool and Olivia at some point emerged from the bathroom! (Silently cursing taco bell I am sure!)

So I wrote in my journal about our small adventures since we left home which wasn’t much and we watched Grey’s Anatomy which did not make her happy at all! But she’s busy texting Tim.

While it was just us girls we remembered that the lounge started serving desserts at 8pm so Olivia went up to check it out and came back with some very yummy cookies and a glass of milk for herself but none for me. After about an hour the boys came back bragging about having the pool to them selves and how warm and relaxing it was but as soon as I said cookies they were gone again in a flash!

We watched TV for awhile and then turned the lights out at 10pm. Just before bed Olivia was trying to take off her sweatshirt and I was standing in between the beds waiting on her so I could put it up and shut off the lights and when she went to pull it off she exposed her tummy and I reached to tickle/grab it and she still had her head inside her sweatshirt and her legs were somewhat bent at the knee and well I don’t know how exactly it happened but she kicked me with her foot right in the eye!! YES! It hurt and my eye watered for a long time and I had to go to the bathroom and cry for a minute while I checked for permanent damage! After all this then it was lights out.

Owen and I were sharing a bed together and he was having a hard time falling asleep. I normally do that in hotels but I had been awake most of the night before so I was about out when I remembered that we had Owens medicine that had to be kept refrigerated!! OH NO! We had brought it in an insulated lunch sack with a freezer pack inside to keep it cool but we needed to have the hotel people put the freezer thing in the freezer or else it would be thawed by tomorrow and will not keep his medicine cold all day while we travel! I got up and found it then tried to make enough noise to wake Alan but it didn’t work. Then I changed into my jeans and shirt without bra to go down the hall to the ice machine to fill the bucket I thought for sure that would make enough noise to wake Alan. I left Owen in charge and went for the ice then I put the ziplock that had the bottle of medicine in it inside the ice bucket and left it in the bathroom in our way so I wouldn’t forget it in the morning. Then even with the loud heavy door shutting Alan was still not awake so I had to go put on my bra and then go to the lobby with my freezer pack to ask them to freeze it for me. I don’t know why but Owen was very excited by all of this pretending to be quiet without really being quiet and the sneaking around. He REALLY wanted to go with me and I REALLY just wanted to send him to do it on his own! Just kidding! But I made him stay in the room in case something happened????? Not sure what and Alan woke and wondered where we were. As I left the room I made certain to shut the door extra hard because I was very bitter that he was getting a good nights sleep and I wasn’t!! Again!

So down to the lobby and WOW this place is packed!! There was no one checking in when we got here but the shuttle from the airport must have just dropped a load of people off because all kinds of people were checking in. I had to wait in line! Then she took the thing and wrote our room number and name on it and said just tell them it’s in the freezer in the back. I said thanks and went to the room. Owen reported that no one in the other bed made a move! Those 2 are just alike. Scary thought. I changed back into my night gown and went to bed where Owen was very wound up from all this “excitement”. It is now around 11pm.

Friday Nov. 14th

The alarm went off at 5am but I had woke up at 4:58am and had to go pee so while I was in there I heard the alarm and just went ahead and got in the shower. When I came out Alan thought I had been up for a long time but I explained it was only 2 minutes before the alarm. I don’t do that at home but I am pretty good about doing that in hotels. So we all got up and ready and left the room at 6am. We stopped at the front desk to get the freezer thing and while she went in the back to get it the overly eager bellman came and took our luggage out to load on the shuttle which was waiting so the kids and I went out with the luggage and waited on the shuttle thinking Alan is 2 seconds behind us. Well he wasn’t and there were 3 other people on the shuttle waiting for it to leave. We sat there for the longest 15 minutes if not longer of our lives while these other people were taking deep breaths and giving dirty looks and I didn’t even blame them! They had planes to catch and even though we had plenty of time they might not. Oh and did I say it was raining! So we sit in the dark shuttle while it rains and we wait finally Alan came RUNNING out and he didn’t even know that the shuttle had other people on it. It was all because of the eager bellman. That shuttle runs back and forth from the airport to hotel nonstop and it could have taken those other people and came back for us before Alan was done but that guy had already loaded our crap load of luggage on the shuttle! ($5 tip by the way that Alan gave him when he went back inside and told him that he had loaded his family and luggage for him.)

He did get the freezer thing though and we were set to go. I had told the kids that when the shuttle stops to let the others off 1st. Then we got off and it’s raining and we aren’t in a covered area so we step down and each grab a suitcase and hustle over to the awning. Alan got what ever we didn’t take and tipped the shuttle driver ( $5)

We checked in and this is the 1st time we have flown since Olivia turned 18 so she was treated as an adult and THANK GOD that I was smart enough to think of that and make her give me her drivers license to put with mine for security! On the drive to St. Louis Alan had mentioned it and was impressed that I had already thought of it. So we checked in and went through security then over to get some breakfast. I didn’t pack the box of donuts from home like I did last year because #1 I was trying to cut back on my packing and #2 I was too frazzled by Owens sickness to go get them yesterday. So we would have to eat nasty airport fast food. Alan and I got Burger King breakfast sandwich, one hash brown and 1 orange juice. I sent the kids over to the Cinnabon window to order and they came back with a cinnabon for Olivia and they ordered the 2 churro’s with icing for Owen and 1 milk to split. We got extra paper cups to split up our drinks because we are still leery of the stomach bug thing. This lovely breakfast of crap cost a grand total of ……….$18.00!! I am not kidding!! We spent $9 and the kids spent $9! All I can say is Free dining here we come!! And those boxed donuts from home aren’t looking so bad right now!

After eating we walked down to our gate and parked ourselves for a minute. We picked seats that were facing out to the planes. But it was still dark out and you could only see lights. As the sun started coming up I didn’t care for the view. I don’t like to actually LOOK at airplanes which is why I always close my eyes after we walk down the walkway thing to get on the plane just as we turn to step on the plane and you can actually see the thing that is pulled up to the side of the plane and you can see the actual airplane until that moment I am fine. But then it hits me I’m getting on a plane! Once I am on the plane and away from that 1st 3 steps or so I am fine but where you can see and even touch the outside and see the cockpit windows from outside then step in and can see into the cock pit I don’t like that part at ALL. It reminds me of the 1st episode of LOST and it’s NOT GOOD. Otherwise they wouldn’t be lost. So as the sun comes up we are facing the planes and I want to move seats but instead Olivia and I went to the rest room and then the gift shop. I found 2 magazines that had articles on David Cook and they are magazines you never find back home so I wanted them but they were $5 each so no thanks! Olivia found a magazine she wanted so she asked me and I said I didn’t bring money dad has all of our stuff so she left and went back to Alan. She told him that mom found David Cook magazines she wants to buy and Alan rolled his eyes and handed her some money from his pocket. She was pretty pleased with herself and was shocked that I didn’t actually buy the magazines! She did get hers for $3.00 though and I read it too.

But the time we got back they were seconds away from boarding the elite members which I am sorry to say we won’t be for much longer since Alan hardly ever flies for work anymore! We boarded the plane and I am sitting with Owen for the 1st time EVER! This was because he had several math papers to work on and Alan didn’t want to do it. Owen was VERY ticked at me for taking the window seat but that is where I must sit. Just has to be I can’t explain it but if I can look out that window I don’t feel claustrophobic. I think Alan later regretted his decision because he got stuck helping Olivia with her Foods class homework! And also because she never shut up the whole flight! I could hear her back there non stop talking. Owen talks a lot too but usually when I fly with Olivia she is either reading a magazine, has on headphones or is asleep after doing her homework of course. But we heard her jabbering on quite a bit. Owen got tired of the math really fast and wasn’t very cooperative at all.

Oh and most importantly this has been the bumpiest flight I have been on EVER! Or at least that I can remember. Wow! We were all over the place and I kept looking back at Alan who was just fine and I kept thinking is he panicked and just acting cool to keep me calm? Kind of like the flight attendants do when it’s bumpy! And it was pouring rain this morning when we took off but the thing I thought was weird was when it was bumpy and we were above the clouds in the bright blue sunshine?

We landed in Tampa and I went straight to the rest room cause after that flight I had to! Then we went down to the luggage pick up area and as we are walking closer to carousel 3 or whatever number it was I looked and saw only a few suitcases laying on the thing and no people around at all. I said is that our luggage? Alan had noticed it by now and we went over and there it was sitting and waiting for us. We couldn’t believe it! The only other people was an older lady and her daughter from our flight no one else around from our flight. I don’t get that at all. We were sitting at the front of the plane and got off and made a fast bathroom break and the rest of that plane unloaded and made it down here and got their luggage and left ALREADY!! For a second we weren’t sure what to do then we grabbed it and said lets go!

We hauled our stuff out to the Avis rental counter where I had booked us a full size car for $44.00 including tax and Alan managed to get us an upgrade to a full size SUV trailblazer!! Yeah! This never happens in Orlando I think because they are busier and have more people asking but who cares it worked for today! We found it and threw our stuff in the back and hoped into the beast! As we pulled out of the airport it was only 11:18! Not bad since we had landed at 11:00am!! Quite impressive.

We arrived at Pop Century at 12:30 or so. We were on a mission. We knew that today was going to be the only warm day so we were hoping to make it to the water park today. But they are only open till 5pm and we hated to waste our 3 free passes and also purchase a pass for Owen if we weren’t going to be there long enough to justify it. Before we left home when I saw what the weather was going to be like and I thought about what are chances were of flying in and driving from Tampa and having time for the water park on this day I decided to repack…. Yes! REPACK! The luggage and make one bag have our suits, cover-ups, towels, water shoes, goggles, ear plugs etc so we wouldn’t waste anytime looking for stuff.

So when we got to the hotel I thought that while I checked us in I thought the rest of them could take the bag to the restroom and get changed and be ready to go! But no Alan said lets just see if the room is ready and we can change in the room. Luckily there was no line to check in and they put us in the 60’s building on the 2nd floor. I made her change that to the 4th floor (top). But left it at the 60’s building! WOW this is a big thing for us because for the past 5 trips we have made since they opened Pop Century we have stayed at Pop in the 70’s buildings but hey I can be flexible.

The room was ready so was walked back out to the parking lot to get the bag and decided to just go ahead and carry what we could which was pretty much all of it! To get to our room we went through the lobby area and out the big doors heading to the main pool but instead of turning toward the 70’s section we went straight past the pool bar and the pool to the 60’s building our building actually faced the pool but we were as far away as you could possibly be. We were on the opposite side of the pool as far as you could go all the way to the end. And Alan said I guess this is what we get for making them change us from 2nd floor to 4th floor! Making that walk carrying all of our worldly possessions made it seem twice as long. Later in the week it wasn’t nearly as bad. So we got into the room and all changed into our water park gear and were ready to go. We took the long walk back to the elevator and the nice walk past the pool, I did like that part of the new room location. Later in the week we would walk past that pool in 30 something degree weather and watch the steam rise off of it. We also saw some crazy’s swimming in it then too!

Oh I forgot to add that we had requested a fridge for the room for Owens medicine and they were just delivering it when we arrived at the room. However the fridge wasn’t cool yet so while I changed Alan said he was going to the ice machine to fill the bucket so we could keep Owens medicine cool till we could use the fridge later. So I thought that sounded like he was taking care of it. Sounds like it doesn’t it? More on that later……

So we arrived at Blizzard Beach at 1:17! I wrote that down! This is the only water park that they had open in November. We had 3 passes left to get us in for free for the very last time. We have been using these things for 4 -5 years! We defiantly milked those for all they were worth by stretching them out over several years. Even mom and dad used them a few years ago. But we had to buy Owen a child’s pass to get in which was $34 plus tax we did the same thing last year. It was sad though as we are now out of free water park passes and Owen LOVES the water parks!

After way to long of a wait behind some idiots who were also buying passes for their family of about 6 people we finally got Owens pass and entered the park. We went straight to the wave pool, threw our stuff on a chair and went in. It was freezing but we played in the wave pool for awhile and then went to the racing slides and the toboggan slides. This took awhile to do and then everyone was hungry and I knew our dinner wasn’t till 6:30 and I knew that the airport breakfast wouldn’t hold us till then! So we went and had lunch at 2:30. Owen had a hot dog, Alan had a fish sandwich, and Olivia and I had pizza. We all had ice cream for our desserts and this meal cost us nothing as it was FREE!

Once we were done eating we got in the lazy river and floated all the way around the park while our stomachs settled. Then we went over to the older kids area, it’s for the ages of about 7-12. Owen climbed the ice burgs which he just loves to do and then he did the thing where he holds on the bar and it fly’s him through the air and he drops into a big pool. He loves that too but it has an element of fear to it and he always looked very serious when he’s doing it! He also did some of the tamer slides in that area and Olivia went on the double ones with him.

We got him out of the kids area and went to find some other slides that they have never tried before and they loved them! You rode on an inner tube down the slides and you could get a one person or two person tube. The slides were also enclosed part of the way too. So they took turns riding single and double with each other and when Olivia came down the one that was enclosed you could hear her coming long before you could see her! She was inside the tube screaming and when it shot her out she was still screaming but she didn’t look the least bit scared she was just screaming for the fun of it I guess! She looked around at everyone looking at her and just abruptly shut up! It was now getting close to closing time and so we were going to go back to the wave pool but we were all the way at the back of the park so Owen wanted to get to the front of the park where the wave pool is by swimming his way there in the lazy river. But we couldn’t all go because I had my camera with me so Alan took the camera and me and the kids floated back while he walked back. Then we all went in the wave pool again for the last 20 or so minutes we had and we stayed in till right at 5pm when they were closing the park.

We were bummed. We would have liked one more hour but we got out and were drying off with our towels when I dropped my towel on the ground and I picked it up and flicked it to get any stuff off of it and apparently my towel was closer to me then I thought when I did it because I flicked my towel and smacked myself with it in the face! HARD! It almost knocked me back for a second! Alan had missed this as he was looking the other way but Olivia nearly died laughing at me and then it was so funny even I was laughing at it! I did a reenactment for the boys since they had missed it! They were not as amused as Olivia and I were though!

As we walked to the car we were all complaining that we were sore and tired! My water shoes had rubbed a big sore on the side of my foot and the inside part of Olivia’s kept coming out all afternoon. I guess that’s what happens when you buy 99 cent water shoes at CVS. We got to the car and our beach towels were pretty wet so we used our hotel towels to sit on since I was smart enough to think of that and brought them with us!

We went back the hotel and to the room. The boys got changed 1st and went to the arcade to play until we were ready. Olivia got dressed and then laid on the bed watching TV. I got dressed and then unpacked about half of our stuff. Once I had my hair curled we left and met the boys who were just starting to leave the lobby to come find us. We got in the rental car and drove over to Downtown Disney (DTD) for our dinner. There are 3 area’s of DTD and I thought the restaurant was on the west side but it wasn’t so we parked and then ended up walking quite a while trying to find it.

Tonight we are eating at a brand new place for us called Ragland Road. It’s only been here a couple years but we have never tried it. This is an Irish pub restaurant and starting at 9pm they have a live band and a girl that gets up on top a raised platform and does the Irish jig! Unfortunately we were having dinner at 6:30pm and I thought about all of this when I had the reservation but I knew that with flying in today we wouldn’t be able to stay out that late tonight! (or would we?)

Our table for dinner was right beside the dancer’s platform and right in front of the stage it would have been an awesome table if we had been there for all the entertainment later. But I’m sure if that would have been the case we wouldn’t have gotten the same table.

For dinner Olivia and I ordered the steak and mashed potatoes, Alan had the sheppards pie and Owen had the shrimp which he LOVED! And these weren’t the typical frozen type shrimp they looked fresh and large and very yummy. He declared this his favorite meal of the trip and said he wanted to come back here again. Alan liked his and so did Olivia but my steak was over done. There is a fine line between medium and medium well and she went with M and I went with MW and regretted it. She did give me a hunk of hers because she couldn’t eat it all. For dessert I know what I wanted it was the main reason we were eating here. We all like the bread pudding at Ohana’s so much and I have read that this place has some as good if not better and they are famous for it! Plus I had seen pictures of it so I knew what I wanted. Olivia had the same as me. Alan of course had to be different then us and got the crème brulee! Yuck! I warned him I wasn’t going to share! And Owen asked for plain vanilla with chocolate sauce because everything else on the kids dessert choices sounded to fancy for him.

Well this bread pudding thing deserves its own paragraph! It comes out served on a large rectangle platter which has a large bowl of the bread pudding, and two small little pitchers one with crème sauce and one with caramel sauce! The waitress said to take the spoon and dig out a hole in the center of the bread pudding and remove the center then pour the crème in and wait one minute and then pour the caramel in next and eat! Olivia and I followed the directions and oh boy was this thing good. She was the 1st one to take a bite and wasn’t even watching her as she was doing it because I was trying to scoop myself up a bite but I heard this VERY loud noise come out of her! For a second I thought she had dropped it in her lap and was saying AHHH! Sort of like Ahhh man! But she was squealing with joy she loved it. So did I! However, she was only able to eat about a quarter of it and I forced down about half of mine but they were too big! I felt bad to leave it because it was truly delicious! These bad boys are $8.00 each!

Alan signed our free dining slip and left our 1st tip of the trip because as of 2008 the dining plan no longer includes tip and that means the free dining too. Dinner came to $123.00

We left the restaurant and the Alan said he would go get the car and Owen chose to go with him. They left and Olivia and I just took a few steps around the corner of the building and saw the new T-Rex restaurant which is a lot like Rainforest Café but this is brand new and people have reported wait times over 2-3 hours to get in and no reservations allowed. There were tons of people standing around and they all seemed to be looking at the T- Rex place which has a giant volcano on top with flames coming out so we thought maybe something was going to happen with the volcano. Or we thought maybe the restaurant was going to have some sort of fireworks display like a grand opening celebration since it’s brand new. So I asked the lady beside us what everyone is waiting for and she seemed very unsure and said “the shuttle I think”. Well since we are at Disney I was thinking shuttle transportation like bus, boat, trolley something like that. So I whispered to Olivia that this woman is an idiot and we take some steps away from her and keep looking up like everyone else is doing. I also had my camera out and ready but I’m not really sure why. Then all of a sudden while I am looking through my camera everyone lets out a loud ohhhh and ahhhhh noise so I just snapped a picture and my camera was still aiming for the top of the T-Rex volcano but after I snapped the picture I looked up in the sky and realized it was the SPACE SHUTTLE! So I told Olivia and for a few seconds we finally realized what was going on. Once it was gone from sight we realized how cool that was to have such luck to walk out from eating and within 5 minutes we look up and see the space shuttle. I was also upset that Alan and Owen had missed it! Plus then it hit me that the lady who I thought was an idiot for thinking that these people were all waiting for a “shuttle”, well she was actually right! We laughed pretty hard about that!!

We also got out my cell phone and called grandma to tell her about it. We thought she would be impressed but she didn’t seem to be. As I was finishing up my talk with her it started to sprinkle. I hung up and we went to stand by the curb area to wait for Alan. Then it started raining a little harder so we tired to squeeze under a small awning. Then it started to POUR!! And we jumping into the caboose of a train car that was there as refreshment stand. This worked out well because we were completely covered and were raised up high enough that we could see the cars coming around the corner. We did freak a few people out who were walking around the corner and were not expecting to see us there in the dark!

The boys pulled up and luckily they didn’t get soaked in the pouring rain and the 1st thing they said was did you see the space shuttle? So we exchanged our space shuttle stories! Then we