Build A Better Legoland Trip…

Although we enjoyed Legoland on Ian’s birthday, we went into this day really hoping that the crowd would be diminished, particularly because it is New Year’s Eve, and Legoland is only open until 7:00pm, while many of the major parks have midnight celebrations. We were right, and this made for a wonderful day!

We were actually able to walk on to major attractions multiple times! Today we checked off three roller coasters, the Lego Stunt Show, and a variety of smaller rides and experiences. In the end, between the two days, we rode everything in the park!

I was most impressed by the “Driving School” rides, which were the most innovative children’s rides I have ever seen at an amusement park. The kids were actually able to drive Lego cars through a course, without utilizing a track. Ian was too young for “Driving School”, but there was a “Junior Driving School”, which he rode twice. And even Miah got to pretend to drive a stationary car, which we dubbed, “Baby Driving School”! What we could not have anticipated was how much Miah loved this car. When we took her out of it, the most intense baby temper tantrum in the history of this family ensued. I think we need Grandpa to come up with some plans to build a car for Miah...

We did some shopping at the Lego stores and caught glimpses of the early fireworks, and then we were on our way back to the hotel. Not too long after we got there, our four oldest kids all fell asleep on the couch, and Miah and I fell asleep, too. Phil went out to get pizza, woke us in time (minus the baby princess) to watch the ball drop, and we downed a couple of slices apiece, some breadsticks, and a few sips of sparkling lemonade, which wasn’t very good…

Welcome 2012!

Lisa

Day 10 Photo Count: 315

Photo Highlights:

Best... Roller Coaster Face... Ever...

A Friendly Triceratops...

So Happy!

Incredible... Whole Cities Made of Lego...

Have I Mentioned We’re Getting Old…

It’s just not our way to stop in the middle of a vacation and actually take a moment to breathe. This time around, though, we’re finding we don’t really have a choice. We are exhausted. We had to take a break today...

Granted, our style break probably still doesn’t fit the traditional mold, but we really did stay at the hotel until it was almost evening…

We actually used the hotel pool and “waterpark” (if you can call it that). There was also a very small putt putt golf course. Since Ian is not a huge fan of the water and Miah is pretty little for it, Phil and I headed that way with the two of them while Seth, Grace, and Caleb braved the slides in the water fort. In all of my 32 years, I have never, ever seen a child fall into a hole on a putt putt course. Miah managed to accomplish this feat… three times…

We all enjoyed the pool together for awhile, even though I couldn’t convince any of my children that getting “slimed” would be fun. I think this must come from growing up in the 80s, but I was a little disappointed. I mean, who doesn’t want a bucket of slime dumped on their head? The answer to this is every member of my family…

After awhile, we left the pool area, sat in Blue’s “thinking chair” briefly (actually, Miah probably could have stayed there all day), and came to the conclusion that we needed to make it to The Magic Kingdom for the “party before the party” and “Fantasy in the Sky”.

Miah in the Thinking Chair

The crowd was incredible when we arrived, but we managed to push through it in the midst of the Electrical Lights Parade and landed in Adventureland, where Phil took Seth, Grace, and Caleb for another ride on Pirates of the Caribbean, and we all enjoyed the Jungle Cruise. We also took a little cruise on the Liberty Square River Boat and another trip through Splash Mountain. Then, it was over to Fantasyland, where Grace took her turn leaving her camera bag behind… in a restroom. While the boys got on Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Grace and I backtracked and finally found a cast member who thought that something similar to Grace’s bag had been turned in and sent to City Hall. And now it gets tricky…

In order to retrieve the bag, Grace and I decided to fight the crowd… moving in the opposite direction… with a sleeping Miah in her stroller. In addition, I knew this would really cut into our ability to secure great fireworks seating, which I found frustrating, since I haven’t seen “Fantasy in the Sky” since I was a kid, myself, and the show only runs two nights out of the year. Still, the camera (if, indeed, it was her camera) needed to be claimed, so off we went. This went amazingly well, as some very helpful cast members were directing traffic. We made it to City Hall, took a look at the bag, which did turn out to belong to Grace (labeled with her name and address and all), and started back in the opposite direction… on the opposite side of the road.

This new route was a bad idea. We should have simply made our way back the way we came, especially because the parade was running again at this point. We ended up being re-routed through Adventureland… again… and found ourselves running though the streets toward the back of the park, trying pretty desperately at this point to catch a break and make it back to Fantasyland, when Phil called to inform me that he and the boys were sitting right behind Walt and Mickey and that we had better hurry up and get there, because the crowd was growing quickly. This seemed near impossible, but I looked at Grace and said, “If any two people in the world can do this, it’s us…” And we did.

As much as I wanted to see the Main Street Electrical Parade on this trip, I never imagined that I would actually follow it around the park. We finally made it to the castle (taking alleys and roads and cutting through stores that I didn’t even know existed, which is saying something since I consider myself something of an expert on all things Disney). And then I saw Phil waving, just a few yards off, and I thought to myself… This is the point at which I become the person who comes too late for the fireworks and pushes her way through the crowd to a prime spot with her waiting family… Yep… this is the part where I become the lady that everybody hates. And I can’t say that the crowd parted and smiled, but I can say that I was as polite as possible, even when I had to inform someone that I really didn’t want to run her child over with the stroller and if she could just move for a moment I could get to my family and out of her way… Quick sigh of relief, and we took our seats on the pavement… briefly…

At this point, Phil informs me that Seth needs to go to the bathroom, and I just thought, “Good luck, Buddy!” Off they went, all of the other kids fell asleep on the pavement, and I sat there blocking them with my body and hoping no one would trample them! This is as close as I’m ever getting to the kind of crowd you find at Times Square on New Year’s Eve…

Phil and Seth actually made it back a little easier than we did minus the fact that the whole area around the castle was now blocked off, and they had to convince a cast member that their family was really in there! And the fireworks began. All I can really say is, “Wow!” Although the show cannot possibly be exactly as I remember it (there were later music additions from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), it was dazzling. The countdown to New Year’s Eve was amazing with fireworks exploding in a circle around us, and the excitement running through the crowd was incredible! One thing we did notice was that there was an unusually high percentage of adults at this gathering. Even the Disney shows that are very late at night tend to draw a pretty sizeable kid population, but that wasn’t the case this time around. I cannot imagine how crazy it will be tomorrow, and although I absolutely love having the memory of being here for this event, I am looking forward to a nice, quiet, New Year’s celebration back at the hotel!

We hung around for a little while after the show in order to let the crowd thin a bit, and then we took a ferry back to the ticket and transportation center, because the monorail line was huge! Another great night to remember…

L.

Day 9 Photo Count: 139

Photo Highlights:

Fantasy in the Sky...

Waiting for the Riverboat...

Making Memories...

Back to the Ocean...

The "Mine Mine" birds were caught in traffic with us on the way to the park...

We decided to use our 2nd day free tickets at Sea World today. Although we got up a little later than we’d planned, we were able to accomplish an awful lot.

Over the course of the day, we saw Blue Horizons (the dolphin show), One Ocean (the new Shamu show), Sesame Street Christmas (which really missed the mark on the true meaning of Christmas… not that I was expecting a whole lot more from Sesame Street… we went because Ian loves Cookie Monster), and Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island. Miah was enamored with the shows, and especially loved the part in Blue Horizons when the birds come out and fly all around the stadium. Ian also really enjoyed the shows and was quite pleased to have a break from getting on rides!

Grace and Caleb were brave enough to pet the stingrays for the first time ever, but Caleb was not expecting them to feel slimy, so he pulled his hand back, causing the stingray to become a little alarmed. The stingray, in turn, splashed us pretty good. Caleb was super disappointed with the experience, which makes me a little sad, since petting the stingrays is something I really look forward to every time we visit Sea World. We didn’t have much luck petting the dolphins, either, because no one could quite reach them… although Miah sure gave it her best shot!

We did ride everything in Shamu’s Happy Harbor except for Swishy Fishies, which was closed for the day. Ian loved the Flying Fiddler and giggled through the whole thing. He kept saying, “This ride is funny!” I think it was the butterflies in his stomach! We also managed to convince him to try the Shamu Express… (please read “convince” as “bribe”… Ian is now the proud owner of a Shamu stuffed animal…) Funny story… Near the end of our night in the park we had decided that Grace and I would only ride Manta again if the line was short (the lines, overall, were a lot longer than they were on Christmas Eve). Since the line appeared to be to our liking, we waited, and we got on rather quickly. Phil took the rest of the kids out to the parking lot, and it would have turned out great if Manta hadn’t had some “technical difficulties” just as we finished our ride.

Grace and I spent the next 20 minutes, strapped into the ride and unable to get out, because the lock wouldn’t release… But in the end, we have our picture and a fun story to tell, and it was a nice time for just the two of us… so I really can’t complain…

A quick stop by Chick-Fil-A (finally) for dinner ended in my dropping an entire large lemonade in the hotel parking lot. I’m starting to think I need a no spill sippy cup… for myself… Phil replaced the lemonade for me, times two, which I was thankful for, because I really wanted it!

Sleep would be good now…

Lisa

Day 8 Photo Count: 235

Photo Highlights:

Seth telling Miah about the dolphins...

She loved them...

Seth & Grace with the Dolphins...

Sometimes, you just have to make your own fun...

Character Greetings...

Around the World in 80 Days…

... or less.

It’s funny, but I never really liked Epcot all that much as a kid. Now, I could probably spend the better part of two weeks in the World Showcase, alone. Given that we don’t have that option, this is how our day at Epcot went…

We arrived a little later than we wanted to, which has been an ongoing theme on this trip. Still, when we reached Mission: Space there was almost no line, so Seth, Grace, and I decided to try the less intense mission. They wanted to ride the more intense mission after that, but the less intense one was good for me… We picked up fastpasses for Test Track and wandered over to Universe of Energy, which is not as good since Ellen and Bill Nye have joined the story, but we like seeing the dinosaurs, nevertheless. Miah especially loved the dinosaurs. I had no idea she even knew that word until she got really excited and started bouncingup and down, pointing, and yelling, “dinosaur”!

After a little bit of convincing, I got Ian in line for Test Track (with Caleb, too). Of course, Caleb loved it and Ian didn’t. Ian does love shopping, though, so after the ride he picked up a Disney bus and airplane while we waited for Phil, Seth, and Grace to take their turn. As it turned out, the Test Track shop was popular among all the kids. Seth and Grace purchased antennae toppers (for when they get cars of their own…ha!) and Caleb bought a Pluto car.

And this is where things get a little bit tricky…

I sometimes have these great ideas that don’t work out all that well in practice. Today the plan was to hit every country in the World Showcase… to taste something from each culture… to press a penny at each location… and to take a picture. If we were visiting during a value week, I don’t think this would have been an issue, but remember the parks are swarming with people during the holidays! It become obvious pretty quickly that we didn’t have enough time to stand in line for food at every country, so we switched the plan up a little bit and purchased snacks in some places at the gift shops. The fish & chips in New England were awesome, though (I want more), and the cashew baklava in Morocco was a pleasant delight (I want more of that, too)… The whole pressed penny thing has become somewhat of a joke with my close friends and family, but I continue to remind everyone that you can’t often find a souvenir at Disney for 51 cents! Other than the fact that I had a slight nervous breakdown at the France pressed penny machine, which was out of order, this quest is going quite well…Taking pictures in each country, of course, has been easy to accomplish. The Photopass photographer in France did push a few too many buttons on my camera, but we (uh… Phil) eventually fixed the settings…

We only made it about halfway around the world before we needed to leave the park, because we had a dinner date with friends from home! We met at Tony Roma’s, which turned out to be a very excellent place to eat! I think this will be another favorite memory for years to come. It was so fun to connect with June and Jimi, and the kids were super excited to see Josh, Sammy, and Mojade (who unfortunately got stuck at the “kid table”, but there were benefits, because she got free ice cream!)

After dinner we decided to run back to Epcot for Illuminations, and although we didn’t get a great seat, it was still a good show, as always. That makes fireworks five nights in a row… We walked in the “wrong” direction after the show, allowing us to enjoy a quiet stroll through part of the World Showcase and to exit the park after closing… an excellent end to the night…

Lisa

Day 7 Photo Count: 170

Photo Highlights:

Dinner with Friends

Illuminations...

It’s the Little Things…

Last night, we put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and determined to sleep in as late as possible. Apparently, for Miah, that is 7:45am.

Over the years, “Vacation ‘til You Drop” has sort of been our motto. Well… maybe it still is, but we dropped a lot faster this time around than usual. We had to have a day of rest.

We enjoyed our day, watching cartoons (the kids actually watched several episodes of Dick Vandyke), snacking, playing, blogging, etc. We didn’t even make it to the pool.

As evening approached, however, we decided that if we wanted to take in the Fort Wilderness campfire, sing along, and movie as well as the Electric Water Pageant, this was the day to do it. So, we loaded up the van a little after 5:00pm and drove to Fort Wilderness. I have looked in to staying at the cabins there, and it has always seemed like a nice place, but I had no idea how big it is and how very awesome!

We took a Disney bus back to the campfire area (finally, a “ride” Ian enjoyed, although he did ask repeatedly if it was going to go up and down), walked a short distance, and waited for the campfires to be lit. I came armed with enough “supplies” (marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey’s bars) to make more than what I thought was a reasonable number of s’mores. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I brought as much as I did! We did have to purchase marshmallow roasting sticks for 59 cents apiece… Seems we don’t actually own anything like that (well… I guess we do now…)

There is just something about a campfire that makes us come alive. The fact that even my 11 year old son was willing to engage in the Chicken Dance is saying something! I am going to cherish that one for a long time to come. Phil took charge as the master marshmallow roaster (after I set mine on fire… typical…), and I think Caleb holds the record with six… or seven… or heck, I think he said the count was at ten at some point… s’mores…

We sang and danced with Chip and Dale. Ian got to stand up in front of the crowd since he celebrated his birthday this week, although he did not sing and dance with the other birthday people. The video is hilarious. Toy Story played on the big outdoor screen (one of the reasons we picked this night was because of the movie options). And when it was over, we took a nice, long walk to the beach, where we staked out some beach chairs as far away from the rest of the world as possible.

I remember seeing the Electrical Water Pageant as a kid, so I really wanted to see it again. It is a short parade of electrical water floats, and we really enjoyed it. Then it occurred to us that we would have a very nice view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks if we just sat tight, and as we waited several of our little people fell asleep. I’m not sure you can top laying on the beach, snuggling with your sleeping kids as Disney fireworks light up the sky. Perhaps the best vacation moment ever… and so sometimes, it’s in the little things…

Eventually, we made our way back to the bus station and went on our way. A quick stop at McDs for a late night dinner was in order, and then back to the hotel for what I hope is a good night’s sleep. Another busy day awaits!

Lisa

Day 6 Photo Count: 138

Photo Highlights:

Roasting Marshmallows

Mmmm... (Phil ate his "s'mores" one course at a time)

Some s'mores that are actually put together...

Our somewhat innovative version of the chicken dance...

Electrical Water Pageant

Love My Babies...

Happy Birthday, Ian!

A Legoland Adventure…

Since we first read about the opening of Legoland Florida, we have wanted to go there, and by “we”, I do mean all of us, but maybe Phil just a little bit more than everyone else…

Ian was absolutely beyond thrilled to be going on his birthday, and so dressed as Super Ian, we were off to conquer the Lego galaxy... Just in case you ever wondered, though, the Lego galaxy is not quite as close to Orlando as we thought, because there is a huge difference between Winter Garden, FL and Winter Haven, FL… Oops… At any rate, 45 minutes later we entered the park just minutes after the gate opened.

We met Max the Lego Minifigure, rode the carousel (an obvious holdover from Cypress Gardens), Toured the Lego Factory to see how Lego is made, salivated over all of the great Lego products in various stores, played at the Duplo Farm (huge plus for Miah, who is quite tired of her stroller already), and rode a couple of kiddie rides in Duploland.

Lego Kingdom was looking especially fun to us, but the lines were crazy long, so we skipped most of the attractions there. We did not, however, skip the jousting ride, because it was simply too innovative and fun looking to pass up. Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Ian waited in line together while Phil and I attempted to feed Miah snacks, which she mostly threw on the ground…

We worked our way over to another play area, which was slightly less successful, as Miah decided she no longer wanted to wear shoes or socks and the day was getting fairly (uh… very) hot. Apparently Orlando is hitting some new record highs this week. I am actually rather grumpy when I am hot, and added to the fact that we were all getting hungry at this point, it was definitely time to look for something to eat. The kids were all desperate to try the pizza buffet, which sounded terribly unappealing to me at the time… probably because I couldn’t get the Sea World pizza buffet out of my mind. This is saying something, because Pizza is a food group in this family! At any rate, Phil and I kept avoiding the topic of the pizza buffet and made a beeline for the place on the map that advertised fried chicken. Well… a “beeline” is probably stretching it a little bit. Actually, we got caught up in “Miniland”, which is an amazing display of Lego set up to look like all kinds of various world areas. We could probably spend hours in just that one area of the park. But we really did need to eat, so we moved on… only to find that the aforementioned restaurant did not exist, and every counter service restaurant in the place had a line that rivaled the rides at 2:00 in the afternoon! We walked back to the pizza buffet…

The wait was terrible in the heat, but to be honest, the pizza was a million times better than the stuff at Sea World, and at least we all got full. I think I am boycotting pizza for the rest of the trip, though… The best mishap moment definitely came when it was time to move on, and I went to refill my cup before leaving the restaurant. The fountain pop must have been especially fizzy, because I seriously overfilled. After I finished wiping up the excess pop with some napkins, I picked up my cup, only to have the lid come loose and to spill Pepsi all over the floor. It was with mild embarrassment and a slight sense of relief that I told an employee that “we” had a spill… This is the kind of thing that is supposed to happen to the kids, right?

We caught the pirate show… or at least parts of it. Miah was not interested in this at all, so the two of us mostly walked around the stadium squinting at the sun. I think the rest of my family enjoyed the show.

Following this, Phil and I took turns riding things with our “big kids” and entertaining Miah. Miah and I played a riveting game of Peek-a-Boo stroller… I guess you probably had to be there, but it was one of the best parts of the trip so far… The kid power towers were a favorite, and the Soarin’ Scooters weren’t bad, either. Phil rode the Lego Technic Coaster with the kids, and then we all waited for the fireworks (which was a surprise, since we didn’t know they were having them). It was a fun 3-D display. Lego appeared in all of the explosions and lights!

The park was supposed to close after this, but as it turned out, none of the staff seemed in a hurry to shut things down, so we managed to squeak in one more ride… Aqua Zone!

Overall, I would say that Legoland was an excellent experience… very kid friendly, for sure. My favorite quote of the day came from Ian. “I’m just having fun, Mom. All I’m doin’ is having fun!”

On the way back to the hotel, I made a Wal-Mart stop that seemed to last forever… You would think that baby swimsuits would be a staple item in an Orlando Wal-Mart, but I guess that’s silly. Instead, they were stocked with winter coats and footie pajamas! I did finally come up with a suit for Miah, though, and I’m not complaining, because the clearance price was just right!

We headed back to the hotel and celebrated Ian’s b-day with mini cupcakes and M & M ice cream sandwiches. Ian opened his presents, and then we all pretty much passed out, because this has been an exhausting few days!

Coming up next… Some rest!

Lisa

Day 5 Photo Count: 533

Photo Highlights:

Christmas Magic…

I have always wanted to spend Christmas day at the Magic Kingdom. Overall, I would say that it was a great experience and I’m glad I had it… but you have to hop on that monorail expecting something completely different than a regular day at Disney…

Before we left, I read about a few vacation disasters from travelers who attempted to get into the Magic Kingdom on Christmas day only to be told that the gates had closed at 10:00am because the park had reached capacity. With that in mind, the original plan was to get there as early as possible, but after such a late night last night, it occurred to us that waking before the break of dawn was probably not even a feasible idea if we didn’t want to be grouchy by noon… After actually very little consideration, we decided to take our time and not be devastated if we couldn’t get in. We arrived at the gate at 10:09am. We got in without any issues. Can’t say we had our prime, “first crazy people in the park long before it opens” usual parking spot, but we didn’t get turned away, either.

I have never seen so many people. We had to wait in a huge line just to board a very crowded monorail, and Miah had a little meltdown, which I’m sure made all the other families on the monorail wish they’d either gotten there early or slept in later… All of our other children have been enamored with the monorail ride, but Miah seems to have broken every other mold, so we should have expected that she would hate it.

When we got into the park, she was much happier, but I was suddenly a little unsure of which direction to go… which really never happens to me at Disney. After inching our way down Main Street USA, we made the traditional turn for Tomorrowland, snagged some fast passes for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and jumped on the Carousel of Progress, where Miah decided that it would be an appropriate time to demand to nurse… loudly… I hedged for just a minute and then reason took over and I realized that they probably wouldn’t kick me off a moving ride with a baby, so I nursed her and she went to sleep. (As a side note, no one seemed to care. I am always just a little cautious after our St. Louis experience in ’10).

From there we made an attempt at eating lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. We did eventually get in, but apparently Disney has had to put some additional effort into seating people at their counter service establishments during the holidays, because our usual protocol, where either Phil or I sit down with the kids while the other orders, was not an option. We were not allowed to enter the seating area without food! We eventually figured this out, ordered our meals, and were seated. Although it seemed a little inconvenient at first, I realize, in hindsight, that without this guideline no one would ever find a table in this kind of crowd!

It was back to Buzz Lightyear after lunch, which Ian is also “never riding again”, because it wasn’t a movie… It has become obvious that he doesn’t remember anything at all about our last trip (which I didn’t expect him to, because he was just under age 2 at the time)… When we got off the ride, one of the cast members noticed Ian’s Happy Birthday button and had Goofy call him on the phone to sing him a birthday song. Definite plus, even though Ian didn’t “recognize the voice”!

We walked through the rest of Tomorrowland, kinda rolling our eyes at the lines, and finally ended up on the edge of New Fantasyland, where we caught a glimpse of Beast’s Castle and found ourselves wishing we could make another trip next year… The people of Disney are doing an excellent job concealing the construction, so you can’t see much, but there are certain landscapes that they couldn’t hide unless they built a 100 ft. fence… which they didn’t.

Then it was time for the Mad Tea Party, where Caleb volunteered to ride with Grace the super spinner and I reminded her that if she spun him too fast and he threw up on her, she’d have to get creative about clothing options. I rode with Seth and Ian, in the gently spinning tea cup… I don’t think Ian is ever riding that again, either, because I didn’t spin it to his liking…

We decided shortly after this that we’d better grab more fast passes if we wanted to cover any of the “big” rides, so we picked some up for Splash Mountain and proceeded to Adventureland, where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin… neither of which (you guessed it), Ian is ever riding again… We then ran through the Swiss Family Treehouse, finally finding something that Ian liked. Oh, and he also liked the store at the end of the Pirates ride. He is now the proud owner of shackles and a sword. Should I be concerned?

We had just enough time to ride the Walt Disney World Railroad before our fast pass return time, so we did. This was enjoyable, as always, although we were hoping for a good view of New Fantasyland construction from the old Toontown Station, but they have done a good job of hiding what’s going on over there, too…

When we returned to Frontierland, I knew it was going to be a challenge convincing Ian to get on Splash Mountain. The final selling point was the singing and dancing animals. So… Caleb, Ian, and I boarded a boat and I listened to Ian tell me just how much he hates Splash Mountain every time we went down a hill. He did, indeed, love the animals, though.

When we exited, Phil informed me that Seth’s camera bag was missing. This set our entire family into a frenzy to cover all of the places we had been since he last remembered having it, before the fast passes expired for Phil, Seth, and Grace. In the end, we didn’t find it, they got on the ride, and we were told to go check the lost and found at the front of the park.

Dinner time at Tomorrowland Terrace (same routine as Cosmic Rays, except Phil left for the lost and found while I managed to order for all of us, push two strollers through the line, and pick up our multiple trays… thank goodness for older kids and helpful Disney cast members!) As we were eating Phil returned with the camera bag (amazing), and Miah proceeded to throw a cup of chocolate milk with so much force that it splattered all over the restaurant. Luckily, there was a mop nearby… which I used. We really needed to get some video of that for numerous reasons. Perhaps the best stunt of the day was when I walked back over the area where Miah had exploded the milk and slipped on it, nearly doing the splits and getting back up to my feet in record time in an attempt to avoid further embarrassment. I laughed so hard, I thought I might die, but the truth is I am a little banged up and more than a little bruised. I don’t think we can sue Disney for an accident we caused though… ha!

Due to the increasingly large crowds, we decided to forego the first parade and go straight to the Tomorrowland bridge to stake out our fireworks spot. We got close. The spot we ended up in was actually pretty good minus the people who thought it was OK to basically move our kids so they could have a better vantage point. I will never understand why people think they can show up right before show time and push out the guests who have been waiting for hours. Nevertheless, we were excited for the start of the show, and I think it was probably pretty good, but I don’t know for sure, because just as the music began and Tinkerbell took her flight, Miah started throwing up with gusto… It took me probably the first 1/3 of the show to get that under control, but the rest was pretty decent. This was the special Holiday Wishes fireworks show, which did not… in any way… come close to Wishes, but was a festive beginning to the end of our evening…

I put it that way, because after the fireworks, we moved to a good spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. This was especially exciting for me, because it is the parade that Disney was running when I visited as a child. Our kids fell asleep on the sidewalk and missed pretty much the whole thing… but I loved it anyway…

Reason says that you don’t attempt to leave the Magic Kingdom with thousands upon thousands of other people, so since the park was open until 1:00am, we went back to Tomorrowland and rode everything we could. The Peoplemover as well as Space Ranger Spin were walk-ons, and Tomorrowland Indy Speedway was only a short wait. Phil and I were taking turns with the kids who wanted to ride, because Miah was still sleeping, but at some point she woke up, so we all boarded the People Mover again. Since there was no one in line, we asked if we could stay on to ride a second time, and the operator allowed this at 12:53am. Not long into the second ride, Seth started throwing up over the edge… Have I mentioned that it’s not any fun to be sick on vacation?

It was, however, very fun when we realized that it was now Ian’s birthday! (Earlier he exclaimed that it was his “birthday eve”, which I thought was pretty clever). Not every kid gets to ring in their birthday at the Magic Kingdom, and he was quite pleased!

We finally left a little after park closing time with the few people who remained. What kind of crazy people stay this late? Yeah… mostly us…

L.

Day 4 Photo Count: 270

Some Photo Highlights:

This Pretty Much Sums it Up for Ian

Every Kid Wants to Touch Those Chains!

Train Ride...

That's My Boys...

Merry, Magic Christmas!

One of My Favorite Days of the Year…

In One of My Favorite Places on Earth…

There is probably no one who really understands how I love Sea World. I can’t help it. I just do. I also love Christmas Eve… I would say even more than most people love Christmas Eve. So it pretty much doesn’t get any better than spending Christmas Eve at Sea World…

Now, that’s not saying we didn’t have our share of mishaps. We always do. But here are some highlights…

It was surprisingly not very busy, at all, for the first few hours. Phil, Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Ian walked on Journey to Atlantis, and when they got off, Seth, Grace, Caleb, and I jumped right back in line and waited only a short time. (Phil and Ian got soaked the first time around, and Ian exclaimed that he was never riding that ride again!) After that, Seth, Grace, and I walked on the Kraken, which was the first large scale looping roller coaster the kids have experienced. (Corkscrew at Cedar Point was their only previous upside down coaster, although they have ridden taller coasters, such as Magnum.) They both liked it, but Grace is really our huge roller coaster fan. A little later in the day, Grace and I walked on to Manta, which was a first for both of us, a flying coaster. It was absolutely incredible! I only have two regrets about that one… First, Grace’s hair was covering 90% of her face in the picture, so I didn’t think it was worth purchasing, and second, I am simply too old and out of shape at this point in my life to honor requests to get back in line immediately. We will be returning to Sea World later in the trip, at which point I’ll throw her hair in a scrunchie and get back on… The only other ride we hit this time around was the sea carousel. Poor Ian is just not much of a rider… he wouldn’t even get on a sea animal… just sat in the chariot.

We enjoyed the baby dolphins at the dolphin nursery, the seals and sea lions at pacific point preserve, penguin encounter, the jewel of the sea aquarium (which we have never been able to find on previous trips), shark encounter, and turtle point. Of course, petting the stingrays was a favorite for me, as always.

We had never purchased the all day dining plan before, but I thought that it made sense for this trip. In hindsight, maybe not… The restaurant that was supposed to be open for breakfast wasn’t, and I spent the rest of the day trying to push my family through as many lines as possible to get our money’s worth (The Spice Mill once and Voyagers twice)… Added to the fact that we are taking turns being sick and the Terrace Garden Pizza buffet was a bust, what this translates into is that I ate a whole lot of cheesecake… And I am totally not proud of this, but I think it’s worth remembering that I even at e one piece with my hands… ha… long story… If there’s anybody out there who still thinks I have any measure of class, that probably ought to put an end to that…

Sea World traditionally has some of the greatest shows ever. We were very excited to experience the special Christmas shows this time around. A few notes on that… We love Clyde and Seamore. We love how they conquer Pirate Island every time we visit them. It was really fun to see them decorate for Christmas in “Clyde and Seamore’s Countdown to Christmas”, and you just can’t beat a walrus coming down the chimney… but did they say something about Santa being in our hearts? Really? Someone, please tell me I heard that wrong… On the other hand, “Shamu Christmas Miracles” was a beautiful mix of sacred and traditional Christmas themes and music (although the shows do lose some of the magic now that the trainers cannot enter the water), and “Oh Wondrous Night” was an absolutely incredible artistic rendition of the real Christmas story. They got it right with that one…

We ended our day with a fireworks show, some dancing trees, and a whole handful of sleepy kids…

Happy Birthday, Jesus…

L.

Day 3 Photo Count: 165
Photo Highlights:

A Couple of Clownfish

Hmmm... Just like Mom?

Caleb & Ian Watching the Fish

A Very Interesting Specimen in the Human Exhibit

Finale of "Oh Wondrous Night"

Vacationship Status… “It’s Complicated”

Days 1 and 2 of the vacation that has been in the works for years but wasn’t going to happen until it did… (and other semi-related stories)…

On December 26th, 2006, we welcomed Ian Justice to our family. And the plan was to celebrate his birthday in incredible ways, because let’s face it… it kind of stinks to have your birthday the day after Christmas.

Turning 5 is a big deal anyway at our house, whether you’re born in December or not. But we decided very early on (maybe even before Ian was born) that we would like to spend his 5th birthday in Orlando… “House of the Mouse”… “Shamu’s Pool”… you get the picture.

As an OCD vacation planner, I have kept meticulous files detailing everything we would do, if at all possible, on this amazing trip. For those who don’t know, our family made trips to Orlando in ’06 and ’08, and Grace and I made a trip (just the two of us) in ’09 (for general assembly). We’re not strangers to the area, but it is special every time, nevertheless…

Well… life didn’t really pan out the way we thought it was going to in 2011, and despite my best deal searching efforts, we called the trip off (sometime in October, I think). I was very disappointed, but there are much worse things in life. I adjusted. (The kids knew absolutely nothing about our plans, which made this much easier).

This thought kept coming back to me, though… Something that I learned from a very wise professor during my Nazarene Bible College days… “Don’t ever make your kids miss out on things just because they’re pastor’s kids”… And I know, for sure, that not everyone who reads this will understand… And heck, I know , quite possibly, that no one who reads this will understand, but as sure as I also know my own middle name and the fact that I have ten fingers and toes, I know that this was exactly why my kids (and especially Ian) were missing out on this one…

And that never sat very well with me… Other people making decisions that affected our family negatively just because they could…

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to just plug in some dates and look at some prices. As expected, some of the options we’d considered earlier had gone up, many of the cheapest hotels were unavailable, and it just didn’t look very promising…

I probably spent way too many late night hours adjusting this or that to make it work, and finally I was looking at a plan that said, “We could do this…”

At this point, I sent an e-mail to Phil, because as he shares my OCD planning thing, I figured he would probably just laugh at me (maybe hysterically) thinking that we could pull this off with almost zero prep. time. On the contrary, he wanted to see the plan…

To make a long story short, on Wednesday night the kids found a couple of boxes and a letter on the porch from Mickey and Minnie Mouse. And let’s be clear on this… the children who have never believed in Santa Claus do, indeed, still believe in pixies that fly and mice that talk (well… except for Seth… who had to be told in no uncertain terms that he was not to ruin the magic of this for his brothers and sisters)…

Mickey and Minnie invited us to join them for Christmas… We packed in record time… and despite a late start…traffic issues… Caleb and Ian vomiting repeatedly in the van… one cranky baby… a couple of big kids who can’t understand why Mickey and Minnie booked us at Diego’s hotel… and a split forehead (Ian just seems to be intent on making the vacation pictures as incriminating as possible… anyone remember when he fell off the bleachers at Sea World in ’08 and spent the first half of the trip with a black eye?)… I am writing to you from Orlando… and I need to get some sleep if the stories are going to be worth reading…

And just in case you ever wondered… God has blessed us very, very much…

Lisa

Merry Christmas!!!

Ordinarily I send a zillion and one Christmas letters. This year, I thought I'd try something different. So... for the first time ever, here you have it... Our virtual Christmas letter.

Dear Friends and Family,

Another year has come and gone, and 2011 was quite the year for us.

We kicked it off with Upward basketball and cheerleading, which took up quite a bit of our time from January - March. We had a 1/2 hour drive, and we made 3 trips every week for practices and games. It was well worth it, though, and we are getting ready to begin another season after the 1st of the year.

In March, Miah celebrated her first birthday with a princess party. In reality, she is more like the queen of this household. We are all crazy about her and have spoiled her rotten. She knows that she can have whatever she wants... whenever she wants it. It's all good, though, because she is a smart, sweet, and loving little girl. Miah is enjoying her music class, where she runs around like a little cyclone and bounces off the walls... and her friends. She does eventually wear herself out by the end of the day, blows everyone kisses, "honks" some noses (Seth taught her that), and snuggles down to rock and listen to stories. We pretty much adore her.

In May, we made a trip to Idaho for Phil's graduation from Northwest Nazarene University where he received his Master of Divinity degree in Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Ministry. Along with Miah, we took Caleb with us, because the graduation fell on his birthday weekend. We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and visiting some of our favorite places from when we lived in Nampa. Phil's graduation was eventful, especially since we almost didn't make it in time because of road construction!

So... Caleb turned 7, experienced his first airplane ride, and has bragging rights with his older siblings since we didn't take them on the trip! Caleb started his first year of piano in the fall and is enjoying his class and friends, as always. He is in 2nd grade this year and is continuing to improve his reading skills. This has been a challenge for him, but we have seen a lot of progress in the past few months. Caleb loves to play outside, has fun with science, excels at math, and can't wait for it to snow some more!

As it sometimes does, life took us by surprise when Phil lost his job, with no explanation, one week after returning from graduation. After putting a lot of effort into this community and the relationships we had built over the previous 3-1/2 years, we took time to think and pray about what we should do next, and in the end, we felt just as called to minister to these people as ever. In the months that followed, we have begun an organic-based church plant through the Church of the Nazarene. We meet in our home and at local businesses, and we have been blessed with a traditional congregation of friends, as well, at our local 1st Church of the Nazarene. They have welcomed us with open arms as a part of their family, and for that we are very thankful.

In addition to finishing his last MDiv class over the summer and leading our new church plant, Phil has been doing pulpit supply... filling in for pastors at other area churches when they are sick or on vacation, or just filling in when a church is temporarily without a pastor. I have been working hard to establish my photography business, elemenoh-cheese portraits, while also continuing my education at Indiana Wesleyan University. I will finally graduate this summer with my Bachelor's degree in Business Management. And because of God's grace... and receptive people who care... we are surviving...

This summer, the kids attended various camps. Seth and Grace both went to pre-teen camp; Seth spent a week enjoying a video game making day camp; and Seth, Grace, and Caleb participated in a sports camp when we visited Michigan for campmeeting. This was a bonus, because it was free and I didn't even know it was going on until we got there! We had a nice week with the grandparents and felt refreshed when we arrived home.

In September, Seth turned 11. Something about that just doesn't seem right, but you can't stop the passage of time. Seth is in 6th grade now and is doing very well at Hoosier Virtual Academy, which is an on-line public school. He has continued to participate in an art class and also took a couple of pottery classes this year. Seth enjoys playing video games... and playing video games... and playing more video games. Seth also likes to make up creative games for his siblings to play and generally "directs" things.

Grace turned "double digits" in October, and we celebrated with a party at Splash Universe in Shipshewana. Let's just say that I'm glad they only turn 10 once, because "Mom's" getting old for this party stuff! Grace is now in her 4th year of piano and keeps bringing home awards and cash prizes, so I'm thinking she's probably going to stick with it forever at this point. This makes me happy, because I love to hear her play. Grace is also at Hoosier Virtual Academy and is doing well in 5th grade. She has made a lot of friends and checks her e-mail 17 times an hour... like someone else I know...

Well... who does that leave? Oh yes... Our resident super hero. Super Ian continues to control the happenings of the Michaels galaxy by flying through the house. He has acquired some ninja capabilities, as well, so sometimes we find him in places we would never have dreamed of... As a general rule, he loves his baby sister, except not quite as much when she's destroying his "creations". Ian keeps everyone on their toes wherever he goes, and though you might not always know it, he does enjoy music class and children's church. Ian also loves to read and listen to music. He will turn 5 the day after Christmas.

I guess that about covers it. Does this letter get longer every year? We hope you all have a very blessed and happy Christmas and that 2012 is better than ever! And don't forget to drop us a line every once in awhile so we can keep up with you, too!

Love,

Phil, Lisa, Seth, Grace, Caleb, Ian, and Miah

When You Called My Name...

Great "Old" (1994) Song from Newsboys:

I want to preach the Word
They want massages
I check chapter and verse
They check their watches
I spy another yawn
I might as well be gone
Let's stand and say "Amen"

Some days I must admit
I still don't get this
Could be it's time to quit
When days get like this
I slip into the night
Then stumble towards the light
Wake up and try again

When you called my name
I didn't know how far that calling went
When you called my name
I didn't know what that word really meant
When I recall your call
I feel
So small

Could be I'm losing touch
Could be they don't care
Lord knows I don't know much
Lord knows I've been there
I trip toward my retreat
I fall down at your feet
Get up and try again

When you called my name
I didn't know how far that calling went
When you called my name
I didn't know what that word really meant
When I recall your call
I feel
So small
Lord, what did you see
When you called out for me?

I start losing heart
And then
It comes again
Lifted from despair
By the prayers of someone
Lifted from despair
By the prayers of someone