That Part When I Admit I Was Too Tired To Blog While In Florida...

How to Pretend You're on Vacation While on a Business Trip, Part 2...

I feel as if we just did Florida like old people... or normal people...  or something...

The good news is, after six days of training, I am, indeed, licensed to teach Musikgarten classes in the fall!  Yay for that, because it would have been really awful to have to report that I failed the training, especially because it would have left me with no legitimate excuse for leaving my children with Grandma for over a week while traveling to Orlando!

The other good news is, I made some new music friends.  This is pretty significant for an introvert who sometimes struggles with the very sad facebook videos that people keep bumping of that time when I was really sick and led worship.  This is super significant when that same introvert walks into a room full of people who have been teaching music for many years and who are music majors and who sing very well.  I may have started my introduction by stating, "I am undoubtedly the least qualified person to be in this room..."  Oh my goodness, I often feel that way...  everywhere I go...  and yet, I keep going...

Just to give some perspective, this is how I felt at the beginning of the week...  all sweet and cute and early-childhood music teacher-like:

By the end of the week, it was more like this...  you know...  the usual:

The other, other good news is, Phil and I had tons of free (or very cheap) fun.  How about some highlights:

Disney Springs:

If you're ever in Orlando on a non-Disney trip, at least stop in at Disney Springs to say your feet have touched Disney ground.  It's one of the few places you can experience Disney magic with free parking, and the free outdoor concert venues are pretty fun!  We went to Disney Springs twice on this trip.  On Sunday we enjoyed dinner and a movie at AMC (Are you kidding me?  You can do that?  They bring you food (OK, I ordered Mac and Cheese with Chicken and Bacon in it, but c'mon, what else do you expect) and keep refilling your Raspberry Coke, while you sit there?  Sweet!)  On Wednesday, we went to Rainforest Cafe, where we dined with the fish.  Also awesome, although I really did choose chicken parm as opposed to fish and chips, because it's sort of weird to eat fish while talking to fish, you know, with "fish are friends, not food," running through your mind...

Oh, I almost forgot...  I also had the oldest daughter's lightsaber fixed...  because I am a super cool mom who doesn't mind that everyone at Disney Springs thought the lady running around with a Star Wars weapon and no kids was a little crazy...

The Magic Kingdom, It's Who You Know:

On Tuesday, my super incredible friend Lindsay, who works for Disney, was gracious enough to meet up with us and use her guest passes to get us into the Magic Kingdom for the evening!  It was so fun to hang out with her and y'all know I am never going to pass on a bonus ride on Dumbo or Small World or Splash Mountain or Carousel of Progress or the People Mover (we Skyped the kids while riding that one, I still can't decide if that was an awesome parenting moment or an epic fail)!  And... of course... there's Wishes.  I'm pretty sure I could never live in Orlando, because I would buy season passes to Disney and insist on watching Wishes every single night of my life...

Free Sea World Tickets, Yes, Please:

If you know me at all, you know Sea World is one of my happy places.  As I mentioned in the first post about this trip, I scored free Sea World tickets, and I was more than happy to use them after my last day of training!  Sea World is going through some significant changes, and I'm pretty sure this is the last time we will have the opportunity to see the Orca shows as they have been for decades.  Please, don't judge, but I love me some Shamu, rockin' out to loud music and fireworks late at night.  I also love the stingray touch pool...  a lot...  I mean, I could live there...  We had free dining (which is a good deal, because it was free, but I would never pay for it, because Sea World food is pretty awful).  The photo booth was not free, but worth every penny...

And the Ocean:

We started our trip back home, Saturday, by spending a couple of hours at the Atlantic Ocean.  This feels like a big deal to me, because it marks that I have traveled from coast to coast over the course of 11 months!  The ocean is just beautiful... 

 
We essentially drove straight home, but we did stop to sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot for about 2 1/2 hours...  Too much coffee and way too much chocolate later, it's time to see what else we can accomplish as the summer winds down!

L.         

A Whole Day In Fantasyland...

If you'd asked me, before the huge Fantasyland addition, if we could spend an entire day there, I would have told you no.  Now it is completely possible.

We started out our day at Cinderella's Royal Table.  It is always a big deal to eat in the castle, even though I have to say that the food, itself, seems to have deteriorated in quality.  Not that we pick character greetings based on the food, but we might pick dining options based on the food, in the future, so this is more of a reminder to myself than anything else.  Still, you just can't beat the view, and the princesses were great (Jasmine was pretty concerned about the level of pixie dust at our table).

I just love this face:

From there, we proceeded to take in as much of Fantasyland as possible, which ended up being all of it, because the Magic Kingdom hours changed, so instead of a 10:00 close with extra magic hours until midnight, we ended up with extra magic hours until 2:00am. 

I have mixed feelings about "New" Fantasyland... I guess they're not actually referring to it that way anymore, but whatever.  Now, part of how I'm feeling about this is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that I am really, really sick.  I wasn't even sure I could do Disney when I woke up, and it got worse as the day went on.  Sore throat, nose running all over the place, asthma kicked in full force, whole body aches.  And I'm grumpy.  Really, really grumpy.  Which is probably why I loved the Seven Dwarves Mine Train...

Beast's castle and Gaston's tavern are less than impressive to me, but maybe I am just bitter about not being able to get a reservation for "Be Our Guest".  Ariel's castle is pretty cool, and the ride is fun, but it seems a bit redundant considering the Little Mermaid show at Hollywood Studios.  Some of us still rode it three times, though.  Miah and I only rode it twice, because we took some time to wait for Elsa, Anna, and Rapunzel.  I'm a little bit sad that character greetings are completely obsolete for "the big four"...

If you've ever complained about the It's a Small World song running through your head all day long, guess what?  Your wish has been granted and the song no longer plays, in excess, at It's a Small World.  I mean, the music is still there, but you are only subjected to the lyrics a couple of times.  In theory, the lyrics are sung in multiple languages throughout the ride, but the soundtrack drowns this out.  As someone who loves It's a Small World, I was kind of disappointed.

Miah has been wanting to ride Prince Charming's Carousel for months, and she got to ride it three times, today.  I think she was pretty happy with that.

I was really worried about the modifications to Dumbo, since this is my all time favorite Disney attraction, but I think it turned out OK.  At least, it turned out well enough to ride it four times and to take more Dumbo pictures than anything else... all day long...  The best part was when there was no line and they let us stay on to ride twice in a row!

How many kids can you fit in one Dumbo?

Three...  Just three...

Or maybe five, if it's the trained photo Dumbo:

We got the pink Dumbo!

Don't judge us.

We have been trying to get the pink Dumbo for years:

The Barnstormer, The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (can't believe we all made it in one honeypot),  the Mad Tea Party, and Mickey's Philharmagic were fun, as always.  And I think that only leaves Peter Pan, which had a typical hour plus wait throughout the morning... afternoon... and evening... but finally dropped to 25 minutes during extra magic hours.  I have always liked this ride, but I have never understood why it is the most sought after attraction in all of the Magic Kingdom.

Of course, somewhere between the riding, we watched the Main Street Electric Parade, Celebrate the Magic, and Wishes.  I was super impressed with Celebrate the Magic.  Wishes is, as always, my favorite.  The parade caused a little bit of stress, because we had been sitting in a prime viewing location for about 90 minutes, eating ice cream (while Phil went in search of Ian's lost magic band), when a full grown man decided it was appropriate to push Ian out of the way and to sit on him.  Are you kidding me?  I made mention of this and was completely ignored, which I thought was rather rude.  Perhaps he could have said, "I'm sorry"?  Then, at the very last minute, a couple of other people pushed in beyond the barrier where you are supposed to leave a walkway, and stood right in front of my kids with their cell phones held up above their heads to get some pictures or video or whatever.  I cannot believe how rude people can be.  In the end, we managed to find a way for everyone to see alright.  Geesh!

Who thought this ice cream sundae was a good idea?

We did eat dinner at Cosmic Ray's and ended our night with Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (again), so I guess we didn't spend the day exclusively in Fantasyland.  Close enough... 

 Lovin' us some Sonny Eclipse...

Well, except Miah...

She thinks he's "creepy"...

But she does love to drink frozen stuff:

These don't really fit neatly anywhere, but...

All five year olds are entitled to a late night

Disney meltdown:

Because sometimes you just need a nap...

at 11:00pm... on a bench...

L.

Pictures Taken Today: 429

I think we finally found the rightful leader:

Swallow The Ocean...

I think this first day of fall was just perfect for some water park fun at Aquatica.

So, we actually have this recurring theme in our lives where I plan every detail of our vacations and then forget to bring beach towels.  On more than one occasion, this has ended with a quick run to Wal-Mart and new towels for everybody.  This may have happened today. 

Even with the extra stop on the way, we arrived at Aquatica as the park opened and proceeded to cram every last thing we wanted to do into the next seven hours!

We started out on Whanau Way, a multi-rider tube slide, where I learned that Miah will let go of the tube if water gets in her eyes and she feels the need to see.  You know, just in case I needed to have a heart attack at 10:00 in the morning!  After some very specific instructions about how the better plan, in the future, might be to close her eyes; our day got a little less eventful.

There are just so many good rides at Aquatica.  I think my favorite slide is Tassie's Twisters, which you actually have to access through the Loggerhead Lane lazy river.  After riding the slide twice, we were feeling so relaxed that we just kept circling the river a ridiculous number of times.  Whatever.  This is vacation:

Caleb on Tassie's Twisters (apparently he, also, has no need for hanging on to the tube):

I got a pretty good shot of Phil, Seth, Grace, and Caleb coming down Walhalla Wave.  This slide is just fantastic! 

However, Ian and Miah thought one trip was enough, so they ended up spending a lot of time sitting and waiting and eventually talked me into taking them over to Walkabout Waters, one of those kids' water play areas that drips continually and includes a bucket that dumps 450 gallons of water on your head every two minutes, while Grace and Caleb rode the Taumata Racer.  The truth is, I should have gone with the "big kids", because three minutes of having no idea where Ian was... not pretty.  Of course, he was fine.  He just got a little turned around on his way to the slide where Miah and I were waiting... impatiently... in near panic attack mode... with chlorine soaking my contact lenses...  Splitting up is just generally a bad idea.

I did enjoy the other children's play area, Kata's Kookaburra Cove, with Ian and Miah, immensely.  I think my oldest three children were sleeping in the sand while we adventured here...

Oh wait, there's one of them, now:

A quick trip to Cutback Cove...  Yay for wave pools...  I mean... if they weren't terrifying...  I'm pretty sure no one counts to five as proficiently as I do...

And then we were on our way to Roa's Rapids, which is the best action river ever.  And we didn't even lose any of our kids in it this time around.  This is a marked improvement over our trip in 2008.

Undoubtedly the happiest moment of the day.  Pictures don't lie, especially when you take them by accident:

Dolphin Plunge was less than exciting, since we didn't see any dolphins on our rides.  Grace made two attempts, but Caleb and I gave up after both of us inhaled way too much water on the first try.

I'm not exactly sure where to put this one, but I think it pretty much sums up how Seth felt about Aquatica, today.  It must be hard to be fifteen:

In retrospect, it sounds kind of crazy, but I loved this day.  This is real life, friends...

L.     

Pictures Taken Today: 217