Florida - Part 6

Last day of the trip! I was so ready for the last day. We hit up the Magic Kingdom for the last day. And spent the WHOLE day with just the three of us. We split up as soon as we were walking in.

As we walked up toward the castle we managed to hit a show that was just starting. With no crowd. Score.

It was pretty cute. Tad seemed to enjoy it. From there we hit Pirates of the Caribbean (at Tad's request). Short line - yay! We actually lumped a bunch of rides together before lunch because there was no line. Splash Mountain was the only line and we used a Fast Pass on that one. Tad actually loved it. He wanted to go get on it again right away.

At this point I'll mention the TROPICAL STORM that was headed our way. We saw it on the news. Hubby's sis mentioned it that morning. And there were random pieces of conversation I heard about it around the park. We had kind of just watched the clouds all morning.

Then we had lunch. And it was obvious that a storm was coming. We spotted a random pirate starting a little show and I'm glad we stopped because Jack Sparrow popped up!

He was good. I want to know where the heck Disney finds these people. So as the show is ending hubby and I both felt the pressure drop. Like, felt it. And sure enough, it starts sprinkling a little. So we headed to the Jungle Cruise because that line was covered at least.

I'm glad we did. Because it started POURING.

Pouring to the point of busting out our ponchos (okay, just Tad and me).

Yeah. Like that. It ended before we got off the ride. Thankfully. And we only had to deal with a couple other showers the rest of the day. I think we missed some stuff while we were indoors a couple times.

Tad got to drive the cars on the little racetrack. Giving hubby whiplash in the process. He was apparently a pretty bad driver.

But look at that face. How can you deny him the chance to drive?

Here's a nice picture of the swirling clouds we got to see. You might have to look at it for a minute to catch the swirl action.


The day finally started winding down and I was actually really glad. We caught a couple good pictures and caught a few more rides.


Then it was time to wait for the Main Street Electrical Parade. It was super packed, but we got lucky enough to have a spot where Tad could see.


And of course, as you MUST do when at Disney, we waited for the fireworks. Which were spectacular, the way they should be.

And with that, we were done. And I was SO glad. All the parks were fun, but I missed my bed. And the California weather. And feet that weren't sore.

I mentioned it before, but I honestly think I like our parks better. Maybe if I did Florida at a different (slower) pace. And NOT in summer. But we won't be trying that until we have kids of our own one day. Which won't be for a looooong time.

Tad is still enjoying talking about parts of the trip, so that made it worth it for me. I'm so glad I got to be there with that kid. And that's pretty much all that matters.

Florida - Part 5

Thursday. And I was so wishing I could sleep in. But we didn't. We headed off to Hollywood Studios at Disney.

I may or may not have been singing (badly) the High School Musical songs. Possibly DESPITE my oldest niece not willing to join in.

The Pixar area is the CUTEST. We spotted a toy soldier. And the boys got to pose in front of a Barrel of Monkeys. Where else can you do that? We actually ended up splitting from the group pretty early that day because Tad could do everything but one rollercoaster and we decided we could skip that if we ran out of time.

Hubby's sister is really amused that her son (in the front, the ONLY white kid in the picture) is making the same exact face as hubby.

We got lucky that we split. Because that let us catch a picture with a Power Ranger. Leading to one of the cutest pictures I have seen.


It also led us to hear an engine revving. And a horn honking. And I SO KNEW what it was. I stopped Tad and made him listen. You wouldn't believe how big his eyes got when he realized who he was hearing. This picture is getting framed for his room.


We hit up the Muppets 3D show. And prepared to wait in line for Star Tours. But we were in line less than a minute when a woman approached me (with a Southern drawl that I loved) and asked me how many of us were in our group. I told her three and she hands me some Fast Passes that are good at that moment. She explained they weren't going to use them so we could have them. Yay for nice Southern strangers! So we got that ride done quick.

There was a necessary ice cream break while we waited for the parade.

I'm rather proud of this picture. And the next one.

We've seen the parade before, but it's too fun to miss. But after it was over we were ready for some shade. So we headed off to the Indiana Jones stunt show. And it was a good show. But Tad's verdict says it best: "When I grow up, I'm going to move to Florida, and be Indiana Jones in this show." He was dead serious when he said it.

I think the hat works for him, don't you? I'm pretty sure we know this year's Halloween costume.

Then there was the wait for Buzz and Woody. Which you saw a little bit of last Monday. And yes, Tad is STILL amused that I made Woody sad.

We did the Toy Story ride right after that. Which was the other longest wait of the week.

Then I made my bad decision and let hubby talk me into putting this precious baby on the Tower of Terror.

He's still proud of that. He told some of my family on Sunday. They were appropriately shocked and I think it made him grow a few inches to hear how impressed they were.

We also waited for Fantasmic. Which was worth it, but not really. This park uses a special custom stadium for their show. So there was an INSANE line. More than one employee assured us that we didn't need to wait in line for that long because they've seen MUCH worse and the last show of the night NEVER fills up.

Yeah right. We stood. Way in the back. With Tad on hubby's shoulders so he could see. But the show was still amazing. Possibly better than our show out here.

I'll just throw something else in here too. I like California's parks better. Aside from the ease of seeing a show, I feel like the people (meaning employees) here are nicer. Which is NOT something I thought I would ever say about California. But that's just me. And it didn't keep me from having fun. Just thought I'd toss that in before I forget.

Tomorrow... last recap. Complete with a tropical storm.

Florida - Part 4

Hey there. Unexpectedly took the weekend off. That can happen when you have three kids stay the night. It was fun though.

Soooo... fourth day. We hit Universal's Islands of Adventure. Yes, that would be the park that includes Harry Potter!

First up we hit Jurassic Park though. There was a LINE to even get to the Harry Potter World. A line that was obscenely long and wound through several other areas.

There were a few of these cars in the Jurassic Park area. And several dinosaurs popping out of the "jungle." We did the Jurassic Park River Ride. SO good. Tad was a little scared, but not scared enough to stop him from asking if we could do it again later. Maybe it was that 85-foot drop at the end...

The Discovery Center looked JUST LIKE the Visitor's Center from the movie. The inside layout was even similar. It was pretty sweet. Not to mention air conditioned.

Hubby and I split from the group to go do the Hulk rollercoaster (super sweet, we sat in the front row). When we got back together we stole Tad and took off. To meet Spiderman.

My mom LOVES this picture. It's now her desktop. Don't they look like old friends having a great conversation? It's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

Tad and I spotted a spinning ride. Which we had to do because those are his favorite.

Doesn't he look like he's having fun? He was cracking up the whole time.

We finally met up with everyone MUCH later in the Dr. Seuss area. Which was cute and fantastical and everything you would expect. Including the Caro-Seuss-el.

Tad made sure to pick an elephant. Which I didn't get a great picture of. But it was the coolest looking carousel ever.

FINALLY it was time to hit up Harry Potter. And... okay, we had walked through it before we met up with everyone. I just couldn't wait. I'm not sure Tad appreciated it fully. But my jaw dropped. Seriously, if you are a fan, you HAVE to go see this park.

Isn't Hogwarts INSANE??? The whole area was still really crowded when we finally went to hang out, but we only had one long wait. The lines for the shops are just as long (if not longer) than the lines for the rides. We obviously didn't go in any shops. I think if we had been on a kid-free trip we might have waited.

Oh, and we had to sample the Butterbeer.

The one on the left is a frozen/slushy one. And yes, the cup on the right is a souvenir cup. We had to. :) Someone already asked me if it's actually a beer...

Nope. I'm not that kind of aunt, haha. It's kind of like cream soda, but the foam definitely has a butterscotch taste. It wasn't bad. But the frozen/slushy one was definitely my favorite.

Buckbeak's ride was the only one that the little boys could ride. It's a pretty quick, small rollercoaster. And Tad LOVED it. I think he would have stayed on it the rest of the night if we let him.

We finished the night with water rides. Because it was still warm enough to justify it. The first one, we didn't really get wet. The second one... all nine of us were soaked through. It was fun. All the kids went a second time with some of the grown-ups. We were honestly so wet that we left puddles where we stood for too long.

This was the first night that the long hours proved to be too much for the kids. All of them (okay, except for Willow, who talked NONSTOP) fell asleep on the way to the resort. Can you imagine how pleasant it is having a soaked 6-year-old fall asleep on you in the car?

And that finished Universal. It was mostly kid-friendly. But not always. You've been warned.

Florida - Part 3

Day 3 we headed over to the Wild Animal Kingdom. Before we even got into the park, we spotted Timon. I adore Tad's big smile in this picture.

When we got in we hit "It's Tough to be a Bug." (Yes, the same show we have in California Adventure.) Even though I've seen it, what, five or six times now? Maybe more? It's still cute. And the kids liked it. Well, except youngest nephew. He cried. But he did that a lot, haha.

After some wandering we got Fast Passes for the Safari and headed over to a train to take us to Rafiki's Planet Watch (lots of hippie propaganda... thanks Disney). But as we were waiting for the train I pulled out my phone to check the time.

And I had missed a call from a school that I had interviewed with.

I checked the message and all the principal said was to call her back. So I did. And got the machine. So I left a message and sat there feeling sick. Longest thirty minutes of my LIFE.

FINALLY, we actually get in touch with each other and I got offered my job! So I'm sitting here, away from the rest of the family because I had to stay where I could get a signal. And I'm shaking because all of a sudden in the middle of my vacation I've been offered a job. I thought I was going to pass out for a minute.

Once I compose myself and am able to speak somewhat I call my mom (hi mom!) and she promptly celebrates (along with Claudia, who danced in their office) and starts emailing people. I texted a few people and walked around still not believing that had just happened for the rest of the day.

So back to the parks, right?

The kids got to see Rafiki. Tad got a solo picture because Rafiki is my mom's favorite. They also got to see Jiminy Cricket. And do a lot of cool exploration type stuff, including a little petting zoo. Our little Willow threw a tantrum (no pics necessary) and we decided it was time to head over to the Safari.

So, the Safari was definitely cool. We did get to see a lot of animals, more than I expected since it was already early afternoon. It's a bumpy ride though. And your driver doesn't pause for very long. So there were definitely more than a few out of focus pictures. But like I said, it is still really cool to get to see the animals out and about.

THIS is the Tree of Life. It was SO cool. I have more shots of it, but in this one you can see more than one animal. The whole tree is like that. There's over 300 animals carved into it. You could spend so much time trying to spot them all.

When we drove into the parking lot we thought this looked a lot like Matterhorn. It's totally not the Matterhorn, it's Expedition Everest. And it was a super fun roller coaster! Tad should have been tall enough (according to one measuring station but not the other?), but ended up not being tall enough. We got Cole on it with us and it resulted in the BEST PICTURE EVER. Which I haven't scanned, and I don't want you seeing a crappy copy of it, so that picture will just have to wait. (Did I hear someone say upcoming Friday Photo?) The coaster was seriously fun, and if you're there, you MUST do it.

After we rode Everest, hubby and I took Tad and split up (so necessary when you're in a group of ELEVEN people). We headed over to Dinoland where they had a reproduction of Dino Sue (you know, the most complete T-Rex they've found? It toured museums for awhile). Anyway, there's an employee right there that talked to Tad for almost 10 minutes and played some games letting him guess bones and stuff. She was really sweet and Tad loved hearing about the dinosaur.

From there we did the Dinosaur ride. Tad liked it. Mostly. There's some intense parts involving a carnivore trying to EAT YOU. Those weren't his favorite. But he didn't scream or anything. Just held on to me for dear life. (I told him he saved me from the dinosaur since the dinosaur was on my side and Tad was NOT letting go of me.)

Outside the ride there was a little trail with some fake dinosaurs. Tad posed with this one. I think the picture should go in his room.

There was also a playground nearby, where Tad showed off just how much weirdness he's gotten from hanging out with hubby and I.

There's a river rapids ride that we didn't get soaked on (thankfully). After that we headed to the Finding Nemo show to take advantage of our dampness combined with air conditioning.

This isn't the best picture, but I wanted to make sure you guys saw Nigel. How awesome is that??? The show was really cute, and judging by how hard Tad was clapping I'm guessing he really enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind going to see it if they extend it and turn it into a full-length show.

After that we hit Bug's Life one more time and then left. Everyone else had left already (the park closes early) so step-dad came back for us and then dropped us off somewhere for dinner. We had to celebrate my new employment. :)

Ahhh, half over. But the third day I was pretty tired already. But there's still three to go...

Florida - Part 2

Good morning. I'm not thrilled it's already Thursday. I have only two weeks until school starts.

Wow.

So let's just jump in here so I can block that out momentarily. Day two we headed to Epcot. I had read mixed reviews on Epcot. Boring for kids, okay for kids, great for kids, only good for the food... so I didn't know what to expect. But it was nice. The kids had fun. They got to see characters...

This was actually good because there were five characters in a row. One line to meet all of them. But I think the Donald Duck picture might be my favorite.

It was (of course) warm out so the kids jumped in fountains for awhile.


The whole character thing didn't go over so well with Willow. She was excited to spot Marie from The Aristocats. Until it was our turn to take pictures. Then she freaked out and ran for her mom.


We bought over-priced frozen drinks. Good: they cooled us down a lot. Bad: the price and the fact that they totally made us feel full. Ugh.


I of course had to attempt an artsy picture of the Epcot ball. Which I think turned out pretty cool.

There aren't as many rides over in Epcot. The highlight was probably Nemo. Because it's one of my favorite movies. And Turtle Talk with Crush. Which is always amusing. A couple of the "world regions" have a mini-boat ride. So that was kind of fun, but definitely not a thrill ride. There was plenty to do, just don't expect a ton of rides there.

I just realized I don't have a whole lot to say about this day. Guess that shows you how uneventful it was. If you don't count the tantrum thrown by one kid and Willow crying over Marie. And me hauling butt out of a show as the doors were closing because I had an unfamiliar number calling and I hoped it was about a job.

It wasn't.

Yet.

You'll hear about that tomorrow.

Florida - Part 1

I don't know how I'm going to spread this out, so there's no telling how many days you'll get out of this. But let's just jump in.

I'm gonna throw this out there: I don't like flying. This made traveling feel reeeallly looooong. We flew out of San Francisco at around 6 in the morning on Saturday. We weren't about to use vacation money on a hotel, so we just decided to leave our house at an ungodly hour. Making the travel day even longer. But we got to the airport, made both our flights, and got to Florida. Step one, check.

This has been on Tad's calendar for months. I love that it's his handwriting. And yes, it's HIS calendar, not mine. It happens to be a Cars calendar, courtesy of grandma.

We got in with Tim's sister and her family first. Mom and step-dad and the kids didn't get in until late. Once Tad got there he informed me he was sleeping in our room. :) I love that boy.

Sunday was Universal Studios day. It was warm. Seriously warm. Actually it was the humidity that killed. Yuck. I'll try to make that the extent of the weather-related complaining I write here.

Most of you probably don't know, but Tad has a small collection of pressed pennies. He keeps them in a little wooden treasure chest. We have them from Disneyland, Pismo, Arizona (thanks mom), Sea World... and now we've added 38 from Universal and Disney parks. There was a lot of this on the trip. The kid has a good eye for penny machines.

We did rides of course. Mom and step-dad took turns sitting out with the kids that couldn't do it. The rides were pretty uneventful, except for Jaws.

Tad totally knows what Jaws is. The kid used to put on his shark socks and shuffle into the room singing, "Dun dun, dun dun." I wasn't sure which side of the boat Jaws would come up on, but I put Tad and Cole (our oldest nephew) on the side that I hoped it would be.

I was totally right. (cue evil laugh here)

They're having a good time, and then we spot a fin. Cole started to hide behind Tad a little (chicken). Then when the shark came out of the water, Tad jumped up out of his seat and tried to fly across my lap. I've never seen the kid move so fast and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I sat him down and he was fine. No tears, and he handled the shark coming back at the boat pretty well. Our younger nephew did not.

It was a fun ride.

See? Tad was fine. He even posed after the ride. He asked later if we could do it again.


There was a Simpsons ride, complete with a Kwik-E-Mart outside. Guess what hubby's favorite thing of the day was?


Universal has a pretty decent kid area. Hubby and I ran off to do an insane roller coaster and the kids all hung out in a water area. When we got back we played with them and did some rides. Tad and I hopped on the Woody Woodpecker ride. He loves little rollercoasters. He's even willing to try out the bigger ones, which scares me a little.


Universal also had a show at night that was pretty worth watching. It was a late night, but since it was our first day we didn't feel too tired. It caught up with us later in the week.

And there's your brief rundown of day one. I'm trying to keep these short. I figure you don't want a list of every ride or anything, right? Tomorrow, day two at Epcot.

5 Things

Hello! It's not your typical list today. I picked out 5 random things about our vacation. Accompanied by pictures. I promise I will get to a recap (and I'll try to keep it from turning into a novel), but for today, enjoy this...


1. There's a chance that your child will want to ride scary rides.

The whole time we were in line for the Tower of Terror, I was sick. I knew he wouldn't like it, but I don't want to raise a sissy. Hubby insisted he would be fine. And technically he was. No crying, but his little yell will probably haunt me for a short time still. He was pretty proud of how brave he was though.

2. I cannot properly describe the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I can tell you it was INSANELY crowded. But it was amazing. Seriously hard to describe.

3. Spiderman is a pretty smart dude.

Don't you love how Tad is listening to him? He asked if he was having fun and then transitioned to studying and working hard because being a superhero takes great responsibility. Good job Spidey.

4. The frozen mojitos at Epcot are weak.

No buzz at all, but still pretty dang refreshing given the thousand degree weather we were having. Worth eight bucks? Nope.


5. You gotta love the characters.

Buzz and Woody got into a little tiff over me. They made me choose! And Woody pouted when I chose Buzz. Which Tad still finds hilarious. "Tia Ashley, remember when you made Woody cry?"

If you're a friend on Facebook I put a lot of pictures up over there. Not even close to everything though. Stick around here for recaps. Like I said, I'll try to make them interesting.