Where Does The Time Go?

Sarah's been asking me to watch videos of the kids when they were little.  Mostly this stems from a recent review of the blog, as she was quite entertained by the pictures and stories of everyday life.  She's been begging me to start blogging again, so...here goes! I will try for a Sunday update, and maybe that will make it happen a little more often!

We recently surprised the kids with a Willie's Birthday-inspired trip to Disney World!  We picked them up at noon on Thursday last week, only a half day so early release.  We did not tell them we were going.  We did not tell them where we were headed.  We did not tell them what on earth Aiden was doing in the car.  We just went.

After we dropped off Aiden at the vet's for boarding, we drove for a couple hours, with various cries of "where are we going?" "why won't you tell us?" and "PLEASE!!!"  To no avail.  We were tight-lipped.  That is, until Izzy spotted the exit off the Turnpike for "Disney World".  We went straight to the Magic Kingdom, and spent from 3:30 pm till 8 pm (closing fireworks) and had a ball!  We got to ride almost all the rides, some of them multiple times!  In fact, after the second spin on Space Mountain, I just sent the big girls over and over on their own, I was done!  Willie and Izzy and I headed for the Buzz Lightyear ride (turned out to be great) and the Astro Orbiter (pretty good but way too short).  The biggest disappointment of the day turned out to be that Thunder Mountain was closed, as well as Splash Mountain and all of ToonTown.  That meant all of the roller coaster rides that William and Izzy could ride were off limits!  Well, Izzy could have ridden Space Mountain but she just wasn't ready having not been on a kiddie coaster yet!

After stuffing ourselves silly at Olive Garden (finishing at close to 11 pm), we spent the night at Embassy Suites in Lake Buena Vista.  The kids loved the hotel, and we ate a late breakfast before heading back over the park.  As luck would have it, the day was incredibly perfect weather-wise.  Turns out, we weren't the only ones who thought so.  The park was much busier than the day before.  Rides we had walked onto last night were suddenly 45-60 minute waits.  The kids didn't get it, how could this be?  Finding Splash Mountain closed only made it worse, I had bought ponchos that morning to be able to ride it and not get soaked for the entire day.  The mood was grumpy, and not too thrilled to be there.  Well, that was me anyway, and the kids were no better.  Ready to call it quits, we decided to sit down and have a quick hot dog so that we could eat a real dinner after the park that night.  The bit of food and coke made a big difference.  We all perked up, and Shawn came up with a plan to get us through.  He let the big girls go to Space Mtn and use up our FastPasses we had gotten earlier ON THEIR OWN, mind you!  (They were thrilled.)  We waited for them to come back and got FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear.  It worked perfectly, we all rode Buzz together and enjoyed it quite a bit.  In fact, I think it may have been my favorite ride!  (Guess I'm a good shot!)  We then left the park, in order to avoid the masses after the fireworks.  We headed for Macaroni Grill, and then bed.
**WARNING:  All pictures from iPhone, too lazy to carry big camera all around that park! **

Belle was super-chatty and so friendly, the kids loved her!  (Shawn may have been smitten, too!)

Belle was my personal favorite!

In the morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and then let the kids swim in the huge pool. We though they would get cold but they never did!  Over an hour later, we pulled them out, packed up, and left.  It was a great surprise for them, and we all had fun, despite our best efforts to get ticked off about half the rides not working! I have to say, I was pretty mad about the whole thing.  Too much money for those tickets to not have that many rides working.  My overall impression of Disney was not nearly as favorable as I'd remembered.  I think it's time the bigwigs over there take some of the ticket money and put it into redoing some of the park.  Some of it is past its prime (Small World), not worth the wait (Stitch), and just plain outdated (Carousel of Progress).  They really need to overhaul a lot of it, and get some better food while they are at it.  Some classics should remain, but with modern technology, some of those things should be amazing and they aren't.  That being said, for better or for worse, we have weekday passes for the year--including Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.  We're planning to make it back over there a few more times this year.  If you and yours want to hook up there at some point, let us know!
 Just don't ask me to ride Space Mountain.