You know, I’ve already summed up the gist of the entire vacation:
They fought.
I was annoyed.
We went home.
So rather than force-feed you more stories about my children’s insufferable behavior, I’ll just put up a few of my favorite photos from the parks and hit the highlights in text. I figured out, being the math genius that I am, that I’d need to share ten or twelve photos a day just to show off my favorites …. So I’ll nip that in the bud and be quick about it. (Well, as “quick” as I’m able to be, which you all know is not very!)
MAGIC KINGDOM --- We went twice to the Magic Kingdom, luckily. The first time was unplanned, when MGM turned out to be a flop. You really need slightly older kids to enjoy MGM. Even Kellen was too short for the “good” rides. It’s not a good sign when the highlight of the park is the tram ride to and from the parking lot. So we park hopped over to the Magic Kingdom for an afternoon, which sounds so light-hearted, doesn’t it? Park hopping; like little fairies, happily flitting about from one park to the next. But let me tell you that park-hopping is not an event to be taken lightly with two adults, three kids, the fanny pack, a stroller, discarded baseball caps and stuffed animals, souvenirs from the first park, a camera bag, jackets, rain ponchos, a snack bag and a handy-dandy folder crammed full of tips and pointers on how to make the vacation more enjoyable!!! How ironic that of the 75 billion people in the Magic Kingdom that day, we wound up in the front line at Guest Services behind the Sterns, our online support group friends who were staying at GKTW at the same time, completely unplanned??? I do think the novelty of hanging out with Rachel and Alexis helped improve my kids’ behavior, at least a teeny, tiny bit, so I’m grateful to Karen and Jeff (and Karen’s mom!) for graciously letting us crash their Buzz Lightyear party in Tomorrowland and then letting us stick around for awhile. At least if they griped about it, they were polite enough to do it behind our backs.
I’m really thankful we were able to enjoy a few hours in the park that afternoon, since I had planned to save the Magic Kingdom for the last day. The night-time parade and fireworks show was going to be our big finale on Friday night …. and when we returned to the park on Friday, we were completely rained out. Parades canceled, temperatures dropping, and we were wet, cold, and not willing to stay until 9pm for the fireworks show. So some of these pictures are from the first day at Magic Kingdom and some are from the second, slightly-more-damp day. (Scrapbookers everywhere will notice that I dressed my kids in the same clothes both days for the purpose of continuity on my layouts, ha!) Kendrie's favorite?? Splash Mountain; we rode it five times in a row. Best comment of the day? When she saw some animatronic vultures in the Splash Mountain ride and said, "Look! Vampire-birds!"
Do you suppose this castle is the single most photographed landmark on earth? Or has Paris Hilton campaigned hard enough to claim that honor for herself?
Character lunch at the Crystal Palace. My kids turned up their noses initially at having lunch with "baby" characters like Tigger and Piglet, but you should have seen Kendrie when she realized Pooh had come and gone past our table while she was in the restroom ..... never have you seen a grown woman chase down a costumed bear like you did that day.
Oh, wait, is this a photo of my kids happy? Actually being pleasant for one moment of one day??? They must be imposters. ps. Kellen's ears are not really that big. He insists on wearing those adult-sized baseball caps pulled down that far and he looks like a goofball.
I just love this photo. We were getting autographs (remind me to tell you the story of the autograph books sometime) and Pinnochio picked up Kellen's sword and started fighting him. Kellen loved it. That sword was the best ten bucks we spent all day. And wouldn't you know, it's the one item that was stolen the entire week. Never mind that I had two thousand dollars worth of camera equipment laying around for hours on end, oh no, somebody wanted the cheap plastic sword ..... Kellen layed the sword on a bench for two minutes and walked not ten feet away to ask me a question. When he returned, sword gone. Seriously, people? Stealing from a kid at Disney???
Well, we were cold and wet, but we were able to get a few autographs so the kids were happy, at least. It lasted about eleven seconds.
How sad is this? By gosh, we're going to make the best of the afternoon pity-parade, even when it's raining.
I do have two more days’ worth of photos to share, but am worried my web host picture-storage place thing will exceed its bandwidth if I put any more up tonight. I'll update again on Friday, and on Saturday. So I’ll close for now, and thank you for putting up with me this long. As much as I’m rambling on and on about it, you’d think we traveled to Great Britain and met the Queen or something.
Hope you are all having a great week so far!
Love, Kristie
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KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY:
Tonight was kind of weird. My dad is in Seattle for some kind of surgery, or something, so Mom gave me my chemo tonight. Usually it’s dad. She used the same applesauce, the same spoon, the same bowl, and the same water …. But she still did it wrong. Or at least I *told* her she did it wrong because I don't want her getting too confident when the old man's not around.
BEST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY:
Hey, mom signed us up for something called Relay for Life today! Not sure what it means exactly, but it sounds like fun!
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