Taking on Disney World

We owe our fabulous Disney vacation to our wonderful niece Lindsay! She is the Disney employee who made it all possible. Meeting us every morning with roommates and getting us into the parks . . . for the best bargain any of you will ever find.

And it had to be a bargain or I don't think I could've done it. Paying several hundred dollars a day to torture myself in the hot sun standing in long lines? We probably picked the worst time of year to go.

Lindsay said the heat didn't bother her. But us Buffalonians were blown away by the record high temps we encountered all week. I am not used to all that sweat.

She also taught us how to get free ice water and we really owe her for that one too. 

We had already asked the kids schools for permission to leave early because our house was closing. Then it didn't close. .  so we left anyway a couple weeks early. As usual it was last minute. Planned Wednesday -executed Saturday. Almost canceled on Thursday when Caroline came home with the solo for her kindergarten graduation. I hated to miss hearing her sweet, "My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of LiVerty". But Disney Magic was calling our name.

Marcus was the one I was worried most about and kept trying to figure out a way to leave him back home. Turns out he was the best kid of all. He loved everything and sat contentedly in his stroller all day dripping with sweat.
We made it to all the parks and would have a hard time telling you our favorite. They all had their highlights. And the very same drawbacks- 2 much sweat & 2 much people. 

We arrived in the south already suffering. Our Van's AC sprung a leak last summer.  Brent filled it up and JB welded the night before we left. It all went well till we stopped for the night. The next morning we had nothing left and we drove for a miserable 4 hours stretch that morning trying to convince ourselves that it wasn't that bad. At least we couldn't hear the kids hollering in the back seat with all the windows down. But the farther south we went the more irritable we all became and Brent eventually pulled over and fixed  it again in the Wall mart parking lot. It worked the rest of the day. .  . only because we never shut it off again, even to pump gas.

On the third day at Disney Camille and Caroline made the first and only purchase from this family inside the park. Their older sisters followed them up to buy it telling them what a waste of their money this was.  Therefore, Camille and Caroline nursed that Sprite for hours afterwards trying to make their precious $3 pay for itself in the amount of hours it was enjoyed.   We ate a big meal every morning and late every evening in the condo. But the rest of the day we all survived on whatever I packed on my back (granola bars and mushed up PB and J)  and all the free ice waters we we could get a hold of.

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It was hard to find time for the pool during our busy schedule. Right below this pool is the lake where Marcus was nearly EATEN BY A CROCODILE.  We had just pulled in the first night and were all unpacking suitcases when I noticed Marcus was missing. Brent was unconcerned and said he had seen him just 2 minutes ago run in between the condos toward the back. Having no idea what was "in the back" I raced back  and found him at the bottom of a big hill scooting on his bottom to the edge of the bank. I couldn't believe it. After rescuing my two year old, I went back and gave everyone a lecture about how we needed to be more careful because "Marcus ALMOST DROWNED. . . There was a BIG LAKE DOWN THERE!"

The following evening down at the pool I was approached by a family who pointed to Marcus, and said, "Is that the kid who ran down to the lake last night by himself?"

I said something like, "Yeah, you see all these kids I got. Once in awhile I lose track of one of them." (It's especially easy because I get so used to one of older girls watching him and so I don't think of him every second like I should.)

Well, apparently they were all on their back deck the previous evening watching two 6 foot alligators at the edge of the lake when they see a toddler goes racing down the hill. They were about to rescue him when I ran down. And according to them,  right after I scooped him up, the two alligators swam right down to the same exact spot.

Brent and I could barely sleep that night thinking about the horror of our son meeting up with alligators only 2 minutes after we arrived at our vacation. Apparently other vacationers in our condo had been warned not to go anywhere near the Lake of Alligators at check in. But no one said a thing to us. I can't believe there are just lakes of alligators everywhere in Florida without fences to keep them in.

 With all the sweating, walking, starving, and stressing about alligators you would've thought we would've lost a few pounds on this vacation but. . . . Naaahh.  Speaking of sweating. . . . here's Caroline and I glowing at 9 a.m. in the morning.  Our 6 year olds legs didn't function as well in the heat and she often begged to be carried and pushed like Marcus.

 We had the ugliest but most well utilized double stroller in all of Disney World.

Thanks Lindsay for the Great Vacation!
Here are some highlights:

Kashann being hit with 50 tons of water as a star stuntman during a Hollywood Studio show

Kashann winning the Velcro Relay at Epcot

Camille being the only one to get lost. . . over and over and over. Always in her own little world.

Savannah trying to talk us out of wasting our time each time we stood in a line for a show instead of a ride.

Savannah starving every day because she hates sandwiches & granola bars

 The Amazing Epcot Aquarium

Kennon's fear of 3 - D shows

Magic Kingdom's Safari- I could of swore we were in Africa. It was amazing.

 Kennon using up  most our  memory space on pictures of the condo. . . every nook and cranny. .  before we even made it into Disney
Pouring rain at Epcot not slowing us down. 

Caroline making it through her First Ever roller coaster ride without screaming, "Stop the Ride!"

Marcus singing "It's a small world over and over and over the whole way home"

The Georgia Peach fight. 7 people and 2 peaches.
Brent pulling his traditional stunt of refusing to stop on the way home because he is sick of vacationing. He drove the 19 hour drive in 23 hours with no more than 1.5 hours of help from me.