We are back safe and sound and full of stories. We had a great time. The children really enjoyed it and we learned some lessons. I will share them all with you!


Lesson number 1: If the guide says small children will be frightened...um...believe it! We went to Animal Kingdom on Sunday and there is a 3-D movie called Its Tough To Be Bug. Well Dh and I decided that we could just hold the small ones and they would be fine. How scary can it be? Well when the acid spitting bug spit water onto us the 2 year old crawled on top of my head screaming bloody murder! The four year old did one of those runs where you are running so fast your feet move but nothing else does, to get into DH's lap. I left at this point with a two year old sitting on top of my head and poor Dh was left with the other four children. They actually were scared but not doing to badly until the end when they excuse the roaches and maggots and the seats had something in them to make it feel like they were crawling over you. Apparently little girls ages, 8, 5, and 4 do not like this sensation and will end up on the ceiling....screaming! Of course had momma not left a few minutes before that she might have joined them on the ceiling...two year old on her head and all! :)

Lesson number 2: If you have five children and try to ride a ride with a moving walkway that makes you step into the ride...you will have to endure the stares of people when the ride grinds to a stop to allow you on and off access. We rode Tomorrow Land Transit System which is basically a little ride that takes you through Tomorrow Land attractions. You step onto this moving walkway and then into a car. Sounds easy right? Well with five children we ended up getting on ok though there were some moments of panic when a child was running alongside yelling, "Give me a hand up!" I felt like we were in the old west trying to rob a train. Now getting off proved to be a disaster. Once again the ride slows..some..... and you step onto the moving walkway. I had the bright idea that hubby, who of course was seated on the opposite end of the exit, should crawl over everyone and help us off. Would have worked had not all the children tried to clamor off at the same time and become wedged in the door. So alas we ran out of room and they had to stop the ride so we could get off. Of course the man on the loud speaker says, "Please remain seated. We are experiencing a slight delay and will begin moving shortly." Have you ever been a slight delay? One of my more humbling experiences I must say.

Lesson number 3: Every time your child sees a new restroom he/she (mostly she) will have to use it! I truly truly think we spent more time checking out the restrooms then anything else. Either my eight year old has serious bladder problems or she has no patience for just standing around looking at a map. Methinks it is the second choice. Do not despair she did not get to go every time she asked. :)

Lesson number 4: No stroller parking zones! This is going to be one of my favorite stories of the trip..I think! We wanted to go on Its A Small World. Very worth it to see the children's faces. Well. We parked our stroller in what looked like a stroller parking lot at the entrance. You know the first thing you see to a ride and think oh I should go on this ride? Well we get off the ride and cant find our stroller. It was not too big a deal. We left our light jackets in there and my mom's cane. We were a little miffed that we did not have a stroller to finish the night in with a two year old. We looked around some more for the stroller but could not find it. (By the way this was a rented double stroller because I forgot ours!) Finally DH went to report it to the people at the entrance of Its A Small World to make sure we did not have to do anything. Well he is told that all the strollers were moved to the Stroller Parking area. Apparently we were not in the stroller parking area AND the stroller parking area was at the EXIT to the ride..because that's the first place you go when you want to ride the ride so of course you should see the stroller parking! (Sarcasm!) We find our stroller among the hundreds (may be an exaggeration) and hubby says jokingly to the Magic Kingdom stroller parking employee that they should have a sign. He is then blasted with venom as the employee tells him that they have a sign but obviously they need a bigger one with flashing lights. (He was being very sarcastic) Now if you know anything about hubby and I, we don't deal well with people talking down to us. So of course we traipsed back to the entrance of the ride to find "the sign". Ok let me tell you it is dark! There were a sea of strollers parked at the entrance when we got there and parked ours. If there was a sign I think it was underground because we never found it. The closet thing we found to a sign was at the EXIT of the ride that said stroller parking. I personally believe that if there is more than a few people parking in the no stroller parking zone that it is not the fault of the stroller owners there must be a reason NO ONE out of the hundreds of strollers he had to move were parked in the right spot. Hmm?

Lesson number 5: The lady standing beside you when you are waiting to pay thousands of dollars for your Disney souvenirs will jump in front of you and not so much as blink an eye! Yes here I am at 11pm with my arms full of Disney parahernalia just praying that we can check out soon and I can get off my aching feet! There was a lady that walked up beside me and acted like she was looking at something on the counter. I thought nothing of it. She put her coffee cup souvenir on the counter and made like she was just browsing then the very second the guy in front of me finished she slid her cup up there. Now you think this is the worst but OH NO! she was not finished shopping. She sent her boyfriend on many more excursions while the cashier was ringing her up. I stood there mouth open and had a...well..an actual confrontation with her back. I remember at one point these words exited my mouth, "Gosh if I was going to jump in front of someone at least I would be ready to check out and not still shopping." I was getting louder and louder with every comment coming out of my mouth. I was so mad! I know I know not a very nice thing to do but I was tired, achy and just plain ready to go. Now get this, at one point she told her boyfriend to go find the white cup with nothing on it! WHAT!?!?!? I believe my comment to this was, "Go to Walmart! They have tons of white cups with nothing on it!" She never even turned around. There was another line right beside ours and I looked at this man next to me and said loudly, "Watch out someone will try to break line if you aren't careful! It happened to me and now I have to wait for her to finish shopping." I just kept going off. Fortunately my children were not around to see mommy turn into a bad word. My mother however told me to shutup a few times.

Well that's really all the lessons we have time for tonight. I know there are more and I will share them with you as I think of them.

On the plus side I did finish working out schedules this weekend and will post those soon. I took a page from Lori and actually scheduled each day. I think this will work out better for me.
Ok folks good night!