While You Were Out

So, now that the Hubs is back from his trip, I think it is time to recap what the kids and I did to survive while he was gone.

The excitement started the night they arrived in the DR with 18 people but only 17 passports.  One of the kids lost his--probably on the plane during their first flight from Atlanta to Miami.  I had planned to spend some time with this kid's mom S and her two youngest girls while they were gone since her husband and two oldest kids were on the mission trip as well.  So I got to watch first hand a lot of the drama and red tape involved in getting U.S. passport in another country.  FYI the U.S. Embassy in the DR worked with them and this kid was able to fly back with the rest of the group as scheduled.

We did our scheduled swimming lessons on Monday and Wednesday mornings with a local teenager who is wonderful with B.  C and I enjoy the pool while B does some serious swimming.  He has improved leaps and bounds since the beginning of the summer, and I could not be happier with the results.

Monday night the kids and I spent the night with S and her girls.  They have a dog, and while my kids are usually pretty skiddish around dogs (as is their mommy), C really took to Kylo.  She piled up tons of toys in front of the dog and was pretty put out when the dog didn't show any interest in the toys.

On Tuesday morning, we returned all of the VBS decorations we had borrowed from the church next door.  That took quite some time.  Then we headed to the library to catch the tail end of the animal show they were having.  I did not get any pics of this, but we did come home with a stack of books.  :)

Thursday morning we hit up the Summer Kids Series that the Carmike Cinemas are hosting this summer.  S came with her two girls and two of their friends to watch Ice Age:  Continental Drift.  Right as the movie started, she got a call from her husband in the Dominican saying that they still needed one more form from her to get the replacement passport for their son.  So she had to leave me at the theater with all 6 kids.  It was C's first theater experience, and if they had actually started the movie on time (instead of 30-40 minutes late!!) she probably would have been fine.  But considering that she was finished with her popcorn and gummies by the time the movie started, she was pretty antsy by the end.

S made it back about 15 minutes after the movie was over and took her girls for lunch, while the kids and I went to a local Japanese place with JuJu and her bestie and her teenage daughter.  It was fun, but my kids were definitely ready for a nap.  We spent that night with S and her girls again.  C did not sleep as well that night and was up by 4:45 that morning.  ARG!  Fortunately, the kids were going to Pop and JuJu's for their usual Friday fete, so I was able to be completely non-productive and crawl right back into bed.

After a long Saturday waiting for the Hubs, he finally got home around 1:30 Sunday morning!  A delayed flight and lost bags had them at the airport much later than they planned, so he was about an hour and half later getting home than he had planned.  The kids and I were able to stay pretty busy while the Hubs was gone, but I sure was glad to see him back.  B got a little emotional at bedtime the night the Hubs was getting in and said with his sweet, shaky, tearful voice, "I want to see Daddy."  I totally understood and was excited to hear him walk through the door that night.  Welcome home, Hubs!

Nine Years

Today, the Hubs and I celebrate nine years of wedded bliss.  And I am by myself.  :)  Don't get me wrong, I miss the Hubs like crazy, but I am so happy that he is in the Dominican right now.  The fact that he is so willing to serve the Lord makes me love him even more.

But anyway, we got married on a beautiful, rainy Saturday at high noon surrounded by our family and friends.  It was one of the happiest days of my life, and I don't think I would change a thing about it.

I love you, Babe!

Sending off The Hubs

So after months of preparation and planning, it if finally time for the Hubs to head off leading a group of 18 teenagers and adults to the Dominican Republic for a mission trip.  We were up early in the morning and headed to my parents' house to drop the kiddos off so I could help him get everyone off.  I snapped a pic of him holding both kids right before we dropped them off.

After leaving the kids with Pop and JuJu with a small amount of tears (and please note that none of those tears were from the eyes of my kids lol), we headed to the church a little before 8:00 that morning.  Half of the group was meeting us at the church, while the other half was heading up to the airport on their own.  This is the half that was meeting at the church.

I helped the Hubs weigh bags to make sure they were under the weight limit, check passports, and make sure no one had more than 3 oz of liquids in their carry-on bag.  Then we prayed, loaded everyone up and they were off.  I will admit that I had a tear in my eye seeing him leave and knowing that he was going to be gone for 8 days, but I was also very proud of him for going and serving the Lord.

Pop Century Resort

Now that our trip is over, I have decided to write about my thoughts on where we stayed at Disney.  I could not have been happier with our stay at the Pop Century Resort.

 
Pop Century is considered a "Value" resort on the Disney property, but you definitely get a lot of bang for your buck.  First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of decent pictures.  I only snapped a few.  I promise, next time we go I will take better pictures.  The resort property is divided into sections labeled and themed according to decades from 1950s to 1990s.  And as we all know, Disney knows how to do things right.  The theming is spot-on both inside and out of each building--right down to the fire escape stairs which are encased in a large decade-appropriate item.  Ours was an 8-track, but the 1980s buildings had rubics cubes and the 1990s featured cell phones!!

I will start with the room.  We stayed in one of the two 1970s themed buildings.  Our room was small, but it served us well and there was room for C's pack and play which they provided.  The beds were comfortable enough, the room was very clean and "mousekeeping" (Disney's version of housekeeping or maid service) came daily to clean and freshen up the room.  The bathroom was split like the typical hotel/motel bathroom--tub and potty in one room and the sink/vanity area was separated from the rest of the room by a curtain.  There was ample closet space (not that we used it!), a small safe, a mini-fridge (which we made good use of), a small table with two chairs, a large flat screen tv, and two double beds.  We chose a standard room as opposed to a preferred room which means that we did not have a pool view and were a bit farther away from the buses and parking lot.  For me, the preferred room would not be worth the money.  Our walk to the buses and the pool was not very far, and our room faced a small lake/pond.  It was very quiet, and we had no complaints.

Speaking of the pools, the hubs and I each took C to the pool on different days while B was napping.  Of the three pools on the property, the only one I saw was the Hippy Dippy pool between the 1960s buildings.  It is the largest of the three pools and has a fabulous toddler pool area which C loved.  There was a life guard on duty, and cast members were out playing games like Simon Says with the kiddos.  It was refreshing and was a fun way to keep C busy so B could get a quality nap.

We took advantage of the food court one day for lunch, and I can say that the food was quite good and there was plenty of seating.  It is divided into several different serving stations, so you can divide and conquer.  We did have to wait a while for some of the food to cook, but that only means that it was fresh and hot.  And the tie-dyed cheesecake is top-notch.

We also popped into the little souvenir shop as well.  I had only brought a couple of swim diapers for C, and I knew we would need one when we headed to Daytona so I checked out the Everything POP Shopping area.  Low and behold, they sold swim diapers individually packaged for about $2.  I was pretty happy since I did not want to have to buy a whole package just for one day.  They also had other toiletries and the typical souvenir stuff--magnets, postcards, etc.

And in classic Disney style, the cast members were extremely helpful.  We were met at our car upon check-in by a super helpful attendant who helped us get all our stuff to our room.  And the lady who checked me in was super nice.

The main reason that I chose Pop Century as opposed to one of the other value resorts (which were the only ones in our price range) is because of the buses.  All three of Disney's All Star resorts share a bus system, and since we were going during the busy summer season, I did not want to spend a lot of time waiting for or riding on a bus.  Pop Century (and Disney's newest value resort Art of Animation) has its own bus system that only transports Pop Century guests.  Other than our incident with the bus leaving early (see here for the details), I was pleased with the bus system at Pop.   As with most of the other Disney resorts (I am assuming) the bus stop is divided by destination.  This is the hubs with the kids waiting to load onto a bus for Hollywood Studios.

 Overall, I was very happy staying at the Pop Century Resort.  I would not hesitate to return there for another stay at Disney.  'Til next time, Disney!

Disney Day 4: Hollywood Studios and Daytona Beach

Our last day at Disney was altered in my plans at the last minute.  When talking with my travel agent (the amazing Deb Chambers with The Magic for Less), I originally ordered a 3-day park pass.  A few days prior to our trip, I got a confirmation e-mail from Deb stating that we had a 4-day pass.  I replied to her e-mail and notified her of the error--just to learn that it was not error at all!  Disney ran a special, and it was about $150 cheaper for us to get the additional day!  So, while I had planned to surprise the kids with a day trip to the beach on the way home, we decided to spend the morning at the only major park we had not visited:  Hollywood Studios.  And boy, am I glad we did.  HS may have been our favorite park!

We followed the directions I had read many times in my research and made a bee-line for Toy Story Midway Mania.  The hubs got in the standby line with the kids, while I got in line to get us FastPasses.  I got our FastPasses at 8:55 (which is actually 5 minutes before the park even opens) and our return time was 11:20!!!  DISNEY TIP #8:  Run (or speed walk) to Toy Story Midway Mania as soon as the park opens.  FastPasses are usually gone by 2:00 and the stand by line can get VERY long!  So we were able to ride Toy Story Midway Mania twice!  Awesome.  I think this ride probably ranks as the family favorite overall.  B loved 'the Goofy ride' at the Magic Kingdom, but this Toy Story ride is a true crowd pleaser.  After riding it the first time we got in line to meet Buzz Lightyear and Woody.  The line was 50 minutes long, but really worth it.  The queue has tons of great photo spots!  The kids were ecstatic to meet two of their favorite characters, and C actually cried when we had to leave the room!  We went straight to the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show and were one of the last people they let into the first show at 10:30.  My kids absolutely LOVED this show.  It is fun, interactive, and has all of the Disney Jr. favorites--the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and a couple of the newbies like Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First.  It was a hit.  A few minutes after the show started, the hubs made a quiet exit to go get FastPasses for Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster.  We met him outside once the show was over and got in line to meet Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates).  Then it was time to redeem our FastPasses for Toy Story Midway Mania so we headed back for round 2 on one of our favorite rides.

 This is one of my favorite pics from the whole trip.  B is quoting the aliens from the movie:  "The claaaaww."

After a pretty yummy lunch at Pizza Planet (and a couple of arcade games for B), the kids and I headed to more character Meet n Greets while the hubs headed to the Tower of Terror.  We saw Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater, and C met Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. but B stayed in the stroller--I am pretty sure he was a little afraid of the monsters.  We met up with the hubs and used up the last of our snack credits on cupcakes and an ice cream sandwich made with homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Yummo!  Then it was time for the hubs to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  This was the only FastPassed ride that any of us had to actually wait in line for.  And from what the hubs said, part of understanding the story of the ride involves taking in the queue.  But we only waited about 20 minutes for him to finish riding it.  Then it was time to say goodbye to our last Disney park.  We hopped a bus back to Pop Century, got in the car and headed to Daytona.

There was a good bit of traffic, but we got to our hotel around 4:30.  And that's when 'the norm' struck again.  The room they assigned to us had not been cleaned, so 3 rooms later, we were finally put in our home for the night.  We spent about an hour down at the beach playing in the icy cold water and digging in the sand where 'the norm' hit us again when the hubs' phone wouldn't take any pics!!  We showered, dressed, and went to dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory which proved to be a fun and yummy place to eat.  We went back to the room where I surprised the kids with their final Disney surprise--new jammies!  They were pretty excited.  Our Disney trip was so much fun, and I am literally already trying to figure out when we can go back!!!  Until next time, Disney World!

Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney

After a fun but exhausting day at Magic Kingdom, we were up and at 'em at 5:45 the next morning for early morning reservations for Donald's Safari Breakfast at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.  DISNEY TIP #7:  Don't do early morning breakfast reservations on consecutive days.  Two days in a row of pre-park-opening breakfast reservations is exhausting.  But we persevered.  :)  So, on to Donald's Safari Breakfast.  We had 8:10 reservations and were at AK in plenty of time even after having to wait for a bus to arrive to pick us us.  After checking in with the hostess, we were immediately called to get in line to have our picture made with Donald.  Donald does not sign autographs (bummer) but he does do a great pre-meal picture.

After having our picture made with Donald, we were taken to our table.  The characters started coming out almost immediately.  So on our third day in Disney, we finally got to meet the big man (or mouse) himself--Mickey!!!!  He was followed by Daisy and Goofy.  Right before we left, they started one of their 'celebrations' or parades.  The kids have shakers or maracas and get to follow one of the characters around the restaurant while dancing and playing their instruments to a fun and upbeat African-esque song.  And Daisy chose B to help her lead the parade in our section of the restaurant!!!  I may or may not have gotten mildly choked up watching that sweet boy lead the parade while holding hands with Daisy Duck!

 (Just look at the precious face on that sweet boy hugging Goofy!!)

(He was much more excited here than he looks! lol)

After a yummy breakfast at the Tusker House, we headed straight back to the Kilimanjaro Safari and loved it!  We were pretty much able to walk right on and had front row seats on our jeep with a truly incredible tour guide/jeep driver named Nick.  He talked with the kids, asked them about their favorite animals, and even played peek-a-boo with C!   He was really amazing!  And we got up close and personal with some amazing animals.  It was a truly remarkable experience.

(Look at how close that giraffe is!  It was literally walking right alongside the jeep!!)

(Our jeep had to stop for this horned wonder to cross in front of us.)

After getting off the safari ride, we headed to Asia for the hubs to get a FastPass for Expedition Everest, and then B and I changed into our swimsuits for Kali River Rapids.  The standby line was only 30 minutes, so we got in while the hubs and C sat and watched the amazing monkey exhibit.  And 'the norm' struck again!  After nearly 30 minutes in line, the ride had 'technical difficulties' and they closed it down.  We were given return tickets that could be redeemed any time over the next two days, but we didn't end of using them.  We headed to Dinoland U.S.A.  B and I rode the Triceratop Spin while the hubs stayed with C who had fallen asleep in the stroller.  The time arrived for the hubs to use his FastPass for Expedition Everest, so the kids and I got in line to meet Pluto and Goofy.  The hubs was done riding Everest and back in time to see the kids with Pluto and Goofy.  We stopped for a Mickey Premium Bar (not to be missed at Disney World) and B made quite a mess of it and loved every bite!  Then we let B play a few of the Fossil Fun games (which he had been dying to play) then we headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to meet a few of our favorite characters--Chip 'n Dale, King Louie and Baloo.  The heat and sheer exhaustion of two early mornings sent us back to the hotel by 1:00 for a yummy lunch in the Pop Century food court and a nap with some pool time.

 the before

 and the after--the boy was a hot mess, literally!

After a rest, we headed to Downtown Disney, but honestly we were almost too exhausted to enjoy it.  We went to the Christmas store where I got each of the kids what will be there annual ornament for the year and then on to The World of Disney store where B picked a Lightning McQueen and The King racing game and C picked a large plush Minnie Mouse as their souvenirs.  We went into the Lego store and were really impressed by the creations in there.  Then B wanted to see the dinosaurs at T-Rex Cafe, so he and I sneaked in there to check it out.  I made a mental note to try to get us reservations there for our next trip to Disney.

After a yummy meal at Wolfgang Puck Express (which is an amazing quick service meal for anyone using the dining plan), we popped into Goofy's Candy Company to use up a couple of our snack credits on items we could bring home, and then hopped a bus back to Pop Century for a good night's sleep.  One more Disney day to go, and we needed to rest up!

Disney Day 2: Magic Kingdom and near Mommy Meltdown

Magic Kingdom day came—the day I had been waiting for for years!  And it started on a bit of a sour note.  After getting settled back in the room after being at Epcot the night before, I called the front desk to ask about bus transportation for early breakfast reservations.  We had breakfast reservations for the Buffet with Character at Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends at 8:15 which is 45 minutes before the park opens.  I knew we needed to be there early.  According to the front desk, the first bus would leave at 7:00 a.m.  So at 6:56 a.m. we were walking up the bus stop . . . just in time to watch the 7:00 Magic Kingdom bus drive away.  I was completely shocked and honestly, utterly furious.  I could not believe the first bus would leave early!!!  So that left us in a crunch.  We SHOULD have just waited 20 minutes for the next bus, but we didn’t know for sure when the next bus would arrive, so we decided to drive.  What we didn’t know was that the Magic Kingdom parking lot is not actually at the Magic Kingdom.  So after parking, we roamed around for a while until a cast member told us to take the resort monorail to MK.  So in an effort to stay positive, I told myself yay, the kids get to ride the monorail.

the kids riding the monorail

We got into the Magic Kingdom early, and I believe we were the third family to check in at Crystal Palace.  We had just enough time to snap some family pictures in front of the castle, and then we were called to be seated.

The restaurant was gorgeous, and the food was good.  But by far the best part was the character interaction.  Within 10 minutes of being seated and getting our food, Eeyore started making his rounds.  I was a little nervous about how eating with the characters would work.  I was afraid of being up getting food and having a character come to the table while I was gone.  But my fears were completely alleviated.  A character-handling cast member would come to the table a few minutes before their character would visit you just to let you know not to get up and to get your camera and autograph books ready.  It was absolutely fabulous!!  I wish you all could have seen the looks on my sweet babies' faces when they saw each new character walk in the room.  Absolutely precious!  C’s squeals of delight are something I will never forget.  And Tigger was happy to oblige when B asked if they could bounce together.  Be still my heart.  DISNEY TIP #5:  Do at least one character meal.  Eating with the characters is TOTALLY worth it!

We were done eating and seeing all four Pooh characters by ten minutes before 9:00.  But of course, we have been having glitches, so their computer system went down right as we were ready to pay.  But once they got started up again, we paid and were headed to Fantasyland at 9:00.  The FastPass machines for Pooh and The Little Mermaid are by Mickey’s Philharmagic and I knew I wanted to FastPass Pooh right away.  DISNEY TIP #6:  Take advantage of the FastPass system.  We literally walked right on to every single ride we FastPassed--with the exception of one which I will get to on Day 4.  But back to the Magic Kingdom.  Everyone else was FastPassing The Little Mermaid like crazy, and I walked right up to scan for Pooh.  And as was par for the course with us this trip, another glitch—B’s ticket had not been properly scanned when we entered the park.  So when I inserted it in the FastPass machine, it gave me a ticket stating the ticket I had inserted was invalid because it had not been used to enter the park that day.  WHAT?  Long story short, either I did not scan his ticket at all or the admission machine did not read it accurately.  Another glitch, but I am still trying to be positive.  So we went straight to Peter Pan’s Flight and got in the stand by line.  After riding Peter Pan, we headed to the new Fantasyland and rode Under the Sea—Journey of the Little Mermaid and then hopped over to get FastPasses for Dumbo and Barnstormer.  It was there that the cast member could actually tell me why B’s ticket would not give me a FastPass.  She very kindly gave me a card that would give me a FastPass for Dumbo and Barnstormer and I was on my way.  We got in the FastPass line for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and I really got to see how great the FastPass system is.  The line was pretty long (at least 45 minutes or more), but we breezed thru in about 5.  After Pooh, we rode the Mad Tea Party tea cups and got in line to meet Alice and the White Rabbit—but never fear another glitch popped up.  Alice was going on break.  So we went back and rode Barnstormer (hands down B’s favorite ride of the trip) and Dumbo.

We walked over to it’s a small world and stood in a pretty short and quickly moving stand-by line for it.  But as I was getting off the ride, my bag slipped and fell to the ground—shattering the lens of my camera.  At this point, I was having serious second thoughts about planning this trip.  But once again, I was trying to stay positive.  We headed to Frontierland to scan FastPasses for Splash Mountain which B had been dying to ride, but the return time was not good for us and the crowd level was really starting to peak, so we decided to head back to the room for a rest.  As we were walking out, C fell asleep in the stroller, so we hit the McDonald’s inside ‘the world.’  It took us forever to find it, and the drive thru line was out into the street.  At this point the hubs and I are both at our limit for frustration, and I am about to meltdown.  And then I was reminded of why I love that man in the first place—we started to laugh.  We laughed about all the little things that had happened that were putting a bit of a wet blanket on the trip.  We got back to the room with our food and ate.  I showed the kids the glow-in-the-dark items that I had gotten them for our evening in the Magic Kingdom and kind of made a comment under my breath to the hubs about how they probably won’t work considering how things had gone so far.  The hubs reply:  “Well, if all goes as planned, they will work.  But if it follows the norm,  . . .” and he made a face.  It was a turning point in the trip.  For whatever reason, that comment and the face he made struck me as extremely hilarious.  I started laughing so hard I could hardly breathe and had tears running down my face.  And from then on, every time we hit a glitch—and believe me, we had many more coming our way—we just chalked it up to “the norm” and laughed. (And for those of you who are still devastated about my camera lens, I was able to check it out in the room.  What had shattered into a million pieces was actually a protective lens that was screwed into the real lens.  So I was able to just unscrew it, brush out the tiny shards of broken glass from the actual camera lens, and continue taking some great pictures.)

So B took a nap in the room, and C (who was wide awake and ready to go by the time we got back to the room) went to the pool with the hubs.  We returned to Magic Kingdom around 5:30 and headed to scan FastPasses for Splash Mountain and went to get on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.  We were loaded on our carpet and strapped in when ‘the norm’ struck again.  They closed the ride due to lightening in the area.  So we disembarked our carpet and headed to Tomorrowland.  We stood in an hour long line for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (which is not ideal, but with half of the rides closed due to lightening, people were flocking to the open rides) and then went to Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale Café for some dinner.

With fear of more lightening closing rides again, B and I got in the stand by line for Splash Mountain before our FastPass time came up and had a blast on the ride.  While we were riding, the hubs and C watched the Electric Parade and saw us come down the big hill.  We got back on the Magic Carpets just in time to watch the Wishes fireworks show from our carpet and then head out.  We were among the masses headed down Main Street U.S.A. after the fireworks which was a bit nerve-wracking, but the wait for the bus was not bad.  C once again was asleep in the stroller, and B was fast on his way.  We got them in bed and got ourselves ready for another early morning the next day.