We're Back...Finally

There are 2 things that going to Disney always reminds me of. One is the simple, yet awesome amazement and wonder of a child. The other is how few people in the world have any manners or the sense God gave a gnat-seriously.( Speaking of the first one- Emmaline was especially fun to watch during the 3-D shows- she would reach out for everything and try to grab at it! And of course, they believed that every character they saw was real and that was so great!) At least we went during a time when it is not very crowded= which was wonderful and so worth the girls missing a few days of school. Tommorrow I am going to write a "Disney Advice" post- we've been so many times now I feel like I have learned a lot that I can share to help someone else who is planning to go. And whenever Brian gets the pics on the computer I will post some of those. Today I'll just give a brief rundown of the events of our trip. We got to the Grand Floridian by 11 a.m.. We weren't supposed to check in until 3 pm- but they have a service where you can put your bags in a locked area and go on to the parks- so we were going to do that. However, when we got to the front desk, the guy said "We're celebrating the Year of A Million Dreams, and your family was just given a complimentary upgrade to concierge level!" I didn't know what that meant, but I knew it was good because apparantly it at least meant we could go ahead and go to our room early. Well- I found out that it meant that we got to stay in this 200 or so room cottage called the Sugar Loaf - which you could not even enter without a special thingy on your card key. The room was great- we had a balcony that overlooked the lake and everything was just really nice. Concierge level also included a huge snack buffet in the morning, afternoon and evenings, along with a full bar with wine, beer and champagne and also fruit and cheeses and dips from 6-8 pm and then cordials (and I mean the expensive stuff) and desserts from 8-10 pm. There was also a fridge full of all sorts of sodas and juices and milk that could be accessed 24/7. All of that of course at no extra charge. I liked concierge level. I'm not a big drinker, but I can only imagine how much some of the people there saved just in drinks! We checked in and went to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day and had a great time. The next day, Saturday, we went to Animal Kingdom. We loved it there last time and decided to go spend a whole day there this time. We were having a great time, except for the fact that it was really hot and humid (it was already 90 degrees there every day...) . Then, at about noon, Brian starts saying he doesn't feel good. By noon-thirty, he is vomiting and decides he has the tummy bug. (GREAT!! Paranoia set in because we all shared an icee the night before...) We had to catch the bus back to our hotel- which also stops at 2 other hotels before it gets to ours. Poor B- some man got on the bus at the first stop and the man smelled like cheap cologne and hot dogs and I thought Brian was going to lose it.... Of course it didn't help that the man sat right behind B. We got back to the hotel and B spent the next 18 hours in bed- except for when he was hurling. I took the girls to the pool- which was right in front of our hotel- because they had been dying to go. We did that for a couple hours and then we had to go get showered because we had dinner scheduled at Liberty Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom, and it was a character dinner that I knew the girls would love. The dinner was great- but being in Magic Kingdom on a Saturday afternoon by myself with 2 kids was terrifying. It was absolutely packed. We got to ride a few things but for the most part it was really busy. Upon leaving, the Evening Parade began and after finally finding a spot where they could see something, we watched that and it was very cool- all the floats were lit up and the characters were, too. I held Emmaline on my shoulders and after doing that with a 40 lb child in 90 degree weather for 45 minutes, I was ready to faint. We went back and crashed. By Sunday, B was feeling much better and we spent that day at MGM. Had a really good time. Emmaline LOVED the Star Wars Star Tours ride- we must have done that about 10 times that day. She also rode Tower of Terror twice and Annelise rode the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster about 6 times. (Emmaline was too short for that one- it was the only one she couldn't get on!) The Aerosmith coaster became our favorite fast ride- it is really cool and I would recommend the fast pass for it- which I will talk about more tommorrow. We watched Spectra Magic there at 9 pm and it was also very neat. On Monday, we went to Epcot and since the girls are too young for all of the "educational" aspects of Epcot- it only took us until about 3 pm to do everything there. We went right off the bat and got fast passes for the ride Soarin' and it was awesome. We got more passes after we got off so we could do it again before we left. We ate at the Coral Reef in Epcot for lunch and got a table right next to the huge aquarium tank and the girls loved it there- sea turtles and sharks and scuba divers were all swimming right by our table while we ate. I had some wonderful Mahi-Mahi there, also. Upon leaving, we decided to go finish Animal Kingdom and we were able to do the Safari and also ride the Mount Everest roller coaster 3 times. (I could not believe Emmaline rode that at all- there is a huge Yeti that tries to reach for you at the end.....) We did go on a dinosaur roller coaster that was absolutely terrifying- it even scared me- I would not recommend it for little kids. We went back, ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, and packed up our things for the departure the next day. We spent Tuesday morning at Magic Kingdom- riding all of the girls favorite rides there- they both loved Space Mountain, so we rode it 3 times that morning. We let them pick out their "prize"/ souvenir/ toy before we left, ate lunch at the hotel and then went to the airport to go home. The plane rides all went smoothly until we got to Charlotte- where our 8:25 flight got delayed until 9 pm- then ultimately got cancelled. We could not get another flight out until 10:30- so we had to wait a total of 4 hours at that airport to get on a 20 minute plane ride home. We didn't walk in the front door of our house until almost midnight- so the girls did miss another day of school today. Today's to-do list consists of laundry and just unpacking various things. (At least the house is pretty clean! )Tonight we will go to church and eat there- so I don't have to worry about going to the grocery store. The Disney trip was definitely a great time for us all. It is such a good bonding experience for a parent and their child(ren). We spent every waking moment with them and they just loved being with us. I even saw a lot of parents there with their teenagers just having a blast and enjoying being together. Now it's back to real life and that's okay- I am ready to be back! Tommorrow I will post some advice for anyone who is planning to go to Disney anytime in the future. You can take it or leave it. It is mostly just stuff that I wish someone had told us before we went the first time with our kids!! Sorry for the long post- I had a lot of catching up to do!