On a Roll

Last night was the kind of night I created this blog for. Nothing earth shattering or even very newsworthy happened. Just a quiet night meeting our friends the Siegals for coffee at Barnes and Nobles.

This is always a fun experience, though we seldom talk much about really deep or important topics. We basically just hang out and share out lives with each other.

What made last night so blogworthy (making up words is fun!) for me what Sarah. You see somewhere along the journey yesterday, Sarah figured out she could roll her "r"s.

She must have gotten that gene from Anna because I can not roll my "r"s. What proceeded from this momentous discovery was a night of my daughter doing her best impersonation of a motor boat, and trying to roll any word whether it had the critical "r" sound or not. Then she discovered that the "r" didn't have to be at the beginning of the word, but rather it could be anywhere in the word.

It was silly, it was amazing, and it would have been forgotten by Monday.

Halloween Night

Tonight was Halloween. This is a holiday we don't normally celebrate in our house. We typically try to get home, turn off as many lights as possible, and ignore it.

But not this year. Earlier in the week, we saw McDonald's was giving away a free sundae to kids in costume. So after work we loaded up Sarah and took her over to MickyD's. Now, I thought for sure that Sarah would want to dress up as a Princess. However, the day before had been Country Western Day at her school, so she wanted to dress up in her cowgirl outfit again.

We get her all dressed up and head out. Afterwords, we got some dinner and let her hit one nieghbor's house for Trick or Treat. This marked the first time in Sarah's life that she had been trick or treating, and yes, she's already 7.

It was something of an odd evening and a definate break from our normal Halloween experience.

Entry for May 30, 2007

Entry for May 30, 2007

It's funny how something that wasn't even on our agenda when we booked the trip back in February became the very centerpiece of our vacation.

Today we kind of took it easy. We decided not to go to any park today. We started out by catching a nice swim in the pool. Afterwords, we went to Fantasia minigolf. Sarah had a blast as long as she wasn't the last one on the hole. She didn't really care about how many strokes it took, just that she wasn't the last one to finish.

Then we grabbed some lunch and prepared for the highlight of the whole week, Bibity, Bobity Boutique. This is a new place inside the World of Disney at Downtown Disney. Inside Sarah was transformed into a real Disney princess. She got Hair, nails, and makeup done, and got a costume complete with shoes, wand and tiarra. We took lots of pictures and had a couple of prints made.

Sarah really enjoyed the experience. She even made a friend with another girl getting the makeover and they got their picture together. Sarah has actually making friends all week. It's almost as if she has a natural talent to make friends.

We met our friends Joel and Tara for dinner on Disney's Boardwalk. Tara is about 30 weeks pregnant with their first child. It was really nice to see them again.

Entry for May 29, 2007

Entry for May 29, 2007

So today we did Epcot, which stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired. We knew from our last trip that Sarah loved "The Living Seas". Now "The Seas" have changed quite a bit from our last visit. They've added a little ride to it where you ride in a clamshell. In line, Sarah gave all the signs that she was not going to enjoy this. "No" and "Get me out of here" were subtle clues. Showing a remarkable ability to learn from previous mistakes, we quickly got out of line and headed for Turtle Talk with Crush.

Dude! That was like totally awesome. Turtle Talk remains one of our favorite attrations. Sarah explored the aquariums and watched the manatees as well as a diver demonstration.

Then we started globtrotting. (No, we weren't playing basketball). We started off by getting some lunch in Mexico. Mexican food of course. Then we accomplished one of the major requirements for the trip, Sarah's parasol. Ever since she saw it on the promo video, she had to have one. And now she is the proud owner of a French Parasol, hot pink of course.

While waiting for her parasol to be personalized, we strolled over to Morocco and struck gold by finding Princess Jasime. Our work in Epcot was complete.

The day was still young, so we went back to the Magic Kingdom. Adventureland was our destination this time after not making over there on Sunday. Sarah got to ride the Magic Carpets, and afterwards, got to meet the Genie.

Then we split up. Sarah and Anna went to Swiss Family Treehouse and did Carpets (again) and I strolled over to Pirates of the Caribean, yoho! I had hoped for bigger changes to the ride but they were relatively minor. Then Anna went to Pirates while Sarah and I went on Its a Small World (again).

We ended our day with Country Bear Jamboree, and caught Mickey's Come Dream with Me show on our way out.

Entry for May 28, 2007

Disney Hotels are certainly unique. Usually you'll see birds, and perhaps squirels at a hotel, but apparently some rabbits have moved into Movies.

Today, we decided to do Animal Kingdom. There were quite a few characters waiting for us outside the gates. We got Stanley, Chip & Dale, Pluto, and Launchpad McQuack (who is a character unto himself and not as one Dad postulated "Donald in a pilot's suit. This Dad shall remain nameless.

Animal Kingdom was amazing. The animals in the trainls leading up to the park were great. We saw colorful parrots and anteaters. We explored the Pagani Forest trail where we do monkies, a strange zebra/giraffe hybrid thing called an Okapi, hippos, and gorillas. Even though we were far away you could sense the strength and power in the gorillas.

Then we went on Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was without question the highlight of our day. Despite our best efforts to ge there early, it was close to midday by the time we finally go to the ride and some of the animals were looking for shade or weren't really moving very much. One who was moving was a baby giraffe. He was running around near the truck at a full gallop. It was one of those 'I'll never foget' moments you hope for on a trip like this.

After some lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque, we went to Camp Minnie Mikey, and saw Minnie Mouse. Then we went to see Pochahantus. She sang and had real animals come out during the show. Sarah loved it.

Then it was off to the Boneyard, which was basically just a big playground.

We made our second mistake of the trip with Finding Nemo The Musical. It was basically the movie set to music with all the parts that Sarah doesn't like. She got a little upset and we beat a hasty retreat.

Next we tried Triceratops Spin. Its just like Dumbo, only with Triceratops instead of flying elephants. We waited in line, and then just as we were to board, the ride broke.

The day was not going well and then I manage to blow up at Sarah and Anna. I can only pray that they will forgive me and that Sarah will pick a reasonably priced therapist when you gets older.

We went back to our hotel for a quick swim before Steve and Renee (Anna's aunt and uncle) drove over from Satilite Beach. Our plan was to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We called them and they told us it would be about an hour wait. No problem, except when we arrive, it was now a 2-1/2 wait. Ouch. We spent the next half hour to 45 minutes trying to find a place to have dinner. We finally settled on Planet Hollywood. Sarah got a balloon animal while we waited for our table. We ended up having a very nice dinner with Steve and Renee.

If/when we do this trip again, I'm definately planning a day at the begining or end to go to Satailite Beach and hang out with them.

Entry for May 27, 2007

We got to Orlando about 10:30am, and went to our hotel, All Star Movies, to register. We got our passes and as we knew our rooms wouldn't be ready for some time, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. We got there around noon and wanted something to eat. So we stopped in at Casey's Corner. There was a man out front playing the piano. While we were eating we heard an announcement for the Family Fun Day Parade. Unplanned, unprepared, we stopped and watched the short parade. It was a nice start to our day.

After the parade we headed over to Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Showing we had learned something from our last trip, we got a FastPass for Buzz and went over to Indy Raceway while we waited. Sarah absolutely loved it. After a race around the track, we went back to Buzz. Now last time we went to Disney, Sarah loved the ride so much, we did it twice. Not so much this time. She didn't enjoy it at all. Lesson learned, kid's taste in rides change. After Buzz, we went to another of her favorites from last trip, the Teacups. This was another hit, and we got to meet TweedleDee and TweedelDum as well. Sarah was a bit shy at first, but she warmed up to the pair as they signed her autograph book and posed for pictures.

Then it was on to meet the Big Cheese himself, Mickey. After a quick detour over to Minnies for some inspriation on Sarah's future accomadations, we went in the Judge's tent and met with Mickey. We made a brief stop at the Toon Town Playground before venturing into Fantasyland to ride Dumbo. While in line, we learned that birds will build a nest just about anywhere, including the awning covering the line.

Dumbo was alot of fun for Sarah. Apparenlty their altitude control knew only one direction, up!

Next we decided to assault our eardrums with the utopian hit, It's a Small World. Now this next part I wouldn't have believed if it didn't happen to me. Standing in front of us in line was a guy from the UK, who was a Protection Paladin in World of Warcaft, just like me.

(Nongeek reference: World of Warcraft is a video game, and Protection Paladin is one of the rarest classes for one to pick.

I guess it really IS a small world after all.....lol.

Germane side note: Sarah loves "It's a Small World" and I see our ears being assaulted again before the week is out.

By now our room was ready, so we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool for a bit before grabbing some dinner and calling it a night

Entry for May 26, 2007

So, today was day 1 on our summer vacation this year. We are going to do a Disney trip.

We left Charleston around 1pm. The drive was nice, but long. We actually didn't make it all the way to Orlando, but we stopped near Daytona Beach. We had dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Kingsland.

Sarah came disturbingly close to actually beating me at checkers. Only the timely arrival of dinner and empty stomaches saved me from sure defeat.

Silly me, I checked MapQuest before we left. It said a 6 hour trip, which is perfectly accurate providing you never once remove your foot from the gas pedal or even think of stopping for something silly like oh gas or potty breaks. Leave at 1pm, 6 hour trip, and we see the magic by 8. NOT!

That's'about all for tonight. I need some sleep.