Off to the kingdom...T.R. part 5

After we got settled into our rooms we headed to the Magic Kingdom.

It was raining, but still glorious....

First stop was the chapeau shop to get the boys their ears.

We made our selections and while I waited for their names to be embroidered on the back Cliff took the boys outside. When I came out with the hats look who we saw.....

Pinocchio!!!!

We headed straight for Buzz Lightyear and then Jack surprised me

by riding Astro Orbitor with Cliff.

We rode a couple more rides and then it was time to head to

the Wilderness Lodge for our dinner reservations.

We got on the boat that took us from the Magic Kingdom to the Wilderness Lodge.

Jack sat as close to the captain as he could.

The captain's name was Juan. Jack thought he did an

excellent job.

Jack and Captain Juan.

The Wilderness Lodge was beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures.

By the time we made it to the Whispering Canyon for the dinner that I was sure to start our trip off on a magic note, Harrison had had it. He did not want to sit in a high chair and it really was not a place we could let him run around.

My steak came with a hair. They took it back while Cliff and Jack started on their food.

I got up and let Harrison run around in the lobby.

I came back with Harry and my new steak arrived, WAY to underdone.

I was close to tears. Things were not working out the way I had planned.

I ate the baked beans that came with Cliff's meal.

They were really good beans.

Things were looking up.

We got our desserts to go and headed out.

Back to the hotel we went.

We decided to take the boat to Downtown Disney to walk around for a bit.

After we checked things out we got in line to wait for the boat to take us back to our hotel.

I started talking to a very nice couple behind us. They were celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary and had just finished seeing Cirque due Soleil.

They told me they were from the Keys

and that he was a retired Marine Biologist.

It took all I had, I wanted to so badly, but I refrained from saying it...

THE SEA WAS ANGRY THAT DAY MY FRIENDS

~~

coming up...Epcot

He really is the Prince!

Harrison was the male winner of the Jasper County Jr. Women's Club

"My Favorite Valentine" contest!!!

I'm thinking we need to take our show on the road.

I'm pretty sure I have it in me to be a great pageant Mother.

Those Toddlers and Tiaras people got nothing on me.

Now we just need to order his flipper.

Practicing his talent.

It's a Libarace number.

A Prince has gotta eat....

We made it!! T.R. pt 4

If you would like to place a bet on how many posts this trip report us going to take, please comment with your guess. I'll say 37.

I'm going to try really hard to get it close to wrapped up this week. More posts, less going off subject.

Around oneish in the afternoon on Saturday we drove onto Disney property. There it was, the sign. Welcoming us. We had made it.

I got a little teary.

This is where we would be staying for the week.
Disney's New Orleans themed resort.
This place was just fabulous.
Better than I had expected.
We all loved it.
I'll share more pictures of our resort in a later post.

We pulled up and parked and made our way inside.

I went to check-in (with no waiting).

I had requested a certain location on the resort property, and when Everett the CM (cast member) that was checking us in told me the building we had been assigned to I was a little disappointed. He said he would see what he could do, stepped away and came back a few seconds later with what he told me was a better location.

Everett seemed to know his stuff so I took his word for it.

Everett gave Cliff and Harrison "My First Visit" pins and also hooked Jack and Harry up with a pile of beads.

We parked and headed to our room.

Mousekeeping had left us a little surprise.....

Everett was right.

I could not have imagined a better location.
Our building faced the river and was just steps away from the

boat launch that took resort guests to Downtown Disney.

Jack loved watching the boats and waving at the passengers.

Coming up, part 5

A character encounter, an almost breakdown, and that promised Seinfeld reference

And the secret ingredient is......

Taking a break from the vaca related posts to share this little tidbit.

My friend Ashley Bunton (shout out!) shared a link to Sheryl Jame's new recipe blog on her blog.

It's so good I gotta share.

www.familymeals101.blogspot.com

Tonight we had the chicken stroganoff. Good stuff. Really good. So easy.

The ingredients were simple and included cream of mushroom soup.

I'm a firm believer that pretty much anything with cream of mushroom soup in it has gotta be good. I'm just waiting for the night that the Iron Chef says "and the secret ingredient is.....CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP!!"

Hot in the hot tub and you can't have to much IHOP-Disney trip report part three

Where were we?

Back on the road again. We had to stay in front of the dreaded snow.
Let me go off track for a minute....
For some reason my husband is a freak about the weather. He checks the weather channel constantly, his Internet usage is pretty much limited to checking stocks and the weather channel.com. I suppose he is blissfully unaware that there is a bigger world of porn, celeb gossip, and social networking sites out there.
A couple of weeks ago the weather was saying we were in for it. Snow and all the trimmings. Cliff sent me a text telling me I needed to go to the store to get supplies. I questioned this because:
1. We both grew up in the country. In Illinois. Not Mexico, we've seen snow before.
2. We both drive four wheel drives and unless it is deer season, have a four wheeler parked in our garage.
C. We live two blocks from a gas station.

Back on track.
So on we drove. We made it through Atlanta rush hour traffic free and continued to head south. My friend Paige had recommended a hotel in Tifton that we had made reservations at for the night. After realizing that it was too cold to enjoy the outdoor pool at said hotel we cancelled that reservation and found one that had an indoor pool.

We arrived at Tifton and Jack begging to get in the hot tub.

We finally gave in and headed down to the pool.

Harrison did not want to get in. I think it may have been due to the fact that the swim trunks I packed him were not actually swim trunks. They were shorts that I thought were swim trunks. He's only one, but I think he knew.

I think he looks like Charlie Brown in this picture.

Jack LOVES a hot tub. He talks about his friend's Cole and Ross's hot tub all the time.

He just could not wait to get in the hot tub.

Don't worry, we only let him set in it for a short amount of time.

I did not get a picture of Jack and the older lady that he shared time with in

the hot tub. He had a lot to tell her. I think she was just looking to relax and I was

fairly certain that she did not want her picture taken.

We ordered pizza and tried without success to set up the pack-n-play that had been

sent to our room for Prince Harry.

We gave up and decided he could just sleep with me.

He rolled out of the bed a few times that night.

He was fine.

(so far that parent of the year award is going to allude me again in 2010. 5 year olds in the hot tub, one year olds rolling off the bed.)

We were up and ready to go bright and early the next morning.

Cliff packed up the Tahoe in the pouring rain.

I lost one of our room keys which made wet Cliff not so happy with dry Sarah.

We decided to drive a while and stop for breakfast.

We enjoyed it so much the morning before that we stopped at IHOP

for breakfast again! I think we all had pretty much the same thing.

Cliff got a cheeseburger again.

Harrison loves IHOP.

And then we were off. Today was the day. Our official arrival day.

It was raining as we left Georgia and continued to rain into Florida.

As we got closer to the World I was worried that it literally

was going to rain on our parade.

At exactly 50 miles out (per Jed, the GPS)

the rain stopped. The sun came out.

Pixie dust....

Coming up:

Arrival and a Seinfeld reference

Twisted Sister and IHOP--Disney Trip Report Part two

We were officially on the road. Cliff had expectations that we would sleep in the car for the first few hours on the road (while he was driving). That did not happen. We were too excited to sleep!

We christened the GPS Jed (in homage to our dear departed fish) and made it past Evansville before Cliff officially was skeptical of Jed's direction giving skills.

Jack sang his own version of "We're not gonna take it" for a good thirty minutes straight. It went a little something like this:

When I'm gonna take it, when I'm gonna take it, when I'm gonna take it ANYMORE!!!!

That's it. over and over and over and over


The night before we left I told Cliff that a dream of mine could be fulfilled on this trip, you see I had never eaten at an IHOP (I know, that is ALL kinds of crazy) and had high hopes that we could right that injustice on our was to Florida.

We had plans to stop in Nashville for breakfast. The weather had predicted snow for the KY, TN area and our goal was to stay ahead of the snow. The boys and I slept for a while and we woke up ready to eat.

I started looking for places to stop and suggested maybe a Waffle House would be good enough. Jack was ALL for it. He was very intrigued by the sounds of an entire house made of waffles!

We drove through Nashville and decided to take an exit to get something to eat. What do you know, right off the exit like a beacon in the night....International House of Pancakes!!!

Cliff got a cheeseburger.

As much as I was against him getting this at the House of the pancake,

when it arrived I was a little jealous.

My strawberry and banana topped goodness.

Jack's plate.
We all shared with Harry. He loved having french fries for breakfast.


We hurried through breakfast as the snow was supposed to be starting at anytime.
I made Cliff stop outside the IHOP so I could take a picture.
It had just started to snow.

up next:

Jack gets hot in the hot tub

and we arrive at Disney

Getting there is half the fun?

Disney trip report Part one

And we're off.....

3 am is a fairly familiar time to this Mother of poor sleepers. So it really was no problem for me to get up at that time on Friday morning. I got myself ready finished packing up what I could not the night before and Cliff and I woke the boys put them in their traveling clothes and around 4:20 in the a.m. we were off. Disney here we come!

We made it all the way to the outskirts of Olney before Jack asked "are we there yet?".

Coming up: Part two, IHOP dreams fulfilled.