10/1/2003~ Getting ready to go and the airport incident

The group that went:

Our group~
Me, you know that because I am writing the trip report.
DH (Dear Husband), We needed someone to carry stuff, and eventually earned the title of "Scuba Steve".
DD (Darling Daughter) (17) Commando Nikki, the brat actually had a whistle. She's up hours ahead of everyone and stands around clapping her hands yelling, "Move it people, we have a park to visit!"
DD (14) Beetlebum, just plain happy to be there.
DsD (Darling Step-Daughter) (6) Em, The tree hugger.
DS (Dear Son) (19) Airman, Just a few days of leave, then back to the base.

My brothers group~
DB (Dear Brother), Expert at standing outside shops, holding bags, and WAITING.
SIL (Sister In-law), Blackbelt shop-a-holic.
DsN,(Dear Step-Nephew) I was never introduced to. 

I know they where SIL's son and DIL, and that they slept two rooms over from us. We called them "Pig tails" and "Scruffy".

Pigtails never really spoke to us, but I think she may have had some family problems and when scruffy did talk to us, we couldn't understand anything he was saying anyway.

I tried to sleep in as late as I could because I knew I had to work that night, and we had to leave here at three in the morning, but that didn't happen. I was way too excited and I still had a lot of things left to do before I went to work anyway, so I made a phone call to DH and gave him his last minute instructions.

He does none of the planning, but he follows directions very well.

I grabbed a few things and headed off to the bank to cash checks, move money, turn in change, that kind of stuff. I started off down the street and my phone rings.
Not my cell, my cordless from the house. I never hung it back up.
The sad part is, I still didn't realize it until I answered it and got an ear full of loud static.
Then, for some reason I even felt the need to lock my truck while I was in the bank, just in case someone saw my cordless phone, and decided to use it. Yeah, I'm 6 miles away from the base, it could still work.

I continued to have small "stupid attacks" throughout the day. I really needed a vacation.

We did pretty well packing up our 1/4 ton of belongings. The 5 of us, myself, DH, and 3 DDs, (DS met us there) each had a suitcase and a carry on.

Then there was a suitcase with a suitcase in it.

I just couldn't get DH to understand why I was doing that, and was accused of just giving him more stuff to carry or just trying to find a reason to use my luggage rack on my truck.

I admit it, okay, that the luggage rack was one of the first features of my truck that I pointed out to him when I bought it, and I was tickled pink to own a vehicle with one. DH is just funny about driving around with things on your roof. I don't know why?

Its about 100 miles from our place to the airport. I can't ride in a car across town unless I am driving. I freak out thinking about someone else having control over my life for that long. When I was growing up my dad and 4 brothers all drove stock/race cars. They traumatized me. I don't like to fly either, and at the risk of sounding like a commercial, I rely on Xanax.

That’s right folks, Xanax, for those afraid to fly.

I thought I would just drive to the airport, park the truck, pop a Xanax, get on a plane and all would be right in the world. I couldn't have been more mistaken. The minute I saw those huge signs that say "Hey, the airports over here" I had a full blown panic attack. I was trying to stay cool about it, but DH noticed that I went from driving 35 mph to 10 mph. I managed to get a parking spot, but failed to pay attention to where we were parked.

I figured I would never see the truck ever again anyway, because I was about to die, so who can be bothered by these little details?
The first thing I did was take my wonderful little Xanax, (no water, just swallowed that sucker dry) as soon as we stopped moving. Did anyone else know it takes about 20 minutes for those to work? Yeah. 20 minutes. But when it does work....

We got to the security line up. In all honesty, this is what I was really the most nervous about. Once I am on a plane, I am fine. There is something about going through the line up that freaks me out.

So, I hand the nice man my tickets and out ID's and guess who got selected for random search? ME, the one who sets off alarms every time I go somewhere. The reason why my mom makes me sit in the car. OH boy. The rest of my family goes through another line, while I am taken off to the side. The man asked me if I had ever done this and I start to say "I haven't flown since the...."

Are you allowed to say terrorist attack? I know people have been arrested for saying things about bombs, so what happens when you come right out and say terrorist attack?

At this point the Xanax is kicking in, and I began using sign language to represent terrorist attack. No, I can't speak sign, but I can fling my hands around. Nearly poked the guys eye out. That scared me, figuring I am about to be arrested for assault with a finger, so I jam my hands in my pockets.

No, that certainly doesn't look suspicious.

He led me over to a chair and another lady comes over and they remove my shoes. She swings a rod around my foot and is explaining to me that if it goes off she will need to touch my person.

I look right at her and say "Could you kiss me first?"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s Xanax, for inappropriate responses.

Well, of course, I set off the alarm, that’s what I am good at. I had change in my pocket. I take it out, put it in a little dish, and she continues to swing around her little rod. I continue to set off the alarm. What ever it is, is in the front of my pants. So I have to lift my shirt up to show her what is in front of my pants. I even pulled my pants out to give her a good look, prepared to remove them (Xanax stupor) and she steps back and says "That is not necessary ma’m, its the snap on your jeans." She saved Manchester airport from seeing me in my underwear. 

She is a hero.

We gather back together, DH & I need to cigarette. We wonder over to the smoking area, that is really a glass boxed room. Makes you realize what a display item feels like. The girls are directly on the other side of the glass doing silly things like pushing thier faces up against it and what not. They turn around and discover the rows of phones. They start to play "phone call" and we are watching them, when a police officer comes over and starts talking to the 6 yr old. "Oh, officer friendly is saying hello, how nice."
Yeah, till I noticed my other two brats looking around like there’s birds suddenly in the place and slowly walking away.
So I put one hand on DH's shoulder and one foot on his hip and give him a big SHOVE and tell him to go find out what happened. He gets up off the floor and I head over to the other two monsters and asked what happened. She called 911. I asked her why and she said.
"Its the only number I know"

They still let us on the plane and we were off to the world.

10/2/2003 A very important announcement, and we arrive at POR (Port Orleans Riverside)

So Delta kindly lets us board their aircraft and on the way down the ramp I was taking swings at the older girls for allowing the little one to call 9-11. They are very good at dodging and weaving, by the way. I know its really mine & Dh's fault for assuming that a 14 & 17 year old can keep and eye on one 6 yr old while their parents are sitting on the other side of a glass wall, but it's usually better to have someone else to blame? I think so.

The flight from Manchester, NH to Altanta was, ohh, I'd say about 5 minutes. Xanax to the rescue! 

I was woken up to beatlebum(14) saying "Mom, your drooling on my homework." 

I wasn't really drooling, I was testing the underwater durability of the paper, there is a difference. 

We somehow ended up on another flight that took us to Orlando, but I'll be honest here, I was in a fog. I remember being dragged off the plane by commando Nikki (17), who at this point, probably could have used the Xanax more than me. She was on overload. "People, lets move, move, move!!" 

We got to baggage claim, and I was feeling fresh as a daisy. Then it occurred to me that our limo wasn't there! I tell the crew to stay put, do not move, I will be right back. I am walking back and forth past all the other people holding signs with other peoples names, but none of them are ours. 

Thinking, maybe I have forgotten how to spell my own name, I check a third time. Nope, nada. I had thought of pretending we were another family, but I got over it. One lady holding a sign asked me which company I was looking for and I said Star limo and she said, "Oh, that’s too bad."

Apparently, they aren't very prompt. "You will have to call them to get them to come." I never had to call Tiffany Towncar. They were always there, with the sign and my name spelled correctly. 

Great, someone has to go tell commando Nikki, we have no ride yet. I flip open my cell, left the cordless at home, called Star and they said "yeah, someone will be there, eventually." 

Well, that’s mighty nice of them. I was very afraid to go back and tell the crew that for right now we didn't have a ride. This could get ugly. So, I started skipping back over to them. Yes, really skipping. Dainty fingers in the air and everything.

Well, what would you have done to distract them??

Commando Nikki (17) is a very smart child. She knew instantly there was a problem. A normal 17 yr old would have been mortified that their mother was skipping across an airport, but my kid knew I was trying to create a diversion. "Okay, Star is a no show. I will call my brother or a cab and see..." 

That’s as far as I got. Commando Nikki calmly said "Ah, pardon me, mother (like a dirty word) are you saying we have no ride?" 

Oh she's a quick one. 

She actually turned white, began to sweat, and for a quick second, I really believed she was gonna faint. Thank the good lord at the same time, a limo guy was running across the airport. Just before DH tripped him, he was yelling our name. Only 25 minutes late. Whats 25 minutes to three girls who are dying to get to Disney and a mother who hasn't seen her Air Force son in months and a DH who is really wishing there were some men to talk to. Not a problem.

We went out, carrying our own luggage because the limo guy was busy trying to find his keys or something. We didn't care about that, we just wanted out of the stupid airport. As the limo guy and DH are loading our 1/4 ton of stuff into the trunk, I started to say something to him about our 1/2 hour grocery stop that I was guaranteed. "No, no, no I have no paperwork for that and we are running late, your going straight to Port Orleans Riverside or your paying me an extra $25.00." 

WE?? We are running late?? I'm sorry, I didn't notice him skipping across the airport. I already paid them $200.00!! I wasn't paying him more. So because this clown was late, I didn't get my grocery stop. Wow, was I mad! But I was at the point that I just wanted to see my family and I knew that I would do this:

ATTENTION TO THE 55,000 MEMBERS OF THE DIS BOARD: STAY AWAY FROM STAR TAXI/LIMO. THEY CHARGED ME $200.00, THEY WERE LATE, RUDE, TRIED TO GET EXTRA MONEY FROM ME AND THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME MY GROCERY STOP!!! ON THE WAY BACK TO THE AIRPORT THEY WERE 45 MINUTES LATE AFTER I CALLED THEM TWICE!!

Ahh, that feels so much better, Thanks.

So, we finally made it to Port Orleans Riverside.....
 

STILL 10/2/2003 ~ Finally make it to MK

We climbed into our limo and my entire family sat towards the front, all squashed up together, with skin-to-skin contact because they were afraid that I was about to blow a cork. They didn't dare come near me. Once the car started rolling, I knew I would get even. I would tell the Dis. Ha! Mess with me, will ya?? Treat one DISer badly and they will only tell over 55,000 of their closest friends. How do you like me now?

With my plan firmly in place, I really started to feel better. I told the crew to start breathing again, and we finally arrived at POR. The driver barely had stopped when I jumped out because my baby boy, the child who has made me so proud, with his sweet little cheeks, smiling ear-to-ear was just standing there, in his clean white shirt with his military hair cut and all these new muscles, holding a Mickey Mouse doll....

Excuse me **sniff, snort**

The girls were so happy to see him, especially Em (6). She has a really hard time understanding where DS went. To her, he was a super hero. She climbs all over him and tries to beat him up. He lets her pretend that she has him in a "sleeper-hold" and makes him "tap-out" before she lets go. They are so great together. The Mickey doll was for her.

We were so excited to be together again, all of 6 us. When you have a "blended" family and they are growing up, it becomes more and more difficult to get together.

The bell hop guy was really great, and zoomed us to our room on that little buggy thing pretty quickly. Em(6) thought this was a ride.

My brother and his crew were already there and unpacked. They arrived a couple hours before us and got lucky that POR gave them their room so early! 

When we pulled up, they thought we would need time to unpack and get organized. Why did they think that? Commando Nikki (17) had the door to the room opened, luggage thrown in there and was headed for the bus stop before we even got of the little buggy thing.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit.

We really did open the door & throw the luggage in, BUT we looked inside for a second. We were ready to head to the Magic Kingdom. I passed out lanyards, pins, autograph books, pressed penny books and Epcot passports to everyone that I had bought from Gifts of a Lifetime before hand. I was glad I had done that, it really thrilled the heck out of the kids.

The whole bunch of us headed off for the MK without pigtails and scruffy. 

I think there was an issue with them, I don't know, we couldn't wait. I hadn't been there for 4 years and I forgot about the bag checks going in. It wasn't there last time. It only took a few minutes to go through, no big deal. Then I go through the turnstiles and stand and wait for the rest of my crew to come through and hand me their resort ID cards. 

 

Brother looks at DH and makes a weird face. Must be a guy language I don't understand because all DH said was "She won't let me carry my driver’s license either." Brother nodded and rolled his eyes.

Well, come on, my DH has a wife, because he needs one, okay? I let him have his license back to save face with my brother and guess where it was the day we went to the Richard Petty Driving Experience? On the nightstand, in our room. He's lucky he was only doing the ride along.

We hit the POC (Pirates of the Carribean), HM (Haunted Mansion), IASW (It’s a Small World) when everyone started claiming starvation. Beetlebum(14) was looking a little pale and Em (6) was chewing the Mickey mouse doll. We decided to eat at the Liberty Tavern. Really good food. Hey, guess what? There are characters in there. Em(6) could barely handle it, she never has been to these types of meals. Minnie Mouse came over and you would have thought Brittany Spears had just sat down with us. I thought the child was going to faint. She went speechless. She was our little Disney princess for a few minutes,
Then it happened...

We were eating, chatting and really enjoying ourselves when Em(6) squealed "Chuck & Dave! Chuck & Dave!" The entire table of 9 people went silent. We even sat motionless for a second or two. 

Brother looks at me and says "Who is Chuck & Dave, and where are they going to sit?" 

Commando Nikki throws her napkin over her face and says, "Please tell me she didn't just call Chip & Dale, Chuck & Dave!" 

Beetlebum asked "Do we have to leave Disney World now?" 

Poor Em(6) didn't live that down for the rest of the trip.

As the park started closing, I stopped to take some photos of the castle turning colors. I was doing this for a few minutes and when I turned around.....

All four kids were standing in front of it, in a group hug. It was a beautiful day and I was very blessed.

10/3/2003 ~ The camera bag incident & LYMI

I woke up at about 5:30 am. I was choking to death. I had been on antibiotics for three days for bronchitis and I couldn't breathe. 

 I was coughing so much that I had to leave our room and go outside for a while. I walked over to the food court, grabbed a coffee and OJ in my pajamas. The girl behind the counter never batted an eye, so I guess this is normal behavior OR a lot of people in Florida wear blue pants with yellow ducks. 

What do I know, I'm from Maine.

POR is a very pretty resort. Very quite. I was sitting outside our rooms, building 18 by the way, and praying that Florida doesn't have any of those gigantic, yellow & black stripped grasshopper looking things with wings, because there was nobody awake to save me.

About a half hour later, I heard a whistle.

BLAST! BLAST! "Lets go people! Time to get up!"BLAST! BLAST! 

As I was sitting there thinking to myself, boy, if someone did that to me, I would FEED them the whistle, I realized it was coming from MY room! Oh GOD! I had left DH alone in there! Commando Nikki(17) would show him no mercy! I jumped up, knocked over my coffee, fell into the door because I forgot it locks when you go out, managed to get the key card out, had to swipe it 4 times to get the door open and make my way into the room.

In all the commotion of me trying to get into my room, I woke up Brother who opened his door to find out what in the world was going on. "NO! BROTHER CLOSE YOUR DOOR!"

Too late.

Commando Nikki(17) was already under his arm and in his room with her stupid whistle, blowing it over there. BLAST! BLAST! "Lets go people! Time to get up!"BLAST! BLAST! Brother is just standing there looking at me, mouth wide open and I smile and say "Well, at least she's out of my room." and close the door.

Brother was not amused.

After strapping Commando Nikki into a chair and slapping her around a bit, we went off to MGM. 

This is one of the few times pigtails and scruffy joined us. I think my crew scares them. I had the camera bag and was talking with DS as we walked up to the bag check station. I asked Dh if he would take it and go through for me because it was heavy and hurting my shoulder. DS and I walked through and waited on the other side. 

"Let's wait right here." I say to DS.

DH walks up to the bag checking guy with the camera bag. He unzips the main part of the bag, tips it up so he can see everything inside. "Could you open the other zipper sir?"

"Oh, sure, no problem. I don't think there is any....ACK! ARGLE, ACK! NO!!!"

This is the sound one man makes when he presents a pocket of tampons to another man. DS tells me that is defiantly NOT an okay thing to do to a man, but the girls were rolling on the ground. DH? Oh he's still standing there, frozen, screaming NO with the bag still open. The bag checking guy asks me if I could come collect my DH and I tell him, "I have never seen that man in my life, he's been following trying to show me what is in his bag." The bag checking guy is laughing and tells me I had better run while I still had a head start. Beetlebum (14) had to go drag him away by his arm. DH, DS and Brother decided I could carry my own stuff from here on out. Well, that certainly backfired on me, didn't it?

We saw the green army men, and got an autograph. 

Then things turned kinda ugly between Brother and his wife, who decided to fight about eating. It was getting really bad, and I ran over to 50's prime time and begged Susan (I think) if she could please get us in and could she please give us a great server because we were in the middle of a vacation breakdown. 

The kids hadn't done anything yet, we had been there standing around for over an hour, while they were getting mad at each other. I hate to get into ugly details, I want to keep this happy and funny, so I am skipping their problems.

Susan saved the day! We had Uncle Dave. I highly recommend Uncle Dave and plan on writing a glowing review about him to every Disney address I can find. Uncle Dave needs to know how he personally affected the rest of or vacation. If you have never eaten in the 50's, do it. It is a lot of fun. 

Uncle Dave would come into our "kitchen" made us set the table and remove hats. When scruffy started to protest Uncle Dave would say "Let it go". It was Uncle Dave that first called him scruffy, and we were grateful to have a name to go with the face. 

When he was leaving to get drinks he would say "Love ya, mean it." For the rest of the vacation, when my crew started to get tense, someone would raise their hand an say "Love ya, mean it". It would fix any problem we had for the rest of our stay. How can you fight with someone who yells that at you?

The food was great, and the girls & I split meals with no problem. I really wanted to try the s’mores I heard so much about, but we didn't have time. We had to be somewhere at 1:00.

So off we went.....
 

10/3/2003 ~ Don't scare me and nobody gets hurt

I had no idea I was so long winded. 

I am still telling you about day 2 of our trip and this is part 5! If youre enjoying these reports, the good news is that we stayed for nine days. If you are not enjoying these reports the bad news is we stayed for nine days.

We left MGM and crammed into Brothers van and DS's car. We were a group of 11 people at this point, and that is alot of skin-to-skin contact. 

I drive. Thats the rules. I don't care who owns the car, I'm driving, or I'm not going. Brother understands the rules and squishes into the back. DH is chanting *No skin-to-skin!* 

You see, Maine-ers aren't used to humidity in October. It is an un-natural state for us to be in. Keep your clammy, sticky skin over there.

Oh, where are we going? 

Yeah, there were a few in our group that didn't know that either.
For anyone who has a nascar loving family, or for anyone who has HEARD of nascar, this is another event I would highly recommend.

The Richard Petty Driving Experience. Its just outside of the MK parking lot. There were a couple of them that thought we were heading for the MK, it looks like you are as you drive up. Just bear to the left and *presto* there you are. You have to stop at the gate, and a man comes over to the car and says something but I couldn't hear him over the hillbilly screams coming from the back. The light turned green and I just went for it. You go in a tunnel that is acutually under the track.

When DS & I drive in tunnels, we beep our horns. Don't do that. There are two guys on the other side of the tunnel, sitting in lawn chairs, having a soda, and you WILL scare the sweet heck out of them. I am pretty sure they started off in the lawn chairs, but when we immerged from the tunnels, they were on the ground.

DH is a die-hard nascar loving fan. This was the only time during our trip he forgot about the skin-to-skin contact rules. Poor DH was sitting in the wayyyy back of the van too. We all get out and gather together behind the van, except DH. I question Brother and he is giggling.

They locked him in the van.

The van is rocking and banging around and you can hear screams comming out of it, 

**Let me out !!**

Brother was holding the power lock button. I slap Brother, collect poor DH, who at this point is purple! He shot out of that van like a roadrunner on speed. He was a blur. * Zoooom , Gone *

The rest of us enter the building and DH is already at the counter, bouncing up and down. He has the full attention of the nascar ride guy, who can't understand DH. 

He's talking like this:
" Gimmeacar,I'mgoingoutonthetrack,didyouhearthat,its anenginerevingup,whatareyouwaitingfor,getmeinacar, Igottago,ohtheregoesacar,I'mnotinit,letsgo."

Left the Xanax back in the room. It should be right next to DH's drivers licence, because I let him have it back, remember?

Lucky for him, they were only doing the ride-along. I paid for DH, DS and commando Nikki to go. They looked at DS and gave me a military discount. So, instead of $89 each it came to $78. 

Nice surprise! 

Brother's entire crew went except for pigtails. We had to wait about 1/2 hour, and I didn't think they could live that long. So they are standing around chatting with the nascar ride guy, and I am not paying attention to anything until everyone stops talking and is now staring at me.

"What??"

Em (6) is pointing at me and starts SCREAMING "She delivers pizza!!"

I point out the window and scream back "Chuck & Dave, Chuck & Dave!!"

What was this all about? Turns out the guy that will be driving them around also delivers pizza at night. They figure anyone who drives 40+ hours a week, can certainly drive in a circle without too much of a problem. The NASCAR drive guy looks at me and asks "Looking for a job?" Man, you and an entire room of people, that I don't know have discovered that I am, in fact, a "pizza dude". Yeah, I'm always looking for a job. What’s wrong with you?

So, everyone involved in the ride along gets into the fire-resistant suits. These are not to be confused with fire-proof suits. This is what the NASCAR ride guy kept telling us and all I keep thinking is if you are in a wreak out there at 165 mph, isn't the type of suit your wearing irrelevant? Shouldn't they invest in impact-resistant suits?

Finally, thank God, they are lined up waiting to get into their harnesses. They have really loud music playing right there, and it gets everyone pumped up. DS & Brother are be- bopping along with the song, while wearing their fire-resistant suits and harnesses. Harnesses restrict your movement and the straps go around between your legs. Should have seen DS's face when he realized that! Caught that moment on tape! OWCH! No more dancing for him.

Everyone gets their turn and the last to go is Commando Nikki (17). This was her punishment for the whistle earlier. She gets in and I am screaming "Careful! Fragile cargo!" They go around the track, but I didn't see them finish. The other cars come around again, but still no Nikki. Now, it's over, I am flipping out thinking they hit the wall over on the side I can't see. I grab Beatlebum (14) start shaking her and am yelling "Where is your sister??" Full panic mode. Dh comes over and says "She's right there, she got a pit stop." 

**BAM** I punched him. Right in the arm, really hard. In my mind, I reasoned, it was his fault somehow, just give me a minute to work out the details. If I wasn't in tears, I think he might have gotten mad at me. I never hit DH and I am not sure where THAT came from. I was lucky he was still soaring from his ride.

Can you believe this day is still not over, and we have a party to attend?
 

10/3/2003 ~ Wands of mass destruction

Can you believe I am still going on about our second day?

We all cram back into the vehicles, more skin-to-skin contact and head back over to POR. Let me just tell you here, POR is a great place, the rooms are a comfortable size for a family of 5, but for the sake of the other resort guests, I think the next time I will get two rooms at the All-Stars. I love the idea of two bathrooms with all these girls too. My crew is just too animated for "normal" people. 

Brother & his wife are having another problem, but we are skipping that stuff, remember?

Brother ran ahead of us to throw Em's (6) surprise in our room. We got to the door, slid the card a bunch of times, (It's me, NOT the door) and she went in first. On the bed was a gift box from Tinkerbell. 

Princess Em needed proper clothes to wear to the party. Tink must of stopped by while we were out.

Now, I have three older kids. DS Airman(19), Commando Nikki (17) & Beatlebum (14). Could someone explain to me how I could buy a wand for a small child and NOT realize that it is, in fact, a weapon? Stay out of Em's way, she now has a stick and is headed back to the parks. DS had gone to his car and came back wearing a jesters hat. "Chick magnet" He told me. I took notes on this because I felt it was important information for the DIS.

We get over to the monorail, and Em has decided that THIS is the greatest ride ever. She would just stay on it and ride around for hours, if we let her. Even tho there were a few times during our trip I thought this wouldn't be a bad idea, Disney is funny about you taking all your kids with you when you leave the monorail. 

We head over to the castle because I had dinner reservations. I made them months ago and hadn't planned on the MGM meltdown and the 50's (Yeah Uncle Dave!). 

DH had a fit. "Why are we eating again? We don't eat this much at home!" 

That's true. But I tell him we could go in for some dessert and give the kids a chance to see the castle from the inside. I'm in big trouble, he's joining forces with Commando Nikki. He's not a happy camper, so I threaten him with some skin-to-skin contact. He agrees to go in, but it had better be fast. 

"No problem," I say, "quick dessert and we are heading for Buzz Lightyear, I promise."

Good thing I didn't pinky-promise, because Brother's crew decided to have big meal.

Well, my crew couldn't sit still any longer and left me there. I was waiting for the bill. I was thinking I would just go over to the exit of Buzz Lightyear and find them as soon as they got off the ride. I paid our bill ($70 for 5 desserts) and went out the back side of the castle. There they all were. Just standing there. Apparently, they really can't function without me. I had the warm fuzzies knowing they didn't really want to leave me behind.

The MNSSHP was just great. When you first enter the turnstiles they hand you a plastic bag for your goodies. There are several candy stands set up throughout the park. They also had parades, fireworks, picture spots (photo for each ticket, we got 5!) and dance spots with hula-hoops. 

Say it with me: Fun for all!

Brother (poor Brother) and his wife were still at it (how do people get mad at Disney??), and we took their kid (18) with us. This was the beginning of his "Where's Waldo?" title. There are a lot of those family photo spots and he is in our family photos. He is also in our splash mountain photos, Rock ‘n Roll rollercoaster photos, you name the photo, and Waldo is in it. This is only the second time we had met him, but he is a very sweet guy and we didn't mind one bit. It was fun having another "newbie" in our group.

I bought Commando Nikki and Beatlebum some silly hats to wear. Nothing as cool as DS's "chick magnet" jesters hat, but they were pleased.

MNSSHP goes from 7-12. We were there at 5:00 and received wristbands when we entered the park. At 10:00 my cell rings and it is Brother. I told him we were going down splash mountain for the fourth time in a row, come on over. My phone works on splash mountain, IN THE RIDE, but not in our hotel room. I wonder if sprint can somehow work that into their commercials. No signal in the rooms. Can't hear you now. Nope.

Brother shows up, and we are all happy because he's going to come play with us. But Brother isn't going to play at all, he's going back to the room.

**Skipping this part, skipping this part, skipping this part**

I tried to explain that the park hours were shorter this time of year, and when the MK is open, you need to be there. There were two whole hours left! I also attempted to point out that Disney is giving away candy. Again, Disney is giving away candy. One more time, Disney is giving away candy. When Disney is G-I-V-I-N-G something/anything away, most especially candy, this is the place to be.

Didn't work Brother's in deep and has to go.

After two hours, we headed for the buses to head back. Em  was ticked that we weren't taking the monorail back and took it out on DS (19) by beating him with her wand, chanting "monorail" with each swing. Commando Nikki  & Beatlebum were teasing him because he was just ducking her swings. "Oh big trained killer, big military hot-shot, a little girl is attacking you, go on save yourself." 

He stops cold and says "Okay" grabs them both by the arms, and pushes them in front of the angry, Tinkerbell costume-wearing, wand swinging, monorail screaming, six year old.

Ah, my children are so well behaved.

10/4/2003 ~ Lines in Epcot

Mickey called at 7:30 and woke up Commando Nikki. When the phone rang she bolted straight up out of bed and started looking for her whistle. When I think about it now, maybe she wasn't really sleeping, because she really was out of that bed fast, looking under the bed and in the suitcases. 

"Touch the whistle, and I'll kill you." I told her. She scowled at me, put her hands on her hips, stomped her size 6 foot and said "Thats not a very Disney attitude, Mother." 

In the next breath, she was smiling and saying "Coffee?" and *swoooosh* out the door she went. Yeah, Sybil, I'd love a cup. She was back so fast, I think she had hidden a cup outside the door.

Our crew got up and took turns in the shower. Commando Nikki went first, had a three minute military shower. Then stood next to the door, yelling for the next person to "get on deck" and the one in the shower to "Get out or I will throw a rattlesnake in there". Its a good thing I love this kid. Lets just leave it at that, shall we?

We were ready to go, but Brother's crew is a bit slower than us. They wanted breakfast, so we went down to the food court and got something to eat. It doesn't take long for my crew to start getting out of hand. I can't keep them in one place for long. 

I went to the gift shop, bought 3 Pal Mickeys (for DD's) and 10 pins for DS. Brother's crew was taking waaaay to long, my crew started acting up, so I told Brother we would be at Epcot, call me when you get there.

We took the bus over to Epcot, where Em sees the monorail. "I want to go on that first!" I am trying to explain to this wacko, that the monorail is not a ride, its a mode of transportation. At the same time I am handing DH the camera bag. He literally takes a big jump backwards, puts his hands in front of his face and yells slowly, "Nooooooo!!!"

What is his problem? "Take the bag" I said. "No" He said.

He is now moving his hands and feet in some type of karate defense moves, trying to block the bag. "No, grasshopper, No!" The kids are in busting with laughter, and I am getting irritated. Then I remembered the tampons. I opened every zipper and showed him it was safe, but he still didn't trust me. 

So I stood up, loud and proud and announced, "If you don't take this bag right now, when we get home I will plant tampons everywhere. In your glove box, pockets, shoes, under the pillows..."

"Give me the bag" He GROWLED at me.

I will never understand a mans fear of feminine hygiene products. Obviously, they are not for him.

We got fast passes for test track and went over to HISTA. I was so relieved to be back to normal size. Took a few photos of the kids together, then we went to test track to have skin-to-skin contact with strangers. 

We strolled right on with our fast passes, while Em sang, "We are cutters! We are cutting everyone!" 

Stood in the small room skin-to-skin, and finally got into our car. This was the first time any of us had ridden this ride. Makes it kind of special. Test track makes you into the "crash test dummy" 

My kids describe it like this:

First there's the 'driving like mom' test (brakes & corners), then there is the 'kidney' test (bumpy roads), followed by the 'how's that sunburn' test (extreme heat) and finishing up with the 'your ninnies are showing' test (extreme cold).

Brother finally showed up at 2:00 pm. He wasn't happy. There was too much tension with that crew, so we split up for a while. Commando Nikki went on Mission space. She loved it and suffered no ill effects. But with this kid, it doesn't matter what she goes on, she has a cast-iron stomach. 

All 3 DD's went on body wars while DH & DS went into Innoventions. I sat on a bench, took a break and people watched. I hadn't really noticed a lot of people, the crowds were pretty low. Sadly, that wouldn't last throughout the vacation. If I had known then how sick of people I was going to get, I would have found something else to do.

DD's found me right where they left me. We were going over to Innoventions to collect the guys when we went past the water fountains and a ton of little kids running around in them. Em  freaked and I told her she could go over there, but to only get "a little wet".

Yeah, a six year old knows what you mean by “a little wet.” How did my kids survive me??

She booked it over there, and the fountain started spaying sideways all over her feet. The looked straight down to watch the water on her feet, and the fountain "blowed up". Head to foot, she was soaked. She was wringing out her shirt for 20 minutes.

Her father was pleased with me.

I made a quick restroom stop, and there was a lady standing there holding a little girl. I stood behind her, and she moved to the left. So, I moved to the left. She moved right, I moved right. Finally she turns to me and says, "Uh, I'm not in line." Have you ever POWER BLUSHED before? Just to make myself look a little more stupid, I say "Oh, I know, I was just practicing."

We met back up with Brother around 4:30 (so, how was Epcot Brother?) and took the bus to Wilderness Lodge to eat at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Oh GOD! Was that a good time.