10/8/2003 ~ Duck!

 
Scuba Steve and I were getting bored with the clenched-teeth, low-talking, eye-threatening discussion we were having and decided it would be best to have a 'time-out.' He and Em headed back to the room for the night, Beatlebum and Commando Nikki went back to drop the newest of their fine prizes and gifts, and I stayed outside to talk to Brother.

Brother was holding something in his hand. He told me to open my hand and he put the first pin in it. 

He explained it like this.

"The first pin is the pin of Its a Small World. Dads favorite ride. This is where we will always be closest to him. Whenever you hear the song or ride the ride, remember back to when we were kids riding it with dad and the way he sang it loud all the way through it."

I laughed and cried at the same time. Dad did sing that song a lot, but pretty loud and off- key. Its a Small World was always the first ride we had to go on when we were kids, because 'dad said so.' He would sing the song quite loud and Brother and I would try to lay flat inside the boat because singing out loud wasn't 'cool' back then.

Must be 'cool' now because I tend to do it as an adult, a lot.
 

He put the second pin in my hand.

"The second pin is the State of Maine with Mickey on it. 

The State of Maine is where we are from, but Mickey will always be our 'home'. Forever and always." I hugged him as hard as I could. I realized that this would always be my kids 'home' too. Disney will always change but it will always be here. Forever. Just like so many of our memories from when my dad was alive down to my kids today and maybe someday my grandkids.

I spent my childhood here and I will spend my golden years here too.

I just don’t think I will be as brave as the older lady that looked like my mom at the RnR earlier.

No, on second thought, yeah when I'm old and grey you'll find me singing 'Love in an elevator' at the top of my lungs on RnR with Brother. I hope to have the shoulder harness mastered by then.

Waldo came out of their room and saw the pins in my hand. 

"Are those the 'blow-up pins'?" He asked Brother.

I flipped them over but didn't find anyway to inflate them or how to detonate them. 

How do they blow-up? Should I be holding them in my bare hand?

"Yeah, got to go in the room and do some damage control now." Brother said.
 

Why, had they already blown up? They were in great shape for something so destructive.
Brother disappeared into his room while Commando Nikki, Beatlebum, Waldo and myself headed for the boat dock. I was still concerned about the 'blow-up pins' and what was going to happen. Waldo was watching me pin them to my hat.
"Yeah, my mom sure had herself a fit over those. She didn't like dad buying gifts for another woman. She ranted like a crazed lunatic for quite a while, too. Nope, she's the only woman dad should be buying gifts for according to her. " Waldo told me.
Oh! Brothers WIFE blew up, NOT the pins. Thank goodness that mystery was solved. Uh,...huh? Wait a second.
I'm the 'other woman'?
Ah, she does KNOW I am his SISTER, right?
I wasn't sure how to handle this new information. I was definitely wishing I didn't have this new information. There was just something so weird about it.
I pinned my new gifts from my BROTHER right in the front of my hat, so the whole world could see them.
Okay, I pinned my new gifts from my BROTHER to the front of my hat to bug his confused wife.
 

Commando Nikki had beaten us to the boat dock where she was making friends with the Captain of the boat. She knows that is important to be friends with the person driving you over water in Florida because of Florida’s history with alligators. Waldo & Beatlebum ran ahead of me to catch up with her to ensure none of us would be eaten that night.

I was cut off by a duck.

I could see the rest of the crew from where I was being held by said duck, I even called over and said "Duck!" but they just kept squatting down looking confused.

They were no help AT ALL.

Now in the State of Maine some people use geese as attack dogs. If you have ever been bitten by a goose, you'd have no idea why this duck was able to prevent me from joining the crew at the dock with their new friend.

I was unsure if ducks bite. Geese bite pretty hard and its like an atomic pinch from heck when they do. 

Its not something you easily get over.

I tried to reason with the duck, but he continued to hold me hostage. I told the duck that those kids were about to get on a boat and head to Pleasure Island, I had to go. The duck didn't care. He just stood in front of me wiggling his tail.

I offered the duck cash, threw a nickel over to the side of the path thinking he would follow it. The duck must have known Donald and didn't need any cash or scoffed at me because he didn't have any pockets.

The kids were getting bouncy again (ugg! I HATE that!) and wanted to know what the hold up was. Just for the record, its not TOTALLY humiliating to have to yell back "I can't get around this duck! He won't let me pass!"

Waldo saved me, because he is a proper, polite, southern gentlemen. He put up his arms and stomped his feet back to me to scare away the stupid hostage-holding duck. 

Dumb terrorist duck.

We all boarded the boat with only one other couple. The Captain announced that we would arrive at the Marketplace in about 25 minutes if we didn't run into any alligators.

What? Don't run into them! Would we sink if we did run into one and is the duck following us and oh, yeah by the way, I can't swim, what exactly am I doing on a boat?

Commando Nikki put her elbow on the rail of the boat. "Arms in! Arms in!" I yelled at her and moved over to her side of the boat to pulled her arm in almost yanking her to the floor.

I thought I had seen a show once that had alligators jumping up in the air for meat dangling from a rope.

 They could have been crocodiles, I don't know what the difference is but I am from Maine and we don't have ANYTHING that is considered a people eater.
 

Except mosquitoes.

The boat ride turned into a full-time job of protecting these ding-a-lings from having thier limbs bitten off and way too much fun teasing me about this unproven fear of jumping gators or crocs.

"Don't make me pull this boat over!" the smiling Captain told us.

I almost fainted at the thought.

We arrived at the Marketplace with everyone’s limbs still intact. I was so happy to be on solid land and farrrr away from the terrorist duck that I hugged the Captain.

I was taking the bus back.

We walked forever to the turnstile of Pleasure Island. The kids received a hand stamp on the inside of their wrist. I was carded even though I wasn't drinking. I was not allowed a wrist-stamp, old folk like myself MUST have a hand stamp and wrist band. Its really a good plan, keeps the minors from 'accidentally' being served.

When I was a minor I was 'accidentally' served quite a bit. Got it out of my system then.

I was tired and missing Scuba Steve. I felt bad NOW, which did me no good because he was across that duck/gator/croc river which I had previously dubbed unsafe. Yeah, I really showed him, I was going to have my tired butt dragged over Pleasure Island..

By teenagers who have never been 'clubbing'. That’s what they said anyway.

We picked up a few things on the way to the Comedy Connection, some t-shirts, key chains, magnets, pretty girls...

Well Waldo picked up the pretty girls.
 

During the 10 minutes we waited outside for the next show to start, there was a band playing on stage and lots of 'merry people'. I was suddenly very grateful to Waldo for being a proper southern gentleman and escorting the girls and I for the evening.

We stayed this close at all times to Waldo. This scared off his pretty girls, but he was okay about it. He's such a great guy.

We enjoyed the Comedy Connection, the kids had some sodas and pretzels I had a virgin raspberry daiquiri with whipped cream.

Have you ever picked up a cup you thought was a lot lighter than it really is? I wasn't paying attention and the cup slipped from my hand, hit the table and sprayed whipped cream all over me and Beatlebum, who screamed.

Okay, the comedians are over there. Nothing to see here.

After the show, I was dragged over to the Surf club. Waldo & I air-guitared with pool sticks the Metalica song 'Enter Sandman' to the embarrassment to the girls. Waldo was impressed that I knew the song, you know, someone MY age knew a Metallica song.

No, Scuba Steve knew the Metallica song, I had only heard it 10,000 times over the years.

We headed outside for the new years party, and missed it. There was a very pretty nurse walking around with syringes filled with Jello shots and for some reason the kids wanted me to drink one really bad. Waldo kept trying to put $5.00 in my hand to buy one. Beatlebum and Commando Nikki, who was holding a camera, were on each side of me begging me to drink one.

Seriously, peer pressure? Are you kidding me?

I apologized to the pretty nurse and sent her on her way explaining to her I was afraid of needles and would have no use for her services.

I had to drag those kids to the bus. They didn't want to leave the big-time fun we were having clubbing.

 I was ready to go back and kick the heck out of the terrorist duck and find out what Scuba Steve did with his evening.

He spent it sleeping. Yep, I really showed him, I did.

It wasn't until the next morning that I found out about the separation.

10/9/2003 ~ More lessons to learn

I had only seen Commando Nikki sleep once and that was on the monorail five days ago. She's just always wide awake in Disney, ready to go, blowing that stinking whistle.

Scuba Steve and Em were up early. They had gotten plenty of sleep the night before while I was being trapped by a terrorist duck and peer pressured in Pleasure Island by the other ones. 

Beatlebum and I were the 'difficult ones' to get up, moaning and groaning making the death threats.

My arms were soar from dragging Commando Nikki and Waldo to the bus stop by their arms the night before. They weren't finished 'clubbing' and fought me all the way to the bus. Beatlebum will just follow me anywhere, she loves her mom.

While I was receiving my mandatory morning cup of coffee from Commando Nikki, Scuba Steve looked me and asked, "Do you know where my lighter is?"

Translation: "Are we still mad at each other, because I don't want to be." 

My answer was, "Yeah, in your hand, wolf boy. You need to shave." Translation: "We're good, I'm over it and I'm sorry."

Scuba Steve and I went to sit outside to think about what we are were going to do that day, while the girls were getting showered and ready. Commando Nikki was not pleased with us because we should have had that figured out last night.

Scuba Steve and I were having an eye-fight last night; we weren't planning anything except ways to torture each other.
 

Epcot was out because it was closing early for a media event and we weren't invited. That was going to push people into MK. I knew it would, I did my research on the Dis before I left Maine. So, MK was out. I wanted to try again to see Fantasmic so we were going to go to MGM later in the day.
Brother came out of his room to join us. He asked us what our plans were for the day. Typhoon Lagoon was looking pretty good.

 "Perfect!" He said, "She wants to go sunbathing today, we'll met you there."

Great see you in four hours. You and the confused wife of yours.

Commando Nikki came outside to finalize the day’s events. Scuba Steve and I knew she wasn't happy that valuable time had been wasted with the showers and getting dressed to go to a water park.

There are showers at the water park according to her; you can even go in your pajamas as an extra time saver.

Ah, its one thing to go to the food court in blue duck pajamas, it is quite another thing to board a bus in them.

We were inside our room packing supplies for Typhoon Lagoon when Brother knocked at the
door. “You forgot something out here.” He said to me and tried to hand me some kind of strange praying-mantis looking florescent green bug. The color threw me off because I started to put my hand out for it to examine it closer and in a split second realized what it was because it wiggled.

ACK!! It wiggled!!
 

I was trying to slam the door on him to get away from him and his creepy, crawly wiggling friend when I tripped backwards over the trundle bed, took out Em on the way, and landed on my butt. I was using my feet to try to close the door screaming to Scuba Steve to save me.

He didn’t.

He loves me, he means it.

I threatened Brother with tampons to get him and his wiggly friend out of my room and I returned Em to her original upright standing position. Em wanted to know what a tampon was and why it caused Scuba Steve to run from the room, screaming.

Remember guys, you have to FIND bugs; I can BUY tampons by the truckload. I win.

We successfully made it the bus stop without any terrorist duck interference which I was grateful for. 

When we boarded the bus, Commando Nikki pointed out the fact that the driver was wearing his pajamas, ‘why couldn’t we? Think of the time we would save’.

Uh, no dear, the drivers’ uniforms are purple pants. Those are not his pajamas.

After some lovely skin-to-skin contact with strangers we arrived at Typhoon Lagoon. The selling points of Typhoon Lagoon for us were the shark-swimming tanks and the wave pool.

We really like the wave pool.
 

One odd thing I noticed was each time the wave pool made that big whoosh sound to start the wave, lots of people scream like they are on TOT.

It’s just a whoosh sound. I ask you, why do people scream at that? The wave barely started. And they do it every time.

Pay attention the next time you go. It’s really weird.

I didn’t go above my waist. Well, I couldn’t go above my waist, I’d have drowned. There were some interesting lessons learned that day. The only real lesson learned is one learned the HARD way.

Lesson one of Typhoon Lagoon: If you can’t go underwater without holding you nose, do not stand directly in front of an oncoming wave. Gallons of water will be driven forcefully up your nostrils.

Lesson two of Typhoon Lagoon: It is funny to have your crew stand up to their waist with their backs to the on coming wave to take a picture when you first arrive. The picture you get of their screaming faces is one you will cherish a life time. (*pending photo*)

Lesson three of Typhoon Lagoon: It is not a good idea to face your spouse and have your head directly in front of your spouses head during an oncoming wave. Your heads will knock together.

Lesson four of Typhoon Lagoon: Attempting to throw a six year old into an oncoming wave will get you kicked in the head.
 

Lesson five of Typhoon Lagoon: Beware! Park photographers everywhere with waterproof photo id bands so you buy the photos later!

Lesson six of Typhoon Lagoon: If you weigh over 100 lbs. your butt is going to drag on the ground when the family raft ride comes to an end.

Lesson seven of Typhoon Lagoon: The only way to keep your bathing suit from wedging into your bum is to stay off the slide.

After learning our lessons we had worked up quite an appetite and went to the sandwich shack place for food. The only thing we ate the day before was hot dogs or turkey legs, depending on who you asked, at MGM and pretzels at Pleasure Island.

Ah, because my children require less food the closer to the equator that they get.

While we were eating I checked my cell phone to see if Brother called and he hadn’t. 

I filled Scuba Steve in on Brother’s confused wife.
 

Then Scuba Steve was confused. He thought it was a joke and sat waiting for the punch line. The girls went for a float around the lazy river and I got sick of waiting for Brother to call me so I called him.

He wasn’t coming because she changed her mind about sunbathing and decided to go back to the Marketplace instead. He was busy standing outside holding bags. He was thinking he might be holding bags at the MK gift shops a little later.

What a coincidence, we were going to the MK as soon as we left Typhoon Lagoon.

We said our love ya, mean it’s and hung up. I told Scuba Steve we were going to MK as soon as we left here. He thought we were going to MGM for Fantasmic, just shows he doesn’t pay attention.

The girls came back and we walked over to the shark tanks. Commando Nikki dropped me and Scuba Steve off in the smoking area where we found lounge chairs and had a nap.

Commando Nikki reported back that during the shark swim Em panicked half way across when she saw the sharks and was screaming through her snorkel.

Have you ever heard a snorkel scream? It makes the life guards jump in with you.

We finished up our Typhoon Lagoon day by spending 1⁄2 hour in the photo purchasing line. We ended up with a lot of waterproof photo id bands. I bought 2 packages and frames that Scuba Steve had to carry. We were leaving the next day, no more sending them back to the room. That’s a horrible feeling when you can’t do that anymore.
 

We rode the bus back to POR to drop off and pick up stuff. The girls knew we were going to
MK and when we stepped off the bus at POR they started begging us to let them go ahead to MK.

I was reluctant but Commando Nikki is almost 18 and a very responsible girl. So I let them go with the understanding that we would meet at the exit of Buzz Light-year.

Scuba Steve and I ran to the room to drop everything off and pick up the other 10 pounds of stuff we feel we MUST always carry and caught the next bus. On the way over I called Brother to let him know we were on our way to MK. We met up with the girls at the exit of Buzz light-year and waited for Brother to call and let me know he arrived.

Ah, yeah, Brothers confused wife changed her mind again. She was heading for MGM instead.
 

10/9/2003~ Bunching up with strangers

When Scuba Steve and I arrived at MK and went through the turnstiles, I told him he needed to rent a stroller for Em. I saw how Em was bowlegged walking behind Commando Nikki when they got on their bus. There was a small souvenir shop next to the stroller rental and I was headed in there.

Scuba Steve was following me. I stopped and told him again that he needed a stroller for Em. He continued to follow me. “What are you doing? Go get a stroller.” I told him. He didn’t think we should be pushing an empty stroller around, because what would people think?

What would people think? Ah, that you have a child that requires a stroller maybe?

I told him I would put the camera bag in the stroller and he could push that around.

He got funny about that. It was somehow worse to be pushing around a camera bag in a stroller than to be pushing an empty stroller. Now people would either think we lost our child, OR that we were SO lazy that we had to rent a stroller to push around a camera bag.

I told him if it made him fell better, I would be happy to squeeze my butt in the stroller with the camera bag and he could push me. He thought that was a pretty good plan; however HE wanted to be the one in the stroller.
 

The scary thing is I actually thought that sounded pretty funny and was thinking about DOING it.
I think I had too much water driven up my nostrils at Typhoon Lagoon.
He did finally go rent his poor ‘rashy’ daughter a stroller while I went and made friends with the souvenir shop CM. He asked me if we were there to see the premier of ‘Wishes.’

Oh, forgot about that! I knew Epcot closed early for a media event that they didn’t invite US to, and that because of that people would be driven to MK. I had completely forgotten about ‘Wishes’ and that had to quadruple the amount of people I thought were going to be in MK.

I was so right. There were people everywhere. I personally have been to Disney 17 times over my lifetime, but I had never seen so many people in MK in my life. There were people in huge bunches around the map stands, crowding into city hall, jammed around pin carts, squashed into gift shops, mobs of people in the streets, just everywhere.
 

The really great thing, nobody seemed to have a sad face on. On our walk to the exit of Buzz I saw kids smiling at their dads for buying them a balloon, couples with their arms around each other to have their photos in front of the castle, grandparents holding hands walking down Main Street, people licking ice cream as it melted down the cone, parents resting on a bench while their kids visited the characters, laughing, smiling, happy people every place I looked.

Tinkerbell must have been working overtime.

Scuba Steve & I found the girls right away at the exit of Buzz and we weren’t expecting that. They hadn’t gone on any rides because of the lines for every ride were unbelievable and
my kids have barely ever stood in a line. They weren’t sure of the line standing procedure.
We don’t stand in lines, we just don’t. I could never keep the crew under control for that long. I can barely keep them calm on a bus, never mind standing in a line.

I called Brother and told him to avoid MK, head for MGM. That’s when I found out they were already headed to MGM so he could stand outside gift shops and hold bags there.

I let it go. I kept my mouth shut.

The crew and I gave up any hope for MK. I told them in a few hours as soon as ‘wishes’ ended all these people would be heading to the same buses we were.
 

That’s a lot of skin-to-skin contact. The horror!

The girls were whining about being hungry again, even though I fed them a meal earlier that day. We really wanted to go to Peco Bills but the crowd fighting with a stroller is just too far out of our league so we went to the closest place to Buzz, Cosmic Rays.

Cosmic Rays was packed with happy people.

Commando Nikki Beatlebum and I stood in line to order food while Em and Scuba Steve parked the stroller in the stroller parking lot. I really didn’t think we had a chance of getting a table with all the people in there and was preparing the crew for the possibility of eating standing up. We figured if we only bought one drink, we could pass it around the circle while we took turns eating. Kind of a chew & hold, take a drink, pass & bite.

It could have worked.

But, it happened to be a very ‘happy people’ day in Disney. As we started walking into the dining room near the piano-playing alien ah,....thing there was an older gentleman and his family who stopped us and offered us their table. He was even using his napkin to wipe it up for us.
 

This was very Disney-like behavior.

Commando Nikki was pleased. Disney-like behavior is very important to her. She was constantly pointing out different people and if they were conducting themselves in the proper Disney-like behavior. Commando doesn’t mean just sucking every second that the parks are open, it means behaving with a live-out-loud, play nice and have fun attitude.

We finished eating, sitting down with own personal beverages, returned the table offer to another family and thought we’d try to go on the Haunted Mansion. Commando Nikki, Beatlebum and I waited outside the door while Scuba Steve & Em went to gather the stroller from the stroller parking lot.

He was gone so long; I thought he went back to Maine without us.

When they finally did appear I asked Scuba Steve what happened, because I KNEW something happened. Apparently there was a pile up in the stroller parking lot and it was quite a struggle first finding it because they all look alike then getting it out around the pile up. There were a lot of staring people, but no helping people.

I was glad I missed it.

On the very long and slow walk to the HM we stopped and took some silly photos. The kind of photos you take of your kids standing in front of signs, rides and other stuff. There were a lot of people doing the same thing and everyone was being great about taking turns. My girls decided to make a game out of it by assuming the leaning forward, crooked arms, ready position to wait for other people to get their pictures.
 

As soon as other people got their pictures and it was our turn Commando Nikki would hop up, swing her arm foward yelling ‘GO, GO, GO!’ to Beatlebum and Em who would run in front of what ever it was, assume an odd position, yelling ‘POSE, POSE, POSE!’ while I took the picture and OUT! OUT! OUT! then run back to me.

The entire process takes about 5 seconds.

We had a lot of people doing the same thing after that. It was fun. Youre going to do it now, aren’t you?

It was taking us forever to get across the park through Fantasyland. Fantasyland seems to have a gigantic stroller magnet under it because that’s where they all were. We saw even more strollers being drawn to it.

At one point Scuba Steve and Em got ahead of the rest of us and when Commando Nikki spotted him she would run up to him arms and legs swinging, screaming ‘Daddy, daddy I found you!’ That turned out to be a good way to keep Scuba Steve from wandering off.
 

We got lucky when we finally got to HM. The line went from 30 minutes to nothing just as we were walking over to it. Em isn’t a big fan of HM because at the end of the ride there was a ghost in our car and he was always sitting on her. It really made her mad.

We were pleased that we got on HM and figured it was time to get to MGM. 

It was tricky staying together heading down Main Street and one lady said something nasty to us about having such a big kid in a stroller. Beatlebum heard it and was a little upset about it. I told her the lady didn’t know about the ‘rash’ and if she did she probably would have been more understanding.

One person said something nasty in a park packed with 10,000 people. Pretty good Disney day, I think.

There was some trouble with the monorail on the way to TTC. Not a people problem, an Em problem. There were still zillions of people packing into the park for ‘wishes’ and very few leaving. Commando Nikki was holding Em’s hand on the way down the ramp towards the buses and suddenly Em ripped away, nearly knocking Commando Nikki over backwards and ran back up to the monorail. She was trying to hide behind people to get back on.

I honestly was stunned. This is not something Em would do, ever. 

I didn’t realize how much that kid loved the monorail. Scuba Steve yelled for her to come back and she did for a second then changed her mind and ran back up the ramp. He had to chase after her to get her to come back.

It was not like her at all.

I think she had too much water driven up her nostrils at Typhoon Lagoon. 

I didn’t call Brother until we got to the turnstiles at MGM.
 

10/9/2003 ~ Brother, where are you?

 
If Brother’s confused wife felt she had to keep Brother & I apart, she was in a lot worse shape than I thought. It was hard not to give Brother a hard time about his life, but it was HIS life and if he wanted to try to make her happy then it’s really none of my business. It wasn't me she was making mad, it was Brother.

I was willing to follow him all over the 47 square miles of Disney World. It was the world largest game of hide and seek.

I called Brother as soon as we stepped off the bus at MGM. I wasn’t giving his confused wife a head start again. By the time the crew & I got through the turnstiles Brother and Waldo were standing there waiting. They were so happy to see us that I thought they would drop to their knees and cry. Brother hugged me hard enough to crack a rib.

Apparently there had been a great deal of un-Disney-like power-complaining and they needed a break.
Waldo greeted Beatlebum with a pinch, and then held out his arm for his return pinch because he is a polite southern gentleman. Beatlebum rolled her eyes at him because she had to explain the rules of ‘pinch-fighting’ again to Waldo. Beatlebum power-pinched Waldo as a lesson NOT to LET someone pinch him.
 

He’s a fast learner.
That bruises easily.

Brother was pushing an empty wheelchair because his confused wife decided she needed to go in the gift shop on their way over to meet us. I guess she thought if Brother didn’t have her in the chair he wouldn’t leave the gift shop and he’d wait for her.

She was not only mistaken, she was pretty mad when we went back to get her. I was pretty sure I heard her growl when she got back in the wheelchair. I nudged Brother and asked him why we came back to get her and he said;

“Three people to the left.”

‘Three people to the left’ was something we used to say when we were teenagers and wanted to lose our parents in MK. You wait until your family is in the middle of a fairly good crowd and just step three people to the left. 

Presto! You’re free.
 

** Note to teenagers: Don’t try this at home; you WILL make your parents very mad. This could earn you the mother of all sunburn slaps. **

We were doing it to Brothers confused wife so we could get on RnR without having to listen to her complain on the way. She thought we were heading for another gift shop.

Isn’t it always better to avoid the complaining if you can?

When we got to the intersection of RnR & TOT, found a good sized crowd forming for Fantasmic, Brother pointed his wife’s wheelchair back down the street towards the bright lights of a gift shops and we all stepped three people to the left.

If you do the math it was really more like 21 people to the left, but you get the idea.

Brother and I just had to ride RnR one more time before we left. We knew it was the last time we would be in MGM so it was now or never. We all walked very quickly stiff-legged and stiffed-armed to the entrance of RnR so to not upset any CM’s. When we got into the holding room before Steven Tyler’s studio we were told there would be a small wait before we could go in.

I knew what happened, someone else pulled the shoulder harness down too hard like I did and the CM’s were doing their secret hand code calling him an idiot.

We enjoyed our last ride on RnR, looping under the Hollywood sign with Brother & I singing at the top of our lungs, Em screaming ‘ya-hoo’ and Scuba Steve puckering.

I bought the ride photos but I did it quickly, I didn’t want to miss Fantasmic again. This was the last chance we had to see it. We were lucky that there were two shows that night and the CM outside directing people-traffic told me the first show didn’t fill up and he was positive that this one wouldn’t either.

Yeah, that’s because everyone was bunched up in MK for the premier of ‘Wishes’. I bet there wasn’t one stroller left in the stroller garage.

People began group-lining up for the next show. There were small groups of people in a nice line heading down the street. That makes one very wide line and very easy to step ‘three people to the left’, which Waldo did and we lost him. He apparently he never went further than ‘three people to the left’ because he just showed up later and knew everything that had happened.

Sometimes Waldo just doesn’t understand our little games.

Brother’s wife got out of the wheelchair and was looking around for something sweet. We were standing 10 feet from an ice cream cart, but that wasn’t good enough; she needed something ‘sweeter.’ She knew of a chocolate shop not far and tried to convince Brother to go with her to buy some candy. Brother got upset and tried to get her to see the group-line forming behind us.

Brother ended up following her to the chocolate shop to keep her from throwing a temper tantrum in front of the kids. He was getting a little LOUD himself because I think he had enough of her games.

The group-line started moving about 10 minutes after they left and we had the empty wheelchair. This was freaking me out because we had never pushed a wheelchair around Disney and I was terrified that we would be ushered to the wheelchair reserved area and take up room from someone else and their family that needed the area. I had no idea if they had a stroller parking lot that we could dump it in and was thinking about leaving it right there in the street. I went down the group-line up a little bit and found a family that was pushing a stroller to find out if there was a stroller parking lot ahead.
 

There is. They really need to mark that on the maps.

Em got in the wheelchair because her ‘rash’ was acting up and we can’t be pushing an empty stroller never mind a whole wheelchair. She rode in it until we were down the pathway and in the stroller-parking lot. I called Brother thinking they had to be right behind us, not far.

They were in the candy store that is at the END of the street. Brother was standing outside watching the end of the group-line go in the entrance.

Well, thank God she got her candy.

The crew and I were heading to the stadium and stopped at the soda & beer stand which is located right next to the light up toys stand. I got the girls a soda and Scuba Steve a beer and we were chatting with the CM’s working the stands. They were very nice and telling Commando Nikki about the college programs offered at Disney. We were talking for a few minutes when someone came up behind me and pushed me over sideways.

I looked at the soda & beer stand CM and told him I had just been assaulted by someone I didn’t recognize. He looked similar to someone I grew up with but I just couldn’t place him.
Brother shoved me sideways again harder and almost knocked me over. 

Love ya, mean it.

Scuba Steve had made a break for the smoking area with the girls. Brother, his confused wife and I followed them over. While Brother, Scuba Steve & I were talking the girls were running for a trash can to spit something out.

Problem girls?
 

Brother’s wife had given them some bizarre chocolate and they hated it. She got upset with them for spitting it out. Commando Nikki got upset with her because they didn’t want it in the first place. The girls took it because Brother’s wife was getting mad at them and forced them to take it.

That’s what peer-pressure will get you, a bad taste in your mouth every time.

We decided to get into our seats for the show with Commando Nikki leading the way. We were pretty close to the front and center when we turned around and saw Brother and his wife were gone.

That was fine; at least we were finally in the same park.

Fantasmic was outstanding with great music, the walls of water with movies playing on them, the wall of fire from the dragon, the character boat with the signing and dancing. I missed most of it because I went down the bleachers a few seats ahead of us, turned back around and took pictures of the girls’ wide-eyed open mouthed faces.

I’ll catch it the next time we go.

The show ended and we made our way up the bleachers. At the top we found a very angry Brother. I tried to shrug it off for his sake, but he was really irritated with his wife at that point.

Yeah, know how you feel.
 

The girls had wanted to buy charm bracelets since the first day. I was afraid if we didn’t do that then, they wouldn’t get them at all because we were leaving the following day.

Another terrible feeling right behind not being able to send your packages back to your room is awful feeling knowing it’s time to tie up your loose end stuff while you still have the chance.

We were heading to the gift shops right on the corner heading to the exit to get the girls their bracelets.

Much to everyone’s surprise Brother’s wife finally had enough shopping and wanted to go straight back to the room.

“Raise your hand if you did not see that coming.” Scuba Steve said to the crew loud enough for Brother’s wife to hear it. 

Nobody did.

Brother and I said our ‘Love ya, mean it’s, see you back at the room’ and they left.

Scuba Steve found himself a bench to sit on in front of the gift shop. Waldo appeared out of nowhere and sat down next to him. Scuba Steve did that raised eyebrows, eyes wide open shocked look at him.

Brother and his wife forgot something. Waldo!

“Where have you been?” Scuba Steve asked him. His answer was “‘Three people to the left’ until it was safe.”

Waldo was a very bright boy.
 

The girls were picking out the charms for their bracelets. Em wanted a monorail charm but we couldn’t find one. Em also had about 20 charms at $3.00 each and I had to get her to put a lot of them back. I let her spell out her name and put on a few princesses.

I hope who ever found her bracelet that she lost on the way back to POR was also named Emily.

We were in the gift shop for so long they started closing the store around us. Commando Nikki was stalling because she knew when we left to go back to POR we had to pack. She stood around talking to the CM’s in there for another 15 minutes about the college program.

Commando Nikki was deep into packers’ denial.

Scuba Steve and I had to drag her by each arm out of MGM. She kept trying to sit down on her butt because she didn’t want to leave and she sure as heck didn’t want to pack. Waldo was busy fighting off Em who was swinging her bag at him because she wanted to go back to POR by the monorail.

Em fell asleep on the bus ride back leaning on Waldo. 

Bag swinging takes a lot out of a kid.

When we got back to POR, Brother was outside waiting. He had the same surprised look on his face as Scuba Steve did when Waldo came walking up with us. Brother looked at his door and back at Waldo like he could have sworn he just saw him or something.

“Lose someone Brother?” I asked him. Waldo was always so quiet and cooperative that he would be easy to overlook with all that complaining going on. 

I believe if we were driving back to Maine instead of flying Waldo would have popped out of our backseat around Pennsylvania.

Brother knew that the MK was the plan for our last day. We start and finish our vacation in MK. It’s our hello and good-bye to Disney World. We made plans to have our pictures taken in the wooden shackles in liberty square and for our last ride on IASW.

Then we all went into our rooms to pack and prepare for Brothers wife’s grand finale.

10/10/2003Brother’s wife’s final performance

The final morning of our vacation I know we were all laying there awake before Mickey called us. 

There was another round of African barking spider attacks from Em’s side of the room. 

Em’s a bit gassy early in the morning, which caused Commando Nikki to start stifling a giggle that was shaking their bed. The more she shook the bed, the more that Beatlebum would say ‘shhhhh’.

I heard Commando Nikki whisper to Beatlebum, “The second wave has been launched Captain.”

The phone rang and nobody would move to answer it. It was kind of sad to hear it ring for the last time and I think that Commando Nikki wanted to believe if we didn’t answer it we wouldn’t have to leave. 

Commando Nikki was also irritated that we were leaving earlier than we ever had. Normally we stay at least 10 days in Disney and 2 days in Universal.

I made the plans around what Brother and his wife could do, which was nine days in October instead of twelve days in December that I had originally planned. Scuba Steve was really upset about it, my mistake, it will never happen again. He was even more upset when he figured out it was only Friday and we were leaving while we still had two days still off from work.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

The girls were getting ready and finishing their packing while Scuba Steve and I went outside to visit Brother. 

Brother, Waldo and Scruffy were loading the rented van. Scruffy had bought 4 tires from the Richard Petty Driving Experience while Brother and Waldo had taken out not six, not seven, BUT EIGHT double wide wheelchair-bag filled loads of stuff to re-sell back home to the van plus luggage for four people.
 

Well, if I had seen how much stuff his wife was buying I could have told them that Disney is happy to mail stuff to your home for you. Brother told me that they were all going to have to ride home with a ton off stuff piled in their laps. Well, everyone except Brother who would be going the driving.
That could make for an uncomfortable ride. Guess they should have spent less time shopping.

Brother and I had a good giggle over that one.

They were still trying to figure out a way to get everything in the van, saying it was too bad they couldn’t tie things to the roof. I volunteered the bungee cords from my truck and started to walk off. 

Brother asked me how I got my truck on the plane.

I stopped dead in my tracks and thought, "Oh, yeah. I forgot the State of New Hampshire owned my truck now because I sure couldn’t remember where I parked it."

Gee, I wonder how far I would have walked before I remember that.
 

Ah, where was I going?

Scuba Steve & I went back to our room to finish our moving out. While we were packing and
celebrating the suitcase with the suitcase in it we could hear the muffled argument next door. 

I turned up the TV that was playing the Disney channel to drown it out because it started to get real loud.

Scuba Steve was rearranging things into different suitcases and pulled out a brand new 4 pack of ladies panties that I had bought the morning of our trip.

Now I had to explain to my darling husband why I had been wearing his ‘panties’ when I had my own. The problem was that I couldn’t explain it. I had no idea why HE could find them but I couldn’t. 

That had NEVER happened before. When he found them he said they weren’t in the underwear compartment of the suitcase so I told him he better check and see if the cordless phone from the house was in there.

You can never tell.

The muffled argument was back in full swing next door while we were finishing up. I heard the door slam and what ever the problem was then was at least over.

The girls decided it was safe to take their luggage outside the door and wait. I could hear Commando Nikki outside mad over something, but figured I’d deal with that as soon as I was done. Scuba Steve gathered up the rest of the luggage and took it outside while I checked the room to see if anything got let behind. I checked everything in the room, between the sheets, inside the pillowcases, in all the drawers, EVERYTHING several times. I was on my third round of ‘under the beds check’ when Brother came in the room.
 

I could tell by the look on his face there was a BIG problem. I asked him if they were about ready to go to MK. We had to go say our good-bye to Disney, ride IASW and have our picture taken in the Liberty Square shackles. I have one from when we were kids and I needed this one as adults to go with it.

Brother wouldn’t be going to MK. Seems his confused wife had other plans. Brothers’ wife wanted to spend one precious day with Waldo and Scruffy and go to the marketplace to pick up a few things she overlooked. She had also decided they would be spending the weekend in Florida after all.

THAT’S what Commando Nikki was outside yelling about, that we arranged our vacation to accommodate them and now they were talking about staying. I figured she was just out there having a sister problem.

That could’ve gotten very ugly.

Brother said that HE decided that they would be spending some quality time with Waldo and Scruffy, you bet. In a van headed for Tennessee. He knew with the way she was behaving she would ruin our last day for everyone. He didn’t want to do that to the kids. I didn’t want that either and I knew how mad Brother was that he had to go. There was no way he was spending another minute with her in Florida and was at the point that he wouldn’t even plan to go to the grocery store with her back home, never mind the Marketplace.

I was heartbroken, I wasn’t supposed to be saying good-bye to him for several hours, and we had things to do. I thought they all lived in the same state, why couldn’t they get together and spend time when they got back home?

That was what had made Brother so mad, they not only lived in the same state, they lived
in the same house.
 

OH!

Yeah, GOOD PLAN put your confused wife in the van; pile a bunch of really heavy stuff nice and high on her, and go back home NOW. I couldn’t deal with it anymore, wouldn’t deal with it anymore and I wasn’t putting my family though that on their last day.

I didn’t want their final memory of Disney World to be their mother being thrown out of MK because she finally snapped and beat the selfish out of someone sitting in a wheelchair.

Brother and I were sitting on the bed when we heard his wife calling for him. My stomach hurt from holding in tears because I really didn’t want to make it harder for Brother than it already was. We talked about coming back to Disney next year, minus the wife, if the wife was even around then which was unlikely. My instructions were to call the day before we left Maine, Brother and Waldo would step ‘three people to the left’ and meet us here.

Brother and I went out to where everyone else was; the girls were hugging Waldo and saying their good-byes while Brothers’ wife stood there with her arms crossed. Brother shook Scuba Steve’s hand and turned to hug me.
 

We hugged and cried, but we had a plan and this wouldn’t be our last trip to Disney. This was our test run. Everything was going to be okay, but I still hurt for Brother.

Brother just glared at his wife who walked over to me and said “I bought you something.” and put a pin in my hand.

Scuba Steve, Brother and I almost died from shock. It was a ‘best friends’ pin. I didn’t know what to say without being hateful, so I kept my mouth shut. Brother helped me out and said “Hey, now YOU have a pin to trade.” She handed a second pin to Scuba Steve; it was a V pin, for the first initial of his first name.

Ah, that’s Del, not Vel. Nice to meet you.

So, what do you say to that, ‘Oh, thanks that makes up for everything?’

Scuba Steve and I were afraid of causing a scene right there in front of the girls if we tried to hand them back to her, I think it was because we are little unsure of her instability so we just smiled and said ‘Ah, Thanks?’ and left it at that.
 

Brother’s wife marched off to the van, I think because she was upset we didn’t give her something. Who knows or cares? Bye-bye for her.

Pack her in the van good and tight with the five figures worth of stuff she just had to buy.

Scruffy came over to shake our hands, said something that we were afraid to respond to, but still did our squinty-eyed, mouth opened, head tilting, translation faces. Scruffy smiled and went in the opposite direction of the van.

I still have no idea what became of Scruffy, never saw him again.

Waldo was doing the ‘I don’t know which direction I need to go in’ dance stepping back and forth between Scuba Steve and I and the direction of the van where his mother went stomping off to. 

Waldo wanted to stay with us and we wanted him to stay, but that couldn’t happen. I felt so bad for Waldo. He ran to me, hugged me very hard saying “Thank you, thank you”, turned around and disappeared around the corner to the van.

Don’t worry Waldo, ‘Three people to the left’ in one year. Bye sweetie.

Brother hugged me again and we said our good-byes. The girls had tears running down their faces because they didn’t want him to leave. He hugged them and told them he loved them.

He stood up and said to me ‘Love ya, mean it’ and walked off around the corner whistling the song ‘It’s a small world’, from dads’ favorite ride in Disney.

Bye Brother, Love ya, mean it, ‘Three people to the left’ in one year.

10/10/2003 ~ The final day.

I was trying NOT to cry when Brother left as we dragged our 1⁄4 ton of stuff to the lobby, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Em rubbed my leg and said “I know Wobin, I miss my brother too.” 

When she said that, I really started to cry. Scuba Steve hugged me and told me we would just start over saving again and come back next year.

And stay as long as we want to and NOT leave on a Friday when we still had two days off from work. He thought we were leaving early because I had to work on Saturday.

Ah, yeah, I’d leave Disney a day early to go home and deliver pizza. Couldn't let people go hungry, could I? I sunburn slapped Scuba Steve just for being that dumb.

Commando Nikki, Beatlebum & I went to the front desk to check out while Scuba Steve and Em sat in front of the TV in the lobby with the luggage. Chuck & Dave were on TV and Em was very excited about that. She tried to get some other kids in the lobby to come over and see Chuck & Dave in action.
Beatlebum buried her head in my shoulder and asked me to please buy some Chip & Dale videos for Em before we ended up banned from Disney forever.
 

After I checked us out and paid the bill, (ho-my-gawd, how many ride photos did I buy?!?) we dropped our luggage off in the luggage holding room. Commando Nikki didn’t want to waste what little time we had left riding a bus so she had already called for a cab and was holding the door open when I turned around.

Did you know you can save 4-5 valuable minutes by cab?

We climbed into our waiting cab and Em started shivering. “B-b-boy, its-s p-pretty c-c-chilly in here.” 

The driver had the air conditioner on full-blast and it was cold. For the first time the girls didn’t scream about skin-to-skin contact.

When I had spoken to my mom back in Maine earlier that morning, she was scrapping frost off her windshield. I was more than happy to be in a chilly cab.

We arrived at TTC for our final monorail ride. Em wasn’t happy to hear that it was the last ride and started to cry. I told her it wasn’t her last ride forever, we’d be back. When we stopped to get off she hugged the center bar inside the car and said “I love you monorail, I’ll see you again soon. Wobins’ bringing me back at Christmas next year.”
 

Yep, you bet.

Santa’s got a lot of over-time to work this year.

Scuba Steve loves the train ride around the park and we hadn’t done that yet so that’s the first place we went. He wasn’t happy when we got off at the first stop in frontier land, but we needed to get fast passes for splash mountain and the girls were ‘starving to death and wasting away to nothing’ according to them so we were going to Peco Bills too.

I don’t think we ever ate so fast in our lives. 

Commando Nikki inhaled her food and started throwing stuff away before we were even finished. Scuba Steve had his sandwich half way
into his mouth when she started grabbing for it to throw it away because OBVIOUSLY he was finished and we had to go.

Scuba Steve gave her the power-pinch of a lifetime. You just don’t take food out of a mans mouth. 

EVER!

I wanted the girls to see the Country Bears Jamboree and we had time before our fast passes for Splash Mountain were due. This is where I discovered either I or Scuba Steve were in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. He asked me what this ride was going to do.

What are you talking about? This is a show, not a ride and we have been here before. I see the bears every time I come to Disney. You have been to Disney with me before; we got married here, so I know we saw the bears.
 

It was Scuba Steve I married here, wasn’t it?

While I was insisting he had been here before and he had gone crazy, and he was insisting that he hadn’t and I was the crazy one, I could see out of the corner of my eye a little girl about 7 yrs. old and her brother about 5 yrs. old were standing at the pressed penny machine begging their mom for some quarters. Mom was fresh out of quarters.

Commando Nikki taught me something that day.

She went into the camera bag and took out enough quarters for both of them to get all three pressed pennies. Commando Nikki leaned over and said something into the little girls’ ear. The little girl ran back to her mom, all excited jumping up and down, saying “Mommy, that girl loves me and its Disney day today!” The mother tried to give Commando Nikki the dollars in exchange for the quarters and Commando Nikki said “Nope, enjoy the pixie dust.”

I learned that if you’re not looking, Commando Nikki will rob your camera bag and give away all your quarters.

No, I’m kidding.
 

I learned that I have the coolest kid in the world. She said to the little girl “Love ya, mean it and have a Disney day.”

“Got to drill it in them while their young.” She told me.

When we went inside to visit the bears, the girls were stomping their feet and clapping their hands and Scuba Steve suddenly remembered Max the moose head on the wall.

He was the crazy one not me.

I already knew that and am relieved that it was Scuba Steve I married after all.

We left the bears and went on Splash Mountain because it is always a good idea to get your jean shorts soaked before you get on a plane and fly to a state that is scrapping frost off their windshields.

Why ease yourself back into the cold weather if you don’t have to?

We made one more trip on HM just to make Em mad by having the ghost sit on her, because that was as close as I was going to get to IASW and then it was time to go.

**SOB**

Commando Nikki & Beatlebum stood in front of the partners’ statue looking back down into Main Street. They just stood there with their eyes closed, holding hands listening to the music and smelling the sweet smells that always linger on Main Street.

They were going to cry, so I was going to cry and Scuba Steve hates to be around a lot of crying, emotional girls, it makes him nervous so I had to do something.

Standing in front of the partner’s statue, looking down into Main Street to the left on the corner is the Hershey ice cream store. I personally have proven that it is impossible to cry and walk while eating a hot fudge sundae waffle cone.

While we were walking to the buses for the last time, Em stopped, turned around and yelled back to the MK “Good-bye Tinkerbell! I’ll miss you!”

Commando Nikki & Beatlebum both yelled back “Love ya, Mean it!”

Okay, you can cry while walking and eating a hot fudge sundae waffle cone, but at least you have a napkin handy and can hide behind the cone.

This was the only time during the entire trip my crew sat quietly and behaved while we were on the bus heading to POR for the last time.

Where the magic was definitely over.

10/11/2003 ~ The humor in it

The crew and I arrived via bus back at POR at 4:30 pm. We wanted to be sure not be late for our limo that was going to be there at 4:45 pm sharp. That’s what they told me, be there on time because THEY would be and that’s what I believed.

I AM an idiot, remember?

At 5:00 pm I had taken a Xanax because I had to get on another plane and I was starting to get stressed-out because our limo still hadn’t shown up. Commando Nikki wasn’t very upset about it this time because it was okay with her if we missed our plane.

Until I informed her that we would be sleeping in the airport until there was another plane headed north and that could be the next day. There was no possible way for us to spend another day in Disney. 

Then she became unglued, stuttering & stammering like a drunken person, pacing up and down the sidewalk like the limo could be there next to the empty sidewalk and somehow we had over looked it.

I handed her over to Scuba Steve to deal with while I called Star Taxi/ Limo. The lady on the other end of the phone said, “Yeah, got your reservation right here, what’s the problem?”

Ah, the fact that I don’t have of a limo, maybe? Why else would I call? Just to say Hi?
 

The girl on the phone decided I was crazy, there had to be a limo there and put me on hold, where I stayed for 15 more minutes.

Scuba Steve started to get nervous about missing our plane. He was trying to talk me into just paying for another cab and getting to the airport while the girls sat on the sidewalk with the 1⁄4 ton of luggage.
Scuba Steve wasn’t aware that I had just gotten a Xanax bravery going. I wasn’t spending more money for a ride I had already paid for. No way.

Then I went from being on hold to being hung up on.

My response to THAT was to drop to my knees with the phone held up in the air and scream
at the top of my lungs ‘NOOOOO!’ into it.

Xanax, okay?

That response attracts CM’s very quickly if you should ever need one.

A very sweet CM girl came to my rescue and said she would be happy to call Star Limo/Taxi and get our ride there right away.

She didn’t have a special hot-line phone either because they put her on hold for another 15 minutes too.

 It was then 5:30 pm and our plane was leaving at 7:00 pm. I was just about to tell the very sweet CM girl to call ANYBODY with a car that could give us a ride when she started pointing at a Star Limo/Taxi driver that had showed up.
 

He was there for a completely different family that wasn’t leaving for another half hour.
Commando Nikki went straight from being a live-out-loud, Disney-loving, pixie dust spreading sweetheart into a charging bull who just saw a red cape. She stood there ready to blow up when Scuba Steve stepped in, pushed her aside, told the driver our situation and asked him if he had any clue where our driver was.

The driver didn’t but assured us we were probably going to miss our plane.

No kidding, ya think?

Seeing where this driver had a 1⁄2 hour to kill and I had already paid for the services maybe HE could take us?

I told him if he could get us to the airport I would make it worth his while. He drove like the RnR limo, brought us directly to the curbside check in and had our 1⁄4 ton of luggage on the sidewalk in about 10 minutes.

He earned himself a $20 tip, and I suggested to him that he start working for ANY OTHER car service because I was telling 55,000 of my closest friends about this one.

And I did!
 

Love ya, mean it. How do you like me now?

The flight to our next layover was a bit crowded for me because Commando Nikki & Beatlebum had to spread out all over my folding table to do their homework. Beatlebum wanted to sit by the window and Commando Nikki was on the isle on terrorist alert. I was stuck in the middle.

I was also on terrorist alert but was checking the inside of my eyelids for leaks. There isn’t enough Xanax in this world to knock me out that much.

We arrived in Cincinnati for our layover. My crew kept asking me why we were in Cincinnati and I had no idea, but maybe it was because that was where they decided to land the plane.

They wouldn’t let me fly it, so I just went where they wanted to take me.

Scuba Steve took the girls to Cinnabons for a snack. I went and sat in the smoking area and took out my cell phone. I was running my thumb over the buttons thinking about calling my mom, when I noticed I had a voice mail.

It was from Brothers wife.

She had a lovely time, wanted me to know they arrived safely in Tennessee and couldn’t WAIT to see us again.
 

I thank God she DIDN’T say ‘Love ya, mean it.’ and spoil it for everyone.

I was still sitting there with my mouth open when Scuba Steve came back with the girls and their treats. 

I played the message for the crew and they were in as much shock as I was.

She had obviously thought she called Disney merchandise; it couldn’t have been for us.

When I spoke to Brother a few days later he told me they rode back to Tennessee packed in the van nice and tight without speaking one word to each other. Not one. No matter what she tried to say to him, he wouldn’t respond. Her phone call to me was her way of getting Brother to talk to her. ‘See, I called your sister. Everything is fine.’

She’s okay with my voice mail. She didn’t talk to me. My voice mail can be very forgiving.

We boarded our next plane for New Hampshire where I was hoping to find my truck that I had left there nine days earlier. I had no clue where I left it; I hadn’t planned on ever seeing it again.

I am glad I brought an adult with me, because Commando Nikki at least knew which lot it was in.

 After we got off our plane at 1:00 am and collected our 1⁄4 ton of luggage, we boarded the bus that takes you to the different lots around Manchester Airport. Each one of the crew was looking out a different window with their faces pushed up against the glass while I kept pushing the power-lock button to make the headlights flash so we could spot it.
 

Next time you see a parked vehicle with its headlights flashing, you’ll know the vehicle is lost. It’s probably mine. We are probably on a bus looking all over town for it.

The adult we brought along also knew enough to pack our sweatshirts for easy access once we found the truck. Commando Nikki had one ready for everyone while Scuba Steve & I walked around the truck in damp shorts and scraped frost off the windows.

Commando Nikki is handy everywhere. That one is always thinking. I need her to adopt me.

The following morning my mom came over to see the girls and their fine gifts and prizes. We showed her all the ride photos, Discovery Cove photos, and the 87 miles of video we took.

I was going through Disney depression. I felt like the entire vacation was a bust and I was a little disappointed. I had made all kinds of plans to do different things and for one reason or another they kept falling though. I felt like the kids didn’t get to do certain things, there were so many problems with Brothers’ wife, and I felt so bad for Brother. It helped to know we would be planning another trip, and with luck Chris would be able to go too.

But I really felt like this trip was a one shot thing. Chris is in the service and can get deployed at anytime. Commando Nikki will be starting college somewhere in the fall. I am really going to be lucky if we can all get together again, all six of us.
 

But I believe in the magic of Disney and I have since my dad was alive. That’s why I kept my mouth shut on so many different occasions. Kids don’t remember what they got on whatever birthday or from whom they got it from on any Christmas. 

They always remember a trip to Disney. Ask anyone who is an adult now that went to Disney as a kid.

They all remember it. Loved it or hated it, good and bad, they remember it.

Somehow it will happen, the six of us will be together again pinch-fighting, sunburn slapping and stiff-armed, stiffed-leg fast walking to the monorail in Disney again to have breakfast with Chuck & Dave.

I believe.

It was my mother who told me, “One day, you will look back on all of it and laugh. Try to find the humor in it.” It was because of her I went back through my photos and looked at the faces of my kids and the videos of them being foolish. She was right; the trip was a huge success even with all its problems.

We have some great lifetime memories.

So with my mothers’ advice I sat down at my computer to find the humor in it.

I had 55,000 close friends that needed to know what I found out. Love ya, mean it.