A Surprisingly Great Day at Epcot

Another Disneyworld post...really? You betcha! I could go on and on (and I have)! But really...how awesome is Disneyworld?

Epcot is boring - that is what I have always thought. It ended up being my boys favorite place for the whole trip!

We started the day at the Test Track - since there was nobody in line, they let us just stay on and ride a bunch of times in a row.

Then we headed for mission space. Now, I'm not much for pregnancy warnings or taking it easy when you are pregnant, but I thought this vomit inducing ride might be taking it a little far, even for me.

Luckily there is a huge indoor playground in the waiting area where Gracie was able to play while the boys went.

The boys favorite place was Innoventions. There are a bunch of free video games to play and Doug got to test drive a Segway Human Transporter (this crazy two wheeled vehicle that looks like you are standing on a push lawnmower).

There were a lot of cool interactive games to play including a video game starring the kids.

Epcot is trying to be more child friendly, so they had all of these craft stations located throughout the park. They also introduced a new "Kim Possible" interactive game. This was the coolest thing.

They gave the kids real cell phones where the Kim Possible characters gave them missions and clues as to how to accomplish them. There was no charge to do it - the boys loved this more than almost anything else.

I was so impressed with the "Seas" exhibits. The building was crammed full of aquariums filled with sharks, fish, dolphins, and manatees.

We loved the "Soaring" ride and did that a half a dozen times before it got crowded.

That's life with kids

Last night I tried to go for a walk with a friend and all of our kids. I thought we'd really have to cruise to keep up with kids on their bikes, but we could never even get our heart rates up.

First the kids stopped at every intersection, which was what they were supposed to do. However, it took a minute each time to get the caravan of kids going and across the street each time. We were starting to get the hang of things when one of the bike pedals broke.

We were only a few blocks from the auto parts store, so we stopped there to see if they had a part to fix it. That took about ten minutes and they ended up not even being able to help us.

No problem. We all trekked over to the hardwood store. Again, about ten minutes, but they were able to help us. We were on our way!

Gracie fell off of her bike, and when I lifted her and the bike to get her out of the street, her seat came off. Luckily, it went back on pretty easily. It was just starting to get comical.

So yesterday was Hope's first day in big girl underwear. She did a pretty good job all day, but must have forgotten that she didn't have a diaper on because the next thing we knew, she was standing in a puddle.

No problem. I took Ava's blanket and made Hope sit on it in the stroller. We were on our way again.

We noticed it was six o'clock which was our time to go home to be with our families.

So, we got seven minutes of decent walking done in one hour and ten minutes. Now that is a mom-style workout!

Character hideouts

I'm not a very patient person. It's sad, but I just don't have any tolerance for waiting for much of anything (slow people, lines, down time, etc.).

Being very pregnant makes me even less patient and probably more outspoken and irritable, so we decided to avoid things in Disneyworld that make me cranky.


Getting pictures with the Disney characters was toward the top of the list. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have cute pictures of my kids with every character in the park. But I truly can't tolerate the character hog parents that take fourty two pictures of their kids with Mickey and then need their autograph book signed. I mean really...it's not Mickey...it's Joe Brown from Kansas in a Mickey suit! Is an autograph really necessary?



Okay...enough ranting. We broke down and went to Mickey's house to get a family picture with him. The line was endless, so we quickly abandoned that idea.



Then one night we went on this animation tour, which wasn't that great of an attraction. But at the end, we found nine characters just standing around looking for kids to hug. It was awesome!





Gracie had Minnie Mouse to herself for about five minutes and the boys had a fun time with the soldier from Toy Story. We felt like we had really scored that night.





Then we got lucky again at Animal Kingdom in the Conservation Station. We went right before closing and again, found a bunch of characters with nothing to do. Pocahontas was so sweet to Gracie and even helped her get a picture with Rafiki, whom she was terrified of.

My date with a great guy

On Saturday night, I went on a date with a super handsome, sweet guy. Okay, this time it wasn't my husband - it was my eleven year old son Caleb. And I guess it wasn't exactly a date; we went to Winco. Still, we had a great time.

I truly love Caleb more than I can ever express. And maybe because he is my oldest, I have stressed over his life more than any mother should.

During our lowest moments I have even imagined him on America’s Most Wanted. I even know what awful school picture they would use to show what an unhappy childhood he had which, of course, they would say led him to his life of crime.

I have spent many nights crying and praying for help in raising him. In fact most of my prayers include a plea for help in becoming a better mother. I have been comforted on many occasions and have been given impressions of who my son really is, which really helps during the hard times.

Still, it is hard to watch him struggle. But maybe some of these strong spirits have to learn to walk alone. Maybe he needs these hard experiences to build his character and to learn the lessons he needs to become who God wants him to be.

I’ve had a few glimmers of hope this week. Last Sunday, Caleb taught the best family home evening lesson and followed it with his testimony, which, as far as I know, he has never shared.

As we have read our scriptures this week, I have been so impressed with his knowledge. You would never guess that he is listening, I mean he is usually upside down. But apparently, that is his learning position because things seem to be getting in.

Then yesterday, he shared a sweet story in Primary about when his sister was born, and how nervous he was. I’ve told him stories about his birth and how it was a bit traumatic. He loves to hear these stories and laughs when I tell him that he was blue when he was born.

Well, apparently, this planted a seed, and he was worried that Ava might have some of the same problems. He shared with the Primary that he had really been worried about Ava, and the Holy Ghost had comforted him that day.

These seem like small experiences, but Caleb just doesn’t share that much of himself with us. It always means so much to me to see the tenderness that he keeps hidden away.

On our Saturday night date, Caleb was so fun to be with. He was calm, appropriate, clever, funny, helpful, and a complete gentleman. He worked hard and didn’t ask me to buy him anything. We laughed and talked and really enjoyed our time together.

I’m so grateful for these experiences because I feel like I gotten a glimpse of the man he will be after all of this awkward childhood stuff is done.

Animal Kingdom

I was almost as excited to go to Animal Kingdom as I was about Magic Kingdom. The crowds had been so bad when we went eight years ago, that we hadn't gone on any rides and had only seen one show.




This time we showed up right at opening and went straight to their new roller coaster, Expedition Everest.


From what I had read, the lines for this ride are always long. Even with nobody there, it still took almost five minutes just to walk through the empty line area.

The boys rode the ride ten times and loved it! It made me sick, but I thought it was awesome and still rode four times.

The kids had a bit of an attitude problem after the thrill of Expedition Everest because Animal Kingdom is much more like a zoo than an amusement park.

There are only a few rides and none of them are for little kids.

After a few threats of no going to the Lego store, the boys fixed their attitudes and it ended up being a great day.

Caleb was so cranky when we went to the bird show, but he couldn't help cracking up at the parrot that could do math.

Gracie loved the finding Nemo show and Christian loved the fire eaters and the monkey gymnasts at The Lion King show.

"It's tough to be a bug" was cool. The theatre is inside of "The Tree of Life." It is a 3-D show with a lot of special effects, including the feeling that bugs are crawling under your bottom - that was surprising!

Doug hated the River Rapids ride - I don't think I have ever seen anyone get so wet and I am sure that I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Doug is a complete baby about that sort of thing - it's funny to watch Mister Mellow lose his cool a little bit!


Everyone hated the Dinosaur ride. I thought that it was amazing, but not necessarily enjoyable. Caleb looked like he had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after we got off.

The automatic pictures at the end of the ride showed Caleb hiding underneath the safety bar of the vehicle!



The boneyard playground was a pleasant surprise. It is a huge playground that is set up to look like an archeological dig.

There are huge slides, a million places to run, places to get wet, and a monster sandbox with Dinosaur bones to dig up!

My kids could have stayed here for hours if we would have discovered it sooner!

Yeah...Sunny to the rescue

Okay...so I seriously can't take pictures. I don't know if my camera sucks, or if I am just too impatient, but my pictures always look awful!



The girls are always looking away, the baby has one eye closed, and they boys pull monster faces.



So I have pretty much stopped taking pictures assuming that my kids just aren't that photogenic.



Then...Sunny to the rescue! I wanted some pictures of Ava because she is brand new.



But mostly I needed some cute pictures of poor little Hope. Her pictures are always awful and I think she needs some great pictures to look back on and see how cute she was as a kid.



Sunny did a beautiful job for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well check

Ava turned three weeks old last Thursday and had her first well check appointment. Dr. Dernbach said she is perfect and has gained nine ounces since birth - not bad!

Redneck Rollercoaster

Doug had to pick up a new fridge for us in Tri-Cities, so he had the trailer hooked up to the car.

After the fridge was unloaded, he took the girls for a few laps around our drive way.



The girls whooped and hollered and had a great time!

Okay, so it's not Disneyworld, but our kids loved getting a ride on the Redneck Rollercoaster!

Now I Get It Mom

For as long as I can remember, my mom always told us not to buy her anything for Mother's Day. She would say that all she wanted was a clean house and a happy family.

We always thought that was stupid so we bought her presents and kept fighting with each other as usual.

Well, Mother's Day was a bit of a bust yesterday. Caleb woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and was hostile and angry all day. I actually took him home from church early because I was afraid he would pick a fight with somebody - it was that bad!

I was upset that he would act like that, and I was upset that I had to miss church. It was a good Mother's Day in that somehow, I was able to be a good mother despite my child trying to pick a fight with me. I was uncharacteristically calm and matter of fact with him and finally, after a few hours, he sincerely apologized to me.

After he felt better, he kept asking me if he could give me my Mother's Day gift. All I could think was that I wasn't ready to receive gifts yet because although I had kept my cool, I was still upset inside.

Doug had told me not to worry about dinner because he was going to barbeque. No cooking...Score!

So I came outside for dinner when the girls told me it was ready and found he had made hotdogs, cheetos and water for dinner. I mean, he has known me for almost twenty years and has seen me eat maybe three hot dogs in all of those years.

So I felt sorry for myself for a few minutes as I whipped together a fruit salad. No gifts, no pampering, no flower to kill from church, and I cleaned the house while the kids bickered with each other.

So I am trying to think of a way to end this post in a funny or positive way, but it's not coming to me. At least now, I understand my mom a little better!

Magic Kingdom

We were all dying to go to the Magic Kingdom for day one of our trip. Looking back, we probably should have gone there last because none of the other parks had as many rides, so the kids were disappointed everyday.

My friend, Mary, recommended a travel guide for avoiding crowds and lines at Disneyworld, so I came armed with an agenda and ready to conquer the Magic Kingdom.

After four short hours of sleep, I woke the kids up at six AM so that we could be ready, have breakfast and arrive at the gate thirty minutes before opening.

The kids were so tired that they actually complained about having to go to Disneyworld! But I was on a mission and dragged their sleeping little bodies out of bed.

I got up and put on my make up and straightened and fixed my hair - I wanted to look good for all of the pictures we would be taking.

By the time we walked out to the car, my hair was already frizzy and looked awful from the higher humidity in the air. It was french braids everyday from then on.




The first ride we went on was Splash Mountain - my all time favorite. Within the first minute, we were completely soaked.

Did you know that the huge splash of water that comes up when the log shoots down the fifty foot hill is artificial? I found out on the last day we were there because, I think because it was so cold, they had that water shooter off.



Anyway, it poured gallons of water on top of us, and we were drenched the rest of the day!

Gracie seemed a little bit freaked out after her first time on Splash Mountain. After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, she suddenly became a thrill seeker! Her favorite rides that day ended up being Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.



So we followed my agenda religiously, which rides to go on first to avoid lines, until about noon. Then we started to realize that it just wasn't that crowded and that there weren't long lines anywhere! We didn't wait for anything all day long - it was heaven!

We were sad that Mickey's Philharmagic was closed for refurbishment since we had never seen this before, but overall, it was a great day!

"H" confusion

Last night I took Christian to soccer practice at the normal location, Hogue cellars. When we got there, someone else's soccer game was just starting.

Christian said, "Oh yeah, the coach said practice was moved to the high school." So I started driving to the high school.

Christian sheepishly said,"Maybe he said Housel...or maybe Heights."

All of those confusing "H" schools! We got lucky and found his practice on the first try though!

Hats!!!

We have learned that you can never predict what might make children happy. When we took Caleb to Disney as a three year old, his favorite thing by far was riding the tram from the parking lot to the park everyday.

On this trip, our kids had a marvelous time one night trying on hats in the Disney stores (for my germa-phobe friends, you may want to close your eyes!). (The pictures are from my cell phone, so they are not the best).