The Way Things Are
Sometimes our days are good, sometimes our days are bad.
And sometimes our days are ridiculous.
The day before the plumbers started putting huge holes in the walls to reach our decrepit pipes, David came down with a fever. He has been miserable. We think, but we can’t confirm, that he has canker sores in his mouth. He complains loudly about eating and drinking, but is hungry and thirsty.
And then, because it just wasn’t interesting enough around here, Matthew got sick. Another lost day of school, not to mention the quandary of what to do with two feverish children when We Have No Water.
We went to the Air and Space museum for the morning. I’ll post pictures later, but I just don’t have the energy to download them right now. Sick children don’t sleep and neither does their mother.
Trunk-or-Treat
Last Friday night, our mom’s group had their annual Trunk or Treat. We got there late, and then it rained, but the boys had a really good time.
That is actually the best picture I have. They were in constant motion, first to get treats, then to dodge the rain, then running around after dinner.
Matthew was dressed as a vampire. David was dressed as Super David. We have been enjoying the candy and the bouncy eye balls since. (Yes, really. Bouncy eye balls. Genius!)
Halloween, we are (almost) ready!
Fall!
The boys went out to rake leaves on Sunday. Steven piled the leaves up neatly, then showed the kids how to jump into them,
and roll around,
and toss them in the air,
while yelling
“Faaaaaallllllllll!”
One Picture
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
This one is going to cost us many thousand dollars.
It’s a leaky pipe in the dining room ceiling, and it means our polybutylene pipes have corroded and are about to fail. So they need to be replaced. All of them. It will take about a week, during which time we’ll need to cut off the water during the day.
A week
without
water.
In order to prevent the pipes from bursting when we aren’t around, I have to turn off the water and drain the pipes every time I leave the house and when we go to bed.
Good times.
My Favorite Picture
We took a lot of great pictures at Disney. We got a few family shots and a ton of pictures of the kids on rides having fun.
But my favorite picture was taken by Hannah at lunch on Friday.
Cracks me up every time.
Last Morning in Disney
Our last morning in Disney was cool and cloudy. Finally! Decent weather. Just in time to leave. Here we are at the main building at Saratoga Springs. This is a statue of some famous horse.
Matthew grabbed the camera and took a few shots himself.
He’s getting better.
Then it was time to get on the bus and head back to the airport. The boys were great on the plane. I couldn’t have asked for better.
When we got off the plane at Dulles it was 44* and raining. Yikes. The drop of 50 degrees was startling. We dragged ourselves home and climbed under many blankets for naps.
Disney – Day 5
We headed back to the Magic Kingdom for our last full day in Disney. It was cloudy and a little breezy, so the heat wasn’t as bad.
We started off in Tomorrow Land, the area we didn’t get to on Monday. We enjoyed the rides, including the Buzz Lightyear adventure,
the Astro Orbiter,
and (our favorite) the race cars.
Matthew told me later that Claire didn’t do a very good job of driving. Steven reports that Matthew wasn’t any better. Even Wesley, our oldest kid at age 9, had a hard time going straight.
After a few hours of rides, we headed off for lunch at Liberty Tavern. Joshua was celebrating his 2nd birthday.
Then it was off for more theme park adventures, like the Swiss Family Robinson tree house,
Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride, with spitting camel
a jungle river cruise,
and a trip down Splash Mountain.
Matthew loved Splash Mountain. As soon as he got off, he wanted to go right back on. Claire and Hannah were less impressed.
While the Big Kids rode the ride, the Little Guys played out front.
We headed back to Fantasy Land for another round of rides on Dumbo and the carousel.
And then, incredibly, it was after dinner time. We ate some sandwiches and started to head for home.
It waited to rain until we were leaving the park, which was fine with us.
As a treat for the boys, I got Micky Mouse shaped rice krispie treats. We ate them while we waited for our bus and talked about all the fun we had during the day.
Disney – Day 4
On Thursday, we headed to Animal Kingdom. We had a lot of fun in the morning going on Safari, taking a walking tour, watching “The Lion King” stage show, and meeting some characters.
Steven has been on an actual safari in Africa, but he thought the one at Disney was a lot more fun.
Hot + humid = blurry photo.
Being able to walk at our own pace through an outdoor animal exhibit was a nice break from dragging the boys from one stop to the next.
That’s a frog. Ick. And here are a pair of pancake turtles.
The big fish tanks were a favorite of both boys.
The Lion King show was fantastic. Matthew went to sit in the front row with Margaret, Claire, Wesley, and Hannah.
David loved the music. He clapped along with the finale.
On our way out, we got a chance to meet some characters.
Wesley, Clair, Joshua, Matthew and Hannah got to meet Pocahontas. When Matthew saw the picture he said, “Pocahontas was nice. And she is soooooo cute.”
Sigh.
Margaret and her crew got to meet Lilo and Stitch. Matthew was fascinated by Stitch, but a little too afraid to go stand next to him.
Next we headed to Wilderness Lodge for lunch at the Whispering Canyon restaurant. This was a ton of fun. They serve a family style skillet meal, sing songs, and have Pony Races in the middle of the meal.
We took the ferry back to Magic Kingdom, where we could catch a bus back to Saratoga Springs resort (you can’t get a bus from one resort to another).
We headed home, since it was raining and we needed a nap. I wish I could say the rain cooled things down, but not so much. It was still pretty hot when we headed back to Downtown Disney for dinner.
Disney – Day 3
On Wednesday, we headed to Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow).
We enjoyed the Spaceship Earth ride, which takes place inside the big “golf ball” behind us. Matthew thought it was cool to be “out in space.” David hid on Daddy’s shoulder because riding around in the dark is not his favorite thing to do.
Next we hit the Nemo ride.
Notice how I am the only one looking at the camera…again.
It was hot (have I mentioned that before?) and we left mid-day. We decided to take the Monorail back to Magic Kingdom and catch a bus from there. This was one of our favorite activities during the week. Every time we saw the monorail the boys yelled “Hi Monorail!”
We came back in the evening for the food and wine festival, but this turned out to be a bust. It was crowded, it was hot, and we couldn’t get seats in Germany were Pat wanted to eat. The boys had another meal of pizza. We intended to stay for the light show, but by 8 pm the boys had had enough. We went home, went to bed, and planned to get out earlier the next day.
Disney – Day 2
On our first full day at Disney we headed to the Magic Kingdom.
We got there just in time to join a parade down Main Street.
We hit some great rides on our first day, including Dumbo,
the carousel,
and It’s a Small World.
You have that song stuck in your head now, don’t you?
It was super hot (have I mentioned that yet?) so we headed home in the early afternoon, took some naps, and enjoyed a little pizza dinner.
In the evening the boys played in David’s pack-n-play (Joshua had his own in another room) before dropping into bed, completely exhausted.
