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.
Disney – Day 1
We spent last week at Disney World. It was 95*. We were hot, and since some members of the family had been sick for the better part of two weeks, it was tough to muster the stamina for a full-on Disney experience. Still, we managed to get to the major attractions.
We got in late on Monday afternoon and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner.
After dinner, we walked around and found the statues outside the Lego store.
Hmmm….not such a great shot. But, it was a pretty cool sea monster. Made of Legos. In the water. Really cool. There was also a playground that David really enjoyed, and a Ghiradelli store with free samples, which I enjoyed.
Travel days are always exhausting so we dropped into bed as soon as we were home.
Prayer Squirrel
Matthew’s teacher taught them a new prayer called “100 Things”
“We thank you, Lord, for 100 things.
For the flowers that bloom, and the birds that sing.
For the sun that shines, and the rain that drops.
for ice cream, raisins, and lollipops.”
Her original prayer is written out on a scroll, so she had each child make his own scroll to bring home.
Matthew insists it is a squirrel. No one can convince him otherwise. So each night at dinner we unroll our prayer squirrel and give thanks for our many blessings.
Jump!
Matthew’s former pre-school teacher, Miss Shelley, was in a need of a new mattress for her classroom. We were in need of getting rid of the guest bed to make way for David’s big boy room. So, on Saturday afternoon, Scott came and took the mattress off our hands.
We got in on last jump session before he came.
David sobbed bitterly after the mattress was gone. I guess he thought we were keeping it there.
