Mommy's Big Cut

First off, Happy Birthday, Apa! We're sorry we couldn't come up for your party. Mommy and Daddy seem really busy. They both keep going to work and trying to clean the house. They both might need vacations again. Anyway, we hope you had a good day going to church and then playing with all the other grandkids.

Now on to some big news about our Mommy. She has a bagful of hair. Yup. On Saturday, after we went and saw the new Buzz and Woody movie, Mommy went and had her ponytail cut off. She cut off 10 INCHES of her hair. She's donating it to Locks of Love. She finally got to her breaking point with her hair in Orlando and wanted to cut off at least 5 inches, well Aunt Angie and Grandma told her she could probably donate and have a lot of hair left still. Well they were partly right. It's a lot shorter than Mommy was thinking it would be but we keep telling her most people still think that it's long hair.

The Fifth and Final Day

So our Final Day in Disney World was Monday. Our flight wasn't until 8:00 p.m. that night so we were able to hang out and play for one last morning. We hit The Animal Kingdom for our "Hail Mary" attempt at doing the Everest Expedition roller coaster. And we were successful. In fact, Angie and I rode it two times in a row and then had fast passes for later that morning. Becca and Mom begged off of the middle run because the heat combined with five days of roller coaster led to a lot of upset tummies. We also did the ride Dinosaur again because of it's air conditioning. Okay we did it like three times and man that ride is LOUD. You can't help but be scared. I don't think I'd take anyone under the age of 10 regardless of their height. The dinosaurs scream at you. In every picture the fear is somewhat real. (So we pose a little bit but most of the pictures in Dinosaur we all had our hands over our ears because it was DEAFENING.)


We also made a final run at Downtown Disney to finish our souvenir shopping. And to eat at T-Rex again. So fun but just like Rainforest Cafe and Dinosaur ride...very loud.

The airplane trip home was much more enjoyable for me because I actually slept. I'm sure part of that was due to the exhaustion ensued because of five days of walking but also Siena and Cara's souvenir of a Mike and Sully plush doll made a great pillow.

Day Three and Four of the Big Trip

Alrighty then. So Day Three which was Saturday started later than any other morning because of the fact that we were out so dang late the night before. Even I consented to missing the Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom for a little shut eye. (On a side note, we were blasted awake by housekeeping repeatedly knocking loudly at 9:00 a.m....whose housekeeping gets started that early?!) We headed to the next water park Blizzard Beach which boasts the number one water slide in the U.S...."The Summit Plummet". Blizzard Beach is set up like a ski resort that is melting. They even have a ski lift which stops for what seems like no reason. (We kept snickering that people would fall but it turns out it was for the wheelchair accessible chairs..whoops.) Anyway, it has a bunch of different kinds of water slides. "The Summit Plummet" is a straight drop measuring 120 feet. It looks like you're doing the ski jump but really it continues on below the jump. They even take your picture as you drop over the edge, but seeing as how it's Disney, I would have to pay like 14 bucks for my photos and I'm not sure it's worth it. Anyway, Angie and Becca had done it before and Mom and I headed up to do it with them. I didn't get nervous until the last flight of stairs and then I kind of wanted to vomit. But I did it. And I did it again the next day, but I will say it's not worth standing in the 45 minute line more than once. (We only waited that long the first day.) However, very cool and unique experience and I'm way excited to say that I went down the Summit Plummet. Ironically, not as big of a wedgie problem at the bottom of this slide. I must have been way more tense.

Later that day after a brief nap, we headed back to Hollywood Studios because of how in love we were with the Rock N Roll Coaster. Now keep in mind, that in the mornings you generally would feel like this because of the humidity.

We went in to the Rock N Roll Coaster this time and came out to find the gift shop absolutely packed. Mom figured out that it must be raining because people were coming in with speckles. It was dinner time and we were hungry and had just bought two delightful Disney ponchos. Mom and Angie had jackets so we thought...eh let's run through the little rainstorm and head to an eatery. Oh boy were we in for a treat! Lightening was striking in the park and we were sent running for our bus because we couldn't find an indoor place to eat. The rain was coming down in SHEETS.


Upon preparing to enter our room we discovered that Mom, Angie and I were SOAKED and Becca was essentially dry.

Day Four we hit Blizzard Beach right as it opened so that we didn't have to stand in crazy long lines for the water slides. By this time, most of our feet started to hurt any time we weren't sitting or walking. After the water park, we split up for the afternoon. Mom came with me to the Magic Kingdom again. I was bound and determined to ride Thunder Mountain RailRoad again and Peter Pan which you could fast pass. How nice. Angie and Becca wanted to hit The ESPN Wide World of Sports. (Their trip turned in to a DISASTER and they never made it there...plus it rained again.) Anyway, Mom and I had a pleasant afternoon riding it's a Small World, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, and attempting to go on Thunder Mountain twice each time being met with technical difficulties. I never would ride it again..we hit Hollywood Studios for a third time instead which was just fine. (I was bitter for a minute.) By that night, I had really been missing my little family back home anyway.

***I am trying desperately to upload videos of the massive rainstorm but we have faulty router that makes our lives a little miserable...I'll keep trying.***

Extra Magic Hours

The Extra Magic Hours for the Magical Kingdom were Friday night starting at 12 am and last until 3 am. So technically I guess it would be called Saturday. That's right folks. We partied in Disney World at 2 in the morning and really...it kind of was worth it. We walked right on to Pirates and Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion. We even got a little bit delirious and had Mom pretend to be one of the hundreds of kids we saw passed out in their parents arms.



Oh and I took a picture outside Haunted Mansion at 2:00 am of all the strollers. TWO A.M. outside an albeit mildly scary ride, but still scary ride. Parents are NUTS.

Mommy's Vacation Day Two

On Friday morning, we got up and went to the Hollywood Studios park. The two big rides in this park are the Rock N Roll Coaster and The Tower of Terror. We found out later that they redid the Tower with a new drop sequence but we were really unimpressed and liked the sequence in California better. However the Rock N Roll Coaster is another story. It's comparable to California Screamin' in Disney's California Adventure Park. It starts off shooting to 60 mph. This one though is built around Aerosmith and you're in a limousine trying to get to their concert. The track is in the dark with blacklights and neon signs and Aerosmith music pumpin'. Awesome. I was completely unaware of what an Aerosmith fan I was until I was singing along with every song.

Once again the heat became unbearable and we headed back to Typhoon Lagoon. This time the storm started rolling in a little early and so we started getting rained on but that was okay because it made all the lines for the water slide really short. We asked around and they only closed the park when they heard thunder and unfortunately we did hike up to the top of one of the slides just to have to walk out because the thunder did eventually come.

After a nap, we headed to Downtown Disney and had a lot of fun. We ate at T-Rex which is a cousin of the Rainforest Cafe just prehistoric. The animatronics were really cool and the special effects made eating there really fun. I sent Siena several pictures and she would say "Oh Cute" and "Mommy caught a dinosaur." We over did it when we ordered though because we thought we were starving.

Downtown Disney was filled with silly little delights such as a Disney Christmas Shop that's open all year round and a candy shop with create your own chocolate covered yumminess. We had a lot of fun goofing off and waiting until Extra Magic Hours at the Magical Kingdom.

Mommy's Vacation

Guest post from Mom:

For the sake of all, I will do several posts probably one for every day because it will be heavy on the photos (and we know that I love to post photos)! We had so much fun. I went with my two sisters, Becca and Angie, and my mom to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We had five days of playing to do with just the four of us. The other three had been there four years ago as a treat from my Grandpa but I had just moved to California and couldn't come. They were excited to show a Disneyland junkie what a real amusement park was like.

We started off Wednesday the 16th with a flight leaving Vegas at 10:00 p.m. We caught the red eye so that we didn't have to waste an entire day with traveling. This of course left us a little bleary for the day. We got to our hotel, The Caribbean Beach Resort, at 6:30 a.m. and unbelievably they had a room ready for us. We weren't anticipating this and had left our luggage at the airport to be delivered. We did however have swim suits in our carry on because one of the water parks opened early at 8 a.m. for "select resort guests". So at 7:30 a.m. we boarded what would be one of many more buses to come and headed for Typhoon Lagoon.

Typhoon Lagoon has what is called The Crushin' Gusher which is a roller coaster water slide. You sit on tubes and it actually sends you up and down. Very very fun and that early in the morning it came with no wait. Plus in Orlando it was warm enough and the water temperature just right so we weren't freezing. I also did my very first "straight" water slide. You know the kind that you have to cross your arms and ankles and not flail them about at risk of breaking one of them? I've always been terrified but my sisters just walked me up and had me do it. I pretended it was no big deal but I was freaking out and let me tell you my swim suit went places that I didn't think was possible. Still fun though!

Everyone was pretty bleary eyed after that and so we went back to the hotel room to change clothes and head for the first amusement park of the four that Disney World offers. It was the Animal Kingdom. We headed in got our "fast passes" for the roller coaster "Everest" and had about 3 hours to kill before they were good and so we headed to the other ride called "Dinosaur." For anyone who has done Indiana Jones at Disneyland, it's the same ride just prehistoric and you're trying to find a dinosaur. Very loud and pretty scary. That's us on the back row. Not an awesome picture but since it is a photo of a photo..what are you gonna do?

That ride was the best because the line for it was indoors with air conditioning. We lasted like 20 minutes in our real clothes in that Orlando humidity. (Can you say pit stains?) We came out from that ride unfortunately to find that it was pouring rain and I really mean pouring. Soaked through my shoes and I was so bitterly disappointed. Our "Everest" ride had closed down and I didn't even feel like I was in Disney World. We headed back to the hotel from some much needed naps. I could only sleep for about thirty minutes but everyone else really zonked out. Luckily, my mom was willing to head to the Magic Kingdom (just like Disneyland) with me that night and my spirits really picked up. I finally felt like I was where dreams come true. I missed my little girls and hubby terribly but man, it was much needed girl time.

Okay so after that really long entry, I'm thinking I will try to condense days two through five so that you don't have to sit through pain staking recounts of my awesome vacation just because I never learned how to tell a short story!

And Mary came!

Mary Grace came to our house on Saturday night with Aunt Margaret and Hannah, but we get to keep Mary all week! She is so much fun to have here. I just pull her around to do all of my whims and she comes! We play outside, we play in the pool, we watch movies, we color pictures, we eat popsicles. It's great. On Monday, Mommy took us to the Main Street splash park which we love. Of course the weather was warm and Mommy got a nice red color on her back. Of course, Mary looks a little like a tomato because apparently Daddy says that putting on sunscreen is something that comes naturally to St. Georgians but takes more thought for Salt Lake Citians....I don't know.

Anyway, Mommy takes off on an adventure with Grandma, Aunt Angie and Aunt Becca tomorrow night and she won't be back until NEXT Monday night. So Mary came to help Daddy out. (Do you know where Mommy is going? It's called Disney World and it makes Mommy giggly and start dancing on her toes when you mention it.)

We have an almost identical picture of me at this same park...apparently the water is tasty.