Weekly Wrap-Up: The Disney 2009 Edition
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Okay, so I told you I had a good reason why I’d have to wrap up my week a bit late. We just got back from a wonderful week at Disney! I didn’t want to make a big “Hey, we’re going on vacation, so my house will be empty for a week except for my dogs and daily visits by my dad and step-mom to care for said dogs” announcement before we left, so for those of you who wondered if I had fallen off the face of the planet when you emailed and I didn’t answer, I’m sorry! I did schedule my posts, though, so my poor blog wouldn’t be neglected while I was gone. My thanks to Jolanthe of Homeschool Creations for blog-sitting for me.
So, last week, while you thought I was just ignoring you, my family and I were actually here:
It wasn’t nearly as gloomy as the picture through the windshield makes it look. We had wonderful (hot!) weather all week as we enjoyed a mostly-blissful week in the luxury that is Disney. I could get so spoiled if I could stay here all the time:
The first morning, the entire crew — twelve of us, in all — set off for The Magic Kingdom via the Disney buses:
It just so happened that it was also Megan’s 8th birthday, so she got to visit for FREE! What better way to spend your birthday than at the Magic Kingdom. The employees must be told to look for the birthday pins because everywhere we went, someone was saying, “Happy Birthday, Megan!”
Look! They can be sweet to each other:
So, Monday was spent here:
Meeting characters like this:
And this:
And, enjoying rides like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups:
I think Josh almost got the sword out of the stone:
Sometime between that and this…
…there was lots of sweating, a little whining and griping (because, seriously, it’s 110 degrees, your feet are sore, you’re tired of walking, and you’re really aggravated that when your birthday baby left her extra-special autograph book — that was signed by all the characters she’d seen so far, including Chip ‘n Dale who even wrote “Happy Birthday, Megan” — in the bathroom for a few minutes somebody walked off with it instead of turning it in to lost and found) and a lot of fun.
And, I know you can’t tell much about this next one, but if you’ll look closely you’ll see that Tinkerbell flew directly over our heads just before the fireworks show began. What I wouldn’t give for a really nice camera.
Oh, and while we were at The Magic Kingdom, we saw a family wearing “Unsocialized Homeschooler” t-shirts just like ours, only green. I almost stopped them and spoke to the, but that was during a whiney moment for our family. I was dying to know if I might know them from the online homeschool community.
The next day, we rested our poor, tired feet and spent a lot of time doing this:
And, of course, I had to take a picture of this real, but very fake-looking mushroom to add to our collection:
After a relaxing day by the pool we, including my blue-haired daughter (it’s temporary, but she’d love to make it permanent):
…rode the bus, then, the boat…
…where my younger two were spoiled by the captain, who was trying to make another unhappy young passenger smile. Thanks to the unhappy little boy, the younger kids all got pirate scarves, pirate bracelets, rings and pins. The little boy — and my kids — were all very happy by the time we got here:
We saw things like this (made from over 70,000 Legos):
Brian even met a new woman (Mrs. Lego):
And, we ended the evening by eating here:
And, Brianna and I got our hair wrapped before heading back to our room:
Wednesday was another hot, sweaty, sore-tired-feet day because we went here:
Where I found yet another woman draped over my husband:
It was actually really funny. We’d stopped to watch a street performance when Brian got to be part of the action. He was also “that guy” (you’ll have to remind me to tell you about it) at the Monster’s Inc. show at The Magic Kingdom on Monday…and he, along with my step-dad, step-sister and her husband, got to pick the spot for the 18th hole when they went golfing on Thursday. It was a very eventful week for my husband.
We enjoyed the Indiana Jones show, a really cool car stunt show, the Tower of Terror (just Brian and Brianna) and, my personal favorite, the Rockin’ Roller Coaster:
We also went to an animation class, where we were walked through drawing Scrooge McDuck. I was pretty impressed with the results, especially since I’m not very artistic.
Thursday, while Brian was golfing, the kids and I went to the pool. Brian got back just in time to buy us a set of three bingo cards for the poolside bingo game. I told him I was feeling lucky and I was right. Look what I won!
Not bad for $3 worth of bingo cards. While we were gone, we also visited a familiar favorite:
I mean, seriously, folks, did you expect us to get through a whole week without Chick-Fil-A? And we consumed 150 (yes, one hundred fifty) of these:
For those of you who are sadly deprived and don’t know what those are, they’re Dunkin’ Donuts’ doughnut holes. Of course, if you don’t know what they are, maybe you’re not as sadly deprived as we are. We used to have two Dunkin’ Donuts in town, but they’ve both closed. So, now, we’re in the sad position of knowing what they are, but being unable to get them. Since there were two Dunkin’ Donuts just outside of the Disney property, we decided to stock up while we could.
So, that was my pretty stinkin’ awesome week. I hope yours was wonderful, as well.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Looks like y'all had an awesome vacation. I loved WDW, we had such a great time there. You brought back so many great memories with your photos!
Sounds like a fun fun week! Glad you got a chance to unwind and enjoy yourselves. (and I must admit, I am one of those who don't know what a dunkin donut hole looks like!)
Oh, I'm trying not to be jealous! Looks like you all had a fabulous time!!!
Wow! Looks like a fun week. We are going soon… and I couldn't get reservations for Rainforest but I did get Planet. 🙁 We really wanted to go to Rainforest Cafe.
So sorry about the autograph book… we are planning on getting one. I will be extra cautious about it now. Now I am more excited than ever to go!
And I forgot to mention.. I did a weekly wrap up this week. http://www.thehomeonahill.blogspot.com
Ahh…chick fil a and Dunkin Donuts. I miss that we don't have a REAL DD here either. I grew up with them on nearly every street corner. 🙂
Looks like you all had an AMAZING week and you have some great pictures.
Sorry to hear about Megan's book. 🙁
Jolanthe
WOW!!! What a wonderful trip! Thank you for sharing it with us!!!
@ Nekey — Which Rainforest Cafe are you going to? I know there's one at Animal Kingdom, but we went to the one in Downtown Disney. We didn't have reservations and we didn't have to wait to be seated, even with a party of seven. This time of year, I wouldn't think you'd need reservations.
So fun! I went for the first time a couple years ago and had a blast! I can't wait to go back. I've been begging my bf to take me for my birthday! And yes, the Disney employees do look out for the buttons. I had on a "my first time in Disney" button on the whole time there and everyone stopped me to ask how I was enjoying it.
And is that Monsters Inc. show not the funniest?! I can't wait to here about your hubby's experience as "that guy."
FUN!!! I would LOVE to take my boys to WDW! We're trying to wait until the littles are a bit older though. Looks like you all had a GREAT time!!
What fun! Glad your and your family had a great time there.
HA! WE went to DisneyLAND *last* week for MY birthday! (I just haven't blogged about it yet.) So three cheers for birthday girls who get wished a happy birthday by every cast member in sight!
And three cheers for sitting inside air conditioned rooms after a long hot day.
And three cheers even for Chick fil A which we also made a stop at (because we don't have one up here in Oregon)!
You all have GOOD taste! ;D
Oh wow what a FUN WEEK!! I'd love to have a week like that, except the plane fare would cost more than Disney, I'm afraid. And Dunkin Donuts? OH YEAH. I'm in Washington, and we've got those all over the place. 🙂
How fun! I'm glad you had a wonderful time.
P.S. I'd like to say that you DO have artistic talent. I've seen your project with the kids'!
Looks like so much fun! I'm glad for you guys. We just came back from a vacation ourselves. It is so refreshing.
It looks and sounds like you guys had a fabulous time! I'm so glad for that. We all need a nice break from time to time, don't we? Loved seeing all the pictures and hearing about the week. Sorry about Megan's book though — that just stinks!
OK … I like your Weekly Wrap Up so much better than mine!! We love Disney World!!!
Well this beats our one day at Busch Gardens! So glad you had such a fabulous trip!!
Sounds like a great week! We were actually at Magic Kingdom on Monday too!!! I haven't gotten to post my pics yet, but one of these days!!
@ Marshan — You weren't wearing green "unsocialized homeschooler" shirts were you?
Oh Kris, if I had only known! We spent the entire week in WDW. Saw three other HS families, based on shirts worn, only interacted with one. Their daughter, completely unsocialized I'm sure, struck up a conversation with my daughter on the bus back to the hotel.
And although you felt that your group had it's whiney moments, apparently you weren't fighting, because the cast members will hold an intervention. (don't ask me how I know)
Sorry about Megan's book, we never lost anything big. We dropped things several times, and someone always picked them up and chased us down, so we returned the favor as often as we could.
We had the Disney Dining Plan as a free add-on, and ate at Coral Reef, Akershus, Crystal Palace, Capt'n Jacks, and Prime Time 50's cafe. All excellent!
I love homeschool!
Naomi
@ Naomi — Oh, I wish I'd known you were there! It would have been so fun to meet up with you.
That's funny about the cast members holding an intervention. I'll have to tell Brian about that. I guess we weren't too bad. It was one snappy moment, said through clenched teeth, of, "We paid a lot of money for you to have fun…so have FUN!!!"
The funny thing was, it was almost immediately after shaking my head and tsk-tsking over a dad who was having a similar moment with his son. *blushing*
Looks and sounds like a lot of fun!