This Is Fun!

I am currently checking out our Disney Photo Pass pictures--with my Mickey Mouse-jack-o-lantern coffee mug filled up! When you get to the park, the first official photographer you see will give you a Photo Pass card. You then give that to every photographer who takes your photo. When you get home, you can look at all the photos they took and edit them a little bit, adding borders and doing other simple editing procedures.

I thought since we had such a reluctant participant (who shall remain nameless but her initials are L.U.C.I.) we would not have many photos. When I downloaded our photo pass numbers, we had 100 pictures total! And now that I've edited some, we have 130. Imagine if we had been able to get Luci to see more than 4 characters! You can't delete them, so you don't have to worry about clicking the wrong button. Every photo that you edit adds a copy to the total, so you still have the original the photographer took, and you can make new editions of that photo over and over.

I was very pleased to see that the photographer with Cinderella did as I asked and snapped as many as he could. There were probably ten photos of just Cindy and Luci in the bunch!

If you are going to spend more than a couple of days in the parks, I'd recommend getting the Pass. And No, I don't get a commission for telling you about it. (Wish I did!)

If you order the Photo Pass before you start your trip, you can save some money. It was $100 before the trip--which works out to about a dollar a photo--and they send you a CD of all the photos when you are done editing. You do have to print out your own photos, but at the cost of one 5x7 from the Disney people being $12.95, I think that's a good deal. 100 (the number we started with) x $12.95= $1295!! I can't wait to get our CD and blog some of them! (Sorry to all of you who are sick of our Disney trip already. It's really for the grandparents to see their darlings, you know.) :)

I am especially thankful for the photos of the family all together, since John's deployment is scheduled to begin on November 29. What a way to save some beautiful memories!

Disney's Photo Pass

Papa Remembered What Nana Was Wearing When He Met Her

My grandfather, Papa, told me this story decades after meeting his wife...and gave me some advice.

I was a young schoolteacher at the time, just like Nana was when she married Papa. Papa told me that when he first met Nana, she was wearing a red wool jacket. He told me (a spinster at 26!) to get a red wool jacket, too. He thought that might make a difference. So I did, and before long I met John, and the rest is history, as they say.

Nana must have known something:

story: Red on Women Drives Men Wild

Some Numbers

Luci is 4. I am twelve times older than she is.

Bryan is 4 times older than Luci is, and I am 3 times older than Bryan.

JT is 3 times older than Luci, and I am 4 times older than JT.

.

.

JT's age is 75% of Bryan's age.

John has an odd age this year, so he doesn't fit into the equations.

When we left home for Disney on October 18, gas was 2.91 here. Now it is 2.56. In Georgia, at an Ingles store near the GA-AL line, we bought gas for 2.33 a gallon.

We have a freeze warning for tonight! That is exciting around here. 29* is the forecast low. It will warm up to 72* next Monday, with a low of 50*.

Only 58 more shopping days until Christmas!

Four Years Ago Today....

A beautiful little girl was born in a little village in Guizhou Province, China.

We used to play "Kiss the Baby" to get Luci used to being touched by us. It is still a fun game.

Now, she returns the favor!

Having a "Fashion Show" in our hotel on the way home from Disney. We found this cute Princess costume at Cracker Barrel (of course!). This is the most I've seen her smile all week long. I'm so glad she loves going home.

Last Night

We went to Epcot for dinner Friday night...here are some memories from the evening.

Bryan and JT. They look so friendly here.

Luci and Bryan while the band played at the Biergarten. They are doing the chicken dance or something like that--it involved a lot of arm flapping and clapping.

Dinner...we shared the table with a family from New Orleans. They homeschool, too. We had a nice conversation.
JT and Luci having more energy than is proper. John and I (but mostly me) were worn out by this time.

The fireworks at Epcot were beautiful, but too loud for one little girl.

Final thoughts: I like Epcot but it is too much like being on a school field trip. The only thing I liked at Epcot this time was Mulan. The park was open for "magic hours" for resort guests, so the boys and I got in line for Soarin', the new ride at Epcot. John and the boys loved it, so they thought I would, too. Okay--first of all I was dead-tired, we didn't get in line until 10 pm, and the line was 50 minutes long. And I was scared during the ride. I have only heard wonderful things about this ride so I didn't expect that! Didn't enjoy any aspect of it--the line, the tiredness and certainly not being up in the air zooming over mountains. Buffi, I'm sure you think I'm a wimp! And, I cannot stand German food! If Epcot had a Cracker Barrel, they'd make out like bandits. Next time we go to Disney, I want our last night to be at the Magic Kingdom. Pixie Dust is always a good way to end a trip.

Disney Hollywood Studios

Today's weather called for 100% rain. It has only drizzled hard a few times so far, once when we were waiting for our boat to Hollywood Studios. Doesn't John look thrilled?! Notice the sign behind his head..."Wishing you a magical day!" Luci has gotten used to us making a photo whenever we enter a park. She hopped on over to this cutout of a Coca Cola man right away. She cracks me up. This is one of the few times she's actually posed. Usually she rolls her eyes (wonder where she gets that from? I think it's from JT) and suffers through the photos.

We got to see the very first High School Musical 3 party at Disney! So cool. Luci's telling them all how old she is. Much younger than her mama, which you can see by all the grey in my hair!

Luci got to squeeze up on the front row. She's in the Minnie Mouse polka-dot hat. Every time the dancers came to get a kid from the audience, Luci would look back at me and say, "I don't want to go, Mama!" Funny. They never even got close.

Bryan had fun being Indiana Jones. There is an Indiana Jones show at this park, and it's pretty spectacular.

Luci and I came back to the room for a nap before supper in Germany tonight at Epcot. It took a lot of convincing her that there would be NO CHARACTERS OR PRINCESSES at the dinner tonight. Just music (an oompah-pah band!) and dancing with Daddy. She had to mug it up with some of her birthday jewelry before going to bed.

Today Was All About JT

After a big lunch (and I do mean big!--both boys ate turkey legs) at the Animal Kingdom, JT and I headed out to do some rides that Luci just won't do. Which could mean any ride, couldn't it?? John and Bryan took Luci back to the Boardwalk Villas while JT and I headed to the Magic Kingdom. First we rode a bus, then the Monorail...

Then on to see Stitch's Great Escape... (I screamed in all the right places.)

And on to Tomorrowland's Indy Speedway (The last time we were here JT had to ride with me--now he's a better driver than I on this track!)

Cool Dude

Gotta have that popcorn!

Riding the Tomorrowland Transit Authority...

We used to ride this 'way back when ... when John took Bryan on the Space Mountain roller coaster in 2001, and in 2002 when John was on one of his trips overseas, JT and I would ride this while waiting for Bryan to get done riding Space Mountain. Lots of memories here.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was lots of fun! JT's score was 26 times higher than mine!

Riding the teacups in the Mad Tea Party...

We also got to see the show, Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. That was pretty funny. JT pointed out a man who looked just like Papa! I tried to take his photo but I got in trouble for using my camera in the show! boo hoo. Papa, what were you doing there??

~~~~~

JT has had a hard time giving up his place in the family as the youngest. It was so nice to spend this special time with just him, going someplace incredible like the Magic Kingdom. We ran all over (ok, I just tottered everywhere--he said he could give me a mile head start and he'd catch up in 10 minutes) doing whatever he wanted that was not too scary for mama. We used our Photo Pass to get some special pictures of him all by himself. He said his "love bucket" was feeling pretty full today.

This photo was this morning, before our "date"--JT showing his strength before he conquered Mount Everest and the terrible Yeti who lives there. JT said this roller coaster was "way better than Space Mountain!"

Guess Who Was Brave Enough to See Mickey?!

YAY!! Mickey did some kind of magic on Luci and she actually asked to see Minnie and Goofy! What a great day of bravery for Luci.

Birthday Party!

Today was the day slated for Luci's party. John took the kids swimming in this fantastic pool here at the Boardwalk. Luci actually went down the ginormous slide by herself on Sunday when we first got here. You end up shooting out of the clown's mouth (that's her popping out in the second picture--John's catching her). She liked it, but only once! Never again!

The view from our window. The Tower of Terror from Disney's Hollywood Studios (used to be called Disney MGM Studios) and its water tower are in the background. Can you see the Mickey ears on the water tower?

When they got back from the pool, they found the dining area decorated for a party! It was hard keeping everything hidden all week from a certain birthday girl. Today we saw more smiles than we'd seen all week.
The last of this collage is from the Olive Garden. Luci got two Cinderellas--one baby and one all grown up, plus one of Tinkerbell's friends with dark hair ("Her hair's like mine!"). Double click to enlarge the collage.

Trying to get Luci into the car to go to dinner. She did not want to leave--she thought we weren't coming back. Saturday morning is going to be hard.

Did I mention that I got locked out of our room while everyone was at the pool? I went out to put up a balloon and slam! I called downstairs from a house phone and a manager came up to let me in. The phone started ringing. I showed the man my Boardwalk key card with my name, and I wanted to get the phone! He said, "Show me a picture ID. If this is your room, you'll know where it is." I'm glad he takes his job very seriously, but wowzer, I had a party to get ready for!

Luci Meets Cinderella

You just have to understand what a BIG DEAL this is. With every character she's ever met (here and on the cruise 2 years ago, at grocery store openings--Piggly Wiggly's pig), she cowers, whimpers, and tries to run away. Even from those yards and yards away in a parade. Not with Snow White--just shaking with her. Not with Mulan, she feels a kinship with her.

And Now, Not With Cinderella.

Look for the smile when Luci hands Cinderella her autograph book. John and I could not believe it!

my apologies for the quality of the video.

Move over, Pluto. Cinderella is my favorite now!

On the way to Magic Kingdom, Luci calls Cinderella from the U.K. in Epcot.

First ever sighting of Cinderella's castle. It's back there, trust me.
We finally got in to the Princesses and Luci would only go to Cinderella. (Sorry, Belle and Aurora!) We have Photo Pass. I handed the photographer our card and asked him to please take as many photos as he could, since Cinderella was the only character she would go to today. He was snappin'!When we got back to our suite, look what was waiting for Luci! A birthday card and balloons from CINDERELLA. So Sweet! It was attached to Luci's bear. Luci was sound asleep when we got to the rooms, so this will be a wonderful surprise in the morning.We found glass slippers! This wasn't budgeted--but how could we pass them up??The day ended wonderfully with Cinderella. It began with trauma on the Dumbo ride. She's been talking about riding Dumbo for at least a month. JT was supposed to ride with her. It was difficult getting her into the pachyderm....think of putting a dog into a bathtub. After coming this far, we were going to go through with it.
Should'a skipped Dumbo.
Riding the Carousel with Daddy. Started out well, but...
should'a skipped the Carousel, too.Luci's favorite "ride." This was in a preschool playground area in Toon Town, right across from Mickey Mouse's house. Overall, I am glad that Luci is not a thrill-seeker or as adventurous as the boys. Maybe she won't get into as many dangerous things as the boys did as young children. Luci being my sidekick is a pretty wonderful thing.
PS: John and the boys were at the Magic Kingdom today, too. They had a blast going on all the big rides while Luci and I did the mild stuff. JT made his first (and second, third, fourth, etc) trip on Space Mountain, a big roller-coaster that has been "too much" in the past. Bryan and JT are taking John to the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party tonight. I am happy to crash here with Luci!

It Started Out So Well....

Ready to go eat breakfast with the Princesses at Norway in Epcot! Happy about it!

Not so sure anymore. Luci with Snow White, loving that Snow White knows it's her birthday but not sure about everything else.
More Princesses! Oh No! Luci hides under the table, sobbing. I want to go home NOW!!!
Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) talks to Luci under the table while signing the autograph book. This princess sounds just like her character in the Disney movie. Wow.
Mulan got her out from under the table, but Luci would have NOTHING to do with her. By the time we left, every cast member (that's what Disney employees are called) knew about Luci crying under the table! The boys had to make do with these gorgeous young ladies. Doesn't it look like they enjoyed their task? Jasmine from the movie Aladdin. Oh--and Bryan and JT!
Princess Aurora
Mulan
John reading the birthday card that was delivered to the table for Luci--they even brought a cupcake with Mickey sprinkles! For breakfast!
Later on, Luci and I headed out on our own. John took the boys to do the exciting rides. I changed Luci into something more comfortable. While she worked on this craft in the China pavilion, guess who showed up and came straight to Luci?! Mulan! Look who let Mulan get close!This is my FAVORITE picture of the entire day. (Mom--are you crying?)
JT mugging it up.

Bryan and JT playing Power City after the Spaceship Earth ride. It was a fun game.
Sweet photo
Waiting for Mom to get out of the bathroom.
Luci and I toured the World Showcase. When we came to Germany, Luci told me that "Maggie lives here." Audrey, you might want to check on Maggie--Luci said she saw her here! :)
Finding the next thing to do....which turned out to be the boat ride home to our resort. So far, the boat ride is her favorite "ride" at Disney.
Back at the room, loving that jewelry box. This was a few minutes before she finally passed out.