Oh, hello, do you even remember me? My name's Clare? I've been writing this TR for WAY too long! I so sincerely apologize for my way too extended absence this time. Work has finally slowed down a bit, but then wouldn't you know it, our internet at home was being beastly for the last week so every night when I wanted to get on the computer, it would crash. Seriously. Jason has it at least temporarily fixed, so I'm back in business for now!
The kids are in bed, Jason is in the bathtub, I just mowed the lawn for the first time this season (It was a JUNGLE,) I'm all showered, so you all get my undivided attention for the rest of the evening!
So we had just met Merida with the terrible wig. Maura got a hold of the camera and took some pictures of the Brave merch outside the meet and greet. Her pictures are always extreme closeups.
I thought for sure we'd end up with that horse, but we didn't! Probably next time.
We decided to see what had FP+ left for the day. Maura and I scored one for Dumbo, and Lucy and Jason got one for Space Mountain. Again. I think this is like Lucy's 6th time this trip.
We had a little time before the times came up, so we went into the Dump Shop from Space Mountain to do a little shopping. Maura got a Stitch had, and Lucy got a medium sized stuffed Stitch. ANOTHER stuffed animal. She wanted the giant one, but we said no. She was happy with the medium one, though, and he's super soft.
After using up some time in the shop, it was time to use our respective FP+. Maura and I headed over to Dumbo while Jason and Lucy took one last spin on Space Mountain. We of course had to get a pink Dumbo. Here's the proof.
And an evening shot of Dumbo because it looks so cool all lit up.
And a blurry, terrible picture while the ride was in motion.
The line was non-existent for Dumbo, so we got in the standby line and rode again while we were waiting. No pictures that time, we just enjoyed the ride!
We met up with Jason and Lucy, and they had no last ride photo, as the system was down. That's okay. We had a lot of other ones!
We were getting kind of hungry and actually still had 1 table service credit to use, so we stopped in Cosmic Rays for something to eat. I had what I swear was a turkey sandwich, but I don't see it on the menu. But I swear that's what it was. And it was really good! The roll it was on was delicious! I guess I had green beans with it too.
The kids both had the chicken breast nuggets and fries. They were decent nuggets!
Jason had the BBQ pork sandwich with fries. He also enjoyed his.
After dinner, things were starting to wind down, and we wanted to beat the crowd out before Wishes ended, so we headed to the front, with our heads hanging. Jason and Lucy headed up to pick up our Frozen merchandise from earlier, and Maura, who had a little more $$ to spend, and I stopped in the Emporium. Guess what she got? GUESS!
If you guessed another stuffed animal, you are correct! She got an Oswald, who she has become obsessed with. He is pretty cute. I grabbed a few more little things for co-workers. We also got 2 Mickey head balloons. Since we drive, we can bring them with us, so we got a couple of those on the way out. Those last FOREVER! I think I finally just tossed them about a month ago. They weren't on the ceiling that long, but were inflated that long. And they were on the ceiling for quite a while.
Sadly, we headed out. Back to the Monorail, back to parking and on the road. Good-bye, Disney World, we'll see you next year!
But WAIT, the trip didn't end there. We were done with Disney, but we still had a few days in Florida left to spend with Jason's dad and stop mom. They are about 90 minutes Northwest of Orlando, and aside from the GPS taking us down some road that I SWEAR was a walking path, the drive was uneventful and we arrived at their house about 11:00. Even though we were sad to leave Disney, we were excited to be there. Of course Grandma and Grandpa have a pool (because if you live in Florida and don't have a pool, I think you're an outcast and get put on a list or something.
), and the girls were ready to go in it right away. We had to persuade them to sleep first with the promise of swimming first thing in the morning.
Thank goodness for a Grandma and Grandpa who only see the kids a couple of times a year so they are ready to do whatever the kids want. Those kids were up at the you-know-what crack of dawn hoping to get in that pool. Jason and I were blissfully unaware though, as we remained in Dreamland while G and G took the girls in the pool! They were still in there when I rolled out of bed at about 9:30.
Even Bucky was exhausted. He might have even been hungover.
We took it easy that day, and went out for lunch at this place on the water. It was a place called the Homosassa Riverside Resort. I guess they have monkeys that live on the island.
Real monkeys, not my monkeys. We didn't get to find out though, because they were closed. We only got the picture. So, instead we ate at a place called Claw Daddy's. Decent food and service. No pictures, though.
We just swam and hung out the rest of the day.
The next day, Friday, September 19th, was Lucy's 8th birthday. We went bowling at Manatee Bowl.
We went back to the house, and the kids wanted to see the horse that lives behind them. The horse! There are horses everywhere in their neighborhood. They don't have one, though. They fed her some apples. Her name is Tana.
For dinner, we grilled burgers. Well, turkey and veggie burgers. My inlaws have this amazing outdoor grill area that they hardly ever use! I would be using it all the time if we had one. I am very jealous of their grill.
After dinner, we had cake, of course!
continued in next post