October 7, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 8)

A couple of our Monster Friends!

(click here for today's pictures)

Campbell was the only one awake this morning and she hinted at us leaving the other kids and just taking her this morning. We briefly debated this but decided that we probably should take everyone.  Robby laid down with the boys until they were awake and all talking about what they wanted to do and see this morning.

We left a bit later this morning but still with time to spare.  We arrived at Hollywood Studios just in time for them to open the gates and then we hurried and waited at the next rope drop.  The main attraction for us this morning was the Tower of Terror.  We hightailed it over there and apparently no one else was too interested in going there because Reagan, Anderson, Graham, Campbell, Keaton and I walked right in. Whitman is too short and Robby stayed back to "watch him."

This was Keaton's first time to do the Tower of Terror and she was pretty skittish.  At one point, I thought she was about to break into the ugly cry.  Campbell was on the other side of me saying that she was scared over and over again.  After that ride, Campbell and Keaton hung back with Nonna and Pops while we rode again.  I determined that I like having little people with me to talk to during the ride-it makes me feel a lot better and probably distracts me quite a bunch.

Reagan, Anderson and Graham went to the single ride line of Rock n Roller coaster while the rest of us walked towards the Playhouse Disney show.  Campbell, Keaton and Whitman loved that show; they loved the bubbles that flew from the ceiling, the snow that fell, the gold doubloons and the streamers.  They sang along and even dances.  Pops loved the show because he had a good little nap with his head leaned up against the back wall.

The big kids didn't make it back to the show but they were able to ride Star Tours twice.  I am sure that they were a little bit glad that we didn't make them come see Princess Sophia and Doc McStuffins.  We met back up for a quick snack and then we saw Mike and Sully.  We took a picture with them and then walked to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

Everyone enjoyed playing in there and I do believe that they could have stayed in that area and played for much longer.  Whitman was having a ball standing under the water that squirts out.  After a good bit of play time there we walked back across the park so the big 3 could ride Tower of Terror one last time.

While they rode, the rest of us started on our lunch and then I took the little girls to go and start our shopping-we weren't able to find anything just yet.  But they have some spending money that is burning a hole in their pocket.  After the others finished their ride and lunch, we then headed out of the park.

On the way home we grabbed slushies from 7-11.  Then it was home and pool time for everyone.  Pops made popcorn and it was quickly eaten as the kids walked around the pool.  Robby hung out in the hot tub some while I worked on the blog.  I even put my feet in the pool for a bit since it became pretty hot outside.

The kids put on a few shows while in the pool and even played charades to name Disney rides.  Around 3 we made everyone get out of the pool and dry off for a bit before eating a very early snack supper.  Robby fixed pizzas for us and we gobbled down our food and left at 4.

Tonight we went to Epcot.  Even though we had already rode the Spaceship Earth, we had Fast Passes so we certainly didn't let those go to waste.  We saw Mickey and Pluto for a quick picture and the kids smiled perfectly for those photos (well as perfect as my kiddos can).

We then walked by the lady handing out dried cranberries-we have walked by this lady at least 3 times so we have received 30 tiny packages of craisins...and Whitman has eaten most of them.  He will be quiet regular over the next few days!

Next up was a ride around Test Track.  Even the Fast Pass line was pretty long due to some delays but soon we were zooming around the track.  Graham was proud of his car that he built and Keaton and Campbell were pretty thrilled with their pink car that they built.

After Test Track we did some shopping.  The kids all have some souvenir money (Beebee gave each of them 2 dollars to buys themselves something on our trip-Pops supplemented that and Robby is supplementing the rest!)  Keaton picked out a Princess Sophia doll but every single thing she saw at the store she wanted.  Reagan wasn't able to find anything nor was Whitman but we have a few more days to find the perfect souvenir.  Anderson spied the Star Wars legos but those sets were too expensive so Robby found him a decent sized and decent priced one on Amazon and it will beat us home.  Graham found a neat hat that says "Monster" across the front.

Campbell struggled finding something that she would like.  I pointed out a stuffed Doc McStuffins and Campbell replied "well, I am getting close to being 9, so I don't think I should get a toy."  And since she is 5 almost 6, I guess she is close to being nine-in over 3 years!  I am not really sure what is magical about 9 but I do understand-toys are not really her thing so much anymore (except her baby dolls) and other than jewelry there wasn't much for her.  Reagan did help her find a princess pencil box which I do believe she was pretty pleased with.

After that, we rode the Mexico boat ride-it is a pretty good little ride.  Then we walked all the way around the world showcase.  We did stop in Germany to eat a pretzel, apple strudel and German chocolate.  Reagan really wanted to find German chocolate-the big kids CBS teacher is from Germany and has brought chocolate for the kids before so Reagan wanted to find some.  We didn't find the brand Reagan was looking for but Pops bought us some anyway to sample!

At the US section of Epcot, we went to a thing upstairs and had a coke before heading on around the world.  Each time that we leave Epcot, I am a bit sad that we didn't spend more time there.  I just love the countries and really would love to eat my way around the them and I would also love to look in every gift shop in each country as well.

We made it back to the ball for the fireworks and were able to see some of them as we traded pins and as Robby picked up a picture from the store.  Then we hopped right on a tram to our car-seriously, who would have ever thought that we would not have had to wait for a tram when the park is closing and the fireworks had just finished.

It didn't take long for us to find the car (we remembered where it was tonight) and then we were home putting everyone in bed in a flash.  Tomorrow is the homeschool day program-remembering last years program, Robby prayed tonight with the kids that this years program would be interesting!  Last year it was not interesting at all...but hopefully tomorrow will be different (it will have to be interesting to keep us awake since it starts at 8!)

October 6, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 7)

You see all sorts at Disney World!

(click here for today's pictures)

I guess that the boys are pretty excited about this week-each morning when we go to wake them up, they surprisingly have their clothes on.  It has taken us a few days but we have finally realized that they are sleeping in their clothes I guess it does save some time in the mornings so not a problem with me.

 The girls were a bit more difficult to wake up this morning. Once they were up it took a while for me to fix their hair before sending them downstairs to eat.  This left me about 30 minutes to get ready but luckily for Robby, this was not a problem.  I was ready in time to have my Big Texas cinnamon roll and to watch Robby pack our lunches. 

 We were out the door this morning again at 8 and were soon at the parking lot walking to the monorail.  But the monorail wasn’t working this morning so we were able to ride the boat across the 7 Seas Lagoon.  The boys really love the monorial but I am a bit partial to the boat.  Whitman wasn’t too fond of the boat and wanted for me to “get off back there.”  Once we were on solid ground and moving again, he was just fine.

 This mroning we fought the crowds to get to Peter Pan-really though there weren’t too many crowds going to Peter Pan.  We were on a quest to do anything that we haven’t yet done and Peter Pan was the one.  It had been updated since we had been on it so we even rode it twice. 

 Then we rode the carousel and worked on trying to take the sword out of the stone.  We were unsuccessful at this but one of Cinderella’s stepsisters tried to coach Anderson to help him with the sword-it did not work. 

 After the sword attempts, we rode the teacups.  I kept my eyes on Whitman so I didn’t get too dizzy but I do believe that Nonna’s teacup was spinning faster than mine. 

 Robby then had Fastpasses to the Tomorrowland Speedway.  That is always fun and a little bit of a scenic ride.  Keaton could not get over that the car drove itself. 

 Next up was jumping in line for the Astro Orbiter.  While we were riding that ride, we spotted Pops and he was eating something-a chocolate covered banana.  We asked him about it when we were off of the ride and he said that since he didn’t get to ride, he deserved a snack.

 Winnie the Pooh was the next ride that we rode.  Then we ventured over to Space Mountain for Campbell’s first ride there.  Last time we were at Silver Dollar City, Campbell would break into the ugly cry on any roller coaster but not at the most magical place on earth.  She did great-I had my hand on her shoulder until she brushed my hand off. 

 We had one more set of passes to ride it so Reagan, Anderson and Graham did that ride.  While they were riding, Robby, Campbell, Whitman and Keaton went to save a table for us to eat our lunch.  We ate in Tomorrowland-for most lunches, nutella was on the Dennie menu today.

 The other day we didn’t stop and play on the Dumbo playground so that was what we did after lunch.  The little ones loved playing on the playground but you can tell that my big 3 are getting too big to play on the playground.  While we were there, I did have to run Keaton and Campbell to the bathroom and goodness gracious, it was halfway across the park!

 When we returned, we all boarded Dumbo and rode one last time.  Then we stopped for ice cream sundaes.  They were delicious and it hit the spot because the perfectly wonderful weather we had experienced during the morning turned into sunny and hot!  While eating the ice cream, we saw Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters and jumped in line to see them.

 Everyone but Whitman was with me in line and they all walked up to them and I guess no one said anything.  The stepmother asked “hablas ingles?” to my silent kids-I am not sure if she was joking or not but I started laughing.  The stepsisters were pretty rowdy and one of them asked the kids if they lived in a show since there were so many of them.  My quick thinking Reagan said “no, but it smells like one.”  This caused one of the stepsisters to roll on the ground laughing!

 The next stop of the day was the Jungle Cruise.  My favorite part was when the boat captain told everyone to get down and Campbell bounded out of her seat trying to get down.  I have a picture from last time and the kids were all bending down too!

 After that ride, Nonna and Pops went to do a bit of shopping and we headed to the Aladdin ride.  We rode it once and then sat down for a bit to have some Dole Whip.  Robby was really hoping to find the orange juice slushes (an absolute favorite of his) but didn’t see those until a few minutes later. 

 We then lucked into pretty perfect spots for a parade.  The kids were able to see wonderfully and Whitman sat perfectly still in Anderson’s lap during the entire parade.  We do not always to get see parades but today we sat through the whole thing.  It was a good one-lots of princesses and even ended with Mickey and Minnie.  At one point though I was holding Keaton and there was some type of big dragon.  She wanted me to put her down and stand in front of her!  After it when by she was perfectly happy again and we all enjoyed the parade.

 After the parade, we hopped on Aladdin again and then went to find Nonna and Pops.  On the way there we were trapped by the parade again but soon met up with them.  We followed the crowd to the monorail and were soon back at the car. 

 Once we made it home, we unloaded and did a bit of repacking.  Whitman was halfway asleep when I laid him down from the car ride home but didn’t stay asleep very long.  But he was asleep long enough for us to sneak back out for a night out. 

Robby asked the kids who would want to go back out with us and Reagan and Anderson were the only ones who took us up on our adventure.  Graham would have enjoyed going with us but I think that he was pretty tired.  Campbell and Keaton could only think about swimming which they all 3 did as soon as we walked out the door.  Nonna woke Whitman up and he was able to swim for a bit too.  They had supper and even made cookies while awaiting for our arrival back to the home. 

 We had no stroller, no bags, no nothing tonight except for our fast walking kids and we covered some ground.  This was the night of the Halloween party which we were not attending so we had to be exiting the park by 7.  There were some monorail issues so we had to wait quite a while for a ride to the park but once we were on the ground we moved pretty quickly. 

 The first ride that we did was Buzz and then we did the Stitch’s Great Escape.  The kids had not done that and it was neat but not the most wonderful thing in the world.  We will have to do it on Friday for Graham though and that is fine. 

 It was quite interesting watching everyone pour into the park wearing their elaborate Halloween costumes.  I really wanted to start running up to people asking for their autographs but I know that would have embarrassed the heck out of Reagan-we probably should have done it. 

 Big Thunder and Splash Mountains were next.  The lines were fairly short so we were able to ride those before being shoo-ed out of the park since we didn’t have on the party wristbands.  The train station looked all spooky and which was neat to see.

 Again the monorail seemed to take a while but we soon made it via the resort monorail.  Then it was on the tram to our car-which we couldn’t find.  We were in the right parking lot but just had to look a little bit.  It is surprising how many big white vans there are in the Disney World parking lots. 

After finding our car, Robby ran into the grocery store to pick up a few things while the kids watched Frozen and I worked feverishly on the blog! Once at home, Nonna had saved us some cookies and all of the kids were delighted to see us.  My Keaton was pretty much exhausted and asked a few times for us to go to bed.  They all went to bed easily and then I had to break it to Pops that we were going to be leaving again tomorrow at 8!  He told me that we were not on vacation and should just leave at 10 in the morning. I then told him that he could find his own ride and I would see him at 10-he will be ready bright and early in the morning since he doesn’t want to miss a thing!

October 5, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 6)

A few treats in Paris!

(click here for today's pictures)

This morning started earlier than the previous mornings-I don't really know why but my people are waking earlier and earlier.  The first thing we heard this morning was someone whining "momma, momma, help me."  It sounded something like that but I wasn't really sure; Robby even heard it from the bathroom and came out and checked on the big kids. 

The big kids were all ready to wake up so they started getting ready but we still heard the almost meow-like whine of "momma, momma, help me."  By this time we determined that there was not a cat outside of the window but it was Whitman.  Robby went in to get him and he was perfectly content but I guess he needed his momma. He did lay in bed with me for about 2 seconds until he ran to the bathroom where Robby was.  He tried to open the locked door while saying "downstairs, downstairs."  That wasn't the door to downstairs-I guess Campbell isn't the only Dennie kid who can't find their way out of our bedroom.

We really should be leaving the house later each day too but nope, today we were in the car before 8.  Robby drove right to Hollywood Studios-except that wasn't the park we were going first today!  It didn't take long to find Epcot and we were on one of the first rows of parking.  We were inside the park and rushed towards Soarin since Nonna and Pops both agree that Soarin is their favorite ride.
They were able to keep up with us and when we had to stop at the next rope, Pops asked what we were hurrying for.  We told him that we had to hurry so we could stop and wait (that kind of was the theme of the day).  

When they dropped the next rope, we were off with a few hundred of our closest friends-who also did not have a Fast Pass to Soarin.  I grabbed Keaton out of her stroller and threw it at Robby while he dumped Whitman and ran to the stroller parking.  Reagan, Anderson, Graham and Campbell were in the front leading the way for Nonna and Pops who were ahead of me since I was dragging Keaton and a confused Whitman.  The four kids up front were trying to walk as fast as they could as they had been told to do but they also didn't want to get lost in the crowd.  They were all hollering at each other shouting "come on! slow down! hurry up! where's Mom? which way do we go? I can't see Nonna."  Just listening to them was enough of a show!
We made it to the entrance and I didn't know if Robby was going to be able to catch up with us from parking the strollers but just as we were herded into the line, Robby appeared and he went with everyone else and I stayed back with Whitman to receive a parent swap (meaning I could go in the fastpass line with 2 extra folks when the others were finished).

Whitman hung out with me and we watched people pour into Soarin-it was very interesting and then after a bit, it became eerily empty in that area.  I guess everyone that was going to go to Soarin had already arrived.  This gave Whitman a good little bit to run around in a completely empty Land area.  Then the people started arriving and before I knew it, my crew had finished the ride.  I then jumped in line with the boys and we watched the ride while the others sat down and had a snack-an M&M cookies and a red velvet whoopie pie.  The boys were crazy about the whoopie pie.  They went on and on about how to make one and Anderson even asked if we could make one for his birthday party.  
Now I know that there isn't much to Living with the Land but it is a pretty neat little ride-always makes me wish that I had a garden.  It was our next stop and this was really the first time that we have been on the ride when most everyone can read (only Whitman and Keaton can not and Campbell can halfway).  So when they saw a sign they were shouting the names of the fruits and veggies growing.

We then walked over to the Nemo ride that had been broken the other night.  The line for it wasn't too long so that was the next ride.  It was a bit of a walk but soon we were at the ride with Figment about the 5 senses.  It also was a cute little ride and at the end there was a loud bang and Graham screamed like a little girl-of course this caused the little girl, Keaton, beside him to be scared to death!  After you get off of that ride, there are some games and activities to do so we spent some time in that.

Next up was our walk towards the countries.  Since this is the Food and Wine festival, Robby did stop off in Hawaii for some pork sliders.  His line was still long today but it was worth it because they were delicious.  Then we walked through Canada and the kids played in the telephone booth for a good while.  The funny thing was that they played with the pay phone more than the phone booth-both of those two things are a very foreign concept to them-especially the part about the phone being real and the operator could come on if they don't hang it up.  

We walked past a stage and Robby saw that the show was about to start so we hung out for a few minutes to watch a lumberjack show.  About that time the sun came out and it quickly became hot.  I had to hold Keaton so she could see and had to set her down a few times and even take off my backpack-it was hot, hot!  Thankfully that was the hottest part of the day and we even had pretty good cloud cover today.

The lumberjacks were entertaining-the threw their axes, carved two chairs out of a log, sawed a log and even had a log rolling competition.  After it was over, we walked through the UK and stopped for lunch in the back near the maze.  Mary Poppins was there so the girls and I met her and got her autograph.

Then we all had our lunch-their was a squirrel that enjoyed trying to get to our food but that didn't stop us from eating a good lunch.  Then the kids had time to play in the maze for a good while before we headed to France.  On the way there, we picked up the Phineas and Ferb scavenger hunt thing and were off on our mission.

Te set up to the Phineas and Ferb thing is a bit long and I would have even preferred another stop on the scavenger hunt and less pre-talk.  It was still pretty neat and we were able to explore France while chasing evil Dr. Doofensmirtz (excuse my spelling-I am too tired to look it up!)  I would even enjoy a grown up scavenger hunt through Epcot if you could do it when there are no crowds!  

Nonna had earlier asked what you get if you complete the scavenger hunt and I told her "satisfaction" but I guess Robby and Pops thought that the kids needed a little more than just "satisfaction" after completing their mission-they needed "pasties."  I do not know what was ordered but it all looked good and most of the things I had never seen anything like it before in my life.  That sure didn't stop the kids though because they devoured each and everything that was ordered.  

After this we walked just a bit and caught the boat to Hollywood Studios.  The ride there was pretty and my Campbell and Keaton sat outside a bit.  I watched them and they sat perfectly still.  Then at one stop Reagan and Graham joined them and again they were little angels.  Now don't believe that they have been perfect but so far, at least at the parks, they have been very good.  Coming to and from the parks and at the house, they have had a few attitude problems and a few disagreements but even though it is no excuse those poor babies are just exhausted.

After the boat, we walked right into Hollywood Studios and I was a bit sad to see the big Mickey Sorcerer hat was gone.  But the boys were thrilled when they figured out that we were headed to see Indiana Jones after a bathroom stop.  The crowds were crazy big there but we were able to snag a seat on almost the front row but way over to the side.  This action was probably a bit too close for Keaton and Whitman.  Keaton and Campbell kept their ears covered and Whitman pretty much said "no, no, no" or "I no like this show" the entire time that we were there.  It will be amazing if he doesn't start having nightmares after this trip-he has seen so many things that would just be terrifying to someone if they didn't understand that it wasn't real.

From Indiana we walked to my favorite stop of the day, and it might just be my favorite of the entire week-a Frozen sing along.  The actors were so good and it was quite a sight being in a theater filled with people all singing along to Let It Go!  I could hear Campbell and Robby belting out the songs and I was singing away while moving Whitman's arms to the music.  Now my sweet Keaton, who just had a Frozen birthday party, was snoozing!  Robby was finally able to wake her at the end to see Elsa and Anna as the snow fell onto our heads but other than that, she pretty much missed it all!

Reagan then really wanted to see about the wait times for Tower of Terror but they were way too long so we checked on Rockin Roller Coaster.  They had a single rider so we shoved our single riders into line.  Reagan was a bit skittish about going and Anderson probably wouldn't go alone.  We convinced them to go but Graham was the one not wanting to go next.  He is a bit more timid about rides (well life in general) but it didn't take much for him to change his mind and catch up with his brother and sister.  

We waited for a very long time for them to come out of the single rider line-the coaster had been shut down some today and they were just behind.  Robby was able to take Keaton and Campbell back to Nonna and Pops and to buy a few drinks.  Meanwhile, Whitman and I were waiting on the others to finish and we picked up some ice water.  I even did a bit of window shopping and saw a purse that I really liked-it had Mickey on it!...if only I carried a purse!  

After waiting a while for the others, we all met back up at the Little Mermaid show (today was the day of shows).  It was a good show but I do believe it is about time for DIsney to revamp that show a bit but Campbell sure loved it.  She was convinced that the huge dog at the end was a real dog!  When that show was over, we picked up our strollers and the girls, Graham and I stopped off to see Doc. McStuffins on our way out of the park.

We then caught the bus to Epcot-we had little wait for the bus and the ride was less than 10 minutes.  And to top all of that off, when we climbed off the bus, we were not too far from our car.  On the way home, Robby picked up Mexican for everyone-some food from Taco Bell and some from Chuys.  

Back at the house we all ate and then the kids headed to the pool.  It was dark and the pool lights brightly changed colors and they all loved this.  Whitman watched Thomas upstairs instead of swimming and I guess that Keaton was too tired to swim because she didn't want to tonight.  They swam for a long time and even when it rained, it didn't seem to stop them (the rain ran me inside since it was getting on my computer enough that I couldn't see the words that I was typing.)

When we made them come in from swimming, they all had showers and then it was bedtime.  Hopefully they will sleep a little bit in the morning but I do believe that the race will be on to get downstairs to finish off the last big Texas cinnamon roll.

October 4, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 5)

We all love the Magic Kingdom!

(click here for today's pictures)

This morning started with us waking up a bit earlier today than yesterday.  Our start this morning had to be at 8 so we needed all of the time that we could get.  Robby started on the laundry and when he opened the kids’ doors this morning they were all still sound asleep.  He had to wake everyone up but they were quickly downstairs eating their breakfasts.  I do believe that cinnamon rolls are the hit of the week along with frosted mini wheats.

 We loaded up and were out the door perfectly on time this morning.  The kids have been beyond excited this week-Graham can not walk anywhere he goes-only run, Reagan can not stop talking and Campbell can not keep her hands off of Whitman-that is pretty normal though.

 Our first observation of the morning was that parking at Magic Kingdom was 20 bucks a day-seriously?  Wow!  Parking is even more expensive there than at the other parks.  That is fine though since this is vacation and pretty much anything goes (not really!)  Our parking spot was good and we were able to walk to the transportation center and catch a monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

 The kids loved riding on the monorail and every time I am on it, I start thinking about staying at the Polynesian or even reminiscing about us coming down here and staying at the Grand Floridian on our honeymoon.  But of course then I have to start debating if I want to bring the kids back and stay there someday or if Robby and I should just come back by ourselves-then we could eat around the Epcot world (on my bucket list).

 Once we were off the monorail we flew through the bag check line and entered park and saw the morning kick off.  Whitman could not take his eyes off of the train.  Truly that is one of the most magical times of the day in my opinion.  When the park opened, we shuffled with everyone else in the park to the Seven Dwarf mine train. 

 Since it is new, everyone headed that way.  The line was long but it didn’t take long at all.  We pulled Whitman up to the measuring point mainly so we could get a fast passes.  The dwarf mine train was a pretty good little ride-the kids even pulled Nonna on it.  It was fun because it had some roller coaster and some Disney type ride elements.  When it was over, we found Pops and Whitman and Reagan, Campbell and I went on it again with the fast passes.

 Next up we walked to Toontown and started riding the Barnstormer.  The boys were able to ride 3 times while the girls and I made our way back to them.  We caught up and rode twice and then we realized that Whitman would be tall enough so he rode one more time with me.  During the entire time on the Barnstormer, Whitman was tightly holding on saying “whoa! whoa!”  When we finished he started jabbering about the ride being fast and scary.  he even used his hand to show how it went curvy and around and around.

 The Dumbo line was so short that we didn’t even stay to play on the playground in the waiting area.  We decided that we would come back and stop there another day this week when we needed a rest or to cool off.  We all rode Dumbo and then climbed aboard the train for a ride around Magic Kingdom-well, mostly around because we hopped off at Frontierland. 

 There we rode Big Thunder Mountain and then the boys were able to ride it again because of Nonna and Pops’ extra Fast Passes.  Keaton is able to ride these roller coasters this time and she is so funny-always asking if the ride is fast or if it is going to go upside down.

 Nonna, Pops and Whitman hung out under a porch and sat and waited on us while we went to Splash Mountain to ride it.  By this time it was misting pretty good.  The mist alone wouldn’t have been bad but the constantness of it could have become a problem. 

 While we were on Splash Mountain our silly ride stopped while we were at an outside part and we just sat in the mist.  Of course that would have been absolutely fine if we had been wearing our ponchos.  We didn’t have them on because they were perfectly packed and ready to go-just in the car!  We really probably wouldn’t have put them on then because just imagine the mess of 6 wet poncho wearing kids.  I probably would have only gotten them out if it would have started pouring and even then I don’t know if I would have opened them.

 After Splash Mountain, we picked up Nonna, Pops and Whitman and went to Pirates of the Caribbean.  I do believe that Whitman loved this ride but he also didn’t like it.  Graham was the one screaming and squealing on this ride-he wasn’t really scared but just noisy as he usually is.

 By this time we were getting hungry and sat in Pecos Bill to eat our lunch.  Today’s meal consisted of the same thing as yesterday but today we pulled out cookies to complete our lunch.  The kids mostly gobbled up their lunches and then we headed back through the mist to the Haunted Mansion.

 Whitman was happily riding on that ride until it stopped briefly and the man spoke about the ride stopping-but the voice was a pretty scary Haunted Mansion voice and this caused Whitman to crawl out over the safety bar and into my lap.  He had had enough haunting!  Once the ride started again, he was fine and all was well.

 Pops’ favorite ride was next: Small World and then we went right across the way to Mickey’s Philharmagic.  That little 3D show was probably really good-but my eyes were heavy so I just snuggle with Whitman and closed my eyes.  And to be honest, I will admit that I also snoozed on Small World.  No, I don’t think that I have become narcoleptic on this trip-Pops, Nonna and even Robby had their eyes closed during Small World.  I hope that Disney people don’t read this and ban us from the park!

 Robby thought that he was leading us to the Ariel ride but instead we walked into a Belle story time event.  Campbell was chosen to be Belle’s father and Keaton was chip the little teacup.  Eventually Belle came and they performed the story for Belle.  The kids were able to take their pictures with Belle at the end but she didn’t sign their autograph books which greatly disappointed Reagan.

 Then we did make it to Ariel’s Grotto.  The line for it was pretty short so we were on it in no time.  And then we walked towards Tomorrowland.  On the way Robby stopped and bought some popcorn and we sat and had a snack.  Then we let the kids trade pins two different times-this is a highlight of their day.  Everyone left with a few different pins and then we told them we had one last ride.

 The Buzz Lightyear ride was next on the list.  My boys get a bit competitive on this ride and I do think that Whitman will be just like them-his hands never left that gun.  I usually beat Robby on this ride and I believe that I did this time (though I don’t remember my score nor have I heard his)

 Of course our “one last ride” turned into two more-Buzz and the People Mover.  I probably enjoy the People Mover more than anyone else. I think that it is one of my favorites because it is a perfect time to rest and cool off for a bit when the weather is blazing hot.  Though the weather by this time was pretty perfect and the breezy ride was pretty nice. 

 Then we had another monorail ride and then a short walk to the car.  People were filing into the park all dressed up and ready for the Mickey’s Halloween party.  Some of the kids were a bit bummed that we were not staying for that (seriously though 75 bucks extra per ticket-not gonna happen Dennie kids).  But once Robby mentioned swimming and then ice cream everyone was very, very happy.

 We went back to the house and started heating up our chicken spaghetti while the kids swam.  Whitman had fallen asleep on the stroller ride back to the car and continued his nap during swim time-this is his second day to miss swimming.  The pool must have been pretty cold today because my people just stayed mainly in the hot tub.

 Supper was adequate-we made chicken spaghetti and it was too cheesy.  I guess that we probably should have looked for our recipe instead of just making it up.  The kids sure seemed to love it though and we will kill the rest of our hunger tonight with ice cream. 

 We cleaned up the supper dishes while the big 3 worked on their Bible study so they won’t be behind next week when we go back.  After we were all finished, we loaded up and headed to a little ice cream spot that Pops and I had spotted when we were out buying groceries the other day.

 It was a few miles away but so cute.  It was a new version of the ice cream place in Niagara-just a bit ice cream cone shaped building.  This one had sprinkles that were all lit up which made it that much cuter.  Robby let everyone pick exactly what they wanted: Reagan picked out an ice cream cookie sandwich, Anderson an ice cream taco, Graham chose ice cream with cookie dough, Campbell picked chocolate ice cream with Reece's pieces, Keaton ordered sprinkles and Whitman asked for chocolate (but we ordered him vanilla-it is much neater!)

 After eating outside, we headed home and the kids quickly put on their pjs and headed to bed.  They were a bit wound up and when I went in to tell everyone good night, Reagan and Keaton were holding hands-Keaton told me that they were going to hold hands all night long!  Glad they love each other.

October 3, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 4)

Finding Mickey and Minnie!

(click here for today's pictures)

We slept very well last night-except our bed is very hot.  It is almost like the pillows and the mattress have plastic on them so it gets a bit stuffy-as in I was soaking wet with sweat when I woke up this morning (at least I hope that it was sweat)

As soon as we climbed out of bed, Robby went to open the kids doors-which was their sign that it was okay to get out of bed (since they didn’t have a clock in their room).  By the time he had walked back into our bedroom, everyone was filing in behind him.  I think that they were a tad bit excited about starting their Disney day. 

After the kids had on their clothes, they ran downstairs and Nonna and Pops helped fix their breakfasts.  I do believe that my boys had Big Texas cinnamon rolls, Campbell and Keaton had pop tarts, Reagan had cereal and Whitman ate mostly strawberries for breakfast.

Before 8 we were loaded up ready to go.  We looked back on the blog from 2 years ago to determine what we hauled into the park each day.  Since we could find it I will make sure that I document it this year.  Into the park each day we are bringing one backpack that is all diaper bag stuff: cups, diapers, clothes for all, wipes, candy.  Then we have another diaper bag that is full of Disney pins, autograph books, food for lunch and snacks.  Also on the back of the second stroller, we have an ice chest that contained our lunches (lunchables, sandwiches, roll ups) and drinks. 

Because this is Saturday, we opted to not go to Magic Kingdom this morning which would have been my first choice for the initial park to go to but we were afraid of the Saturday crowds.  Animal Kingdom was the park that worked best on our schedule so that is where we headed.

We parked nearby (grieving the loss of our AAA crazy close parking) and then walked to the front of the park.  The park was opened a bit early so we headed to the Triceratops ride.  Everyone was able to ride that ride and we jumped into the line.  The kids loved it-Whitman especially.  He was pretty excited when we told him that we were going to ride that one again. 

Poor Graham was so looking forward to riding the spinning ride nearby.  He was too short last time we were here but today the ride was closed for repairs.  I felt pretty bad for him but I guess that is a pretty good reason for us to come back for another trip.

Just a short walk away was the Dinosaur ride.  We convinced Keaton and Campbell to go on it twice with us.  Whitman hung out with Nonna and Pops the first ride and then with Robby the second ride and that is when we convinced Pops and Nonna to ride with us.  If I recall correctly, Pops said that he thought he was going to throw up on that ride.

The next item on the agenda was the Bug Life show.  We sat right up front and it was pretty fun for everyone...except for Whitman.  He kept telling me “I no like dis show.”  The poor thing would have crawled behind me if he could have but once the happy music near the end started he perked up again and started enjoying it.

We jumped in line to see Mickey and Minnie.  Last time we came here, Whitman and Keaton were the ones timid of the characters and we just assumed that Whitman would be this time.  As soon as he saw Mickey and Minnie he started talking to them. He jabbered and jabbered about his Mickey shirt and about who knows what else. It was the cutest thing ever and he even kissed Minnie Mouse.

The rest of the kids were just as enamored by the characters.  I guess most everyone realized that they are just people dressed up now and that makes me a little bit said but as long as everyone still wants their pictures with Mickey, well that makes me happy.  All of the grownups happily took their pictures with Mickey today too. After this, it was time for us to set down and have a snack for a few minutes.  Robby then took everyone except Whitman to ride the Haki rapids.  Whitman, Nonna, Pops and I hung out at the table while they were gone. 

The wait time on their rapids said 30 minutes but within minutes at all, Robby was writing saying that they were already on the ride. Then he wrote again and said the ride was stopped. I think they were stopped on the ride for about 10 minutes.  Reagan said that the people that were on the ride with them didn’t speak English-that might have made for a long ride!

Close by that ride was Mt. Everest and the 4 big kids, Robby and I all rode that ride.  It is a pretty good roller coaster-probably a favorite of mine and when it is over, the people on it even clapped.  Reagan, Anderson and Graham went in the single rider line the 2nd time and moved much quicker than we did in the fastpass line so we told them to go again and then we would wait on them. 

Then we stopped for lunch and ate our picnic lunch.  The kids all devoured their lunches and we did too-I guess that a morning at the park makes you hungry.  After cooling off with our lunches and cold drinks, we headed for one last morning adventure.

We had passes for the safari and rode on it.  It was fun and Campbell was all about spotting the animals.  The animals were out and we saw many giraffes but we weren’t able to feed them like we had the other day.  My favorite animals to see today were the hippos all submerged in the water.  But really, my eyes were getting pretty heavy during that safari-I think that is usually where I get a bit tired!  So if you go to Africa for a real safai, you probably don’t want to take me-I might just sleep through it.

Then it was time to head back to the house.  I am sure that it is a bit strange to see people leaving the park around 1:30 (though we are not the only people doing that.)  We went back to the house and the kids threw on their bathing suits and jumped into the pool.  Pops sat outside and watched them-or quite probably he was sound asleep!  Robby was inside napping and Whitman was doing the same.  Nonna was working on her laundry and I was the designated kid watching-while I worked on my blog!

The kids swam and swam until it was almost super time.  We had lasagna and bread in the oven and while that was cooking we made chicken spaghetti for tomorrow or the next night.  After changing we all set around the table and gobbled up our food. 

Then we cleaned up the kitchen and headed to Epcot.  Today was the first day or the first weekend of the food and wine festival and it was very, very crowded.  We had hoped to sample a few foods but there was no way that was going to happen tonight. 

But we did find that Nemo had a short ride and hopped in that line.  We waited for a while without moving and then the lights popped on and the line really started moving.  We thought that maybe, just maybe, they were just doing the line with the lights on but no, the ride had stopped and we were all walking out of the line.  We did receive a fastpass for another ride. 

We did take the obligatory shark picture before going into the next room to talk with Crush.  Crush talked specifically to Reagan and then to me.  He also asked if anyone had any questions and Campbell’s hand shot up and she was called on.  And then she had nothing to say (that really never happens) but Graham, Anderson and Reagan were all heard whispering questions for her to ask in her ear.  She finally heard one and asked Crush her question.  For some reason Whitman decided that he did not like that show either and even said “get me out of this room.”  Poor baby!

After Crush, we walked around some but the silly crowds caused us to just decided to go and ride the ball and head back to the house.  Heading back to the house might have had something to do with the Razorbacks playing on tv as well.  Robby debated riding the monorail around some a bit tonight but we will save that for another night. 

The kids were fine with that plan since they were able to trade a pin as we walked towards the exit.  Then we went around the ball for the Spaceship Earth ride.  Whitman thinks that he has to ride with me on every ride so we were on this ride together and the Spaceship Earth is Whitman’s kind of ride.  He was as happy as he could be on it and at one time I even thought that he was going to go to sleep.  I have had kiddos fall asleep on that little ride before and I was not going to be surprised if Whitman did this time.

He didn’t and everyone was awake for the tram ride back to the car.  It was the longest tram ride ever but the weather was absolutely perfect so none of us seemed to mind.  Once in the car, it wasn’t long until we were back at the house.  Robby pulled out the ice cream and turned on the hog game.  

The funniest part of my evening happened when the kids were putting on their pajamas in my bedroom.  Campbell was already upset and was trying to walk out of the room.  She first walked into my closet and started saying “how do you get out of here? how do you get out of here?” and then she turned to find the door and walked towards the wall beside my bed.  By this point, she was frantic and shouting “how do you get out of here?”  I couldn’t help because I was laying on the floor laughing at my precious child!

Right now the kids are in bed, the dishes are washing, the tv is on and laundry is in the dryer-pretty much like a night at home.  I think we did pretty good today for our first Disney day.  Our usual schedule is arriving when the parks open, staying until around 2 and then going home for naps/swim and then heading back to the parks after supper.  Of course that is the usual schedule (our last day last time here we hit all 4 parks) and as I am writing about all of that Robby asked about changing things up a bit for tomorrow so we will see just what happens!

October 2, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 3)

We've made it to Orlando!

(click here for today's pictures)

I do believe that everyone slept well last night.  I never stirred during the night and I do not think that Robby did either.  Since we just had the boys in our room this morning we didn’t have to hurry around too much (they are so much easier than the girls). 

Pops had to wake the girls up since they were all sleeping so soundly and they still beat us to breakfast.  The breakfast this morning wasn’t as great as the day before but they had cinnamon rolls which I could eat every single day for breakfast. Though I do love a bagel and cream cheese but am saving that breakfast treat for a hotel that doesn’t have cinnamon rolls.

It didn’t take too long for us to load up and head towards Disney. I can tell that Robby and I are getting older: we used to drive from Little Rock to Orlando overnight but now it takes us 3 days!  It has been a fun 3 day trip down here though. 

The boys rode with Nonna and Pops for the first leg of the trip and the girls and Whitman stayed with us.  We turned on Annie and everyone was happy, happy. 

After passing out snacks for the girls, I then worked on getting them drinks out of the ice chest.  Of course what I was grabbing was at the bottom and after I tried unsuccessfully, Robby tried but also could not stand the cold ice for long enough to find kids’ drinks.  Finally, we were able to pull them out as Robby talked about how he never wants to die of hypothermia.  And that reminded me of yesterday…

I guess that I somehow forgot to include this on yesterday’s blog but as I was driving, Robby was getting something out of an ice chest or rearranging up front.  He asked for me to hold something and I didn’t look but just put my hand on what he had propped up beside me.  After just a few seconds, I could feel icy cold water gushing in my lap.  I squealed and then started cackling.  Robby looked around and had no idea what was happening and had no clue that the ice chest he had asked me to hold was pouring icy cold water into my lap. 

Finally, he grabbed the now empty ice chest from me and also had himself a good laugh.  (Our ice chest that holds a few bottles of water is a soft sided one and the water will leak out of the zipper if it is turned on its side.) 

Robby eventually found a towel to hand me to dry up my now soaked bottom.  Thankfully I had on navy shorts so no one at the next rest stop could see my wet hiney. 

So back to today: As we were getting back into the car after a rest stop, a man stopped me and asked me if I had been to Bove’s in Vermont.  I was wearing the shirt and I said that I had.  He was from Vermont and said that Bove’s was going to close next month.  That made me very sad since it was already listed as one of the stops for our trip next year but at least I saw their pasta sauce at Kroger the other day.

Robby let me drive after the potty stop and of course that leg of the journey had a zillion and a half cars on it. When we made it very near Downtown Disney (now named Disney Springs) the girls decided that they needed to potty so between looking for a potty and changing exits, we missed our turn and ended up in lots of traffic. After turning a few u-eys and no losing my tail (Pops and his car) we finally found a McDonalds to potty at and then we were back on the road.

It wasn’t long until we were parking at Disney Springs.  My first observation was man, it is hot!  Where is the fall weather?  I am just a tiny bit disappointed and praying for constant cloud cover.  Seriously though, we have never ever been to Disney with comfortable weather-it has always been hot or cold and no matter when my Dennies come here it is one of those two extremes.

I guess that I will still take the hot weather since we are at the most magical place on earth.  We left the parking garage and found lots of construction happening but that was fine.  We walked right to the first place we thought we can find food: Ghirardelli.  Unfortunately they only served desserts so we pressed on to another stop.

We ate at Earl of Sandwich.  It must have been the lunch rush because Robby and Pops had to wait in line for quite a while.  That was fine though because we lucked out on a spot inside.  I ran Campbell and Keaton to the bathroom which was through a store which I loved…

I do believe that I could really have a shopping problem if I wasn’t so dang frugal.  Seriously, I saw at least 8 things I wanted in that first shop that we walked through.  I love Disney stuff as much as I love the new Pioneer Woman dishes at Walmart.  Anyway, by the time the restroom trip was over, Robby and Pops arrived at the table with our food.

Our sandwiches were excellent and everyone (except Whitman who was napping) ate until they were full.  After we finished, we walked through a few Disney stores-really, though isn’t every Disney store the same. 

Robby took all of the kids but Reagan to the Lego store and Reagan was looking at some shirts.  She saw one that she liked and looked at the price tag.  My child said “this one is 25 dollars and the one that I am wearing only cost 10 bucks!” Oh, I love my sweet little girl!  I do wonder where she gets her frugalness.

My boys could have stayed forever in the Lego store.  They would have put every single Lego on their Christmas list if I would have let them.  Legos are one thing that you probably can never have too many of since they are so easy to store.  After our walk back to the car, we loaded back up again and headed to the house.

The kids were beyond excited to see this place and since it wasn’t too far away, we didn’t have to wait too long.  Unfortunately, Robby wasn’t able to open the front door so we had to call the help man.  He was right nearby and ran over and quickly opened the door-we did have the wrong code.

As soon as that man opened the door, my kids ran inside and bounded up the stairs.  They quickly found the Mickey Mouse themed room with bunk beds and a trundle bed along with the Frozen room with the same beds.  This was great because none of the girls have to sleep on the floor.  The master bedroom is also upstairs and it is huge.  And winner, winner-there is a huge closet for Whitman to sleep in.

Downstairs there is a living room, a kitchen with a another sitting area in it.  Nonna and Pops have a bedroom downstairs.  And can you imagine the squeals of delight when the kids saw the pool.  The only real difference in this house and the one last year is that this one has another living space and last years house had turned the garage into a playroom.  It will be a pretty perfect base of this Disney trip.

We unloaded the cars and unloading in a hotel takes just a few minutes but completely unloading in a house is just like taking everything home and unpacking.  We pretty much had unpacked most things by the time the kids finally got to do what they had been waiting to do for at least an hour: go swimming!

Robby and Nonna were on kid duty and the kid swam for over an hour.  Robby said that Keaton swam without her floatees and Whitman worked on putting his head under the water-he will be a fish next year.  By the end of the swim time, they were putting water in Robby’s ice chest trying to sink them.  This caused quite the commotion and lasted until everyone had gone inside to take their showers.

Reagan did have a bit of excitement.  While she was swimming, an ant crawled on her little face and stung right under her eye.  So it was red and a bit swollen tonight.  Hopefully it doesn’t swell anymore tonight-or years from now we will look back at our Disney pictures from this trip and say “wonder why she has a red, swollen eye?”

Pops and I were on grocery duty.  We passed 2 Publix stores and 1 Super Target on the way to a Super Walmart.  We could have stopped at the Target but opted for Walmart and we passed the Publix because I needed to buy some shoes for Whitman and Keaton.  Robby usually loses his sunglasses and has to buy a pair on each trip (I have found at least 2 spares that he has stowed away just in case on this trip) but what we usually always have to buy on a trip too is shoes for one of the kids.  The velcro on Keaton’s shoes are coming off and the velcro on Whitman’s shoes does not stay closed.

So shoes were our first purchase at the store. On the way to the shoes section, you could tell that this Walmart is one that gets many, many tourist.  There were aisles and aisles of Disney themed merchandise, ice chests, ponchos and souvenirs.  I guess I should bring Reagan there to pick our her Disney souvenir.

Then we made a few loops-bread, lunch meat, lasagna, cinnamon rolls, fruit, ice cream (poop, I forgot to eat my ice cream tonight), popsicles, cookies-you name it, we bought it.  Pops was throwing stuff in the buggy as fast as he could.  We fought the crowds and finally finished in a pretty decent time-so I thought.

It wasn’t too much after we had checked out that Robby called to check on us and see when we were coming home.  It was right after we hung up that I saw a helicopter tour and told Pops that we should have stopped there to take our picture.  But since the kiddos back home were hungry we pressed on.

But pressed on to where.  I asked him if he knew how to get back to the house and he said “no.”  Now, Pops’ sense of direction is a bit better than mine but his gps wasn’t on and my phone was about to die but that didn’t matter since we didn’t even know the name of the street that we were heading too.  Our only option was to start going in and out of neighborhoods looking for my big white van.  Thankfully, I found the address on my phone and we were able to make it back to the house!

Once back the kids helped unload the groceries and I started making supper for my crew.  They all just had sandwiches, crackers and chips-the meal of champions.  We did top off their meal with some ice cream-it must be Sunday night somewhere. Whitman was happy because he could watch his blessed Thomas and the boys were happy watching Pops’ tv shows. 

After plenty of down time, we put the kiddos to bed.  I think that they were all probably pretty tired and no one seemed to complain about going to bed.  Well, Whitman was a bit upset at first but he calmed down after Robby held him for awhile.  He just needed a few minutes to get used to this new place.

After the kids went to bed, we went back downstairs to work on the plan for tomorrow. The plan is to bring in our lunch and eat at the park somewhere.  So we were trying to work on how we would carry everything-tomorrow will just be our trail run!  We will get better as the week goes on-and my blogs will probably get lots shorter!

October 1, 2015-The Long Way to Disney (Day 2)

Hello Mr. Giraffe!

(click here for today's pictures)

Robby and I went to bed about an hour and half earlier last night than we did the night before since we were busy packing that night.  When Robby stirred at 2, I felt like we had been asleep for most of the night.  Anderson makes some kind of throat clearing noise when he is sleeping sometime and he was really making it last night.  I moved him around and put his head back on his pillow and he stopped that racket for awhile.

The next thing that I knew was that my alarm clock was ringing.  We hit snooze a few times and then Campbell jumped up and climbed in bed with us.  When Robby and I climbed out of bed we started repacking everything.  Since our big road trip wasn’t that long ago, we were still in the repack quickly mindset and were soon all ready and loaded up for breakfast.

The highlight of vacations for Dennie kids and really for the Dennie grownups is hotel breakfasts.  Today was a nice one-Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls were the highlight!  While Robby, Campbell and Anderson were loading the car up the rest of us started on breakfast.

When we were finished, we started out for Folsom LA which was about 20 minutes away.  We have stopped here before in 2010-Reagan was just 5, Anderson 3, Graham 2 and Campbell was a baby.  Here is a link to that post if you want to look back and see their adorable pictures.  And then click here to look at the pictures of that day and see my tiny little babies.  It was hot that day, crowded and the giraffes never came to our car….

Today was none of that.  As we stood and waited to board our ride while Robby went over with the kids about how important it was to arrive at places early or when they open.  Our car contained us and 2 other people and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Once on the car, they workers passed out our pre-purchased food.  Now the last time we were here, I was the one who ran in and bought the tickets and the food. When they brought us our food last time Robby laughed and laughed at the huge bucket of food they gave us.  He kidded me saying “do you think that you bought enough?”  He was only quietened when he saw the huge 50 pound bags that other people had purchased. 

Fast forward 5 years and guess who is the one buying the 50 pound bag of animal feed for our safari.  Yep, Robby!  That was food was certainly all needed (though a pound or two did end up on the floor of the car)  Within the first 10 minutes of the safari, almost half of our food was used. 

Let’s first talk about the animals that were there-pretty much every type of grass eating animal that you can think of: deer, llamas, zebras, cattle, ducks, giraffes, and a zillion other ones.  When the tour jeep pulls into the fence, the animals begin flocking to the cars. We have been talking about Noah’s ark at church and in our nightly Bible study and seriously, that is how Noah must have felt. Animals were everywhere following us. 

They were on both sides of the trams, they were under the trams, they were over the trams.  And that brings us to the giraffes.  If you were outside at the time, you probably could have heard my kids squealing and laughing.  Those giraffes were all over our car.  Reagan was feeding them as fast as she could-and even kissed one.  Anderson was working hard at feeding them but would not get close and Graham stayed even further back than Anderson.  Campbell finally got into the giraffe feeding but Keaton would burst out crying occasionally-I probably would have too if I was 3 feet tall and an 18 foot animal stuck his head beside me.  Now Whitman would look right at those giraffes and holler at them.  Once a giraffe’s neck pinned Whitman down to the seat as the giraffe leaned over him to eat from someone else’s food cup. 

The giraffes were the highlight of the safari and we will certainly never forget about all of that.  We had plenty of food as we left the giraffes and started feeding the rest of the animals.  You couldn’t feed the zebras from the cups so you had to pour the food into their nasty little mouths but other animals would eat right from those cups and even try to pull the cups from your hands. 

After the tour, we pottied and hopped back in the car.  Keaton helped me divvy up some of her Halloween candy that she received for her birthday and later I passed out another snack as we moved down the road towards Florida.  Graham has been worried about this day since we will be in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.  He just didn’t see how we can drive through all of those states in one day. 

We pulled over at Mississippi welcome center and had our lunch.  They had a nice picnic area and the kids were able to throw the footballs around a bit after lunch.  And yes, I did say footballs-Anderson had packed one in his box the other day but I took it out saying that I had packed one and we only needed one football.  Then when I opened the back door yesterday, I noticed that Robby had stuck an extra football in the back!

After a bit of football and eating half a jar of nutella, lunch was over and we jumped back in the car. The time ticked by pretty quickly and soon we were passing through Mississippi and Alabama.  The kids watched movies and played their kindles-the bonus today was that Keaton and Whitman took a nap which led to a bit of quiet time in the car.  At one point, I started wondering what Robby and I would listen to on the radio when the kids were gone and we were traveling in the car alone. 

I was the driver this afternoon and Robby spent some time working and some time going through our pictures from this morning.  I might possibly have taken well over 200 pictures during the safari so that took a while for him to go through.  We did get one blurry picture that you can see the giraffe leaning over and squishing our Whitman! 

When we entered Florida, we saw a sign for the visitor’s center advertising free orange juice.  Well that is enough to convince the Dennies to pull over and stop.  It was a nice rest stop but more importantly there was orange juice!  We all gladly drank our little glass and then headed on our way. 

The next destination was the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola.  It was a little bit off of our path but worth the stop.  We knew that we would only have about 45 minutes inside so as soon as we entered the kids and us started hauling through that place.

Of course the main event there was everyone setting in the cockpits of the Blue Angels planes.  Then we made it to the little play area and even though the museum was empty, my kids made enough noise for people to think that it was a full museum of people.  For all we had talked about getting places early with the kids when we were at the safari this morning,we also reviewed how sometime being places at closing time also had its advantages-like an empty museum.

We had time to potty at the museum and Robby went in the restroom with Whitman and they never seemed to come out.  I started to wonder and then they emerged.  Whitman ran up to me telling me something but Robby had to interpret: he (Whitman, not Robby) poo-pooed in the potty.  That is great and all but I have plenty of diapers and that potty training business doesn’t start until after Christmas. 

When the museum was only opened for 5 more minutes, we exited.  If we would have stayed any longer, Keaton and Campbell would have panicked.  They have always been a bit antsy about getting locked in some place.  Once outside the kids ran off to climb on and take a mandatory picture on the anchor before climbing back in the car to meet up with Nonna and Pops in Tallahassee (3 hours away).

We drove through Arbys for supper.  My people all love roast beef sandwiches so that gave us a few minutes of quiet.  And then back to watching a few more Laura and Mary episodes.  After a bit we did have to stop for gas and a much needed potty stop before we finally made it to our destination.

Nonna and Pops were waiting for us when we pulled into the hotel.  Unloading went better today so we walked in with Nonna and Pops while Robby checked in.  After I unpacked, we all watched the pictures from today and then we let the girls spend the night in Nonna's room.  We quickly showered the boys and put them all in bed.

It was a tight squeeze tonight getting Whitman and his pack n play in the bathroom.  I asked Robby if it was going to fit and he said that where there was a will there was a way.  The poor guy's bed probably has one leg on the potty, another in the shower and one on the sink.  That silly pack n play has been in lots of hotels-some I have had to climb through the shower to get to the potty in the middle of the night and at one hotel, I had to crawl onto the sink and crawl across it to make it to the potty.  I guess it won't be long until we do not need the pack n play anymore and probably not too much longer until we have to have 2 hotel rooms (eek!)

It was a really, really good day and hopefully tomorrow will be just as exciting!