The Forced Sick Day

Because of the closure of Jack's school due to too many sick kids, that meant that I had two kids on my hands on Thursday. I watched Allison and decided to take the kids to the Discovery Center. They ran around like crazy children and had a blast I think. In fact, Jack passed out on the couch just before 5:00 and slept the night through, over 12 hours. Here are a few pictures from the fun day.

Finally ... The Final Disney Post

Our final day in the parks started early again. Below is Jack playing with his most favored new cars first thing when he woke up that morning.

After breakfast, Jim took Jack out to the golf course for a few minutes of putting the ball. The boy has such a passion for golf.

Then we were off to the Animal Kingdom. It was a much more relaxed park than the previous parks, especially Magic Kingdom.

We opened the park and from everything that I read, they said to do the Safari first thing in the morning because that is when the animals are out in view the most and it was true for us. It really is amazing just how close you do get to the animals. They said that most of the fences and borders are hidden or invisible to the public and it really is true. Great ride that we all enjoyed.

The gorilla who eats his food and then throws it back up into the green frisbee and afterwards eats the food again. He does this to see who in the audience it grosses out and I guess gets a kick out of seeing the reaction of the people. A gorilla with a sense of humor.

The Pocahantos and her Friends Show

The show Lion King Festival is simply put amazing. It is a mini broadway-type show and spellbinding.

Taking a break at lunch time.

Jack and Daddy posing with a dinosaur in Dinoland. No we did NOT go on the Dinosaur ride. It would have been way too scary for Jack, who is absolutely frightened of dinosaurs from an experience almost two years ago when we were in Arizona and a life-sized T-rex growled at him really loud. He does not like dinosaurs or anything to do with them to this day. In fact, we had to tell him that this dinosaur in the picture was not going to move or make a sound to get him to pose for this picture.

It did rain a little that day, so we bought rain ponchos for all of us and let me tell you, they were worth every last penny when we went on the river rapids ride. The ride was basically a boat and you going through a wall of water and getting soaked. I am sure it would of felt good on a 90-degree day, but a 70-degree day, I was very happy to not have gotten soaked.

Jim rode the Expedition Everest roller coaster and I thought about it, but it was at the end of the day and the thought of standing in one more line made me pretty ill. So I passed. Next time we go, I am pretty sure Jack will be tall enough and we all can go together.

We left the park that day in time to go back to the Magic Kingdom to catch their night-time parade, Spectromagic. I love this parade (although the Electric Light parade was so much better in my opinion) and did not want to miss it. I admit that I am once again a kid when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Seriously, who doesn't like the sight of Cindarella in her pumpkin carriage?

Or Minnie Mouse all decked out?

And with the end of the parade, that was the end of our Disney vacation. We had a great time, but Disney in three days is not for the faint of heart. And below is a picture of Jack the next day while driving home. I think it pretty much sums up the after effects of a Disney vacation.

So Far So Good

Well so far, all of us in the Jackaroo house have not been sick, which is quite amazing to me. I am usually the very first one in the entire county to get whatever bug that might have floated through the area. So to be in the minority of being healthy is quite shocking. I guess all those vitamin c pills really do work? Also I have been remembering to give Jack his Flintstone vitamins, that I normally forget most of the time.

Today I am watching our neighbor's girl, Allison, because she goes to the same school as Jack. I think they are enjoying their day off and right now are relishing the fact that they can watch Little Einsteins while eating breakfast. Later today, I plan on taking them to the Children's museum here in town. It is always a fun place to go and we have season membership and have not been using it that much.

Oh and for some news in my life, I got a job! Yes that is right, I now will be earning a paycheck of some sort. It is only a part-time bookkeeping job for an environmental lab. They are really cool about my crazy schedule and are totally flexible. It will probably be about 15 - 20 hours a week and I can work in the mornings when Jack is at school or when Jim is home and can watch Jack. It will be a huge help in our monthly budget that never seems to be enough these days. And it gets me back out there working, which is good for me, because I have been feeling that I am pretty rusty in the job skills area. Not to mention, I get to talk to adults!

Worse Than I Thought

The flu bug that shut down Jack's school is worse than I had thought. I was under the impression that the school made the decision to shut down, but I guess it was the state department of health who told them to shut down and clean the place, at least that is what the letter said that came home with Jack today. It sounds like they are having crews go in and basically lysol everything down in the school. Guess it is bad. Again, knocking on wood.

Knocking On Wood

So it seems that the flu has struck around here, and most especially Jack's school. His class only had three kids today, compared to nine, because of the flu. And even Mrs. Nix, his teacher was out sick today. So because I guess like 60% of the kids are out with the flu in the school, they are shutting down the school tomorrow and Friday. And let me tell you, I am knocking on wood and taking my vitamin C's so that the dreaded crud does not invade our house.

Oh and the final post about our Disney trip will be forthcoming when I get some time. Now I have to go pick up my child from the virus, germ, and disease infested school.

Disney ... Day Three

Day three started off as a more laid back type of day than the one before. We went to Epcot and there really was absolutely no crowd whatsoever. We rode the Spaceship Earth, which is the ride in the big golf ball as I call it. The ride is pretty neat and goes through the history of mankind.

Then we went on Test Track, the race car super fast ride that is guaranteed to ruin any good hair day you might have. Jack, of course, loved that ride. Pretty much anything to do with cars these days, he loves. After we were dumped into the gift shop, I saw this backpack full of hot wheel type cars and decided to buy that for the boy and it was a huge hit. In fact, I don't think he has stopped wearing the backpack full of cars at all. When we got home, we overheard him introducing his new cars to his old cars. He is just too funny.

We also went on Soaring and that ride is really cool and even Jack enjoyed the ride. One word of caution, I would advise not to wear flip flops on the ride. Just saying.

And of course we had to go to the stupid show - Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I personally think it is one of the most stupid things to watch, but Jack thought it was funny, except the snake part.

We were going all day until about 4:00 and I suddenly realized how hungry I was - and tired. So we decided to go to Germany for dinner and while walking there, I really was excited about the bratwurst and sour kraut and maybe even a German beer. However, after walking all the way there, we found out that it was closed! How dare they. So we went to Italy and had a very yummy and fattening meal. Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel for the night.


Jack and Daddy playing the driving game outside Spaceship Earth.

Jack wearing the goofy 3D glasses for Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

Outside China in Epcot.

View of the giant golf ball in Epcot.

Jack with Mulan. He looks just thrilled doesn't he?

The big golf ball at night with the fountain going.

The giant ball and Jack. They sell these things all over Disney and we were thinking about maybe buying one for all the kids in our group of friends to play with in the back yard. That is until we found out the price. That big ole ball costs $350!!!! Why? And how can it cost that much? Even if all four or five families pitched in to help pay for the stupid thing, it would still be too much money. Mind boggling.

Us in front of the giant golf ball.

Disney ... Day Two

Day two started out bright and early again because the only reservations we could get at Chef Mickey's were at 7:15 am. Jack handled the character breakfast a lot better this time than last time when he ignored or pretended they did not exist when they came around to our table. This time he literally ran up and gave each one a hug and posed for the pictures. We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald while we were there. But really the price of the breakfast was outrageous. It was $75 for the three of us and I think Jack ate half a Mickey waffle and 4 gummy bears, if that. He was way too excited to actually eat breakfast. But it was the experience that was worth it, I guess.

After Chef Mickey's, it was off to the Magic Kingdom by the monorail and for this first ride, we got to ride in the front car with the engineer and I have to say that was one of the best rides at Disney and we didn't even have to spend hundreds of dollars for it! We were having so much fun, we decided to do the whole loop around before we got off at the park. And at the end, Jack got a junior engineer's license, which he carried around in his hat of all places all day long.

We stopped by Mickey's house and got to have a family picture with the big mouse himself. We also thanked him for making our yummy breakfast for us earlier.

One of the best rides in the park was of course the train ride around the park.

Jack and Daddy riding the Dumbo ride. This was one of the longer waits, but it is a must ride when at Disney.

Jack all smiles on Cindarella's merry go round.

While we were in Frontierland, Woody from Toy Story was having a little hoe-down with all the kids. Jack got into the action by riding his horsie around with Woody. I have a small video of Jack and all the kids dancing the hokey pokey with Woody, but my computer is not cooperating right now, so you just have to trust me when I say it is really cute.

Jack and Daddy doing some shooting at the shooting arcade.

Panning for gold (actually gold Mickey ears, at $900 an ounce, I wish it were real gold).

Our last ride of the night before the big night time parade and fireworks was the Jungle Cruise. It was pretty funny, because right before that, we let Jack buy a play shot gun at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. So when we got on the Jungle Cruise ride, he was pretending to shoot all the pretend animals. Then the pilot of the boat let Jack "steer" the boat for awhile, which Jack thought was way cool and he also got a junior co-pilots license to go with his junior engineers license from the monorail.

The castle lit up for the night. I have to admit that even as an adult, the sight of Cindarella's castle makes me a kid again.

We had a good first day at the Magic Kingdom. There were no huge crowds. The only ride that Jack absolutely hated and screamed all the way through was the Stitch ride in Tomorrowland. It was pretty scary and I felt so helpless sitting there with him screaming at the top of his lungs in the next seat. But he soon got over the fright by going on the Indy cars with me. I let him steer while I pushed the pedal. He was laughing and giggling so hard by the end of it and he proudly proclaimed to Daddy, who was waiting for us, that he was a "crazy driver".

The one ride that I wanted to scream and cry on was the teacup ride. I will never ever ride that with my crazy husband and son who like to spin the thing around at top speed. Oh my goodness, I was headed to the bathroom after that.

We rode pretty much every ride we wanted to ride, although there were a few that we would of wanted to ride again if there were time. Jack's favorite ride of all time was Big Thunder Mountain and he laughed and giggled the entire ride while sitting between Jim and I. It is official, the boy loves roller coasters. I can't wait until he is another two inches taller and he can go on Space Mountain.

He was scared on The Haunted Mansion, but didn't cry or anything. I just think he was very happy to be between Mom and Daddy. At the end of the ride, you look in the mirror to see a ghost riding with you in the car and Jack kept looking behind him to see if the ghost really was there. But Jack laughed when Daddy reached up to pick the ghost's nose, he thought that was just too funny.

Of course, we rode all the classics like Small World, Peter Pan's flight, Winnie the Pooh, and the Pirates of the Caribbean. After we got off the Pirates ride and they dump you into the gift shop, we spent some money there. I have been looking for a Captain Jack shirt for Jack and I found one, which is a football jersey type with the pirate skeleton on the front and the name Captain Jack on the back. I about died when I saw that it cost $43!!! Yeah that came out of our mad money. But seriously people, $43 for a kid's shirt?

We stayed for the fireworks and beat it to the monorail to get home. I have to admit that the walk to the monorail, then to the bus stop to catch the bus to our hotel, then up the stairs and down the hall to our room was excruciatingly painful. I was exhausted. But Jack was quite the trooper all day long and kept going with no tears or complaints nor any nap. But as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out and me for that matter.

And that was our Day two or the first day in the parks. I hope I am not boring anybody with these trip reports. I am doing it more to save it for memory sakes than anything. So if my stupid computer and internet (both are plotting against me at the moment) will cooperate in the least, I hope to have the other two days reports posted soon with more pictures.

Disney ... Day One

We left our house before 5 am, bright and early. It took about 8 1/2 hours to get to the hotel. Jack was absolutely so excited that when we went under the big archway that said Disneyworld, I thought he would pop out of his skin.

We got checked into our room and below is the view from our balcony. Of course, Jack was quite thrilled to be staying on a golf course and yes, he did go golfing with Daddy a couple of times.

Jack feeding the fishies at the hotel. Man do they make the money there on fish food - 25 cents for about 10 pebbles of fish food and yes, they got a whole dollar from us just so I could get this picture.

They also had remote-controlled boats. There was the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Army boats of course since it was the military hotel. And we dropped a couple of dollars there playing with the boats.

Jack in front of the waterfall at our hotel.

We Are Back!

We are back from Disney Fest 2008. It was all fun, but extremely exhausting on all of our parts. I have to say though that Jack was such a trooper. The first day we started off at 6 am by getting to Chef Mickeys at 7 and then closing the Magic Kingdom park by watching the fireworks that night without taking a break once. We were at it for 14 hours straight and Jack never once complained, nor took a nap in the stroller.

We timed our trip perfectly because there were no crowds at all. I think our longest wait was 20 minutes for the Jungle Cruise. I think going to the Magic Kingdom on a Wednesday at the end of January is a very good time to go. We went back to the MK on Friday night to catch the parade and there were three times as many people there than two days prior.

We stayed at The Shades of Green, which is the resort for military families and I have to say that the Iraq war touched home for us. We met a mother and her 3 year old son who lost his Daddy in the war about a year and a half ago. I really felt for her and that little boy. Of course, Jack struck up a friendship and before long, the two of them were playing with the remote-controlled boats like long-lost friends. But really the war was all over as you saw families sporting shirts about surviving deployments and getting together again at Disney.

We did a full three days in three parks. The first day we did Magic Kingdom, then Epcot, then Animal Kingdom. But I have to admit it is good to be home and not have to worry about catching monorails, buses, or fast passes!

I will post a more complete trip report and pictures later for ya'lls enjoyment. My lovely computer seems to not like me again.