Arrival Day

It has come to my attention that my writing is more comical when I've had a glass of wine, so in the interest of entertainment, I guess I'll force myself to have some sangria during this blog session. The sacrifices I make to keep my family up-to-date on our activities! Sheesh! Maybe tomorrow night I'll have a mojito and see where that takes me.

Anyway. Arrival day.

So, after our luck with getting our car so quickly off the train, the kids and I headed to Orlando. About 15 minutes after we hit the road, despite the order to use the bathroom before we left the station, someone (the biggest kid) had to go RIGHT.NOW. Lesson learned: When traveling alone, everyone goes to the bathroom together so Mama can make sure everyone really does what they are supposed to do lest we spend our entire vacation stopping at every single restroom at Disney.

While we were stopped, we grabbed some lunch to eat on our short, albeit rather expensive, drive to Orlando via Onstar-directed toll roads.

We headed to the condo to drop off our things, and I was pleased to see we are staying about 25 yards away from Disney property. I booked the condo through Armed Forces Vacation Club, which offers unsold timeshare weeks all over the world for cheap. Our week in a one bedroom condo with a full kitchen and whirlpool bath cost around $300--not too shabby!

After the kids thoroughly inspected the room (turned on all faucets, climbed on the furniture, made sure the television worked and opened and closed all the doors numerous times and dumped their junk everywhere), we were off to Downtown Disney to . . . buy more junk.Just a little PSA. I hate plastic junky toys (a trait I likely inherited from Grammie). Loathe them, actually. In fact, on a regular basis, I go through the house and toss any toy crap I come across. My poor kids don't even know Barbie is supposed to have shoes. They must think Dr. Barbie and Fashion Barbie and all the rest have some sort of medical condition that is incompatible with shoe wearing. And that really could be true, I mean, have you seen the girl's weird high heel feet?

But, I digress.

So, Downtown Disney has a toy store where you can stuff a box with as many Disney-themed Mr. Potato Head pieces as you can cram in. AND they have another spot where you can actually build your very own working light saber (along with a whole host of Star Wars related junk). AND they have a third area where you can stuff a box with as much My Little Pony junk as you can cram in . . . and guess what? It's all Disney-themed!!!

Everything I just named falls under the heading of plastic-crap-toys-that-I-hate, but I throw aside that aversion when we are at Disney World. Didn't I say I was a sucker for Disney marketing? With a capital S?

I told the kids I would buy each of them one souvenir, and when they found out about these options, each kid wanted to do one of them. Lorelei picked Potato Head stuff, Caitlyn went for the ponies and Chris made a Darth Vader light saber.

As it turns out, each kid wanted what the other kids chose by the time we got home, but fun was had by all in the actual selection process. On the plus side, we now own Tink, pirate, Dumbo and Donald potato heads, and our My Little Ponies are decked out to the nines in princess outfits, complete with crowns, jewelry and, oh yes, shoes--4 for each outfit. Eat your heart out, Barbie. And we are all stocked up on the Force, even if it does come from the dark side (I lobbied hard for a Yoda saber.)

After the toy adventure, we headed over to T-Rex Cafe for dinner with the dinos. The place is just like the Aquarium restaurant or Rainforest Cafe, but there are dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and giant insects everywhere. The place is intense--loud, colorful, larger than life, and, with a meteor shower that goes off every 20 minutes, a bit overwhelming for the younger set.

Caitlyn got very quiet (her typical nervous reaction), Lorelei cried at least once, and even Chris was a bit unerved at one point. But, overall, it was fun. And by fun, I mean I'm in no hurry to do it again. Once was good. There were some defining moments I hadn't considered when I planned a big trip alone with 3 kids. For instance, what do you do when one kid has to go to the bathroom (and yes, a lot of moments center around bathroom issues!) in the middle of the meal? Is Chris really old enough to sit alone in the middle of a crowded restaurant while I take Caitlyn and Lorelei (who is decidedly NOT old enough to be left in the care of her nearly 8 year old brother)? First, the obvious answer is that you do not sit down in a restaurant without making all the kids pee, under threat of losing a new toy or not having dessert, if you must. Second, yes, Chris can choose to stay at the table or come with us, though if he stays, I ask a nearby mom to keep an eye on him and alert the waiter!

At this point, the day pretty much becomes a hazy chain of events that eventually ended with kids in bed, a heavenly shower (much needed after the overnight train ride), a glass of wine and a long conversation in my head about why exactly this was a good idea, a common refrain that has often repeated itself over the last few days!