Anderson and Reagan slept well last night all cozy in the other bed. Graham and Campbell never moved off of their spots in the floor. Keaton knew that we were on vacation and she was not happy until she was snuggled up between Robby and I in our bed. She needed a bottle at 5 in the morning and no one stirred until 7. That is when I heard Graham telling Campbell in his most serious voice that "mommy and daddy went to Arkansas to get our breakfast." Now what in the world would convince that child to tell his sister that. She continued to ask him "where's mommy" and each time he had the same answer.
We were all going to go downstairs to eat in our pajamas but the kids revolted and didn't want to wear their pjs downstairs. So they put on their clothes but Robby and I did go down in our pajamas. And after one day of seeing the crowds at Disney, I think that our pajamas were pretty classy compared to things I have seen today. It was so pleasant at breakfast, we ate outside and the weather was just perfect in the shade. After breakfast, we came back upstairs and Robby and I packed everything up, he loaded it all in the car and then came in to take his shower. He knew that he would work up a sweat loading the roof bag in this Florida sun. While he was loading the car, Campbell continuously asked "where's my daddy?" I guess she thought he had gone back to Arkansas to get her more breakfast. I, then, had my shower as the kids watched a Mike Mulligan movie on tv and afterwards we loaded up and hit the road.
We made our first stop at Walmart to buy a few drinks and pick up some ice for the ice chest. I circled in the crazy Walmart parking lot waiting on Robby. After quite a long time, I got a text from his saying that I just passed him. He had seen us driving down another row, he walked to the end of a row and then waved/yelled/tried to flag us down as we passed him!! I eventually did find him and pick him up.
Then we went to 7-11 and Robby bought icees for us to share. The kids were so excited to have icees-like they had never had any before. We arrived at our hotel, the French Quarter, and were pleasantly surprised that our room was ready. We unloaded and managed to get everything to our room in two trips (with no cart). We unpacked our bags and then I made sandwiches for everyone. I took a picture because they were the cutest things sitting there eating their sandwiches. Sometimes I do wish time could stand still!
Before too long, we got the call that everyone had arrived at the hotel. We went downstairs to greet everyone and our party of 17 was now complete. The kids acted as if we hadn't seen anyone in years-it is always more fun seeing people when you are on vacation. They all got their keys and found their rooms-we are next to Grannymom and Grandpa, Les and Dana are right on the other side of the elevator from us. I gathered up many of the kids-mine, Lilly, Josh and Zach and we headed to the playground for a few minutes. Reagan and Anderson remembered taking pictures at the statues near the pool when we were here last year. We walked around the pool and they were all so excited to go swimming-maybe tomorrow.
After a bit of playing on the playground, everyone was hot, hot and the grownups came along and we all headed in for lunch. We got our Disney refillable mugs and sat down to cool off. Robby found the kids a huge bowl of ice cream to share and everyone was pleased.
By 3:30, we were almost to Hollywood Studios. Again Robby's parking pass came in very handy and we were parked quite near the front. On the way the boys saw all 3 of the busses that Nonna had given Graham. They were thrilled and could hardly stand it when they saw the 3rd. Then they started counting the busses-they made it to over 20 before they forgot about what they were doing.
When we walked in the gates at Hollywood Studios it was hot, hot, hot-middle of the afternoon. We needed something to do that was coolish while we waited on the bus riders from the group. We found the Indiana Jones show to watch. Someone had said that there would be loud noises and fire before we even went in and this terrified Graham. He was scared from the get go-shaking, crying scared. His scardness was contagious to Campbell and at times she was pretty terrified too. She had on a necklace and would cram it in her mouth when anything scary happened. Anderson was on the edge of his seat the entire time taking every bit of that show in. Reagan was too but she was pretty jumpy and often had her hands over her ears. At one time she threw her hand up to her heart-just like a grown up would do. Keaton on the other hand, slept soundly through most of the show laying on the metal bench.
After the show, we caught up with some of the others and rode Tower of Terror-Dana, Lilly, Cash, Josh, me, Anderson and Graham rode it. Reagan didn't want to go so she went to see the Beauty and the Beast show with Grannymom and Grandpa along with Campbell and Keaton. Poor Campbell knows when they get to ride something she can't and kept telling me tonight "me no do roller coaster? when?" Tomorrow she will get to. This was Graham's first time on the ride and he had a blast-though my arm won't recover from where he was clawing me. Dana said that she could hear Anderson and Cash saying "is it over? I think it's over. Was that it?" during the entire ride.
After that, we walked along and found ourselves in the Little Mermaid show. It was cool and Keaton just danced and would clap too. She was the cutest thing-until she started getting noisy. She was just singing along but it sounded more like loud squealing. I also dropped my phone during the show and didn't realize this until later in the evening when we were on the other side of the park and had to walk across the entire place to retrieve it.
Next up was supper at Mama Rosas. It was very good-I had a great pasta. The kids all enjoyed ordering and having so many choices. My Graham tried the soup and then was the only kid to get a Spaghetti and Meatball cupcake. It was all made out of icing so he really liked it. Keaton got tired of the cheerios that I had for her and started getting restless-she was exhausted. So we gave her pieces from Graham's soup and she gobbled them down.
Next up was the Rocking Roller Coaster for the tall people (only me and Robby from my crew). As we were in line I told him that I didn't like this roller coaster. He said that he didn't either and we wondered why we were getting on it. The picture that the coaster takes along the way was with me and my mouth crazy wide open. Seriously, I really don't like the beginning of that coaster! I had tried to get the kids to go back with me to Tower of Terror but none of them wanted to go again-little turkeys.
We then headed out of the park since it was nearly 10 and caught up with Grannymom and Grandpa along the way and squeezed them into our clown car. Once in the room, Campbell was sound asleep before her head hit the pillow and Graham was close behind her. Anderson played with Keaton for awhile and now Keaton in the only one awake (screaming). I guess she is ready to get in bed with me-that stinker better get some sleep because tomorrow is going to be an early day!
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