so much

way too much to remember, actually... there was the trip to Galveston with friends, which was totally fun and should be a mandatory, um, beach meeting from here on out, a long work trip, all manner of vacation prep, one of my best friends moved away... just a lot going on.

we got back from our vacation to Orlando yesterday, and since returning have extended our vacation and treated ourselves to lovely creature comforts... dinner last night from Kam's while catching up with So You Think You Can Dance, sleeping in today, indulging in Texas Tamale Company for lunch, going to see Harry Potter and taking my gift card to Bookstop for the fourth Twilight book and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, eating lasagna and watching four episodes of the second season of Mad Men, which is excellent. tomorrow M goes back to work. it's been a really nice break.

I thought it might work best in installments, so I'll start with the first day of park-going. Animal Kingdom turned out to be one of our favorite parks... so lush, great animals, and really great rides. the Dinosaur ride is the bomb and even though I knew they weren't real the dinosaurs scared the crap out of me! I chalk it up to early 'Land of the Lost' psyche damage... that fake T. Rex was still flipping scary to me, especially as he roared into the camera...

we also LOVED Expedition Everest. such an awesome, smooth coaster! beware the yeti! here's what it looks like:



and speaking of things I loved, the Finding Nemo show was just wonderful. I totally cried. shut up it was really good and those people were pros.

other things that are great about Disney in general:

1. they allow you to bring your own food and drinks into the park, barring booze and glass. we froze bottles of water, packed them away in an inner compartment in M's backpack, and made sandwiches that stored next to them. the sandwiches were kept cool and were a tasty, easy lunch in the middle of the day, and as the water melted we had cold water.

2. the prices were surprisingly reasonable. we never did a sit-down meal at a park, so I can't attest to that, but as far as bottled water, sodas, ice cream, etc. Disney was way cheaper than your nearest movie theater. it just felt nice, like they weren't trying to gouge you. parking was even reasonable... Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Village were free, I think, and Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom were $12.

3. the parks are a good size... you can pretty much see and do everything in a day.

4. fast passes are cool... if you time it right, it can really help you zip through lines! and since we had a little one, if she couldn't ride something and we had a fast pass one of us stayed with her and got another pass, so as soon as the rest of us got back to watch Mo they, plus whoever else wanted to ride again, could use that pass to go to the front of the line, so everyone gets to ride.

5. EVERYONE has strollers that carry kids and valuables, and to get on the rides you have to park them. it's all on an honor system, trusting that no one takes off with your backpack. the parks say they've never had a problem, and our stuff was always there when we got back. which is just cool, that's all. go humanity!


and now, more of our day at Animal Kingdom:















we were famished by the time we left the park and, after inching along through Orlando's insanely long traffic lights, we found ourselves at Bahama Breeze for dinner, where we had exceptional service and tasty, tasty food. this was to be a recurring theme throughout the trip, the good food. Mo liked the tropical music vibe and got her groove on:



and then we made our way back to the resort to mumble goodnight and fall into our beds. this, too, was to become a recurring theme. I never got any pictures of the place we stayed, but my sister-in-law's parents allowed us to use their timeshare and it was SO nice... we all had separate bedrooms and bathrooms, and there was a full kitchen and washer/dryer!


more to come. for now, we're grateful. we love our family. we feel good and we're glad to be home.

-m.y.