It's about this time that I realize that, while I'm still not quite 100%, I'm starting to feel like I'm definitely on the downhill part of dealing with Fred. I try to steer us over towards the Festival of the Lion King, but it appears that I'm going to be outvoted on this one by both boys. I'm not in an arguing mood, so we bypass Camp Minnie-Mickey and head over towards Dinoland for the Dig Site…grrrrrr…I mean the Boneyard. Aaron has been here before, but this will be Eric's first time doing it. Awww, what the heck, let the kids have fun…it IS Disney World, isn't it?
Aaron's in blue and Eric's in yellow.
As with any parents, we've had tons of fun watching the boys change and develop their personality. Aaron has a "go get em" attitude and isn't afraid of a whole lot. Eric, on the other hand, tends to be a bit shyer and dramatic. When he started pre-K last August, however, we started noticing him coming out of his shell a little more (and the drama increase ten-fold. It's hard not to laugh when you're dealing with him when he's sobbing and claims that his legs no longer work and that he can't get up off of the ground). He's starting to fight back more with Aaron, which is a double-edged sword.
The reason I bring this up is because Eric is no longer that worried if Aaron moves away from him. This happens here at the Boneyard (as you can see in the second pic). Ultimately, Eric moves to another place even farther away from Aaron, and another child comes nearby. They both go to town on a fossil that's in front of both of them…the only problem is that the stuff the other kid is digging out is going right where Eric is digging. Sheri and I watch from the sidelines, fully expecting Eric to just get up and move a couple of feet away to continue the excavation.
dig dig dig
Eric looks at the kid as a pile of stuff goes right next to him. He stares at him for a second and goes back to digging.
dig dig dig FLOP (Another scoop of stuff lands next to Eric).
Eric turns to the kid, gets this serious-as-hell look on his face and says in no uncertain terms…
STOP DOING THAT!!!!!!!!!!
The other kids stops, looks at Eric, and moves away a couple of feet to continue digging.
Sheri and I turn to each other…………pause………..and just burst out laughing. Where in the heck that THAT come from????
I look at the time and think that, if we want to avoid a rush of people running up to Flame Tree after exiting FOTLK, we'd better start moseying over that way. We get there and find nobody! Sa-weeeet!
We figure out what everyone wants, and Sheri takes the boys to the bathroom while I wait for the order. The order comes, and it's again time for me to show off my engineering skills by balancing a second tray full of food on 4 drinks with dessert stuck in it and carrying them both on uneven terrain (Pizza Planet was just level, smooth tile, so where's the challenge in that?!). Slooowwwwwlllyyyy I turrnnnneed, step… by… step, inch… by… inch. I made it to the condiments area and got straws, napkins, etc… Then sslllooooooooooowwwwwwllllyyyyyy I tuuurrrrnnnnnnnneeeeedddddd, stteeeppppp…… by ……. Stttteeeeppppp. Innnncccchhhh……. by…….. iiinnnccccccchhhhhhh.
And I went to the farthest one pavilion…the one with the anteater going after the ants. I set down the trays, and I actually heard applause from another pavilion, where another family was watching to see if I made it. Sheri finds me a couple of minutes later, with the food set out for everyone. It was a really good meal…they boys were well-behaved. The temperature was about perfect. The food was good. Probably the best thing however…the view of Expedition Everest was amazing here!!! The lights were just barely starting to take effect on the mountain, and, as the meal went on, they got stronger and stronger, giving the peak a foreboding purple and pink aura around it.
Fred tells me that he needs some alone time, so I make another trip to the bathroom. It's getting rarer at least. I get back, and EE is fully lit now. I tell Aaron that it's entirely his call on whether he wants to do it or not. Sheri has already backed out, so it's gonna be with me if he wants to. He hears the periodic screams emanating from the attraction while he eats. Finally, he says that he wants to go on it.
Me: Oh Boy (again, sorry Tony)
Wow…wasn't expecting that.
We clean up and start walking slowly to Asia. I fully expect Aaron to change his mind, and he did near the bridge. Okay, no problem here as my stomach still is not quite ready for this (in my mind). Sheri asks for the camera to snap a pic of the mountain, all lit up. I tell her that she might want the night setting, but she can't stand how 70% of them end up a little blurred. Okay…she's the one taking the picture.
I call this one, "Everest at Night"
I am soooo sleeping on the couch when she reads this.
Let's see…Aaron wanted to go on Everest. Now he doesn't. Wait…he changes it again and decides he wants to go. We walk up to the attraction entrance, and I ask him one final time. Nope…no, YEP!
I turn to Sheri and say that we may be back in 3 minutes depending on him. Sheri and Eric give us a wave as Aaron and I enter the queue. The line only said a 10 minute wait. We make our way through the queue line, and it has the desired effect on Aaron, who's asking questions about all the artifacts and whether the yeti is real and where he lives and…
We get to the loading area, and, when the CM asks how many, I say "2" as well as "it's his first time…we'll gladly let someone else take the front if they want it." The timing was impeccable because we were immediately queued in the very back seat. Aaron didn't have time to get scared, because the train was approaching. I could tell that he was a little nervous, but he is resolved to ride this thing (even though I told him about the dark parts and going backwards). I try to get my phone out to snap a pic of him, but it's too dark.
Off we go!
The breeze feels good on the low part. When we hit the main lift through the prayer temple, Aaron is definitely spooked by the music a little. I try to take his mind off of it and look for a diversion. I look around and find the spotlights of Hollywood Studios in the sky and the big golf ball of Epcot nearby. Absolutely beautiful!!! I point it out to him without thinking of who his mother is (Sheri's eyes are shut tightly on any roller coaster lift…she HATES this part). Aaron peers over for a second and realizes that we're way the hell up in the air. He's not as shaken as I anticipated, though, so he must have one gene from each of us on fear of heights. I look over to the other side and point out, WOW…the Tree of Life is all lit up and amazing!
We go over and are at a pretty good rate of speed until we see the end of the track. I look for the chicken of death to pop up over the mountain top, but he doesn't make an appearance. The next thing we know, we're going backwards in pitch black. I can't tell if Aaron is enjoying the ride at all or not (it's dark, remember?). We get to the stopping point, and I check in on him. He's not smiling, but he's not crying either. I tell him the yeti is coming up, but only for a really quick second. We launch forward and through the helixes. I have heard that the forces that the yeti puts on the support structures when it lunges toward the coaster were so great that the actual support was breaking away from the rest of the attraction and that the yeti often would go into "B-mode" where it doesn't move. They added a strobe light to simulate the illusion of the yeti moving, and, apparently, some of the CMs over there call B-mode the "dance club yeti." I tell Aaron where the yeti is, and it is so quick that he didn't see him boogying down as we flew under him.
We get off, and I ask the all-important question…"Did you like it?"
"THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!"
We head to the photo wall, and what I see has me stifling laughs. Aaron is emotionless as they took the pic. Not a frown…not a smile…nothing.
"Are you (snicker) sure you liked it?"
"Yeah!!! ILOVEDITitwentsofastanditwas (breath) sodarkbutIdidn'tseetheyetibecauseitwas (breath) sodarkbutthatwasgreat!"
Okay…I guess he liked it.
He runs out and tells Sheri and Eric everything that happened, and I finally realize that Fred is not a coaster fan. I can handle just about any ride that they can throw at me (I laugh during Mission Space: Orange), but my insides are currently not happy with me at all. We hit a bathroom not too far from Anandapur stuff and then decide that, even though it's only a little after 7, we should make our way towards the exit and hopefully catch the busses before the crowds start exiting en masse. We pause to look at the tree.
Simply stunning.
We make our way out and just miss a bus. No problem…even after Everest, I'm up to around 60%, which is a heck of a lot better than before! The weather is perfect…we can wait. I figure that I'd call our neighbors and rub it in on the weathe….errr…see what they're calling for back home weather-wise. Hey, they call us at least once or twice from St. Petersburg when they snowbird in January, so this is my chance to pay them back! Still no bus, so we called Sheri's parents and talked to them for a few minutes. Finally a couple of busses stop, and we're back at the hotel in a matter of minutes. After the standard asking/telling/ordering/pleading/screaming/crying the boys to calm down, we all turn in.
No alarm for tomorrow morning.
Day 5 Starts HERE
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