WDW Family Trip, December 2008, Day 1, Part III: Will There Be a Trip?

Day 1, Part II HERE

We start to make our way to Pizza Planet as we thought we could beat the majority of the crowds. As we head over there we see the speeder pic opportunity.


 
I've been trying to find this place for years!!!! I never knew it was out in the open, or I would have found it sooner.


 


 



 
Someday we'll sit down and watch all the Star Wars movies with the boys.


 
We park the stroller over by Muppets, get to Pizza Planet and try to figure out what to order. Aaron wanted cheese…no…pepperoni…no…cheese…no…peppWOULD YOU MAKE UP YOUR MIND???!!!


 
As we figure out what to order, we hear, "Chris!"


 
Kelly (daycare provider) had just gotten their food and was heading to her crew. Sheri agrees to take the boys to talk to them. I order and wait for the food. It finally comes, and I look at the two trays for a minute. Okay, let's put all the drinks on the corners of the tray and put the Mickey bars in the middle. Good. Now, salads on the next tray, with pizzas on top of the salad bowls. Put the tray with the pizzas/salads on top of the drinks, and……


 
HEY!!!! I can carry it all!!!


 
I (very slowly) make my way to the dressing, utensils, straws, etc. and found myself being looked at by at least 20 sets of eyes, all wondering if I was going to make it.


 
Nooooooo problem!


 
A woman comes up next to me and exclaims that what I created is "an engineering marvel of genius." I laugh at her and respond with "or stupidity!"


 
I fear that they are up the stairs but am relieved to find the Mushfam and Kelly (daycare provider) and her crew really close on the bottom floor. Sheri's eyes bug out when she sees how I'm carrying the stuff and lets out an audible whew when I set the trays on the floor without spilling it all on her.


 
We have a good meal talking with the others. Brad, Kelly's (daycare provider's) hubbie was wondering how the Hell we voluntarily came back after what they saw at MK the day before (I warned them that it would be busy). He almost got into a fistfight with someone over an issue with strollers. Their luggage didn't arrive until around 9:15 that night (and they had to unpack 7 people's worth of clothes). Not a good first day for them. Today, however, was going much better for them, though they ignored our pleas to take all the kids back for a mid-day rest. We are heading to Muppets next, but they have already seen it. Kelly (daycare provider) decided to try to see the Osborne lights (as they turned them on) and then try to catch Fantasmic. We let the kids play for a bit, while we talked (each hoping to find a time to grab a drink at the hotel). Kelly (daycare provider) makes sure to tell Sheri that the guy playing Indy is HOT!!!! We then go our separate ways and make our way to Muppets.


 
We drop off some stuff in the stroller and make our way to the entrance to Muppets. Now, I have heard about the key under the mat since our first trip, but I had never seen it. I finally see the door (right at the entrance…I was always looking deeper inside the attraction), and the CM proceeds to take me on a tour of some of the gags in there (the net fullofjello, which I had heard of) and a muppet of Jim Henson (which I hadn't heard of before).


 
Aaron says he doesn't want to see the show because it's stupid. I tell him he's going anyway.


 
Guess who was laughing the hardest during the show? Brat.


 
We get out, grab the stroller, curse the person who spilled our drink in the stroller, and make our way to Indy for the show over there. Now, Eric is still in that "I don't like bright things that go boom" stage, and we're taking him to a stunt show with lots of pyrotechnics. We sit down a good 15 minutes before the show starts, and he's already freaking out. Of course, we're sitting somewhat close to the front (probably so Sheri could get a better look at Indy). The show starts, and immediately, we like the effects at night. We saw this show back in 2001 during the day and walked by it at dusk during our anniversary trip last May, noting that the effects seemed more awe-inspiring as it got darker. Eric fears for Indy's life, and we try to convince him that it's all pretend…they're acting. Once he saw Indy pop up after getting crushed by the boulder, Eric seemed okay with it. I also think I saw him drawing up plans to have a boulder similar to what he just saw take out his brother when we got home. I tried to get a picture on my cell phone of the "director" as he has a striking resemblance to one of my online friends (RoutemanDan), but I couldn't get a picture to turn out. Aaron loved the bullets spraying everywhere and the fights. Eric gave commentary on everything: "that was a loud gun!"… "that fire was really bright!!!" … "he fell off the top of the building and is dead!!!!!!!"


 
Maybe we'll have a chance to see Wishes tomorrow without him curling up into the fetal position.


 
The show ends, and we make our way back to the stroller. We have hardly used it at all, but I wanted to bring it just in case. I'd feel better pushing an empty stroller (and telling people we left the baby at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground) than toting a tired, cranky kid to the bus stops. Well, it paid off, because Eric is now starting to wear down a little and hopped in the stroller. We decide to hold off on the Osborne lights, which Aaron thought were boring, and head back to the hotel.


 
Being an EMH night, I didn't think the crowds were too terribly bad for the park. We make our way out to the bus stops, and a Movies bus shows up within five minutes. We aren't sharing with the other All-Star resorts, so it's a quick trip back to the hotel. We arrive and walk through Andy's room because Eric wanted to tell "Hor-C" good night ("RC"). We get to the elevator (Aaron pushed the up button) and got to our room with Sheri and I holding our breath that the luggage would be there.


 

 
It was!!! I know that Magical Express sometimes gets a bad rap, but we have had nothing but good things to say about the service.


 

 
The boys are going crazy in the typical weareatWaltDisneyWorldandwearesoflippinghappythatwecannotcontainourselves!!!!!! mode, so I throw Eric in the tub for a bath while Sheri started unpacking. Eric's done, so I throw Aaron in the shower. Aaron's done, so Sheri takes a bath while I threaten the boys with their lives to calm down and watch cartoons. Sheri's done so I take a shower.


 

 
According to Sheri's notes: "…still trying to get them to sleep @ 9:24 pm."

I honestly don't know what time they finally fell asleep.


Day 2 starts HERE.
 

WDW Family Trip, December 2008, Day 1, Part II: Will There Be a Trip?

Part I can be viewed HERE.

Being the seasoned veterans, we know not to hit the bathroom just yet. We head to the tram to the main terminal and head down, down, down (whoooah whooooah whoah) (apologies to the Righteous Brothers for taking liberties with the lyrics). The other three peel off to the chairs while I hop in line for the Magical Express check-in. Immediately someone asks me if they have everything they need. I answer, and then 2 others ask the same thing. Next time we fly down, I think I'll bring big white hands for the queue line.

About 5 minutes later, I see my student and his wife hop by. They talk for a minute and agree to let the wife get in line. Then she saw where I was in line and asked if we ran here. They weren't seasoned enough to know not to go to the bathroom as soon as you deplane because you end up behind the rest of the plane checking in at M.E. Of course, every time we passed each other in the queue line, she'd fake-glare at me, and I'd stick my tongue out at her.

The line moves fast…really fast (partially because some folks ignored the white-hand girl and brought their entire family into the queue). We're checked in, and NOW we go to the bathroom. 2 minutes later and we hop on the red carpet to our bus line. Within 5 minutes, we're hopping on the bus. We hesitantly let the boys sit together across from us. 5 minutes later, and we're on our way!

About 10 minutes in, I switch places with Eric before things got too unruly. Aaron finally falls asleep (good!) and lays down on my lap. One family near us hadn't been to WDW for over 10 years and was wondering how all the new attractions were. Everyone on the bus answered their questions as fast as they asked them. We all let out a whoop as we passed through the gates, and I found it a bit odd that the bus didn't make a right turn for the Pop (as it did for us the past three trips). We stop at Sports, and 85% of the bus gets off. The only ones left on the bus are us, the family with the girl from Bloomington, and 2 other families. The BMI fam gets off at Music, and, before we know it, we're in line to check in at Movies.

Only 4 minutes pass by before we hear "NEXT." We all head up there, do the check-in thing, and are pleased to hear that they got us in Toy Story. We're out in 4 minutes and heading over to Andy's Room. We didn't even realize that we didn't get the whole folder that they usually give everyone at the front desk.

Now, Eric has never seen Andy's room, and Aaron was just about 3 when he saw it, so we're excited to see how the boys react…


 



 



 
We head to the elevator in the Buzz building (Eric just looked up and stared at Buzz for a good 30 seconds) and quickly realized that we needed to establish rules on who gets to push which buttons. We decide, amid several tears (both by kids and parents), that Aaron pressed the button to go up and Eric would press the button to go down.

Room 964…where's room 964?

We follow the arrows and get a cool view of the courtyard:



Wow…nice view…the people who have this room right behind us must love it.

I turn around.

Room 964.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuudddee……saaawweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

We were on the top floor, right at the corner, next to Buzz. Did I mention I like the view?

We open the door and find a towel animal in the window. We also got a towel Mickey on the bed…first time we've gotten one of those. WOOHOO!

We do our traditional "we're in the room" routine. The boys jump on the beds. I yell at them. The boys ignore me. Someone gets hurt. I yell some more.


 
Usually it takes a little while before we head out to the parks, but Sheri was literally dragging us out the door. She becomes the photo queen temporarily and tells us to head down by Woody for a pic. We head down, and she snaps the pic:


 


I title it: Mush and the 40-foot Woody (sick of the adolescent Woody jokes yet?)


 
I convince everyone to trust me and show them a short cut to the busses from the Buzz building…I found it on our first trip by accident on the last night of our trip. Instead of heading out of Andy's room and heading back to Cinema Hall, head out east along the bottom of the "T", and it will lead you about 200 yards to the bus stops.


 
Our plan of attack was to hit Studios today, catch the "left" side of the park (Echo Lake/Streets of America) and hopefully catch up with Kelly's crew (daycare provider). I kid you not…the second we stepped into the queue line for DHS, a bus appeared and switched the sign to Studios.


 

 
Kewl.


 

 
This bus was shared with the other two All-Star resorts, so it was a little full. We kind of expected it, though, with Studios being the EMH night park tonight. Still, we were able to sit down and relax for a moment.


 
We get to Studios and look for a Photopass dude/dudette to snap a pic in front of the tree. Weird…there were no Photopass dudes/dudettes to be seen anywhere. We snap one ourselves of the boys.


 



 
We turn towards the turnstiles and HOLY COW there's a lot of people trying to get in. They seem to be moving quickly, though. As we get closer, we realize what's going on. Apparently, they lost the system that scans the tickets. Our guess is that they held entrances for a while as they tried to determine what to do. Their solution was to stamp the back of the tickets with today's date.


 
Ummmmm…..our tickets are plastic…wouldn't the stamp rub off in around 3.5 seconds?


 
I didn't bring it up, but you could kind of tell that the CMs working the turnstiles knew it was an effort in vain. They did what they were likely told to do, though. My guess is that we got a free pass into a park that day (and now have an extra day on our tickets). Too bad our flight back wasn't later…we could have used that extra day then.


 
The bottleneck at the entrance translated into a bottleneck on Hollywood Boulevard. I think we got a taste of what Christmas week would be like. Everyone headed to Tot/RnR or TSM, while we went away from the acronyms and towards Star Tours. We were pretty close to where I thought we'd be on the schedule, and we would arrive close to when the Jedi Training Academy would be starting. We arrive as the crowd is forming, and I pull out my phone to call Kelly (daycare provider). I would have texted her, but they didn't have that package on their phones.


 
Of course, I get the voice mail, so I leave a message. I start to have flashbacks from last December's trip phone fiasco and need a minute to get over the trauma. We tell the boys that a show was about to start, but Aaron was pretty insistent (for a 5 year old…downright annoying any other time) that he wanted to ride the attraction NOW.


 
I contemplated seeing if we could make the last flight back to Bloomington tonight. This ain't the way to start the trip, bud. While Eric gets measured to see if he's tall enough, I pull Aaron off to the side and threaten him far earlier than I had anticipated (I was hoping to make it to Day 3 before bringing out the "we can go back to the hotel, if you want" speech…silly me). Eric's officially past the 40 inch mark where it counts in the parks, so we hope to be good the rest of the trip. We go to the entrance (10 minute wait), and I tell Aaron that I don't want to hear it if we don't see the show outside if he wanted to see it. He told me he didn't want to see it at all.


 
I start banging my head against the wall.


 
We see the pre-show, and Sheri is already looking green. For the life of her, she could not remember ever riding this attraction (we did on our first trip back in '01). As we watch the pre-show, however, it all comes back to her, and it almost came up and out. Remember…she gets motion sickness on It's A Small World. The CM tells us to hold up when the doors open so someone can look for a lost cell phone. The door opens, and several CMs and a woman head in to look for it. I contemplate shouting in there for the phone number so I could call it to help them find it, but they ended the search with no luck.


 
As we head in, Aaron asks if we're really going on a ship to outer space. Hey, who am I to say what's going on? All I said was "just wait and see." Aaron wants to be far away from me, so he sits next to Sheri. That leaves Eric next to me. We get strapped in, and Sheri decides which person she's going to aim for when she barfs.


 
Reactions to Star Tours:

Aaron: WOOHOO

Eric: WOOHOO

Me: grinning

Sheri: blech


 

 
We leave (well, 3 of us leave…Sheri staggers out) and witness the Jedi Training Academy in full swing. The boys initially are kind of "whate-vvveeerrr" until they hear Vader's music start and they catch their first glimpse of the stormtroopers.


 
NOOOOOOWWWWW they're interested. It's almost like Aaron knew we'd exit right when Vader came out, even though he had never seen the show.


 
Then Vader comes out.


 
Both boys freeze.


 
It's Darth Vader!


 
It's Darth Vader!!!!!!


 
Neither boy refuses to take their eyes off of him for fear that he'd do a jedi mind trick on them. Eric was getting a little spooked, so we decide to move on, even as Vader is getting his butt kicked by a bunch of ankle-biters.




Part III HERE

WDW Family Trip, December 2008, Day 1, Part I: Will There Be a Trip?

Cast of Characters:

Mush…turning 36 on this trip. Perfect husband, excellent Father, epitome of awesomeness.

Sheri…puts up with Mush and calls him out on all the embellishments he puts in.

Aaron…DS6 – or will be during this trip

Eric…DS3.9 – unfortunately will probably never celebrate his birthday at Disney World as it's on December 28^th.

Fred…DSV0…more on him later.


 
We get to bed at around 12:01, with fingers crossed that Aaron makes it through the night without hurling.

I think I fell asleep around 12:08.

"Daddy?"

I know I was woken up at 12:38.

It was Aaron.


 
Uh oh.

"Can you tuck me back in?"

"Okay bud…you feeling okay?"

I immediately regretted asking that question, fully expecting something like "I just threw up in bed. I missed the bowl and got it all over my sheets. Eric heard me, came to check on me, caught a whiff of what happened, and ran back to his bed blowing chunks too."

His answer? "I'm feeling okay. My tummy doesn't hurt anymore!"

"You didn't throw up?"

"Nope…just had to go to the bathroom."

I checked the pink bowl, and it was dry!!! WHEW!

I tucked Aaron in, headed back to bed, and told wifey the good news.


 
ssnnnooorrrreeeee


 
Back to bed.


 
Aaron's back in our room at 5:45. He must have the Disney travel day schedule memorized because we're usually up and just about to board a plane around this time. He's excited, which is a very good sign. The pink bowl is still dry, and we're good to go!

We all shower and get dressed, and Sheri and I throw the final things into the bags. For what seems like the 40^th time, I load the car with the bags. We have a quick breakfast, and…


 
…we twiddle our thumbs.


 
I wanna be in the air now, dang it!!!

Sheri and the boys play a little Hungry Hungry Hippos to pass the time.


 



 
Sheri and I hop on the computers and wreak a little havoc on Facebook before succumbing to playing a few minutes of Civilization IV. While we're playing, I'm texting her jokes about seeing a 40-foot Woody later on (I'll always act like I'm 15). We quit playing and do our first ceremonial end-of-countdown picture:


 


Aaron's face tells us two things:

1. He's feeling a LOT better
   
2. We're in trouble this trip
   

 
Finally, around 9 am (we'd only be 40 minutes from landing at MCO had we taken the early flight), we decide to start making our way to the airport, which takes a whole 8 minutes. O.C.D. boy (a.k.a. me) kicks in and starts going through 8 different checklists at the same time. I made sure the furnace had food and water, locked the cats, and turned the front door down to about 65.


 
WE'RE ONNNNNN OOOUUUURRRRR WWWAAAAAAAAwhat? Hold the vacation…Aaron can't find his flippin mouse ears. No prob…he needs bigger ones anyways, so it's probably better that he can't find…what? He found them?


 
Can……we……just…..get…..in…..the…..car……and……go…..pl……ee…..a….s..s……e…eeee..?


 
We get to the airport, and I drop off everyone with the bags at the door. As I park the car, the shuttle pulls up and whisks me away to the terminal (good sign on the timing). It's foggy, but the visibility was definitely good enough, and the wind was from the south, which meant we'd be in the air basically as soon as we left the gate. As I do the self-check-in, Sheri talks to a younger couple, and she lights up as they talk. I get the boarding passes and head over to the gaggle only to find out that the guy was one of my students in a class 3 years ago. They're also heading to Disney…second trip, staying at one of the Port Orleans resorts.

We disrobe, fly through security in about 3 minutes, and re-clothe ourselves. From front door to gate…around 10 minutes.

MAN I love the Bloomington airport! I think my friends Squid and Coleen will back me up on this one.

We let the boys run a bit (believe me…there was room. BMI is nothing like a larger airport as AirTran is the only airline at the south end, and they usually only have one plane in at a time. All the kids run around a little). A Mesaba Saab 340 comes in, and Aaron, proving that I am his father, starts asking questions about what all is going on. The plane leaves, and the boys get bored until a family with a girl Eric's age sit next to us. The kids talk a little, while we talk to the mother. They're staying at AS-Music for something like 10 days. They're more fanatical than us as this is something like their third trip already this year.

AirTran lands, and we plead with/force the boys to hit the bathroom. Before we know it, we're on the plane and screaming down the runway.

It's a non-stop, so we have a couple of hours before we land. It's a straight shot with no real turns (booooo---rrriiinnngg). Both boys do really well. Aaron's starting to get his appetite back, so we're trying to find somewhat nutritious food that we brought with us to give him. The boys both played with their new Leapsters (early birthday presents). I hoped they both would sleep a little. Two of them did sleep…Eric and Sheri.

Eric has to go to the bathroom, so we head back, and both of us squeeze into the bathroom to play with the blue water. He doesn't know how to flush, so I press the button. Eric nearly ran through me and through the door when the toilet flushed. Perhaps I should have warned him about that.

Aaron apparently is jealous and wants to go too, so I head on back again. Some of the parents give a knowing-smile and head-nod as we go back. I decided to give Aaron his space and not go in there. I show him how to do the door.

5 minutes elapse, and I hear the flush.

Then the jiggling of the door.


 
"Daddy?"


 
Uh oh.


 
"Yeah?"


 
"I can't open the door."


 
I try jiggling it from the outside, to no avail. I then tell him to keep trying.


 
Another minute passes.


 
"DADDY!!"


 
"stay calm, bud, just keep trying. You'll get out." I'm about to get the flight attendant.


 
Another minute passes. I'm keeping up the reassurances that he can do it and hope he doesn't start getting claustrophobic. The timing is perfect, of course, as I feel the engines spooling down for our initial descent.


 
Click


 
Whew. He was about at the freaking out stage when he got it.


 
We sit back down, and the plane starts down, and the flaps go down, and the landing gear goes down, and we are down landing south…about 20 minutes early! The plane taxies to the gate, and WE'RE HERE!!!!!

Part II can be viewed HERE.

WDW Family Trip, December 2008, Pre-Trip

So….here we are in spring of 2008.  We had a fantastic vacation last December, and we were all ready to be back.  This December, however, was going to be a little more difficult because, for the first time, we have a child in school.  The job outlook for me was not looking good in early 2008 because, for the first time in ten years, the Econ department at Illinois State University looked to be fully staffed.  I had a good prospective job opening up at the community college that I teach at, though it wasn’t technically for an econ position.  They needed to fill both a business and an econ line…the search was for the business position (or so we thought…more on this later).  In the off-chance that they didn’t have a good pool of business candidates, there was a possibility that they could switch and go for the econ line.  I threw my application together and didn’t make it past the first cut as they had a good pool of business folks.

Damn.

No job at ISU.  My best chance at a full time job in a looooong time just fell through.  I needed to find something, so I called up someone over in the Finance and Planning area, and, luckily, they had a project that could get me through the summer with a small stipend.  Still, things were looking bleak for a trip in December as we figured we wouldn’t have a lot of income to play around with.  No planning took place when we typically started planning (February-March…I’m an anal, consummate planner, remember?).

Then the sun started shining down on me.  We had a resignation at ISU, and the chair asked if I’d be willing to teach two courses.  Before he could finish the sentence, I screamed YES at him.  It wasn’t entirely for sure if it would be a half-time or full-time appointment, but it’s better than nothing.


WOOHOO!!!  We can pla…..wait.  There’s that little thing called a dissertation hanging over my head and at the point where I simply lost the internal motivation to work on it with all the frustration.  I even tried to get my chair to threaten to drop me to provide a little external motivation, but he’s just not the kind of guy to issue ultimatums.  Sheri wants this thing done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!!!  I do too, but it’s not something that I can just wave a magic wand at and POOF, it’s done.  I think I’m not too bad at teaching and doing the behind-the-scenes research.  I just can’t write worth a crap.  I was able to do my Master’s thesis in no time, but the expectations were very low, relative to a dissertation.


Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about Disney, aren’t we?!


With a job at ISU and some moderate progress on the dissertation, Sheri agreed that we can start planning a trip in December, hopefully as a graduation present.  We had started helping people all around us planning trips (one family went in mid-May, while our daycare provider was interested in going in mid-December), so the trip bug was biting.

I called AAA and talked to a new rep…the agent we had used before had moved up to the Chicago area.  I loved working with her because she knew what we wanted, and we knew what she needed (the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous didn’t hurt, either).  I took a chance and gave the new agent the specifics.  She called back with pricing and a promise to kiss me for making it so easy for her. 

Why didn’t the previous agent offer that?  Did I mention that she was drop-dead gorgeous?

We got the pricing, all the while helping our daycare provider get set up with AAA and getting their package set up.  The agent assigned to them left a lot to be desired, and they were getting frustrated at everything.

We started looking for airfare rates as soon as AirTran released the December dates.  We toyed around with a number of possible alternatives and came up with a short 4 day trip.  Better than nothing.

Then a really good reduction in airfares popped up just before we booked, which actually made it cheaper to add an additional day of hotel/dining plan/theme park tickets to get a much lower rate.  Wow, this is going to be our longest trip.


We hadn’t told our daycare provider that we were looking yet, especially since it was going to be the exact same time they were going to be down there.  I had a little fun…I was able to quote her airfare prices and schedule from memory for the days that she was looking for, and she was floored (and a little scared) that I knew them, not knowing that we were flying the same time frame.  She started asking questions about everything (she had never flown, never really been on a vacation with their family, never stayed on site at Disney, only had been to WDW once, etc).  They decided on staying at All-Star Movies (same as us).  It was then that I couldn’t do it anymore and told them that we’d be there the same time.

She almost screamed and immediately said that we’d have to get a few drinks together down there.  She has never seen Sheri drunk and thinks that my wife is this sweet, innocent girl (much like some of you on here think of her).  They wanted to do Hoop-dee-Doo with us, but they couldn’t get a reservation for their party-size.

Things are looking good in August.  We got all of our dining reservations that we wanted.  We had a rough sketch of what parks we wanted to hit on what days.  I found out that I was going to be considered full-time at ISU (I verified this three times with the department).  I had no desk in my office at ISU as they lost a tenured person’s desk and I let them have mine.  I got the desk on a Wednesday in late September, and I was overjoyed.  I ran into the office to thank them, and the secretary said that I must not have read my e-mail yet.

Well, of course I couldn’t read my e-mail!!! My computer was missing cables and couldn’t be set up in my office!  (No, I’m not making any of this part up!)

I pulled out my laptop, hooked up to a wired connection, and nearly suffered an aneurysm as the contract I had signed not 2 weeks prior (they were over a month late in getting the contracts to us because of a signature issue on their form) was incorrect and that I has only to be half-time.  Plus, I had to pay back the over-pay.  Plus I lost accumulated benefits.  Plus my insurance premiums would likely increase and additional $500/month or so starting in January.  Plus I lost 50% of my tuition coverage benefits.  Plus.  Plus.  Plus.

Of course, I had decided not to pursue a couple of job opportunities because of the assumed full-time status.


I’ll get back to Disney in time…my therapist tells me that this is part of the healing process.


I talked to the community college to see if I could add courses for the spring and to put feelers out for a possible job search for an econ line.  She had just received word from the Dean/Board that the line they filled last spring (when they filled the business line) was actually the econ one and that they were not going to fill econ with a tenured line for the foreseeable future.

Every silver lining’s got a touch of grey.


@#%*#&@#$!%*(&#@!!!!!  That’s about the only way we could look at it.  In the grand scheme of things, we’ve still got a lot going for us (health, family, happy).  But geez…this is gonna hurt.

Sheri’s entrenched in her job…almost too entrenched.  She’s filling in temporarily in a position that should be paying a significant amount more than she’s currently earning, and they extended the timeframe by another year.  She’s got tons more stress than the position she’s supposed to be in.

We had already told the boys that we were going by now…they even made a countdown chain to mark the progress.  Sheri’s stressed out like crazy.  I’m about to tell everyone I work for where to stick it.  The dissertation is completely stalled by now as I focused on survival (I was teaching 2 new courses to me…one I never even took as a student, so I had to learn the stuff before I taught it…double the work for half the pay.  Again, better than nothing, but ARGH).  We probably shouldn’t go do Disney, but darn it, we need the break.  Plus, we just got wind that they were going to offer dining for free, so that saved us around $500.  Screw it…let’s just go as it may be the last time we can make it in December with the boys in school.  Yeah, we were also feeling guilty about taking Aaron out of school for a vacation.

Screw it…we’re going!

And then the van started falling apart.














OH COME ON!!!!!!!!







We got to under a month, and, as expected, the excitement level started increasing exponentially.  Granted, it was around this time that our daycare provider and her husband were about to kill each other (and I don’t mean that figuratively…they had just about cancelled the trip and had one of them move out a couple of times).  Sheri had already packed and repacked and made a list and checked it twice (no word on who was naughty or nice).  I had a Disney CD in the car that we listened to, and the boys actually made parts for the songs.  Aaron would sing the male part to A Whole New World as best as he could, and Eric would intentionally screech the female part.  Sometimes, out of nowhere, Eric would stop in the middle of what he was doing in the living room and start going “Hakuna….matata…hakuna…..matata.”  Aaron would (at the exact right time) chime in as an adult Simba, “It MEANS no worries….for the rest of your days.”   I’ll spare you the details on how they acted out other parts, including Pumba’s aroma lacking a certain appeal.  We’re ready to go!!!!!

20 days.

19

18

17

16

15  Go for auto sequence start

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

Main engine start

6

STOP THE COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!HOLD!!!!!!!  HOLD HOLD!!!!!

At 6 days out, I come down with a monster cold, right as I’m finishing grading exams and preparing for finals week.  No prob…it hit now, so I’ll be okay.

T-minus 6 days and counting….

6

5

4

(I’m not feeling any better)

3

2

(I’m done with finals week and feel like crap)

Hold for a minute.

I receive word that our great-grandmother had passed away at the age of 97.  She was an absolutely amazing woman who I doubt missed a single Sunday of Church.  I don’t think she had any enemies anywhere.  She was a school teacher…was married 71 years to the same person (he passed away a little over a year before).  You could tell that she was saying goodbye to everyone at Thanksgiving.  It was expected by most of us but still sad to see such a wonderful person who touched so many lives leave us.

T-minus 24 hours and counting…the day before we leave.

The morning starts with the boys being well before the butt-crack of dawn.  I hopped online to watch the flight that our daycare provider was going to be on.  She was a nervous wreck about flying…so nervous in fact that I actually typed up a 9 page document on what to expect from when they get to the entrance of the airport until they get to their first theme park.  She and her husband were speaking to each other again, so the trip was on.  I was a little worried about her connection in Atlanta as they only had a 30 minute layover.  I was beyond relieved to see that their connecting gate was the immediate next gate to where they were arriving.  I was hoping that they’d call and give an update, but I think she kind of had her hands full with 6 kids (I’m counting her husband now as a kid because he had no part in the planning and wasn’t helping a ton with the kids).  I warned her that the first day they were there (a Saturday…at Magic Kingdom…arriving in the afternoon…one of the few days that didn’t have a Christmas party) was going to be the busiest day they’d have down there.

Around 7:30 am, Sheri heads down, and we have breakfast.  I’m still feeling like crap decide that, since it has been 6-7 days and hasn’t cleared up yet, I’d better head to the doctor’s just in case it’s bacterial.  Sheri calls me a moron for doing this the day before we leave.

As Sheri and I fight the way we do most of our awake lives, Aaron says that his stomach doesn’t feel very good…

…right before he barfs.


CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCR….

No fever.  Nothing else wrong…just barfing.

Sheri and I decide to quit fighting for a bit to see what we can do with Aaron.

Now, for those keeping track, I should have seen that somebody’s telling us NOT to go to Disney World tomorrow.  This is becoming the pre-trip from the Seventh Circle of Hell!

I go to the Doctor’s, and, of course he tells me that he’s not sure if it’s bacterial or not.  So…..what do I do?  He was leaning towards “no” but wasn’t 100%.  He gave a prescription for antibiotics to take with me just in case I needed to have it filled down in Florida if it hadn’t cleared up in another 2-3 days (apparently colds last around 10 days on average).  I left the office, and, on the way to the car, started implementing the discipline in which I teach.  Let’s see here…if I choose to fill the prescription here, the marginal benefit is huge, while the marginal cost is just the time needed to fill the prescription plus the co-pay.  If I wait, there’s a chance that I may not need to fill it; if I do however, the marginal benefit will be lower than the original marginal benefit, and the marginal cost would be considerable.  I drew a graph, performed a couple of regressions, and decided that I’m filling the prescription here, regardless of what the doctor said.

I’ll probably go to medical school after I finish the Ph.D. and figured I’d get a jump start on the diagnosis/treatment section of the medical boards.  I just hope I get the M.D. soon enough so I could start Law School before I turn 55 years old.  Can you tell I’m ready to be done with school?

I called Sheri while waiting for the prescription.  She gave me and update on Aaron (calm…barfed a second time though).  She agreed with Dr. Mush’s plan of attack (and disagreed with my Dr. Love impersonation that I tried on her over the phone).

Got home and did the waiting game…will Aaron be okay?  I was guessing that he was like me at that age and got so excited before something that I would occasionally yak.  I was like clockwork whenever we were going to a show in the mushroom (what I called Assembly Hall in Urbana/Champaign…where the Illini play)…20 minutes before we left.

We're-packed (I lost count how many times we’ve done this by now…ran out of fingers).  The weather is looking to be warmer than expected, so we swapped out a pair of jeans for a pair of shorts.  We throw the yellow Magical Express tags on the bags and wait.  Aaron keeps on barfing, and the pessimist in me is screaming, “DON’T GO, YOU MORON!!!!!”(See…even my conscience calls me a moron).  The barfing is becoming less common, and he stopped around 6:30 that evening.

I’m drinking decongestant like it’s Diet Coke and wondering if there were any tricks on clearing the ears when they were clogged up.  I half-way contemplated talking to a friend of mine on Facebook who was a pilot for American Eagle but worried that he’d tell me to stay grounded for risk of blowing out my eardrums.

We get the kids to bed (they were too excited to sleep, as you could imagine) and put the trademark large pink bowl next to Aaron’s bed in the off-chance he’ll need it to blow chunks into.  After they go to sleep, we start getting the toiletries put together, and I take bags out to the van.

Then I bring one back in for Sheri to change something out.

Then I take it back out.

…and bring another one in for something else.

It’s at about this time I threaten to go on strike and refuse to do any more baggage handling.

After about the fourth switch-a-roo, we think we’re done and try to figure out what to do before going to sleep.


This is unfamiliar territory now.  We’re used to going to bed around 11 pm, getting very little sleep as we do the “we’re too excited” commercial about 157 times, getting up at the crack of dawn (around 4 am), and taking the first flight that leaves Bloomington .  This trip, we’re taking an 11 am flight, so there’s no need to panic and get to bed early.

We try to figure out a movie to watch…don’t think we found one.  So we resorted to what most couples do when there’s spare time and the kids are asleep.

We played a computer game.

Such an exciting life we live, eh?  Oh to be in my 20s again (she actually talked to me back then).

We get to bed a little before midnight, with every part of our body crossed that Aaron will be okay to go.

A Dream is a Wiiiissshhh….your heaarrrrrrt makes…

Day 1 HERE

WDW Family Trip, December 2007, Day 5: Goodbye, Eventually

Day 4 can be found HERE.


Woke up around 5:45 and started getting ready.  This was going to be a change as we actually weren't going to eat breakfast and hop on the bad bus (the Magical Express that takes you to the airport...you know, the one that has 50% of the bus bawling as the characters all sing "now it's time to say 'Goodbye'...yeah...that one!).  We got everything finished up packing (okay, Sheri did 90% of it the night before), and I took everything over to the resort area check-in.  I was the only one there at 6:35...couldn't imagine why.  I got us all checked in and the bags unloaded to them.  I went back to the room and noticed that there was a bus outside already (wow!). 

We got the kids rousted, did a quick pseudo toothbrush thing, and headed out to the bus stops as we were heading to Kona for a 7:45 ressie.  I figured we'd have missed the MK bus as it had been 10-15 minutes since I saw it.  It was right around 7:00 when we got there, and the bus pulls up (I guess he was waiting to go on shift???)

We hop on the bus (only a handful of us there) and head over to MK.  Aaron's just about to the point where we can hire him out as a guide for WDW...he knew exactly what we were doing and led us to the monorail entrance.  We hopped on, and, before we knew it, we were through the Contemp, past the TTC, and in the land of Polynesia.  We hop off (about 15 minutes early) and check in.  Within a couple of minutes, we're led to our table. 

Our server stops by, and, being the freaks of instinct, we already knew what we wanted.  We order our meal at the same time we gave our drink order.

Big mistake.

He forgot the pressed pot coffee for around 12 minutes.  Then he pressed it and didn't quite do it right as the grounds didn't exactly go down to the bottom of the pot like they usually do.  If I remember correctly, one of the boys' drinks was wrong too.  The food was mind-blowing as always (I get the Tonga toast and Sheri gets the pineapple-macadamia nut pancakes).  Eric is considered the sausage king, and, unfortunately, he was served bacon.  I switched out the pig parts before the eyes welled up and gave him my sausage.

Not the best service we've had there...we're going to chalk this one up as an anomaly as we've eaten there a number of times before with no problems at all.

When it came time for the bill, we were paying out of pocket.  Sheri took the boys to hit the bathroom and look at the decorations inside the Poly.  After about 10 minutes, she peers back in at me still waiting to get the check.  I was nearing the point of banging my head on the table as our server seemed to have disappeared.  Being a server in a former life, I can understand the need to step away for a few minutes; however, he cleared off the plates and then vanished.  I think the manager noticed I was nearing the point of suicide and stopped by.  I just mentioned I was waiting for the check.

2 minutes later, our server magically appears with the check.  I pay cash and did something I rarely do...tipped under 15% (I'm usually 20-25% at restaurants -- part of that server-in-former-life thing).  It was something like around 12-13%.  If he were double-sat, I'd understand it (I hated being double-sat as it totally throws off the rhythm).  We were his only table, however.

Last day, Mush...don't let it get to you.

We hop back on the monorail and Sheri, with her astute eye, notices that nobody asked for the front.  She asked (after Aaron and I were in the car), and they could fit 2.  I told her to take Eric, since he hadn't had a chance to do that yet.  I didn't tell Aaron...just kept him in the middle of the car in the stroller looking outside.











Yeah, he thought it was cool.


Perhaps he actually is my son and not the UPS guy's kid.

We get to MK and meet back up with Sheri and Eric without Aaron suspecting a thing, until Sheri shows us the monorail co-pilot license they got.  Way to go, wifey!  We head through the turnstiles and notice that very few folks are here for the opening which was starting in just five minutes.



Good Morning...good Moooorning!!!






Sheri's okay with it, but I've always loved the opening of the park and secretly hope to be that family up there someday.

Anyways...5...4...3...2...1...POP!  The streamers go flying out, and half of them land on us.  The boys think it's the coolest thing, and I think they still have some of those streamers in their rooms, 2.5 years later!

We let the insanity go by us and slowly take in the atmosphere one last time for the vacation.  The music...the colors...the CMs in big white hands waving...the joy.

We bear left at the hub to the walkway that goes to Fantasyland (by Tinkerbelle's Treasures), where we see the insanity geared up to run people over so they could be the ones to wake up Tink.  The rope drops, and we slowly head towards Peter Pan.  Eric wasn't too sure of this the first time, but we decided to try it again.

Let's just say we ended up riding it again.

After 2 rides over the Crocodile, we head over to Philharmagic and see that one.


It's a tradition...gotta get a pic there.

We watch Donald's mayhem one final time, though I think I was watching the boys' reactions as much as I watched the show.  As we head out, I notice I had a voice mail.  It was Mare.  She and Renee had made it in and were heading to Tomorrowland.  I called back and, for only like the second time this entire trip, two people actually talked instead of leaving a message.  We made our way to Tomorrowland for one last ride of Buzz before heading back to the Pop to catch our bus.  Mare said they'd be there in a few.

We got to the Lunching Pad and saw them near MILF.  We didn't tell the boys that they'd be there, but it didn't matter.  When the kids saw each other (let me clarify...when Aaron and Renee saw each other...Eric was more intrigued by the pixie dust he found on the ground), they ran and gave each other a hug.

Our group of 6 hopped into the queue line (or lack thereof) and was firing up the lasers within 30 seconds.

I love this pic:


We defeat Zurg one last time and start to make our way towards the exit.  Before we exit, however, we pop into the Emporium one last time to see if we can find our old neighbor's mother.  No luck, unfortunately.

We stop at Town Square and gab for a couple of minutes before we say our goodbyes.


Good Friends:


As is tradition, I look back before exiting and tell the Castle goodbye before heading under the train station.

We hop on the bus and, before we know it, we're telling the Tramp's Ass goodbye too for one final time:



It was a somewhat shorter trip, but it was a fantastic trip.  We gauge the gaggle of people waiting for the bad bus and decide that nobody seemed to be in the mood to strike up a conversation, so our family of four talked about the best parts of the vacation.  Sheri grabs one last shot of our sorrowful clan about to board the bad bus:


Of course, when I tell them to look sad, they give us their best smiles of the entire trip.

Oh well.

Bad bus comes, and we're watching 50% of the people starting to cry on that last refrain.  It has gotten to me before, but not this time.  Dunno, as it was our first Disney vacation for the entire family.

There's always one final tradition that we do in Orlando before we board the plane.  After the security thing and the tram ride to the terminal, we always stop at the Burger King for a meal.  Hell, we've got about and hour and 45 minutes before our flight leaves...why not?!  We've done it every trip (and every trip I'm tempted to see if I can charge it to my WDW room key).

An uneventful set of flights later, and the Mush Family's 2007 trip is history.