A trip to the airport is never boring.......when they announced the gate change for the Allentown flight, forcing those poor schmoes to walk the length of the C Terminal and the length of the B Terminal, they at least said "But, you might be able to see George Clooney!"
Maybe I'll run into him on the flight back home tomorrow.
Friday: The day didn't get off to a fast start because of some serious indecision about what to do. Christopher and Matthew absolutely wanted to do DisneyQuest again; Suzanne suggested a return to Magic Kingdom but nobody was really up for that and we finally agreed that a visit to Epcot, the one park we hadn't visited yet, seemed to make sense. Go there, do the big rides (Soarin', Mission Space, Test Track) escape to DisneyQuest and then go to dinner.
So, we arrive at Epcot later in the morning than we probably would have preferred, and the line for Soarin' is at about 2 hours. Use our Fast Passes for Test Track (2 pm) and stand in line for Mission Space. They've changed this ride now, you have two options: An orange pass, with spinning and a serious effort at reproducing the effects of a launch into space, and, a green pass, with the same visuals but a less intimidating experience.
Dad, Christopher, Gramps, and Grandma go for the green. Christopher, still a little spooked by some of his experiences, is getting nervous and antsy as we stand in line, but, a final description of the ride as more like Star Tours and less like Space Mountain seems to settle him down. And the ride turns out to be fairly awesome; you simulate a launch, your four person shuttle has each member play a role (I was the pilot, Christopher was the navigator) and I thought it was really well done.
Kevin of course thought the orange pass was a blast....I shudder to think what that might be like. Suzanne sadly missed the ride as Matthew needed to pull out of line for a pit stop.....
Decided to go down and hit some of the country themed areas before lunch and before our Test Track time. First stop was Mexico
I love this photo
I say 'gracias', you say 'de nada'.
The smells were so good here we almost bailed on our original plan (German) for lunch! The boys had a good time modeling the Mexican gear, and enjoyed the boat ride that's part of the attraction.
Next on the list was China
No ride here, or, at least no ride that we went on. But, the boys liked seeing the terracotta army, especially since we had just seen the most recent Mummy movie and part of the movie revolves around an army like that coming to life!
Walked down to Germany for lunch; brats all around. Made our way back through Norway on our way to Test Track. Again, another boat ride showing the Norwegian folk trolls and gnomes and a movie about Norway at the end (not sure that the Norwegians would appreciate the large focus on North Sea oil drilling...thought that was kind of weird).
Of course, there's a Norway-themed gift shop. And more head gear.
Finished up our stay at Epcot with the Test Track ride....everyone thought that was pretty cool.
The Hutsells at Epcot
Of note: Christopher is wearing Kevin's shirt....he's almost the same shirt size now.
Left Epcot and went to DisneyQuest. Christopher and I blasted the bugs at Spice Island; Matthew dusted Mom and me at the Nascar game, and Suzanne and I had another go at a Ms. Pac Man duel...this time we again had to suspend the game due to time constraints but I was the one who was way ahead as we ended the game. I was able to claim Frogger-bragging rights for the trip. Kevin was playing Galaga and saying and showing that he was pretty good....Mom advised him not to go challenging the Dad anytime soon......
Had dinner at Outback that evening and concluded the vacation with a trip to the Pirate Ship pool and the hot tub in the evening.
First, here's the previously mentioned video of the trip on Thunder Mountain.....
Second, I didn't realize Suzanne had some video of the boys blasting bugs on the Island of Spice. Here it is.
Thursday: Started the day at the Animal Kingdom; Scott, Christopher, and Grandma headed over to the Safari Ride and Suzanne, Kevin, Matthew, and Gramps headed over to the Everest coaster.
Christopher's adventures with the camera on the safari ride are worthy of their own post; we'll do that shortly. I have some video tape as well, and that will have to wait for later as well.
After the 'split', we all headed over to Dinoland for the Dinosaur ride....Kevin, famously, was caught on the picture taken for the ride cowing away in terror from the Dinosaur that's roaring at you; this time, he takes the stoic route and there's not a hint of movement from him in the picture. After that, we head over to the new attraction, Finding Nemo: The Musical.
one of the few pictures that came out ok....too much light and movement in other photos
Nemo at the Dentist's fish tank
Nemo leaving with his teacher at the end of the show
And it's really good. Almost off-Broadway like in terms of the production. Very happy we did this. We have a bunch of video from the musical...here's a little bit.
Of course, Matthew and Kevin didn't go to Nemo...they wanted to do Everest again, so, we headed over there to meet up with them. I may, or may not, have some video of them coming down the big hill....Suzanne did catch them on camera.
trust me, they're on this car
here's a zoomed in view. Kevin has his hands up behind the big guy in the white; Matthew also has his hands up(!) right next to him...
Started to rain shortly after this; we knew it was coming and had planned to leave about this time anyway, and missed most of the downpour as we headed to the parking lot. Made it back to the hotel, and, after about 2 hours, the skies cleared again. So,the boys were off to the pool
Matthew underwater
Went back to Hollywood Studios for dinner that night. Did the Prince Caspian attraction (not worth it), watched the American Idol Experience finale (was worth it....there's some pretty talented folk that try out for this).
the view of Mickey's hat from where we sat (outside) for Idol
After Idol, we went over to Phatasmagic, the end-of-the-night show at the park. We've seen it before, and it's well worth the hassle in getting there and getting out of there to see it.
Let me try and give this the attention it deserves.....
Tuesday: We started the day at Downtown Disney and Disneyquest. There's a big Lego store here with an outdoor patio where kids can make whatever they want, and, the boys had a great time building ...well, I'm not sure what they built, some kind of cityscape with starships, etc. But, it's all good when they boys are all playing together nicely, and, that happened here.
Construction in progress
Complete. Note Matthew in the Rock n Roll coaster Tshirt.
Disneyquest is the 5-story arcade stop.....Chuck E Cheese's and Dave & Busters in hyperdrive. And not surprisingly, it was a big hit with the boys as well. Unlimited play on all of the machines, just an admission price and you're in. One of the more memorable games was "Let's Go Jungle: Lost on the Island of Spice". 25 minutes, with unlimited restarts, to get through it all.
Shooting those mutated bugs.....
Gramps rockin' the Jambo safari machine
Mom and Dad tried to have a Ms. PacMan showdown but, the game was one of those souped up versions where a life can last for 10 to 15 minutes....I died pretty quickly on the first life and Suzanne made it though about 8 levels on her first life, so, I was definitely behind when we were forced by time constraints to end the match. But i think I would have come back......
Went from there to the Magic Kingdom. Very crowded, yet again. Started with Thunder Mountain, a family favorite.
Before the oohs and aahs begin....
Away we go......
Internet here is slow slow slow....Suzanne has some great video of the Thunder Mountain ride but that may have to wait until we return to the lands of speedy uploads.
Arrived late, so, didn't get a chance to do much. Matthew and Kevin boogied over to Space Mountain, the rest of did Pirates of the Caribbean (surprised to realize that Gramps hadn't seen the revamped Jack Sparrowific ride yet, so, that was cool). Did the new Monsters Inc ride that we had never seen; just a comedy show, but, it was pretty funny. That's in Tomorrowland near Space Mountain, so, after that, we headed over there and Christopher, surprisingly, decided to try it and emerged relatively ok with it. Suzanne and I encouraged him to scream and yell as we went through it, and he ended up between us, me in front, Suzanne behind him and he certainly screamed and yelled all through it. The ride ended just as he was tired of it; the laugh-filled screams at the beginning had just started to turn to sad-crying-screams as we rounded the corner to return to the station.
Wednesday: Took the boys to Blizzard Beach, the first time we've been at a Disney water park. Surprised at how the day went...I figured we'd be off as a group doing things and as soon as I got them sunscreen'd up they took off and by the time I got my t-shirt off and went to follow them they were gone, nowhere to be seen. Figured I had to stay near the chair so that a boy (or two) wouldn't freak out if they came back and didn't find me there, and sure enough, about 45 minutes later Matthew returns and is sad; he's lost Kevin and Christopher and kind of went astray finding his way back to me. Christopher, and then Kevin, show up, and Kevin and his new coaster buddy go off to do slides while Christopher and I do the lazy river (30 minutes to do a complete circuit around the park.
Guess we got our money's worth out of the slides....Kevin's first report back after going down the Summit Plunge was "That was a lot steeper than I thought it was!". Kevin, almost always, isn't fazed by the rides, but, apparently this was steep enough and he went fast enough that he was more than a little spooked.
Rest of the day was fun....tried to stay near the towels so that the boys could always find me, so, got some good reading in. Did the lazy river again with Christopher, had a lot of fun with that. Went into the wave pool....that was a bust (too many waves and the bottom of the pool was too....rough...was starting to tear up th bottom of our toes)
Went back to Downtown Disney for dinner. Ate at the T-Rex Cafe (same as the Rainforest cafe, just with the Dino motif). The restaurant, agreeably, is right near the Lego store so the boys could begin and complete construction while we waited. Dinner was good (crowded, but good) and the restaurant has a Build-a-Dino store inside (Build-a-Bear...just with dinos) and Christopher enjoyed adding to his collection a purple parasaurolphus. Christopher had been naming his dogs with -berry names (Cranberry, Strawberry, etc) and had decided to switch over to weather events...the dino is Snowberry.
Headed back to Disneyquest to close out the evening.
Sunday: A pretty boring day as far as vacations go. Woke up, had breakfast, and then drove out to the airport to pick up the other 2/5 of the Hutsell's. Their day had started early (4:30 am early) and, after an hour delay in Detroit, had to really rush to make their connection in Cincinnati. But, all is well that ends well, and by 11 am all of the Hutsell's were reunited in Orlando.
Spent the rest of the day at the hotel. Lots of swimming, lots of mini golfing, lots of boys running everywhere. Grandma and Gramps arrive around 4 pm; Aunt Melissa arrives shortly thereafter. Pizza's for dinner; Giordano's deep dish Chicago-style pizza that was simply awesome. More swimming, more golfing, Star Trek Wrath of Khan on tv (twice even!), and a quiet night ends late.
Monday: Decide to start the week of Disney at the Disney Hollywood Studios. First stop is at the Star Tours ride, which, all boys enjoyed but Christopher was disappointed that you didn't actually land at Endor.
Second stop is the Indiana Jones show. Again, a good time had by all.
Indiana crashes through the ceiling to start the show
Indiana about to do the sand/golden idol switch
Indiana battles the Germans
Next is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We've all done this before, but, not everyone remembered it well. I did, and wasn't looking forward to it. Christopher remembers that he didn't like it, but, was going to do it again.
"Get ready, this is where the real fun begins. The Tower of Terror has progressed since it's debut when the drops were pre-programmed. Now a computer is in control making each ride random and unique. You never know how many times you'll go up and down and up and down and......"
By my count, we went down, and then down some more, and then up and down again at least four times. I think the biggest up takes you to up near the letters you see and then down (free fall) back to the bottom again. Dad's holding his seat 'grips' and hoping things end soon (I didn't see the picture taken during the ride, but, Suzanne reports it looks like I'm constipated trying to push as hard as I can....there's some mental imagery for you!)....we know from his story (and the confirming photo) that Kevin never took his hands down and kept them raised above his head the entire time (and had a blast!). Matthew reports it was fun, but, a little scary and was excited to talk about it with Kevin at the end. Suzanne's a fan of these types of rides and liked it as well......
Christopher hated it. Hated hated hated it. He's been on it twice now, and I'll be really surprised if he gets on it again. Was totally pissed off afterwards, and had to spend a lot of time getting the big guy settled down again. Had to talk with him about Dad's rationalization of these things (at least I can say I did it.....it really only lasts for a little more than a minute...etc...)
Have lunch after this...park's really crowded, so, this take's a while. Afterwards, we split up. Kevin and Matthew go to the rock and roll coaster, and the rest of us go down into the park. We stop and watch the High School Musical 3 show; Christopher is very happy and enjoys all of this.
We finish the HSM 3 show and we're right near the new American Idol show....and it starts in 5 minutes. Walk over, and we're one of the last 20 people who get into the theatre. Really good, really well done, and Christopher again really enjoyed it.
The last of the three contestants (she didn't win...the girl who won was very good and is singing the national anthem at the NBA game tomorrow night)
Christopher clapping during the show
Leave the show and meet up with Kevin and Matthew....Matthew can't stop talking telling us how cool the roller coaster is. There will be a lot of Kevin-Matthew coaster rides in the coming years.
"It goes up, and upside-down, and over and around, and it was awesome!"
...we're kind of in-between shows and times now....we decide to wait for the parade, and Christopher gets his face painted.
Darth Maul good-ness
Watch the parade (and realize that the boys are mostly beyond these parades now) and then determine the best approach is to split up...Suzanne, Kevin, and Matthew will stay at the park and make good use of our Fast Passes at the coaster at 5:30, the rest of us head for the hotel. Christopher gets a fun filled game of mini golf with Grandma; Matthew and Kevin get repeated upside-down events. Everyone is happy.
Thursday: Picked up the boys from school, and, after a quick stop at home, began the long journey south for vacation.
For the first time in a long time we were hopeful that Christopher had achieved mastery of his spelling words this week, and were looking forward to the sheet coming home to see how he did. Yea for Christopher, he spelled every word correctly. But....he has to write two sentences, and still, unlike other times, he remembered capital letters and punctuation marks. Yea for Christopher!
He just forgot a word....his sentence was "Did dash to the finish?" instead of "Did she dash....". 16/17. Sigh.....almost had it.
Drive was uneventful....stopped for the night about 45 minutes south of Indianapolis. Boys swam, Dad did some work poolside, everyone went to bed at 10:30 and we were on the road the next morning by 8 am.
Friday: Complete the long and arduous journey to stop #1, a visit with Aunt Melanie in Alpharetta. Nothing exciting to report on the drive from Indiana to metro-Atlanta....boys behaving very well...
Arrived a little after 4 pm. Weather is nice, and the boys are happy to get out and run around the back yard.
That's the look!
Showering attention on Sweetie....
All I need is a stick and a ball (being thrown by Melanie, off stage to the right).
Boys play for a while; Jen comes home, and after printing out some serious Chuck E Cheese coupons, off we go for dinner. Dinner is good; boys are token-playing machines, Melanie is an Arctic-Thunder LOSER, and the tokens are exhausted and it's time to go home.
Get back to Aunt Melanie's, and well, that's where the entire trip came off the rails....hasn't quite been the same since. As Melanie said, it's about 45 seconds after this that it all goes downhill.
I'm off with my computer copying Melanie's music to my hard drive and vice versa; the boys are in the main room, and Christopher is lavishing attention on Bettis. Matthew, off stage to the back right, is asking to have his chance with Bettis and I'm walking out into the room as this picture is taken. Picture's over, Christopher's getting up, and Matthew darts over towards Bettis.
Growl, bark, chomp, Christopher is crying and screaming and the "other pets won't treat you like our pets lesson" sinks home.
For a lesson, it certainly could have much worse....another inch up his face and we would have been at the ER with a pretty serious eye injury. But, he'll live, (it's just a flesh wound, as Monty Python would say) and, it's possible the wound won't show up that much on the rest of the vacation pictures (doubtful right now, but, possible). Rest of the night is fairly subdued, except for a visit by Christopher and Matthew to Jen's squad car that, while not reported as extremely exciting at the time, was gushed and raved about as we prepared for blast off Saturday morning.
Saturday: We leave la casa de la sangre derramada after a fabulous breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and strawberries. It's rainy most of the way through Georgia, but, the trip reaches one high point at about 9:29 am. I had called Suzanne around 8:30 to say hello, she reports that she was shocked to find 3" of snow on the ground; hadn't seen that in the forecast, and she'll have to navigate that to get Wiley to the kennel. So, the next call is from Suzanne "I'm in the ditch. Had to avoid someone who slid right through a stop sign, can you call USAA for roadside assistance?". So, I pull over, call USAA, and get the dispatch in the works.
Nothing good happens when I'm not around; Wiley looks sad...
Suzanne describes the car at fault as a 'beater' driven by a college student who was profoundly sorry, but, she drove off and Suzanne and Kevin and Wiley were stranded for about an hour. One highlight was Suzanne's tale of Wiley growling as the college student came over to make sure everyone was ok....Wiley never, never, ever growls in anger. But he knew she was a bad person!
Boys behavior on Saturday definitely wasn't what it was on Friday....they were playing with a ball and it ended up getting thrown up to the driver-front which resulted in another rapid pull-over and, yet again, a discussion we've had before, no throwing balls in the car, and, arguing over toys at Burger King they spilled my coke all over me. After lunch, things were noticeably better, but, they certainly could have been improved before then.
About an hour in to Florida the gray skies went away and we drove in bright brilliant sunshine to the hotel. The car said it was 83 degrees, so, I knew we were going to unpack and go straight to the pool.
They look good in the shirts, but ditched them very quickly
We get to the pool just in time for the last news of the day to begin; Suzanne calls to tell me the flight's oversold; should she volunteer to be bumped? Of course she should volunteer to be bumped!!!! And yes, 30 minutes later, the text message comes through, Kevin and her have been bumped and instead of arriving at 10:30 pm on Saturday will arrive at 10:30 am on Sunday. They'll received $400 each for this inconvenience; Kevin, I understand, is not very happy at all about this delay and Suzanne had to really sit down and explain why this is a great thing; I wish I could make $400 for 12 hours work; 8 of which I'll be asleep for!
Boys have had a great time at the hotel; again, makes me glad we have this timeshare, the room/suite is huge, the pool is great, the mini golf is free, there's all kinds of kid activities. Last time we were here I remember being worried about Matthew coming down the water slide; this time I'm fairly comfortable with letting the kids roam around and do mini golf and the playground on their own. In fact, while I've been typing this, they've been out, and should have been back by now. I went out to find them and they were playing in an organized activity; no wonder they hadn't come back. All was well, and I'm glad they were playing nicely.
Kevin: I guess Kevin's story begins Wednesday morning, when he left for winter camp. The 7th graders traditionally go to Spring Hill for 2+ days every year; Kevin had been to Spring Hill this summer, so, was familiar with the lay of the land.
Kevin returned Friday afternoon and said he had a blast. There was a dance Thursday night; not much to report...Kevin wasn't forthcoming with a lot of details, we don't think there was a lot of one on one dancing. The weather was cold, but, sunny. He did some tubing, some horseback riding, and pulled some late night pranks and hijinks.
Saturday was Kevin's turn taking the ACT. We had done some prep work...not a lot, just one practice test to get him familiar with the format and to identify if there were any common things that Kevin seemed to be messing up (turned out there was...he consistently was having trouble with multiplication of negative numbers and most of his grammar errors were not matching up parallel structure in nouns and verbs). So, we'll see how that goes.
Christopher: Another Saturday, another basketball game. Surprisingly, no complaints from the big guy before the game; happy to go and have at it. And he had a good day, two shots, one basket, some good defense, and one decent run down the court followed by the patented I'm-going-to-cut-and-forget-to-dribble moment.
Had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night; this brought one of Christopher's friends over and he, and she, had a great time running around and watching Disney Channel.
Sunday was the last indoor soccer game; Christopher had an assist on a sweet pass to the center of the goal and then had the game-tying goal in the 4th quarter as the game ended in a 3-3 tie. He had told me on the bench that he wanted to score a goal for Mom; when I remembered to mention to Suzanne that Christopher had said he wanted to do that Christopher chimed in that he wanted to score to make Suzanne feel better (Suzanne took a pretty nasty spill on the ice this morning and Christopher was quite traumatized that Mom was hurt and crying a little bit).
Matthew: Matthew comes to the basketball games; he gets bored quite easy. Happily, he has my Iphone, with his (and my) favorite game, FieldRunners to keep him happy and then, well, is just his usual goofy self
Matthew played well in the soccer game but hasn't been his usual dominating self for several games now. I definitely think Matthew could use a break from soccer, and may benefit from having a different non-Dad coach; he's left me with a lot of thinking to do about this.
I won't come close to the 1,000 words each photo supposedly has in them, but, thought I should get some of the random photos I've taken recently and give them some prose.
I've been going into 2nd grade recently and teaching Jr. Achievement. Friday I show up and the intern asks if I can wait a minute, the students are just finishing up a lesson. Sure, fine, I need to set up anyway and I begin to do that. I'm not really paying attention to the lesson, I've noticed they are doing some math with some graphing, but, aside from that, no concept of what's going on until I hear the intern say "and we don't have enough room to graph Christopher or myself". At which point I swing around to see what exactly they are measuring. Christopher chimes in at a very wide 64"...the intern clocked in at 66".
Madison, and the rest of the cats, enjoyed the heat wave this weekend. This is quite a jump to get up on top of the kennel, and she's walking over towards the window to begin screaming at us. Madison is the largest of our three cats; she's also the loudest.
no words necessary.
I think this picture is from movie night; we were watching Legally Blonde after seeing the musical the night before. We must have had soccer earlier in the day since Matthew, in the background, still has his jersey on.
Backyard after the last of the heavy snows.
And you can see on our table just how much snow had piled up by then.
Taken from the 2nd level right before the beginning of the All-State Orchestra. Kevin is to the right of the viola in the red shirt in the middle of the picture.
