In the country

We recently got back from spending a week with my in-laws who live in the moutains of NC. Ian and I were there from Monday through Friday and Buck met us there Friday night. We left for home on Monday.

We had lots of adventures while we were there.
We had a picnic at a table with my initials carved in it:

We fed the fish at Cherokee Lake and posed for pictures, we crossed the bridge and then climed down into the dam and traversed across barefoot by jumping from rock to rock, we went to Santa's Land, we saw "Robot Pengiuns" (according to Ian), we panned fer gold and gems, we went swimming, we (Buck and I) visited Rome, Georgia, we saw a movie, we spent lots of time in the sand box and the boat, we ate good food, played with animals, had good conversations with family, and had a great visit. Phew, we were busy and now I am tired!

Disney World Day Two-Magic Kingdom

For the uninitiated the Magic Kingdom is the Disneyland of Disney World. This was probably our favorite day of the trip. We started out bright and early so we could ride all the things we wanted to ride.

We zipped over to the Buzz Lightyear ride first and found no line at all. When we got outside Ian found a Bullseye horse (from Toy Story) to take home. He has Woody, Buzz, and Jessie so now his collection is almost complete. I am not sure if he wants a "Stinky Pete" though!

We found Stitch all alone by the Carousel of Progress so stopped by for a visit. We hurried over to Fanatsyland with a quick try at the Sword in the Stone (no luck there) on the way to Dumbo. Ian and I rode Dumbo together and then we all rode Peter Pan, Snow White and it's a small world. We have been talking lots about the different rides and characters so Ian was pretty excited to see Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Snow White (who he refers to as "Heigh Ho"). I think he liked soaring above London best of all.

We passed through the back of Fantasyland to get to the Liberty Square area. Buck was sorely, sorely disappointed to find that his favorite ride of all time, the Haunted Mansion was closed for refurbishment.

We carried on to Frontierland where we saw a Woody-themed dance outside and the Country Bear Jamboree inside. By this point it was pretty hot outside and the crowds were picking up so we headed over to Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean! The ride was awesome. I was so amazed by the new Johnny Depp audio-animatronics! I was sure that one of them was an actor in a costume until our second ride-through.

By this time we were all pretty tired so we walked back to Tomorrowland and ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. After lunch we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (the People Mover) around Tomorrowland. Ian was getting pretty tired so we decided to do one more ride before we went back to the hotel for a rest. My cousin Caroline and I chose to do Space Mountain while Buck, Ian and Grammy rode the Indy Speedway. Ian was asleep by the time we were done so we went back to our hotel.

We swam, we rested, we showered and then we all had a nice dinner at the steakhouse restaurant at the Contemporary. Buck, Caroline, and wanted to go back to the park. Ian and Grammy wanted to hang out at the hotel. We hopped on the monorail and waved goodbye to Ian and Gram and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. It was dark by then and not nearly as busy. We had loads of fun and rode lots more rides together. We did Pirates 2 more times, the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, the Astro Orbiter (ugh, I didn't like that one), Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. We shopped a little and then after we watched the fireworks we went back to the hotel, tired but happy.

Disney World Day One-MGM

We got back from Walt Disney World 3 weeks ago (and I still have the temporary tattoo that was only supposed to last a week) so I figured I would write about the trip.

We stayed at the Contemporary Resort. Although I loved being on the Disney property and getting to take advantage of free transportation and extra hours at the park, I disliked that we weren't in the main tower. When I made reservations I chose "garden view" since it was cheaper than "theme park view." I didn't realize that "garden view" really meant "not-even-in-the-same-freaking-building-and-inconvenient-to-everything view" but other than that we were really happy with the hotel.

We went to Disney-MGM Studios the first day. We figured our plan would be to go at a slower pace than we had pre-Ian and maybe leave in the afternoon, rest and come back. Ian loved the Star Tours set and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. But the absolute bestest part of the day, maybe even the trip, was a visit with Mater and Lightning! I couldn't even get him to look in my direction for a picture because he was so excited.



After the daily afternoon thunderstorm at 3 (it is Florida after all) I rode the Rock 'n Roller Coaster by myself since no one else was interested in riding. I found a street sign near the Tower of Terror that said Gower St.

I thought that was pretty cool since my husband used to live on Gower when he was a baby and his parents lived in Hollywood. We went back to the hotel at about 5 and decided we were too tired to go back. We spent the rest of the night swimming, watching TV, eating, enjoying fireworks, and relaxing.