Bye Bye Florida

My parents are party animals who love to burn the midnight oil. I have had the best time with them, but sometimes have a difficult time keeping up. Right now we are watching a late night flick (as has become our tradition for the past week). I have to get this post out since I leave tomorrow and will have trouble accessing the internet. I may wind up at Starbucks in the middle of the night again. However, it will not be half as much fun (of even fun at all for that matter) if my sister is not with me. Well, on to the news....

Thursday morning the boys, Mom, and I all woke up at the crack of dawn (well, 5:45am) to head off to Disneyworld. The boys were great on the drive and it went by very fast. We arrived at the Boardwalk and went to check in. Andrew's first comment was, "This looks like Mary Poppins' time." We got our keys and began the long trek to our room. It seriously felt like we walked to the very end of the boardwalk. Immediately we discover that our keys do not work. After trying her key a number of times, Mom approached a cleaning lady to ask if she would let us in. The lady refusing, stating that it is against hotel policy to allow any new guests into a room. As Mom was negotiating with the lady, I continued trying to get one of the keys to work. After a while I realized the TV was on in the room. I knocked on the door and two seconds later it was thrown open to reveal a "southern" man with no shirt and about ten other people crammed into the room. I quickly apologized and told him that we thought this was our room. We then hiked back to the front desk, passing our baggage in the hallway, to inform them they had sent us to the wrong room. It was all quickly ironed out and we were then on our way to the Magic Kingdom.

The boys were in heaven! First order of business was the Buzz Lightyear ride.  We waited in line for forty minutes to shoot some little painted targets for three (minutes). In all honesty, the wait was extremely short considering it is the middle of summer. We got out of the ride to find some little droplets falling from the sky. We were able to literally walk on to quite a few rides (Peter Pan excluded). The boys loved every moment of our visit....that is, except for the Haunted Mansion. The second the lights went off and the dead body was hanging from the ceiling, my boys had had enough. We walked out of the emergency exit into a slight rain storm. Over the next few minutes the rains became harder, and lightening started to crack. We wound up in some very sexy clear "rain coats" (more like plastic sheeting) that were sold for a mere $10 a piece. However, I will take a rain storm any day over the heat of central Florida. 

At some point in the late afternoon, Andrew decided he was done and wanted to go back to the hotel. We convinced him to go on one more ride, only to have him come off even more determined to get back to the lap of luxury. My mom offered to take Andrew back so Jacob and I could go on more rides. Jacob and I headed straight for Space Mountain (which had just reopened because the thunder had stopped). Right as Jacob and I are about to load into the cart, the entire ride shut down and the lights came on. I decided to check my messages to see if Scott had called, and instead found that my mom had left a message....I had her park ticket and she needed it to get back to the park later that evening. She was looking for me, all the while Andrew was repeating, "I want to go back to the hotel." My poor mom had to wait an extra 15 minutes while we waited for the ride to turn back on. The wait, however, was well worth it. Jacob was ex static the second he got off. He said, "That was so awesome! That is so much cooler than Peter Pan." 

Andrew finally changed his mind about leaving and stayed on until the electric parade. The boys, as usual, we so fun to watch as the character went by. After the parade, Mom and Andrew went back to the hotel (since it was almost 11pm) while Jacob and I pressed on. I told Jacob he could choose between going on rides or watching the fireworks. Not even a pause, "Rides." We literally walked on to Space, Thunder, and Splash Mountain. Perfect way to end a day at Disney.

The next morning we woke up early to use the water slide at the pool. The boys loved it and went down at least 20 times. (That is not an exaggeration). Mom and I even went down a few times as well. 

Here are some pictures of our before and after at Disney. Sadly my camera died that night and I could not get pictures of the boys on the water slide.

The ride home turned into quite the adventure. As many of you know, my best friend, Eva, lives in Orlando (well, St. Cloud, but I am trying to not get caught up in the details). Eva was required to be at Girls' Camp the entire week, but we both really wanted to work out seeing each other while I was at Disney. We had agreed that we would meet up on my way back home. We finally decided to meet at a restaurant in Harmony, FL for lunch (yes, it is a small town). My mom and I arrive at the restaurant, but eva was running a little behind. After a few minutes, we decided to go inside and order. The restaurant does not have one light turned on and we are the only people in the room. Hmm, think it might be closed. I called Eva with our new dilemma trying to figure out what to do. Eva, trying to think on her feet while handling 40 teenage girls told us to meet her at a gas station in Holapaw (hole-a-paw is how it is pronounced). We drove to the gas station to find that it is the only thing not created by nature in a five mile radius (unless you count the abandoned, decrepit drug store across the way). I tried to call Eva, but was unable to reach her because her phone could not get reception in the depths of the camp grounds. Little did I know that her replacement leader had been tied up with a girl who had broken her ankle - so Eva had no way of leaving the camp grounds. Eva was finally able to get reception, but at that point we both agreed to try and meet half way on Sunday instead.

Saturday was a very fun day. My parents, the kids, and I all went to see Wall-E. The coolest thing about the movie is the fact that I can fit the whole script on my blog: "Wall, Wall, Wall-E!" followed by, "E-E-Eva!" Seriously folks, that is the only thing you will hear for the first hour of the film.

Sunday afternoon, I met up with Eva at her Uncle Bobby's house. It was so great to catch up with her and chat for a few (eight) hours. Our kids all had a blast running around the house and screaming. It was great to see them playing together. I even had the opportunity to watch Eva cut Max and Mitch, her cousins', hair. She is quite the perfectionist. I hope Scot never sees what a good job she does because I will lose my job as the family hair stylist.

I have to start to summarize because I need to be up for my flight in 2 1/2 hours. 

Last night, we all decided to eat at Benihana's. Benihana's has been my favorite restaurant since I was in in first grade. Anyway, my parents decided to take a walk down memory lane and took me and the boys to my favorite childhood restaurant. The whole point of going to this place is for the incredible show put on by the Asian cooks who prepare your meal right in front of you. I knew things had changed when our cook showed up with his cart. This is Duke, and he was our "Japanese" chef for the evening.

I think this was Duke's first time preparing a meal in his life. I felt like I was watching some bad version of Cooking 101. Every time he had to cut some type of meat, he would bend over with is face right above the said meat, straining to cut each piece just right. It took him about four minutes to cut up our shrimp appetizer. He then spend a good minute chasing down a pic of lemon with his bent tongs. He was so excited to finally get a hold of the lemon, he squeezed its juice over everything on the grill, chicken included (poor Andrew was the one who ordered chicken). We finally thought we were going to get some theatrics when he began stacking the onion rings on top of each other. In times past, this "stack" is transformed into a volcano through the use of oil and fire. Duke spent a solid five minutes trying to get the onions just right, he had a very hard time keeping them straight. He then squeezed about half the bottle of oil into the onion mound. 

And that was is, Ladies and Gentlemen. I spent the rest of the meal watching the bottom onion caramelize on the grill. I even became worried that he would not be able to scrap its charred remains off the grill's surface. (I guess he forgot to light the volcano). 

The worst part was mid way through the meal when the boys started to complain, "This is boring!" "Where is the fire!?" "I want to go home." 

No wait, the worst part was when Duke stared to sweat profusely while making our meal.

The best part: laughing to entire way home about the whole meal.

I have to say, I have had the best time with my parents this week. I am so sad that I have to leave. The boys had a great time with their Mommy Baba and Grandpa - being it being chasing around the condo, being thrown into the pool, being taken out on excursions....... It truly has been a wonderful time that my boys and I will cherish forever. 

All right - I am off to bed. No time for proof reading and I am tired, so please excuse my sloppy writing. I will clean it up when I get a  chance.