We had such a  fun day with Joe and Brenda, Gram and PopPop, and of course, Murray.  Chris was back at school so why not take a day to go visit? Especially since this might have been the only time a dog will ever be welcomed in the house at 1527 Washington!?!

The girls are absolutely in love with Murray, and during our usual bedtime routines of 'what was the best part of the day,' Murray won, hands down.

No, we will not be running out and getting them their own dog to love. They can be pen-pals with Murray! (Yes, they've already written Murray letters.)

However, Abby went without her nap today. This is not the first time. It shouldn't have been a big deal.  She made it through at Disney without naps, only falling asleep in her stroller by about 8pm.

Phew. She was a hot mess this afternoon.  She cried because Chris filled her apple juice cup and not me.  She punched Katherine because she was sitting where Abby wanted to sit. She had a total meltdown when I helped her get her nightgown on. After she ASKED me for help because she was stuck (head goes in the neck hole, arms in the arm holes, not the other way around.) After I got her all put together, she freaked out because she wanted to do it herself. She ripped off the nightgown and threw it on the floor. But then, of course, it was inside out again, and she needed me to help her.  Again.

It was not pretty. It was lights out at 715 for Abby, but then there was screaming because it was "TOO DARK!" Despite the bright hallway light and nightlight in her room. Her poor little brain was just fried and she could not handle anything else.

I crawled in bed and talked about our day, and asked her what she'd like to see at the Zoo tomorrow. She took some deep breaths and decided cows and elephants.

Sigh.  Wow. There are days I truly worry how we'll survive the hormones of the teen years.

And yet, look at this face?  How could she be as crazy as all that? Believe me, it is all true!

We are pretending that we are still on vacation, enjoying a free concert in the park.



The girls are looking for shapes in the clouds.



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Home.
We're home.
It's a mix of emotions, because of course vacation is so much fun, and yet so exhausting. I'd love to have more time in the parks, I was not "done" yet. But, we're all exhausted, and it was truly time to come home.

No comes the "down" part of vacation, we've been planning this since January, and it's over now.

But not to worry. I took just a few pictures. And the girls are old enough to remember plenty of stories, I don't think we'll ever forget this trip!

Today we had a 445 flight, so our bus to the airport was scheduled for 145. That gave us plenty of time to hit Magic Kingdom one more time. We were up, dressed, fed, and out of our room (checked luggage checked in for our flight from the hotel, carry-ons stored at the hotel) by 830. We were in the park just after 9. We hit our favorites and some things we hadn't done yet, and just after 12 we caught our bus back to the hotel. We had meal credits to use, so we had a delicious lunch, bought one more souvenir, and said good bye to Disney.

The flight home was uneventful and we arrived ahead of schedule. Our awesome neighbors had left our car for us, so we just loaded up and got home just before 7 local time.

Our awesome neighbors had also mowed the grass, collected our mail and papers, and left us a gallon of milk, bread, cookies, and fresh flowers. GOLD STAR AWARD for awesome neighbors! and of course, the flamingoes had some fun while we were gone as well.

I'm waiting to go to bed until our 3rd load of laundry is done. Plenty more to do tomorrow. But, everything is unpacked and cleaned up, and I have to say,
It is good to be home!

















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Time to go home, waiting for the bus to our hotel, to eat lunch before going to the airport. All good things must end...........




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Packing to go home is easier than packing go on vacation, but not as fun.



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Ahhhhh, memories. I hope that we've create some good ones this week. We had lunch reservations for 245 in Epcot today. Originally we had planned to swim in the morning, and not go out to parks until mid to late morning, and then stay out after our meal.

However, the forecast called for heavy rain about 3, so we went out about 9 and ended up out until 5- our longest day. And it did rain, just after 2 as we ran toward Canada for lunch. We did end up wet, and then cold as we waited for lunch.

We ht our favorites in the morning, Soarin, Nemo, Figment. Maggie and I tried Mission Space, which was super fun. We took the less intense green side, with no spinning. It was a intense enough- a flight simulator that takes you on a rocket launch and flight to Mars. You are assigned a 4 person team, Maggie ended up the Pilot and I was the Navigator. Luckily, our tasks were simple-push buttons when the light up. The funniest thing was that as you sit Down get strapped in, you see a basket holding airplane barf bags in front of you. Really? It wasn't that bad.

When we got back to the hotel, the pool was closed, so we took the opportunity to start packing. Hard to believe we have to go home tomorrow, but it is true. All good things must come to an end! When we noticed the lifeguards out again, we jumped into our suits for one last swim. However, after the storms, it was actually chilly! Definitely a "stay under the water" type of swim.

After everyone was cleaned up, we checked the weather one more time and decided to take a chance going out for fireworks. The rain seemed to be going around the Disney area. But while we rode our us to Magic Kingdom, it started to rain. We ahead 3 choices. Stay on the bus and go right back to the hotel, get off and take a monorail ride and then go back, or suck it up and not let the rain stop us from seeing the fireworks.

We went for it, and Chris days he heard someone say loudly, "people are still coming into the park, now?" as we we going in and hoards of people were heading out!

But it was great. Yes we we're wearing ponchos, and it was drizzling. But we got back to Country Bear Jamboree, which we hadn't seen yet. And it turns out, we saw one of the last shows. Starting tomorrow, it will be closed for "Hibernation" for an undetermined amount of time.

W came out, strolled over to the Castle,a nd watched fireworks in the rain. The theme/story of the fireworks is all about wishes. And I have to say, my girls bought it 100%. We waited a few minutes to let the crowd thin before we walked out of the park, and both girls were staring AT&T the castle in silence, clearly making their last wishes.

As I held their hands in the crowd walking out, I asked if they had made wishes, and both replied with emphatic "Yes, of course!" but Katherine was quick to tell me, " I can't tell you what it was though, mommy, I need it to come true!"

Tomorrow, our bus will pick us up for the airport at 145, so we'll have time to catch a few more favorites at Magic Kingdom before crashing back into reality.










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Heading out for our last night, hoping to see fireworks over the castle. Will the weather work with us or against us?



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I don't recall every bring on a ride that had a barf bag dispenser on front of your seat! And this was the less intense version!



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SUPER FUN THOUGH!


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Let's start at the end of the day. After a few trips to Disney over the years, I've never see Fantasmic before. W planned our day today around dinner reservations that included "priority" seating for the show. We told the girls we'd see Mickey Mouse and fireworks tonight. We got there, rode the wave of the crowd to our seats, and sat through a mildly amusing per-show warm up act. I found a beer vendor and Abby begged me to rub the cup on her face because it felt so good, given the heat/humidity. We even got to see EMTs at work as a lady in our section fell and cut her leg and then had a panic attack. It was all very interesting.

However, there was lightening in the distance, and we were sitting on metal bleachers. The show started, Abby gasped, the music, the lights, the firework. Yes, one firework. Then everything stopped, and the announcement was made that the show was being cancelled for the night.
Abby shouted, literally shouted,"ONLY ONE FIREWORK?????"

Yup, big bummer. But, as we tried to make the best of it, ate big girls pointed out that we had a great dinner, we missed the big rain while we were in dinner, we saw 2 shows, and even found a street party with great dancing music. So it wasn't a total wash!

And, as we walked into our hotel, we saw the Epcot fireworks over the trees, so Abby got to see more than just the one.

Earlier in the day we had fun at Animal Kingdom. Although we we there for 5 Hours, we barely scratched the surface. But I do think it's a park best appreciated in cooler weather. Phew, it was a hot one!

Maggie made the best of Fastpass and Rider Switch and rode Expedition Everest 4 times. Katherine was brave and went on the River Rapids ride with Chris and got pretty wet. We rode the safari and saw giraffes so close we might have reached out to touch them, if we were allowed. We went to a petting zoo (ewwwwwww) and loved the Lion King show.

During our "rest time" Abby and I did laundry and Chris and the big girls had another lesson from Jason the Animator. Today they were the only students in class and drew Tigger!

I laughed today when I thought about postcards. I had Chris make a special trip to the post office before we left so I'd have stamps. I made a list of addresses so I'd be able to send them. Ad here we are 2 days from coming home and I just thought about postcards today. I was feeling bad about it, until I thought that I've been up dating the blog, and that's sort of like getting a post card for you, my faithful readers, right? We're having too much fun to stop for postcards!







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Also, these birds tried to share our lunch. I did not scream, but I did not enjoy.



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After a fun, but really really hot day at Animal Kingdom, Abby had to try so hard to stay awake on the bus. So she serenaded with classics, wheels on the bus, row row row your boat, and itsy bitsty spider. Even the bus driver was amused!




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Riding home from Epcot tonight, with a sleeping Abby on my lap, I chatted with the big girls about what their favorite things were from the day.
As we talked about our morning at magic kingdom, our afternoon in the pool, and our evening in Epcot, we realized everything came back to food.

We had breakfast in our room, with some peanut butter, pop tarts, and snacks from the food court. After our first few rides in Adventureland, daddy bought ice cream for breakfast on our walk to tomorrowland. Granted it was orange flavored, so it counted as both fruit and dairy, but still, ice cream before 1030am?

After sweating through Tomorrow land, and since it was lunchtime but we didn't want to stop, we had milk shakes for lunch. Again, dairy! It was actually just what we needed!

When we got back to the hotel about 2, we had real lunch, pizza, carrots, grapes, yogurt, pudding (chicken Caesar for me!) the deal was, no pool until good eating - which meant the girls ate without complaining. (remind me to install a cool pool at our house)

We went to Epcot tonight because we changed our dinner plans yesterday. We decided that we could see/do more if we ate at Epcot vs downtown Disney. But the only place we could get reservations was Mexico. Chris is not usually a fan of Mexican, and the girls only eat chips and salsa. I was told they could get chicken tenders. Ole!

Everyone was a little squirrely as we waited for dinner, and when we finally got to our table and saw the menu I was pretty nervous. Not a chicken tender or Mac and cheese or pizza to be found. But guess what? The girls all loved their grilled chicken and some green beans and rice too! What did Grandma Geraghty always say? "Hunger is the best sauce?"
Chris was happy with his pork loin and I had carne asada, also yummy. The best was dessert. Abby was thrilled with her ice cream (more ice cream!) and Maggie tried churritos for the first time and LOVED them!

While we were eating, we were aware that outside it was pouring rain. We were hoping to enjoy Illuminations after dinner, but we're nervous about the rain. We came out and found barely a drizzle, but kept our ponchos on just in case.

Illuminations did not disappoint, always so cool. Abby slept through it all, but the big girls were thrilled, especially with their light up Minnie ears. And it never rained again.

Tomorrow Animal Kingdom!

Sometimes, on a hot day,lunch is a milkshake. And sometimes, a saxophone quartet shows up to entertain you while you drink!
Sometimes......



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Rain rain, go away. Or stick around, you won't stop us!
We started our day at Hollywood Studios today. We decided to do Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster first, before lines were too crazy. Maggie was brave enough to ride both twice (love the rider swap) but Katherine only did the tower once and was too short for Rockin Rollercoaster. And then, the rain. At first it was just a heavy drizzle. We found inside rides, covered stroller parking area, and went on with our day. But when we came out after Muppets 3D, we came out to a torrential downpour. We waited it out as long as we could, but then it was it me to venture out. Ponchos on, we took off in search of lunch. Chris carried Abby to keep us moving faster, and she wouldn't keep her hood on, they both got wet!
Once we found lunch, Maggie and I had to stand in a long, long line. I saw beer on the menu and made the executive decision that it was required for our lunch. Good decision!
The rest of our day there was incredibly humid, but not as wet. And all in all, we just had a blast!
We came back to the hotel to get cleaned up, no time for pool, today due to dinner reservations. We did have time for a little shopping, which we did. Each girl chose one treat. (see previous blog about the bee sting)
Then we went to the Backyard BBQ. I don't think we really new what to expect, but it was fun. Hot and humid, but fun. We had decent food, loud music, dancing, characters, and beer/wine was included for adults! And ice cream too! I had to laugh at Abby, the poor girl could not sit still, she just wanted to be on the dance floor shaking and grooving!
We came back "early" and plan to sleep "late" tomorrow.








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Yet another awesome service moment. We were walking to the gift shop to pick out our first treasures when Maggie was stung by a bee. We went right to the hotel desk where we were given an Ice pack and a local anesthetic cream. Her tears subsiding we went to the gift shop. On our way across the lobby, we met the animator, Jason, who teaches a workshop everyday; today is the first we've missed. He stopped to see why Maggie was upset, and then engaged her to giggles, and then told us to wait right there, he came back a moment later with a stuffed "squirt" for Maggie, one of the characters he taught her to draw.
Above and beyond, that is Disney!




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Day 3
Everyone was feeling a little slow this morning. Katherine more than anyone, she hid under her covers until the last minute. We actually took our time, sort of, and didn't rush to be first to Epcot, but we were still there early.

2 years ago I had one of my saddest "mom" moments when Katherine was turned away from the Epcot ride Soarin. She was tall enough for other rides with the same height requirement, but a change of shoes and more attentive staff meant she was not allowed on. Her tears were so sad it took all i had not to cry with her.

Today that all changed. And I got to see her glee, and watch her love the feeling of flying. Another highlight was Maggie and the Figment ride. For whatever reason, she loved that ride 2 years ago, even choosing a stuffed Figment as her souvenir, she has been singing the song since then too. So to see her ride it again today was really fun.

We made our way to Norway for our brunch with the princesses. We weren't sure what to expect, but we found Belle waiting for a picture as we arrived, and the as we ate, the other classics came through as well. Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White. Definitely one of those that they'll talk about for a long time......to talk to and old hands with the princesses? Whoa!

We decided to head back to the hotel for a bit, and not a minute too soon. It started pouring just after we got on the bus. So no swimming Today, but that gave me time to do laundry and for the big girls to take another lesson from the animator on drawing cartoons. (offered every afternoon!)

Also, I had to pick up tickets from the concierge for our dinner tomorrow. While I was chatting with her, I mentioned that I kept getting a different answer about where to buy a simple loaf of bread. She was able to confirm that it was not available on site, but asked if I'd like the runner to pick up a loaf for me. What? Sure enough, they sent a runner to the store (I was told not just for my bread) and in less than 2 hours, we had a loaf of white bread delivered, for only the cost of the bread. Now Katherine can have her peanut butter in the morning! Gotta love Disney service!

So we went back to Epcot for the evening. We rode Nemo, and talked with Crush (Duuuuuuuude!). Maggie even asked a question, check back later for video (I think I need to be home to load that). We weren't sure where to eat, so we wandered toward the world showcase. We stoppoed andpicked up a new "toy" - a gps/geocachingtype thing with Phineas and Ferb theme. It seemed cool, a small cell phone that guides you to find clues to solve mysteries. But with 3 kids trying to hold/see/hear the clues, and parents who also needed to see, it was complicated. Add in that there was a band playing loudly where we were trying to search, and it made it nearly impossible. We ended up in America, where it started to rain, or pour, really. We were inside, but knew we'd have to go out, so we unveiled the ponchos, and set out.

Sadly, we ended up skipping Illuminations, but wisely, we took a boat from the back of Epcot over to Hollywood studios to catch our bus, rather than walk all the way through to the front of the park. It was a nice ride, we saw some of the fireworks, and Abby fell asleep on me. Which was cozy, until I had to carry her.

Another exhausting day.....can't wait for tomorrow!














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Sometimes vacation is glamorous.......



Sometimes it's not.......



But it's all still so much fun!

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Day 2
We started during Early Magic Hours at 8am at Magic Kingdom. We went right to Dumbo, which had been Abby's request. We learned quickly, that Abby's trouble with sharing extends to theme parks. She had no clue that we had to share with everyone around us. We were walking to Dumbo and she saw it starting to move. Se freaked out shouting "mom they didn't wait for us, they have to wait for us, they started without us!" It took her 3 rides before she figured out that other people could ride as well, and that we had to wait in line until it was our turn!

Maggie and Katherine also got their favorites out of the way with splash mountain and big thunder mountain. I fact, thanks to 'rider swap' they got to ride each one twice! We played until about noon and then went to the Grand Floridian for a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel for rest time.

HA! Rest time on vacation? Abby was not buying that one, despite really needing a nap, it took me about an hour to get her to zone out to the TV for 45 minutes, and that was all we got. But it was good.

While I fought that battle, Chris and girls spent some time with an animator, learning how top draw 'Squirt' the turtle from Nemo, and then they swam for a bit. (til they closed the pool for lightening, we never had rain)

After getting all cleaned up, we went to OHANA for dinner. It was delicious, even Abby and Katherine were happy with the food, and Maggie did try a few things. We enjoyed the wandering musicians, playing Ukelele of course. And the girls land I took part in the group Hula lesson!

Then it was back to MK to wait for the electrical parade. Let me say this, it is still as magical as ever! The girls loved it, convinced that every character who glanced in our direction was waving to only them! Aside from the man who squeezed in front of us and then took a cell phone call during the parade, it was fabulous!

Before bed, no one could decide on only 1 favorite thing from the day, success!



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Planes, trains and automobiles is one of my favorite movies.
Today, we had that kind of day, only with monorails, busses and a boat as well!
our flight to Orlando was perfect, full of happy families going to DisneyWorld. (yes, Nora, I talked to them,found out where they were staying, how long,etc. It's what I do,I chat!)
We had no wait for our Magical Express bus to our hotel, and arrived ahead of schedule. Of course, that meant our room wasn't ready, but no worries,we had lunch in the food court and wandered the incredible grounds. Ou r room was ready in plenty of time.
I encourage you to google Art of Animation resort, and look for YouTube videos or pictures. It is truly amazing. It's over the top, but not gaudy.ait is a child's heaven. I can't even imagine if our girls were big fans of CARS, because I'm not sure of they'd let us leave the hotel. It is really, very cool.
Once in our room, we got changed and headed to the pool. Again. COOL! It's a salt water pool, with zero depth entry, perfect for Abby. They had activities at one end, with dancing and music (think Hokey Pokey) but st the other end, it was just enjoyable,and if your wanted music, you could just duck under the water to listen to the underwater soundtrack, awesome.

About 5pm we we
Lint back, showered, and got ready towhead to dinner. We left about 6 for Downtown Disney. We went to Wolfgang Puck Express For fabulous meal, one of the best values for the Disney Dining Plan. The girls had nuggets and mac n cheese. It was "real" Mac, not Kraft, and i thought Maggie would reject it, but she devoured it!
I had a roasted chicken and garlic mashed potatoes, Chris had a roasted veggie pizza, we both had creme brûlée for dessert.

Next on our agenda was going to the Polynesian for the electric boat parade, one of Chris' favorite memories/must do Disney things. We were just going to take a bus to the hotel, but a different bus came fist, so we decided to go to that hotel (grand Floridian) and then monorail over to the beach.
Sadly, it was not a direct bus, in fact it was the slowest ever. And it was on the us that we noticed the lightening. Hmmmm, perhaps no electric boat parade in a lightening storm?
But we were meeting a college friend, so we pressed on. On the monorail we ended up in an overly crowded car with a crowd of Spanish speaking families. One woman ended up sitting on Maggie and poor Maggie wasn't sure what To do, she just cried out MOM! And I was able to move over so she could sneak out from under this woman. We made it to the beach to find out they would not be doing the parade, However, it was cooler, and delightful, so we sat down, let the girls play in the sand, and got drinks form the beach bar.

And then, more lightening, and more wind, and suddenly, a Boat! It was the shuttle over to Magic Kingdom, which is where we needed to be to get our bus back to out hotel. GIRLS, SHOES, LET'S GO,

We dashed out to the boat, and made it just in time. However, it's a bit unsettling when the boat captain greets You with a worried look, "where did all this wind come from?"
We made it halfway across the lake when one of the girls said, Look!
Sure enough, we suddenly had front row seats to the Electrical boat parade! It was as thrilling as ever, and then we continued our journey to MK. we found the bus back to our hotel, and ended up back here about 10pm

The excitement of Murphy bed and sofa bed led to many giggles, but eventually fatigue won out, and now everyone is happily asleep!

All this excitement, and we didn't even set foot IN a park today!

Tomorrow, Magic Kingdom!



View from our hotel room




In the sand

(Please ignore typos, doing this from iPad )

And we're off! Or, sitting at the airport, but we're almost off!

Everyone should be so lucky as to have a neighbor like Kathy! House-sitting, flamingo decorating, and beverage delivering-who could ask for anything more?

(and blog-reading, too! Hi Kathy!)

Half of the forty painted toes from this afternoon. We have to have pretty toes for Disney, right?


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Listening to the girls play twister is funny enough, but when they add Olympic medals? Hilarious!



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After story time, we enjoy iPad time. Love spending the afternoon with Gram and PopPop!



(Abby told PopPop,"your belly is squishy!"


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I love that Katherine loves everything about reading. She loves reading books, she loves being read to, she loves listening to books on CD.
But now she uses "I'm reading!" as an excuse for everything.



Relaxing on Abby's bed, listening to "Katie Kazoo" on CD.


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For anyone who has complained about my lack of posting, danger! I can update from my phone now!
Woo Hoo!



We toured the Jelly Belly Factory today, not a thrilling tour, but the girls loved it!

Testing with photo? From a super fun outdoor concert tonight



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Testing an update from my phone


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