House Of Mouse, cont'd

Did I mention it's really hot at Disney World?

Because it is. Really. Hot. Seriously.

We spent considerable time at our pool and the two water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, but we managed to snag nary a picture at any of them.

I have to say, I'm not a fan of water parks, but Typhoon Lagoon was the most un-waterpark feeling waterpark I've ever been to. Actually felt like we were in a jungle.

If the jungle had children screaming with delight in the background and the continual sound of rushing water. And conveniently placed chicken nugget stands.

Since we have nothing to document our time there, here's a stolen shot from the web.
You get the idea.

We spent part of a very hot day at Animal Kingdom, which had some very cool animals, and often in places where you could really see them.
That's us, not the animals.Anya had her own method of dealing with the many long lines.
This is her method for dealing with many less-than-thrilling parts of life. Long drive? Read a book. Waiting for parents to get ready to go out to dinner? Read a book. Can't fall asleep? Read a...well, you get the idea.

Our last day was spent at the Magic Kingdom.
It could have been a pretty miserable day, because it was the hottest day yet, and I kid you not, I think the entire population of a small European country was crammed into the park that day.

It's also the home of those creepy tea cups. Anya, Kennedy and Jenna were not afraid of them.
I still am.

A random, mild inconvenience actually transformed it into one of the best days we had, at least when it comes to riding the attractions. You see, at lunch in the Magic Kingdom, our waiter neglected to bring out Karen's lunch with the rest of ours, so hers was about 10 minutes late. As a result, the manager came to our table and handed us 20 passes allowing us to jump to the front of any line in the park.

So 5 of us stayed at the park and (along with fast passes we already had) we rode 5 rides in the span of about one hour. Without those passes, we'd have probably ridden 1 or 2 at most.

Honestly, we wished we'd known this policy earlier in the week. Each of us would have gladly taken a turn at delaying our meal if it meant we could score those passes every day.

House Of Mouse, part 1

After our delightful stay in St. Louis, we hopped a plane and headed to sunny, hot Orlando, to meet my sister's family for a week of fun. Upon arrival, we joined approximately 812,652 other people visiting Disney World that week in June.

Okay, I made that number up. But it was a lot of people. Evidently, it's a popular place in June. Who knew?

It was hot and humid, but honestly not unbearably so until the last two days.
There's all of us, except photo journalist Karen.

That haze you see could just be white out from the bright sun. Or it could be a physical manifestation of humidity. Or both.

But to tell the truth, it had been so stinkin' cold in Utah for most of May and the beginning of June, that we were ready for some actual summer temps. We kind of delightedly soaked in the heat, grateful that it felt like June, and not March.

Being Disney World there were, of course, character sightings.
And awesome rides.
That's my nephew, Jack. The Tower of Terror scared everyone so much that NONE of them wanted to do it again.

Except me.

I'm good with stuff that makes you feel like you might die. Just don't make me go on those freaky tea cups. Those things are evil. Put me in one and I will hurl.

The best thing about the trip was spending time with the cousins. Mickey land is great, but it's better with people you enjoy.One of the things that Disney does best is keep you happy while you wait in line. Toy Story Mania was a prime example.

The line was ridiculously long, but the environment where we waited made it seem as if we had shrunk to the size of toys ourselves. So now we were in the midst of games and toys bigger than us.We loved the giant animatronic Mr Potato Head doing stand up comedy while we waited.The whole park environment did a great job of making us feel like we were in a different world.
A really fun world.
Only part of that back drop is real. The rest was a startlingly realistic painted scene.

And where else can you go but Disney World to see a life-size, living, breathing, plastic army guy?
Highly entertaining.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Back towards the beginning of June, we began a two week trip that included 2 days driving to St. Louis, spending time with G'pa and family there, then flying with G'pa to Florida to meet my sister and her family and spend a week at Disney World, and eventually flying back to St. Louis so we could then drive home for 2 more days.

Whew.

After 2 fun-filled days in the van trekking across our beloved country and slowly moving out of the arid climate to which we are accustom and into the humid environment to which we would soon adapt, we arrived in beautiful St. Louis, MO, better known as the home of G'pa!

We had much fun with him. The girls and Karen had never seen his home there, so everyone enjoyed exploring his house and neighborhood AND getting to see where he works. The most obvious thing to all of us about his office was the complete and utter lack of anything personal. No pictures, no photos, just blank walls and a big white board.

We told him that before we left, we were going to have to add a little personality to his office. At the very least some evidence that he has kids and grandkids. And we did perk it up a little. It has more than just beige walls, anyway.

One delightful day while in St. Louie we headed downtown to see the Arch. The girls had only seen it driving by, never been in it. So we nabbed some tickets and got in line to ride the little eggs up inside the legs of the arch.That's the spacious little egg. Five people can fit in it. This next picture makes it look like it's all cool and space-agey inside.
In reality, it feels like you're stuffing yourself into an over-sized tuna can...with the same amount of design flair.

Our thrill was multiplied in that while we were waiting in the "staging area" to be called down to the loading area, they stopped the tram from running for some vague mechanical difficulty. So instead of waiting 10 minutes, we waited an hour. By the time we actually got up to the top, we only stayed about 5 minutes and we were all ready to head back down in the Mork from Ork mobiles. We did see lovely views of downtown, though.Having emerged unscathed, we headed to another favorite downtown spot, the City Museum.
I've blogged about this place previously here. It's very unique, and very fun for the girls. One thing we found this time that we missed before was the 10-story corkscrew slide. We climbed all the way up to the top of the building and slid down what was at one time a shoe chute when the building functioned as a shoe factory.

This old man was very dizzy after several stories of corkscrew turns. I wobbled a bit as I got up but did NOT toss my cookies, so my dignity is still intact.

Here's Emily at the giant-sink-drainish-thingies.
(sorry...blogger is having trouble uploading videos, so you have to click each link to watch)

VIDEO: Emily Drain

And we all loved the human hamster wheel.
It looks like it should be easy, but it's very disorienting when you're inside. You can't tell how fast you should go and you continually feel like you're falling...and as you can see you usually are.

VIDEO: Hamster Wheel 1

We did get better at it. Finally figured out you have to look up, because that's where your headed, so to speak. If you look down, you just fall.

VIDEO: Hamster Wheel 2

We made G'pa try, too.

VIDEO: Hamster Wheel - G'pa

Ouch.

He was fine. Really.

Coming soon, snippets from the House of Mouse in Orlando!

Would you just look?

No grand reason for this one.
Just wanted to show off my beautiful wife next to her average husband on a recent date to the opera.
I love that happy little lady!

The girl can work a crochet needle

Back in May, while the grands were here, Jenna developed a new skill, under the expert tutelage of her grandmother, Alice. On previous visits she had learned a very simple crochet stitch, and had done this simple stitch off and on over the past 2 years, making a few things the size of, oh, a drink coaster.

On this last visit, Grandma showed her how to do some sort of stitch that makes a pattern. When employed correctly, you get not just a bunch of yarn tied together, you get a bunch of yarn tied together with strategically placed holes and arranged symmetrically into a rough square.

I confess I know zero about how they did this, how the yarn stays together, how those holes magically appear. As far as I'm concerned, it's some sort of voodoo, or it may as well be because if I started twitching a crochet needle and yarn, I'd just end up with a big ol' knot the size of a Texas grapefruit.

Jenna, however, became quite masterful at this skill, and did it regularly during the visit with the grands. She's also continued to crochet regularly (we've since bought two more skeins of yarn, and she's halfway through the last of those) until what was once an afghan that barely covered her lap is now almost as big as she is and ready to cover the lap of, say, a full grown orangutan.

If orangutans valued lap blankets, that is.

She's not only good at this newly acquired skill, she's speedy. In about 3 hours, she started and completed the second white section you see and began the last multi-colored yarn (Variegated? Is that what that's called? I guess I need to do more crochet-related research before I blog. I could google it, but...meh).

Here's to Jenna. New Smith queen of yarn work!