Phriday's Phreakin' Photoblog, Disney-style

I didn't take my camera on this trip because the kids weren't with us and to be honest, I didn't think there would be that much to take pictures of. Oh, how I was wrong. I took TONS of pictures with my camera phone so that I could show the kids, but since it costs me to send every picture to my email, I only sent a few.

I got goose bumps several times and there were also several incidences of tears. It's so dang magical there! Yeah, yeah, that whole Magic Kingdom thing should've given me a hint. Aside from the fact that my feet swelled and my butt is huge, I felt just like a kid.

We stayed at the Pop Century hotel and I highly recommend it. No, it's not posh and it's considered one of the "budget" hotels, but it was clean and the people were friendly and the prices weren't bad. There were larger-than-life things all over the place - a 4-story-tall Mickey Mouse phone, bowling pins taller than the buildlings and this 3-story-tall Big Wheel. I was standing on the 4th floor when I took this picture.



When we arrived in park on Friday we went straight to Downtown Disney to go shopping. I love me some shopping, but I was tired and I needed action in order to not be bored and whiney. Around 6 we headed for the Magic Kingdom and then encountered 40 katrillion rude, horny Christian teenagers. Oh. My. Gosh. I have never encountered such horrifically behaved teens! They were supposed to be the Christian kids, the youth groups, the future church leaders. I am definitely frightened and disheartened after what I witnessed. Not to mention the fact that they were all showing more belly button than Ali Baba's harem and more thigh than a bucket of KFC. And don't get me started on the groping and kissing and fondling.



Casting Crowns was scheduled to play at 9:30 and it was 7, so we rode the runaway mine car coaster. Not incredibly thrilling, but fun. The kids will love it. We also hit The Pirates of the Caribbean ride which was cool - the boys will love it, too. We visited a few shops then started toward the castle. One would've had to have camped out the minute they entered the park to get anywhere close. We didn't and we weren't. We were literally about a half mile back and the stage was a mere blop. The youth were horrid - loud, obnoxious, rude, smelly and it was just about more than I could handle. I'm short, I don't tolerate rudeness, obnoxiousness and b.o., therefore it was not a good experience for me. I stayed hooked through their first song and that's when I told Mom and Tater to have a good time, but I was leaving. I had my phone, they had theirs, we could meet up later. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream - a fat salmon in a very smelly, hot, humid stream of people, strollers and belly buttons. I got off course and hit a wall, had to cut across and finally found my way out to the street. I took the opportunity to sit on a curb and call my kids and husband. I was on the phone with them when Mom called to say they'd had enough and were at Casey's hot dog stand. So was I, just around the corner.

Then we ate the world's best hot dog ever. Seriously. Best. Hot. Dog. Ev. Er.

We rode Splash Mountain. Mom and Tater were in the first car, first row. When that wall of water came at them there was no amount of ducking that was going to save them. As the ride came to a close, Mom turned around to me and said, "Diva, how do I look?" I laughed and said, "You look like Benji!" (The dog. Remember? Cute, shaggy grey dog?)


The first place we went on Saturday was Disney-MGM Studio. After we went through security, but before we got to the ticket booths, we saw a crowd of people gathered, looking up at the sky. A security guard was on his radio and pointing. We asked what was going on and he told us the space shuttle was going to be taking off any minute. We watched and finally, after straining and squinting, saw it in the sky and that, my friends, was amazing. We watched it long enough to see it disappear into space. I'll probably never see that again my entire life. And after it disappeared and the crowd began to disperse we all applauded. It was a magical moment and we hadn't entered the park yet.




Of course, the first thing we did was ride the Tower of Terror. Mom and Tater had hyped me up so much that I was excited and terrified all at the same time. I needed to pee and felt like I might possibly barf. We waited all of 5 minutes to get into the pre-ride movie thing and maybe another 5 to board the ride. We were on the second row of the car, me in the middle. Mom was holding my hand, which was not doing a whole lot to help me not freak the hell out. And I really would've been okay if, when we got to the part right before they drop you, Tater hadn't started fidgeting in her seat, saying over and over again, "Oh gosh, here it comes, oh gosh, here it comes" and started grasping for my arm like I was a life buoy. When the car dropped the first time it only dropped us maybe two stories and in the short moment of coherency that I experienced I thought, "Oh geez, these two played this ride up and it's really OH HOLY NIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!" That's when I left my liver, which had suddenly been turned inside out, somewhere around the 11th floor as we plumeted to the 2nd floor. Or further. Who knows how far we dropped - all I know is that by the time we were anticpating the last drop Mom and Tater were laughing like loons because all that was coming out of my mouth was, "Nonononono, not again, not again, nonononono, please NO!"

And then we got back on that thing and rode it again. Followed by two rides on the Rockin' Roller Coaster that takes you from 0 to 60mph in 2 seconds. The inside-out liver that I had temporarily left at the top of the Tower of Terror was turned right side out again and was flattened against my seat back. We had heard that a young boy had died on that coaster a few weeks before due to a heart problem that they didn't know about. Well, I guess Mom thought my ticker was weak and through the whole ride kept shouting "ARE YOU OKAY?" I kept laughing and screaming "HELL YES I'M OKAY THIS THING ROCKKKKSSSSS!" But she didn't hear me and thought I was dead. Yes, really. We ended up riding TofT 4 times that day. Twice on Aerosmith was really enough; my heart and liver could only handle so much.



As we walked into the building to draw with the Disney artists, we saw Mr. Incredible. I squealed and shoved four little kids out of the way so that I could get my picture with him. Frozone and Elastigirl were there, too, but I was pretty well sated just getting to plant a kiss on ol' Mr. Incredible's big ol' chin, so I decided to let the other kids have the other characters. Parents were scowling at me already for knocking their children out of the way anyway.

Do you see how flat and oogey my hair was in that picture??? The humidity in Florida puts Oklahoma's to shame. Seriously. I don't know how people live there. I was stopping every 10 minutes to flip my head upside down and fluff my hair. When we were leaving the hotel room on Sunday my hair was extra ginormous. I'm talking very serious 90's hair. Tater said, "The 90's called - they want their hair back." She also told me that the big hair was no longer a good look for me, but after about 3 minutes outside it had shrunk to normal and she said, "Okay, I like your hair now. Earlier it was just not good."





Pluto was the first character we drew with the artists. I can't draw much of anything and look at what I drew! All by myself! I also drew Goofy and Stitch, but Goofy was just sad and Stitch was horrible. But I was pretty proud of Pluto. (Note: When drawing with the Disney artists, don't work ahead - you'll end up with "Muto", like Tater did. Hers had three ears.)



We stopped to watch the Stars and Cars parade that afternoon and not only did we see the real live Lightning McQueen AND Mater, (which made me squeal and scream "OHMYGOSHIT'SLIGHTNINGMCQUEEN!!!!) but Darth Vader spotted me trying to get his picture across the street and made a beeline for me. Imagine a 6-foot plus bad dude from one of your favorite childhood movies towering over you just so you could take his picture - I'm telling you folks, it was magic.

We were walking down kind of a side street in MGM when we saw JoJo from JoJo's Circus. Now, here at Diva Daycare we are not big fans of JoJo and her annoying circus, but when I saw Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins I took off in a dead run for them. Picture a fat chick with flat hair running toward two preschool cartoon characters - yeah, it was pretty funny. I forced myself to wait in line to get their picture because after knocking over a few kids over Mr. Incredible, I figured I'd better lay low - they might've had security watching me.