Trena and Family's Trip to WDW

Me-Trena-the Mom
Rob- the Dad
Emily age 6
Harrison age 3

This trip (Feb 10 to Feb 15th) to Orlando happened because Rob had a business trip scheduled for West Palm Beach. He offered to drive (instead of fly) so that we could come with him. I really did research West Palm before I decided I'd rather be dropped off in Orlando. Rob approved as long as I could cover the cost of the trip myself. So while he was out of town on business trip, I had a garage sale and sold anything I thought he wouldn't miss! The kids cleaned out their toys and outgrown clothes. Two of my neighbors joined me and we had a little neighborhood sale! I made $175. I still had $50 from the garage sale I had right after we moved in. I had also saved my birthday and Christmas money for the trip. (Thanks again guys!) All together, I had about $300. Not bad for an unemployed stay-at-home Mom! I reserved a hotel room using priceline.com. My offer of $25 per night was accepted by Days Inn on HWY 192 just 3 miles from WDW. Half of my money was spent on the hotel and the rest of my money was spent on food and a few souvenirs.

We drove down on Monday and checked into the hotel and picked up a rental car for Rob. Then we went to MGM and saw the Fantasmic Show. (We got rained out the last time we tried to see it.) We had a late dinner and then went to bed. Rob got up and early and drove 3 hours to West Palm Beach. When we awoke Rob was gone and we were being stalked by a ROACH was on the ceiling. I hair sprayed him and then beat him with a newspaper until he stopped kicking! I called the front desk and asked them to spray the room while we were out. Other than our uninvited visitor, the room was fine. There were plenty of hangers in the closet. The bedding was clean, the maid left extra towels and they were thick and a larger size than I expected.

We went to the new toy store at Downtown Disney so the kids could pick out their souvenir. Harrison picked out "Reek" a monster from Star Wars. Emily picked out a Mulan doll. I bought a box full of Disney themed body parts and toys for Mr. Potatohead. I got a hat with mouse ears, an autograph book, Mickey balloon, and Mickey shaped ice-cream bar for Mr. Potatohead. I've put it away for now; I'll give it to Harrison for his birthday in April. I decided I'd buy myself a Tarzan pin. (The kind you wear on a lanyard.) I couldn't find one anywhere. Then we went to an outlet store to exchange a shirt I bought last week. They didn't have any Tarzan pins either.

We ran to Wal Mart and bought some snacks and groceries to keep in our room. They had great prices on Disney t-shirts so we got a few. We had lunch in our room. The kids were begging to swim in the pool. They like pools just as much as they do major theme parks! The pool was heated, but not nearly enough! It took us 25 minutes before we started to turn purple. (They didn't ask to go swimming again.) We got dressed and went to Epcot for the rest of the day.

Emily really seemed to enjoy riding Spaceship Earth. The last time she was afraid and closed her eyes a great deal. This time she was more confident and kept pointing out all of the new things they'd added since her last visit. No, nothing had changed; she just had her eyes open this time!

We explored half of the countries in the World Showcase and saw several of the street shows. "Le Mime Roland" is a great comedy show in France. Rob and I had really enjoyed seeing this show and I wanted the kids to see it too. Roland's act is simple, but it is very funny. At one point he pretends his suit case is stuck and he can't move it. Since I'd seen the show before, I knew he'd call on a small child to help him with it. I encouraged Harrison to volunteer and he did. The suit case was not heavy at all so Harrison was able to pick it right up and carry it around for him. Roland pretended to be amazed that such a small boy was so strong. He had Harrison move it several different places and couldn't seem to decide exactly where he wanted it. Harrison finally looked up at him and threw his arms in the air as if to say "enough already…make up your mind!" He got quite a few laughs from the audience. Roland "helped" Harrison bend at the waist to bow to the crowd. Then he positioned him to face the crowd and had him stand straight and tall with his arms by his side. He opened the suit case and took out a few balloons to inflate. Each time Harrison turned his head to see what was going on Roland turned Harrison's head back to face the crowd. He made lots of noise with the balloons tempting Harrison to turn his head. The crowd was giggling and Harrison was a good sport. Roland made him a balloon hat for helping with the show. He wore it for the rest of the day.

We stayed at Epcot long enough to see both showings of the parade. We checked every pin station but couldn't find a Tarzan pin. We had hot dogs and chicken nuggets for dinner in the American Pavilion.

Part 1, Part 2