Okay, this is ridiculous

Ahhhh, it was so nice this past weekend as Erin and Gord cleaned up the yard... look what came a few days later.......

So, I am fully aware of the fact that I live in Canada. I am proud to be Canadian. I am also aware that we get snow here. Sometimes, like last winter, we get more than I prefer, but all in all having winter can really be fun. I also know that sometime we get snow in October. But 4 inches??????? What is up with that??????? I hope this is not an omen of what is to come!!! Of course, it will all melt in the next day or so with temperatures hitting double digits again on Friday!!

One week back

Well, the Sunday after we got home was indeed a day of laundry for me! It just never seemed to end! Gord went skeet shooting, while Erin and I unpacked. She found the Mickey colouring book we got her at Disney Hollywood, so spent much of the morning colouring. I'm so glad I cleaned the house before we left!!!

When Gord got back, he and Erin went outside to do some work around the house. They cleaned up leaves, put the patio furniture away, you know, that kind of cleaning. Erika called for Erin and asked if she could come by for a visit. I think they missed each other!! Gord put them both to work and I went off and did groceries. I got a chance to catch up quickly with Richinda to make sure Sammy wasn't too much of a pain in the butt for them!! Emma came by to see Erin too! I made my way to the grocery store because I had absolutely nothing in the fridge, so I got some quiet time to myself for a bit.

It was pretty much shell-shock going back to work. I couldn't drag myself out of bed to get there early. I swear I was the better part of 30 minutes before I made it to my office, at which time my cell phone went off - people looking for me at a meeting!! Out of the pot and into the fire!! Erin was glad to see her buddies at school and had a great day! She had quite a bit of homework from the week before - which was strange since she only missed one day!!! We worked on that together after I picked her up and got that out of the way.

We made it through the week without any major issues! Erin was glad to get back to Sparks too, where she found out her buddy Michelle from the daycare had now joined too! Friday I got a day to myself. Erin was in school. I took a quick trip into Ottawa to go to Costco. I broke down and bought an artificial tree. I got a pretty big one. I just think Gord needs a break from dragging a real one in and out of the living room. I think we'll still get a real tree for downstairs, it will just be much smaller and much easier to handle!! Other than that, I did a bit of cleaning and tried to catch up the blog.

Saturday was a miserable fall day. One of those days that it just rained and rained. Gord met with the guy who came out to close the pool for the winter early in the morning and the most we did was to take a quick trip into Brockville to stop at the Home Depot to look around.

We did get some bad news in the afternoon. One of our neighbour's called to let us know her father, who is also a neighbour, passed away yesterday afternoon. Our thoughts, prayers, and good wishes are with our friends and their families today.

Going Home......Sigh.......

I can hardly believe the week has passed us by already. As tired as we all are, it has really been a great week. Boo....time to go home. We slept in this morning knowing it was going to be a long day travelling home. We still had some meal credits left, so I ordered up breakfast on room service to use the last of them up. It was nice to poke away at breakfast in our room and on the balcony. Erin even got to enjoy Mickey waffles for the last time this trip!

Speaking of meal credits, we still had 14 snack credits left, so I went down to the store at the hotel and cashed them in for 14 chocolate bars and mickey rice crispie squares. The bag must have weighted 2 lbs!! That's a lot of snacks for the plane!

We next gathered all of our stuff and headed down to the lobby to catch the Magical Express bus back to the airport. We got through everything in good time at the Orlando airport. Our flight pretty much left right on time. Erin crashed almost right away when we took off. We had to wake her up when we got to Toronto!!

Washrooms were in order when we got off the plane, then we hopped into the customs line. This went smoothly. We got our luggage and rechecked it. The only thing we found odd was having to go through security screening again. This meant I had to toss the yogourt and drink I got for Erin. Grrrrr..... it seems ridiculous to go through again since we never left the security area. I swear, nothing is ever simplet at Pearson airport.

We didn't have a long wait for our next and final flight to Ottawa. In no time we were onboard and ready to roll. I thought this was going to be the first time in all the times I've flown through Pearson that we would leave on time. But alas, it was not to be so. The stretch remains unbroken - can you see the trend of my dislike and general avoidance of Pearson!! We were on the taxi-way when the pilot announced that they had to reset the computer on the plane and that we had to go back to the gate. Next refueling, maintenance sign offs, blah, blah, blah, and 1 1/1 hours later we were up in the air. We arrived in Ottawa just before 9:00pm. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our luggage or for the Park & Fly shuttle. We made a quick stop at Tim's for some coffee - my only complaint about Disney is they can't serve a decent cup of coffee!!! We were home just after 10:00pm.

I'm glad we didn't have to go back to work the next day. The trip was fantastic, but a Disney vacation with kids is far from relaxing!! Laundry, laundry, and more laundry awaits me in the morning! It's good to be home though!!!

Day Seven - Last Day - Sleeping in, Orlando, Magic Kingdom

We all slept in this morning and it was well needed and well deserved! We had breakfast reservations at 10:10am at Ohana's at the Polynesian resort. This is another character breakfast that includes Lilo and Stitch - yeah more characters for Erin to meet and get autographs from !! Erin has already filled one autograph book and has started a second one. I can't believe how many characters she has met this trip! We have no real plans for the day. We think we may head into Orlando for a bit. Gord would like to go to Shepler's Western Wear. We have dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern at 7:00pm at the Magic Kingdom, so we will likely head there in the afternoon for our last evening.

We had a fair wait for our breakfast reservation - the longest of the trip. The Polynesian resort is gorgeous though! I would love to stay here some time. Breakfast was pretty good though. It is a buffet that is served family style, meaning they bring the buffet in a big pan to your plate. They also brought a nice fruit plate and delivered Mickey waffles to you! Erin enjoyed meeting the characters though, so she loved it. We had a long wait to meet Stitch - just some bad timing as he had just left our area when we arrived, so we had to wait for him to make his way all around the restaurant again before coming back!


After breakfast, we caught a cab into Orlando. Gord wanted to look around and we thought it would be a nice break from the non-stop Disney action! We got Erin a cute riding shirt and a horse tee from the trip. Gord didn't see anything that he liked, so Erin was the only recipient of stuff from Sheplers! We decided to head back to the hotel and go for a swim. We swam and hit the hot tubs for about an hour before heading back to our room to freshen up and heading into the Magic Kingdom for a while.

We took the boat there and decided our first stop would be to catch the Steam Train. I haven't been on that in years. We took it to the Toon Town stop. This area is new since Gord and I were there last, and we skipped in when we went in May. Erin wanted to go here because you got to see Mickey and Minnie's houses! Naturally she loved Minnie's neat and tidy house!! Mickey needs a housekeeper!!

Erin decided she wanted to go on some rides at this point, so she and Gord headed to ride the Teacups - not my cup of tea, okay, sorry - so I sat that one out. Erin just loved it and wanted to go a second time. While they went to do that I went to get a frozen lemonade. Erin changed her mind on the ride, so I went and go her one too! She took quite a liking to the frozen lemonades there just as I did! Next stop for Erin and Gord was the Speedway. Erin rode this with Grampa in May, so she was the pro. Gord told her she was a terrible driver! I remember Grampa telling me the same thing all those years ago too!!! We walked around a bit more and were unsuccessful in convincing Erin to go to see the Hall of Presidents. She's a pretty perceptive 5-year old, and immediately sensed this interactive show was geared more to adults!

It was getting close to our dinner reservation time at Liberty Tree Tavern, so we checked in and waited a bit before being seated. This was a nice restaurant. We were seated right under an air conditioner vent so we had a very cool draft through dinner! Dinner was disappointing though. The mac and cheese was just plain gross and I don't blame Erin for not eating it. I don't know if was because we had so much amazing food on the dining plan and it was tough to live up to, or if we were just plain so full! The deluxe dining plan is A LOT of food! The atmosphere was great and there were characters so Erin enjoyed it! It was fitting that Minnie Mouse was the last character she met on the trip, because aside from the Princesses, Minnie was her definite runaway favourite character!

When we came out from dinner, the Spectromagic parade was making it's way by, so we found a great spot to watch it again. This is really a special parade and we all loved seeing it again. A great parade to see on our last day! We stayed to see the fireworks as we got on the boat, then headed back to the hotel.

So we got back and unfortunately it was time to pack. I gave Erin a quick bath and got her into her pj's. Gord discovered, much to his disappointment that his bat would not fit into our suitcases. We knew we couldn't carry it on, so he went down to the front desk to make arrangements to have it shipped home. When he got back, I went down to the gift shop to pick up a few last minute items and gifts to bring home. Gord saw him earlier, then I caught up with Chris who was doing the same thing! We finished up packing and crashed some time after midnight! A long travel day home was ahead of us tomorrow!

Day Six - Animal Kingdom, The Dream Team, and Epcot Part 2

Yikes! We had an early reservation for breakfast at Donald's Safari at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom this morning so we were up before the sun! Both families travelled there together and we arrived at the park around 7:45am. They let us into the park and we made our way to the restaurant. I love being at the parks before they open!! We were in for another beautiful day and Animal Kingdom is just plain breathtaking without the crowds at this time of day!

We had a short wait before we were called in. What a fabulous breakfast buffet! One of our favourites from the week. There were just so many yummy things to eat, and yes, Mickey waffles!! This was another character breakfast and this morning we met Donald, Mickey, Goofy, and a new one for Erin to meet, Daisy Duck! She simply loves meeting the characters!

We finished up breakfast just before the park opened. We decided to go straight to the Safari ride, since it was right next to the restaurant, the animals are most active in the morning, and this ride can just be plain busy! I couldn't believe the mad rush of people making their way to the ride as soon as the park opened! We were able to get on really quickly though because of being in line so early. It was awesome to see the animals this early in the day. We got loads of great pictures. This is by far on top of Gord's list of favourite rides!

We got off the ride and were making our way out when we got stopped by some Disney Cast Members. For the past 2 years, Disney has been running a promotion - Year of a Million Dreams. Visitors can be stopped by the Disney Dream team and given special things as part of the promotion. You guessed it, we were stopped by the Dream Team!!! We were all told we were in the right place at the right time and were all given Dream Fast Passes for all of the Animal Kingdom rides for the day!! Sweet!!! We were all excited about this and were on quite a high for the morning!!

We made our way to Camp Mickey-Minnie. We were told by one of the Cast Members at Hollywood Studios that we could meet Chip and Dale here, and they were on Erin's list to meet. Not to mention Aidan and Cole were excited when I told them they would be there too!! On our way, we ran into Pocahontas too, so Erin got another special surprise by this, another picture, and more importantly, another autograph!

We hopped into line to see Chip and Dale when we arrived. We only had a short wait there. The kids were really excited to meet them. They kidded around with the kids and made it really fun for them! Yes, Erin got two more autographs too!!

We next all went to see the Lion King show. Erin, Grampa, and I went to see this show in May and were so impressed with it that we wanted to see it again. It did not disappoint. Aidan and Cole loved it too! Again, another professional and amazing production put on by Disney.

Next stop was It's Tough to be a Bug. Erin got a bit gun-shy when we got in and sat on Gord's lap for the show, but I think she giggled the loudest when the bugs sprayed everyone!! Jo, Chris and Aidan went on Dinosaur next, and we took Erin and Cole on Tricerotops - Erin's favourite ride last time we were here!! We met back up a short while afterward and the guys headed over to ride Expedition Everest. The Dream Fastpasses were handy for them here, as the line was pretty long. Chris, Aidan, and Gord rode this once, then went again, less Aidan. He told me the ride was great, but he was never going on it again!!! Jo and I treated the kids to a lemonade float (yummy!!) while we waited for the guys to get back. The next spot was to use the Dream Fastpasses at the Cali River Rapids. I really wanted to go on this when we were there in May, but the line was way too long. The ride did not disappoint. Most of us got soaked and Erin screamed and laughed the entire ride, she just loved it! She told us that was her favourite ride of the trip! After this, Jo, Chris and the boys decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up as they had early dinner reservations at Epcot.

We had reservations at Epcot as well that night, but they were fairly late, so we decided to stay a while longer. We did a bit of shopping, rode Tricerotops again, grabbed some yummy bbq for lunch, did the Safari ride again, and caught the Jungle Jammin parade before heading to Epcot for our dinner in Italy.

We arrived at Epcot shortly after 5:00pm. We stopped at Innoventions, where Erin did a colouring activity before we headed back to the World Showcase. We had dinner in Italy - Tutto Italia. It was amazing! The service was fantastic and they sang Happy Birthday to Erin in Italian - yes, another note on the reservation showed up here!! With very full tummys, we headed over to Japan where Gord wanted to pick up a tee he saw when we were here the other day. Erin wanted to pick out a pearl from the oyster display, so we let her do that. She picked out her oyster, and they opened it for her. She picked one out that was oversized and they made a big fuss over her! Naturally, she loved it! While they were setting it, we sat outside and listened to some jazz from David Sanborn, who was playing there as part of the International Wine and Food Festival. It was excellent and so nice on such a beautiful evening! We picked up Erin's pendant (the pearl set in a horseshoe, of course) and while we planned on staying for Illuminations that evening, Erin was crashing hard from her two (yes, two) very rich, chocolate desserts from dinner and she told us she wanted to go to bed. Maybe next time!

We headed back to the bus area and were able to hop on a bus right away. We all took quick showers and Erin had a bath after our long day of two parks, and we all went to bed pretty quickly! Tomorrow is the last full day we have at Disney. We have a late breakfast reservations, so we will sleep in and have a slower paced day!

Erin, being serenaded to - Happy Birthday to You in Italian, with one of her two desserts!!!!