Friday, June 27, 2014

Disney Day 1

Where to start?

Hello again.  It's been a while since I did this, largely due to the mega life-changes that come with the shift from staying home to the land of leaving the house and getting paid to do so.  It's a third job just shifting from one to the other.  For real.  More about that later.

I've kinda ripped you off.  I meant to tell you all about Disney every night, as I always seemed to do on a trip like that.  Thing is, life got fast.  Real fast.  Along with the fast came tired.  Choices were made, and I'm sad to admit that a natural choice was to drop writing for a while.  But look out... I'm back.

The first day of Disney... gosh, that was great.  We learned some things about us being us, and put into practice the things that we already knew about us.  We got a double stroller, thinking in our Disney-drunk minds that the kids would be more than happy to take turns riding.

VERY FUNNY.

The first day was MGM Disney Hollywood Studios.  (I have the hardest time remembering that change, y'all.)  It was hot.  They were tired.  It was a blast, but goodness... what did I expect?  This is how the day began.


Wonderful, right?  I mean look at those fabulous babies with that fabulous duck.  Seriously, I thought I'd die of cuteness.  Maelynn kept running back to hug her, and Daisy kept responding in true Disney fashion with hands over her bill and her heart.  It was, in short, adorable.  

What you can't see is Ryan's screams of protest.  This was, to be fair, the first thing we really waited in line for other than his disability pass, which I will get to.  It wasn't a mega-meltdown, but it wasn't fun. 

Then there was this... Disney Jr. Live.  Funneled into a darkened room with tons of other people, to sit on the floor.  No boundary.  *insert Mama screaming and pulling out hair*

We snuggled.  And he put his jacket on.  Yes, it was hot.  But he needed his own space.  The jacket provided a hiding space.  He pulled that hood hard down over his face and buried it in my lap and rode this show out like a pro.  We learned quickly that this was how we would get through the little show-rides.  I'd pull out the jacket, ask him if he wanted it over his head, and then put it over his head.  I'd tell you we got some weird looks, but honestly, I didn't notice.   Here's the celebratory I-made-it-through-this selfie that he asked for.  

Yes, he did.  He asked for a picture with Mom.  *swoon*


Rides... we rode.  It was awesome.  Most of them he either tolerated or loved.  If one of those wouldn't be the outcome, we didn't do it.  Let's just say there was very little we didn't do.  Here's a shot I got of my Mom (here referred to as "Granny")  and Maelynn on the Toy Story ride.  They ROCKED it! 


And we wandered more... thought I'd never get that jacket off Ryan.  But I let it go, and eventually he did realize he needed to remove it.  With the promise that I'd keep it handy in my backpack, we were good.  After lunch, we found the Muppet fountain...


Yes, that is Ryan's jeans-clad bum and legs.  In the time it took for me to back up and say, "Smile for mama" he had almost his head in the water.  If you ever wondered if this kid is really drawn to water *that* strongly... I mean, come on, all kids love water... here you go.  

The best stuff happened toward the end of the day.  Ryan wanted to ride the elevator.  Not just any elevator... the Tower of Terror.  Or so he thought.  We were in that end of the park, and I told him that if he'd ride a roller coaster and liked that, then he could choose to ride that elevator.  I told him it was scary, not a usual elevator, etc.  Then I did something I never thought I'd do.  

He said "yes" with tons of enthusiasm.  I walked with him up to the Fastpass area, told the castmember that he wanted to ride, and he penciled (okay, penned) in a ride time for us to return.  Worked just like Fastpass, but would work alongside Fastpass.  It was greatness.  

I figured he'd decide that no, it wasn't for him after all.  Surely when we got to the line he'd flip and we'd leave.  

Then I thought surely when he has to get in that seat and pull that thing down, that will be time to use the old-fashioned "chicken exit".  And I was completely okay with that.  I love that coaster... it's my favorite... but I couldn't believe I was about to let him do this.  

He didn't change his mind.  He got in the car, pulled the safety harness down, and we were off.  

I have to admit that I don't know if he screamed... I'm almost sure he did.  I kept my hand on his knee as a reminder that Mommy's here, thinking that might help.  

When we pulled into the end of the ride, I asked what he thought, and his response was "You will get OFF!"  Oh man, did I hang my head till we were good and off.  

Then the people in front of him high-fived him for making it.  And he grinned the most huge, proud grin I've ever seen on his face.  When asked the rest of the trip if he liked it, he'd emphatically say "Yes!" in his best newscaster voice.  But then when asked if he wanted to do it again? 

"No!"  in the same voice. 

The end of the night was the hardest.  Fantasmic is one of my favorite parts of Disney, and we were by golly gonna go.  It was hard, but he made it.  

By the way... about a week later, Ryan couldn't stop watching YouTube videos of people riding roller coasters.  Two weeks later, he was drawing them on the marker board at school.  

Ya just never know, folks.  

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to posting Disney Day 2.  This was so fun, and this trip had such an impact on us as a family that it's not hard to remember the best stuff.  And yes, I will eventually address the hot topic of the disability pass.  But really it's not that hot of a topic.  Not near as hot as it was made out to be for our family, anyway.  

Thanks be to God for the Groesbeck band boosters... because they're the reason we got to go. 

And thanks for mentioning the blog today, Tara.  I'd all but given up on it.  Love ya girlie.  



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