Orlando 2008

We went on our yearly trip to Orlando for a week to go to the parks and also see my sister Stacy. I swear you can never run out of things to do there. This year we decided to do 3 days of Disney World and 2 days of Universal Studios (with Stacy and kids since they have a pass). Luckily Stacy was able to babysit Marissa while we went to Disney World because Xander is big enough to go on almost every ride now and we didn't want her to have to sit in the heat all day long. Jada, Levi and Brianna LOVED having the baby at their house and fought over who was going to dress her, feed her and hold her. She was definitely the center of attention!

Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios)
The good thing about this park is you can take babies if you need to, even though we didn't take Marissa this time. Xander went to this park when he was 5 months old and was able to do pretty much everything except the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Rollercoaster (which he is still a little bit too short for!) Xander was able to go on the Tower of Terror this year though and he was really scared because he doesn't like elevators in the first place. About a year ago, he asked me what the sign said in the elevator and I told him that if there was a fire, then don't take the elevator. So since then, he has asked if there is a fire every time we get in an elevator. Go figure! Anyway, we made him go and when they are dropping you, your butt kind of floats off of the seat. So when we got to the bottom, Xander says, "You know when we were falling and floating, I think a little pee came out. I think I need to go to the bathroom now." I guess it was only a couple of drops, because his pants weren't wet or anything, but I almost peed my pants when he said that! Anyway, after that, I think he was glad that he was too short for the Aerosmith Rollercoaster, but he did have fun picking out some new drum sticks for our Rock Band game!

Disney's Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is our favorite Disney Park. There is the right mix of kid rides and big rides to entertain the entire family. Plus they have the best fireworks display of all the parks! Xander was able to ride every single ride there this year including Space Mountain. I was worried that he wouldn't go on it since he would have to sit by himself and the whole ride is completely dark, but Ash tricked him by telling him that one of the slow moving trains (see pics) was Space Mountain. Aren't we good parents? Tricking our kid into going on scary rides! Oh well, he liked it! Godd thing we didn't ride that blue train before the ride though because it goes right through the Space Mountain Ride and I don't think we could have gotten him to go on it after that! Anyway, we had a fun day (even though we missed Marissa...we bought her some Minnie ears though!), but did get into a fight with some British people while waiting for the fireworks show. So we had staked out a place in front of the castle 1 1/2 hours before the fireworks and about 20 minutes before the show, Ash had left to go get a funnel cake so I turned sideways and put out my legs to save his place while he was gone. So this older British couple came up and asked if I was saving that place (duh! isn't it obvious?) and I said yes, my husband will be right back. So his wife squishes her fat butt right by my face which I thought was pretty rude and he stood right in front of me so I told him that I would appreciate it if he didn't stand in front of me because I would like to see the show when it starts (plus at that point my face was surrounded by their butts!), but he refused to move. So Ash comes back and he was like, why are surrounded by people's butts? So we start eating our funnel cake and he still hadn't moved and since we didn't have room, Xander was eating across my lap and ended up spilling a strawberry and some powdered sugar on my pants. Great! So Ash asked the guy to move and he refuses! He says that I was rude to him (so Ash asked him, why do you want to stand by her then? Don't you love your own wife? Leave my wife alone!) and goes on about how he has been visiting the US for 12 years (Ash interjects that he has LIVED here for 32!) and he has never met such rude Americans, blah, blah, blah. What a jerk! Anyway, I said if that is how all British people are I never want to go to England then. So he continues yelling that he won't move and Americans are rude, etc. At this point, the crowd around us is getting involved and are mostly American so they are all yelling at him to just get out of the way. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life! He was so passive agressive! He finally moved about 5 minutes before the fireworks started. Other than that, it was great!

Disney's Animal Kingdom
Our favorite rides here were the Dinosaur Ride and the Everest Expedition. On the Everest rollercoaster, it goes up to the top and the track is broken, so you go backwards for a while before finally going back down the mountain. It was really fun and Xander yelled at me the whole time to put my arms down so they wouldn't get chopped off (or eaten by a Yeti I guess?)!

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure
Every year we go here, because the tickets are so cheap compared to Disney! Plus it is a lot of fun, especially when cousins get to come with you! This year they had a new ride, The Simpsons, which was pretty fun.