With A Heavy Heart...

I have been mulling this over for awhile now. And after sitting on it for a few more days, and talking it out with someone who feels the way I do... I have decided to say "So Long, Farewell" to The Yarbrough 5.

As any blogging mommy knows, you can't just sit down, write a post, put in cute pictures and be done in 5 minutes. It takes a. long. time. It was easier when Morgan Jane was younger, but now everytime I sit down, she is climbing on the dining table, or dumping out the bucket of 500 sippy cups all over the kitchen. Luke is doing so well not playing the Wii, but he is needing a lot more of my one-on-one time to help him focus on playing other things. Olivia has so many new activities and projects, that I need more time to get other little things out of the way so I can be there 100% for her when those things come up. And then there is that handsome man who gives me sad looks from the living room when he is sitting watching a movie all alone while I type away in the evenings...

Oh! And lets not forget about little ol' me. I have made a commitment to myself to be the best "me" I can be. I haven't felt totally put together in a long time, and its something I am working on regaining a little everyday. I just feel that at this stage of things, if I have an hour to sit down and write a post, I could devote that hour to exercising, or preparing a healthy dinner, or just sitting on my tush and reading the latest People magazine (pure joy in my book!) While I love writing, I am also really growing to love the rush after a great work-out, the thrill of seeing Olivia perfect her kart-wheel or watching Luke re-inact a show he's watched with his little Mario figures. Morgan Jane is the last little baby I will ever have, and she is getting bigger everyday. While I have loved keeping track of everyone growing up on here, I think I'll have more time to really live it when I'm not spending the whole time thinking "What am I going to write about this?" or praying that I got good pictures of whatever shenanigans they have gotten into!

So thanks to everyone for reading! Thanks for everyone's kind words and emails through the past two year's ups and downs! I have learned so much, "met" so many neat people... and of course, I will still be reading about everyone else! ...That is when I'm not snuggling Jas and watching "our stories", playing games with Luke, selling Tag-A-Longs with Olivia or telling Morgan Jane to "Get down!" from whatever it is she has climbed on/ under/ into...

So long farewell, auf weidersehen good-bye

I hate to go and leave this pretty sight

So long farewell, auf weidersehen adieu

Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you

So long farewell, auf weidersehen goodnight

I leave and heave a sigh and say good bye -

goodbyyyyyyeeeee!

MU-AH

{HUGS}

Flashback Friday 1996: Wigging Out

I love pictures that make you laugh, even when you've seen them a hundred times. Thats how I feel about this picture:

My high school friend and college roommate, Stacy and I were on one of the many trips we took to Austin together before we started school down there. We always stayed in my grandpartents guest house, and once we discovered that some of my grandmother's old wigs were in the closet in there- it was all over! I think anytime we went down there, we had to take a wig pic. I found this one with Alyshia getting in on the fun, too! Ha! Good times...

Wish List....

So... my birthday is in a few weeks... Just in case you are wondering what to get me, I'll love one of these:

Maybe one of theses:

And, if you get in a hurry last minute: This entire room would be fine, really....

Oh, Pottery Barn. You are killing me. Kill-ing me...

Green Treat

Have I mentioned that Morgan Jane is the quirkiest kid I've ever seen?... You never know what you are going to get with her! Which is what totally cracked me up about dinner last night. Usually I feed her first and she goes to bed when we eat. But, we've been keeping her up, trying to get her and Luke to go down at the same time- so she's started joining us for dinner. She finished first and insisted on getting down from her high chair. She wondered around the table, and kept stalking Luke while we were eating. When he finished and was excused from the table she RAN and jumped in his chair and yelled, "TReeeeeAT!"

And started to eat his green beans.

Well, okay....

I hope she stays this way.

Get Her Outta Here!

I'm sure many of you have seen this commercial:

I've put it on here for Fan Target who has no TV. I tried to explain it to her, but I don't think I did it justice.


I have always had a fear of dolls. Especially clown dolls. So much so that I risked being fired for looking like a looney-tune when I asked the mom of the family I nannied for if they minded getting rid of the child-sized Gymboree clown doll they owned. Just knowing that it was in the nursery closet freaked me out too much.  I would sit in the rocking chair facing the closet, rocking Max at night, just waiting for that evil clown to open the door and get me... (Dina kindly obliged and let me keep my job! ha!) I've had a tough time with all of the dolls Olivia has accumulated over the years- but for some reason, I've been able to tolerate baby babydolls way more so than dolls that look like older kids (A'la' Chucky...) UNTIL NOW.

The way the USPS commerical family felt aboout their clown, we feel about the crawling baby Morgan Jane got for Christmas!

There she is freaking out for Uncle Trav to get it out of the box...

Here she is trying to grab it out of his hands as soon as the doll has been freed...

Here she is admiring its crawling skills....

Here she is bowing to her- Ahhhh- she's under the doll's spell already!!!!

The thing moves on its own, and we haven't quite figured out what makes it go, which is creepy in and of itself.
Is it motion censored...?
On an internal timer...?
Possessed by the DEVIL???
Here she is trying to attack Miss O, whose just sitting on the step, minding her own business...

Don't let that cheery laugh and that baby babbling fool you! We think she's up to something sinister, we just have to figure out what it is!!!

All I know if that the other night Jas and I were watching TV in bed and I got up and there she was trying to crawl in our room! I swear on everything holy, that she was in the living room the last time I saw her! Our sunken living room... You wanna tell me how she got up that step??? Thank God for the wooden floor return at our door or she would have crawled in and got us in our sleep, I just know it!

We hate this thing:

Morgan loves her... and will cry if we turn heroff.

She's smart.

She knows we have the power to make her work....Damn.
I hate to do it, but I really think this precious doll might have to move on to seriously creep out bring joy and laughter to another family...

Flashback Friday

I love this picture of my parents at their wedding reception

I love how my mom is checking out her new wedding band.

I love that luckily someone just happened to candidly catch such a sweet moment.

Happy Friday To All The Lovebirds Out There! :0)

DIY Does NOT Apply...

Jas has deemed this the "Year Of Just Living" - which was told to me when I told him of the grand painting plans I had for our master bedroom. Nope. He said he is out. He doesn't want to do anything this year. WHAT?!?!? Just when he was becoming my decorating/ crafty-project P.I.C.! Ugh. You would think after knowing him for almost half my life, I would know when he's not bluffing. But, nooooooo, I figured I could woo him, guilt him, or cry if it came to it! Or not.

I have a medium-sized barn star over our TV in the living room. I love tin stars, have in them in almost every room. But it has always bugged me a little that it was smaller than I really would like. It looked a little dinky up there to me. So I went in search of a larger star...but I found something even better at (guess where? where else?!) Hob Lob. Metal scroll-y pieces. I'm telling you! They sometime put the best treasures closest to the floor! They were small, like 10 inches long and they had them in reverse of each other and a little alarm went off: hello! hang them on either side of the star! Loved the idea and stalked them until they were 50% off.

I brought them home, painted them, sanded and distressed them and was fired up to get them on the wall. So, like I normally would do, I asked Jas to come help me. And you know what he said?? "No."

WHAT!?!? He couldn't be serious!

He was. So I got the leaning ladder out of the garage, and leaned it up againt the wall in the living room to show that I was serious, these guys where going to be hung up.

Nothing. So I leaned the ladder on the right side of the TV careful not to bump anything. I shook it a few times to make sure it wasn't going anywhere, climbed up and then called Jas. Got him! He came in the room and I asked him to tell me when it was straight. He was mad he got dooped, but helped me. Then he left. So I moved to the other side of the fireplace, and as I was climbing the ladder I had one of those moments where I thought, Damn, it sure would be a nightmare if I fell. And I started to do a quick inventory of all of the awful things I would hit: the TV on the wall, the big wooden mantle, the tile hearth, the large media cabinet... I got up there and called him back, begging him to just stand there and tell me up, down, left or right. He did it, but with very little enthusiam, and sure enough when I got down the left scroll was too close to the star. Now, I am sure I am the only person on the planet that would be bothered by the 1/2 inch discrepency, but it had to be remedied.

Jas told me to leave it. It was fine.

He walked out.

(This is the part of the story where my mom would say, "Alright, hard head." Yeah.)

I climbed back up the ladder, and I guess I went one rung too high, because as I hooked the back of the hammer around the nail I wanted to remove I heard the most awful metal clink sound and down I went. The rubber bottom of the ladder is on a hinge and had flipped up, and on our slick floors, the whole ladder started sliding down and backwards. And in that moment I ran through that laundry list of what I was going to hit in those 2 split seconds. Then WHAM! the ladder slammed into the mantle, it flipped over and I was able to roll off, but not before I hit my ankle, my shoulder and worst of all, the inside of my leg.

(thank you mantle for breaking my fall. {hugs})

When the ladder hit and flipped it wasn't a pretty sound, and luckily Jas came running. I just sat on the ottoman- in shock, but thanking God that I wasn't more seriously injured and embarrassed that I had acted like such a toot. And in true Anne fashion, I had one of those laugh-like-a-psycho-then-burst-into-tears moment.

So, maybe he has a point. Maybe decorating has become too dangerous. Better to live...

(Then again, maybe I can bribe a certain someone who understands how much looking at that 1/2 inch-too-close-scroll will make me slowly go insane until it is moved to come help a sista' out!)

I Got Nuthin'

So... We've all been sick and there hasn't been anything worth anything going on around here... I've been getting to do ALOT ot TV watching though, so I thought I'd give a shout out to my new favorite shows (just in case you don't have enough to do that you need to add a few more TV watching hours to your day!)

I've also added a "Husband Watching Rating (HWR) based on how many times during the show does Jas asks me when its going to be over! ha!

My Fair Wedding With David Tutera

(Style Network)

OMG. I want this guy to be my best friend. He is a doll, and is so kind and sweet to these clueless women! You will die at some of the themes these women come up with. One girls wanted "Country Bling" and had hot-glued colored rhinestones to those brown paper-mache pigs you can buy at the Hob Lob! I would not lie to you. Sometimes his decor is a little over the top (and do all brides really need to change into "party dresses" for their receptions???) but I love him. LOVE. HIM. I would make up a crazy wedding and buy hideous gowns and make bouquets out of candy (yes, someone did that, too!) just so I could meet David!
HWR: 2 (and I think only because its an hour long and it is about weddings!)

The Good Wife

(CBS)

Every episode of this show gets better (and I missed the first two, which I'm sure explained alot more about her husband's scandal) but Julianna Margulies is so likable, and the cases are great! I LOVE LOVE Kalinda (the in-house investigator). She is such a bad ass. Watch it. Seriously. (You can get it On Demand too...)
HWR: 0 (He loooooooves it too- always gets mad if I turn it on when he's ready to lay down because he knows he has to watch it! heehee)

Guilana And Bill

(E! and Style Network)

I hate to admit this, but I think this is one of the cutest reality shows ever. They are such a cute couple: I love how she's wacky (not to mention her assistant, Matthew "Jacobi"- hilarious!!!) and he is so straight-on and serious. I love how he puts up with her and humors her. They are precious. Seriously mindless fun. There are always marathons on the weekend, so make a pot of coffee, stay in your jammies and catch one. Promise,  you'll love them.
HWR: 1 (He thinks she is ridiculous - in a silly way- but watched 2 hours of this 30 minute show with me this weekend while the kids were napping. So there.)

Clean House

Style Network

 (I promise you, I never watched this channel until we all got sick!)

We only like the ones when Nicey is the host. She is so funny- and the team is equally cute (although I can't stand the colors that Mark paints the rooms- tacky, tacky.) We really started watching this in the hotel when we were in Austin at Thanksgiving. It was the Messiest House In America winners episode which was 2 hours long and had come on at like, 11pm! We were holding our eyes open to watch the end!!! This woman and her daughter were 10 kinds of crazy. They had so much stuff in their house that the team had to rent out a WAREHOUSE! for the "Yard Sale" and it was set up like a department store. They made over $17,000. $17,000!!!! And then at the reveal, the mom takes one look in her new, cleaned out and organized closet and went psycho screaming that they had stolen her purses and stormed out of the house. It was CRAZY!!!!! Jas was hooked. He's in our room watching it right now.
HWR: big fat-daddy 0!!! He loves it!

Community

(NBC)

I have loved Joel McHale for years thanks to The Soup. I think he is hilarious, so when I found out he was going to be on a sitcom, I was first in line.. on my couch. I was a little scared because I had high hopes for Parks and Recreation and I couldn't handle it. Made me twitch. Scared they were going to be the same odd slow pace. But OH MY GOSH! Community is so funny there are simply no words. Every character is greatness. The story lines are so silly and over the top. And did I mention it SO funny???? We look forward to Community night each week. Be careful: If you TiVo it, make sure you tell it to record 2 minutes after the ending time so you don't miss Troy and Abed's shinanigans.

HWR: 0!!!! He asks me every weeknight if its going to be on!

Now, add these to Big Love, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor, Keeping Up The Kardashians and House and I have plen-ty to keep me occupied while I fold laundry.
;0P

The Couple On The Bus

Ah! I totally forgot to tell the tale of the Couple On The Bus! This was one of the funniest, best ways to end our trip- something I know Jas and I will be joking with each other until we are 80! While it has NOTHING to do with our trip, it was one of the highlights...

So we are finally headed home. Vacation is done. We had had what started off as an awful, stressful day turn out to be a fun, eventfull afternoon, and we had pretty much spent the afternoon filling time until our bus arrived. The Disney Express is a big charter bus that takes guests to the airport. We had spent the last official 10 minutes of our Animal Kingdom lodge stay hanging around outside on the benches, playing a million games of "Paper, Rock, Scissors" and listening to Luke sing the entire theme song to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with scary perfection. It was so nice- we were relaxed and ready to head home.

We boarded the bus, and Morgan Jane had just fallen asleep, so I put her in my lap and Miss O took her seat next to me. Jas took the aisle seat across the row from us and Bubs took the window seat by him. The bus we were on made a few extra stops to pick up other travelers on the way to the airport. So, at this one particular stop, two boys come jumping on- I'd say they were about 8 and 10. They are talking loudly, bouncing around- just being boys- and chose to take the the seats behind O and I. They are still goofing off when their dad catches up to them, and says to them in a loud booming voice (read in your best Tony Soprano impression):

"I know yous two aren't being loud right behind that sleepin' bay-bee!"

Thanks, Tony for your concern... He was cracking me up already... He then sat down behind Jas for about 2 second when...da,da,dum: His wife made her entrance.

Bless her heart, here she comes up the steep steps of this huge bus shlepping like, 5 huge shopping bags and she yells to him from the top step, like there aren't 20 other people on the bus, (read in your best New Jersey Yenta "Coffee-Talk" voice):

"Hey! Ha-llo! A little help here-a!"

"Whaaaa? What?" he says, shrugging, kind of joking with her.

She does not find this humorous.

She gets fired up!

"Look at you! Look at you-a! Ya hands are hemp-ty! You got nu-thin! Nu-thin!" She is so mad, and at this point, I am so entertained shocked at the shinanigan of this couple that I am looking out the window, biting the inside of my cheeks, full-on body shaking trying not to bust out laughing. Then I make the mistake of looking over at Jas, who looks at me and mouths, "You got nuth-in!" throwing his hands up in pretend disgust and I loose it. I make that horrible half choke-half snarf- sound and then seriously have to look out the window and think terrible thought to stop myself from laughing my tush off. Turns out while I was blocking all this out, as she was walking to her seat, she also informed him (and the whole bus) that he was giving her a hernia. I love this woman.

So at this point, the guy has helped his poor wife with the bags to the row behind where he had originally sat down. He then took his spot back behind Jas. She says to him:

"Wha? Ya not gonna sit with me?"

To which he priceless-ly replies, "I don't know- are ya gonna yell at me the whole time?"

She tells him to get over there, and sure enough as soon as he moves to sit down with her they are snuggled up, enjoying the ride, chatting about their trip. Like nothing had happened.

Oh. My. Goddness. It was greatness. It reminded me of the couple I nannied for. It reminded me of my mom's parents. I reminded me that Jas and I are just like so many other couple out there: All the silly, stressful fights that have no real malice behind them. Getting teased not to be mean, but to lighten the mood. The feeling that you will snack them if they do x, y, or z ever again but in the end there is still no one else on the planet that you would rather be having that silly arguement with... That couple was priceless. 

Love you babe!

("Ya got nuthin'!")

Game Over

We had to have an intervention at the Yarbrough house.

Seems as though one of our family members was suffering from a serious addiction.

It was interferring with their life.

They were no longer enjoying everyday activities.

They were obsessed with getting their next "fix".

They were angry and ugly when they couldn't have this one thing they wanted.

So in the end we had to pull the plug and start the detox cold turkey....

We had to take away the Wii and ask Mario and Luigi to skip on outta here for a while...

We needed our Luke back. 

Our poor Bubs suffers from a slight case of OCD. Once he has his mind set to something he wants to do, it is next to impossible to get him out of that mind-set until its been full-filled. He turns into a little Rain Man. I used to just chalk it up to being a preschooler, and wanting things to be "just so"... but we are starting to think he has a bit of an issue. And playing Mario Bros. had become a serious addiction. I know he's just three, but I'm being serious here. Serious. Addiction.

He would go to bed asking that we set up the Wii so he could play it right when he got up, and if we didn't he would spent the entire day asking us when he could play. If we didn't let him play, he would literally get pale and shake and be a moody-mess. Like a junkie. It wasn't pretty.

Because I know how much he enjoys playing Mario Bros. I did everything in my Mommy-Power to find ways to let him play in  a very controlled manner: having to earn minutes by playing with toys, setting an egg timer, taking away the remotes after each time he played until there were none left... Nothing really sunk in with him, and I couldn't stand that once the egg timer went off, he would save his game and get off, but he would then spend the next 5 hours asking me every 2 minutes when he could play again. Junk-ie.

He was freaking me out. I couldn't take the crying and shaking and arguing it was causing. The only solution Jas and I could agree on was to simply take it out of the house. (Well, its actually hooked up and hiding behind the TV in our room, but not even Miss O knows that!) He came home from school yesterday and asked here it was. We simply told him it was gone, and amazingly enough- he didn't ask where or when it was coming back. But is hasn't been 24 hours yet, so we'll see how the withdrawl goes... Lets hope its not too painful...

Taxi Ride From Hell

...When we were discharged from the ER, I texted Jas to send for another cab and I headed outside to get some fresh air and to wait. One pulled up two mintes later and as I tried to get in, another couple came out and it turned out that one was for them. No sooner had I sat back down than a shady tan min-van with a "For Hire" light-up sign on the dashboard pulled up. An older man got out, and asked if I was Anne. I was a little taken aback seeing as how Jas said he was going to call the same company. I said yes, and just to check- I asked him if he took credit cards as we were getting in. Yes, yes- he told me. I laid my now sleeping baby down on the seat and told him that I needed him to take me to the Animal Kingdom lodge. He started driving and then starts to tell me that he needs $14 to get in the gate? Huh? He didn't speak English every well and we were clearly having a miscommunication problem. Finally, after much discussing, he understood that I wanted the resort, not the park.

I texted Jas right away:  "where did you find this guy? super shady."

He wrote back: "called the same number. what's wrong?"

I texted him back that this guy was in an unmarked mini-van, wasn't understanding me very well, that I wanted him outside the hotel when I got there... I asked the cab driver how long it would take us to get back to the hotel so I could call my husband and let him know. 15 minutes he said, so I called Jas to tell him, blaming my wanting him outside so he could help me with Morgan Jane, not because I thought anything was wrong. The driver got kind of snippy and kept saying, I'll get you there quickly. I'll take you right there. I assured him that I understood, that I just needed my husband's help. I knew in the pit of my stomach that something was off. His car was a mess, he was kind of a mess... there was half eaten melons sitting on the floorboard of the van...

Then I get a text from Jas about a minute later: "where are you? tell me everything about this guy. his car. everything."

That's when the fear set it.

"whats going on?!?!" I texted him back.

He called me and told me that my cab driver had just called from outside the ER, wanting to know where I was. Jas asked them what they were talking about- that I had aleady been picked up. He told me he didn't know who had picked me up, and that he wanted me to hang up and text him with every detail about this guy. That he was about to call the police. I felt like I was in that scene in "Taken" right before the daughter gets kidnapped. I started to FREAK OUT.

And it was at this exact moment that the cab driver starts telling me he was going to take me to the ATM so I could get money. I told him I didn't need to get money and he kept insisting that he would take me and I could get some. Please let me tell you, that I had one of those "This can't be happening to me!" moments. There is no way that I went on vacation, ended up taking my sweet baby to the ER, and got kidnapped and mugged by a crazed cab driver. No. way.

Jas kept texting me every 5 seconds. Turns out he was at breakfast with everyone when he got the call from the cab company and had been pacing outside- his phone set to the Orlando PD if I didn't show up in the next 5 minutes.  While we were flying down the highway he gave me his card (which was covered with random numbers and foreign writing on the back. Scary.) and I really realized that this guy did not work for Yellow Checker Cab, and that something went wrong somethere along the line. I just wanted to get to Jas as fast as possible...

I will say my driver got us back pretty quickly and I have never been so happy to see the gate at our resort. When we pulled up, I pretty much threw Morgan Jane out of the car at Jas and lept out. He guy smoozed Jas, giving him a song and dance about taking us wherever we wanted to go. It was so bizarre. We walked back downstairs to where everyone was having breakfast and I sat down and lost it. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED??, was all I could think. Why did my baby get hurt, how did that driver know my name??? Was I really in danger?? It was too much for one day. Sometimes you just need a good cry. And a strong cup of coffee. All we can figure now that we look back is he must have tapped into the cab company's scanner and goes around scooping up other people's fares. Shady. Shady. Sha-dy!

Luckily, everyone had just planned on hanging out at the hotel until we needed to leave for the airport, and it ended up being one of the most relaxed and enjoyable days we spent together.

The kids and B on the hotel playground...

Luke and O dontaed to the Disney Animal Conservation fund and got to make Chirstmas ornaments out of dies Ostrich egg. They turned out really nice- who knew?

Right was the kids were finishing their crafts, we heard some fabulous drumming coming from the library. We walked over, mostly because I wanted to see if Morgan would rock out- she's stared dancing so cute lately. When we got there, there were several hotel staff members playing, and they invited my kids to join them. Soon the whole library was filled and everyone was having the best time! The instructors stopped and taught a little geography and science lesson.

Here's Bubs telling these men from South Africa and Uganda "where Texas is"!

They thought he was hilarious!

We headed out to catch the bus soon after this....

No vacation is complete without...

a trip to the ER. Seriously.

Sometimes I have to stop and thank God or my guardian angel, whoever it is that mysteriously guides our actions at times. I woke up on the last day of our trip kind of early, not knowing if we were going to try to hit up one more park since we had an 8pm flight. I got dressed in the clothes I had laid out the night before, ran a brush through my hair, put make-up on and when Luke woke up, I started to get him ready too... As I walked back into the area where the beds were to grab his clothes, I picked up Morgan's nite-nite blanket off the floor, and as I was going to set it up on the bed, she walked and reached for it all at the same time, tripped and WHAM!

She nailed her head on the corner of the wooden platform of the bed. Luckily, I was standing right there, and scooped her up and oh, sweet Jesus, I had a flashback to this! HUGE, HUGE, HUGE and growing by the minute, and the only thing we had to stick on her head was a can of cherry Coke in the mini-fridge that I randomly asked for when I had placed the second room service order when Luke decided he wanted something to eat arfterall. See... I ordered it and never drank it. Didn't want it once it arrived. And now it was the only thing keeping our babies head from swelling anymore that it already was.

In a panic I called down to the front desk asking if there was a doctor on staff. There wasn't. So she offered to call me a cab to take me to the nearest walk-on medical care center. I jumped in, headed there and as soon as I walked up to the front desk, the receptionist told me to call another cab to take me to the ER- that the doctors were going to send me there when they saw her. UGH. Now, at this point I am out of cash because the clinic was much farther away than I had anticipated- so I had Jas call me a cab that took credit cards, because I had NO idea how far away the hospital was. I was freaking out. This sweet cab driver told me he was going to take some back roads to get me there as quickly as possible- and he did. The ER staff was really nice, but poor Morgan was starting to fall asleep- which was a HUGE no-no after a head bump, so I had to keep her awake until her CAT scan. Not a fun or easy task- not to mention neither of us had had breakfast (or coffee in my case). Finally they did her scan and came back quickly with her results: Everything on the inside looked fine. Thank God in heaven. The outside, not so much. It was time to head home. And then something else scary happened...Bless her little heart...

Looking better...Or so we think...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Needless to say, we aren't taking her in public anytime soon...

Disney Downfall...

On our last park day, we headed to Animal Kingdom. After a late night the night before, we decided to sleep in and take our time getting up and at 'em. Yea... not such a good idea. When we got there, I have never seen so many people in such a small space. It was completely overwhelming. And instantly Luke started asking to go home. Over and over. We told him to just sit in the stroller and hang in there. We knew we wanted to do the safari, so we pushed and shoved quickly walked to Africa to grab our fast pases. Then we zipped over to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, and hoped the calm pace would pacify Luke.

(Notice his security blanket, a.k.a. "bunny", is premanently strapped to his body at this point)

He enjoyed taking pictures of people's feet and tushies the animals, and Jas was able to carry him around when he needed it. But, again, once we got out of the trail, he melted down again. It was too much for him, so we headed out of Africa and by the time we got close to the front again, he had buried his head in his blanket and looked like he was going to pass out. It was enough. We decided he needed to get out of there. Again, sweet Granna took him home- she didn't like the crowds anymore than Luke did. Olivia and I had decided early on that we wanted to check out the Lion King show, so we headed that way so we could catch a performance before our safari time. Jas and Morgan Jane joined us and it was so great! Everyone loved it- we had no idea what to expect and it blew us away!

Again with the giraffes!... :0)

Simba!!!

When it was over, we met up with Jon, Jen and B and boarded the safari bus. It was so great- we really felt like we were out in the savannah! Jas was our National Geographic photographer, while I kept Morgan from leaping out of the bus!

oh. my. gosh... my skin was craw-ling...blahahaa

But poor Miss O, she didn't realize that the recorded converstation with our driver and the pretend dispatcher wasn't real! She started to get a little freaked out when we headed out to chase the "poachers".  She was a little frazzled when we got off, bless her heart. After the sarafi, we headed home because we were all supposed to meet up with Jas' aunt, uncle and cousins for dinner. We stopped by the Tree Of Life first, just to have a quiet minute with Miss O, seeing how many animals we could pick out. It was a nice way to end the day.

When we got home, we found out Luke was still asleep. He had slept all day. Not knowing if he was sick, or worn-out, or broken... I decided to stay at the hotel with him, while they went to eat. And sure enough, he didn't budge from the bed. He watched a movie, had some room service (all while wearing his ears mind you!) and went to bed around 9pm.

Here's Bubs checking out the bill for his $10! PB&J...

I wasn't sure of our plans for the next day, so I spent the evening sorting dirty clothes, repacking suitcases, laying out clothes and packing our park bag for the next day, just in case.... Thank goodness I did, because we had not idea what drama was waiting for us the next morning...