I'm Baaaacck!

Whoa, Nelly! Does this feel weird!?!?
Its been almost a year since I've typed in here, and what a year its been!
We have been so blessed with so many great memories and successes, and part of me is sad that I have to rely on myself to remember those great times, rather than be able to look back on here, like I was able to do for a few years.

And I have missed blogging. I have missed taking the time to put those memories down and share them with those that aren't with me everyday. So I made the decision to come back, pick up a year later and fill myself in on the way. Here's a photo look at our 2010:

.....and here's to 2011!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

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...

Magic Kingdom!

So! The second park day, we all decided to get up extra early to take advantage of the early hours the park has for resort guests. We got there right as it opened at 8am and made our way back to Fantasy Land, but not before a little meet and greet with Daisy. Morgan was so excited that we let her out of the stroller for this one.

And of course, we had to take some ceremonal pics in front of the castle.

Morgan is sooooooo mad we made her get back in the stroller!

I took the little kids played in Minnie's House. I loved that Luke knew that this was her sewing machine (her craft room rocked, by the way!) and he then sat right down and pretended to sew! He's so cute! 

While we were in there, my dare-devil Miss O rode the Goofy coaster- I was so impressed with her sudden burst of bravery! We spent most of the morning just riding any and everything the kids wanted to.

We ran into Alice and the White Rabbit, and again- guess who went nutso? Yup! This time she was so excited, that she just sat down on the ground and did that arms-and-legs-tense-up-with-joy-kinda-thing. They thought she was so silly.

When it was lunch time, we were headed for Liberty Square and got caught in the road cut-off for the Christmas parade- and I'm so glad we did! We had an awesome view of the entire parade from beginning to end and the kids LOVED it. Morgan Jane, as always, kept yelling, "Look, look!" and clapping. It was awesome. We had lunch and everyone promply fell apart: Tear City. Luke kept asking to go home, to go to the hotel, to go anywhere that wasn't there. It was time to head home.

We came back later that night- and it was like a whole new park!

We grabed the train to Frontier Land and Jas and Miss O rode Splash Mountian. I sat waiting for them to come out of the ride, fully expecting to find a soaking wet, sobbing, scared Miss O. I was worried that ride was going to be a little much for her, but she was so excited (and dry, shockingly) when they came off. I am so proud of her for adding a little adventure in her life! We then checked out the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Luke screamed and cried as we waited in line and boarded for each of them. He was having the worst time. He sat and waited with Granna while Jas, O and I rode Aladin's Magic Carpets, and I was once again reminded of what an absolute "L7 Weeeee-nie", I am. Olivia kept making the ride go up and down and up and down and up and down... I thought I was going to die. Jas keeps making fun of me, for yelling at her: "As your mother, I am telling you to STOP. DOING. THAT!" Oh, I was sooooo miserable. I prefer to be on the ground, thankyouverymuch. "E" for effort, right?...

We headed back for one last round of Fantasy Land fun, and the kids rode the coaster some more, checked out Mickey's house and we caught the castle fire-work show. Then, as a grand finale of the night, we woke up Morgan and we all rode "Its A Small World." Morgan freaked out! She kept yelling, "Babies, babies!!!" and trying to reach out and grab all the robots. She would hold up her hands like she wanted to hold them. It was so cute! Everyone loved it, and I loved that this classic ride was the one that all nine of us experienced together. It was a great way to end the day.

more giraffes... there were EVERYWHERE....ahhh.... :0)

Park It

First Day: Hollywood Studios

Dear Lord in Heaven- we were not prepared. Prepared for the cold. Prepared for the lines. Prepared for the whining...

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much colder and windy-er than we had thought (Note To Self: Step outside to check the weather before leaving for the day!) But once we got in there and got everyone Disney jackets and hats, the fun began.

Morgan Jane modeling her Minnie hat and gloves, Zoolander style...

We ran into Donald first thing, and decided to jump in the line and have our first character Meet and Greet. And as I thought she would, Morgan Jane geeked. out. We kept her in the stroller because we had just got there, but she kept quacking really loudly at him, and of course, clapping.

My nephew B and Miss O

See this:

This is yet another preview of what's to come...

Luke refused to do anything until he played on the "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" play ground. He was like a little broken record Rain Man, so I just gave up and rushed him there. And he had the BEST TIME. O, Jas and Morgan joined us a few minutes later and all got in on the fun.

After the playground we moved around and took in a Playhouse Disney show:

(Miss O has sworn us to secrecy that we would never tell anyone that she enjoyed it!) You can tell by the pictures below that Morgan Jane was in shock, and that Jas was riveted.

Right after, Miss O and I were first in line (if you can believe it!) for the Little Mermaid show, which was really fun, but made me wonder as I did several times after: How can these performers sing the same songs every 30 minutes day after day and not want to run, or in Ariel's case- swim- out of the park screaming??? Any way... It was cool and something that she and and I were able to do together, just the two of us!

We then met up with the rest of the fam and stood in line for the Star Wars ride!

Look here I am at the same spot 10 years ago!

The ride was just as fun as I remembered! Jas and O loved it. Luke hated. it. He had had enough of all of this theme park stuff...So we moved on...

Morgan Jane navigated our afternoon activites...

 They checked out the Cars...

We caught a parade and Miss O caught a ball!

And Luke continued to loose it. See how freaked out and stressed he is... It gets worse...

We came back out to this park after dinner when sweet Granna offered to keep Luke and Morgan, so we could check out the Osborne family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. And Oh. My. Gosh- and am I ever glad we did! I've never seen anything more fabulous in my life! It was just another confirmation of what we were quickly discovering: Disney doesn't fool around. Every building along the street was COVERED in lights that all flashed to whatever music was playing! I think this was one of my most favorite parts of the trip!

Tomorrow...MAGIC KINGDOM!