![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_loddenThe internet here is lousy. I can't say I approve. Then again, we're supposed to be on vacation and not on the net all the time. (I picked this condo in part because it said it had wireless internet, so I'm still going to be miffed about the lack, even if were ARE on vacation.)
Still: I can't guarantee that there will be any trip reports past Day One until after we get home.
Hanna bounced off the walls pretty much the entire time way here. At one point, I reached over and nudged John, because she was quite literally bouncing in her airplane seat.
Best exchange of the day went like this:
Hanna: We've landed!
Me: No, not yet.
Hanna: Yes we have, look! (*points out window*) We're on the ground.
Me: Nope, not quite.
Hanna: We are! We're on the ground
Me: Nope, not quite.
[cue the plane making that unmistakable jolt that indicates the wheels have touched the pavement and friction has gotten involved]
Hanna: *turns to me, wide-eyed, as if to ask "WTH was that!?*
Me: NOW we're on the ground.
Since we couldn't check in to the condo until 4pm, and the plane landed at 9:45am (actually, we landed 20 minutes early), we grabbed some lunch and then spent the bulk of the day at DisneyQuest. Nick was largely unimpressed, though he enjoyed a few of the rides. Hanna declared the place to be "a goldmine" and was difficult to contain. We ended up splitting up-- at the very first ride, which Hanna dragged me on to, and Nick and John wandered off. We found them two hours later, chilling out in the food/lounge area 3 floors up.
By far her favorite ride was Cyberspace Mountain, where you design your own rollercoaster, then get into a simulator and ride the coaster you designed. She took it easy for the first coaster, making a 2-out-of-5 "scary" points coaster. But when we went to get into the simulator, the safety bar wouldn't go over my belly, and she ended up riding it alone while I watched on the monitor. She popped out with a smile from ear to ear and said "I wanna do it again!" Without my limits holding her back, she designed a 4-point ride, and the in-simulator video of her riding that was so funny that I sprung for the DVD of it. (At one point, she tried to put her arms up like at the top of a big hill, but she only got them up a couple inches before she was grabbing desperately at the handles. Yes mom, the harness is over-the-shoulder and would have held her in even without her grabbing the handles.)
The condo check-in took longer than it should have, mostly because we also got our Disney and Universal tickets from them, and I messed up on 12-year-old Nick's tickets-- I still think of him as a kid, but both parks have a cut-off age of 9 years old for child tickets, and Nick needs an adult pass. So there was a lot of re-doing things.
We got here, there was some basic unpacking, and then we all hit the pool, because it's bloody well hot here (99 today. Oy.) It took about 10 minutes for the kids to start trying to drown each other, which I understand is normal (and possibly a record amount of restraint), but was a definite reminder of Why We Don't Have Kids Of Our Own.
We deemed that during this trip, the kids *will* try new things-- part of the point of taking them places is to expose them to new things. Lunch was cuban sandwiches, which they both liked, and I got a fried stuffed potato (omg good!) and mariquitas (plantain chips) for everyone to try. But by dinner time, we were all tired and hungry and wet from the pool, so we went for the old standby of pizza. Then there was whining, because Nick was tired and wanted to go back to the condo right then, but Hanna was wired and wanted to go back to DisneyQuest right then, and I had already declared that while we were out getting pizza were were damned well going to stop at the grocery store and procure breakfast foods and pop. Eventually I got tired of the whining and sent John and Nick to the grocery store while Hanna and I paid the bill and boxed up the leftovers. (The pizza place was chosen for its proximity to the grocery store, so all the boys had to do was walk across the parking lot.) After grocery unloading, John and Nick chilled out at the condo while Hanna and I went back for an extra hour at DisneyQuest, which she deemed nowhere near as cool when there were long lines.
Now the kids are in bed, John has already passed out, and I'm just waiting up to make sure that Shane gets here safely, because dear God do we need an extra adult.
Still: I can't guarantee that there will be any trip reports past Day One until after we get home.
Hanna bounced off the walls pretty much the entire time way here. At one point, I reached over and nudged John, because she was quite literally bouncing in her airplane seat.
Best exchange of the day went like this:
Hanna: We've landed!
Me: No, not yet.
Hanna: Yes we have, look! (*points out window*) We're on the ground.
Me: Nope, not quite.
Hanna: We are! We're on the ground
Me: Nope, not quite.
[cue the plane making that unmistakable jolt that indicates the wheels have touched the pavement and friction has gotten involved]
Hanna: *turns to me, wide-eyed, as if to ask "WTH was that!?*
Me: NOW we're on the ground.
Since we couldn't check in to the condo until 4pm, and the plane landed at 9:45am (actually, we landed 20 minutes early), we grabbed some lunch and then spent the bulk of the day at DisneyQuest. Nick was largely unimpressed, though he enjoyed a few of the rides. Hanna declared the place to be "a goldmine" and was difficult to contain. We ended up splitting up-- at the very first ride, which Hanna dragged me on to, and Nick and John wandered off. We found them two hours later, chilling out in the food/lounge area 3 floors up.
By far her favorite ride was Cyberspace Mountain, where you design your own rollercoaster, then get into a simulator and ride the coaster you designed. She took it easy for the first coaster, making a 2-out-of-5 "scary" points coaster. But when we went to get into the simulator, the safety bar wouldn't go over my belly, and she ended up riding it alone while I watched on the monitor. She popped out with a smile from ear to ear and said "I wanna do it again!" Without my limits holding her back, she designed a 4-point ride, and the in-simulator video of her riding that was so funny that I sprung for the DVD of it. (At one point, she tried to put her arms up like at the top of a big hill, but she only got them up a couple inches before she was grabbing desperately at the handles. Yes mom, the harness is over-the-shoulder and would have held her in even without her grabbing the handles.)
The condo check-in took longer than it should have, mostly because we also got our Disney and Universal tickets from them, and I messed up on 12-year-old Nick's tickets-- I still think of him as a kid, but both parks have a cut-off age of 9 years old for child tickets, and Nick needs an adult pass. So there was a lot of re-doing things.
We got here, there was some basic unpacking, and then we all hit the pool, because it's bloody well hot here (99 today. Oy.) It took about 10 minutes for the kids to start trying to drown each other, which I understand is normal (and possibly a record amount of restraint), but was a definite reminder of Why We Don't Have Kids Of Our Own.
We deemed that during this trip, the kids *will* try new things-- part of the point of taking them places is to expose them to new things. Lunch was cuban sandwiches, which they both liked, and I got a fried stuffed potato (omg good!) and mariquitas (plantain chips) for everyone to try. But by dinner time, we were all tired and hungry and wet from the pool, so we went for the old standby of pizza. Then there was whining, because Nick was tired and wanted to go back to the condo right then, but Hanna was wired and wanted to go back to DisneyQuest right then, and I had already declared that while we were out getting pizza were were damned well going to stop at the grocery store and procure breakfast foods and pop. Eventually I got tired of the whining and sent John and Nick to the grocery store while Hanna and I paid the bill and boxed up the leftovers. (The pizza place was chosen for its proximity to the grocery store, so all the boys had to do was walk across the parking lot.) After grocery unloading, John and Nick chilled out at the condo while Hanna and I went back for an extra hour at DisneyQuest, which she deemed nowhere near as cool when there were long lines.
Now the kids are in bed, John has already passed out, and I'm just waiting up to make sure that Shane gets here safely, because dear God do we need an extra adult.
