Thursday, December 24, 2009

Best Day of Week for Christmas???

Hi all:

For starters, now that the official Christmas Newsletter has gone out -- and potentially resulted in some more viewers to the weekly Christmas newsletter -- I wanted to welcome any new readers and to state that I'm going to make a renewed effort to provide an update to this blog at least once a week by Friday afternoon. I know, I've said that before, but here's to a New Year.

So I'm a big calendar man in terms of studying it and debating in my head the value of which calendar mode is best. To clarify, there are only seven types of calendar options (forgetting Leap Year) based on the year starting on a Sunday, a Monday, a Tuesday, etc. The only dates that get affected are birthday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving (early or late in Nov.) and Christmas as so much else is just a default Monday.

For years, I've said Tuesday was the best day for Christmas. But I'm leaning toward Friday as being right up there. I really liked this past week at the office as it's just a tad too short and too close to Christmas to be taken too seriously. (A Saturday Christmas does result in a more serious work week, I feel). Christmas Eve on a Thursday is great (I'm making the assumption that I get two days off for Christmas....so the Friday Christmas ensures I get Christmas Eve off).

I like having the day after Christmas being on Saturday....a perfect day to just enjoy your presents before having to go back to Church on Sunday. We had Christmas on a Friday 5 years ago, and get it again in a mere 5 more years. Lucky us!

While Tuesday is a great Christmas Day, I do remember that we spend Sat, Sun and Mon "running out the clock" looking for ways to keep the kids busy while we wait for Christmas to come. Then, as soon as Christmas night is over, it's immediately back to work. Not good.

Do you have a favorite day for Christmas? If you are like my kids, I'll bet it's not Sunday! :)

Post your thoughts as to which day for Christmas is best. (And sorry if this incoherent....the kids are making a ruckus behind me so it's hard to write cohesively and concisely).

Merry Christmas!!!!

Mark

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Palmyra et al Family Vacation - PT 2

A now a continuation of our trip to Palmyra (see last post for the first half)

Saturday was our church site day. The weather was a lot warmer than Friday (which was cold) and it was actually a very pretty, a bit crisp fall day.

We went first to Hill Cumorah, which was about a 20 minute drive. It's a nice visitor's center, and they were just waiting for us to come in (it was a slow day). The sister missionary was really wonderful and did a great job engaging the kids. NOTE: always better to get the sister missionaries as tour guides than senior elders. The sisters are fun, engage the kids, know how to gauge their attention temperature and move along whereas the senior elders kind of have forgotten what it's like to have antsy kids.

I've never really spent a lot of time at the visitor center, but could have spent longer in the back with the exhibits. With kids, it's about a 20 minute visit...with no kids it could be an hour. The boys then climbed the Hill Cumorah and the girls drove to the top.

We then drove to the Joseph Smith farm. The area has changed since the last time I went there. For starters, they had found the original site of the first Smith home (site of the Moroni visit) and have rebuilt that to be as authentic as possible, down to homemade nails. (In fact, they had to use manufactured nails at the end to be done in time, and Hinckley saw them and commented on that during the dedication...he was assured they were temporary. The whole house was built by hand to keep it authentic).

After you visit that house, you walk down a trail to the Smith's second house, which is the original house and has stood since 1820s. (I had visited that before). You can see the hearth where the plates were actually hidden at one point. And the tree planted in the yard when older brother Alvin died (now it's a big tree). Then you can walk into the Sacred Grove.

I would have enjoyed more time in the Grove, but the kids weren't really going for that. So we took the short path But at least we made it there. Afterward, we drove to the temple which is also on site (and is also new, too). Across the street is the stake center. (Incidentally, the old stake center near the Hill Cumorah is now the city's town hall).

We then drove into town and saw the Grandin Printing Press building, which was a favorite of all of us. We again got a sister tour guide and had a wonderful time. It's spiritual, historical, and interesting. Fun to learn how they actually printed it. Kids do enjoy this part. From there, we drove out of town, saw the Alvin Smith grave site, the Erie Canal (which Josh is studying) and then the Martin Harris farm.

From there, we stopped at McDonald's near the Thruway and drove to the Whitmer Farm. It's about a 45 minute drive and not tons to see there. There is a chapel which has a small visitor center, but nothing too earth-shattering to see at the visitor center. The highlight is to go to the re-created cabin out back where the church was organized. We have a senior elder here, and it kind of dragged.

We drove back to our hotel and went to Chilis for dinner. Go for the "2 for $20" which gives you an appetizer, two main courses, and dessert. Not bad!!!

Then swimming and off to bed.

Sunday, we tried to go to church in Canadagia but found a locked building (stake conference?) and started the drive home through the Finger Lakes and through Ithaca. It was a pretty drive, but a bit windy, and Josh felt queasy for much of it. And the drive felt longer with the kids awake and not always happy. Plus, why do kids always say they need to use the bathroom 5 minutes after you just stopped for someone else to use it?

We went through Ithaca, and down through Binghamton so we could go see Harmony Penn (near Oakland, PA). It's a little road that takes you to the Harmony site, which just has a statue and some historical markers (plus a cemetery) but no on-site presence. A little out of the way, but worth the visit.

Instead of doing I-80, we came across I-84 just to make things different.

All in all, a very satisfying vacation, not overly expensive, and I really enjoyed it. Wouldn't really do anything differently. Family was at the perfect age to do this trip before the new baby in January....

Palmyra et al Family Vacation

Hi all:

Some friends have asked for details about our Church Sites trip on Nov. 6 to 8, so here's a little travelogue that may help in your planning, along with our highlights.

We left on Thursday night around 5 p.m. as the kids had Friday off for a school conference. I was surprised that the mapping systems said it was fastest to go on I-80 through NJ and Penn. to Scranton and then up through Binghamton and Syracuse, and then on to Rochester.

Driving at night definitely has its perks and its drawbacks. It was great the kids all fell asleep at some point. But I had some heavy rain in NJ, and then snow going over a peak outside of Syracuse, and all that in the dark wasn't fun. But the new Honda van drives smoothly and that was part of the reason for the trip.

We arrived at the Homewood Suites in Victor, NY around 11:30 p.m. -- it took us about 6.5 hours with stops, snow, and rain. I'm a big fan of Homewood Suites as it has sleeping for 6. This unit had one big bedroom with two doubles, then a small pullout couch for the little boys in another room -- along with full fridge, microwave and oven. The rate was $150, but we knew of a promotion that got it down to $135. We felt it was the perfect location as it was just off the Thruway and perfectly situated between Rochester and Palmyra, which was convenient. We liked the free hot breakfast each morning, the pool was the right size (and actually warm) for the kids, and low hassle.

On Friday, we got in the van again and drove to Niagara Falls. I had never seen it and I was actually very impressed. It's about a 1.5 hour drive, I believe. We arrived around 9:30 or so. The Maiden of the Mist boats close in late October, so we couldn't do that. But the state park was free except $10 to park (which allows you to park at the welcome center and then over on Goat Island....I never mind paying a little into the system to keep it up and running).

I knew that the view is more impressive from the Canada side, but I also knew that all U.S. citizens need a passport when driving into Canada now. Unfortunately, I didn't look closer to see that kids with a birth certificate can go sans passport so we could have driven across as Kathryn and I have passports, but alas, we didn't. Something for next time.

But the view from where we were was amazing. I'm surprised we could get so close to the edge at the top of falls. It's not really very fancy but I like that it's just kinda simple and I like that the safety experts haven't shut down such close access. All in all, we spent about 1.5 hours there.

(For the record, the towns on the NY and Canada side look very cheezy and dated...yet again, kind of refreshing to not see everything all "Disney-fied". It is what it is)

We then drove back to Rochester to the National Museum of Play (and Toy Hall of Fame). We felt this is the best kids museum we've been to. We arrived around 2 p.m. and stayed until about 5:30. Lots of open space, no crowds (as it was a weekday), and fun things for everyone, including a well stocked arcade of video games familiar to me (Asteroids, Tapper, Defender, Q-Bert, Popeye, Ultra Bowl, Berzerk). From a career perspective, it was fun to walk through the Toys Hall of Fame and identify the Hasbro stuff.

We returned to the hotel (about a 20 minute drive) and tried to go to Chilis, but a 45 minute wait at 5:15 at night. Well, what else do you do in Victor? So we went to Denny's which was surprisingly fun and good. The highlight was Sammy making a biscuit snowman. Then a visit to the pool and everyone collapsed into bed.

Sat and Sun. to be covered in my next post....

Saturday, October 3, 2009

General Conference

So it's general conference weekend, and I was thinking about how my listening and/or viewing of it has changed over the years while being in New York:

• Single, living in the city from 1994 to 1998: We would have to go to the stake center (which is now a temple) to view all the sessions. Sometimes, on Saturday, we'd go to Dallas BBQ between sessions 1 and 2.

• Newly married and living in Tuckahoe: We actually got a session or two on cable, but as I recall, they had a habit of cutting off after one hour.

• Married and living in Tuckahoe: the cable option stopped after LDS member David Checketts stopped being the CEO of the cable company. We'd take turns attending sessions at the Scarsdale chapel with the other parent staying home with the kids

• More married and living in Tuckahoe: Internet broadcast seemed to work well, but just audio for us. We "only" had one computer and it wasn't on wireless, so we had to squish into the upstairs "office" room and listen to it up there.

• More married and living in Tuckahoe: Kathryn's greatest upgrade suggestion: still broadcast the audio on the computer on the 3rd floor BUT broadcast it downstairs via the baby monitor

• Even more married and living in Tuckahoe: Wireless router and a laptop at work (that came home on the weekends) allowed for us to have conference "live" (no baby monitor) in any place in our house. Video wasn't reliable enough for us yet

• Eastchester house: video better and we can watch it as a family on my laptop or our bigger desktop computer. The system "skips" a bit and a 2 hour session ends up taking 2 hours and 10 minutes. I bring home a speaker from work to amp the sound.

ยช Oct 2009: Eastchester, four kids, one on the way: we can now plug the laptop into the flat screen and watch it on TV (just like Utah!) We will plug the laptop into the internet router with ethernet cable to hopefully enjoy a 2 hour session in 2 hours.

GOOOOO Conference!!!

Mark

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Good thing I market "Boys Toys"

Well, we'll continue to need Star Wars toys and be playing with Transformers for many years to come .....

Our 5th baby, due Jan. 31, will be a boy. Fun times!

Mark

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Summer Travel Recap

Hi:

I'm welcoming a co-author tonight as Josh helps me recall the best and worst moments from our summer trip out west. These are in no particular order:

GOOD
• Cherry Hill water park
• Josh and Kathryn going to Yankees game at Angels Stadium (and taking Amtrak there from San Diego)
• Dad's birthday breakfast at the diner in Coronado with just Josh and Caroline
• Kids' reaction to finding out that we're having a 5th baby in January
• Our "first night in San Diego" hotel including nice pool
• Collecting sand dollars on the beach
• Seeing Dad when he arrived in Utah after being away from the family for a couple of weeks
• Dad taking Sam and Matthew to Legoland....LOVED the water park portion
• Seaport Village on our arrival day in San Diego
• Day 2 of the Rytting Family Reunion in Utah
• Being with the Sackewitz kids for most of our time in Coronado
• Lagoon, for those who went -- Fun Day with Parker for Josh, who didn't go
• Going with Grandpa to Shivers -- just Josh and Caroline
• Mommy and Daddy getting their i Phones -- and the little ones getting to play with them
• Mommy's high school reunion and trip to San Fran (including seeing Uncle Don and family)
• Marching in Children's Pioneer Parade
• Annual Sackewitz BBQ and fireworks
• Hiking Desolation trail with older kids -- though it was longer and harder than anticipated

BAD
• Waiting in the hot sun for autographs that didn't happen at Angels game
• Matthew getting lost at the "first night" hotel for a very short spell...just long enough to panic his parents
• Mom falling off the wagon....literally...at This is the Place State Park
• Enterprise claiming we had damaged the rental car and then having to deal with the paperwork

Friday, August 21, 2009

Returning to Blogging

Hi all:

If I haven't alienated my one follower -- and the one fan in California who, during a 'author mix and mingle' at an LDS chapel said she loves the blog -- then I'm going to get this blog active again.

As rain is forecast for this weekend, washing out the trip to our boss' pool, I'll have time to actually post something witty and insightful....or at the very least, my travel highlights.

Cheers.

Mark

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I've lost my medallion status :(

Well, I now have to be part of the huddled unwashed masses when flying Delta. I've been defrocked. Delta took away my medallion status . Turns out they expect you to fly often to keep that status.

Last week, I had my first Delta flight since last August. I checked in and found out I had to pay $15 for baggage. I asked when they started charging for medallion passenger. They said "We don't.....you aren't." ARGH.

I now don't board in group 2....I boarded in group 8. Bye bye potential upgrades. No more access to the super secret toll free line that goes to U.S.-based operators. I'm just like everyone else.

Then again, the price for Medallion is flying often, and after this last flight, I realize that's a high prize. I think if they want to torture terrorists, they should have them fly coach in a window seat on Delta. Tack on a red eye on the return, and it's one of the inner circles of Dante's hell. And I didn't even have kids with me!

But the trip was a success. I was in Pasadena for the Transformers Convention, and we got a great big story in the New York Times. So who's complaining?

Mark

I've lost my medallion status :(

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Shipping a Car

Well, we begin our ODYSSEY of buying a car in Utah and shipping it to New York to save the cost of a rental car in Utah this summer.

As the only real cost incurred by buying the car in Utah that is unique to the equation is shipping the car, that's really the deal breaker to pursue. So I did some online checking today.

Quite simply, it seems that I can get a rate between about $800 and $1,000. That seems pretty standard. But reading all the bids scares you a little bit because they all seem to warn you how the other guy will rip you off, not ship your car for weeks, etc.

But nothing that has scared me off. I'm confident we can find a good shipper that won't eat up our savings. We may have to pick-up the car in New Jersey vs. have it delivered to our door, but that's do-able.

So I'm going to proceed with the assumption that the fixed cost of buying a car in Utah is $1,000. Next, I'm going to officially reserve a van for our entire trip in Utah to know exactly how much that would cost. I know it's more than $2,000, so it appears we'll at least be $1,000 ahead in doing this.

Keep your hands at 10 and 2, and stay tuned.

Mark

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Disney World, Day 5 (Animal Kingdom)

Well, it's time to bring my memories of our Disney World trip to a close. This probably won't be as detailed but since it's been about six weeks, well....

To finish with the last day at Magic Kingdom, once we got home, Josh wanted to go swimming. I had promised him that all day if we stayed to the end. So at 10 p.m. at night, we were out swimming. I get cold kind of fast, but I was happy to do it. I brought back virgin drinks from the bar for me and Kathryn.

We were all really excited for Animal Kingdom as it was a new park for all of us.

We started by having an 8:10 a.m. reservation for a character breakfast at the Tusker House in Africa. That allowed us to enter the park an hour before it opened, and walking up there with the park closed with kind of fun. It felt a lot like the Bronx Zoo.

The meal was great and definitely felt authentic African in terms of some of the tastes from my mission. Definitely one of my favorite meals of the trip. And the classic Disney characters made it special, too.

The breakfast is situated right next to the Safari ride. When the rope was dropped, we scooted over there. Of course, in typical Mark fashion, I raced to get us a Fastpass before we got on it. Not that we needed it, but just because "we could". I sort of bought into the hype and couldn't stop with Fastpass!

The safari ride is fun, and then walking through the exhibits at the exit were good, too. Then Kathryn headed down to Camp Minnie Mickey while I did a fast tour of the park fetching Fastpasses (three for Everest and 2 for Dinosaur). I met her down there in the Camp and they had just had a great experience catching Chip and Dale (Sam's adopted favorite characters) as they came out for their character greetings. It was a very personal experience and was a highlight for Kathryn. It helped Sammy was carrying their stuffed animal counter parts.

Then we just chilled until the Lion King show started at 11 a.m., which is high energy and I felt fun.

The next big thing we wanted to do was the Nemo show, which wasn't until 1:45 p.m. But the time evaporated fast. I rode Dinosaur first, and was kind of disappointed. From the opening of the park 10 years ago, I've always wanted to go on it, but it didn't pack the punch I hoped it would. Just felt like driving around in a jeep looking at Dinosaurs. Pales big time to Indy ride in Disneyland. Then I did Everest, and the theming and all that is great from a distance, but I thought the roller coaster experience didn't deliver on it feeling like Everest. Maybe my bar is too high.

Kathryn and the kids did some of the dinosaur area rides during this time. Then we did traditional fast food type lunch before rushing to the Nemo show....can't believe it was time already.

The Nemo show is the best show in Disneyworld, and the best thing at Animal Kingdom. Worth the price of admission right there. As good as Lion King on Broadway. The puppets and all are just really really great.

I believe Kathryn did Everest next while I watched the kids. At 3 p.m., they did the bird show, which they all enjoyed. Sammy was asleep so I walked around and shopped and scouted out a place for the parade. That's a really great parade, and we had a good place and I even stole a chair for Kathryn to sit in. We then used our earlier fast pass to hit safari again.

Time was already getting tight as the park closes at 7 p.m. I did the Boneyard with the kids for a while, and Kathryn either did Everest now (instead of what I said a moment ago) or did another ride with Caroline on the "Wild Mouse" type ride.

The day ended anticlimatically with us trying to get our last purchases, missing dinner, and my worrying that we'd miss our flight at 9 p.m. Not one of the best Mark moments of the trip.

But we left, made it to the airport on time, got dinner at McDonalds at the airport, and were the first passengers on a new JetBlue plane. We got home without incident.

Overall, a great, great vacation that we will remember forever! When we return (and we will) we want more time at Epcot and more ability to just explore and be leisurely at Animal Kingdom.

Phew!

Mark

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

An Odyssey to Save Money on Cars

Hi blog fans:

Yes, I still have one more day to detail on our Disney World trip.

But here's a preview of next big thing. From the family that orchestrated a simultaneous closing on our old and new house, and from the guy who over-researched every last second of their trip to Disney World comes: "Save Money by Buying a Car in Utah and Shipping it to NYC???" I call it my "Odyssey to Save Money on Cars".

I started researching vans to rent while in Utah for our annual visit. We're staying nearly a month due to a High School reunion scheduled at the end. Mini vans for that long cost in the range of $2,000. "Wow -- that could be several car payments right there" said my smart wife.

"Ah, you're right!"

The timing might be right for us to expand our auto family. And the name of this adventure is going to see how much will it cost -- or how much will I save -- AND at what price hassle-wise. I'll bring you along every step of the way as I evaluate such things as:

• Honda Odyssey OR Toyota Sienna
• Turn in the mini van OR become a two automobile family
• Purchase in Utah OR purchase in NYC
• Buy OR Lease
• negotiating with dealers via the internet only
• comparison of prices in NYC vs. SLC
• how to ship a car cross country
• drawbacks of buying in Zion and owning it in Babylon
• Plans to drive the car back out to Utah (i.e. road trip) in 3 years when lease is up (if I go that route)

The goal is to get the van we want with at least a $1,200 savings (shipping a car is $800; a rental van would be $2,000) and taking delivery within the first 3 days Kathryn arrives in SLC. Can it be done? Stay tuned to my special reports.

We may set off a trend amongst my fellow Westchester / Salt Lakers.

Mark

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Disney World, Day 4 (Magic Kingdom) (part 4)

Our final hours at Magic Kingdom were fun. After the Haunted Mansion, we weren't quite sure what to do, so I did what I do best, which is ran down to get another Fastpass, this time on the Jungle Boats. Kathryn stayed with the kids by the Mark Twain-type steam boat and had the kids eat their peanut butter sandwiches. But then we went to the fast food place in Fantasyland that overlooks Small World for a real dinner of hamburgers, pizza, etc. It was completely empty and so it was very stress free.

Then I made a mad dash off to Big Thunder for one more ride as I had remaining Fastpass to cash in. Kathryn took the kids to Adventureland and they did the Flying Carpets one or two times. I picked up some more Fastpasses at Big Thunder because why not? Then I caught up with Kathryn just as they were getting on the Flying Carpets. Kathryn asked me to jump the fence and join her on the ride because Sammy was having his biggest meltdown of the trip. I ended up running up the exit and jumping in one of the carpets and taking Sam. It was not a pleasant ride with Sam screaming the whole time and me not quite sure what I had just inherited. But considering how good he was the majority of the time, he's allowed one bad moment.

But I felt uneasy entering the ride through an unauthorized manner....if I did that at an airport, I'd be arrested.

Then we did the Jungle Boats again. It wasn't as fun as Wed. night as the skipper was still very good, but we very much loved Skipper Mike.

Then we headed back up to Fantasyland, and I was thrilled that Josh had finally talked himself into going on Big Thunder (guess that's why I got the extra fast passes). It meant we had to fight the parade crowds to get to the ride, but it was worth it, because I didn't want Josh to leave without going on it as I knew he'd regret it. So Kathryn was happy to keep the three in Fantasyland, and Josh talked all the way down about how excited that he was overcoming his fear and doing it. I could tell he was nervous in the line, but he didn't chicken out. And he actually seemed to enjoy it! Too bad it was at night because for the first time on the ride, daytime would have been better to enjoy all the scenery and nuances. But it was a very big victory for all of us.

Kathryn stayed in Fantasyland and among other things went on Dumbo one more time. She really wanted to ride Dumbo at night, and she had a great missionary experience while waiting in line, so maybe that's why.

It was a challenge to meet up again as they close the access to Fantasyland. Fortunately, the fireworks got delayed, which allowed us some time to escape. We kept on the phone, I saw her as she walked by on Main Street, we joined up and got out of Dodge just as the fireworks were starting. So we saw the fireworks from the monorail and left with that picturesque memory. Magic Kingdom....done!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Disney World, Day 4 (Magic Kingdom) (part 3)

I may now be getting the order mixed up just a bit on our Friday afternoon after 3 p.m.

But I know Caroline and Matthew and I went to Toon Town to ride the Barnstormer Coaster and Josh, Mom and Sam went on Snow White. I took Josh and Matthew on the Autopia again (that was a real big hit for Matthew, so I'm glad we could do it again).

And of course, I picked up another Fastpass, as that was the theme of the day. This time, we grabbed another Winnie the Pooh (why not!) and got a bonus Fastpass for PhilHarmagic. It's kind of a marketing ploy, as I'm sure they knew crowds were light there so they were being sneaky to get people to fill up the theater. But we felt like we won the lottery! Wahoo - bonus!

So back in Fantasyland, I took Matthew on Dumbo again (he was very happy to wait 45 minutes...he loved the flying elephant). Kathryn used our earlier Peter Pan fastpass for the others. Then they got ice cream, and we joined them once we got off the flying elephant. We did the Winnie the Pooh ride on the Fast Pass, and then the Philharmagic. When you do it right, you don't need to wait in lots of lines!

Getting into about 5:30 p.m., we decided to have me and Josh go on Haunted Mansion (I hadn't been yet) while Kathryn took the rest on Small World. Caroline went on it 3 times, and she still says it was a favorite. I didn't think I was going to get on Haunted Mansion, so I'm glad it worked out. I read later that they have added recently a "stair room" which is like one of those classic drawings where the stairs all go up and into each other, but also look like they go down, too, if that makes any sense. But I enjoyed Haunted Mansion more than I ever have. I'd dare say it's better than Anaheim, which surprised me.

Just one more posting and we'll finish Friday night...then off to Animal Kingdom on Saturday.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Disney World, Day 4, Magic Kingdom (Part 2)

After lunch, we decided we kind of want to make one more full circle around the park before the end of day. My intention was to end early and go home and swim. No, I'm not a big swimmer, in fact I kind of hate swimming, but Josh had said he wanted to, and I was thinking we had or would have done everything.

We started after lunch with the Country Bears show as it was about to start, so no wait. Hadn't seen it in years, so that was fun for me, but it could use a bit of a refresh. The kids liked it well enough, though. And Sammy fell asleep, so thus began his afternoon nap as he did transfer. Yea!

We cut across the park with Sammy asleep in his stroller and went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory show. It's part of their new wave of technology where it's computer animated graphics and such, but it's personalized, if that makes sense. So it's an animated character, but he's performing in real time. We got to text in jokes ahead of time, and some were used in the performance. The premise is that laughter provides more energy than scaring kids, so they need to get us to laugh. It really is just like using the old stadium trick of aiming a camera at the fans and then adding commentary when it shows up on the Jumbotron. But it's fun and you laugh, and Matthew seemed to place this at the top of the list of favorite attractions. (Kathryn stayed out with the sleeping Sammy).

If I'm not mistaken, Kathryn now agreed to take Matthew on the Rockets Ride, which had a 45 minute wait, but for which he was more than happy to stand in line for. After all, he was a Jedi now! Kids CAN stand in line and be patient if it's something they want. Matthew really surprised us.

So I had to kill about 10 minutes until the window would open up to get our next Fast Pass (it was nearly 2 hours since I had gotten the passes for Peter Pan, which we hadn't used yet). So I stood by the machine at Buzz Lightyear just waiting and waiting for the clock to hit 1:15, while Kathryn and Matthew were on the Rockets. It's like the Amazing Race! Once the clock hit, I put in our tickets, then we scooted over to the Castle to watch the Performance that they do several times a day. It has Princesses, dancing, characters, etc. Sam slept through much of it, but it was getting pretty warm over there by the end.

We met up together again around 1:45 p.m. I took my turn on Space Mountain while Kathryn hung out with the kids and I think bought some souviners. Space Mountain is dark....it's even darker when you forget to switch out of the sunglasses! Glad to enjoy one last ride before they start a revamp of it starting today. Can't explain why, but definitely more fun at Orlando than Anaheim. When I had my turn, I let Kathryn go (using FastPass) and I took the four kids alone on the Tomorrowland Transit. That's really a big hit!

Unless I'm mistaken, we got done with that and it was time for our FastPass on Buzz Lightyear, so we did that. I think we were moving out of Tomorrowland (for the last time) around 3 p.m.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Disney World, Day 4 (Magic Kingdom) (part 1)

Wow....being out of town with the Monopoly tournament has thrown me off my writing rampage. Let's return to the narrative.

FRIDAY, MARCH 20
We knew Friday was going to be a less stressful day (and less structured) as we were back for our return day at Magic Kingdom. We had knocked out so much the first day that there wasn't a lot of pressure of trying to hit everything. The kids were adjusting to the regiment of park touring, we had no specific times or schedules (i.e. shows or meals), and we knew the lay of the land.

We had a McDonald's near the hotel, so we brought in breakfast before we left. Then off to the MK. We got there a bit later as we now knew getting there right at 8 a.m. for a 9 a.m. opening was a bit too early. Of course, we were still in position by before the park opened.

Unlike Wednesday, they did a full blown Disney welcome via the train and lots of characters at the entrance. So that was fun.

The race up Main Street is truly a race....should have been smart enough to realize that the lands would be closed, so no need to hustle quite so much. Today we were going off to Frontierland. When the rope dropped, Kathryn led us through a back alley to get ahead of the rope line walkers, but alas, the Disney folks had anticipated that, too, so it didn't matter. And to be honest, we could have been a lot less "hurry up" as the crowds weren't bad. But once you start in that mentality....

Fearing the worst (and remembering the day at Hollywood Studios) I grabbed Fast Passes for Big Thunder then I took a crew on Splash Mountain (they are next to each other). I tried to get Josh to go, but he wasn't quite ready for that one yet. So I took Matthew and Caroline. We had talked about doing switch-off (as we knew Sam couldn't go), but the policy has changed, and now it involves the Fast Pass line, but that doesn't open til 9:30 or so. So I kind of felt 'stressed' during the ride wanting it to hurry so Kathryn could ride crowd-free, too. We got done, and the lines were still very low for Kathryn to go (and she took Caroline again, I believe).

I stayed with the boys and they found a little play area that they loved. Very simple and basic, but sometimes kids don't need or want much.

After that, we did Big Thunder in turns (I think Caroline went twice -- once w/ me and once with Kathryn) but Matthew steered away from it, as did Josh (though he went later in the day and loved it).

This is now when I turned into a Fast Pass machine!!! I had learned that you can get a new one every 2 hours and that they don't monitor the expiration time. So I figured that we'd stock up on them and get one literally every 2 hours. So around 10:15 or so, I darted off to Tomorrowland to get two for Space Mountain. (After missing out on Rock and Roller, I wasn't going to miss Space Mountain) and Kathryn kept the kids. After I got back, it was Josh's turn to get to go on a favorite ride, so Kathryn took Josh and Matthew on Haunted Mansion (up very near Fantasyland) and I took Caro and Sam on Small World. It was a good trade-off and everyone was happy.

We did early lunch (again, lesson learned from Hollywood -- even if not hungry, eat early for the kids' sake and for the crowds sake). We walked down to Pecos Bill in Frontierland, which was doing some back tracking. Even sillier, we got down there and then decided to get three more Fastpasses on Peter Pan (right next to Small World). After all, 3 passes were going to waste (as we had two for Space Mountain). So Matthew and I ran up to get those while Kathryn ordered lunch. Matthew loved sticking the cards into the machine to get them.

Lots of indoor seating at Pecos Bill, good "fixin" bar for the burgers, and everyone felt happy and relaxed.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

disney World, Day 3 (part 4) (Hollywood Studios)

At the pace and amount of details I add, I'll be writing about this trip until we go the next time! But it was so much fun, I want to capture every moment so we can relive it.

So Kathryn was the queen of scoring us fun meal reservations. At Hollywood Studios, she got us a reservation (two months in advance) at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. It's basically what the title says -- a diner-themed place set in the 50s with old classic TVs and TV shows running.

They make you feel like your in "mom's house". The waitresses tell you to get your elbows off the table. They look for "clean platers". They even "do the airplane" to make Mom eat her greens if she hasn't eaten then when she comes to clear the table.

We had a great waiter who was in character, but not over the top -- which is good because I don't know how the kids would have reacted. But he did ask Caroline and Joshua to set the table. He was originally from Long Island, so we bonded on the NY front. Matthew didn't eat much, but boy was he creative playing with his action figures, gold fish crackers and silverware. It was good food and fun, and came at a good time in the day. I'd go back again. We had S'mores for dessert. Oh yeah, and a vanilla Coke. THAT was needed.

Refreshed and with the hottest part of the day behind us -- and the crowds majorly thinned -- we used our fast pass for Toy Story Mania (at about 5:45 p.m.). Even more fun the second time. That's one ride they've really nailed it terms of perfection. Too bad the line is so long.

It was too early to go wait for Fantasmic, so we had a little time to kill. This would have been a perfect time to do the Back Lot Tour, but alas, it was closed (though it hadn't been scheduled to be closed). That's a good attraction, but we didn't majorly miss out.

So we took the kids on the Great Movie Ride. It's entertaining and relaxing and fine. We had chosen to avoid it because I remember Alien being in there and it was pretty gruesome. We figured the kids would just need to deal with it because we needed something to do. So we warned the kids. Caroline scrunched up next to me as we got closer to that part. Josh was OK. Matthew kept saying "Where's the alien!" He couldn't wait to see it and was very excited at the prospect. (Being a Jedi, I suppose...) The good news is it's not as bad as I remember and you only see him up in the ceiling. So I'm glad we went.

If I'm not mistaken, it was now about 6:45 p.m. and the parks and attractions were fairly quiet. We literally walked right on Star Wars. I mean NO ONE in front. I took Josh and Matthew (his third trip.....he seemed to memorize it because he does repeat the phrases now).

With Fantastmic at 8:15, we decided it was time to go to the arena. Glad we did....getting there an hour early and we sat in one of the last available sections on the far left side. You'd think one hour early would be plenty early but no. The time went relatively quickly with the kids playing games on my phone and Josh/Matthew playing with the action figures.

Fantasmic is great. Matthew fell asleep for it (of course). I wish Disney wouldn't make it so gruesome. The dragon couldn't be larger or scarier. Tone it back a bit!!! But definitely worth seeing. (Turns out they had not been doing shows every night the week we were there....Disney cutting back on performances to save money, so we were lucky).

Then the obligatory exodus with crowds and Matthew asleep in my arms. Easy exit and drive home (no need to take a parking shuttle).

Next up: Friday's second visit to Magic Kingdom....and it was a great one. Then Saturday at Animal Kingdom, which was Kathryn's favorite park.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Disney World, Day 3 (part 3) (Hollywood Studios)

So the Jedi training is by far the greatest thing that happened to Matthew at Disney World. Kathryn had hoped he would be selected, but she didn't want to get her hopes up too high. But Kathryn knows how to "work it" and made sure she had our cute kid up front but not being too stage mommy.

Kathryn has all the real details on this, but a handful of boys (and one girl) got invited up during the 2:20 p.m. show. They put a cape or robe on him, and then they go through Lightsaber training. Then, the crown jewel: Darth Vader shows up and they each get a turn "dueling" with the Dark Side. Again, Kathryn can share the whole play by play, but Matthew truly feels he's been ordained a Jedi. He now says he doesn't have to get married as Jedis don't get married. He's not going on a mission...because Jedis don't go on missions.

Caroline and I saw the last bit and it was very cute (with a sleeping and still stinky Sammy in my arms).

After all the fun and hub-bub with the Jedi training, it was time to stake out a place for the parade. One of Kathryn's friends says this is the best parade of the bunch. I strongly disagree. It was weak. Kind of like an ad for the Presidential Council on "get up and move". The 3 p.m. parade is themed to Pixar, which is great, but once the parade stretches out, the floats stay where they are and you just see one float for a very long time. In our case, one of the army guys stood in front of our area for 20 minutes leading the kids through dance moves, exercises and people jumping on trampolines. I kept wanting to see the floats further down in the parade. Watching the parade wasn't too bad in terms of crowds. Kids got ice cream.

It seems like many leave with the ending of the parade. We headed to the Muppet 3D movie, and it was EMPTY! It was nice to be inside where it's cool. It served as a good break. My favorite line in the movie is from Sam the Eagle: "The finale is titled A salute to all the nations of the world, but mostly America."

I believe Kathryn then took Matthew on Star Tours again via a Fast Pass while we walked the Streets of America. Dinner is next at the 50s Prime Time Cafe....dinner bell rings at 4:35 p.m.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Disney World, Day 3 (part 2) (Hollywood Studios)

So it's now about 12:30 p.m. in our journey.

The challenge with Hollywood Studios is that so much of it is based on shows. What that means is you really have to plan more than other parks because you can't just fill a 20 minute void with a quick ride on the merry go round. It also prevents you from truly doing everything because most of the shows end by 5 p.m.

So we decided to split up which was a smart move. Kathryn took Matthew and Josh to the car stunt show that was to start at 1:20 p.m. I took Caroline and Sammy to go see Beauty and the Beast. At some point, Kathryn bought Matthew some non-Hasbro Star Wars action figures from the gift shop near Star Wars. Smart move! That entertained Matthew for quite a while while waiting for the show to start. I really liked the gift shop purchases we made as they were things that the kids played with right away (like the lightsaber, Toy Story blaster, etc.) (Oh, Kathryn and Caroline went to the store on the "Main Street" area while we were on Star Tours and got her the MInnie Mouse princess stuffed animal she wanted. Sammy got Wheezy, the penguin from Toy Story. He's pretty darn cute. Funny thing is I hear the first one they picked up didn't have a working squeaker. Isn't that the whole plot of Toy Story 2?)

We should have done lunch early, as the touring book recommends, as finding a short line around 12:45 p.m. wasn't easy, and the kids were getting hungry. Not sure what Kathryn did, but I ended up going into the ABC Commisary on the way to Beauty and the Beast and was able to get chicken nuggets et al. The line was manageable, and my two kids were great. I was rushing us a bit because we didn't want another bad experience getting closed out of a show.

So we made the trek to Beauty and the Beast with full tummies. I checked the waits and Fast Pass availabilities at the "Main Street" and saw they were gone for Rock n Roller Coaster (as it's near Beauty and the Beast, I had thought I could get one for me and Kathryn. Darn....that is the best ride in all of Disney World, in my opinion. But that's OK...we totally went into the vacation saying it was for the kids and anything we get is just gravy.)

The Beauty and the Beast show was as good as expected. Caroline loved it and Sammy fell asleep (after pooping...so I just tried to position him up wind from other patrons). I was texting Kathryn and learning that they made it to the show just fine, Matthew loved playing with his Star Wars figures while waiting for the show and all was well.

I hear they liked the show....I think they said one part of the show was having technical difficulties, but Josh and Matthew thought it was fun.

I then carried the sleeping (stinky) Sammy through the crowds with Caroline in tow to catch up with Kathryn and the boys. They had gotten out earlier than us. I stopped and got me a frozen lemonade and had hoped to get Caroline a shake but the machine wasn't working. But we worked our way over and stayed in a restaurant that overlooked the Jedi Training stage....and discovered that Matthew had been chosen to be a Jedi (in the show that started at 2:20 p.m.)! Best best best moment of the whole trip for Kathryn and Matthew. Matthew still talks about it. Every dollar spent for the trip just paid off! Details in my next post.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Disney World, Day 3, Hollywood Studios (Part 1)

Thursday morning, and time to tackle a new park: Hollywood Studios. I felt less pressure heading into this park thinking that we could master it without much trouble. But the crowds were massive and it dampened our enthusiasm somewhat.

The park opened at 9 a.m., and we were there early, as usual. We didn't feel the need, though, to be at the Pole Position spot by the rope. We kind of thought we'd just be mellow about it. So we were back just a little bit. We figured that the real rush would be to Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster. Turns out the real rush is to Toy Story Mania. It's a dis-jumbled mess. It didn't help that we were a bit unfamiliar with the park, so we were just part of a cattle run. And the corridor to get you to Toy Story is too narrow -- especially with an army of strollers jockeying for position.

When we arrived in the area, there was confusion as to whether we were in the line or the line to get Fast Passes. We were in the correct line and the wait jumped up to 45 minutes pretty fast. (Shortest it would be all day). At one point, Kathryn encouraged me to go get a FastPass for Little Mermaid, so I jumped out and claimed one for 10:30 a.m.

My touring plan that I created said we'd do Toy Story twice right in a row when the doors opened and then move on at 9:20 a.m.. We laughed about that! It was around 10 before we had gone on it once. But it is a super duper awesome ride. Perhaps the best ride we went on at Disney World. You ride in these cute cars and wear 3-D glasses. It's all done virtually, though -- I'm told without the glasses, you'd just see silver screens. Then you go along in a fun house and stop in front of a screen and it becomes a shooting gallery where you score points on what you hit. Some of the items you hit then react with you -- for example, a water balloon shot results in a mist of spray hitting you. It's kind of the same idea as Buzz Lightyear in Magic Kingdom, but much much cooler.

Oh, and there's the Mr. Potato Head in the waiting area that is fully interactive and isn't just on a computer loop.

So then we made a split-second decision and decided that we liked it enough that it was worth waiting in line to get a Fast Pass to ride again. Kathryn took the troops down the road to Mermaid and I waited in line to get the tickets. It was starting to feel very warm already. Somehow I was able to catch up with Kathryn and the kids waiting for the Mermaid show, which I thought was pretty amazing....but then Caroline had to go to the bathroom.

So Kathryn swam upstream with Caroline, got her to the bathroom and talked her way back into the line. I took the three boys in, and luckily Kathryn got into the same audience with us to watch the show. A little manuevering and she ended up with Sammy on the front row, and I had the other three back with me.

The show was good, and we liked it, but after seeing Nemo at Animal Kingdom, I realized this paled in comparison.

It's now 11 and we've done 2 things. The day before, we had knocked out 7 in that short of a time....of course, we also had to deal with "let's go home." But still, this had the "not my favorite park" feeling happening.

We rushed like mad to make the Indiana Jones show at 11:30. Alas, we arrived at 11:10 a.m., and it was already full. Due to what else we wanted to do, we knew we weren't going to get to to see the show at all. One of my bigger disappointments as that was something I thought the kids would really enjoy....and I like it too. Drat.

We had to regroup. We puttered around a little bit between snacks and my trying to get a FastPass for the Lights Actions Car show (after being sold out of one show, we didn't want to take a chance. We were told you could get a FastPass for this show and it didn't count against other Fast Passes. Alas, they weren't doing Fast Passes for it this day).

So we hit Star Tours, one that we knew would be a Matthew favorite. We should have jumped just a few minutes sooner because it was like a 10 minute wait....but a show must have let out because it went up to like 30. I took Josh and Matthew while Kathryn hung with Caroline and Sam. They watched a Jedi Training show....which was good learning for later. Matthew really loved the line for Star Tours, and actually seeing 3CPO and R2D2. (He got on a Star Wars kick earlier this year and loves everything about it). It was magical....like watching a kid meet Santa. I was glad Josh was riding on Star Tours, because it's a good intense ride that's not too scary.

While waiting in line, I formulated our new game plan, which would involve one half going to see Beauty and the Beast, and the other going to the Cars show. More on that in the next post.

Early Season Baseball

Hi all:

I'll return to the play-by-play of Disney World in a day or so, but today is the first real day of the Baseball Season. I see the Red Sox home opener has already been postponed in Boston. It's pouring rain here in NYC....and I hear the same is predicted in Baltimore, where the Yankees open. Some games are threatened due to snow.

When will MLB learn? It would be better for all, eliminate some catch-up double-headers and often return travel to certain cities if the first two weeks of the season featured games exclusively hosted in warm weather cities and/or domed stadiums. Who wouldn't be in favor of that? What fan wants to sit in weather not suitable for skiing, let alone watching baseball?

It's not perfect, but there's nearly enough warm weather venues to go around - for each league, it could be set up to have only one cold-weather venue for the first week or two of the season:

NL (with 16 teams, they need 8 warm weather places)
• Florida (Miami)
• Atlanta
• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Houston
• Arizona (Phoenix)
• San Francisco

AL (with 14 teams, they need 7 warm weather places)
• Tampa
• Toronto (dome)
• Minnesota
• Los Angeles (Angels)
• Oakland
• Texas (Dallas)

To be fair, I looked over the schedule again, and it's not as bad as some years. Maybe they did wise up. But why aren't Tampa and L.A. Dodgers hosting games today instead of being on the road?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Disney World, Day 2 (part 3) (Magic Kingdom)

It was now about 5:30 p.m. and we were ready to test out a new land: Toon Town! Kathryn took some kids to try and catch some characters in the State Fair tent, and I let Matthew blow off steam in Donald's Boat. He didn't want to leave there. Eventually, Kathryn found the line for characters was too long, so she, Matthew and Caroline decided to try Goofy's Barnstormer, a fun little roller coaster.

I kept an eye on Sam (and Josh) in the boat and another little playground.

Kathryn encouraged us to push onward as it was now around 6:30 p.m. So I did one of my famous dashes across the park to see if I could get Fast Passes for Jungle Cruise. While there, I checked out the line for Pirates, and it was less than 10 minutes. So I sprinted back, and got the family back to Adventureland.

We then mimicked our early morning success in terms of "rides per hour". We essentially did everything in Adventureland in one hour: First it was Pirates, then the Magic Carpet, then the Tiki Room, the Swiss Family Robinson tree house (I like that it's not Tarzan), and then the Jungle Cruise.

The Jungle Cruise is DEFINITELY more fun at night as the skippers are more relaxed and are funnier. The kids loved Skipper MIke. They loved a joke about the dancing natives losing the key to the men's room, we loved him humming "Small World" while going through the scary dark cave, and his comment that while he didn't know where the cave would take it, odds were -- being Disney -- it would end in a gift shop.

It reminded me of when Liz (my sister) and I did Jungle Cruise at night many years ago at Disneyland. We still laugh about the jokes...it was just so dry. I don't think we had ever done it at night.

At this point it was now about 8:15 and the parade was coming our way (it goes through Frontierland in Magic Kingdom, unlike Disneyland.) Kathryn found a place that sells ice cream that was just closing down, but we got ice cream, went through a passageway and saw the parade, which had many components of an Electrical Parade. We then figured we'd see the fireworks, but of course it was time for the Matthew and Sammy sleepfest.

So we made it to the Castle area and kept an eye on Sammy in the stroller and held the sleeping Matthew while Kathryn and the olders went for a better view of Tinkerbell and fireworks.

I couldn't really see it, but Kathryn said this was her favorite night time program.

Then, much to my dismay, we joined the throngs at exiting the park in mass. Matthew got heavier and heavier, and I felt my arms were losing their elastics, like a rubber band. Down the street, up the ramp to the Monorail, on the Monorail, down the ramp, onto the parking shuttle. Of course, once we get to the car he wakes up.

But a very very satisfying first full day that even got some swimming.

Hollywood Studios, here we come!!!!


Mark

Disney World, Day 2 (Magic Kingdom) (part 2)

When I last posted, I was writing about the Wednesday experience at Magic Kingdom (our first full day in "the World"). We had left the park 3 hours after a gang-busters start.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how quickly we got home, despite having to catch a Monorail and then walk to the car. I know Kathryn was very frustrated by this turn of events, but as I had said from the start, every moment of this trip was going to be magical for the kids....even the ones away from the parks. In their eyes, going to the pool was as big an "E ticket" as Big Thunder.

Sammy fell asleep on the drive home and mercifully transferred, so he got a GREAT nap....Josh cooled off with a cool bath and then napped, too....Kathryn caught a few zzzs too.

I took Matthew and Caroline to the pool. They loved it! We stayed for an hour or so. They had life jackets which helped. Having a huge, uncrowded, outdoor pool in springtime was really a treat to the kids.

Fortunately, we had dinner reservations at 3:45 p.m. which forced us to get back to the Park. We arrived with no hassles, even though we had to ride the parking lot shuttle and then the monorail again. We got in just as the parade was going on Main Street. It was great....we were able to see the majority of the parade (and cross that off the list...I'm not a big fan of camping out for Disney parades) without investing any wait time. I thought it would be a zoo to get up Main Street during the parade, but they did well with crowd control and we had an open path -- then we ditched under the rope and stayed to watch for a time.

We made it to the Crystal Palace and had a wonderful experience. Josh started saying he felt 100 percent better and the mood improved. The buffet was very yummy and Daddy got a full tummy. It was a Pooh and Friends character dinner, so we got visits at the table from Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore and Piglet. Some may complain that for all the money and effort you only get a brief moment with the characters, but I disagree. I liked that they came to us, and we could just be prepared to move fast and shoot our photos and get our autographs.

This is an area where Kathryn excels. It's like managing a Hollywood shoot. When the characters come, she has the autographs (bought at Target, not Disney) turned to the right page, the camera ready, etc. I think the staff learned quickly that we would respect the characters' time (even though we had 4 kids) and not monopolize them. I also like that there's plenty of time for the kids to eat BEFORE the characters come over.

I always made a point of thanking the characters....it can't be easy and I know it's hot. I like to think they don't get thanked a lot and appreciate someone appreciating their work.

I felt like we'd probably only stay another 2 hours, but Kathryn encouraged us to push onward, and we stayed the rest of the night, and it was a success. We walked right on Buzz Lightyear because I had gotten FastPasses before we left the park. That's the best trick -- they don't enforce the expiration of the Fast Pass, just the entry time. So while our pass had expired at 2 p.m., they didn't care....so we'd start stockpiling them (because you get one every two hours) and then use them when it was convenient to us.

Kathryn and I think Matthew and/or Caroline got an immediate second ride as their vehicle hadn't worked, so that was a nice bonus. Then, the little boys wanted blasters from the Toy Story gift shop. I don't know where Matthew and Sammy got into guns, but it's actually kind of cute to see them engaged in such an authentic boy behavior. It's harmless. The blasters didn't shoot anything...just lit up. Really kept them entertained. We went from there to seeing Buzz Lightyear standing in the Carosel (sp?) of Progress and got his autograph and photo -- posing with the Toy Story blasters. Then the gentle Tomorrowland Transit (people mover) which Matthew claimed as one of his favorite rides.

I had thought this may be as far as we could push it due to the morning issues, but as stated earlier, we made it the rest of the night. The rest of the day to be covered next posting.

Mark

Friday, March 27, 2009

Disney World, Day 2 (part 1) (Magic Kingdom)

We woke up Wednesday morning armed with our touring plan for Magic Kingdom. I had studied the plans for weeks from the Unofficial Guide, and then tailored them to our needs. Our focus was to knock out Fantasyland and then some Frontierland, not knowing how long we'd last.

We made good time to the ticketing center and rode the Monorail. We were inside the gates awaiting the opening by about 8:20 a.m. (the park opened at 9 a.m.). The wait got a bit long, and we started to sense crowds would be bigger on this trip than thought. I told the kids to look forward to the opening welcome where the characters arrive on the train...well, it was very modest on Wed. with just Mary Poppins and a couple of others waving....but they did do the train version on Friday.

We made it under the entrance tunnels and up Main Street. Matthew was upsetting the plan....he needed Mouse Ears NOW! This is not the time to shop, Matthew! I kind of dragged him up Main Street and distracted him.

Then they hold you at the castle before you rush to the rides. That was good...we got back up to the front of the line.

We rushed to Dumbo and made the 2nd or 3rd flight of the day. I should have been greedier and asked for 3 elephants among the 6 of us....we learned for the future. Then we were a machine. We did Winnie the Pooh twice. My plan said to do Peter Pan next, but Kathryn said "no line on tea cups...let's do it". So we did that...the girls report seeing Alice in one of the cups. Then Matthew really wanted to do the Autopia (I don't think it's called that at Magic Kingdom, but you know what I mean). We kind of knew we wouldn't have any happiness until we did that. That's a tough ride for splitting up due to height restriction to DRIVE and another height that won't allow little littles on it. Not sure how that worked out (maybe Kathryn stayed off with some????) Anyway, I think I rode with Matthew and Josh, allowing Matthew to steer.

The Peter Pan line was growing, so we grabbed a Fast Pass, and rode Small World while we waited. Really like the MK version as the boat isn't just in a canal, but it's like a whole lake, if that makes sense. The colors were brighter and more vibrant than I remembered. I'd be happy to ride that many times.

We then did the new Mickey's Philharmagic 3D film which was just starting. It has Donald chasing a sorcerer's hat through many new classic Disney movies. Fun, fun.

We had a few more minutes to wait for Peter Pan, so we got Matthew his mouse ears, and Josh got a snow globe. But then Josh started to not feel well. We think perhaps it was the teacups that did that. He was hot and uncomfortable and completely miserable. He just wanted to go home and lie down and take a cold bath. So much for our plans.

We got him to go on Peter Pan and I prayed he wouldn't puke over London. That was my one Peter Pan ride, and I didn't really enjoy it worrying he was truly sick. We needed to call a time out. But we had seen 7 attractions (and ridden 8 times) in 2 hours, so we had done very well, IMO.

Kathryn took Josh to first aid where they said he was fine in terms of fever etc. and I fought crowds at Casey's Corner on Main STreet for lunch. This was our "Tomorrowland at 4 p.m." moment feeling despair and like the trip would be a bust. The other kids were happy and open to leave, too, so we got Josh from First Aid (he had been lying down) and headed home, less than 3 hours after entering the park. (I did run and get Buzz Lightyear Fast Passes before leaving).

To be continued....

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Disney World, Day 1 (Epcot)

We hadn't told the kids about the trip to Disney World, but instead waited until they woke up on Tuesday morning. I'll admit we were a bit underwhelmed with their excitement. I think it was just too big for them to get their heads around. It took several minutes until they understood what we were saying.

I chose to book our trip on JetBlue because they are so reliable. In the end, that's ended up being true, but temporarily, it wasn't. The 9:45 a.m. flight was delayed after we boarded because they couldn't close the cargo door. So we all had to get off, without being given info of what would happen next. This is when I started to see the entire trip through the eyes of "The Amazing Race" reality race-around-the-world TV show. Every time we would make a decision, I'd envision talking to the cameras about whether or not it was a good idea.

Ultimately, they found us a new plane, so I'm glad we didn't try to swap to another flight. (Even if we had, our luggage would have gone on the first flight and I would have had to go back to fetch the bags, so it was just best to stick with the flight we had.) JetBlue had some good personnel, and one person who had been very helpful searched for us in the food court to ensure we made the new flight. So we were now about 2 hours behind schedule.

The younger boys seemed to be so happy just to be in the wide open spaces of the airport. They just seemed to skip and play and such. On the train from the gate to the terminal in Orlando, Matthew was introducing the whole family: "Hi, I'm Matthew, and this is my whole family. That's mom...her name is Kathryn...."

We had another bit of a delay at the rental car counter. I went with Budget to save money and because -- unlike the mighty Hertz -- they were located on-site, so no shuttle needed. I went downstairs with Sammy, who had a major tantrum kicking and screaming on the floor while I secured the car. They promised us a van in about 20 minutes. So we waited, while the clock ticked. Matthew wanted to get in shorts NOW, so he started to undress in the waiting area of the airport. I took him to a restroom to change. Funny -- he has no problem pulling off every last stitch of clothing in front of the public, but in the restroom, he wouldn't allow me in the stall as he changed his pants.

In dealing with the parking lot Budget space, they told me they had a van in slot 325 as the other van hadn't come. I went over and it was a car. They assured me it was a van. I went back again .... I swear it's a car! I explained to the attendant the difference between a van and a car. Eventually we were on our way.

I did a quick check-in at the All-Star Music resorts to just drop off our bags. Then off to Epcot. We entered the park at about 5 p.m. -- had the flight not been delayed, we would have been there at 3 p.m. as scheduled. But some Epcot was better than nothing. (With the way the Disney passes work, 5 days for the family cost us a grand total of $15 more than 4 days....so Epcot was only costing us $15, so every minute was "bonus").

The plan/hope at arriving at 3 p.m was a fastpass or two may still exist for Soaring or Test Track, but alas, no such luck at 5 p.m. May not have been an option at 3 p.m. either as it was crowded and the wait for both was 135 minutes, so I bet they "sold out" of fast passes in late morning.

We immediately did Spaceship Earth, and Matty said "I've never been in Space before!" Then we did the boat ride for Living with the Land. Then the fun (and one of my favorite rides) Nemo ride in the Seas exhibit. Very cute and well done. I'd ride it again if I could. Kathryn then toyed with waiting 135 minutes for Soaring, but ultimately did not. We ate and headed to the World.

We quickly were able to do the Mexico ride (which is now Donald Duck themed) and then scouted out space for the Illuminations. We took turns using Fastpass on the Norway ride (as we waited for the show in Norway). Kathryn got the kids "MIckey Mouse lightsabers" and Matthew and Sam were in heaven. They just danced and waved and it was very funny, though at the time I kept fearing they were going to bonk someone. Some nice people next to us helped keep me relaxed.

The show was good. Then I carried Matthew out of the park asleep (first time of many for the week). We felt like it was a good first day. Josh was saying how this was the best day ever, best vacation ever, etc. I think we succeeded.....

TOMORROW: First experience at Magic Kingdom

Monday, March 23, 2009

Disney World Recap No. 1

Over the next few days I hope to make up for my dormant posting by posting multiple posts about our trip to Disney World last week. Here's just a few top-of-mind thoughts to get things started:

• Best Thrill Ride at Disney World: Rock 'n Roller Coaster at Disney Hollywood Studios (we were unable to ride it this year)

• Best Ride at Disney World: Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios (worthy of the crowd mania at park opening -- even had a 15 minute wait to get a Fast Pass!)

• Biggest Disappointment Ride: Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom. I had read about this many years ago and couldn't wait to go on it. Very disappointed by it...quite lame. Not much cooler than seeing the dinosaurs in the tunnel of the train at Disneyland in Calif.

• Slightly Disappointed Ride: Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom. It's a bit of a cross between the Matterhorn and Big Thunder. The overall appeal and look to it is great from the outside, but the ride itself seems to lose it's theming and for me, didn't live up to the Disney style of roller coasters. And sure it was fast and high and whatever, but I thought it was kind of tame -- and I'm not one to demand zillions of thrills for coasters. It didn't deliver on the potential I thought it would have.

• Best Parade: Animal Kingdom

• Worst Parade: Hollywood Studios

• Ultimate Disney Pricing Genius: "Mickey Mouse" light-up lightsabers that cost $5 at dusk, then automatically get re-priced to $7 when it's dark.

• Best Show: Finding Nemo the Musical at Animal Kingdom. Equal to "Lion King" on Broadway.

• Attractions that we didn't get to enjoy due to circumstances that I really wish we could have enjoyed: Indy Jones stunt show, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Soaring, Test Track.

• Disneyland vs. Magic Kingdom: of rides in both parks where there's a difference between the two:

BETTER AT DISNEYLAND
-- Pirates of Caribbean (miss the opening bayou setting, and just better throughout...FL version just doesn't make much sense. Though it has improved with changes beyond the Johnny Depp additions)



BETTER AT MAGIC KINDGOM
-- Small World (better boats, more "lake" to float in vs. just a canal, bright and vibrant, and no disney characters hiding in the displays as they now do in Calif...but I do miss the clock in Anaheim).

-- Haunted Mansion. Maybe I've never done this at MK before as I think it was closed or too crowded, but a couple of cooler rooms inside. I was surprised and wowed.

-- Space Mountain, but I can't tell you why

-- Jungle Boats: I was a purist and liked Anaheim better, but now I like MK with its added little 'cave' in the attraction

-- Tree house -- like that it's still Swiss Family Robinson, not Tarzan

• Missed attractions that are only in California: Indiana Jones ride, Matterhorn

• Reunion let-down: Country Bears. It's gone from Disneyland, and I hadn't seen it in years (it's at Disney World). It's kind of tired and old.

• Favorite Ride to Enjoy Again: "People Mover" (called Tomorrowland Transit in MK). Just a simple easy way to chill and enjoy a view of the park.

• Favorite '3D interactive' show (each park now has one): Mickey's Philharmagic.

• Record number of attractions enjoyed via Fast Pass in one day: SEVEN (Big Thunder x 2, Space Mountain/Peter Pan (half of our family for one, half for the other in this cycle), Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh - which earned us a bonus one for PhilHarmagic -- Jungle Boat)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How I Endure Unpleasant Activities

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait until Christmas. It seemed like the distance from the current date to Dec. 25 was too long and would never pass. So I created a game. I'd figure out how much time was left between the current date and Christmas. Let's say it was one week. Then, I would go into the past the same length of interval to see what I was doing to see if that seemed like a really long time ago. So again, in the example, what was I doing one week ago. Then I'd say: "Well, that's not so long, I can make it!".

Now that I'm older and jaded, I do the same thing, but with unpleasant tasks. I think I started it on flights out west with the kids. As hours seem like days in that situation, I do it by hours and minutes..... "We only have 5 more hours on this flight. Five hours ago, we got up and started driving to the airport...." (Flight delays would really throw off this game, but fortunately, we haven't had any when traveling with the kids).

I'm playing the game right now. Toy Fair is next week, and while it's fun to be with the new toys and we work with great people, it's an extremely stressful period. But this time next week, it'll all be done. This time a week ago, I was searching for my desk, filing cabinet and other essential tools of being a bishop that had suddenly vanished from the bishop's and clerk's office. (There was a remodeling project at the chapel that I wasn't informed of....all is well). That doesn't seem like that long ago.....

So I can make it!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

From the mouths of kids...

Last week, Matthew said the opening prayer in Family Home Evening. He said "And bless that nobody gets killed during Family Home Evening." Some might say it's just a modern-day wording of "get home safely", but considering the full-contact nature of many of our family home evenings, I think it's more of a sincere prayer.

Happy to report that no deaths occurred either last Monday or this week. In fact, no animals or humans were harmed in the creation of our most recent family home evenings....

Monday, January 12, 2009

Christmas Summation

Last year, I did a quick round up related to the success of Christmas gifts...and their longevity. Not to brag, but I think we did pretty good!

• Basketball standard for Josh: A

It helps to have clients in high places (we do work for Lifetime based in Clearfield, UT, and I was able to get some help in getting a basketball standard). We had it shipped to a neighbor's house then snuck it in after hours on Christmas Eve. It came in a million pieces, and the best Christmas gift was having that same neighbor call on 12/26 and offer to assemble it. What a relief....it called for 15 different tools; 10 of which I had never heard of!

But we now have an adjustable hoop in our driveway and it's been a real hit with Josh. When the weather is nice, we've had some nice basketball playing time. That will only increase once we get into spring. But it's a perfect thing to keep him active, get off the computer and Wii and is enjoyable. Yea, yea!

• Little Pet Shop toys for Caroline: A

Again, it helps to have friends in high places. A friend from a fellow agency sent me their 'clearance' LPS stuff a couple of days before Christmas. We used them to round out Caroline's bigger gifts, yet she seemed as pleased -- if not more so -- with the Pet Shop stuff. In fact, she said at one point that Santa must read minds as she hadn't even told Santa or her parents she wanted some LPS VIPs, yet she got it. Lucky guess, so to speak!

• GeoTrax for the younger boys: A+

OK, it's made by our rival toy company, but it's awesome. Matthew researched it out and knew exactly what he wanted this year. The Toys R Us catalog came in late November, he saw it and never wavered. He learned about it online, and he told Santa it's what he wanted.

We set it up on Christmas Eve (we had 3 sets combined) and he was thrilled when he saw it. They played it so much on Christmas we went through a set of batteries in one day. He continues to love it and it's got great creativity to it. No Santa regret here.

• Webkins: A-

The older two love their webkins, and Kathryn found the hard-to-find ones they wanted. Plus, they did a gift exchange to each other to get one more. They got what they want, and it makes them happy.

• Littlest Pet Shop Guess Who: A-

Simple easy game that can be played in 5 minutes before bed.

• Big TV for Kathryn: A+++

Santa can keep surprises. I ordered it online and had it sent to the same friend who got the hoop. Kathryn didn't have a clue. In fact, we said no gifts to each other. She really thought I believed that and hadn't gotten her a thing. On Christmas Eve she said "I wrapped a couple of things and put under the tree with a tag from you to me".

I snuck it in with the hoop, then wrapped it after she went to bed. After we saw the Santa stuff, I took her downstairs to see the big wrapped gift. Even then, she had no idea what might be in the box. The surprise when she unwrapped it was worth every penny. And she deserves it! She's hinted and waited for a good TV for 10 years of marriage -- in fact, we were still using the same TV that I brought into our marriage -- and it was 3 years old then! Sometimes husbands get it right (but not often)


• "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs" for Mark: A

I had asked for one gift, and it was this book. It contains personal memoirs from famous and not famous people of exactly 6 words. Almost like a haiku! They are extremely insightful and funny. Samples: "Afraid of everything; did it anyway." "She said nothing could go wrong". "Made some good choices; got lucky". Here's one I wrote through the prism of a bishop: "Everyone deserves a mulligan or two."


• Funky Winkerbean comic books for Dad: A+

My dad and both love this comic strip but haven't seen it for years. I found some collection of the comics on line and gave it to him as an early birthday present when he came out after Christmas. Major major hit!