we're back!...and we were gone...and i'll let you guess where

Actually, I'll let Ollie tell you. Here he is in a rare moment of freedom.
This is a more typical scenario, with the crib jammed into the bathroom. He earned his confinement, I will tell you what.

And, how big a pain is Ollie on a plane? THIS BIG.
Speaking of confinement, here is Aaron regarding the scenery on our bus from the airport. There will be NO VIEWING OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD during the promotional video, please.
And there's this one. She was...pleased.

She spent today rapidly alternating between excitement about bragging to her friends and wishing she was still on the trip. By the end of the day she was firmly in the "Are you sure we had to come home?" camp.

She is also, at this point, justifiably confused about what is and is not real.
She has not only seen Mary Poppins the movie, but also gone to the Broadway show and let me read her the 200-page book over the past couple weeks. A lengthy conversation with the woman herself is not helping matters, you know?
Aaron's mom kindly let us go out. Every single night. We should probably try to get out more, is one thing. I'm sure you all were thinking the same.
The arcade had a Deal or No Deal game where you could actually win tickets. So we did.
We got to know the hotel bartender. He made fun of us a lot, for some reason. I asked if I could have a Bailey's and he blinked at me for a solid three minutes and then said, "I can try."Aaron was involved in an unfortunate incident during a laser fight to save...some good thing from some bad thing? Seems to be how most of the story lines go? And this one was Toy Story?I assure you that we were not posing for this. I won, for the record. Aaron is also a winner, of course. Just for playing! And losing! To me!

We figured Ollie was going to be mostly a liability for all this, which of course he was, but I was surprised at how much he enjoyed some stuff. Hippos. He likes hippos. He also thought meeting the characters was great. Here he is plunging his fingers into Donald's luscious underbelly.

Minnie took a shine to the boy, and he kept trying to get back to her, long after we had been shuttled along to the next magical moment.


I think this picture should be called "Day 4."
Aaron, pale and glassy eyed, Dylan feral, me taking pictures, and Ollie crying accusingly in my direction.

Dylan liked the rides way more than I expected. The last day she and I sprinted around the Magic Kingdom and got in four last ones in about an hour. I didn't notice a lot of other mothers sprinting around with their young children in strollers, but maybe because I was going too fast?

And, as in any Disney adventure, there were some lessons learned.

1) Tigger jammies: may seem cute. That is incorrect because however cute they are to the naked eye, "MOMMY LOOK AT ME JUMP I AM TIGGER BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE" negates any cuteness in the 30 seconds before bedtime.

2) Hair trigger motion sickness and an enduring love of roller coasters is a TERRIBLE COMBINATION.

3) You may think you can get away with a flight without someone mentioning the baby's ears, but that is also incorrect. They will shout it at you, as you are walking off the plane. Try a bottle during takeoff and landing!!!

4) Watching fireworks from your hotel room is awesome.

5) Having the fireworks be an hour after the kid's bedtime is less awesome because she's knows they're coming. Oh yes she does.

6) I am estimating a minimum of two years before I can handle this again. Besides the constant corralling of the children, it is tiring to be me in such situations because whatever reservations I might have about Disney I MUST DO ALL THE THINGS.

Have a magical evening, one and all!