Back from the Happiest Place on Earth... 

Back from the Happiest Place on Earth...

We are BACK. We are TIRED. And we have returned with some serious attitude. Well, the kids have, anyway. It's going to take a while to get back into the swing of things.
I'll try to keep my anecdotes of our trip as brief as possible, but brace yourselves; it was a long eight days and they did lots of cute stuff.

On our first day, we dressed Riley Kate up as Minnie Mouse (see external link, "Disney Pictures"-- and for those who don't know, Connor and Ror are afraid of the flash of the camera; they don't normally wear such twisted, squinty faces. LOL Obviously, our little cover girl does not have this problem). This was fabulous in her estimation-- she looked great, Dad made a fuss, and passersby constantly commented on her daunting cuteness. We thought she got the point-- she was in Disney, dressed up as Minnie Mouse. Evidently, though, she simply thought she was dressed in a polka-dot dress which made her look more fantabulous than usual, hence the comments. Because when she entered the park and saw some wench (Minnie Mouse to you and me) who dared to wear the same outfit that she did, to the same place on the same day, she FLIPPED OUT. She refused to talk to Minnie, would not pose for a picture, and even sat down on the ground in a rage. What a diva.

Ror spent the entire week engrossed in the important task of attempting to save the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin was just calling his name, and we rode, oh, a bajillion times. Ror took his task (shooting the lazer gun at Zurg) EXTREMELY seriously, and was not at all appreciative of my diluting the experience with my photographic antics and childish comments-- you see, "Yay Ror!!!" is not appropriate when the galaxy is indeed in very real danger, with Ror and Buzz as its only hope.

Chris, Katie and I were all VERY impressed with Connor's memory of minutia from the 2004 trip, which was 20 months ago, before he was three. He remembered details from rides that we thought he had long forgotten. On our way into spaceship earth, he recalled seeing an animatronic of a sculptor chiseling a marble nude, and exclaimed, "Dad! Isn't this where we saw the breast? REMEMBER, DAD? IT WAS A LADY'S BREAST, right there on the RIDE! Will we see the breast again, Dad? Is the breast going to be there?" I took a picture to commemorate the occasion-- nothing makes for a great scrapbookable moment like a four-year-old embarassing his Dad at Disney World.

Riley Kate added to her oral repertoire during the week, with exclamations like, "Oh, WOW!" and "Look at THAT!" and, of course, in the retail capital of the universe, "I want THISH!" She also attempted to sing along with every musical show we saw. Additionally, she was sorely dissatisfied with the caliber of entertainment offered in the preshow waiting areas of the attractions, so she set to work developing a dramatic and moving modern dance performance which she performed with fervor during every preshow. After a while, I think she came to believe that the guests were all there for her.

Rory developed several charming new sassy retorts while in Disney-- the most lovely and original of which was, "You are NOT my Mommy," shouted at Katie when she calmly asked him to stop running full speed at the person in front of him. He's tried it out several times on the big boys since our return and, having found their response (shock and dismay) to his liking, he has decided to keep it on, not just as a special-occasion-and-vacation retort, but as an everyday response. He has also honed his indignance, used mightily along with the phrases, "I'm too BIG for that!" and "I am NOT going to [fill in whatever instruction he's just been given]." He says both with an air of feeling that his personal dignity has been violated just by the suggestion that he engage in such a puerile task.

After every show/ride/attraction that Connor enjoyed, he proceeded to set an extremely unrealistic timetable for our return-- "Dad! We need to see Fantasmic EVERY FIVE DAYS from now on, okay?" "I need to ride that Pirate ride every two days, got that?" For less enjoyable rides, like The Dinosaur (courtesy of Chris's and my poor decision making in letting him ride in the first place), he had a much more doable frame of time-- "Hey Dad. I DID like the ride, but I think I should be, like, TEN before I ride it again, okay?"

The kids had the time of their lives, and Chris and I did too. I can't speak for Katie, who is probably having her tubes tied as I write this, given that this was the longest stretch she's ever spent with the kids in an uncontrolled environment. In any case, though, after such a great time, we HAD to join the Disney Vacation Club, though we plan to bank our points and not return until the new baby turns two. In the meantime, our focuses are zooming in on the Elio Family's next big event-- Baby Elio's Big Arrival!