Disney - Friday, Feb. 23 (Day 6)

Don't worry folks - not too much more Disney talk! Just bear with me for another day or so. (Besides, it beat the heck out of what's happening these days: norovirus. Ick. No need to elaborate.)

I was up late the previous night with Son #3, who had, uh, stomach issues. Can someone explain to me why there were *FIVE* people in the hotel room, but I was the only one who hear Son #3 say, "Mommy, I have to poo - NOW!" Everyone else slept through the ordeal. I'll let the other kids slide, but Dear Hubby paid. I woke him early, handed him a plastic bag, a few one dollar bills and informed him that he'll be having breakfast (a cereal bar) in the hotel's laundry room (thank goodness there *was* a laundry room. whew!). Enough said.

By the time the laundry was finished, the kids fed and dressed, and we ascertained that everyone was feeling great, we decided to go back to Animal Kingdom since we didn't stay long the day prior. (We blamed the previous night's incident on the change in Son #3's diet - that turned out to be wrong, but we wouldn't realize it for another day or two).

Anyhoo...we had a great time at Animal Kingdom. We arrived around 10:30 and checked out the message board that gives an idea of how long of wait time you'll have in line at certain attractions and what time the Fast Pass is issuing tickets for. Dear Hubby and Son #1 really wanted to ride the Expedition Everest rollercoaster, but the earliest the Fast Passes were being distributed were for 2:30 in the afternoon. Somedays it just pays to get their earlier!

The standby time for Expedition Everest (if you wanted to wait in the regular line) was 60 minutes, but past experience has taught us that is usually an over-estimation. Son #1 and Dear Hubby decided to wait in line. Sons #2&3 and I had a snack, then decided to the Maharajeh Trek, where you can view exotic animals, such as giant bats (the size of my cat!), a komodo dragon, tigers, wild birds etc.

We hadn't gone far on the trek, when Dear Hubby called my cell phone to tell me that they had finished their ride and loved it. (I strongly recommend bringing cell phones to Disney, especially if your family is like mine: small kid pluse older, more adventurous kids. This way we didn't waste a lot of time just hanging around waiting to meet up with the rest of our family.)

Here's Son #1 by a prayer tree. Certain cultures in India would hang little bells or bottles on the tree to represent prayers. The ribbons and scarves represent prayers answered. It sounded more interesting the way the guide explained it.

Below is a photo of all of my guys by the Tree of Life. Can you see the animals carved in the wood?

We walked to another section of the park (Asia, I think) and took a train ride to the Africa section. We visited some conservation exhibits - my kids want to build a bat house in our back yard, thanks, Walt Disney! - and the Affection Section petting zoo, which was a little disappointing (our local zoo has a better petting area).

For some reason, we didn't go on the safari ride that I wanted to go on. I think we were getting tired and hungry - once fed, we forgot about it. After lunch, we had a snack. Check out the size of these pretzels. It looked like it snowed around the bench where we sat eating these, because we kept flicking the salt off.

Friday evening, we returned to Downtown Disney to eat at Cap'n Jack's restaurant. I had the two lobster tail dinner (it was on our meal plan!), Dear Hubby and Son #1 (who at age 11 is considered an 'adult') had the option of adding one lobster tail to their meal at no additional charge. Thanks to Son #1, I had 2 and three-quarters lobster tails. All was going on well until Son #3 became ill. It's a small consolation that he was discreet about it (on the plate, we put the napkin on top). But still....we got dessert "to go."

Back to the hotel and to bed for all.

Today....

We had a nice weekend. We celebrated my birthday and my brother-in-law's with Dear Hubby's family. Lunch, followed by cake, ice cream and gifts at my father-in-law's house. It's a tradition. Yesterday was relaxing. Today, Son #3 is back at it (tummy trouble again). He's feeling okay though, but has a poor appetite. As for me, still hanging in there.