thanks for the fun surprise, daddy!!!

wednesday, november 10th
3:45pm: receive hotel confirmaiton via email (what is this?)
4:02pm: pete arrives at home, tosses bags on the bed, and starts packing. i start packing, check the weather, then repack. jack wakes up from his nap grumpy, but turns the corner at the mention of heading to 'mickey's house'. he 'gets himself up' (he's a crib-kid, more on this milestone later!)
4:46pm: we're on the road!
11:45pm: arrive at our hotel across the street from the park
12:15am: jack jumping on bed.
3:25am: jack asking to 'say good morning to ____' (he lists every disney character he's ever heard of)
7:02am: up and at 'em for our day at the park...

completely quick turn of events and super fun surprise from daddy! we enjoyed veteran's day at the park, complete with the beginnings of christmas decor. we visited goofy, rode dumbo, checked out jack skellington's haunted mansion, and survived the wind.


after a nap and dinner, we returned to the park for the nighttime merriment, but were bummed when the fireworks were canceled.





exhausted, we headed back to the hotel for the night. friday was WILD. i mean, i'm a frequent disney go-er. this was not my first seaon pass, and there were years when i was a kid that we went a TON. i am serious, folks, it was the BUSIEST i've ever seen the park. maybe it was the gorgeous weather, the long weekend, the first official day of holiday festivities... whatever it was, it was a cluster. like, ridiculous. we had only planned a half-day anyway, so we made the best of it. we had a fun time pretty much walking around...

(rides? lines? oh heck no - not in this crowd with an almost 3yrold. no way, jose!!) and hit the road just after eating our traditional corn dog. yum, btw.

someone wasn't very happy...


** so with this new blogging promise, i'm letting go of a few things.

1. format. i can't worry too much about spacing. sometimes, i need to let that extra space or missing space go.
2. grammar. this really bothers me, but i'm not going to review my posts as though they're english papers or a resume. i'm sorry if this bothers you - it bothers me, too. i hope you find comfort it that.
3. picture order. you'll see pictures above are not in chronological order (we all seems to be wearing the same outfits both days and i posted a pic from the end of our trip in the beginning). i trust that i didn't make my family wear the same clothes all weekend and that it's better - or faster - to blog this way.

this blog is a living scrapbook. and i have to keep it going for us to look back on - and if these things bother me when i'm 80yrs old and i have the time to fix them then, so be it.