Happy 37th Birthday, Mom!
I hope she’s rating this one as high on the
best-ever list as I am; since we’ve had another amazing day while wrapping up
our visit to Disney World and then moving on to Universal Studios.
It’s also been a bit of a whirlwind of
non-stop action. First up this morning
was getting packed, checked out, and the vans loaded before heading over to
Hollywood Studios for the morning. We
didn’t have time to do everything there, since we wanted to spend a few hours
at Typhoon Lagoon this afternoon, so we decided to see Disney Junior Live on
Stage with Doc, Sofia, Jake, and the others for our main show choice; caught
some of the outdoor entertainment; visited some of the play areas; and took
turns going on as many rides as we could get done before having lunch and then
hopping over to Typhoon Lagoon.
The Disney Junior show was mostly for the
five younger kids, but I still loved it; and Tim isn’t going to make fun of it
when we get home – or Rowen’s threatened to let everyone know that we went to
see the Jedi Training Academy show. He
was terribly disappointed that we were too old to sign up to be Jedi trainees;
but I won’t give him a hard time about that since the kids and tweens were
having a lot of fun in the show we saw.
On the ride side of the morning, I’ll make
the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror my pick for favorite thrill ride; though I
liked the rock and roll coaster and Star Tours Adventure rides a lot too. The boys might put that last one at the top
of their lists; but only because of the Star Wars connection – they loved the
tower as much as Rowen and I did.
Before I move on, that might sound as
though we spent more time playing than helping out with the younger kids; but
we did a lot of that too – and took turns with the parents and grandparents
going on some of those rides while also keeping the kids busy and entertained. Aunt Leanne couldn’t do most of those big
rides, so she was always helping out with kid control; but there were enough
rides to do that she could go on with Zack to keep her happy too.
She is planning on coming back again when
she can do the major rides; but may need to wait until her kids can do that
too.
I wonder if she might think about being a
chaperone for a school band trip? ;^)
Moving along, we had Mom’s birthday lunch; and
she had a couple of gifts to open then to go along with the gifts she’d been
given this morning and more that she didn’t get until dinnertime. From there, we moved on to spend the last few
hours of the afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon.
We again shared kid-watch duties so that nearly everyone could take
turns going on the different slides or rides; but the water play time was
really all about cooling off and having fun with our family and friends – and getting
girls-in-swimsuits time; according to the guys.
Okay, Tim was the only guy actually admitting that openly; but he
definitely wasn’t the only one thinking it.
This is a good spot in the update to
mention that Mom does not look thirty-seven; and I seriously doubt that many
people would suspect she’s a mother of three without seeing her with the
evidence – and definitely not a Mom with a teen daughter. I’m not bringing this up to brag or because I’m
happy that I can look forward to looking that great when I’m her age; but
because I suspect that there is a relationship to aging and Magi talent. I can see it in other Magi – including my
grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Grandma
and Grandpa look at least ten years younger than they are; and I have to wonder
whether we’ll have some age issues to deal with now that we have a handful of
Magi with the healing gift in town. It
might be very hard to explain if we start having Magi living well-beyond the
normal life-span. I realize that we can’t
heal everything; but we do know from the archives that longer life-spans haven’t
been unusual for Magi of the past – and that could happen again.
If it does, I sure hope that I look a lot
younger than my one-fifty or two-hundred years when I get there.
Ditto that for Michael! ;^)
Before I get back on track, I’ll also point
out again that my Aunt Leanne is beautiful, and if there actually was an award
for it; she was the hottest pregnant woman at Typhoon Lagoon today.
We stayed at the water park nearly until it
closed for the day; hopped in the vans; and headed for the Royal Pacific hotel
at Universal. Grandma and Grandpa came
with us and helped with kid control while we got checked in; but they mostly
did that because they were helping Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I with getting the five
younger kids fed tonight before we were left in charge of them for the rest of
the evening. We were all doing that because
the parents were getting a kid-free evening to go out for dinner and a few
hours of adult-rated fun.
Once we had our luggage in our rooms; Rowen
and I got changed quickly; met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Michael, and Tim;
collected the five kids; and headed out to find someplace to have dinner while
Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne all took extra time to get dressed up and
ready for an upscale dinner and evening out.
I know that they had a good time tonight, since we were doing our
babysitting gig in Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s suite once we got back to the
hotel and they gave us an update; but we had fun wandering around CityWalk too.
Having hot dogs, fries, and drinks for
dinner wasn’t as amazing as their meals were either; but the boys – including Grandpa
– were happy with our dining choice; and they were even okay with the shopping
we did while wandering around and keeping our five kids entertained. Having the amusement parks next to us while
we did that was exciting, but the Universal Parks close a lot earlier than at
Disney; so spending the evening at one of them wasn’t really an option; which
is why we wandered around CityWalk for a couple of hours before going back to
the hotel for the night. Grandma and
Grandpa headed home then – to their temporarily home; and Michael, Tim, Rowen,
and I took the kids for a swim before eventually ending our evening with
watching a movie in Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s suite.
Zack was asleep fairly quickly, and we put
him to bed; but the twins, Naomi, and Aiden stayed awake through to the end of
the movie. We put the boys to bed after
that; Ehlana and Naomi went to sleep in the ‘master’ bedroom; and Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I basically just vegged out until the parents got back from their
evening of music and dancing. We kept
the chat and recap to the basics; Rowen and I took Ehlana and Naomi with us to
our room for the night so that Mom and Dad would be kid-free until morning; and
Mom, Dad, Michael, and Tim all went to their rooms then too.
It’s late again, and I had a bit of family
business work that came up via email to deal with, but Rowen’s sleeping now too
and we’d kept our bedtime chat quiet so that we didn’t wake up Ehlana and
Naomi. Rowen has Ehlana for her cuddle
buddy tonight because Naomi wanted to bunk with me; but both girls didn’t wake
up for long while being moved to our room – just long enough for quick washroom
breaks and goodnight hugs and kisses.
While the work needed to be done, my favorite
email message was from Rebecca. She’s
still at the farm with Lucas tonight, but will be getting a ride into town in
the morning with his Mom when she goes into the office. I hadn’t mentioned that, but Claire is
running the office with Dad and Aunt Leanne are away – though she isn’t working
full days so that she can spend some time with the kids while they’re off from
school too. Rebecca has had a fun couple
of days, though the amazing weather on Monday was nicer than the return to
more-normal temperatures there today.
That isn’t something I want to make a big
deal over either, but I am glad that it isn’t going to be warmer there than
here every day while we’re away. I had
three messages from home razzing me about that today after some of my friends
noticed that it had been just as hot there yesterday as it was here – and even
a bit warmer for an hour or two. That
won’t be an issue today, or for the rest of the week; but it’s not as though
they’re heading back into winter or anything – and we’d have been happy with
temperatures in the fifties and sixties even a couple of weeks ago; so going
back to that isn’t too tough to take.
I’ll try to remember that when we’re home
again on Sunday. ;^)
Somehow I’ve gotten off-track again. What I wanted to mention from Rebecca’s email
was that she had fun helping out around the farm and driving some of the
equipment – like tractors and the farm truck.
She and Lucas got to have some play time too, and while spending time
with his brother and sister was part of that play time; they got to hang out on
their own for a while here and there too.
Without going into details; Rebecca has decided that haylofts can be
fun; and having parents that are used to turning in early at night can be an
advantage too! I can’t say I’ve ever
thought about part two of that, but then I think that Michael’s parents go to
bed early on their work nights compared to what I’m used to doing with my own
work and studies.
Okay, it’s time to wrap this up and get
some sleep. We’re going to be up early
and taking advantage of the early park admission that is one of the bonuses for
staying at one of the park hotels – along with an express pass for the rides at
both parks and a half-dozen other perks.
The early admission is actually to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
parts of the parks; and I’m finding the thought of being a Magi Master hanging
out in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade fairly amusing. That would be even more amusing if we could
all talk about it, but since we – the kids and teens – aren’t allowed to know
that we’re all Magi; that isn’t an option.
Neither is actually making magical things happen there tomorrow; though
that is so tempting! ;^)
I’ve gone off-track again, and really do
need to just get some nap time now; so that’s definitely it for tonight, and,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
