Disney 2012 - Day 1

I WILL finish blogging about this trip, or at least make it to day 2 since my blogging of our last trip ended with day 1. :P

It may be ridiculously early, but Alyssa and Joel are ready to fly!

Our day of flying was long after heading from Omaha to Minneapolis then to Orlando (really, we have to fly 6 - 7 hours straight north before heading waaaay south?!), but all the flying was worth it when we got check into our room in the Martinique Village of the Caribbean Beach resort and saw our view:

After dropping our carry on bags and jackets (so long Nebraska winter clothes, hello flip flops and capris!), we jumped back on the bus for Downtown Disney. I had made reservations at the T-Rex restaurant for our first night.

We were seated near the "ice cave", which was amazing! Honestly, the entire restaurant was amazing. You really felt like you were back in dinosaur times. Although with central air and electricity. :) Every 15 - 20 minutes the lights would dim and there would be a "meteor shower" complete with shooting stars and thunder. All throughout the restaurant there were lifelike (probably not life SIZED) animated dinosaurs and various animals from that era. We were sitting near a Mommy/Daddy Woolley Mammoth and baby that would start moving and making noise at random intervals, it seemed especially frequent if someone went over and scratched the baby between the eyes. One of my favorite parts of the restaurant was the giant squid/octopus that hovered over the bar.

One of the most amazingly fantastic parts of the meal came at the end. In the form of the "chocolate extinction" dessert. I think we may have to plan a trip back, purely for this dessert. It definitely trumps the Goofy Candy Company Cupcake that I previously thought was the most delicious thing I'd ever had. The dessert was perfect for our family ~ 4 servings of unbelievable chocolate cake drizzled with chocolate, caramel, butterfinger-ish pieces and whipped cream served alongside 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream. The kids' favorite part was the "volcano" in the middle ~ a martini shaker with water and dry ice in it, so that smoke spilled out over the plate.

After dinner we stopped by the Lego store to check out the impressive wall-o-legos as well as the impressive lego "statues", like Woody!

We had seen a sign earlier in the day by the main stage at Downtown Disney that there was going to be a dance party that night. I thought Alyssa and Joel might have fun watching people dance, but we were all pleasantly surprised when we found out that it was a dance party FOR the kids. They had one of the Disney choreographers teaching the kids different dances to popular Disney/Disney Junior songs (think High School Musical to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's Hot Dog song). I was floored by how quickly he could teach them the dances, just by breaking it down and teaching it 2 - 4 moves at a times. The dancing was followed by a hula hoop contest, which the Koch kids did NOT participate in, but they had a great time watching!

The current theme at Disney World is "Let the Memories Begin". Amen! :) Stayed tuned for day 2 ... Joel's birthday day!

Disney Day 1

Our day started bright and early with Adam and I getting up around 4:30 and the kids getting up shortly after 5. We were out the driveway by 5:15 with Alyssa and Joel still in their jammies ... and me wishing that I was still in mine. This trip marked Joel's first plane ride, but Alyssa had flown with me to Colorado in May, so she was a seasoned veteran. She took Joel under her wing, per usual, to make sure that he had a good first flight.


As soon as we stepped on the plane the flight attendants were really sweet to Alyssa and Joel and let them check out the cockpit. Then the pilot got out of his seat so that the kids could sit up front and I could take pictures. Then the co-pilot turned the microphone/speaker on and tried to get Alyssa to give a "shoutout to her Daddy in row 12", but she wasn't going for it. :)

Joel's "what do you mean I have to take my binky out for a picture" face.


I can't say enough wonderful things about the "Magical Express" transporation available to people staying at the Disney resorts. We walked up to a counter after we landed, showed them our baggage claim stub, then loaded a bus and our luggage "magically" arrived in our hotel room about 3 hours later.

We checked in at Disney's Caribbean resort and got to our room in "Jamaica", then headed off to check out the Downtown Disney area. My favorite stop was Goofy's Candy Company which housed THE. BEST. CUPCAKES. I have ever tasted in my life. I would go back just to get another one.

The kids had a lot of fun at the lego tables outside the Lego store and I was overwhelmed by the "wall 'o legos" - every color you could imagine.



The kids also loved the animated animals, especially the crocodile/alligator outside the Rainforest Cafe. We got back to our hotel room in time to enjoy our water view - both the lake and the pool - and a Floridian sunset.

Its Official!

Free Disney Tickers


I booked our Disney trip today! We'll be staying at the Caribbean Beach resort in a waterview room near one of the pools (there are 7, I think). Our flight gets into Orlando at about 3PM the day before Alyssa's birthday, so we'll be ready to hit the Magic Kingdom bright and early on her big day, starting the day off with a character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. The next day we'll have a character breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto before heading back to our hotel to hang out at the pools, playgrounds, etc for the rest of the day. That night we'll go to "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party", which I'm really excited to check out. Then we'll head to the airport the next day around noon. Short and sweet, but I think its going to be a really fantastic trip ... and so far I'm on budget!!!

Vacation - Colorado '09

The Friday before Memorial Day Alyssa, my parents, and I flew to Colorado for my niece's high school graduation. We had a great trip. Alyssa was a fantastic traveler and enjoyed her first plane ride. She kept asking me why we were going so slow, which I realized it does kind of seem like if you don't "know" how quickly you're flying. And she had a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that the "other plane" that she could see out the window was actually the wing of our plane. And it was cute how concerned she was about our suitcase when we checked it at the airport.


It was a weekend full of tension due to a couple ex-wive's and people who normally wouldn't want to be anywhere near each other. But everyone was on their best behavior for the most part and I was so glad that I could be there to see Brandy graduate. Glad and very, very proud. She has turned into such a wonderful, thoughtful and caring young lady. And I have a new reason to be thankful for my iPod - put a few cartoons/kid shows on that thing and its a great way to entertain a 4 year old while waiting for airplanes and at boring graduation ceremonies!


I also got to have coffee one morning with a friend of mine from high school that I've recently reconnected with. We had a great time catching up and it was fun to be "high school" Christi for a couple hours. He is one of the very few people in my life who doesn't know me as Adam's wife or Alyssa and Joel's mom ... I'm just Christi.


A highlight for me was that I got to take Alyssa (along with my mom and youngest niece) to "Santa's Workshop/North Pole" which is just outside of Colorado Springs nestled towards the bottom of Pikes Peak. Its a place that my parents took me when I was just a little older than Alyssa and I have fond memories of it. Alyssa had a great time riding the rides; the first time she's really be to an amusement park type place. She was nervous about seeing Santa at his house and didn't want much to do with feeding the deer, but she was very excited about riding the ferris wheel with her cousin Anna and I. I don't think she understood why I wouldn't let her wave at Grandma as she was trying to take a picture while we were at the top of the ferris wheel, though. :)


Other highlights of the trip were our visit to "Territory Days" in Old Colorado City (at least until it started pouring rain) and for Alyssa ~ jumping on the trampoline, playing airhockey, and finishing up a long day in the hot tub. Uncle Mark's house is almost like a resort!

Halloween from our house (and from Paula's house)

Joel was not real impressed with the whole Halloween business ~ even with the candy!

Ready to hit the streets

Speaking of hitting the streets ... Paula and I dressed up as beauty queens for her family's annual Halloween party that I flew to Raleigh for. A few comments:
a. You can't tell it from the pictures, but Paula's is sporting a baby bump and some "enhanced" knockers for her role as "Miss Leading"
b. There's a purple lollipop in my hair, 5 year old Jessie (seem bottom right corner) did my make up, and the black "thing" above my eye is a false eyelash that was put on crooked. I think the other one that fallen off by then. I also had bandaids all over my body and Paula's kids kept asking me what happened to me, which was pretty cute. I think they think I'm crazy. ;)

Raleigh 2.0

Its after midnight here in North Carolina and I'm wiped out, but can't sleep because I'm feeling guilty and wish I could beam myself home because maybe then I would be able to avoid this horrible panic attack that seems to be bubbling under my surface.  

I'm trying to figure out how to answer the question "How was your trip".  As a whole, from the surface, it was great ... I had a fun time dressing up for Paula and Kirk's Halloween party and getting to meet more family and friends.  I had a wonderful time chatting with Paula in the hot tub afterwards - especially after she shared her theory that she thought a single guy friend of hers was trying to figure out if I was single.  Nice to know that I might still have a little fraction of "it".  This morning we did a beautiful hike through the woods surrounded by fall foliage, fed ducks/geese at the lake, and played with the kids at the park.  After an afternoon nap Paula and I went out with some more of her friends to see a movie and to a nice restaurant for supper.  More hot tubbing tonight and shopping on the docket for tomorrow.  Pretty great, right?  

Except I feel awful.   I feel guilty for leaving in general and leaving Adam alone with Alyssa and Joel.  I feel like I don't deserve to have taken this trip or to take time for myself.   I feel sad/guilty that I had the opportunity to read bedtime books, tease, watch TV, chase around, swing with, play with someone else's children and I feel like I can't remember the last time I did that with my own kids.  Its not *really* that bad, but this weekend has made me realize how much I am struggling with my life.  How much I can't handle holding it all together - the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, being a good wife, being a good mother, keep some small bit of my own identity.  I'm the homemaker... that my job.  But Adam is there to co-parent; to be the one to read books, play games, cuddle with the kids, so while I'm desperately trying to keep my head above water, the "fun chores" get passed on to him.

But I digress ...  the voice in the back of my head is reminding me that "everyone" says that I'll be a better mommy/wife for getting away.  That its good for Adam, Alyssa, and Joel to be on their own without me because they'll appreciate me more and realize that they can survive without me (at least for a couple days).  The voice is encouraged by the memories of everyone I shared my weekend plans with saying some version of "good for you!"  Well, maybe not everyone.  Just when I started feeling okay ~ feeling like Christi - not mommy, not hon, not Miss Christi, just Christi again, I heard another voice.  The voice of one of the people I love most in the world.  A voice across a phone line that was struggling and it makes my heart hurt.  And then comes the guilt.  The "what the hell are you doing - you don't deserve this,  You are a selfish, selfish person and you are just running away from your responsibilities.  Grow up.  Be a better person.  Think about other people."  

Leave it to me to screw up a weekend away by making it make me feel worse than I did before I left.

*I wrote this late Sunday night/early Monday morning, but couldn't get in to blogger from Paula's computer, so hence the wacked out time line if you notice that kind of stuff. *

Coronado Island

My last night in San Diego we ventured across the "big blue bridge" (trying saying that 5 times fast) to Coronado Island. We saw Hotel del Coronado ~ made famous by the Marilyn Monroe film "Some Like It Hot". It was HUGE and very intimidating. They wanted $80 in the gift shop for a polo shirt; I don't really want to know how much it costs to stay there.

You can see the skyline of San Diego in the second picture, which is across the bay.

San Diego Pictures

A few pictures from our trip to San Diego. The first two are from when we took a cruise around the San Diego bay harbor ~ home of navy ships and where cruise ships dock. The next two are from Torrey Pines beach that we kind of stumbled upon the second night. I love the sunset one. And the one of my "surfer dude", of course. :)

San Diego day 1.5

I wanted to say that it was San Diego day 1, but since we technically got here yesterday, I'll name it 1.5. Here some highlights (and for anyone who doesn't know, Adam is out here taking classes for work, so I decided to tag along for a couple days ... kind of a second honeymoon/mommy relaxation/hopefully make travel less stressful for Adam by not being alone trip).

* I had a really difficult time driving to the airport. I kept trying to make Adam talk to me about silly things so that I wouldn't think about leaving the kids. His solution was to quiz me on my multiplication tables. I got stuck on 64 x 64. :)
* Our flights went smoothly. Both were overbooked, so we weren't able to get seats together on the Denver - San Diego leg, but that was okay.
* Adam was very excited to see what kind of car we got at the car rental place; he was desperately hoping that they would mess up and give us a convertible or jeep or something ... we got a minivan. HOT DOG! Its a very cool minivan, though. The most un-mom-mobile like one I've ever seen.
* I was anxious to do the San Diego bay Harbor tour, so we decided to do that yesterday afternoon after we arrived. We missed the 2 hour tour, which I was bummed about (for $5 more you see the entire bay), but I decided that most of what I wanted to see was on the 1 hour south bay tour. Of course we missed the south bay tour, too. Bah! So we did the north tour, which was still nice, but about 75% of it was about the Navy ships. Cool, but not all that interesting to me. We did get some good views of Coronado island, though.
* I had the BEST clam chower (chowdah, as Jeff says) in a really long time at the San Diego Pier Cafe last night. Adam *almost* ordered samon, which is HUGE since he is a proclaimed hater of all things seafood (other than the shrimp appetizer at Upstream .. yum), but backed out at the last second and got a burger. We may get him over to the dark side yet this trip.
* We shopped/walked/had supper last night at Seaside Village at the SD bay. Really cute area.
* Today Adam is off to class.
* I finished my first book of the trip (3 more in my suitcase).
* Its about 70 degrees and sunny right now. Too cold to actually go IN the pool, but I think I'll put some shorts and a tank top on and head down with a new book and my iPod to get some fresh air.

And I'm sure you're all wondering ... I've only called home 3 times so far. :) Showing great restraint, don't you think?

Interesting thing is that San Diego reminds me a lot of my trip with my mom a few years ago to San Francisco ... which is strange because I've always thought that Northern California life vs Southern California is supposed to be radically different. Maybe its just that we spent so much time in the SD "bay" area yesterday. I think we're going to hit the beach later this afternoon, dudes, so stayed tuned.