Disney Tips for Parents: Where to Visit

I've been going to Orlando, FL every few years since I was 9 years old. We've seen a lot in Orlando over the past 25 years and I feel that I have enough well-rounded insight to aid someone who's never been to Disney World on how to get the most out of their trip to the happiest place on earth!



Speaking of being 9 years old, that is really a great age for most children to really enjoy all that Orlando, FL has to offer. You're old enough to appreciate good food and good entertainment, but still young enough to squeal in genuine delight when spotting characters in the various theme parks. My sister was 6 years old, and that my friends is the PERFECT age. Too old for midday naps, but still a child in every way. So, my sister and I were 6 and 9, respectively, when we took our first jaunt to Orlando. Over the years I've made mental notes about things I would do differently with each trip, and as an adult, I feel like I've got hands-on experience on how to keep the family happy on a trip to Orlando; especially a family with at least one toddler on the trip; So let's get started!

Tip 1: Take the time of year into consideration Disney World is a truly magical place. But even Disney World gets OLD in 90 degree weather. Especially with the park completely filled to capacity and hour-long minimum wait times for each attraction.

Suggestion #1: If at all possible, avoid Disney World after Memorial Day and before Labor Day if you have children younger than 5 years old. Visit Universal Orlando or Sea World which are never as ridiculously crowded as Disney World on a summer day. If not possible (as is the case for most people, obviously) here are a few more suggestions.



Suggestion #2: Be at the Disney Main Gate 30 minutes before it opens. Try to be within the first couple hundred people to enter the park, if possible. This is very possible if you have small toddlers who wake up at 7am anyway! NOTE: Once you have entered the park, go all the way to the back of the park as far as you can get. Human studies show that most people do one of two things: they either stop at the first thing they see once they enter the gate, or they immediately run to their favorite attractions and jump on those. If you can get further into the park and work your way forward, believe it or not, you'll actually be better off than if you follow the crowd.

Suggestion #3: Go the Disney "Fast Pass" route. Disney offers what are called Fast Passes at all of their most popular attractions. And trust me, if your child is older than 3, they will be ALL about these particular rides/shows. So after heeding Suggestion #2, go ahead and get your Fast Pass for the ride your toddler seems the most excited about. The pass should display a time to come back that is one to two hours later than the current time. Spend that 45 min searching for characters in the park, grabbing a snack, or visiting a much less popular attraction to kill the time. If the kids are younger than 5, I promise they should be okay with this. Be sure to keep track of the time, so that you don't venture off too far from the area of your Fast Pass attraction. Also, be sure to confirm that the attraction you're visiting to kill the time won't spill over into your time to visit the Fast Pass attraction. Once your time listed on your Fast Pass arrives, keep in mind that you may still have a 30 min wait if it's noon or afterward. Once you leave the Fast Pass attraction, repeat this whole process for the rest of the day. (i.e. find another Fast Pass ride that the kids will love, get your passes, and do something else in the meantime) Suggestion #4 is pretty important so I will list it as another Tip.



Tip 2: Use one of Tami's Disney World calendar methods As you may know, Disney World Orlando has 4 theme parks. Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Disney Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios), and Animal Kingdom. There are two tricks of the trade frequent Disney travelers like myself use when determining which park to visit on which day.

Method 1: The FBT (Florida Bureau of Travel) method Most people in the US work Mon - Fri, and don't take vacations in the middle of the week. So Saturday is the incoming TRAVEL DAY for the bulk of people visiting Orlando. Trust me, there are still a TON of people already in FL visiting the parks on Saturday, but it doesn't come close to the sheer number that will be ready to visit the parks by Sunday! Also take into consideration the fact that most people visit the Disney parks each day in this order: 1)Magic Kingdom 2)Epcot 3)Disney Studios 4)Animal Kingdom.

So with this knowledge, if you are arriving to Orlando sometime Saturday late afternoon, early evening like most people, you don't want to waste money on visiting a park with only a few hours to play. Once you wake up bright and early Sunday morning, eat a very light breakfast (you don't want to set yourself up for feeling extremely tired before noon even hits, so I suggest sticking with continental breakfast), and get to that Main Gate. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT visit Magic Kingdom on Sunday. EVERYONE does this, so dare to be different. Epcot is a great park to visit, in my opinion. Lots of cool rides that the little ones can ride. Most popular is Spaceship Earth. It's the landmark of Epcot, and the kiddies will most likely want to ride it, just because it looks so cool from the outside! But again, it's the first ride you hit, so you may consider implementing my previous suggestion from Tip 1 which involves making your way deep into the park and working your way back to the front. This may work differently at Epcot, however, because it's twice the size of Magic Kingdom, not to mention that Epcot is made up of two distinct parks in itself so the "go further into the park" rule can be implemented separately in either one of them. On Monday, visit Disney Studios. Tuesday, Animal Kingdom. This would put you back at Magic Kingdom by Wednesday.

Method 2: The Extra Magic Hour method When you choose to stay at a Disney resort, you receive an EMH (extra magic hour) before the Theme Park opens and after it closes to the general public. Only one of the 4 parks has an EMH each day. So if
Monday happens to be Magic Kingdom's day to have EMH, none of the other parks will have it on that same day. Here's the trick: avoid the park that has the EMH on that day, because it will be extremely crowded due to being visited by almost all of the guests staying on the Disney resort. So if Magic Kingdom has the EMH, skip Magic Kingdom that day. Any of the others will be less crowded. Here's some more information about the EMH.



Method 3: Pad your trip to Disney with other fun things Traveling with toddlers to Disney World for the first time is going to wear you out. Especially if you have a small toddler. The frequent trips to the potty, the need for a nap (lest they become a public embarrassment to you), the heat, etc..., all of these things make for very grumpy parents during the summer at Disney World. My suggestion to you is to leave at least 1 day between each visit to the Disney parks to do something other than Disney. Please trust me, you will love me forever if you try this! Every other day, my family takes a "rest day". This involves either laying around the suite watching tv, hitting the pool, staying in the area doing some shopping at the Mall at Millenia, or just visiting another theme park all together. You could even drive 45 - 50 minutes south east and hit Cocoa Beach for a relaxing time there! Even those with the patience of Job will need a break from the over stimulation and excitement of Disney. Also, don't even think about utilizing the Disney Park Hopper if you've got toddlers. Total waste, because you'll most likely never get around to more than one park in one day; the kids (and you) will be restless by mid afternoon and need a nap so that just won't leave enough time to get your money's worth unless you plan on keeping them out really late.

I really hope that the tips come in handy. Please email me or leave comments with any feedback!

Disney Tips for Parents: The Drive Down

I've got several previous posts from over the past few years about the trips I've taken to Orlando, FL. They are labeled "Orlando" or "Disney" if you want to back search for them. I've been itching to write a post specifically for parents taking toddlers to Orlando. A friend of mine will be traveling to Orlando soon with her family, and it reminded me that I never posted my tips here in this blog! Without the proper planning, insight, advice, etc..., this type of trip can sometimes vary from extremely frustrating to an all out nightmare. I've broken these tips into 3 parts, with one to be published each day over the next 3 days: Travel (the drive down), where to stay: the pros and cons to prepare for, and where to visit: which places are more family friendly. This post, as the title suggests, is on the subject of "the drive down". If you're driving to Orlando from metro-Atlanta, the total time on the road is approx. 6 hours, not counting lunch or other rest breaks, of course. My family of 4 has done this trip 3 times since the kids were 3 and 2 years old, and by now we have it down to a science.

Tip 1: Have a portable DVD player in the vehicle

If you haven't invested in one already, be sure to borrow one from someone if at all possible. Be sure to toss 3 - 5 of the kid(s) favorite movies somewhere in the vehicle. Suggestion: Don't fire up the first movie until you've been on the road for about 30 - 45 minutes or so; this may help stretch out the amount of time you get before you have to make your first stop. As an example, this is how my kids operate: by the time they appear restless (around 45 minutes) BAM! We just pop in their favorite movie, pass the popcorn and drinks back to them, and they are set for the next 90 minutes! By the time the movie ends, you will already have driven for more than 2 hours (over a third of the entire drive) with only one movie down! After the movie goes off, go ahead and stop for a potty/snack/stretch their legs break. By the time you get back in the vehicle and pop in the second movie, they will probably be asleep within 20 minutes, and sleep for about 1 1/2 hours at the very least. When they wake up it will probably be time for a lunch break anyway, and you will already be over 4 hours (2/3 of the total way) into your drive! Suggestion: have headphones to use with the DVD player; otherwise, your FM signal will most likely be compromised by kids movies the whole way down.



Tip 2: Be sure to load up the mp3 player with all of your favorites My hubby and I have done so many road trips over the 14 years we've been together (dating and marriage) that we've also got this down to a science as well. 6 hours is a very short trip to us, and unless my hubby is extremely exhausted, he does all of the driving. We usually spend the first 30 - 40 minutes talking and getting caught up with everything we haven't had a chance to talk about. After we're done with that, the hubby always turns the volume up on the iPod. This really helps the time go by SO fast. I always have my own iPod with all of my road-trip favorites as well...I actually have a "Road Trip" play list on my iPod at this point! I also rip my favorite DVD's onto my computer and upload them to my iPod ahead of time as well. That REALLY helps the time go by fast for the passenger! Suggestion: Also, don't forget your Sudoku/Crossword books, novels, magazines, whatever you love reading to pass the time, if that doesn't make you car sick.

Tip 3: Chart out where you plan to stop beforehand, if at all possible
You will probably only need to stop a maximum of 3 times during the entire trip, hopefully. And there's nothing worse to me than ending up waiting too long for a potty/food break and having no choice but to stop in Bohunk, South Georgia. (especially if you're black, you might want to be planning ahead to avoid this) Here are some suggestions: the cities of Tifton and Moultrie are within 2 to 2 1/2 hours away from Atlanta. Lots of fast food options here: the Moultrie exit even has a nice CiCi's Pizza that we always try to stop at. Valdosta is 3 hours away and is the halfway mark. And Lake City, FL is 4 hours away from metro Atlanta. We love the Steak and Shake in Lake City and there is a mall there also where I usually stop and get my mani/pedi (if I can't make time before leaving metro Atlanta) while Chris walks around with the kids for about 30 - 45 minutes or so. The mall is kind of ghetto in my opinion, but what started out as an accident 5 years ago has turned into a tradition. :-D



Tip 4: Take lots of $1 bills and quarters Once you leave Lake City, FL, you will only have about another hour and 15 minutes or so before you start hitting the infamous Florida Turnpike tollbooths. And depending on what part of Orlando you're staying in, you can hit up to as many as 6 of those things! I would suggest having about $15 in singles on hand just for the 2.5 billion tolls you will have to pass through.

Please come by tomorrow for the post on "Where to Visit" which will probably be my favorite to blog about!!! :-)

Dream Family Vacation

I know that for most people the words "dream" and "vacation" don't belong in the same sentence as the word "family", unless the word "NOT" is also in place. SO not the case for me and my family.

My entire family has been vacationing in Destin, Florida since early Sunday afternoon. We are staying in a 4-bedroom, 3-story home in a subdivision on the beach. I do not even know how to describe this home and do it justice. I always brag about the villa we stay in every year in Orlando, but this tops that by miles. This home has everything! My parents bedroom has a terrace overlooking the pier. The bedroom Chris and I are staying in has a HUGE garden tub that has gotten much use! (TMI??) My sister and her hubby have a ginormous room on the bottom level that is connected to the kids' room. All four kids are together and loving it! There is a backyard for the kids to play when we're not out on the town. The third floor is a loft with cushy chairs, a tv, bathroom, refrigerator, and TWO more terraces overlooking the pier, beach, and the town of Destin.

This week, we've all gone to the beach together, an amusement park, gone on a glassbottom boat for a dolphin tour, eaten at Fudpucker's restaurant (legendary around these parts, I think), and SO much more! We have been playing board games, and cards together some evenings. Other times, we just sit around and read, surf the web, or whatever we feel like doing, which is in my eyes, the PERFECT vacation!

This morning, we will be checking out something called Gulfarium, and playing the rest of the day by ear. I could not have planned a better vacation if I was given an entire year to do so. I honestly feel that the Lord knew how much my family needed this amazingly wonderful time together after the extremely morbid end of 2007 we experienced. Thank you SO much Lord for blessing my family with this special time together. This has officially become a Hill-Gill-Lyseight family tradition!!!

I'll post pics on Facebook once we arrive back in Atlanta and have time to settle in a bit.

Here we go again...

...with the weight thing.

I know, it's a never-ending thing with me. This time around, however, I'm starting in a much better position than usual. I'm already in pretty good shape, and in my opinion I look awesome in my size 6's. However, I'm now embarking on something that I haven't ever concerned myself with in the past. This time, I'm going hardcore: I want to get into a floral print string bikini.

Let me just say that I truly believe that if I lived in some other region of the US, I wouldn't even care about stuff like this. But I live in Atlanta. Most of us are very superficial here, and care a lot about physical appearance (see Miami, LA). It's just the way it is. Or maybe it's just the people that I'm closest too, and whose opinions I care the most about? Hmmm....I'll explore that one later.

So I'm on a serious mission to be bikini-ready by June 20 (beginning of summer). I am actually excited about it! As I mentioned, I'm already tank-top and flip-flop ready. The main motivation for the bikini-feat is the fact that my family is going on a trip to Myrtle Beach mid-July. I have to represent. I do NOT usually do the beach and I don't swim; we're the kind of people that go to the beach just because it's pretty, not to actually get into the water. So I don't usually have a need for a bikini. I typically just wear shorts and a tank top.

Thanks to my friend Vanessa, I'm already on victoriasecret.com looking at swimsuits. Maybe this will keep my Zaxby's-chicken-wing-eating self in the gym at least 4 days a week. Actually, the gym isn't the problem. If I can just remember to use the push-back method I'll be in good shape. (Push-back from the table)

Orlando Trip - Days 3 - 7 in a nutshell

Quick explanation about the Orlando trip posts. As you probably already know, my family visits Orlando, FL every year in late Winter/early Spring. Since my hubby began law school a few years ago, we have started vacationing in Orlando during the week of his Spring Break. It always occurs during the last week of February through the first week of March. Due to my obsession with Orlando, FL, and also my new found discoveries of how to have the best Orlando vacation ever, I blogged during the entire week there last year.

This year, I didn't do that. We were in TOTAL relaxation mode this year, and I just decided not to do anything that would require me to actually have to think and ponder. :-) But, I still want to share the great times and also share a few great tips. What follows is a rushed version of the remaining 4 days of my family vacation; bear in mind that I will add updates to this post for the remaining days of the trip as time permits, but I will mostly likely also move on and start posting about some other things that are going on in my life as well.

Mon, Mar 3 -

On this particular day we ended up going back to Universal Studios. We decided to do things a little differently, though, in an effort to determine whether or not we could provide an even more relaxing, productive day. For starters, we got up a few hours earlier; no sleeping in until noon. We all ate breakfast in the villa. Just a small bowl of cereal for the hubby and I, and pop tarts and milk for the kids. We already understood via experience that by the time we actually leave the villa, drive to the theme park, get through the entrance to the park and get ready to start actually enjoying our day it would be time to eat again within 1 or 2 hours anyway, so why stuff ourselves with the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity? Besides, stuffing ourselves this way previously only made us extremely drowsy by the time we actually got settled in inside of the park. I want to point out that the villa we stay in is located in the Buena Vista area, close to the Walt Disney World manigate. So the villa is not close to Universal Orlando at all. And we love taking the scenic route down International Drive to get to Universal; this day was no exception. On the way to Universal, we pass Pointe Orlando which is an area mostly visited by people staying at the Orlando World Conference Center. It's VERY nice, and there's about a half-mile stretch on this area of International Drive that is really pretty and just buzzing with activity. We thought it would be fun to check some of these things out since we kept driving back and forth past them to and from Universal. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any activities in that area that were age appropriate for our kids. They were either too small or would have been completely uninterested in any of the things we saw at the time. So we continued on for another 10 minutes until we arrived at Universal.

Our morning breakfast idea definitely paid off. We ended up being able to do a lot more in less time, and we never really felt drowsy at all for the entire time we were in the park. Even the kids, as young as they are, were great the whole time; didn't even need naps. We rode ET: The Ride, one of my classic favorites, watched the Barney in the Park show (the kids' favorite), saw the Animal Adventure show for the first time which I highly recommend, and we also had lunch at my favorite spot Boulangerie. We were already tired of burgers, hot dogs, and fries, and Boulangerie was a great change of pace with its yummy crossaint sandwiches and new potato salad. YUM!

By 4:30pm, we felt content that we had done all that we needed to do for the day. Our tickets are unlimited entry for 7 consecutive days, so we didn't feel the need to pack too much stuff into any one day since we would be in Orlando for another 2 1/2 days.

Orlando Trip - Day 2 (Sun, Mar 2)

The kids didn't go to bed until after 1am on the evening of Day 1. So the hubby and I didn't get to bed until even later. We all sleep in Sunday morning as I feel EVERYONE should do at least one day while on vacation. We don't even get out of the bed until after 10am. Everyone finally gets dressed and we packed the kids carry-along bags for our first day at Universal Studios! We leave the villa and drive across the street to I-Hop. This is as good a time as any to point out that there are a myriad of yummy, delicious I-Hops in Orlando, FL. A couple of them are "meh", but most of the ones I've eaten in have the BEST food ever. Why do ALL of the I-Hops in Atlanta suck so bad??!! The best ones in Atlanta are about as good as the "meh" ones in Orlando. This is a major source of frustration. Moving on. We get a waitress with a New York accent thicker than Debi Mazar. I decide I love her based on this alone. GREAT food and service as always.

We leave I-Hop and drive 15 minutes northwest down I-4 to Universal Studios. (Tip: I bought 2-park, unlimited entry tickets for hubby, son, and myself. Only $83 per ticket, and the tickets are good for up to 7 consecutive days. A total STEAL!) We had a great day. It felt like there was no one at all in the park until later in the afternoon. We spent most of the day just enjoying the gorgeous weather and ambiance, but we also rode the Jimmy Neutron ride, Woody Woodpecker roller coaster, and had lunch at Nathan's Hot Dog stand. The kids got pictures with Spongebob, Dora, and Jimmy Neutron which was also fun! We decided that we would have to visit Universal Studios again the next day to take in some fun shows that we knew the kids would enjoy.

We get back to the villa by 6pm or so. We decide to just have dinner in the villa, and by dinner I mean turkey and swiss sandwiches with chips. We all get to bed much earlier this night, thankfully.

More tips: Most visitors to Orlando (and Florida in general) come from all over the country, not just the surrounding states. According to the Florida Bureau of Transportation, since most people have to work Monday through Friday, most of the travelers to Florida get on the road on Friday evening/Saturday morning. Most vacationers don't get settled in until early evening on Saturday. This means that if you were to visit the Orlando theme parks on a Saturday, the park would be a lot less crowded than some other days. Most vacationers wake up in Florida on Sunday morning ready to hit the parks. Sunday will be your most crowded day at any theme park. There is a different formula to take into account for Walt Disney World based on the fact that it consists of 4 separate parks. I'll get into detail in the *tips* section of the Day 3 post.

Orlando Trip - Day 1 (Sat, Mar 1)

My hubby got up at 7am and took Dutch to the kennel on his way to his 9am Saturday morning class. I got my lazy butt out of the bed, showered, and retrieved my "To Pack" list. I threw everything on the list into my suitcase. The hubby's suitcase was already packed so I brought everything downstairs. I got the kids dressed and fed, and finished a little spot-cleaning here and there while waiting on the hubby to get home from school. He got home around 12:3pm and immediately began loading the truck with our already packed suitcases.

We finally hit the road at approximately 1:30pm. We made 4 stops before we got out of metro Atlanta: 1) Gas from QuikTrip, 2) New portable DVD player from BrandsMart in Morrow (the Titan doesn't have a DVD player and the kids need movies, movies, movies), 3) McDonald's in Jonesboro for the kids, and 4) Zaxby's in Jonesboro. (*Note to self, never consider living in Jonesboro - when did that area become so friggin' ghetto?)

We finally hit the road out of metro Atlanta at 3pm'ish. On the way down, we made a couple of stops at little gas stations in one-horse towns. After making a wrong turn off of the turnpike almost to Orlando, we finally got to the villa in Lake Buena Vista around 10pm. The kids ran inside and were SO excited! We let them run around until about midnight, and then everyone called it a night.

Name of villa: Cypress Pointe Grand Villas in Lake Buena Vista.

Planning a trip to Orlando

My family visits Orlando every year. Our kids are age 4 and 2 now, so this definitely factors in to the how's and what's of our trip planning. Each year I try to plan the trip so that it's better than the last. But at some point during every trip something happens that causes me to think to myself "I wish someone had told me to expect this!"

Here is how I plan to help others like me. My next few posts will be write-ups useful for families of young children visiting the Orlando, Florida area. I will divide the posts up so that they are topic specific. The very first post will be entitled "Where to stay".

Enjoy!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm in a pretty bouncy mood right now. In an hour or so, the hubby and I are meeting at Atlanta Fish Market in Buckhead for yummy din din! Afterward, we plan to catch a movie. You see, today is our Friday. :-)

We're both off beginning tomorrow through next Monday, and we are beside ourselves with joy! My mom is keeping the kids tonight, so that means we will have some alone time together. YES! In the morning, we will scoop up the kids and probably head up north to the outlets or something fun like that. Haven't decided yet. If it's as cooled down outside as the past few days have been, we might actually brave Stone Mountain or Grant Park. We'll see! The original plan was to visit the family in Alabama, but we ended up spending WAY too much money over the past two weeks. We're nervous about blowing all of our money on gas and food over the next couple of days, so we're going to keep our little hind parts right here in good ole GA this time.

Either way, I'm really feeling good right now. To top things off, this may have been the most productive week that I've ever had. No, seriously. Everything that I set out to do at the beginning of the week has been done. That leaves me with a satiated feeling that I can't describe.

I wish you joy and happiness, contentment at the very least, for this holiday weekend. Stay safe and get some rest...next stop, Thanksgiving!! :-)

No Place Like Home

What a wonderful adventure. But all good things on earth must come to an end. Here's a quick summary of Day 6 and Day 7:

Day 6 (Wednesday) - Vegging Out
We stayed in bed until around 9am. The kids woke up, came into our room, and hopped into our beds around 9:30am. My parents came over from their bedroom at around the same time completely dressed, and ready to leave for breakfast. They were going to be visiting Animal Kingdom and MGM. (I secretly wanted to go SO badly, but I didn't say anything) Chris, the kids and I continued to lie in the bed for another 45 minutes or so, until the kids made it clear that it was time for breakfast. We quickly bathed, dressed, packed up the kids' on-the-road bags and were out of the door by around 11:30am.

After a rapid meal at the IHOP down the street from the villa, we all started feeling pretty lethargic. Cassie began getting fussy, Olan was a little irritable, and Chris began slightly stressing about a huge paper that's due to be submitted this upcoming weekend. We still had a day left on our "Magic Your Way" Disney passes, and a part of me wanted to go to Animal Kingdom or MGM. But after assessing everyone else's moods, and taking my own fatigue into consideration, we just decided to drive to Downtown Disney to pay a little extra and upgrade our Disney Passes so that they wouldn't expire. This way, we can use those passes another time, preferably about two years from now at the earliest. The kids and I waited in the car while Chris took care of this.

Once Chris returned to the truck, we just decided to go back to the villa since everyone was obviously in need of some time to veg out. On the way, I decided that I wanted to go buy some S-Cables for our DVD player that we brought down with us. I figured that while Chris was working on his paper, and the kids were busy with their new toys, I needed to busy myself with something. We took a longer route down Hwy 535 to get to Orlando where we knew that a Best Buy was located. There, we bought the cables, along with the first season of Entourage (we don't have HBO, and Jeremy Piven is one of my favorites). When we got back to the villa I put the kids down for a nap. Chris went into the bedroom to work on his paper, and I stayed in the living room and watched "The Devil Wears Prada". AWESOME movie! I also spent the day washing clothes and packing the suitcase here and there.

We ended the day by getting some takeout from the T.G.I.F. down the road from the villa, and lamenting on the fact that our vacation was coming to a swift end.

Day 7 (Thursday) - And, we're out...
Woke up at 7:30, finished packing, and got the heck out of the villa by 10am. (Note: The villa charges you a $200 fee if you checkout after 10:00). We all went to Golden Corral for one last breakfast together in Orlando. Afterward, we said goodbye to my parents who were headed directly home. Chris, the kids, and I stopped by the Books-A-Million near Universal Studios so that I could buy some very expensive, but useful computer programming books in addition to the 6th installment of Harry Potter (The Half-Blood Prince). Chris also bought some very cool Christian books. We left the bookstore, and drove all the way to a town just outside of Valdosta to have lunch at Sonny's. VERY nice people there, and that includes the workers and the other patrons. It reminded us of why we love small towns and hate the city so much.

We finally made it back to Atlanta around 9pm. As soon as Chris unlocked and opened the door, the fresh pine scent hit us. I felt a warm fuzzy feeling take over. Before I could say anything, Chris said "There's no place like home". Amen to that. No matter how nice your vacation is, there's nothing like the feel of walking on your own carpet, and being in your own bed.

I'm adding pictures from the trip to facebook. Enjoy!

For Crying Out Loud

I have found myself in quite a pickle this evening. As I type this, my precious son of 3 years is screaming at the top of his lungs in protest over being put to bed. He is 3 years old, and he's upset about going to bed. Par for the course, maybe? I'm not so sure. Stay with me on this one.

My son goes to my mom's house every weekend or so to visit. He plays to his heart's content, and then promptly at 7:30pm he starts making his way towards the bedroom where he sleeps when he's there. He climbs into bed, and by 8pm he is sound asleep. That's the scenario at my parents' home. (My son is still screaming right now, by the way)

Here's how things go down when Mommy is home alone with the kids: Mommy is at work until right up until 6pm trying to finish all the work she took on that day so that she will continue to be the shining star among her peers. Mommy barely makes it to darling son's school on time to pick him up, and we usually don't make it home until around 6:45pm. Dinner isn't ready until around 7 or 7:15pm. We eat and watch one of his favorite shows. Between 7:30 and 8pm, we spend time reading ALL of the books he has stashed in the living room. By 8pm it is time for a bath. This is one of his favorite parts of the evening so there's no protesting yet. Then, the dreaded words come out of Mommy's mouth: Time for bed!

And let the drama ensue. Screaming, crying, "MOMMMMYYYY!!" I read him books, and let him watch another 30 minute show while I clean up. None of it matters. He knows that ultimately he will have to go to bed, and he is unhappy about this. Yet at my parents' house, he goes right to bed with no problem. While typing this, I just realized what the issue stems from (besides me just being a jacked-up mom).

My mom is retired. She's home all day with my son and daughter while they're at her home, so by the time bedtime rolls around, he's fulfilled his quota of loving "Grams" and "Pop Pop" time. Unfortunately, Mommy works all day so that in the future, he and his sister can attend a high-end private school funded by their attorney father who happens to currently be a full time student and not working, hence Mommy's full time job. Get my drift? It's a no-win situation, at this point.

I just pray that he grows out of it soon. By soon I mean by this upcoming weekend because we will SO be at Disney World for a week, and he will need his rest to keep up with Mommy. :-)

P.S. He's still screaming at the top of his lungs, and sounds so pitiful. But every time I give in, I contribute to the delinquency of a Mama's Boy and I'm trying to prevent that. But he's the cutest boy I've ever seen, so I'm signing off now to have cuddle time with my little angel and rock him to sleep.