Is there a support group for this?

Hello.  My name is K. C., and I'm a Disneyholic.

We just returned from our yearly trip to Walt Disney World.  People always have an opinion about our vacations: either they think it's wonderful or they don't get it at all.  The naysayers think we're crazy to go to the same place over and over or for taking little kids on a trip that they won't remember.  Bah humbug is what I say to that.

I have been going to WDW with my family since I was a little girl.  I have amazing memories of being there with my parents, my brother, my grandparents, my aunt, and my cousins.  We went so many times together that I lost count.  I knew that when I started my own family, I wanted to continue the tradition.  Luckily, I was smart enough to marry a man who loves WDW as much as I do, and he is ready and willing to go as often as I am.  We have taken the kids with us every time because that's what a family vacation is all about; quite frankly, I can't imagine going without them.  (Well, I can imagine it, but I'd never do it.)  We have gone with my parents, Trevor's parents, and my brother and his family.  We even took our fabulous sitter, Nicole, with us one time because we wanted her to experience the fun with us!  We get to see Trevor's aunt Ruth and cousin Meg while we're in Florida as well.

One of the great things about WDW is its concern for people with food allergies.  It's not a true vacation for me when I have to worry about what Dallas is eating, and that happens everywhere we visit except WDW.  As soon as I make our dining reservations, I note Dallas's food allergies on the reservations.  At the restaurants, a chef comes to our table to either tell me what Dal can and cannot eat on the buffet or to create a special allergen-free meal just for my boy.  There are always a ton of options available to him, so he doesn't feel like he's missing out on what the rest of us are eating.  That's reason enough for me to return again and again.

As far as the kids not remembering the trips when they're so young, I call shenanigans on that.  Lottie has been to WDW eight times now; Dallas has gone six times plus once in the womb.  They DO remember previous trips and comment on them all the time.  On our most recent trip, Lottie remembered being at a restaurant two years ago with Aunt Ruth.  She also remembered her favorite ride, the Great Goofini, with no prompting.  And even if the kids wouldn't remember the trips, so what?  Trevor and I remember them, and that's what counts.  We have photos and memories of each trip to share with the kids as they get older.  That logic just doesn't make sense to me anyway.  The kids won't remember the books I read to them when they were little, so does that mean I shouldn't read to them until elementary school?  Should I basically keep them in the house all day since they won't remember going anywhere?  I think not.  The happiness in their faces is worth every penny we spend, every crazy travel moment, and each minute we're away from home.

Each trip we have taken has been a different experience.  When the kids were really little, the pace was slower and the rest periods much longer.  Now that neither Lottie nor Dallas will nap any more, we tend to explore the parks until mid-afternoon when they get pretty tired.  During this trip, both kids were water bugs.  We spent a lot of time at the pool at Bay Lake Tower.  I knew Lottie would be all about swimming, but Dallas has never liked being in the water.  I was stunned that he absolutely loved being in the shallow end of the zero-entry pool.  They both wanted to spend a lot of time at the pool, and Trevor and I obliged.  It was great to have Pop Pop there, too, to give T and I a little break from the chlorine.  There were some evenings that we walked over to the Magic Kingdom in the evening, but we didn't do it every night like we have in the past.  Swimming so much made for two tired kids!  And this was the first time we let the kids stay awake to watch the fireworks.  As expected, Lottie loved them, and Dallas was unhappy about the loud noises.  Despite the noise, it was really cool to have that moment with them.   (Note: it was cool for me, but poor T almost had a stroke.  We watched the fireworks show from the top floor of Bay Lake Tower, and he wasn't too fond of having the kids up so high.  And he thinks I'm the worrier?  Ha!)

WDW is truly a place where a kid can be a kid.  With how quickly kids seem to grow up these days, I'm thrilled to watch my children run, play, laugh, and act their ages.  They both know that the characters are just people dressed up, but that doesn't stop them from being enchanted with each new person they meet.  Lottie earnestly told Ariel all about our upcoming move to Valpo, and Dallas blew kisses to Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore.  They both dressed like pirates and carried swords around with them wherever they went; no one even gave them a second look unless it was to compliment their choice of clothing.  I think that's the way childhood should be; kids should be who and what they want to be without pressure or judgement.  

So we'll continue to take our kids to WDW and other places as well.  I definitely want them to experience the world and all it has to offer, but I also want them to have happy memories of time spent together as a family in a place full of magic and wonder.  

My Rocky Mountain High

I was lucky enough to travel to Colorado recently to visit my BFF, Tiffany.  The travel itself was exhausting and crazy, as it always is, but it was worth every second.

I was supposed to fly from Lexington to Dallas then Dallas to Denver on Thursday night.  I arrived at the airport in Lexington with plenty of time to check in and get through security.  Turns out I was really super-early as there was terrible weather in Dallas, and I wasn't able to leave Thursday night at all.  I went home, slept for a few hours, and arrived back at the airport on Friday at 4:30 AM.  After hours and hours of traveling, I arrived in Denver around 9:00 AM.  Tiffany was there waiting to whisk me away to Fort Collins.

I spent Friday morning hanging out with Tiffany at her amazing house with the beautiful view of the mountains.  Tiffany's decorating is the perfect combination of eclectic, funky, vintage, and comfortable.  Simply put, it's stunning.  We spent Friday afternoon walking around Old Town, and then I got to see my other fantastic friend, Mike.  Tiffany, Mike, and I were all friends at Butler University, and we have remained friends ever since.  The three of us got lots of treats from Whole Foods and cracked up the rest of the night.  There was even a genuine spit-take from Mike.  Classic.

How gorgeous is this guest room in Tiffany's house?  

Saturday morning, Tiffany and I drove up to Estes Park.  We had huge plans to stay at the Stanley Hotel; the Stanley is what inspired Steven King to write _The Shining._   We were even going to stay in the room where he stayed: room 217.  We were on the road, about five minutes from the hotel, when Tif's phone rang.  Someone from the Stanley was calling to say that a pipe had burst and we couldn't use the room.  Now, if you know Tiffany, you know she rarely gets mad.  This was one of the times I could feel the rage coming off her in waves.  The woman from the Stanley ended up giving us another room for free and threw in breakfast as well.  We were disappointed, but really, we just wanted the bragging rights of staying in room 217.  We decided to make the best of a free room, and we went on our way.

After checking in, we went to our lovely room with this view:

Incredible!  The day before, I was in Kentucky: now I got to look at the Rocky Mountains!  The only problem with the room was that it was 81 degrees, and the Stanley doesn't have air-conditioning.  We turned off the heat, opened the windows, and prayed it would cool off before bedtime.  We had a bite to eat (and maybe a drink) in the hotel restaurant before our ghost tour.  Spooooky!  Our tour guide, Teri, was very sweet and knowledgable about the history of the Stanley hotel.  It was really fascinating to hear how it all was started and what has happened on the grounds.  Tif and I, as usual, cracked each other up during the tour, but we were also respectful of Teri and the rest of the group.  I did ask Teri if she knew about the "burst pipe" in room 217, and she didn't know anything about it.  There was some sort of paranormal conference that weekend with famous paranormal experts.  Tif and I think that someone else offered to pay out the nose for room 217, hence the burst pipe story.

This is my "Will there be ghosts in our room tonight?" face

After the ghost tour, we hung out in the room for a while and watched _The Shining_ which plays on a continuous loop on the hotel's TV system.  We had another quick bite in the restaurant, then headed out for ghost stories by the campfire.  We assumed that this would take place outside because that's where campfires are, right?   We even stopped by the gift shop and bought matching furry hats because it was chilly up in the mountains at night.  The sign even said that blankets would be provided, and we were ready for some marshmallows and specters.  We bundled up and wandered the grounds looking for the fire.  We finally found it...in a fireplace.  The ghost stories were INSIDE.  We laughed and took a seat, but after about fifteen minutes, we had to flee.  It was about 85 degrees in that room, and we just couldn't take it anymore.  Then we thought we would treat ourselves to dessert from room service, but every time we called the room service number, we got the restaurant's voicemail.  Sigh.  In addition, the room had only cooled down to a balmy 74 degrees or so.  We reluctantly closed the curtains for the night so we wouldn't wake up with the sun, turned off the tv, and went to bed.  (This is an important detail.)

A trick of the light or purple orbs at the end of the hall?  

The next morning, we woke up a little late due to the time change.  Darn you, Daylight Savings!  We went to the restaurant and ordered about five things on the menu because, you know, it was free!  During breakfast, I thought to ask Tiffany if she had closed the doors to the TV armoire sometime in the night.  She hadn't. As I hadn't either, we wondered how the doors closed.  After breakfast, we went back to our room and experimented with the armoire doors.  It would have taken a fair bit of force to get those doors shut; we knew it wasn't the wind because we had closed the curtains in the night and no breeze had gotten through.  Did a friendly visitor shut the doors for us?  Maybe.  There have been numerous reports of strange happenings in room 413, so perhaps we didn't need room 217 after all.

Ghosts!  Specters!  Haints!  We're scared!  (But we're also adorbs in our matching hats.)

We left Estes Park Sunday morning and did a bit of shopping in Boulder.  We also met Mike again for dinner at the Happy Sumo, and the sushi was incredible.  We picked up Tiffany's daughter in Thornton where she had spent an exciting weekend with her grandparents, and we were off again to Fort Collins.  We stayed up as late as we could Sunday night to squeeze in every last minute we could together.  Sadly, I realized that I'm not twenty anymore, and I didn't make it too late before I had to go to bed.  I blame the altitude for my exhaustion because it certainly can't be that I'm getting older.

My trip was over way too soon.  Tiffany and Frankie took me to the airport Monday morning.  It took no time to get through security, and I meandered through the airport for a while, sniffing back tears because I already missed my friends.  My flight boarded, and then we were stuck on the tarmac for a while because there was bad weather in Chicago.  We finally arrived in the Windy City, and I had an almost three hour layover.  After three gate changes, I finally got on a plane to Lexington and arrived home around 10:00 PM.

The visit was way too short, but it was fantastic.  It was just what I needed before I start the insanity of the next few months.  There's nothing like good friends to make a girl feel better about anything that may be worrying her.  Thanks, Tiffany and Mike, for showing me such an amazing time.  Love you guys!  And thanks to Trevor for taking such good care of the kids while I was gone.  You're a good man, T.

Livin' large in the Noog

Typically, Trevor and I would spend our anniversary with a quiet dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Holly Hill Inn.  This year, we decided to go a different route.  Actually, we didn't have a babysitter for the weekend, so we were stuck with the children.  (I kid!  I kid.  I mean, we didn't have a sitter, but we didn't feel stuck with our offspring.  Not entirely...) We wanted to do a short weekend getaway, so we decided to head to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Why, you may ask?  Chattanooga actually has a lot of kid-friendly activities, and it's a fairly short drive from Lexington.  Where better to celebrate our love than the Noog?  

Trevor took Friday off work, and we left around 8:30 AM.  The drive wasn't terrible; the kids listened to music for a while, and we eventually let them turn on their portable DVD players.  T and I were thrilled that they were wearing headphones because that meant we got to listen to our own music and actually talk to each other without cartoon voices blaring in our ears.  

We stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s with a play place; our kids managed to get sweaty in mere seconds.  That was great, though, because it allowed them to burn some energy before getting back into the car.  Sadly, the battery in Dallas’s DVD player went kaput, so he and Lottie shared a player for the rest of the trip.  I was proud of them for sharing so nicely, but I was pretty bummed to have to listen to Toy Story 2 in the front seat.  Ah, technology is a cruel mistress.

As soon as we arrived in the Noog, we headed straight for the zoo.  I’m used to the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Brookfield Zoo, and that’s definitely not what we got.  I wondered if we had made a mistake by making it our first stop.  The Chattanooga Zoo is small, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was really well put-together and organized.  There weren’t any big animals like tigers and lions, but there were neat things like red pandas and a capybara, the world’s largest rodent.  (I found myself fascinated with the capybara, by the way, which is odd because I really hate rodents.  Hate them.  I would sleep in a bed full of spiders and snakes before I would look twice at a rodent.  Or birds.  Birds are rodents with wings.)  The kids enjoyed the zoo, and it was small enough that we didn’t need to bother with strollers.  As I watched the kids navigate around, I realized that although they liked the animals a lot, they seemed to really enjoy exploring all of the pathways that lead from exhibit to exhibit.  For them, it wasn’t about the destination at all: it was all about the journey.  Wow.  It’s humbling to realize that my kids tend to be smarter than I am. 

After the zoo, we checked in at our hotel, the Chattanoogan, and took a walk to find dinner.  Downtown Chattanooga is nice, but it didn’t seem to be hoppin’ on a Friday night.  We seemed to be in more of a business district, though, so maybe we didn’t see all of the action.  We had ourselves some delicious barbeque and strolled back to the hotel.  Lottie and I bunked together the first night, and Dallas bunked with his daddy.  As Lottie would say, “Girl partners!  Yay!”  I showed Lottie how to really live the high life by watching TV in bed.  We don’t have a TV in our bedroom at home, and we never will, so lying in bed and watching TV – at night to boot! - was quite the treat for her.  When it was time for sleep around 8:30 PM, I turned out the light, which should be the general clue for “go to sleep”, but Lottie didn’t get the hint.  She rolled around on her bed, talked to herself, talked to me, and even repeatedly asked me questions: “Mommy, why do you wear a sleep mask?” (Because you insist on sleeping with a light on.)  “Mommy, why did you just move your arm?”  (Because I’m more comfortable this way.)  “Mommy, what day is today?”  (It’s Friday, babe.)  “No, Mommy.  Is today the day we go to Chattanooga?”  (Yes, honey.  We’re in Chattanooga.)  “Hey, Momma, why did you just move your pillow over?”  (I don’t know.  It just feels comfortable to me.)  “Momma, should we sleep in the same bed?”  (No way, sister.)  At this point, I finally told Lottie that I was going to sleep and I suggested she do the same.  Shockingly, she did. 

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel before heading to the Creative Discovery Museum.  If you have children and are within driving distance to Chattanooga, you need to immediately get in your vehicle and get thee to this haven of children’s fun.  Seriously, this place is AH-MAY-ZINGGGG.  I really think we could have spent two days here.  Every single thing at the museum is hands-on and just begging to be touched.  Anything your kid is into will be here: dinosaurs, bugs, art, music, water-play, climbing, and pretend-play.  While we were there, my kids climbed towers, slid down slides, sailed little boats, dug for dinosaur fossils, did art projects, and looked at a beehive.  That was all within an hour or so.  The kids were having a ball there, but we decided to head out to the aquarium after lunch.  That was probably a mistake.  The kids were exhausted and cranky because we had ripped them away from their nirvana, and they weren’t too thrilled about the fish. (Lottie did get to pet a stingray; it only took her about thirty minutes to muster up the courage to do it.)  Don’t get me wrong: the Tennessee Aquarium is HUGE.  There are two separate buildings that house exhibits and a third building with an IMAX theater. It’s a pretty stunning set-up.  When we realized that the kids didn’t want to see any more jellyfish or coral, we took them to a short movie at the IMAX.  It was a 3D movie about saving orangutans and elephants from poachers and deforestation.  The message was great, but I’m not sure how much the kids actually saw.  Neither of them wore the 3D glasses.  Sigh.  At the end, though, Dallas told me that he had a lot of fun at the movie and could we PLEASE do it again sometime.  So weird.  We ended up going back to the children’s museum for another hour or so before having dinner and calling it a night.

The second night, we swapped kids.  I don’t mean we picked new kids out from a selection in the lobby, though that might be interesting.  Dallas bunked with me, and Lottie got some time with her daddy.  Dallas was a much better roommate, in my opinion.  He didn’t talk as much as Lottie, and he contentedly played his Leapster until I told him it was time for lights-out.  He did try to work his magic, though, to sleep in the bed with me.  First he told me he thought he would just sleep in the bed with me.  When that was denied, he invited me to sleep in his bed.  I gently declined that lovely invitation as well and convinced him that we would both sleep better in our own beds.  There was one request I couldn’t overlook, though.  “Mommy, would you put a light on in the room so I can see you whenever I want to?”  C’mon.  Who’s going to say no to that?  That’s a boy who loves his momma.

We left Sunday morning after breakfast.  We had to get home in time to drop the kids off with the grandparents so T and I could really celebrate our anniversary by seeing the new and final Harry Potter flick.  The trip home was not as magical as the rest of the Noog had been.  Dallas threw a fit at Arby’s in Jellico, TN, because he couldn’t eat the French fries, Lottie cried because Dallas was crying, and I cried because they were both crying.  Trevor didn’t cry, but that’s because he bolted down his lunch and left his weepy family in a booth while he got gas.  We also realized that we had left our backpack/diaper bag in the Noog.  Damn you, Jellico.  Our life was peachy until we met the likes of you!

All in all, it was a really fun weekend.  I love watching my kids see new sights and explore new places.  They’re smart and funny and curious about everything.  What more could I ask for? Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the drama and the hell of traveling with two little kids, especially when I invariably end up in tears.  It tends to be a lot less fun for me, but I suppose that will change and get easier.  And just about the time I start to worry and stress less will be when neither kid wants to vacation with us at all.