Disney World

It's been a long time since a blog entry.... And that's because we were at Disney, and recovering! It was an unbelievably great time.

We did character meals every day, rode a ton of rides, spent a lot of time in the pool, and relaxed A LOT.

We stayed at Pop Century resort, which was great - especially with kids. The hotel rooms were small, but not cruise ship small. More like Motel 6 size. The value that you can squeeze out a vacation like this is amazing. We did an all inclusive type package which included meals, hotel, and park tickets. It left little to spend money on - just souvenirs.

The kids got into the pin trading this year, as a way for me to keep them away from buying those pesky souvenirs. It worked GREAT. The trick is to buy them pins that they HATE, and to get one for yourself to show them how it works. Once you break the ice on the whole thing, it's all downhill. For those who don't know about pin trading, here's how it works.
Almost all Disney cast members have lanyards with pins around their neck. Anyone is allowed to trade a pin for ANY of that cast members pins. It's the gift that keeps giving. The kids felt like they got a new gift everytime they traded. Victoria liked trading so much that on several occasions, she traded a pin for an identical pin.
Sure, the whole pin thing slows you down when the kids want to look at every pin on every cast member's lanyard, but it beats buying other stuff. Also, many cast members gave us free pins - Tinkerbell of all things (my new fav Disney char). I had fun giving pins away to other kids and explaining how it worked, while the kid's collection of pins somehow grew from the 4 that I bought, to over a dozen.
There is a whole underground market for rare pins, and on several occasions we were told that it was a bad trade because we had a "rare" pin. I explained to the cast members that the kids don't care about rare or ebay selling. They just like to trade.

Favorite rides? Me: lounge chair at the pool; Christian: Space Mountian; Tori: Dumbo.

Favorite Moments? Me: All of it; Christian: Bragging to Tori about how he remembered all of this from years past; Tori: Butterfly garden at epcot.

We spent a lot of time doing the less headliner stuff this year while we took it slow. Of all things, the Epcot Kidcot tour was AWESOME (World Showcase, Epcot). The kids traveled around the "world" collecting special charms for their masks (paper masks obtained in "Mexico"). Each stop they learned something new, got to color, and talked to residents of the country they were visiting. Meanwhile Dad got to browse the shops, and taste the food and drink from various countries. Can't ask for more!