The Parents Visit

My parents were both delayed getting here on Thursday and I say both because they took separate flights. My mom was using her frequent flyer miles and my dad decided he would rather take an earlier flight. My dad came and picked me up at my apartment in a shiny bright red Dodge Avenger. It was quite the sporty rig, he picked it because he thought it would stand out in a lot...it sure did. We went and checked into our resort Disney's Boardwalk Inn. We got a quick bite to eat on the boardwalk, loaded up with beverages at the gas station and went back to the airport to pick up my mom. She was so overjoyed that she had made it she almost teared up or maybe the was some of the heavy rain leftover from earlier in the day. She said that she ran to her plane in Atlanta because she thought she would miss it otherwise and then had to sit on the plane at the gate for an hour...we were all happy that she made it.

We went on a scavenger hunt to find her food when we returned to the hotel but sadly almost everything was closed at midnight so we had to settle for animal crackers from the vending machine...bedtime at last came far later than I was used to and I fell asleep with my parents talking to me I was so tire.

We were planning on going to Animal Kingdom on Friday morning but we awoke to POURING rain. So we did what we do best and went shopping! My dad sat in the car and read because he just is not a shopping kind of guy...hard to believe I know. After a few hours at the mall we headed back for Disney property and went to our favorite park Epcot! We got through a lot of stuff despite the rain. One of our favorites was Spaceship Earth...it was like going to a comedy in the movie theater with my mom---she was laughing so much. I am sure my Grandma will giggle imagining this because she always goes to the movies with my mom when they are together and every time they come home and she tells us how loud my mom was laughing at the movie. At the end of the ride they take your picture and put it on a cartoon body. you answer a few questions and it chooses a little script that your character does. It was great.


We met up with Katie for dinner in Norway at the Akerhaus. Turns out it was a Disney princess dinner so we were immediately thrown in front of a camera with Belle from the Beauty and the Beast. Somehow my dad missed the 300 times that my mom and I watched that movie as a kid because he had to ask Belle who she was. He thought that all the princesses were hitting on him all night...whether or not he realized that they socialize with everyone...I am not so sure. The best was when Snow White came to the table because he actually knew who she was so he put her on the hot seat and started asking her questions about the 7 dwarfs...that poor girl.
We watched Illuminations:Reflections of Earth which is the fireworks show at Epcot and then headed back to the resort for some shuteye and rejuvenation for the next day.

Saturday morning we were up early and arrived at Animal Kingdom in time to see Mickey Minnie and Pluto welcome the masses. While at Animal Kingdom my parents were able to meet some of my work pals and we saw some great animals including the new baby gorilla.

This is a gorilla drinking water from the stream but the baby gorilla look quite similar to a human gorilla, just really furry.

The Monorail Competetion

Yesterday was our second meeting our of Disney Heritage class. We meet every Tuesday afternoon from 4-6pm and basically go over the history of Disney. Yesterday's class was on Walt and Roy and their struggle for balance in their road to fame and fortune. After an hour of history we got to put what we learned into action. The class was split into five teams and those five teams were split in half. One half was the creative=Walt and the other half was the financial and realistic=Roy. I was a Walt :)

The task was to build a monorail track with archways for passengers to go through. You got a point for each character/passenger that went through each archway. We were given 100 pretend dollars for purchase of pipe cleaners, tape, Velcro, or balloon. We were given 15 characters (plastic Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto...etc.) One of the characters was the Beast and he was worth two points since he was so big. We had twenty minutes to complete our track and run our monorails. The team with the most points wins. Our team got everything together and our monorail started with about 5 minutes left in the competition. Surprising we were the first team to get the monorail going. Half of our characters fell off on the first time around the track so we had 8 characters (1 being the Beast) for our final 5 rotations. We ended up in second place and it turns out the key to getting the most points was having the most characters stay on. It was really fun and it reminded me of old physics projects from high school.

I worked in Funnel for ten hours today...I am so glad it is over. We got to close 45 minutes early because we ran out of mix and the bakery didn't have anymore...shoot. I am supposed to work at an ice cream cart tomorrow and will be off in time to have my dad pick me up! He gets in and a few hours later my mom's plane lands :) I am so excited to have them here. We will go to the parks and they don't know this yet but they are going to take me to the grocery store!!! Yay :) I will be sure to take lots of pictures, especially if we go on any wild roller coasters :)

Tamu Tamu and Typhoon Lagoon

So my wish was granted I didn't have to work in Camp Minnie Mickey on Sunday! I got to work in Africa :) Tamu Tamu is a little "hole in the wall" that sells burgers, tuna pitas, and turkey sandwiches. In Swahili if you the name twice it means very or a lot. Tamu means delicious so Tamu Tamu means very delicious. There is a little Disney detail for ya! It is easily the busiest food place that belongs to ODF and quite possibly the busiest in the whole park. My job was filler for soda...so all I had to do was look at the screen, fill up the appropriate soda, and group them together to be put on a tray. It was crazy...I think we went through at least 15 stacks of cups and probably 30 plus gallons of ice. I had a blast and it was so nice not to have to work in funnel :)

Yesterday was my day off and so a few of us decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. Katie and I went earlier than everyone else and did pretty much all the water slides we wanted to before our friends even got there. When Ola, Jaimee, and Molita got there we were playing in the wave pool which simulates the ocean and has waves that will really toss you around. I am curious as to how many times the lifeguards have to rescue people because they have one huge wave every 60 seconds or so that is crazy! Well come to find out that Ola can't swim and is scared to death of this wave that keeps coming. If you are in waist deep or so and just standing there, it will knock you down. And it did knock her down about three times before I decided we should probably go have a swimming lesson.

Well there is a reason you don't see many black people in the Olympics swimming. They are like cats meant for running fast and jumping...not meant to be in the water. Ola was hilarious trying to swim. She couldn't quite get the concept of continuing to kick your legs as you move around the pool. She would kick and float and then stop and start to sink...we made a little progress and then decided that was enough for one day and did some more water slides.

One of my favorite parts about typhoon is the lazy river that goes around the whole park. I could sit in there all day! The current isn't too strong but if you try to swim against it you will not be able to...

I have the day off again today and it will be spent doing laundry and laying by the pool until my class at 4. :)