Sunday we attended church in Macon and then continued on our way to the self-proclaimed "happiest place on earth." (I personally dispute this claim. Have you seen our music room in the basement?)
Monday morning (read: early in the morning), I was awakened by Ali's gentle shaking of my shoulder. At first I was expecting her unbridled enthusiasm to get to Magic Kingdom that day as planned. Unfortunately, however, she informed me that her stomach hurt. As I became more fully awake, I realized my own stomach hurt as well. Somehow Ali and I acquired a 24-hour flu bug and spent the day lying in bed at the condo watching hours of Disney Channel on end. Megan took Kaitlyn and Max to Magic Kingdom anyway and tagged along with her sister and their family.
That evening, as Ali and I began to turn the corner and recover at home, Megan, Kaitlyn and Max were turning a corner on the monorail when Max shared his pre-consumed dinner with Megan's sister's blouse, an unknown woman next to her and the floor.
If you ever want to feel ostracized a pretty good way to do it is by contracting a flu while on an extended-family vacation.
Miraculously, Tuesday we were all fine and spent an enjoyable day at MGM/Hollywood Studios. The girls (a.k.a. Megan) loved watching the "High School Musical 3" parade. Kaitlyn enjoyed a nice handful of ice cream. And, Ali loved meeting the characters of "Bolt"--even though we haven't seen the movie yet. Max enjoyed drooling on my shoulder.
Wednesday, the first official day of the family reunion, we returned to Magic Kingdom--hoping it would be a bit more magical than Monday. Kaitlyn loved her uncle Michael. Ali did too. Unfortunately, neither of them loved Mickey's Philharmagic, the 3-D movie. (Kaitlyn refused to even go into the theater and, according to Ali, "Stuff isn't supposed to come out of the screen at you. It's supposed to stay on the screen!") I believe this was the first day we heard the request, "Can we leave Disneyworld early to go back to the hotel and swim with our cousins?" We did manage to enjoy Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And, what's Magic Kingdom without It's a Small World and Buzz Lightyear's Laser ride thing?
Thursday. Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time paying tolls to get down to the beach along with 5,000 other drivers. Once we got there, we actually did a have a good time. Ali and Megan had a blast wave-jumping in the cool ocean. ("Mom, what ocean is this again?" Ali asked several times.) Kaitlyn enjoyed collecting shells on the beach as well as playing with cousins. Max enjoyed eating sand--which translated into some interesting diaper experiences for the next 3 days. We had turkey breasts cooking in crockpots while we were gone and had an excellent Thanksgiving meal that evening.
Friday. We wore our official red family reunion t-shirts listing things we were grateful for (one contribution per family): friends and family, Disney, football, the beach, and capitalism. (We got lots of comments from people in line next to us about the capitalism.) We spent the day at Animal Kingdom and were almost attacked by giant man-eating birds of prey. We also went on a safari, rode a really great roller coaster called "Expedition Everest" and saw the musical of Finding Nemo (a.k.a. people in tights running around on stage holding fish puppets) and witnessed a miraculous cloud formation.
Saturday. Driving home. While Megan and Ali ran into a mall to return some items to Gap, I called Megan with those favorite words: "Kaitlyn's throwing up!" True story.
