Here’s another chapter in the “How on earth do you DO it, with so many kids?” book o’ questions. On Sunday, we decided to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure to take part in their holiday festivities. We’ve been living in Central Florida for 11 years, and had not yet visited Grinchmas and the Macy’s parade at the two parks. We were doubly excited because some new friends from homeschooling were going to meet us and hang with us, so it was going to be a fun day! Now, readers of my blog know that we are not early risers here in the Kimball household, so you really ought to start off being impressed that our plans included arriving at the park by 9-9:15am.
7am-the first alarms go off. Snooze.
7:09-the alarm goes off again. Snooze. (WHY again, are they only 9 minutes long??”
7:18-Again with the alarm. Hear the big kids are up and helping the little girls get up. SCORE-reset the alarm for 8am.
8am-get up, mumble unintelligibly about having to get out of bed when it’s so dang cold!
8:15-finish shower, get dressed, change clothes twice. It’s a toss-up between looking somewhat fashionable for my new friends, and trying to figure out exactly how cold it will be today. There’s not a cloud in the sky, so it’ll warm up decently, so a fashionable t-shirt it is!
8:45 We all run around like chickens finishing up getting ready. I’m in charge of the camera, and USUALLY I’m the one combing little girls’ hair. Bill has grabbed the brush, so I am left adrift. I realize that the camera is nearly full, so I begin deleting bad shots in earnest. The big kids help the girls find shoes and one of them gets the diaper bag ready. I won’t name this person (Alex) because we find later that he didn’t add any wipes to the wipes container.
9:15-We are outside. This is a win, even though we’re about 30 minutes behind schedule. 20 minutes later, after arguments about who gets to sit next to Alex, and removing car seats just so the seats can be flipped down to access the 3rd row and then the car seats get replaced, everyone is strapped in. This is when Bill and I make 3-4 trips back into the house to retrieve forgotten items. Jackets, phone chargers, diaper bags, the extra stroller, etc. The big kids carry important items to the car, such as Fynnlie’s cup, Fynnlie..etc.
10:00-Parking at Universal. As usual, we are the car selected to begin a new row, waaaaaaaay at the end. Seriously tempted to show them my large belly and claim third trimester pregnancy to get them to let us park at the closer end. It doesn’t always work.
10:05- The family abandons me at the bag check line. All the bags/coats, wraps, cameras, water bottles etc. are stuffed into the bottom of the stroller, so they are free to go through the no-bag line while I stand there with “Raymond” the security guard as he pokes through my things and barks at me to keep the stroller off the moving sidewalks.
10:10 In through the front gates! I collect all the tickets and put them in alphabetical order. Much easier to tell whose is missing.
10:15 Pass Suess land to the chorus of “We wanna ride Cat in the Hat! We wanna ride One Fish Two Fish!” These clamors come from girls who only said all the way in the car that they wanted to ride the Hippogriff coaster. Harry Potter land is our priority, and we want to do it early before it gets busy. However, we do stop to meet the Grinch, because there appears to be ZERO line. The girls attack-hug him in the middle of a rant, and his heart grows two sizes. The resulting photo is irresistible, so we spend 20 minutes negotiating the ridiculously complicated photo-buying process.
11:00-Arrive in Hogsmeade. Whoops, it’s already busy. Bugger. Let the big kids head to Dragon Challenge coaster since the line is not long. Casadie and I walk through the line just to check out the props like the Weasley’s Car and the Triwizard Tent. Casadie constantly fact-checks me to make sure I’m not actually trying to compel her to get ON the ride.
11:20-Fynnlie is grumpy and hard to manage at the moment. Reaching into the “Raymond-the-Security-Guard-disturbed-pile-o-stuff” in the bottom of the stroller, we can’t find her cup. It was carried securely and safely to the car, and then NOT placed securely or safely in the diaper bag. *sigh*
11:45-The family, minus Bill and Fynnlie have successfully ridden the Flight of the Hippogriff coaster. We go to park the stroller by the castle so we can all enter Hogwarts to ride the signature ride. It’s warmer now, and most of us have shed our coats and placed them in the stroller. Before going into the giant concrete castle, I check the phone to see if our friends have arrived in the park. No messages, so in we go!
At some point in the queue you go from inside back to the outside, and through rafters and bars, you can get a glimpse of the sky. It appears to have changed. “Honey..those look like rain clouds. It’s not supposed to rain right?”
12:00-Ride the best ride in the Universe. Ever. Alex and Beth ride first, while Bill and I wait with the girls in the baby swap room. Fynnlie keeps trying to grab/disconnect some poor disabled child’s oxygen bottle. This room is far too small for the amount of people that must stuff themselves in it. Bonus though, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is playing. Bill and I get to go next, after giving the big kids dire warnings about letting Fynnlie switch off that kid’s lifeline.
12:20-Exit 8 people into a gift shop that is wall-to-wall people. Seriously. There are as many people entering the store via the exit as there are people exiting the ride and into the store. It’s a madhouse. Strangely, most of these people are wearing ponchos. And they’re wet. Oh Snap. It rained.
12:25. Correction, it’s raining. Now. Drizzling. It’s gotten much colder, and the little girls are pathetically shivering and rubbing their arms, and we are drawing attention as those horrible parents who didn’t put coats on their kids. We rush to the stroller, slipping every five steps. (Wizarding World needs non-skid, says former theme park manager) Start stuffing kids in coats. “My coat is all wet!” “Yuck!” “I fell down again!” I’m annoyed with one of my kids who darts in front of me and acts as though they’re going to go off with another family, so I hook the back of their shirt and begin dragging them back to us. That’s when I realize, with horror, that it’s NOT MY KID. I let him go and he throws me this half annoyed, half terrified look over his shoulder. I jokingly tell his Mom “Oh, hey..I just almost took your kid with me..so sorry for the attempted kidnapping!” She pretends to think it’s funny, but then quickly gets her family away from us.
At the risk of making this the longest post ever, I could continue to detail my day. Suffice it to say, the rest of the day was cold, wet and miserable, weather-wise. Our friends messaged us that they were extremely intelligent and decided to go home. We will reschedule. We, the Kimballs, decided to tough it out since we were already there and spent the rest of the day and evening having a fairly marvelous time despite the weather. Overall, although each move from place to place was fairly chaotic and filled with headcounts, we had a wonderful time. We left the two parks at 8pm, and drove home, wondering how Bill and I managed to work for 10 years in theme parks, and how after only a year and a half away, our bodies can’t even manage 9 hours. Every joint hurts and will hurt worse in the morning. Can’t wait. We grabbed some inexpensive take-out and headed home. 15 trips from the car to the house with pizza, breadsticks, sleeping children, diaper bags, Nintendo DS’s, cameras, and bags of purchases and we declared the day a success!
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