We Miss All The Good Stuff

It was bad enough that The Simpsons ride wasn't open at Universal when we were there, but now I found out that we missed a 'gator wrestling demonstration at Disney as well.

I had no idea that the Magic Kingdom had an alligator infestation problem. While we're at it, apparently there's a raccoon issue and buzzards attacking turtles as well. Can you imagine the poor kids who were looking at the cute little ducks and then saw the cool looking alligator, and then saw the cool looking alligator snap the heads off of the cute little ducks? Hysteria in Tomorrowland!!

Moral of the story: never go into a Florida swamp - or the Magic Kingdom - without Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows.

And the winner is….

What a surprise—I won! I never thought it was possible (NOT!).

Of course I WAS the only one who could have possibly won. Each day I started the morning off by reminding them that if I’m happy everyone will be happy—if not, no one will be happy. (Not really, it was just something that was understood by ALL.)

Seriously, I think we all won. We survived the week and we are still talking to each other, (I was worried that we wouldn’t see Derek and Meghan again until Oct. 4^th).

Thanks for a great vacation!

MP, Mrs. J and Mom

We're Home!!!!!!!!!!!

So we are home—I’m exhausted—and my knee is NEVER going to feel better (well at least for another month or so). But it has all been well worth it. Now that the trip is over I want to comment on some concerns that I had but didn’t share with anyone.

Concern #1: I was very concerned about the six original family members spending 8 DAYS together under one roof. This probably hasn’t happened since Meghan moved to MA several years ago.

Concern #2: Hanging with the Johnsons. My anxiety about this increased as I started to get mumblings back about the fast pace of the planned trip. My concern was more for Derek who is not an “amusement park person” and I kept asking Meghan if he knew what he was in for. Chris I knew would hang because he is an “amusement park person” but my concern with him was the low-sugar level (which took us 3 days to finally get right).

Concern #3: Living with the opposite sex. Both Derek and Chris come from male dominated families plus Derek is an only child and Chris has only one brother. The only experience they have had with living with females is on weekends when they are visiting 12 Ridge Court. I don’t think I need to say anything more…..

Concern #4: Meltdowns! They could get real ugly.

Now that we have finished our vacation, I have to say that all my pre-vacation concerns were for not. Derek and Chris were great and truly the survivors. The 6 Johnsons for the most part got along. The meltdowns were minimal (although daily) but everyone was able to rally and as Joan says “pull the plane up”. I think the house was our saving factor—after very full and long days everyone could go to their own bedroom, the pool or the hot tub and just chill by themselves until they were ready to talk to others. Also blogging about the day really helped since Derek and Chris’s take on each day was pretty funny, although you really had to be careful about what you said when they had a computer in front of them.

So now onto our next vacation which is camping at Sebago Lake. Ummmm…. On second thought I think I’m going to go and read the definition for vacation that Derek was showing everyone mid-week. I may have to think about this….

MP

I Need Sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm a little late in posting, but I was really busy packing and sleeping.....we didn't get enough sleep on this vacation. As you know I was voted off on thursday with Meghan because we all know mom would win and emily would go the last day, so the choice really was me or meghan. Who would guess there would be a tie?

We made it home unscathed well at least partially. We actually left early from philly this time...go figure. Last time it was three hours late, this time it was thirty minutes early. I guess we weren't the only ones who wanted to get home.....

Jenn

Deprived Childhood

Earlier in the week, Chris was wearing a "You died of dysentary" shirt. I thought it was funny, but really didn't "get it" until they someone explained that it was from a computer game called "Oregon Trail." This was a shocking and horrifying revelation to the entire clan. So this week, in between the rides and shows and not sleeping, I played my first game of Oregon Trail. I didn't actually finish, though I did pretty well for a first time playing the game. Only one person died of dysentary (Kaitlyn) and I was getting pretty close to the end, and then we had to pack.

Speaking of packing, I have to say that Friday night and Saturday morning went about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than I thought it would. There was some minimal yelling and pouting, and some very groggy people at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, but nothing that I would call a complete and total Chernobyl-level meltdown.

This morning we selected our winner of the vote-off: Mary Pat won, with Emily coming in second with two votes and Chris abstained from voting at all, the chicken. We all knew that MP was going to win in the end, so consider yourself as shocked as we were. We were more shocked that anyone had the nerve to vote for Emily!

I am now at the the airport gate with Meghan, waiting for our flight home to Boston. I'm really tired. Meghan is sick. It has been a very long, tiring, but very fun and exciting week.

Who makes up these Cockamamie Rules?!?!

So on let's bring you all up to speed with the voting. On Wednesday we help our normal nightly vote and there was a tie between Jenn and myself. FYI from now on Emily will be referred to as Benedict Arnold.

Since there was a tie someone decided that it would be a good idea to vote us both off - so we are off and no vote was held on Thursday.

Stay tuned for the winner on Friday night

Meg

The day at Universal

Oh my gee golly gumpkins! I went on the Shrek 4D ride...wait...I'm getting ahead of myself.

I love Disney. I love all the parks and all the cheesy rides and all that jazz. But Universal has become my new mistress. You know, the park on the side...just don't tell Disney. I can't afford the Disney Vacation Club membership ($16,000+) to calm Disney down.

Anyway...the rides at Universal were so much cooler than the rides at Disney. The movies are a bit cooler. So, let me give you a rundown of the day. (NOTE: DISNEY RIDES ARE MUCH MORE CLASSIC AND WHEN KATIE AND I TAKE MEGHAN AND DEREK'S KIDS, WE WILL ONLY DO DISNEY.)

We first saw that the Simpson's ride wasn't open (doh!) but Derek and Meghan stopped at the Kiwk-e-Mart. The phone lines went down so they couldn't pay with credit card. And apparently the fake-Abu was a bit on the slow side. Katie's melt-down-o-meter was spiking. She needs to chill. Mine was near spiking too (because she wouldn't shut up). I need to do crack.

Then we hit Men In Black: Alien Attack. Which was wicked awesome! We got a nice picture, although I uber-sucked. After MIB, we went to Jaws, which was kinda cool, although it was kinda cheesy. There was fire. Fire made it better. Post-Jaws we went on Mummy...which was freaking awesome! It could have gone faster, but that only would have made it more awesomer.

We did Twister, thinking that it was a spinny ride, but it was kinda cheesy. But without fire. I saw the Blues Brothers (in the Blues-mobile with the speaker...aren't you jealous, Ross???) and we ate and did Fear Factor Live. I almost queefed. Not because of the Fear Factor crap, but because the melon I ate was rotten and made me feel greener than the microwaved Wendy's burger. After near-vomitation, we began the walk out of the park, which still involved hitting several attractions.

We saw the Rocky Horror Universal Make-up Show thing activity...which was definitely not KID (Keep it Disney). It was awesome. Then we did ET (maybe reverse order...I don't really remember...it's just a big fun (?) blur) which was so cool. The ET looked at me!! It looked at me!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! And it said my name!

Terminator 2 3D was awesome...best 3D effects I've seen in Orlando. Don't think that it freaked Mrs. J out as much, because we didn't hear her scream. Then we did Jimmy Neutron's ride which was like Star Tours, just not Star Wars-y. Then we did Shrek, which was awesome (albeit just Shrek 3-D on comfy massage-y chairs). I love Shrek. I got a stuffed Shrek, a stuffed Donkey and a stuffed Puss in Boots. Then we did more shopping and ate at Hard Rock cafe. Where I sat in a room with a bass from John Entwhistle, an acoustic from Carlos Santana, an acoustic from Neil Young and a guitar from Jimi Hendrix! What a room! All my guitar idols in one room. Then we went mini golfing.

Katie and Jenn whined so much that we didn't do the mini golf course that I had wanted to go do. We had fun, but I was the one who wanted to golf...it's OK...I'm going to spit on Katie (by accident) on one of the rides.

We're off to Islands of Adventure today. I'm so excited I almost peed myself. Well, that reason and the fact that I drank about a million lemonades before dinner yesterday and we only have 3 potties.

~Chris

Keep it Disney.