And They Call it Puppy Love!

As appeared in Stlfamilylife.com on 11/3/2010

It was a Wednesday afternoon much like any other and we needed food and bedding for our guinea pig known as Iggy Piggy Lollipop. This is generally one errand the kids run with me so they can look at the hamsters, mice, birds, fish and ferrets while I shop. At the checkout lane, seeing my basket full of guinea pig supplies, the clerk lets us know that the Guinea Pig Races will be held on Saturday. The kids go crazy with excitement at the idea. I, on the other hand, groaned silently and smiled weakly. “I’ll think about it. Maybe we’ll go.”

As promised, a few days later we enter the store to watch the races only to discover 4 Paws 4 Rescue holding an adoption event. Lovely. The kids have asked begged for a dog for nearly two years, following the death of my faithful 14 year old Pomeranian dog Boo. Boo came before husband, before kids and was our last surviving pet.

In the early 1990's I had adopted an adult cat and a kitten, and then my dog, in quick succession. I knew in my heart that they would probably die in rather quick order, too. Abby, the adult cat, was the first to die in August 2006. My mom died the following year in August 2007, following a year long battle with cancer. My second cat Teddy died in June 2008, followed with Boo's death in August of the same summer. It was a lot of loss in 2 year's time.

After Boo went across the Rainbow Bridge to pet heaven, it was oddly quiet in the house. He was 14 and certainly not an energetic dog anymore, rarely drawing attention to himself. Still, the silence in the house was deafening and it was not long before we started acquiring new pets. Just weeks after Boo’s death, Adam discovered a baby Cardinal bird in our bushes. After trying to save him, to no avail as it turned out, I decided it would be fun to adopt a bird. Enter Twinkle, our cinnamon pearl cockatiel. A few months later my son received Little Dude, a dwarf hamster, as a pet at Christmas. Several months later we adopted Sweet Pea, an older male lovebird, from our next door neighbors. Their daughter Caitlin was about to embark on her first year at college and time for her pets was minimal. She had a small menagerie of exotic pets and I think her parents were glad to decrease that number by one. Still, the kids hankered for a dog—in particular our 5 year old. Elise is obsessed with dogs. Stuffed animals, books, toys. If it was a dog, she wanted it. In a last vain attempt to assuage her desire, we took in the aforementioned guinea pig from a friend who no longer wanted her. And Iggy would be considered Elise’s pet. Four pets in four cages was probably not the most ideal situation but I was desperately trying to fill that hole. We even began pet sitting for friends on a regular basis to help satisfy that desire for a dog. Each time the dog would be reunited with their owners after vacation, my kids would cry.  It was all a smoke screen. The fact is we aren’t just pet people. We’re dog people. No bird, hamster or guinea pig was going to fill that void.

Forgetting that the pig races were going on, the kids ran as fast as their little legs could carry them to a litter of 9 week old Lab mixes. Four of the pups were dark brown and black, who were clearly part German Shepherd mixed with the Lab. The other two were yellow pups, who resembled Marley of “Marley & Me”. While assured they were all from the same litter, I think mama was allowed a little too much freedom and mated with two different daddies and produced two different breeds in one fell swoop. The jury is out on what the little yellow Labs are mixed with. My guess is either beagle or maybe Jack Russell Terrier. All I know is that for being half Lab, they were surprisingly small for 8 week olds. They were about 6 pounds and had small paws by any one's standards. It was love at first sight between the yellow female and Elise. The two of them could hardly be separated. Personally, Adam and I were drawn to the Shepherd mixes. They were all seriously cute. And that is when things went seriously wrong. I had allowed the kids far too much time with the romping dough balls to turn back.

Honestly, I couldn’t blame them. I had been having feelings of maternal desire myself. I had never been without a dog in my life. Two years felt like a lifetime. But don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the freedom from the responsibility of having one. Not having to worry when you had to be gone from home for several hours, figuring out who was going to take care of him when we travel, the pet hair on furniture and carpets – the vomiting and accidents. And the financial aspect. Not having a dog certainly had its perks and I reminded myself all the time of the reasons to not adopt one at this stage of our family life. Frankly, I don’t know that there is ever a good time to get one anyway. It’s a huge, monumental, and life-changing decision. And a decision that once you make it, you keep your commitment. Nothing irks me more than a lazy owner who decides the pet is too much trouble and either gives them away—or worse, drops them off along a busy street hoping someone else will take him in.

Fortunately, my husband was at home and there was no way I could ever make that huge, monumental, life-changing decision without him. Daddy became my ‘out.”. The kids left the store dejected and disappointed, but somehow they convinced Daddy to come back to the adoption with us to ‘look’ at them. Can you say, “Done deal”? Upon our return and resolve to adopt one, we asked the opinion of the owner and director of the rescue group in deciding between the male and female yellow labs. She said that the little girl was “Very high energy and will need lots of attention”. While that was the one that Elise would have chosen on her own, maybe she was a little more Marley than just in appearance. We went with the little boy, who became “Snickers”. And our lives have been forever changed.

So that is how we went to the store for the “Guinea Pig Races” and came home with a dog.

Five Lives of Little Dude

Reproduced from the article that appeared in our Suburban Journal dated September 15.

Can I get a hamster?" is one of those questions most parents dread. As a declared animal lover, I was actually OK with the idea.

When I was about 10, I had a hamster, too. He was a beautiful, cream-colored Syrian hamster named Cinnamon. He lived in a glass aquarium with a wire top. Occasionally, he would manage to lift the top off his cage at night when he would play. One of those times, he climbed up on my bed and curled up on my pillow to sleep with me. Really. Just call me the hamster-whisperer.

After taking Adam to the pet store, he decided on a Russian Dwarf variety, which is half the size of the standard hamster. Enter Little Dude, whom he received as a Christmas gift in 2008.  To be quite honest, I did not like him from the start. He was just mean. Not like my pet dog, er, I mean hamster I had as a child. Cinnamon could be handled and would sit contentedly on your shoulder while watching TV.

Not Little Dude. He looked for opportunities to bite the hand that fed him. One time he clamped down so hard he dangled from my finger as I reactively tried to withdraw from him. I nearly flung him across the room.

And let's be honest. It was Adam's hamster, but really my responsibility. I suppose I knew that would be the case. Every week I would clean out his deluxe cage, including the Habitrail tubes that extended his cage.
It was messy, and somehow I found it to be easier for me to do it. Like him or not, he was pampered. Little Dude dined on spinach and carrots, apples and raisins.

The little guy thought he had nine lives. Three times Little Dude was unintentionally dropped, knocking him unconscious for a few moments each time. And, more recently, he looked like he was on his last breath. I found him lying on his side, labored breathing.  Without being bitten, I picked him up and he was like a rag doll in my hands. He stayed that way for three days and then managed to come back from the grips of death. Seriously wrong.

The most recent mishap included our guinea pig, Iggy Piggy Lollipop. While I was cleaning out the Dude's cage, he climbed out and fell directly into Iggy's cage, which was directly underneath. Only I did not realize immediately that Little Dude had fallen from one cage into another.  When I finally discovered it, Dude was hunkered down in a corner, hidden under the bedding. Iggy was running frantically around her cage.
In theory, I should have been worried that the Big Pig would hurt the Dwarf Hamster. But then I remember it's Little Dude we're talking about. Of course, he was fine. That was only his fifth life.

But, alas, five lives was all he had in him. Just when I was beginning to think he would outlive us all, he died peacefully this summer. And I found myself missing him. Just a little.

Being a Motherless Daughter

Reprinted as first published at the http://stlfamilylife.com/ website in August, 2010.

When my son Adam’s hamster Little Dude died recently, my heart broke along with his. There was nothing I could do to take away his pain. As a parent, I desperately want to protect my children from the emotional gunk of life. After Little Dude had celebrated his first birthday, I gently reminded Adam that the odds were that he would not live to see another one. Good or bad, hamster life spans are short—averaging two years or less.


Still, when Adam found him lifeless in his cage, my son was devastated. Fortunately, I was surprising my kids later that day by the arrival of a friend’s dog. We were pet-sitting for the week and I had decided to make Bandit’s arrival a surprise. We had watched him earlier in the year, too, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed him. It was the perfect distraction from the sadness Adam was feeling.

As I walked through the early stages of Adam’s grief this summer, I reflected back on my own grieving process when my mom passed away. Grief was not an emotion I was entirely comfortable dealing with.

Despite losing all my grand parents and various other relatives, it was not something I had ever experienced with such intensity as losing a parent. I was fortunate that my parents lived near-by and I talked with her on the phone and saw her in person often. Yet, after her pancreatic cancer diagnosis, there was sadness with each visit or conversation.

My mom was experiencing her own grief and coming to terms with the terminal diagnosis. She wanted to survive….she wanted to see her 5 grandchildren grow into adulthood and enjoy the golden years with her husband of 45 years. My mom grappled with why God was allowing her to experience such a painful and horrible end. She felt like she had suffered enough as a child. This was supposed to be her time to enjoy life. She did not want her family to watch her die.

There was a lot of sadness for me, too, in her final months—reminders of a life that was going to be lived without her in it. I thought that having a chance to say goodbye and prepare for her to die would make my pain less. I was wrong.

After she died, what surprised me the most was how alone I felt in my grief. Not that my friends and family did not understand what I was feeling, but rather, few people rallied behind me to proactively provide a listening ear and be strong when I was feeling weak. Despite having a large group of girl friends who had lost their mother, only a few regularly checked in on me and supported me. And it was only my best friend of 20 years who rallied behind me on a daily basis.

It was because of the aloneness I felt that I turned to a self-help book by Hope Edelman “Motherless Daughters” that really helped me work through the emotions I was feeling. Out of the book, there have been dozens of support groups created throughout the United States, including one in St. Louis.

Having an intimate group of women in various stages of life to turn to has been invaluable. They span every age group and life experience—some having lost their mothers as a young child, and others, well into their adulthood like me. While I rarely attend the meetings now, there is comfort in knowing that the group is there if I need them.

Still, it is through writing that I have found my greatest healing. As a family genealogist, capturing who my mother was on paper has provided the most comfort to me. One of my greatest regrets is that my daughter, who was only 2 ½ when my mom died, will never know her grandma on a personal level. Even my son, who was 7 at the time, has only faint and distant memories of his grandma. Capturing her personality and life story on paper is truly priceless to me—and sharing her memory beyond my circle of friends is a privilege.

On the cusp of my son’s grief is my own heightened sense of loss as the three year anniversary of my mom’s death is approaching. Perhaps this anniversary is one that will always bring me pain and the heightened feelings of missing her —or perhaps it is one that will fade with time. Grief is personal and unpredictable. What I have found is that it’s not the big reminders of her that are difficult—it’s the unexpected reminders like a song at church, or her favorite flower sitting in a friend’s vase. It is simply a fact of life.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that grief is a process of ups and downs. Grief is not something to ‘overcome’, but rather to learn to deal with when those feelings are overwhelming, as they will be time and time again.

Children and Chores

Reprinted from its original publication at the http://stlfamilylife.com/ website.


It was a typical day in my life as a stay-at-home mom. I had a full basket of clean, folded whites beside me as I changed my 5 year old daughter’s bed sheets. She came up along side of me and asked if I could play a game with her.


“I’m busy doing chores,” I told her. “I still have to put away the clothes and change the sheets on the other two beds.”

Her response was not so typical. “I can help, Mommy. All you have to do is ask.”

As Oprah would say, that was a wake up call for me. How often do we go through our day cleaning, laundry, cooking – without ever asking our children to help? I am totally guilty and I imagine I am not alone. When my kids groan or roll their eyes, or flat out protest at doing a chore, it’s no wonder. After taking a serious look at my own inconsistencies in this part of parenting, I realize I was responsible for their bad attitude when it came to pitching in around the house. As parents, our job is to grow our child into a successful adult. Teaching them to be self-sufficient and to treat their home and belongings with care and respect is an admirable goal. But, how exactly do you do that?

For me, the important first step was observing my children’s behavior, as well as my own, without changing a thing—and what I found was actually encouraging. I realize that both my kids are amazingly self-reliant in the mornings. Both kids get dressed in the morning, make their beds, and brush their hair and teeth with very little supervision. My 10-year-old son Adam even fixes breakfast for himself and, when feeling in a giving mood, his sister’s too. If he needs a lunch for school, he happily takes care of that, too. With very few gentle reminders, my children move through their morning routine without much fuss, repeating the necessary bedtime routine with the same general positive attitude. If you don’t have a school aged child who can get himself rolling in the morning on his own, with just a little gentle guidance, I would not suggest moving any further until this has been mastered.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Using a chore chart worked for my step-sons, while positive reinforcement worked well with Adam. For Elise, it is often threat of a privilege being revoked that motivates her. It’s really about knowing your own children’s currency and working from there. It’s also about realizing that if you have two or more children, their personalities will make this easier to accomplish for some than others. My daughter requires more direct supervision, which may speak to her age or her disposition. Likely, it’s a combination of both.

It’s from here I realized that things went down hill. The problem in the consistency was that there wasn’t any—ever. Summer or school year made no difference. Quite simply, chores are often done faster and better when I do it myself. Combined with the fact that there weren’t responsible for any daily chores, I realized that several days could pass without them helping me at all. When I would ask them to pitch in, they often fashioned their own revolt. This is where my change needed to come from me first and foremost. Knowing myself, I knew that assigning the kids daily chores for which they were solely responsible would have lack of follow through on my part.

The better plan for our family was for me to make sure I have my kids complete chores around the house every single day, varying by what was on that day’s to-do list. The last change was also key: Rather than give them a task to do on their own, I realized they enjoyed doing it if they were doing it along side me. That one is huge. Not only do we get to enjoy one-on-one time but they also they feel that they are truly contributing to the running of our house. Also, I was happier with the finished outcome, without feeling it necessary to ‘do over’. It did require me to slow down and work at their pace, which I think in today’s society of multi-tasking is a great trait for me to re-learn.

Once I implemented this new way of thinking, something interesting happened. My kids began offering their help and have wonderful attitudes in the process. Adam helped me clean two bathrooms, dust the living room, put away my Wal-Mart goodies, and folded and put away his clean clothes from the laundry basket. And that was all in the last 24 hours. Elise gets excited about dusting, folding and putting away the clean laundry. More than once they have argued who was going to set the table. And that is one argument that is music to my ears.

Raised to Recycle

Reprinted from original publication in June 2010 at the http://stlfamilylife.com/


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—it’s a mantra you hear just about everywhere you go. And it’s starting to get irritating to me. It’s not that I don’t believe in recycling because I do. What bothers me is the whole idea that this is a new concept and ‘they’ (whoever ‘they’ are) are trying to sell the American people on it. Even though I am only in my early to mid 40’s, this is something I’ve been doing for more than 30 years. It’s in my blood and a way of life for me. What took you so long, people?

For a long time St. Louisans, you may remember the un-manned recycling center next to the Marshall’s and Target stores on Manchester Road. There were concrete bins divided into categories: aluminum cans, tin cans, white glass, colored glass, and plastics. There was also a trailer nearby where you could deposit your old newspapers. On a regular basis my mom would load up the back of our car or station wagon with all the recyclables and I’d go with her to dump them. The glass items were the best. With as much strength as I could muster, I’d throw the glass one by one against the concrete walls to shatter them to smithereens. Honestly, I remember it taking a long time to deposit them. I am not sure she pre-sorted the contents so we’d have to carefully sort and dump them accordingly. In addition to this center, we would also drive to Kirkwood to drop off cardboard boxes and loose leaf paper, which were not accepted at the Target/Marshall’s location. I applaud my mom’s efforts. It was time consuming and definitely inconvenient. Yet, she saw the value and did her part to ‘save the planet’ way before it was the IN thing to do.

I still remember vividly the day we went to make our usual stop on Manchester Road and discovered it was gone. I am not sure if my mom was surprised or angry—maybe both. Being resourceful, she quickly found another location to recycle. It was even less convenient but she was undeterred. As a young adult, I continued to recycle. Usually I would collect my plastics and aluminum cans and bring them to my parent’s house around the time she’d make the drive. Assorted papers and newspapers were sent as well. Plastic and paper bags were returned at the collection site at the local grocery stores. I was trained well.

What a great day it was when citywide refuse, recycling and yard waste collection was made available—literally at our door step. Recycling had never been easier. In West County, codes 1 through 5 are accepted, with code 6 “polystyrene” not yet accepted. We’re even provided the bin to collect our recyclables. Cardboard and loose leaf papers are not allowed either. But fear not. Did you know that Parkway School District school and many area churches have green and yellow recycling bins to dump your junk mail and other non-sensitive material paper overflow? Corrugated cardboard is also collected behind schools. You will also find aluminum can recycling bins and a clothing bin on most of the same parking lots. A one-stop drop off for many of the items your local trash/recycling company will not pick up. And the bonus—the schools and churches earn money for the items you drop off. Win-win for everyone.

Recycling does not and should not be limited to our kitchen and office waste. In fact, twice a year St. Louis County Health Department hosts a series of spring and fall collection of bigger household waste items. Finding a temporary location has become increasingly difficult with businesses being open seven days a week. Fortunately, Earthbound Recycling Center in Eureka has opened to meet the demands of St. Louisans wanting to do the right thing. Open six days a week (closed Sundays), they accept metals, electronics, motors and lead items; any type of paper (including phone books, which is generally rejected at paper collection sites), chip board, tin cans and plastics and glass. Earthbound also purchases copper and brass metals and aluminum and stainless steels. For a small fee, they will accept unwanted latex paints (15 cents per pound). It’s also a free drop-off site for computer towers, flat-panel TV’s, water heaters, cast iron or galvanized pipe, lawn mowers, cell phones, rechargeable batteries, vinyl siding. The list is endless. For a complete listing, their web address is http://www.earthboundrecycling.com/.

Truly, recycling has never been easier and it’s really inexcusable to not utilize the recycling opportunities that are lay at our feet. We can all do our part to save the planet for generations to come—one can at a time.

Our Disney Trip (Day Six): Hollywood Studios

If Tony named Epcot as his favorite Disney theme park, he would have told you that Hollywood Studios was his least favorite. When he shared that with me, I was surprised. Not that it was my favorite, but I had fond memories of it and figured with the heralded Tower of Terror on its premises, assumed it wold rank higher. I think of Magic Kingdom as the traditional park, spotlighting more of the old time movies like Cinderella, Dumbo and Peter Pan. Hollywood Studios certainly has a more 'hip' feel to it, focusing on the newer productions like Toy Story and American Idol.

Fantasmic! is a long running evening show at Hollywood Studios that (for economic reasons) is no longer shown nightly. We happened to be coming on a day where their nighttime spectacular was not slated to be running, therefore, the park was having an early 7 p.m. closing time. That was alright by me. I know my multiple Disney posts have made it sound like I'm a kill-joy with all my whoops-and-hollerings over the early closing times. Vacation, yes. Relaxing, no. I was running on empty by now and needing some quiet down time. Our trip to Studios ended abruptly 11 years earlier when Tony got the hiccups. Bad hiccups that would not subside and finally caused Tony to seek retreat in our hotel room after suffering for 3 hours. Thankfully, we found a nurse who suggested he take peanut butter to get rid of them. It worked, but caused us to miss the show. We used our Hopper Pass the next night to come back to Hollywood Studios for the show. While I guess we didn't regret the extra effort to see it, it's not something we would go out of way to see again.  Even years later, Tony goes running for the peanut butter any time has the hiccups. Poor guy. Scarred him for life.Yet I digress.

This was our last big Disney park, which meant that Adam had one last ride to conquer--Tower of Terror. There was enough buzz around school regarding this ride that he knew this was a 'must ride' attraction. Arriving at the Studio, we got our fast pass for the Tower of Terror, and made our way to Toy Story Midway Mania! That is where we went wrong. We should have reversed that decision. As it turned out, our longest wait of any ride in any park was for this one. At 75 minutes, we waited impatiently patiently for this very fun, interactive 4-D midways-style game/ride. It was totally worth it. I wish we would have had more time to ride it again. Up next was the Tower of Terror. For all of us--even Elise. I've recounted several times in my account of our Disney blog history of her willingness to ride all the rides. All of them. This one was no exception. Ignorance was bliss yet again for my sweet, diminutive 34 pound 5 year old blondie. Looks small but very mighty. Poor thing was lifted off her seat every time the elevator shaft dropped a few hundred feet. She looked terrified but never made a peep. She was probably too scared to scream. But, as is so characteristic of her personality, if you were to ask her which was her favorite ride, she'd name this one. Rock Star she is.

This was an especially fun day for Adam. We enjoyed two stunt shows, a Star Wars flight simulator ride and the Tower of Terror. There aren't as many rides but everything there is to do is really fun. Tony agreed that it was better than he remembered. We were a little bummed that the Studio Back lot Tour and Drew Carey's Sounds Dangerous Show were both closed for the day.

During the week we were noticing clouds inching their way into Orlando, with temperatures slowly dropping that week. By this day, it was a high of 62 so I think the downside to this day was the chill and overcast skies. Thankfully, it never actually rained. Also, thankfully, there were no water rides.

The part of the day that I was most looking forward to was dinner at '50's Prime Time Cafe. We had gone there with the boys previously and this was one restaurant I insisted we repeat with our kiddos. It's a restaurant set up to look like a house out of the 50's. The waiting area was decorated like an 50's living room, while the dining room looked like a kitchen. The magic of this restaurant is that the server is supposed to be a 'mom' or 'dad'. Mandy, our server, was perfectly cast as the 'mother hen' as she introduced herself, throwing the forks and napkins on the table, said "Set the table, kids, Behave. I'll be back".  She referred to me as 'mommy', Tony 'daddy', Elise 'princess', and Adam 'Scooter'. She razzed us like a mom would and enjoyed watching her hen-peck the table across from us, too. She found it particularly fun to razz 'Scooter'. The more animated she got with him, the more he enjoyed it. Truly fun. I ordered the home-style fried chicken, with four generous pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes and collard greens. Apparently I was really, really hungry that night because I ate everything on my plate. When Mandy came by to see if we were done and how everything was, she reached to clear my plate away. I sheepishly offered up "I was hungry" when I saw the disbelief on her face. Glancing at my small size 2 frame said "Well, clearly you always eat that much. Clearly." and rolled her eyes. We all laughed.

We actually sauntered out of the park around 7:30, well after closing time. We knew our Disney experience was coming to a close and I think we were prolonging the inevitable. Up next was our day at the beach and Downtown Disney.

Our Disney Trip (Day Five): Animal Kingdom

Tuesday morning I woke up with renewed enthusiasm for our trip. While I loved Magic Kingdom and Epcot, they were very long days, and likely, the busiest and most tiring of our trip. I was looking forward to the second half of our trip, beginning with our Animal Kingdom excursion. Some local friends may be surprised at my enthusiasm for Animal Kingdom because we have a top-notch zoo at home. I didn't have to travel half way across the US for a great animal experience. But lest you forget, this is Disney, a whole different experience. And Animal Kingdom is really less about the animal exhibits and more about the rides and attractions.  Elise, my animal loving girl, was looking most forward to this day as well. I mentioned in my first blog that Elise didn't know what amusement park rides actually meant so leading up to our trip, I talked up this park since I could relate it to the zoo. As her mom, I knew this would be a favorite day for her. Who isn't jazzed about a park that she knows her child will particularly enjoy?!

Some of my favorite memories of our trip almost a dozen years earlier were of this park, Disney's newest addition. Their Lion King Show is unparalleled -- and we all loved the It's a Bugs Life 3-D show. Their safari ride was pretty cool too. Of course, years earlier the park was not even quite finished yet so I was also looking forward to seeing their additions--like the Expedition Everest ride. And then there was the ride I really liked the first time around, Dinosaur, that I was looking forward to riding again with my kids.

For those of you who don't know the premise of Expedition Everest, it is a roller coaster that for a short period, travels backwards at 60 miles an hour around a curve. Easily, it was my favorite ride of all the parks. It was fabulous!! I wish we could have had multiple fast passes to ride that one at least twice or three times. We did use the rider switch policy, so Adam, the lucky-duck, got to ride it twice. Another one of my favorite Disney moments was when the coaster stopped at the top of the hill and Adam said: 

"Mom, I think we're going to go backwards now."  Glancing behind me at the approaching curve and bend in the track, I said "Oh, surely not. It's going to be a straight shoot....they aren't going to make us go backwards around a curve, are they?" Just then, the car started descending. I do believe my words were "Oh no!! Shit!!"  Truly, it was genius roller coaster creation. A do-not-miss ride for those who like roller coasters.

The ride that surprised me the most was the Dinosaur ride. Like I just said, I had ridden it before. What I didn't remember was how scary it was. It was a pretty frightening journey through the dinosaur age. Adam was indifferent about the 'thrill' factor and Elise thought it was just pretty entertaining. Call me and Tony wimps, but it scared us.

One of my least favorite rides of any of the parks was the Kali River Rapids, which is similar to Thunder River at Six Flags. Only, I think Thunder River is a better ride. There were really only two opportunities to get wet on this ride; of course, one time is all it takes and out of all the people in the raft, Elise and I were the only ones who got soaked . And, of course, my jeans got the wettest and I spent several hours trying to dry off when temperatures never topped 66 degrees. In my estimation, walking around in wet clothes was so not worth it for the enjoyment I received.  Live and learn.

Our dinner reservation was for 6 p.m. at Rainforest Cafe. By 5:30 we had actually seen everything there was to do at the park, with the exception of missing the Finding Nemo musical. Maybe it speaks to my age--or just my sleep disorder-- but I sank into our seats at the restaurant with a happy grin that we could eat and go back to our condo for an early night. We had taken Tony's boys to Rainforest the first time, too, and I was looking forward to my kid's expressions. Not to say they didn't like the restaurant, but it didn't have the awe effect I had thought it would. Adam would tell you, though, that it was one of his favorite restaurants.

Our condo had an outdoor, heated pool, which we hadn't used yet. Our intentions were to use the pool daily, but the reality was that we were trying to cram everything into our park days that it really wasn't feasible to swim. We knew that this night would be that perfect opportunity. Coupled with the cooler temperatures, the thought really didn't intrigue me so my husband graciously agreed to take them while I hung back and relaxed. I took the time to straighten up the place and take pictures--and to go over what rides and attractions we were going to enjoy the next day.

It was a pretty great day. This trip was shaping up to be a blast. Next up, Hollywood Studios!