Family Vacation Highlights

I just finished going through a few hundred vacation photos and uploading the keepers to an online album.  We caught some great moments and great expressions on film (or on a digital memory stick, anyway).  What we didn't catch in pictures, however, are those unexpected quips, outbursts, and moments that only kids can provide.

The night before our departing flight to Disney, my husband asked my daughter, "Do you want to fly on an airplane tomorrow to Florida?"
"Yeah..." she replied, "or maybe Alabama."

When we pulled into the driveway of the hotel (a sprawling Disney resort with multiple pools, waterfalls and golf courses), my five-year-old son looked out the window and asked, "Are we at Grandma and Grandpa's house?"

In line to get into the first park of the trip, we had to wait a bit while my father-in-law validated all of our park hopper passes with ID.  It was crowded and a bit loud with our group of six adults and eight kids, along with the rest of humanity.  My son said something I couldn't catch, so I asked him to repeat it. 
"Who's THAT?" is what I thought he said, but wasn't sure.
"Who?  Talk louder, Scottie, I can't hear you."
Again, but louder, I heard, "Who's THAT?"
"What?  Who are you talking about?  Point to show me."
This time, he shouted at the top of his lungs while pointing only a few feet away from us, "HE'S FAT!!!!"
I wanted to crawl into a hole.

While walking around Epcot, visiting the different countries, we tried to have the kids guess what country it was by what they saw around them.
"China?  Japan?" guessed each of my boys.
"Alabama?" guessed my daughter.
I think our next floor puzzle may need to be a map of the world instead of just the states in the US.  Or maybe we just need to let her visit Alabama.

At ages five and seven, my boys were both finally tall enough to ride the big roller coasters with us.  They both LOVED riding Everest at the Animal Kingdom, so we continued to introduce them to the big ones.  After riding Space Mountain, we asked them if they liked it.
My five-year-old responded, "Yeah, except for the dark parts and the really steep hills."

But the story we'll be sharing most from this trip didn't come from one of my kids, it came from my seven-year-old niece.  She had a slightly loose tooth during our trip, so she kept twisting and turning it, trying to get it to come out.  When it finally did pop free, my sister-in-law gave her an option.  "You can either put it under your pillow tonight in Disney World, or you can save it and put it in your new tooth fairy pillow at home."
After a few moments of thinking it over, she decided, "I'll write the tooth fairy a note.  I'll say, 'Tooth Fairy:  Gimme my money now and I'll give you my tooth when we get home."
Who knew Vinnie, the loan-shark tooth fairy visited Disney World?

Traveling with kids may not always be easy, but it definitely makes for some great entertainment!