it's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow

i'm just worn out. after a very tiring week of attempting to get settled in the new place (no, we aren't even close), we drove all night friday to orlando. we got in after midnight and were up again at 0730 to get ready for a day at disney. let me tell you, disney with three kids is tiring enough but adding car fatigue and too little sleep on top of it... exhausting. it was a good day though. we did the magic kingdom and the chilluns experienced several firsts. both boys rode space mountain for the first time. this was an especially momentous feat for the younger boy who has not been very adventurous with big rides since he's been tall enough for them. he was behind me but i was told he even held his arms up! all three kids rode thunder mountain and enjoyed it. all three kids also did the haunted mansion, although two regretted that decision afterward. there was a new interactive monsters inc® show that yours truly got called upon to take part in. it was cute and highly embarrassing. i don't do well with being put on the spot. at least i remembered my name and sense of humor (yes, i have one!). when the sun set, the castle was lit up much, much prettier than i have ever seen it in my life. it truly was something to behold. at the end of the night, my bro-n-law complained about nobody asking him what ride he wanted to do. we humored him and went into the carousel of progress. while i appreciate the nostalgic value of this attraction, i'll admit that i have not been in it since i was a kid and really hadn't thought about it since either. i figured it was long gone and didn't care. if you've never been in it, it was walt disney's own vision, which he presented at the '64 new york world's fair. it has animatronic tableaus of the how the typical american family uses technology from the turn of the 20th century forward, complete with an annoyingly cheerful jingle-song between each. anyhow, you get the picture on why it's not the most popular attraction at disney anymore. so we're on the second scene (the 1920's) and the annoying song is sung and the seats start to spin us toward the third scene (the audience seating moves, not the stage) when a strange noise is made and we stop moving. the song finishes and scene two starts again! everyone in the theatre is amused by this and making commentaries throughout the scene. an agitated male voice keeps coming over the speakers advising that, for our own safety, everyone should stay in their seats PLEASE. and then the annoying music starts up but we move not at all. and then scene two plays again. and the mass-psychosis is already setting in as we all get silliar and silliar. a woman suddenly jumps up and runs back to the exit door. she looks back at us long enough to say that there's a way out before disappearing forever as the agitated voice comes on again reminding us that our safety hinges on us staying seated. we audibly wonder if she made it to freedom. and the annoying music starts again. and you can just hear all of our sanity congealing into a pile of mush on the floor. as scene two starts up again, there is talk of a riot. about halfway through the scene, just as the overloaded fuse is about to blow sending the house and then the neighborhood into darkness, the agitated voice pipes up to tell us that they are experiencing technical difficulties (really?) and will have to evacuate the theatres (freedom!!!) and please stay seated (huh? how are we evacuating while seated?). a teenage boy dressed in an embarrasing disney costume appears out of nowhere and leads us (in the dark because they chose that part of the scene to evacuate) all to the exit door and down a corridor to freedom. all told, we were in that theatre for more than thirty minutes with that song and scene playing all the while. it really could have only been worse to be stuck in "it's a small world afterall" hell. in all my giddyness, i admitted that was the most fun i had had all day. with a couple more stops for restrooms and popcorn, we left the park and made it home around midnight. yesterday we met up with my cousin who helped us on errands such as buying my sis' Christmas gift and finding dishes in ikea. we managed to have our gift exchange with my sis and her family last night. the kids all seemed very pleased with their gifts, my sis and bro-n-law were ecstatic with their blue man group tickets, and we received many wonderfully fun things. it was a fun weekend but oh so tiring. i need a nap.