I'm Baaaaack! Disney (By Me & Sean)

The boys left EARLY!!

I'm baaaack! After much too long not blogging, it is time for me to get back in the saddle. I'll be going forward and backward to fill in the gaps because clearly...  a lot has happened. The last post I made, Joey was in high school and he is now a junior in college. Covid did a number on me I think but I'm ready to start telling our story again~ I do love to write and my family is of course my favorite subject!

Spied them on social media... Want to know what Z wasn't doing... TEXTING ME!

The boys left early! I was sick (later I found out it was Covid) so Jeff dropped them off. I did wake early (2:30am) to get that first picture of them and hug them goodbye! I gave them instructions to update me and send pics like their sibs did back when they went to Disney as a freshman and sophomore. Well... they weren't doing so good.

Sean and Hayden. Hayden is the son of two of my high school friends! So fun! They were roomies on the trip and both play clarinet.

But then something surprised me... I started hearing from Sean! And not just a few pictures but each night he sent me these wonderful detailed updates of his days which I will share at the bottom of this post. They were so funny, I may have leaked a little while laughing and reading them aloud to Jeff. We were dying and the highlight of my days became my nights because I knew I'd get an update!

Da Goose and his buddies!
Scott, Brogan, Caleb & Z

Zach was a bit harder to track down. I'd get the occasional picture but no details- no updates- and even my "I'm so disappointed in you" text messages didn't budge him. I mean, I didn't need a novella like Sean was gifting me but something would have been nice.

Sean and his Buds...
Simon, Sean D, Camden & Sean T.

Sean's best friends were on the other flight but he met up with them and as you'll see from his updates, he spent pretty much all his time with them. He sent me lots of pictures too!

BUTTER BEER!

A lot of Seany's pictures were of scenery but I did mention I'd love to see some pictures with his face and then he started to deliver!

Zach and his girlfriend found Donald Duck!

After Zach was seeing that his brother was sending me more pictures, he got better at sending them. It looked like he was spending time with his girlfriend, Phoebe, and his friends too. I can say it "looked like" because again- he didn't give me any updates!

Phoebe and Zach

My mom got an update though! Phoebe had sent her some pictures of her and Zach and she had asked my mom to photoshop the people out of them. I told my mom, "I don't see any people," and she said, "That's because I photoshopped them!" That made me laugh a bit- and yes- she did a great job!

I love this picture! Mary is the band director and a friend! She sent me this gem!

Zach sightings pretty much came from Mary and when I would see posts from facebook so I had to include the picture above because I am so thankful for her! Not just for teaching my kids and teaching us parents about swim and water polo (she's a swim and water polo mom, too), but also for the updates. We tend to take care of each other in that way- I send her updates when she's gone and she does the same for me (you'll see that more- or maybe you already have since I'll go back and update all that stuff later).

So thankful a Stacey sent me this!

The boys favorite part of Disney wasn't Disney... it was Universal though they liked marching through the park (well... again, read Sean's update). They also did this cool thing where they got to play the Disney music to the the movie- that sounded REALLY cool and I wish I could have seen it.

He said he had the most important job of leading the band and staying 8 steps behind...

I will have to say that Zach did update me in person when he got home, well... actually it was the next morning since I think they rolled in at like 1:30am and again, thankfully Jeff got them with me sick. I'm finally better now that OUR break- FIRST TIME EVER WITHOUT KIDS SINCE 2023- is over... sigh.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

IYKYK

HERE are all the pictures I got from the trip.

And now... for your reading pleasure (and mine since I will no doubt revisit), Disney according to Sean.

Published with permission from the author.

Seany’s Disney Adventure

Monday

Sorry for not answering sooner I was in the shower, the day started with me and Zach entering a bus after we were dropped off. After a long drive we arrived at the airport we’re we waited for what felt like hours for our flight I got on the airport the seatbelts were weird and we we’re waiting awhile for the plane to actually take off when it finally did I felt a weird rush in my head as we picked up sped and took off at first I was nervous but then got use to my new altitude. The land below looked like a giant grid and I snacked on some gummy bears while waiting for the flight to end we stopped at Chicago and waited a little while before getting on the other plane that would go to Orland. I sat next to 2 of Zach’s friends: Brogan and Gabe, we played cards against humanity with Zach, Scott, and Zach’s girlfriend whose name I don’t know how to spell. When we landed we went to our hotel and I was amazed with all the things there. For lunch there were these huge pizzas and even bigger cookie with a sprite and for some reason I thought playing tennis with my group was a good idea even with a stomach ache. However I was playing pretty good getting 2nd in our “tournament” after that I noticed that the 2nd plane had finally arrived and I talked with Sean, Camden, Simon, and Chase. We all went up to their room and played Mario kart, Brogan was there too, I only got to play 1 round before having to come down to the lobby don’t worry I won the one race I was able to do we left to Disney springs were we went to get dinner my friends and Zach’s friends sat together and we had a great time cracking jokes and singing songs when we got back I got my card for Disney went to my room set up my bed and took shower and am now about to brush my teeth

Tuesday

So I woke up ate some eggs and pancakes with Sean, Camden, Simon, Leah and Julia then we got on the bus to Disney when we got there we took a ferry to the the main area with the Walt Disney statue and I met up with Sean’s group and we started heading to this space mountain. At the time I didn’t know we’re we were going I was just mindlessly following until when we got in the end of the line Leah stepped out of the line and I saw the karts with bars that’s when I realized oh crap this is a roller coaster. I was in the front of the kart behind Sean’s kart when we started going I got a giant pit in my stomach as we were going slow knowing we were about to go super fast. We dropped down and saw a bunch of flashing lights when the kart did a couple of sharp turns and going up and down super fast at times I closed my eyes. This roller coaster was inside not outside and the room was super dark so I couldn’t see much but I could certainly feel the movement. When we got off we went to a place to get lunch. I didn’t get anything because I thought they would feed us for some reason then we went to reunite with the band and went down to this private area reserved for the band we’re we got dressed in our outfits and rehearsed. For some reason I packed 2 right shoes so I just sucked it up and put them on hopping Mrs H wouldn’t notice. Luckily she didn’t and I was able to march with the band through the magic kingdom. We played Cupid shuffle on repeat for at least 4 times before our parade ended. After that we went back to our trailer to get dressed and then be dismissed. I got chicken strips and French fries from this one place after that I got a hot fudge ice cream that Camden payed for because he felt bad about the time I bought him that shirt after that we went to the pirates of the Caribbean ride that had the longest line of all time when we finally got to the end of it we got on this boat and got dropped down into this river we’re we saw pirates of the Caribbean characters as animatronics that looked really real. It looked like we were outside because of the realistic night roof that ride was a lot slower than the space mountain and more tame at the end of the day we met up at the Disney castle for the firework show. By then my feet were incredibly tired and I just wanted to lie down but I stood up for the rest of the day until bed were I am now

Wednesday

Today was a pretty long day, I woke up ate breakfast with some friends and got on a bus to go to a Disney band studio we’re we played some Disney songs with someone who helps make them. After that we went to Epcop or maybe I miss pronounced the name. Anyways I went with Sean, Camden, Leah and Julia to a French restaurant with very expensive foods. Sense I didn’t know what they were I decided to skip out on that meal and wait till we get ti the American part of epcop. This would be really good choice as the 2 people who did eat their French food would get sick at the end of the day. After the American food we went to a rattitouie ride that was like a 4D movie ride we’re you could feel the heat of the stove or the sprinkle of the water after that ride it started to rain and we decided to go to the frozen ride. The frozen ride was like the pirates of the Caribbean ride except not as cool in my opinion. After that we met up with the rest of the band at this gate were we went to this backstage soccer dome looking thingy. We’re there were deserts and huge pretzels after that we went outside to watch the fireworks. At that point I had been kind of sick of fireworks and they kept making me think about global warming and my feet were tired so I didn’t really care about the firework show. When the firework show ended we got back on our buses and headed back to the hotel and are about to go to bed

Thursday

This summery is coming earlier because they’re giving us time to pack things. I woke up at breakfast and got on a bus to go to universal. This time I knew I was going to buy something. When we got there Sean and Simon wanted to go on a hulk ride that was way too high up for my taste so they both gave me, Camden and Leah their backpacks that had all their belongings in it and went in the line while we went to shop for stuff. After a while we thought we should go to see we’re they were and that’s when we realized we still had their stuff so we had to make a whole hassle to try and find them and when we finally did we decided to go to Harry Potter land because all of our moms wanted pictures of that place. We got some butter beer and decided to go to the Simpson land but got distracted because Sean and Simon wanted to go on another ride so we had to wait a bit. When we got Simpson land we bought a homer donut that are, in my opinion, not as good as the ones in Kalamazoo. I got a duff beer that tasted like sparkling water. We hit a gift shop that had some Mario stuff like a toad hat that reminded me of when I was little but it was too expensive so I bought some homer slippers instead. And I just now forgot to put in the part were I went to this cartoon land that had a bunch of old cartoons were I got some chicken tenders with curly fries. Anyway back to we’re I was we kept walking around and saw vector and decided to take a picture with him which was awesome then when it got dark me, Sean and Camden went to get some Burger King we’re I spent the last of my universal dinning card that I got at breakfast for Sean and I because we wanted some dinner because we had to meet up with the rest of the band fast when we met up with them we got on our busses and headed back to the hotel we’re we then had time to go in the pool! It was so unbelievably cold in there especially the kitty pool. I still had a great time though and now I’m in bed

Friday (Actually- he was home but I BEGGED him to write about his last day knowing that I needed to read it!

When I woke up I ate my usual breakfast and went up to my room to clean up my bed, pack up my suitcase and tidy up a bit. After that I went to the busses to put my suitcase on and got up on the bus to go to Hollywood studios when I got there I met up with my friends and went to this rock and roll place we’re we got in line for the roller coaster. I just went to talk not to actually go on it and when me and Leah went back to wait and Kaylen made such a scene about it to try and embarrass me. After waiting we met up with them and went to go explore the park and Sean, Camden, and I went to this cool looking boat restaurant to get hot dogs and we checked our dinning cards and realized we still have a lot of money on it so we got to Starbucks and buy a 100 dollars worth of cake pops and started handing them out to people but after like 3 People Sean wanted to hoard all of them. Unfortunately sense Sean’s group had plane 2 I had to leave them so they could head to the airport. I decided I should just meet up with Zach’s group and we went to the Star Wars place we’re one of Zach’s friends gave me some “blue milk” and we waited around for one of them to get out of the bathroom and the storm troopers came and Brogan told them to take me away and they say “that’s a negative” and then we had to go back to the busses and head to the airport when I got on the plane I unfortunately had to have a middle seat with 2 randoms luckily I was able to fall asleep and our plane arrived in Nashville and we had 2 hours to wait for our flight so me and my group went to a pizza place in the airport and when we got back it was almost time for our departure I got the window seat and put in my noise canceling headphones and had a nice and easy flight home we’re I found dad and went home to you and the dogs