Friday, August 13, 2010

Home Sweet HOT Home!

Yes-we made it back home to the terribly hot weather here, brown grass, dead flowers and piles of mail! Oh, but it was sooo wonderful to sleep in my own bed once again!
We hit Cocoa Beach on our last full day in Florida-about an hour and 20 minute drive that cost us about $6 in tolls from Orlando! Their toll roads are hilarious-we were often paying tolls on the highway when we never left the same one-weird! I will say their roads were nice though-I did miss throwing a handful of quarters into a urinal looking thing waiting for the red light to change to green once we hit I-70 in MO! I forget just how much that highway sucks! And someone told me MO just passed a law that truckers have to drive in the right hand lanes only-not the far left one? Maybe someone should tell them that because that was one thing I loved about driving down south-that is the law-and they know it-and it made for way smoother(faster) driving!
Anyway-back to Cocoa Beach...we arrived on the beach with the yellow (caution) flag hanging on the lifeguard chair and within 20 minutes of getting our towels arranged, umbrella staked, Ethan situated and kids in the ocean......CRACK! Thunder and lightning in the distance and the Red flag went up! Out of the ocean and off the beach! We did get all our money back from the umbrella/chair rentals when Brian returned them-the gal saw his PD shirt and asked if he was a cop-so he showed her his badge and she gave us all our money back-said her hubby was a Sheriff's Deputy! Nice little brotherhood we have there!
So, we found a local pizza place, sat for a while and watched the rain pour then headed to Ron Jon's Surf Shop! If you've never been to a Ron Jon's-GO! Parker got a boogy-board, Hailey got some swim shorts and a new swim suit top, we got t's and a bag and some cool beer glasses and flip flops! Then we hit the SpaceCoast Harley store and stocked up on some more stuff and got some advice on where to try to hit the beach again for the kids. The gal from the Harley store sent us across town and into some residential area-and viola! Beautiful beach and nearly empty! We put our coins in the meter and our feet in the sand-all that was missing was an ice cold beer.....
The kids loved playing in the ocean, and Ethan LOVED the sand! We put him on a towel and he kicked and kicked and kicked until he had dug about 10" holes with his feet! He was covered in sand-in his diaper, both legs covered, shorts wet, up his back and in his butt crack! And he was happy as a lark! The kids only got to play for about an hour because it was nearing dusk and I'm a shark freak. The last shark attack in Cocoa Beach (that I could find online) was in Nov 2009 just down the beach from where we were on- a 9 or 10 year old boy who was playing in the surf and a bull shark came up and snatched part of his leg off. Have I ever mentioned how terrible our luck is??? Well, instead of tempting fate-we hauled the kids out of the water and headed back to Orlando!
The kids thanked us over and over again for this wonderful trip and we relished in how perfect it turned out! Then it was back home to KC and work and reality. I'm still trying to recover from actually having to work 2 whole days this week upon return-good thing I have 5 off now....
The kids start school Monday-all 3 of them!! Hailey with VB try-outs and Cross Country, and Parker with Soccer. We're trying to find a sport for E-teeth grinding, distance rolling or repetitive crunching he would be great at!
I have got to hit the gym again-Allison my Ultrasound night tech buddy talked me into walking the stairs with her last night (umm, 12 flights up and down) and I really thought she was going to have to call a code on me before we reached the top so I have got to get in shape and lose some weight! Some of you remember my blog a couple of years ago when I first started with a personal trainer-well prepare for some more laughs-cause we are going to meet with one next week!
And a push for the KCPDFF-I am the president of our KCPD Friends and Family group and earlier this summer some of you may remember when I posted about a friend's house burning down. Tiffany Wells, our KCPDFF Secretary and great friend lost her home and all belongings except about 3 cardboard boxes worth of stuff in a fire caused by faulty electrical wiring. Our group is hosting a night out (adult night out!) to help raise money for the family as they rebuild their home and their lives! The event is open to the public-ALL ARE INVITED!
It is Saturday August 28th starting at 6pm at the Tuscan Ball Room at Liberty Hills Country Club-dress is casual!
Dinner/dancing/music provided by Soundgate Productions/raffle/silent auction items and all round good times raising money for a special family and one whose husband devotes his life to the citizens of this city daily!
Tix are $60 couple and $35 single and with that you get 2 drink tix-cash bar rest of night.
Great items for auction and raffle including teeth whitening package $350 value,
DJ package $500 value, event at the Tuscan Ball Room at huge discount, morning in the studio of radio personality Chris Stigall (priceless!) and lots of other great gift cards, products, etc.
Contact me to purchase tix, raffle tix or just donate to this event.
Or visit our website to purchase online at www.kcpdff.org
Or get your tix from either of our two KCPCU Credit Unions www.kcpcu.org
*just don't contact me to be your designated driver-right Jenn???
Come join us and have a great time-if you have a group you would like to ensure being placed with-let me know and we will reserve tables for your party to PARTY!!!
Oh, I almost forgot-we got home to find out our other house is set to close (again-for real this time!) in September! Yeah for my St Joseph statue buried in the front yard!!
Ethan happily digging 10inch holes in the sand with his feet while kicking!

Parker and Hailey playing in the Atlantic at Cocoa Beach

Brian tried to put E's feet in the ocean-he kept laughing so hard and pulling his feet back up!

Cocoa Beach 2010

The kids when the beach closed -Cocoa Beach 2010




Friday, August 6, 2010

Shamu ROCKS! and so does Sea World!

Sea World today was awesome! We got there around 11am and tried to get the extra tickets which took us backstage at the Sea Lion/Otter show, to pet a shark and a penguin and to feed and pet the dolphins-but they were already sold out! So, the gal at Guest Relations told us to head to Dolphin Cove and push the 'little cutie in the wheelchair' right up to the front and pull the sympathy card and see what happens....well, I hate to say it, but we did just that! And we got our own private feeding/petting show with the dolphins! All the while, everyone else watched us from waaaay behind a fence and across the lake and were crazy jealous I'm sure! The Sea World crew was so kind-we were so excited for Ethan to pet a dolphin-and he did and he was smiling and loving it. That is until the dolphin he was petting moved-that FREAKED him out! He square-mouthed it all up and even cried a few tears! You can see the loveliness of it in the pics below!

From there we hit the Dolphin Show-beautiful!

The 'Believe' Show featuring Shamu and all the other killer whales (minus Tillikum of course)

The Sea Lion/Otter/Walrus Show-hysterical

We also walked through the shark encounter and the kids fed some small sharks and pet some stingrays.

And of course-Brian and Hailey rode The Manta-a crazy roller coaster which you are diving head first and upside down into twists and turns! And the Kraken-one of Orlando's largest steel coasters-again, not one for the faint of heart-namely me and Parker!

We finished up the night with Shamu Rocks! An amazing night show in Shamu Stadium with lights and loud rock music! The kids sat down in rows 2 and 4-so they had a really wet ride home-while we sat in the wheelchair section with E-and remained dry!

How funny is it that we ran into the Kellers from KC today-they have been in Florida on vacay for the last week also! AND we hooked up with a former Sgt of Brian's, Buddy Hunholz and his family who were at Sea World today too. Buddy moved to Palm Beach 3 years ago and works for Miami Gardens PD!

Had another great day today-headed to Cocoa Beach tomorrow and maybe Gator Land-ssshhh don't tell Parker-it's going to be a surprise cause we aren't sure we can make it. It will be great for him since he doesn't do the rides like Hailey does-it will be more his 'thing'.

Then back to reality as we head home Sunday and Monday!


Our private dolphin feeding/petting

This was Ethan's face after the dolphin he was petting moved-it freaked him out!


Shamu Rocks!

The dolphin show at Blue Horizons Theatre


Brian & Hailey on the Manta-look closely-top of the screen last car-Hailey in white shirt at the top of the pic, Brian next to her in green shirt with arms up!


The Kids with Shamu!






Thursday, August 5, 2010

Disney Days 3 & 4-Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Day 3 Magic Kingdom
On Wednesday, we slept in a little bit, knowing we were going to be at Magic Kingdom pretty late! That park is absolutely mind-blowing! So many of the rides were wheelchair friendly-and I don't mean that we could wheel right up to them and transfer E onto one of our laps-I mean he rode the rides in his own wheelchair!

The Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland was the first ride we hit-while we waited for our Fast Pass time for Space Mountain. We cheated and got 4 Fast Passes for it, knowing I and Parker would not ride it-but so Brian and Hailey could ride twice in a row-or if they didn't want to, pass it along to a stand-by rider in the 75 minute wait line! Then we hit the Astro Orbiter, the Transit Train, and the Carousel of Tomorrow. We spent the first half of our morning in one section of the park! Oh, and I did ride Space Mountain with Brian-not a bad ride at all! Pretty cool in the dark-I can't see the upcoming crazy turns and drops so I wasn't anxious with anticipation! I mostly rode it because my husband said if I didn't at least ride it-people's opinions of me would be shatttered-meaning they wouldn't think I was as big a bad-ass as I have most people convinced I am!

We then made our way around the park and hit the Tea Cup ride(me, Parker and E), the Dumbo ride(again, the chicken trio) and the Carousel(yep, us three again) while Brian and Hailey rode the Runaway Train and Splash Mountain. Once over on that side of the park-we climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, did the Jungle Safari Boat Tour-wheelchair accessible for E! the Haunted Mansion ride (Parker clung to Hailey during this entire ride once the first ghost jumped out at him!) and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Pirate ride was very cool-little boats which we rode in with Ethan sitting on the seat between me and Brian all underground and dark. Not so cool when the boat went down a nice little hill and splashed into the water below in the pitch black dark-which we weren't expecting-by then Brian had put E on his lap-and it's a good thing, or he might have ended up on the floor!

We hung out and watched the electric parade and the amazing Summer Nightastic Fireworks-and it almost made me cry! Watching the incredible fireworks show with the family-the whole while Ethan squealing and laughing at them. I told Brian if that had been the only thing we had been able to do while there-I would have left happy! For me it was the icing on the cake of this trip-and worth the whole thing!

I was so looking forward to the It's a Small World ride-but it was closed for refurbishing! Drats!


Day 4 Hollywood Studios
Fun-though not as kid ride friendly as Epcot or the Kingdom.
We got some good advice from one of the Magic Kingdom Cast Members who used to work there who told us to go straight to the Toy Story Midway Mania ride because all the fast passes would be gone by 11am-and he was right! When we wheeled up to the ride and asked about wc accessibility, the guy told us he could stay in his chair-but we had to wait in the 115 minute stand-by line. I was not down for that-neither was E in the 93 degree heat. As I stomped off saying that was ridiculous-he couldn't wait outside in that heat-another Cast Member grabbed me and asked if we had the Guest Assistance Card-which we did! She kindly pointed out that the other guy should have directed us in through the exit right to the handicap loading area and she apologized and told us she would educate the other guy on that! Thank goodness for her-otherwise we would have missed a very fun ride! Ethan's first trip on it he sat between Brian and I and did ok-his second trip he stayed in his wc and I sat beside him-however, I forgot to straighten his chair up from the leaned-back position, and the first turn it tipped backwards and poor little E was staring at the ceiling with wild eyes trying to figure out what had happened! It was so back heavy from our bags and his O's and feeding bag! I just about died as I grabbed his chair super fast and sat him back up! I couldn't straighten his chair up then or his face would have hit the pop gun, so I just put my foot on the front wheels to stabilize it, and when we were moving, I held it up with my arm-thank heaven's it was a pretty short ride!

We also enjoyed the Back Lot Tour, the Little Mermaid show, the Disney Animation Show, the Prince Caspian show, the Great Movie Tour Ride, The Muppet 3D Show, the Star Wars Endor Trip ride, and of course the Tower of Terror and the Rock-n-Roll Roller Coaster. The last two were Brian and Hailey rides in case you couldn't tell by the names?!?!? Parker tried to tell us he was going to ride the Tower-but as we approached and could hear people's screams, ummm he changed his mind!

We met a couple of other special needs families from overseas who also had kids in wheelchairs, whom we sat and chatted with for a while! The one family from England had an older daughter who loved the Dumbo ride-and refused to get off of it-her Dad had to pick her up and drag her off! The Mum made a comment much like I have said about E-"As long as she's happy the world is right. But once she's not-the world will know about it!" Sooooo Ethan-speaking of which-he had a complete meltdown today when we stopped entertaining him to actually sit down and eat that the wonderful waitress brought him a light up ice cube in a dish which changed colors-it kept him busy and quiet long enough for us to eat!

Like I have said before-the Cast Members were so wonderful, the parks so accomodating, so much more than I ever expected! We will surely bring the kids back here again in a few years! I was worried Ethan wouldn't get to do anything-and I was so wrong!

We love Walt Disney....
for his dreams have made ours come true!

The parade at Hollywood Studios with the green army men from Toy Story-dancing and singing
In front of the Streets of America-the New York skyline in the background


Tower of Terror-not a Kari or Parker kind of ride....


Now, this was my kind of ride-and Ethan's -he loved this ride too-and it had a wheelchair accessible car too!



The inside of the Toy Story Midway Mania ride-from the handicap loading area



The back side of the castle at night during the Summer Nightastic Fireworks show!



So many rides at Magic Kingdom were wheelchair friendly-this was the Jungle Safari boat ride


E sportin some new Mickey shades

The Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin ride-Ethan rode with Brian on this ride in his wheelchair in a special car and he LOVED it!

Cinderella's Castle when we first arrived at Magic Kingdom










Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Disney Day 2-Wild Animal Kingdom

Well, it was Day 2 of our Disney Adventure-and oh, what an adventure it was.....
we found out where the first aid station at the park was, the name of the local children's hospital, AND if we have to call 911 for Ethan-ask them to take us to Celebration first-they will then fly him down to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital instead of drive-apparently dowtown Orlando traffic is a bitch!

Now, that sounds a whole lot worse than it really was-Ethan just got a little hot today (record high of 97-and we decided to spend it at the one park that has hardly any A/C buildings!) Only one of the restaurants even had indoor seating with A/C!! But all was well-like I said-Disney is AMAZING! We headed to first aid because Ethan was working pretty hard to breathe, retracting, and then started acting like he was gonna throw up. We threw some O's on him-but knew we needed to get him inside somewhere to cool down-and fast! Literally-the crowds parted when we asked how to get to first aid cause we needed our little guy looked at-the Cast Member helping us was awesome! We tried to check his sats-but alas-the one thing I did not check, double check and triple check before we left KC was the battery on his portable spot check sat monitor-it didn't have enough juice to read his sat-low battery! The paramedics showed up at the first aid station to check him for us-and by then he was doing the 'baby seal' and back to a nice pink color, laughing hysterically at them as they tried to do some vitals on him! The crew was awesome-gave us all the good info I mentioned above-checked his sat-a lovely 94-and sent us on our way!

Other than that excitingly scary moment-we had a great time at this park too! The pics of the very realistic, snow covered mountain in our background was the Everest Expedition ride. I was pretty sure I was gonna ride this coaster-that is until I actually saw it in person! And after Brian and Hailey rode it (twice) and told me all about it-I was really glad I changed my mind. A coaster that spans two buildings, hits a dead-end where the tracks change and then you plummet backwards down the path you just came up, THEN proceeds forward down a steep hill, around a fast corner into a fifty foot Yeti-was not my idea of a smooth ride today..... the boys and I watched-and listened to all the screams! And we were perfectly happy!

We also partook of the 'It's Tough to be a Bug' show in the roots of the large carved tree on Discovery Island. For those of you Disney movie fans, Flik, the star of 'Bug's Life' was the narrator of this incredible 3D show! I can't even begin to describe on here how great it was-the smoke, shooting water, creepy crawlies under our seats and the spiders dropping from the ceiling made for one terrific show! It's a must-see for all ages-and it's in the nice, cool A/C!

We did the Kilamanjaro Safari Ride, where we loaded into jeeps and headed deep into Africa. The ride was very cool-lots of up close views of the animals, and the best part-Ethan laughed his skinny butt off bouncing around in the jeep! I got some great pics of elephants, rhinos, Nile crocs, and a even a shot of the King of the Jungle himself-standing up for a moment to adjust his napping position!

We were back to our resort by 6pm-made some tacos for dinner, hit the RedBox near us and just finished watching 'Kick Ass'. The bald guy is in bed now, and I think he may actually be asleep finally. We are getting ready to watch 'The Bounty Hunter' and I'm gonna throw down a few Corona Lights and try to laugh at a movie where I love the lead actor -Gerard Butler-and am nauseated by the lead actress. Oh well, maybe the beer will make Jennifer Aniston more tolerable. At least the soundtrack is decent!

Tomorrow we are sleeping in late, then heading to Magic Kingdom a little later-we want to be there late for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade (9pm) and the Summer Nightastic Firework Spectacular (10pm). We also plan to hunt down all the princesses for Ethan to get some lovin' from, and I'm sure Brian and Hailey have some crazy rides they plan to hit! Parker is more interested in all the gift shops-and he's really excited about the fireworks! It's only supposed to be 93 here tomorrow-so we should be able to avoid the first aid station at the Kingdom-we'll see!

A Happy Early Birthday to my Dad! When we get back home-we plan to BBQ for you and Teresa's belated birthday! Without the two of you-we wouldn't be able to be on this trip-thank you so much for making this possible! The kids are having the time of their lives and I can't wait to scrapbook all of the great pics I have! Have a great Birthday Dad-love you bunches!

Parker in front of the big tree at Discovery Island
Everest Expedition in the background

Yep, that's E's little head, he had too much to drink and decided to pull over and take a nap instead of drive


Ethan and Daddy on the Triceratops Ride



the kids at Disney's Animal Kingdom




Monday, August 2, 2010

Disney Adventure!

I've posted just a few of the pics I have taken so far on our trip! We are having a FABULOUS time! The first stretch of driving was from KC to Chattanooga, TN, and it took us about 12 hours-with just 3 stops, one tiny Ethan melt-down, and only one child asking "are we there yet??" just ONE TIME!! And we were actually within 2 hours of our destination when that question was asked-not bad for Parker! We spent Saturday exploring downtown Chattanooga-visited the TN Aquarium-very cool place, ate some sushi for lunch at Seseiku, AND found the local Children's Hospital-not because we had to-but hey, better safe than sorry!
Our trip to Orlando began early on Sunday morning, and we hit rain once we were inside the FL state borders. It slowed us down quite a bit. Either FL drivers don't know how to drive in a little rain, or (more likely) the elder population was freaked out by it. About every 12 miles of really slow traffic, we came across a tow truck, ambulance and two or three police vehicles pulling a Buick or a Lincoln Town Car out of the ditch-old people's cars ya know!
Upon arrival to our resort-Grand Beach Resort-a mere 6 miles from Disney's front gate, the rain was more like a monsoon-I thought we left that crap in KC! But no luck-the forecast for the rest of the week (drum roll please....) RAIN-every damn day! Like I have said about a bajillion times-
If the Rawley's didn't have BAD luck, we'd have NO luck at all!
But the Gods have smiled upon us for at least today-we made it to Epcot and for 8 hours with one brief rain shower! Disney is an amazing place! We got a stroller=wheelchair sticker for Ethan today because we were afraid to take his wheelchair in with the possible rain(it doesn't have a cover) and man-you wheel up to a ride and flash that red sticker-and the red carpets are rolled out for you! We got on Spaceship Earth immediately-instead of waiting the 50 min wait time-as we did all the rides we could take him on!
We even went to the front of the line for the Disney character photos-and I almost had to throw down with a Mom who kept eyeballing us and Ethan and making snide comments. I finally said to her "hey, I know you're upset that we walked right in and avoided the hour long line you obviously waited in with your kids, but I see you have two healthy, walking, talking kids with you. Well, the reason we went to the front of the line is because of this little guy-he doesn't walk, or talk, or even eat by mouth. There are very few things here he will actually get to ride on, or enjoy, but this is one of them-so if you would like to trade your perfectly healthy kid for one like my little guy-I'd happily let you cut in front of me, cause damnit, this kid deserves it!"
She apologized and stopped giving me dirty looks-I think I made my point. Good thing, too, I really didn't want to have to whip out some Wyandotte County White Trash moves on her right there in front of Mickey Mouse!
Anyway-Ethan got to ride the Spaceship Earth ride-his very first roller coaster!! And I think I held my breath and felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest the whole time! It is a slow-moving ride and you are in nice little cars on a track-right up my alley. But it's dark, and there are flashing lights, and there are no 'cast members' inside the ride-believe me, I know, I was looking for the poor soul I was going to grab when Ethan either had a seizure, or stopped breathing-or did whatever it was he was going to do simply because we were dumb enough to put him on a roller coaster a thousand miles from home! He didn't though! He laughed and smiled the whole time! And I mean big, belly laughs! When I wasn't a nervous wreck, I think I laughed at him too! He also got to ride the Nemo ride, the boat ride at The Land, and the Imagination ride! He had such a good time today-as did all of us!
Hailey and Brian rode all of the fast rides-the Mission Space, the GM Test Track and some other ride that turns and twists you and makes you go upside down. Not me and Parker-if it said 'do not ride if you have a problem with motion sickness' I knew that was code for 'this ride is fast and spinny, and will make Kari vomit'. And I simply chose to avoid those!
We finished up the night with crab legs and shrimp at the Crab House and then baths for everyone-including Ethan! (well, kind of a bath....as good as we felt comfortable giving him without having to find out where this local children's hospital is...) Now off to bed so we have plenty of rest for Disney's Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

Oh, the weather you ask??? Much like KC-actually not even as bad as KC had been in the last few weeks before we left! Hot-yes-record high temps expected early this week-but I don't know what the difference is, because it doesn't feel as sticky, wet humid here as back home.

Then again, maybe I just don't notice it, because I simply don't care-

I'm on vacation!

In Bruce, the Shark's mouth at Nemo Ride

Mickey Mouse Ethan

Epcot 08/02/2010








Parker and Hailey in the shark cage at the
Tennessee Aquarium