I know this seems so long ago, but Halloween was so much fun this year. Webberville seemed extra festive with more trick-or-treaters and more houses all decorated and handing out candy. It was a great night.

Well we had a magical family vacation to Disney World, Universal, and other fun in Orlando. The Fuller Express cooperated 100%, and the kids did minimal fighting. It was so wonderful.

The highlight of the vacation for me was a once in a lifetime opportunity. As we were walking into Animal Kingdom, we stopped for a picture with Winnie The Pooh and a man pulls us aside and asks us if we were going to be in the park all day. I am standing there with sort of glare because I thought it was going to be a timeshare situation even though I noticed the Disney name tag. The man asks us if we would like to be in the parade that afternoon and ride with Mickey.

I ask what’s the catch? He says, “no catch ma’am I work for Disney and am in charge of the parade.” What?? I couldn’t believe it. We met him later that afternoon at the big brown gates near the safari adventure. They led us behind the scenes to meet the costume lady to get our mouse ears and safari vests. They led us down past all the characters waiting in their spots, past the dancers and right to the Mickey car which was the last and grande finale of the parade! We were instructed to smile and wave for the full 35 minutes and watch for the Disney photographer that will be taking pictures of us at two locations.

As the gates opened and the vehicle started moving, I look back and there are our three babies sitting behind us smiling and waving, riding only a few feet in front of Mickey Mouse. In front of Joe and I are our two oldest children, not smiling and waving so much because they are high school/middle schoolboys. During the parade it dawned on me just how many family’s home videos and pictures we will be in and that’s when I started feeling embarrassed and a little nervous. I kept waiting for someone’s home video to surface on You Tube. About 20 minutes in I look back and Abram is leaning on the railing and Daisy is sitting there obviously looking annoyed. I just kept looking over at Joe, and we would just start laughing!

I was allowed to take pictures from the parade and I got some great ones of the crowds. We also got a certificate and free pictures from the photographer. It was the most amazing experience, and I still have the music in my head that was playing. I like to think we were chosen because of our good looks and charm but it’s probably because they needed a group that can fill up seven spots in Mickey’s vehicle.

The weather was amazing all week long, the condo was perfect and the crowds weren’t too bad. We found out all four boys love roller coasters. Joe and I both do, and apparently Daisy isn’t scared of anything as she begged us to go on the tower of terror. I told her “no” when the boys went on it first thing in the morning because she cried a little on the haunted mansion. After asking us about it all day we finally all went on it at night and she loved it. We were all able to go on the rides at Universal because they have the child swap there. We were able to all wait in line together, but when we got to the ride I would take Daisy into the child swap room and Joe and the boys would ride and as soon as they got off the ride they would go back to the child swap and then I could get on and the boys could ride again! We loved that. When we got to Universal we heard that Matt Lauer and The Early Show was there in Harry Potter land so we figured the lines would be way too long to do any of that. When we got there the line for the newest Harry Potter ride was only 30 minutes long. It was the best ride ever, and Daisy enjoyed some of a Harry Potter movie in the child swap room!

Joe experienced some Disney magic and that was The Richard Petty Driving Experience on the Disney track. We drove by it going into the Magic Kingdom and he said –“I want to do that.” It was great. We all cheered him on as he was geared up, and the announcer and music was sounding like the real deal. He drove 8 laps in a racecar, on a racetrack behind a lead car. It was so awesome he did another 10 laps. The DVD arrived just this week, and it is so cool. Ezra was also able to do a ride along with a racecar driver so he got all suited up and got out smiling from ear to ear.

We met almost every character that was at all parks –both Disney and Universal- because there were hardly any lines, and we were able to see most everything. It was an amazing six days of 3D shows, princesses, thrill rides, people watching (my favorite was a lady who had the words “forever young” tattooed on the back of each thigh), super heroes, the most amazing fireworks, and lots of magic. I caught Ezra and Leo smiling quite a bit, Oscar, Abram and Daisy enjoyed every minute of it and everyone called Daisy “a princess.”

We also had a free day so we went to Gatorland where we “wrestled” and fed alligators and Medieval Times where we ate with our hands and watched a jousting show. Even though it was an amazing vacation, we were happy to be home but not so happy to get back into reality. We left warm weather and came back to cold.

Webberville is looking adorable and I hear wonderful rumors about some new things happening downtown. We are looking forward to the next season’s festivities like basketball, wrestling, Christmas, and snow! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and had a fun weekend of shopping.

I’ll leave you with this vision—as  we were leaving Epcot and it was our last Disney park the boys sat at the fountain and decided to scoop up some water and drink it. The water that every hand has been dunked in and coins are sitting in. They wanted to have Disney magic. Luckily they didn’t get sick and bring home more than magic. Yuck!