The pictures of my Amsterdam/Germany trip can be found on Flickr here. I’m hoping to get back to Munich next year for Oktoberfest.

Lukas was having fun on the water slides. He got bored of them after awhile and wandered over to the zip line. I couldn’t see the top of the kids water slide, so I thought he was in line. I got suspicious after a few minutes and went to look for him. It was already too late. He was being hoisted on to the zip line by someone in line behind him. He happily went down the zip line and plunged 12ft or so into the water!

He was fine, of course. For me it was a bit of a Nemo moment. I would never have let him on that ride voluntarily. But, in retrospect, he was fine and he loved it. So, we let him ride it again and caught it on video. Kaleb also took the plunge. Ironically, he was too scared to do it at first. But when we told him about Luke’s unplanned excursion, he decided to give it a try.

On day three of our Disney vacation we went to Blizzard Beach for a half-day. Blizzard Beach has a fun ski theme. The most exciting ride, Summit Plummet, features a 120ft free fall! Needless to say, I avoided that one. In fact, Melody and I didn’t go on any non-kid friendly rides at this park.

The highlight of this park for the kids was a zip line that was about 15ft above the water. Lukas had to be lifted up to the handle bars! I have some video I will share later.

Blizzard Beach was a nice change of pace from the main Disney parks. It made the “Water Park Fun & More Option” well worth the extra $50 per ticket. I’m sure we’ll do this again the next time we visit.

I think Kaleb is ready to suit up, don’t you?

Melody bought Kaleb a new Jedi Mickey (or is it Obi Wan Mickey??). Either way, he has a new one. Someone stole his at the Nemo show. He had it before the bubbles came down and he placed it on the bench to catch some bubbles. He must have put it too far back on the bench and it fell into the row behind him. Someone in the next row took it.

Who takes a Mickey stuffed animal from a 7yr old? I was amazed. Anyway…disaster averted.

]]> http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/jedi-mickey-replaced/feed/ 0 http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/luke-dancing-with-woody/ http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/luke-dancing-with-woody/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 03:36:17 +0000 mike http://www.mylenbusch.org/?p=63 As promised, here’s a video from Day One where Lukas danced with Woody during the Pixar Parade. He’s definitely not the shy sibling!

Melody, of course, spouted off some interesting facts about how Walt Disney commissioned this guy out of Germany to build the monorail for Disney World. We all yawned.

Anyway, here we are at the start of the day. Refreshed. Rested. Ready for anything.

And here we are at the end of the day in front of the Tree of Life. A stark contrast to say the least. The tree had no life to share. Bummer.

In case you didn’t notice. Yes, we are all in orange. The Cameron’s decided to wear matching colors each day. That makes it easier to spot each other individually and as a group. It actually works quite well. So, we decided to match their color choice today. It looks funny, I know. But it came in handy multiple times (especially when Lukas wandered around a corner without us seeing him).

Favorites of the Day

This is a Melody tradition, but I like it. Kaleb and Lukas shared their favorite today: The Kali River Rapids. We all got soaked, but it felt really good.

My favorite was Expedition Everest. It’s a fun roller coaster. It goes backwards in the dark at one point and has a nice steep drop at the end.

Melody said that her favorite was the Kali River Rapids, too. But I think she said that just for the kids sake.

Overall, this park was beautiful. There was lots of foliage and interesting architecture. I think it was my favorite park so far. The Everest coaster wasn’t as fun as Rockin’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios, but you don’t go to Disney for the coasters.

Other items of interest: Finding Nemo – The Musical was absolutely great! I highly recommend it. The safari was fun. They made every attempt to make it seem real for the kids. Dinosaur was ok. Kinda scary for little ones and not all that great for older ones. I’ll skip it next time. Primeval Spin was a good kid coaster that Kaleb enjoyed.

]]> http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/disney-animal-kingdom/feed/ 0 http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/fantasmic/ http://www.mylenbusch.org/2008/05/fantasmic/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 03:00:42 +0000 mike http://www.mylenbusch.org/?p=61

Our last activity of Disney Day One was the Fantasmic show. Kaleb and I saw the show with Dale, Colby and Carter. Lukas needed to catch some Zzzzs. It was Kaleb’s favorite activity of the whole day. I’ll have to admit that it was pretty kewl. But we had to get there 90 minutes early to get a seat. Yes, that’s 90 minutes of waiting for a 25 minute show….only at Disney!

This is my last post of the night. If you want to see more Disney vacation pictures, feel free to browse all of them on Flickr.

I have to admit that I’m a Disney skeptic. It’s expensive. It’s over-the-top. It’s “consumption” society at it’s finest.

…I sound like my Dad…

But, my kids love it. And it’s worth it just for that. Now the trick is to teach them to appreciate these amenities and not expect them.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

This is my current favorite quote on Twitter. This is exactly what I mean here. Our society breeds impatience and discontent. Granted, some of our greatest inventions are due to this phenomenon. But, I don’t want to raise my kids with the expectations of things like Disney World. I hope they will someday learn to respect our ability to enjoy in them

BTW, you can follow me on Twitter here if you are interested.

To follow up on the last post about Kaleb and the Hotel of Terror, I wanted to share some of his quotes after going on that ride. They’re funny and telling at the same time.

• “There is nothing faster than the Hotel of Terror except God”
• “I wish there were no such thing as the Hotel of Terror”
• “Mommy didn’t tell me that the Hotel of Terror was faster than gravity”

I added this post more for Melody and me than for anyone else. We always need to remember to “do the right thing” when it comes to situations like this, even when we know feelings are going to get hurt. Fortunately, this was just a ride and not something more serious. The little things often teach us the biggest lessons.