Descending into Chaos

As I hit my 47th birthday in a little bit, it's a bit sobering that the life I'm living now is definitely not where I saw myself even a few months ago.  Life has taken a pretty sharp turn, really just in the last few weeks.  We're definitely not finishing out the summer the way we wanted to, and honestly, our whole future seems like one big question mark right now.

As I mentioned in my last post, a couple weeks ago for whatever reason, Carter's new medicines stopped working and he descended into a pretty nasty ulcerative colitis flare.  Frequent urgent bathroom visits, more blood than ever, and lots of pain became the norm pretty quickly.  Then he started getting nasty rounds of nausea that led to violent, empty stomach heaves.  That got more frequent over the last week, and by Friday we decided to try crackers first thing in the morning before he gets out of bed, pregnant woman-morning sickness-style.  Day 1 seemed to work, so fingers crossed it helps.  Nothing derails the day (or his diet) like a round of that.  

He got a Cdiff test done last week and this one was negative, so apparently his antibiotics a month ago did the trick.  But the bad news is that it left us without a compelling, fixable cause for the flare.  Back to square one.  His doctor prescribed another medicine this week, some sort of antibiotic that has anti-inflammatory properties.  I wasn't sure it was working at first, but it has helped the frequency and urgency quite a bit over the last couple days.  I don't know if some improvement will be enough for the doctor's liking, but if it isn't, he'll go on Prednisone for a bit.  As we all know, I very much dislike Prednisone and I'd hate to know what it would do to my poor kid who's already suffering enough.  So let's hope we don't have to do that.

Of course, school starts on Wednesday and that makes things a bit more complicated.  Being stuck in class is not ideal for someone who has random, urgent bathroom needs.  He's has some incidents and close calls lately, and those are not compatible with middle school.  At all.  We have a letter to hopefully get him full bathroom access without asking, but we'll likely need to put together a 504 plan or something similar to ensure he has full accommodations, like extra time during tests if he needs to use the restroom, the ability to make up work if he misses days, and maybe even cell phone access during the day in case of an incident.  I have no idea how long or complicated that will be to get done.  Hopefully this medicine works enough to keep it managed through at least the first half week, though.  Then next Monday, he'll miss a school day because we embark on a new journey--infusions.  This was the next step if the other meds didn't work, and here we are.  He'll get it that day, two weeks later, and then a month after that.  It'll be about a three-hour process each time, and hopefully in the long run it will only happen every eight weeks.  Hopefully that will help him significantly, but I'm becoming even more aware that this could be a long, hard journey with a lot of ups and downs.  We went from something that was supposedly very manageable into a whole host of unknowns, just in these couple weeks.  

My therapist has been recommending I find a support group for parents like me, and I finally found an active Ulcerative Colitis/Crohn's parent one on Facebook.  She thought it would give me emotional support and coping techniques.  Unfortunately, all it's done so far is up my anxiety and make me realize this journey will most certainly not be a straight line.  We'll likely go through multiple drugs, lots of testing and discouraging lab results, odd side effects, and sudden shifts just when things seem to be under control.  He could react to the infusions--either immediately or as time goes on.  He could seem like he's doing better, only to find that the med levels are too low and he's showing antibodies (which from what I can tell means he's fighting off the medicine).  He could have lots of hospital stays in his future.  

I had a conversation the other day with a work colleague because I found out he has Crohn's.  My closest prior experience to anything of this nature was that my high school boyfriend had Crohn's, but he didn't have a flare when we were together.  I remember him being hospitalized and out of school a couple times before that, and I knew he had a lot going on.  He sometimes looked a bit gaunt, and when he came back he sometimes had that steroid puffiness going on.  You'd never know from looking at my colleague that he had this going on, but he works very hard to keep it that way, with a very strict diet.  We had a good chat that was equally encouraging and concerning.  He felt confident we'd find a good treatment and get Carter back on track.  But he shared about his hospitalizations, some medication struggles, his very strict diet ("he should learn to love grilled chicken--it will be his friend!"), and his thankfulness to still have all his intestines and to not have a colostomy bag.  Those are not high bars, though, so it does make me worry about what Carter's future might look like.  This guy does need to have a minor surgery coming up that might involve a temporary colostomy, but it sounds like the surgery will be worth the long term benefits.  Carter continues to plan and dream about the day he can have dairy again, and not only do I not know if that will happen, but I can't help but wonder if he'll need to give up gluten and/or fried and spicy foods, as well.  He's such a food kid that I know those things would be so hard.  We're struggling to come up with foods right now as it is, let alone with more limitations.  

I won't even let myself Google most things right now.  I know every drug is going to have bad possible side effects and I'd rather let the doctors tell us the most likely ones.  As Jacob has taught us, there's a fine line between educating yourself and knowing too much, and I just can't go there right now.  This is already a lot to manage, and I just can't add in more problems my anxiety creates for itself.  Thank God I'm on my anxiety meds right now, though, because I know this would have certainly done me in.  Every bad poop, every nausea/vomiting session, every round of pain, every test result would have put me in a new spiral of hell.  Not that I'm not already struggling, but it would have been exponentially worse.  For every deep breath and nervous stomach moment I have now, it would be a thousand times stronger.  So much of what I worried about with Jacob were my brain's creations.  This is a very real health threat with very scary possibilities, and I don't know that I'd get through without my meds.

Needless to say, all of this has been a bit of a surreal shock to the system.  We went from something frustrating but hopefully manageable to something that is clearly going to be a long-lasting, life-altering issue.  I'm so worried about school right now, and baseball too, since that starts this week and the bathrooms are awfully far from the fields.  I just hate that Carter needs to deal with this at all.  He's been such a trooper and yet I can tell this is wearing on him.  He looks so skinny and pale these days, and the pain has been a lot at times.  It's hard to see him have to be stuck at home and really only venturing out to hit some baseballs, which thankfully he still has the energy for.  This is definitely not something a kid entering puberty wants to deal with.  

As much as I struggled with the title of being a mom to a kid with a chronic illness since Jacob's Celiac was generally well-controlled, the past year has challenged that (even though none of Jacob's stuff really became anything of note), and now this has absolutely solidified it.  My future is going to be one of endless worries, endless shuttling to appointments and labs, managing med lists and working through infusion sessions.  I never imagined we'd be here, especially since we only found this when we did by total accident, as it was only after the initial blood work full of inflammation did the GI symptoms really get going.  Some days I just don't know how we got here.  I know it could still be way worse, but I am struggling, no doubt.  I just want two healthy kids and it feels farther out of my reach than ever.  Sometimes I want to tell my therapist that I think I need a break because literally nothing is going to feel fully better until I feel like my head is above water again with all of this, and I just don't have the energy to fully work on myself right now.  I'm taking it one day at a time because we have to with this changeable mess of symptoms, but it's going to get really real in the next week, and it's making the first week of school harder than ever.  Normally I'd be a little relieved to get my quiet house back, but all of this PLUS getting up early and packing lunches (for two very tough-to-feed kids right now) is probably going to be harder than the summer chaos.  I'm sad, scared, and desperate for my kid to feel better.

And amidst all of this, I'm now officially heading into my late 40s.  And I thought peri-menopause was going to be my biggest medical challenge at this point.  Ha, joke's on me, I guess.  More birthday thoughts coming soon...

Bummer in the Summer

I'm pretty much in denial that there's only one full week of summer left.  Yes, we have a mere one full week plus a couple days bookending it on either side.  Labor Day is as early as it gets this year, September 1, the day after my birthday, and Carter goes back two days later.  Jacob is a day after that.  It feels SO early this year.  This would have been my literal nightmare as a kid.  My birthday timing is rough enough--you wake up the next morning and not only is August over, but it's also the unofficial end of summer, and in a year where Labor Day is early and school starts a mere few days later, that was THE WORST.  But here we are, starting down locker/schedule pickup day in less than a week and wishing we could cram a little more into our summer.

I really wanted to whisk Carter off to an amusement park this week, but alas, his ulcerative colitis has reared its ugly head again, despite two medications, and he's been pretty miserable.  I mean, all things considered he's still in decent spirits, but I can tell the frequent bathroom trips are getting him down.  And then Wednesday morning (after waking up multiple times overnight), he ended up throwing up out of the blue.  It seemed to be an isolated incident and he felt better as the day went on.  He had a couple other nausea moments over the past couple days, but no fireworks...until this morning, when it happened again.  It's super painful and forceful when it happens.  He also has a lot of pain before and during his bathroom visits.  It's so hard to hear him when the pain and vomiting hits, because he's so easygoing most of the time and this is really affecting him.

I sent a message to his doctor but he didn't seem too concerned yet.  He just encouraged us to get his next round of testing done.  I had to take Jacob to the lab yesterday morning because he is getting a full workup to address his lingering low energy, and I was able to pick up the stool testing kit.  I was hoping to do it yesterday afternoon, but timing never worked out when the lab was open and I was home.  I wanted to do it this morning but his first bathroom trip was a bit too urgent, then we had the vomiting, and then when he finally got enough in his system to go to the bathroom again, the output was shocking.  It was so bloody that I didn't even know what to do.  It was all liquid and while there was a little brown, it was mostly dark red.  I freaked out a little and wasn't even sure it was going to be testable.  I called the doctor and waited forever for a callback.  I was wondering if this was finally the time for an ER visit, but they said if he wasn't lethargic or lightheaded or in severe pain, we were okay.  The best thing to do was to get the testing done and see if this is Cdiff again.  So, next poop (also quite bloody), we did.  He wondered yesterday morning if the Cdiff came back, and honestly, he may be on to something.  It does seem very similar to what he had prior to the antibiotics.  Even though the test for the toxins (indicating an active infection) was negative, he did seem to get better after the antibiotics and particularly once he started the steroid.  He had a couple good weeks before Saturday when everything seemed to restart.  Maybe it just hung in there and made a comeback.  And, of course, Jacob is now super paranoid he's going to get it, so he's constantly demanding we clean everything.  I'm just heartbroken for Carter because we were already doing the things that were supposed to help him, and now those aren't working either.  I just don't know what to do.  This round of testing was originally supposed to see how well the meds were working to decrease inflammation, but sadly I had to assume they'd be as bad as ever given what he's been dealing with.  Some came in tonight and it wasn't surprising.  Some things were bad but consistent, and others were worse.  It all seems to stem from malabsorption, inflammation, or an immune response.  It's possible the immune response (high white blood cells, high platelets) could indicate some sort of infection.  I guess we'll see where the Cdiff lands.  Either way, I'm just heartbroken for him and would give almost anything to make him better.

Obviously frequent bathroom trips make doing much of anything difficult right now, let alone something fun and away from home to close out the summer on a high note.  And the thought of school is even more daunting.  If we can't get this back under control by then, I'm going to have to see if we can just Imodium him up because he can't miss school for weeks, or risk having an incident.  I'm just worried about what his future might look like if these meds don't work, and I'm sad that it's ruining a prime time for the best kind of distraction on top of it all.  Summer is so short and I really wanted to do more before it was over.  He deserves better than this, for sure.

I'm still holding out a tiny bit of hope to do something over my birthday weekend, though, if we can get an answer quickly.  Maybe a baseball game or something like that.  I'd feel a little better if we could cram in a little more fun, but obviously there's a lot that has to go right.  If we do stay home, it will be the first birthday since 2020 where we weren't doing something exciting.  We were in Ocean City in 2021, Disney in 2022 and 2023, and Cedar Point last year.  That could be quite the letdown after all that, but clearly I was super lucky to have all those special days.

Most of Jacob's bloodwork came back uneventful.  There were a couple things that might indicate low folate, which could be contributing to the fatigue.  There was one other oddball thing I'm waiting to hear back on that ran the gamut of easy to concerning answers.  Hoping for the easy one, of course.  I really do hope supplementing the folate (and maybe boosting the vitamin D a bit more) will get him back where he needs to be.  

Oh, and in case we didn't have enough going on, today Craig ended up at a last-minute eye exam because a broken blood vessel from the other day was spreading even worse, and there were a couple concerning symptoms (he said his eye felt "heavier" and he'd had a couple flashes).  Thankfully it was just a blown blood vessel and not anything worse, so at least that was one piece of good news.  And I got myself a cervical pillow this week, so I'm hoping some of the neck discomfort and my hands falling asleep multiple times overnight will clear up soon.  Getting old is fun. 

And speaking of getting old, it's been a weird week watching a lot of my friends move their kids to college.  These kids are a year older than Jacob, and while he now has two more years because he reclassified, it's hitting a bit close to home knowing that would have been us in a year in another timeline.  All of the kids his age have been doing college visits, and I feel like I dodged a bullet getting an extra year.  I'm grateful for it, though, because with all that we've had going on (see above), the reprieve is rather needed at the moment.  But watching my college friends have college kids of their own is a bit surreal.  One moved a kid into Geneseo this week, and another is going to U of R, which are both sort of weird in their own ways.  I remarked on one parent's post that it was comforting to see dorm rooms that look pretty much like the ones we had, especially in this era of college campuses needing to have all the amenities to attract students.  But these over-decorated dorm rooms I see all over the internet...puh-leese.  It's great to be comfortable, but roughing it is gratifying in the long run.  I liked living pretty minimally because it made my first apartment or two feel downright luxurious!  

I saw a couple videos from Geneseo this week that indicated that my first two dorms are both single room dorms now.  I feel oddly betrayed by that.  For one, I don't believe any freshman should live alone unless they are a documented "difficult roommate".  I think freshmen need a buddy to force them to socialize, especially in this era of the COVID kids who missed a heck of a lot of socializing at a key time in life.  I see freshmen moving into single rooms and panic a little because I remember how it felt when my orientation roommate never showed up.  I was lonely and ended up feeling like a fifth wheel, and it soured me on the whole experience.  That was literally what made me not want to go to school and led me to be a grumpy mess for most of my first move-in day...until I met Mary, anyway.  Had I lived alone I probably would have cocooned up in my room.  But with a roommate you have an automatic first buddy, and it was easier to get pulled into the giant mob of kids that went through most of our building room by room to meet people.  It was exactly what I needed.  Second, those rooms were giant.  They were less desirable corridor style rooms (so the entire floor shared a few bathrooms), but again, that style is great for meeting people because you can prop your door open and be directly connected to people in the hallway.  Suite rooms have a living room and extra doorway separating you.  They also have really tiny bedrooms (like, you literally can't fit all of the provided furniture unless you put your bed up high (easier with new beds than in the cinder block era) or stick something in the closet.  I can't imagine making those massive rooms into singles when the suite rooms are cramming people in.  I think a four person suite (rather than eight) would be an amazing selling point.  But it made me a little sad to know lifelong friendships aren't being made in those rooms anymore...though maybe not as sad as the reality that I moved into my freshman year 29 years ago tomorrow.  Ooof.

The weather this week was also messing up whatever mojo I had left.  It was cool and misty and dreary.  I'm not prepared for fall at ALL.  This summer has sped by way too fast, and I feel betrayed that not only is it coming to an end soon, but that the weather is making it feel like it's ending even sooner.  We rebounded a little today and coming up tomorrow, but then we're back to barely 70 for most of the week.  So much for enjoying the fun pool lights I got on clearance last week--that water is cold now!  Not that the cooler weather isn't more comfortable than 90s, but cool and crisp has its place, and that is late September into October.

Another interesting part of the last couple weeks has been watching my parents travel through Europe.  They're coming to the end of an 18-day trip, first in Prague for a few days and then on a river cruise for two weeks.  They're going through tons of towns that I've watched via webcam for years.  Beautiful architecture, Christmas markets...yeah, I spent years being obsessed with these spots.  This trip is totally up my alley and I'm just a teeny bit jealous of all they're seeing...but thrilled they're getting this once-in-a-lifetime experience, for sure.  I just wish it wasn't quite so expensive as I'm not sure that will ever be in the cards for me!

We have another quiet weekend planned, and I'm hoping I can finally get my executive dysfunction in order.  I've been struggling with it for weeks, probably because of a combination of worrying about the kids' health, my health, all my unknowns at work, and the constantly messy state of our house that I just don't have the energy to address all by myself.  I did manage to finally do a solid cleaning of my kitchen floor tonight, which was a couple weeks in the making thanks to a sugar ant infestation that took forever to clear out.  That felt good to get accomplished after putting it off for a variety of reasons--some valid, some not.  But there are piles everywhere and I need to address them.  You know how I often do all the little things to offset all the big things I can't control?  Well, hopefully I can get in that mode for a bit this weekend.   Might as well make some good out of this mess!

Finally, my birthday is coming up next weekend.  And yes, while I would like to do something fun for it, truly all I want is for a healthy, happy household.  That it, that's the gift I want.  Let's hope we can make some progress toward that soon and squeeze just a little more fun into what little summer we have left.

Anxiety Overload

Jacob is still dealing with a lot of anxiety.  I'm not sure if he's just not at a therapeutic dose of his new meds, or if he just has superhuman worries, but it's still going strong.  And we're tired.  All of us.

To be fair, I understand a lot of it.  He's been through so much.  Two years of his leg having issues.  Lots of viruses and mystery symptoms.  So many specialists.  Fatigue.  Food aversions.  The list is pretty endless, and anything that pops up immediately becomes a threat to getting back to normal.  Every injury or illness sets him back, and right now he feels he's running out of time--not just for this basketball season, but in general.  Not to mention that he's read research about how stress can derail healing, so he's stressing about his stress.  It's an endless, vicious cycle, and it sucks.

Just because we understand it doesn't mean we can indulge it, though.  There's a very fine line between validating it in a way where he feels heard and helped vs. validating it in a way that just feeds his fears.  Sometimes his suspicions are way out in left field, and I really don't want to confirm that it's something that should be worrying him to that degree by acting upon it.  Not that I won't keep a close eye on whatever it is, just in case, but let's say the odds are generally really low that it will become a bigger issue.  Take the other day, for example.  He had noticed a couple pimples on his leg, one of which was pretty angry.  He'd just had acupuncture the day before so we thought at least one of them could have been from that.  He was feeling a bit off that day, no fever, but he was tired and had a headache (that he refused to take Tylenol for--that's another story).  As a result, he very quickly became convinced that the one was infected.  Craig made an appointment at the pediatrician that evening, but by the time I came home (early), they had already left for urgent care because his anxiety just wouldn't let him wait.  They diagnosed him with folliculitis, which is technically an infection, but typically isn't one that turns into something concerning.  He got a cream and that was that.  UNTIL around dinnertime when I noticed that he had a rather large, angry pimple on his nose, as well.  When he saw that, the spiraling started all over again, mostly because it was in the "triangle of death", which is a section of your face that has a direct link to the brain that infections can more easily travel through and cause serious problems.  Of course, Craig and I have been through puberty and had our share of vicious zits right through adulthood, so to us that one looked pretty run of the mill.  Not infected, just a little angrier than most.  But he was convinced it would spread to his brain before sun-up, so he was begging us to take him to the ER at 10pm.  Craig reminded him that there are people showing up at the ER who are literally dying, and I said they'd probably see him worried about a simple zit and think he was nuts.  Sure, we'd look at it in the morning again, but while we were confident he'd live to see another day, he was not convinced.  It took a couple hours for Craig to talk him down.  And sure enough, the next morning, it was fine.  

We had the similar freakout when he frantically wanted me to take a COVID test a couple weeks ago, or when he realized he was taking too many steps in Disney.  Last month he was convinced he had compartment syndrome and was making all the plans for the surgery, down to finding a surgeon that did a minimally-invasive version.  And remember that horrible Christmas Eve night where he was sure his leg was infected, or around New Year's when he was worried late into the night that he had a UTI?  Each time, he is absolutely convinced that something is very wrong.  He jumps to the worst-case scenario even if the odds of that are tiny, and there is no convincing him otherwise.

Again, I get it.  That's pretty much the entire reason I made the decision to get anxiety meds myself.  I was spiraling every time he did (and sometimes for myself, too), and I was assuming the worst every time, as well.  It wasn't healthy and it made me realize that was not logical or normal, but yet I couldn't stop it.  Medication has done that for me, but sadly not yet for him.

It gets even harder because he says and does a lot of things in the throes of this that are hurtful or disturbing.  The other night he was mocking me when I said things to him.  He was vaguely threatening self-harm--though he insists he wouldn't, but it illustrates his extreme frustration, and in this case he was essentially suggesting it as an alternate way to get to the ER.  Or he was going to call 9-1-1 if we wouldn't take him.  It got that unhinged.  Luckily he didn't make good on any of it, but it was like negotiating with a mad man for a bit.  The next morning he had an appointment with his therapist, and semi-joked about me intending to institutionalize him there.  I mean, there have been times I've been tempted to take advantage of the pediatric behavioral health urgent care, but no, that was not my intention.  He insisted we couldn't keep him there anyway and said something about getting a lawyer.  Ugh.  That stuff just isn't really like him, so I know there's a lot at play right now.  It's hard when you just want to help but recognize that it may be something that's beyond your ability.

He's also so obsessed with ChatGPT, and it's getting ridiculous.  I understand that he considers it a "learning tool", but it's also feeding into his fears and bringing up new ones.  We tried to explain to him that it doesn't have a medical degree and doesn't have real-life experience, but somehow he still trusts it more than us.  His therapist even mentioned how it fills in blanks it doesn't know with complete garbage.  It just pulls random stuff from thin air and presents it as fact.  Tell me that's not a recipe for disaster!  It got so bad the other night that he not only sent me the probability stats for his zit getting seriously infected, but also used it to create a paragraph for him to try to speak to me in a way that would be more convincing (or at least, I assume that's what he asked for).  I refuse to respond to AI talking to me, though.  Sheesh.  

The trust issue has been a big one lately.  He has major distrust of food, germs, and anything I tell him in regard to his health.  Now, am I one to cut mold off my cheese?  Maybe, but 1) I'm still here; and 2) I likely wouldn't do that to him.  He is throwing out days-old bread because he's convinced there's invisible mold.  He thinks this cherry juice he made himself from a concentrate late last week is fermenting already.  He wastes so much food (and expensive food at that) because he's overly cautious about it and thinks "best by" dates are official expiration dates.  He assumes I'm going to gluten him even though there's very little evidence of that happening before.  He's been on this earth this long without any clear food poisoning or other "sabotage", but yet he assumes it every time.  He constantly accuses us of not doing anything to help him with his health issues, but literally that takes up the majority of our time shuttling him to appointments and training.  It was extra frustrating when he was coming up with random things, like POTS, in the middle of me worrying about Carter having just been diagnosed with an actual serious illness.  I get that he's trying to put pieces together to figure out why he's been tired or his leg isn't healing fast enough, but it has officially gotten out of hand some days.  I just don't know how to regain his trust or get him to stop assuming the worst.  I hope he can up his meds a bit more coming up, but I assume he needs a few weeks at this level.

My therapist wants me to look into "radical acceptance", which is a practice of accepting a situation even if you don't like it.  Don't dismiss it, don't let it overtake you, just accept it and find a path forward.  I have some reading to do, but I'm hoping it will not only help me through some of the hard stuff, but also that I can teach it to him.  We need something for now.

In between, I promise, things are actually okay.  Jacob is slowly getting back to activity, Carter is feeling better, and Craig's job situation is busy but settled.  Mine is still a whole lotta unknowns for a bit, but slowly but surely those will resolve as well.  I'm trying to figure out how to cram a little bit more summer fun into things in these last couple weeks (yikes, it's really only a couple!), but at the moment I'm a little bit stumped.  Fingers crossed...

Since We've Been Back...

It's been an eventful couple weeks since we got back from Disney.  In recent years we've vacationed right before back to school, which is always a LOT to come back to, and while this should have been better, it ended up being almost as crazy.

The first day we were home, I was in the bathroom that evening and heard a weird noise.  I looked up at the fan and saw something sticking out of the vents.  It was moving around up there and making awful clicking noises against the plastic.  It looked like an alien trying to escape, and it was freaking me out!  I eventually decided it must have been a ground beetle, based on what little I could see, but I have no idea how it would have ended up in our vent unless a bird dropped it there or it did a ton of climbing/flying.  It was in there for a while and I watched it until I was confident its body was too big to come through, but finally I went back up and it was quiet.  I vacuumed up the dust that it had knocked out with its legs, so even if it was still there resting, hopefully that scared it off for good.  Or maybe it just died up there.  Realistically, since we just got home that day, for all we know it could have been up there for a while and finally crapped out.  It did make me nervous that it could have chewed through something, but I'm still not sure how to take that fan down and check.  Thankfully we haven't had any return visits so hopefully that's over.

The legs are in the middle, the stuff on the right is the dust it pushed out.

Monday I went back to work, and when I woke up on Tuesday morning, I had a really sore throat.  I was maybe a little congested and later did have the post-nasal drip I expected from the sore throat.  I was a little tired, but didn't feel terrible otherwise.  I did start feeling a bit worse that night, but it was short-lived.  Of course, that spawned a bunch of meltdowns from Jacob, who is extra nervous about catching anything and having any other delays in his recovery.  I was sent off to the basement for the better part of a couple days.  He was absolutely freaking out the first day, begging me to take a COVID test, but I refused to test until much later in the day because I didn't want to test too early and get a false negative.  I did test in the evening and it was indeed negative, but I was still stuck in the basement.  I slept down there a couple nights, which actually wasn't that bad.  The first night I was joined by Carter.  He had gotten Taco Bell that night since I wasn't really feeling good enough to cook (and wasn't welcome upstairs anyway), and he took a chance having some dairy.  He's been avoiding it for a few weeks since it seemed to make his ulcerative colitis symptoms worse, but he just wanted some cheese on his taco and a quick dip of nacho cheese, so we figured we'd see if a Lactaid pill could help offset it.  Well, pretty quickly after that, he threw up.  Well, crap.  Was it the pill or the dairy, was it a stomach bug, or did he actually have COVID?  He threw up the last time he had it, so that was a little nervewracking.  Thankfully that was the only round of vomiting and he slept well in the basement bathroom on all the blankets.  He tried the pill again another day and was similarly nauseous but never got sick, so I guess we're done with those for now.  Anyway, over the course of the week, all four of us tested (some twice), since there were a few other cold symptoms floating around, as well.  No positives, thank goodness, although my cold is still hanging in there.  I mostly feel okay, just some lingering congestion and maybe a couple days of extra tiredness here and there.  

When I was feeling a little better on Wednesday, I went to Aldi to pick up a few things for dinner.  I happened to see a few social media posts about this magnetic board, and for $10, I decided I needed to get it.  I've been wanting to do something like this for years, and a magnetic board felt like a fun way to do it, since I can change it up seasonally.  It was a nice little activity while I was quarantined!  I'm waiting for Carter's name to magically change to "Farter", of course, but so far so good.  It's so cute and I love that it changed up my stale dining room decor a bit.   

When I got sick I was really nervous that it would prevent me from going to my family reunion that weekend.  I already had to miss one due to our trip, so I definitely wanted to make it to the other one.  It was also my last chance to see my parents before they left on a 2-1/2 week trip to Europe (their first (only?) river cruise!).  Thankfully my cold wasn't that bad by Saturday, and I had a really nice time at the picnic.  I even met a cousin (my second cousin, I believe) who lives in California but is just a few years younger than me.  Man, I wish she'd have been around more when we were kids!  I had some really interesting, fun conversations with my dad's cousins, and it was great to see my aunts and uncle, too.  Carter had baseball tryouts that day, so the boys had to miss it, but it was actually a really pleasant day on my own, despite three hours of driving.

So, yes, Carter had baseball tryouts for a travel team.  I'm not sure I'm up for that since next year is a really important travel year for Jacob and Craig will likely still be working for the Knighthawks (more on that in a minute), so I don't know how we'll manage when they conflict.  But it's important to him and we sort of just want to see if he can make it.  He tried out for another team this week, as well, although he prefers to play for the first one.  He seemed to do well at both, so I guess we'll see.  His August sandlot season got canceled due to too few kids signing up, but he'll be back to house fall ball next month regardless.

Jacob has had a bit of a stressful first couple weeks home.  In addition to worrying about my illness and his leg, he was going down crazy rabbit holes assuming he had other things going on.  I can't even remember the crazy things he was suggesting, but suffice it to say it was a lot to deal with.  He's addicted to ChatGPT and I think that has been making things worse because he's constantly looking things up and I think it's putting other ideas in his head.  I did get him to up his new anxiety med dose after his follow-up with the meds nurse.  She encouraged him to try to get up to a therapeutic dose, because the half a dose he was on was clearly doing nothing.  I do think he's been a little calmer on the health front since, or he's at least been distracted enough by other things.  He was particularly panicking the other day because he was still having fatigue, and he insisted he wanted to go to the doctor.  He wanted a cortisol test, a sleep study, and general blood work--although I'm not convinced he'd get much more than the blood work.  In the midst of waiting for the afternoon sick appointments to open up, he talked about acupuncture, and I said that I was aware of a couple places we could look into.  We were miraculously able to get an appointment for Friday and that seemed to calm him down a ton.  Of course, it ended up getting postponed to Tuesday, but the fatigue was a little better on Thursday and Friday so he's laid off the doctor visit demands for now.  Tuesday should be really interesting, though, not just for him, but also for me who has wanted to do acupuncture for my smell issues.  

As for Carter, he finally had his GI follow-up on Wednesday.  We had a very nice chat with the doctor (and then with another doctor), and they explained a lot of what's going on and what we can expect.  He started the steroid right after we got back from Disney, and it seemed to help almost immediately.  We asked about the odds that he'll be able to eat dairy again, and the doctor was hopeful.  He said that both the Cdiff he was treated for and the ulcerative colitis can strip the body of that enzyme, so it's possible it will recover once his intestines do.  They also started him on another drug that seems to be a longer term ulcerative colitis drug.  I don't love adding another med to the mix (we're like a freaking pharmacy these days), and was sort of hoping we could do the steroid first and see how he did, but given the "moderate" severity, I guess they figured the extra boost would be worth it.  Thankfully he seems to be tolerating it well, and he excitedly told me this weekend that he had a completely normal poop, which has been a rarity over the past few months.  Such a weird topic, I know, but it's how we roll here now.  Interestingly, today when he went, he called me up because there was "white" in his poop.  That's a new one, but I guess it beats the blood I've become accustomed to looking at.  It was super weird, so I pulled out the plastic knife I keep in the bathroom cabinet (it was originally to break up Jacob's giant toilet-clogging poops years ago and I never took it back out) and carefully dug in.  At first I thought maybe it was fat from the leftover salmon he ate yesterday that seemed to have a fat pocket (based on a photo he texted me, anyway), but as I dug in a bit more I realized the one piece was a perfect oval.  It was sort of rubbery and seemed to have a couple layers.  I'm thinking it was one of his pills that was only partially digested but stripped of the red outer coating.  I'm not sure why it wouldn't have dissolved and digested properly, but I guess we'll keep an eye out and ask the doctor if it keeps happening.  But I'm happy he seems to be feeling better, and I hope now he can start gaining some weight, maximize his puberty growth spurt, and get stronger for baseball.

This Tuesday was an exciting day for Craig because it marked the new era of the Knighthawks.  After a very stressful summer worrying the team might fold, they were officially sold to the Seneca Nation.  It had begun looking very promising in the last few weeks, and last Friday was technically Craig's first day working for them.  He got a promotion and a nice raise, which was even better.  But it's such a relief to have the team stay and to have some really promising ownership.  They have other businesses, so any Knighthawks' financial losses shouldn't be super problematic, and lacrosse is so dear to them as it is the "Creator's Game", so it's sort of a labor of love, so to speak.  The tribe president is so excited about it, and he seems like a much more personable guy than the Knighthawks' previous Native owner.  Curt had his upside--like the Dominican trip and the indoor waterpark Christmas party--but he was sometimes hard to read and asked a lot of Craig.  President Seneca seems really nice and genuine, and it sounds like he'll be a bit more hands-off and let the staff do their jobs.

Carter and I went to the press conference.  In order to be there, I had to do a work meeting while we waited.  I was also supposed to do my therapy appointment via Zoom before that, but I accidentally forgot to bring Craig a dress shirt since his was trapped at a different dry cleaner that didn't open until later, so I had to cancel that appointment to go back home and grab it.  Craig had been working hard for the prior couple weeks (including when we were in Florida) to get everything set up for the press conference, and it was exciting to see it all come together.

The news had come out from the Senecas on Monday, so there wasn't any big surprise, but fans were super excited about the new ownership and you could feel it from the ones who attended the event.  Craig was the press conference emcee.

It was a really cool, uplifting event, and I really have high hopes for this season.  It will be nice for them to have a dedicated staff, rather than one they shared with the Amerks (and always came in second place with), and it will be nice to have ownership that even cares that they exist.  Not that the Pegulas didn't, but particularly once Kim Pegula fell ill, you would have pretty much never known who owned them.  This should be much better, and it's oddly nice to get back to the Native presence.  One of the fans mentioned that the team felt like it was missing part of its identity without the dancers and Native influence we had under Curt, so it will be neat to have that connection again to the origins of the game.

Craig was relieved to have that event done, but there was no rest for the weary because he had another job to jump into immediately.  He was managing the Collegiate Box Lacrosse National Championship tournament, which was being held in Rochester.  He's gone to it for a number of years since the Knighthawks co-managed a league of four teams with the Buffalo Bandits.  This year, because of all the uncertainty, they didn't run the league but did send a couple teams to the event.  For years it was in California, then last year it was in Utica, and this year it came to Rochester.  Craig had offered to run it since it meant a decent payday when he wasn't sure if he'd have a job.  Once all of this ownership stuff happened, I'm pretty sure he wished he hadn't, but he did a great job getting everything set up, and the tournament seemed to go well.  But it meant working later Tuesday and Wednesday evening, then long days Thursday and Friday, and an early morning half day today.  It was a lot and he absolutely came home and napped afterward.  Tomorrow he's back off to Buffalo for another event, the I-90 Cup, where the Jr. Knighthawks will be playing.  So, suffice it to say, he's had a very busy week, but in the long run, he'll be in a really great spot once everything calms down.

Otherwise, I'm still picking up the pieces a bit from the harm our travels did to my flowers.  It didn't really rain while we were gone and my watering backups didn't seem to be enough.  It decimated my zinnias, but some of them and the other plants have recovered a bit.  Still, I've been battling some rather raggedy plants lately and trying to keep what I can alive in the midst of an "abnormally dry" pre-drought.  Our grass is dead--I don't think Craig has mowed the front since we got home, as only a couple weeds are growing--and we're going on heat wave #3 of the summer and second since we've been home (although we missed part of the last one).  We did have a couple cool days after that, which left the pool a bit chilly, and then we had a week of wildfire smoke that kept the solar heat limited, but I think it should recover this week to get a couple swims in.  My garden is kicking out cucumbers pretty good, and I've gotten a handful of beans and tomatoes.  I have one zucchini coming but only had one pepper and zero pumpkins.  My lettuce is done but I might plant a random spouted baby potato that accidentally got left behind in my pantry.  My black raspberries are done and my hydrangeas are fading fast.  I noticed my Autumn Joy Sedums are ready to bloom, which is really a sign of that last gasp of summer.  Sigh.  I'm sad that it's getting dark much earlier now, too.  I'm just not ready!  I still want to plan one more fun thing, ideally a family thing, but at minimum a roller coaster trip for Carter and me.  I wanted to do Hersheypark and Knoebel's, but the end-of-season Six Flags/Cedar Point season pass sale is taunting me again because all parks are included now and we could go anywhere next summer.  Carter has a church Darien Lake trip coming up so I'm half tempted to just bite the bullet so he doesn't have to pay and I could chaperone, too.  Decisions, decisions.  But stay tuned!

I'm sure I'm missing a couple things, but hopefully that gets us caught up on most of it...for now!

Disney Day 5 - Wrapping Up and Heading Out

Sunday morning we woke up to our last day.  Boooo.  It's always so sad to leave the magic of Disney, but I suppose the sadness wasn't quite as intense as it usually is.  We barely had time to build up excitement for this one, and while it did feel far too short, it all felt like one big bonus to even be there at all.  I wanted to make the most of the last day, though.

We had one last breakfast in the room, and then I ran around packing like a mad woman because the bags would be getting picked up for check-out while Carter and I were out on one last outing.  It felt a little extra complicated because we were going to come back from that and go in the pool for a little while before we left, so we had to keep anything we'd need with us for the entire morning.  We also had a hard time cramming in a couple souvenirs (especially since Figment was rather large) and ensuring things were set up so there was still a place for the wet bag and anything we picked up on our outing.  Somehow I got it all figured out, and Carter and I headed out to Disney Springs.  The goal was to get a few final souvenirs and do one last fun thing!

We headed to Uniqlo first so I could get my shirt.  I wanted one of their $15 kids shirts because it's such a good deal.  I loved a few of them, but decided on one featuring a pixelated Mickey, a la 80s video games.  

We went on to World of Disney and stopped for one more visit with the wall of snuggly guys...     

Sleepy Simba!

Carter wanted it to look like Kermit was standing next to him...I think he got close!  Notably, I think Kermit was the only one of all the characters with his eyes open, presumably because they don't have eyelids?

I had decided upon a sweet little Mickey head cubic zirconia necklace as my other souvenir, so we picked that up while we were there.  We looked for the Figment Pez dispenser we saw earlier in the week but couldn't find it, but Carter knew they had it at the slushy place so we walked in that direction. We ducked into Crystal Arts to get some cool air en route and happened to see this $285,000 crystal castle.  Wow.  I can't believe it ever sells, but can you imagine?

Carter couldn't resist another slushy as we picked up the Figment Pez, and then we headed back in the other direction for our final stop.  I hadn't taken many pictures outside the Lego store this time because they've been the same builds for all of our recent visits, but I did feel like this one was worth getting another of.

Our final stop was going back to the Coca-Cola store and doing the international flight of drinks.  After how much fun we had at Club Cool a couple years ago, we thought this would be a fun activity.  There were some repeats from that experience, but a lot of new ones.  

It was a fun experience trying them together.  We saved Beverly almost for last, but figured we should have something better to chase it with because that is not the flavor you want lingering!  We videoed each other drinking it.  I'll throw myself out there:

In the end it was a lot of soda, even with both of us splitting it!  Carter was full and sugared out by the end, but we had fun.  We did a quick FaceTime with my dad while we were there, as he had been trying to get in touch with me (on his new cell phone that I didn't originally know was him) to discuss him picking us up at the airport that night.  We wrapped up and headed back to the resort for some pool time.  

We decided to eat some lunch first, just at the quick service place near the pool.  Carter had some chicken strips and I had a Mickey pretzel.  While we ate I did some investigating into our options for getting to the airport (nothing like the last minute!) since we had been debating doing Mears again or trying a Lyft.  We ended up settling on a Lyft because the Mears pickup time was way too early--possibly as early as four hours ahead of our flight.  No thanks!  

We met up briefly with Craig and Jacob who had already been at the pool for a couple hours, just as they were going to get changed.  They were going to hang out in the hospitality house lobby.  We got in some good pool time and our last water slide runs.  We really had a lot of fun at the pool this trip.  I still wish the pools there had nice ledges to sit on while fully in the water, as I could probably sit there all day, but I decided I could bring an inflatable water hammock next time if it packs small enough.  The water is cooler than the air during the day and just barely warmer at night, so it's pretty perfect and definitely the best antidote to midday heat.  

Eventually we had enough and went back to get changed and join Craig and Jacob.  We just hung out in the hospitality house charging our phones and scrolling.  Later in the afternoon I got my favorite key lime Dole Whip Swirl--oddly my first of the trip, although I did have a key lime without the swirl earlier in the week when the vanilla wasn't working.  It was so good!

We had yet to get a good family picture on the trip, so in our boredom waiting for our ride, we played around with my watch's capability to take a picture from my phone.  The angle wasn't great, but we figured we'd get this just in case our traditional bench photo didn't go well.

Craig and Jacob went to Olivia's yet again to get Jacob some dinner.  The rest of us were content to eat at the airport, but he didn't trust any of the gluten-free-friendly places there based on app reviews.  At one point I took a little walk back outside.  It had gotten dark and thundery, although it only really seemed to sprinkle.  I took a few last pictures of my favorite sights...

We once stayed in a villa on the other side of this pond, overlooking the golf green.  That was really my favorite view there, ever.

I always love this view, usually seeing it from a bus.  I just love that walkway in front of the hospitality house and pool--it is truly the heart and energy of Old Key West to me.

Craig snagged us one last souvenir before we headed to meet our ride.  We had been eyeing up a set of ceramic coasters in the store that had fun Old Key West designs.  We always seem to need more in our living room, and they were really cute, so it was a good option.  Just before our ride came, we asked one of the bellhops to take our picture, as is our custom:

Our Lyft arrived promptly and we loaded up.  I always hate the ride back to the airport, saying my internal goodbyes to all the things--the resort, the palm trees, the Disney welcome arch, etc.  The route we took to the airport this time had views of a coaster at Sea World and the new Epic Universe hotel.  Someday maybe Carter and I will get to those places!  The ride was quick and uneventful--quite simple compared to the bus, actually.

We got to the airport and I was sort of instantly annoyed because Jacob was insisting on having a wheelchair.  I mean, I get it, airports can involve a lot of walking, but it definitely made the whole operation a bit more challenging.  Craig was pushing Jacob and pulling a suitcase, and I was stuck with two suitcases, which wasn't always easy.  We first headed to the food court where I could get some highly anticipated Panda Express for dinner!  Craig and Carter were waiting to eat at places past the security checkpoint, so I quickly ate and then we headed in that direction.  En route, we came across a piece of art I'd seen online somewhere before:

It's so weird, but it looks so realistic!  I also snapped one last picture with this cute mural in the hallway.  Carter needed a couple more inches, but how cute!  It made me miss Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, though!

We headed through security, which was actually probably quicker because of the wheelchair, since we got to go in a separate line.  Once inside we went to another food area where Carter got Jersey Mike's and Craig got Chipotle.  It was jammed and we were lucky to find seats!  We headed to our gate after that, only to hear just as we got there that our gate had changed, presumably as a result of a three-hour-delayed flight still sitting at our original gate.  That meant we had to hike to the other end of the terminal, which wasn't ideal, but I guess it was good we had the wheelchair at that moment because Jacob would have freaked out if he had to do that walk.  

That gate was jammed with people, which wasn't ideal, but we finally found some seats and killed a little bit of time before boarding.  It was easy to forget how late it was, that we weren't taking off until well after 9:30 (and in the end, after 10pm), but I was very ready to be done traveling.  Getting on the flight felt like a bit of a debacle.  I had expected Jacob to ditch the wheelchair once we made it to the gate, but no, he was going to get wheeled all the way down the jetway.  Oy.  We did get preferred boarding, which I guess was nice, but getting the luggage down the aisle was difficult because Jacob just hopped right on the plane without his.  Ugh.  We took window seats and middle seats on each side of the aisle in the same row.  A husband and wife took the third seats across the aisle from each other.  He was a bit chatty (and I'm convinced maybe a little drunk upon boarding), but we did have a nice chat about baseball and his rising senior son who plays.  I ended up watching the Barbie movie on the flight (which, yay, was a direct flight this time).  I had started watching it a while ago and got distracted and interrupted and never went back to it, so I decided this was a good way to make sure it kept my attention.  It definitely was an interesting commentary on the patriarchy, but as a big Barbie girl as a kid, there were a lot of cute references.  

At one point about an hour in, Carter nudged me and said he saw lightning out the window.  A little later we saw a lot!

It was somewhere over North Carolina, I think.  Luckily it was far enough away that it didn't impact our flight at all.  It was actually quite smooth.  We did get a glimpse of Pittsburgh from the plane, but ended up being on the wrong side to see Buffalo.  I did recognize Transit Road as we landed, though.  I contacted my dad who was waiting at McDonald's nearby, and we headed to the pickup area.  I totally missed it, but as we were walking, Craig and Jacob saw a guy who apparently stole a golf cart!  The employee who was pushing Jacob (in the wheelchair again) confirmed that guy definitely shouldn't have been driving it!  As we were waiting, a guy heard Craig and Jacob talking about it and was like, "He DID steal it?  I thought so!"  Later that week I randomly saw a video online of a guy driving one down a moving walkway and shattering the glass on the side, and the boys confirmed that was him.  He was definitely under the influence of something!  

We made it back to my parents' a little after 1am, and I slept on the couch this time.  My drugs did the trick, thankfully.  We slowly worked our way back in the morning since Craig and I needed to work, and I slowly unpacked over the course of the day and into the evening.  

Overall, it had been a successful trip.  Even with the frustrations with Jacob, we had a good time, and even he enjoyed his resort time.  For a trip that got planned on a week's notice, it worked out pretty darn well.  I liked the slower pace and the ability to do some new things, but I was bummed we missed the water park and didn't get to do mini golf like we'd originally planned.  Next time I'd like to attempt both of those things and I'd also like to visit the rest of the resorts we didn't do this time--definitely Boardwalk, Beach and Yacht Club, and Coronado, but probably also Animal Kingdom Lodge, since that's on our list of potential places to stay at some point.  Hopefully we can have some park time next time, too.  I know the goal is to get there with Craig's parents after his mom retires, so hopefully that works out at some point.  That will likely mean a slower pace, much like this trip, but it would be worth it for the family time.

Speaking of which, it always amazes me how many big families we see there--tons of three-generation groups, presumably grandparents taking their kids and grandkids.  It's amazing to me.  And, of course, so many people spare no expense.  The amount of alcohol, food, and souvenirs we see people buying (on top of their stay and park tickets) boggles the mind.  We do it pretty cheap and it's still expensive.  I was a bit annoyed with Jacob because I'd purposely made sure he packed his Brita water bottle (which we specifically got for Disney a coupe years ago because the tap water is sometimes gross), and even bought Carter one of his own once Jacob confirmed he would use his.  He'd been a bit hesitant because he oddly kept getting bits of plastic in that one, but there wasn't really anywhere it could have come from so I'm almost convinced that it came from the ice in our freezer, which was pretty new at the time when he was trying to use it at home afterward.  All I can figure is that there was some plastic debris in the ice maker and it somehow ended up in his ice twice.  So anyway, we get down to Disney and I find out he left it behind in Buffalo--sure enough, there it was in the cupholder of my car when we got back.  I was pretty annoyed about every $5 bottle of water we had to buy him, that's for sure.  Hydration isn't optional down there, so we were stuck.  They charge exorbitant amounts for so many things there, and every bit helps, so the water bottle situation was disappointing.  But I just can't get over how much people willingly spend there.  Europeans regularly come for two weeks or more, which absolutely blows my mind.  A week is my limit when I take all the things into consideration, but I absolutely agree with Jacob that you really need two weeks there--one to do all the things and exhaust yourself, and another to sit around the resort and relax.  It amazes me that we were there for five days, didn't do parks, and still didn't have a ton of time to do some of the activities around the resort.  Next time I really want to lay on the hammock for a bit, and Carter wants to play tennis again (but our stint three years ago where it felt like the surface of the sun has me hesitant!).  Maybe we won't even stay there at all, since Craig's parents like Saratoga Springs.  It's fun to think about, though.

So, we've been back home nearly two weeks now and it's been quite eventful.  I'll catch up on that in my next post.

Disney Day 4, Part 2 - Two More for the Road

After hopping back on the Skyliner at the Riviera, Carter and I rode it back to Caribbean Beach and transferred to the line that goes to Art of Animation and Pop Century.  We had gone there three years ago, to sort of do what we were doing this time, but we'd already had a long day at that point and the heat was overwhelming, so we didn't get very far.  That time we just walked over the Skyliner station bridge in either direction, eyed up what was right there in front of us, and headed back.  This time I wanted to do a full investigation!

We started on the Art of Animation side.  Value resorts like Art of Animation and Pop Century follow a similar aesthetic as the All-Star resorts--larger than life props and extensive theming.  We walked through the Finding Nemo section, which we'd mostly seen before.  I was so delighted to find these guys at the far end of the building, though!  I love the "Mine!" seagulls!

That led into the Cars section, where I was absolutely blown away!  From the cute billboards to the painted buildings to numerous characters, there was so much to see!  

This Cozy Cone Motel was actually the entrance to the pool.  But it definitely looked like an old motor lodge, right down to the neon "Office" sign in the window.

Every entrance to the buildings had adorable theming!

The Cozy Cone pool was so cute and used the cones as cabanas!  It was probably one of the most fun looking pools I've ever seen!

I couldn't get over how absolutely no detail was spared in this section.  The other sections were cool, but this was absolutely magical and struck me as everything that a Disney hotel is probably supposed to be!

Tow Mater!

There were so many other cars scattered around, and I was so enchanted by the entire section.  If I had to stay in a value resort, that might have to be my first choice.  

Next up we went into the Lion King section, which I wish Jacob would have been healthy enough to join us for since that's his favorite movie.  That section wasn't quite as heavily themed, but it did have a lot of fun photo ops!

Last was the Little Mermaid section.  That's one of my favorite Disney movies, and of course I had to get my picture taken with the famous "dinglehopper"!

The giant King Triton was pretty amazing.  There was an equally massive and imposing Ursula across from him, too!

I also really wanted my picture with Sebastian.  He was always my favorite.

We had a rather long walk back around to the main entrance because of where we popped back out of that section.  I can see why people say the Little Mermaid section is the least in demand because it's so far from the main building.  But it was a nice little nature walk along the water, where we speculated about the presence of gators and other critters.  After a quick bathroom stop we walked across the bridge to Pop Century.  

Since I knew Carter's patience and energy were probably fading, and it was getting dark soon, I knew we had to prioritize.  I had done some research ahead and since I had already seen the 50s bowling pins from afar on the Skyliner and the yo-yos and Play-Doh container during our previous visit, I decided to focus on the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  I loved this giant Mickey phone in the 70s section!  I may have been an 80s kid, but everyone still wanted one a decade later!

Carter cracked me up with the giant foosball guys!

And who doesn't love a giant big wheel!  These were a staple in our 70s to 80s household, and even Carter had one he loved!

I was in love with the giant Rubik's cubes covering the stairwells.  With the lights they were especially stunning!

We came across Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and a nice mom offered to take our picture.  I returned the favor for her and her daughter.

Notice that the height difference is dwindling these days!

I wasn't sure whether to love all of this or feel a bit victimized, much like I do at Strong Museum, seeing my childhood immortalized like this!

Roger Rabbit is still one of my favorites!

This computer loomed over the 90s pool.  It cracked me up because it creatively had an "Animal Kingdom opens" article on the desktop!  There were also 3.5" floppy disks represented around the pool.

I knew one of the last things we hadn't seen was an old school cell phone, so I dragged Carter all over until we found one!

On the way back we ran into a series of 8-tracks covering the 70s stairwells.

I had seen these flowers over at Art of Animation, but couldn't get close enough for a good picture.  This was better.  Apparently they're a type of orchid.  So pretty!

I just loved the lighting on the 60s building at night.

I was so happy we had a chance to go see all of this.  It was so cute and pure Disney fun.  I still far prefer the vibe at our resort so much more, but I'm glad that the value resorts provide this kind of experience.  It would have been too easy to make the value resorts boring and focus all the effort on the fancy ones, but I think it's great that people who literally scrimp and save in order to just afford a value resort vacation get so much bang for their buck with fun themes like this.  

We headed back on the Skyliner and transferred back to the Hollywood Studios line. I have to say, that was the first day of the whole trip where my feet were tired and sore.  I had some minor raw spots after running through the rain the first day, but those cleared up quickly.  The other days were all around 15,000 steps and six miles, which is more than usual but only a little more than half of what most park days usually are.  But this was the first day we went back to the resort with that "day in the park" feeling.

When we got off the Skyliner, this absolutely perfect view was waiting at the end of the exit ramp.  That's Tower of Terror with a gorgeous sliver of a crescent moon.

We once again got stuck waiting a bit for a bus, but we did get to see a few EPCOT fireworks again from the bus as we drove past it.

Back at the room, I put my feet up and was joined by a double dose of Figment--the original one on the left, and the new one on the right.

Tired but happy!

We had completed our last full day and were down to just a partial day left.  We still wanted to make the most of it, so the fun wasn't quite over yet!