Bowens in Hollywood

Hollywood Studios was the plan for Day 2. Like pretty much everyone else with children 12 and under, we wanted to sign our kids up for Jedi Training, so we had to get there right when it opened. I took the backpack and went through the bag line while Scott took the kids and went straight to sign up. Bubba wouldn't answer the questions to say he would participate, so they wouldn't let him sign up, but that's OK because he totally would not have done anything if we'd tried to send him up there. Once we got that taken care of, we hit some rides, starting with Star Tours. Of all the rides that I actually went on (I'm smart enough to know my limits, even with Dramamine) that one got me the closest to getting sick. Everyone else thought it was awesome. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular was pretty sweet. We did the Studio Backlot Tour (walking/tram ride, somewhat entertaining) and The Great Movie Ride (horribly, terribly outdated; Scott and I both walked out of there saying the exact same thing - that ride has got to be next on the list for an upgrade!) to kill some time before our next FastPass.

Scott took Cakes and Silly off to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster while Bubba and I took a little break. We were hot and wanted a treat, so of course I had to get him a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar. It was pretty messy, but he definitely enjoyed it. Thank goodness I brought wipes. I have to say, I don't think we ever encountered anything I was not prepared for. That backpack of mine was one well planned accessory.

Then Jedi time! Cakes was only so-so about it, and hates being hot, so she wasn't thrilled about wearing the Padawan robe, but she was a good sport. Silly was thrilled, but trying not to show it; pretty typical.

Pre-training lecture

 I just love these pictures of the two of them from the back. :-)

Scott had to get a picture with the AT-AT (and there's Bubba was my awesome bag)

Silly taking things very seriously

Cakes on the far right looking like she doesn't care

After all that hard work, we split up again so Scott could take the big kids to the Tower of Terror, while I took Bubba to the Disney Junior show. It was not all that exciting, and we picked a bad seat so we couldn't see much, but I would much rather have done that than fall down an elevator shaft. I went on that ride in high school and I believe I was shaking for the rest of the day. Once was definitely enough for me.

We met up for lunch then took the plunge to wait in the longest line ever to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. Here's where I should say that Disney also does an excellent job of making their waiting lines entertaining. There's a lot to look at and even some interactive things here and there, so you're not just staring at the back of someone's head for an hour. I think we waited about an hour and a half. We knew that's what it was going to be, so we just did it. The kids loved the ride, and it was pretty fun for grownups too.

The kids needed something active after that, so we went to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure where they could run around and let off some steam after shuffling along in line for ages.

Then the craziest thing happened. We're leaving the play area, and who comes around the corner but one of my roommates from BYU! I'd seen on Facebook earlier in the week that she was posting about being at Disney, but I thought she was gone already, so it was totally unexpected to see her. We've kept in touch, but haven't seen each other in person since 1997! How could you not make a bunch of Its a Small World jokes after that?

That pretty much filled up the day, so it was back to our hotel (we stayed at Shades of Green, the military/gov't employee Disney resort) for some dinner and swimming. The kids got quite a show with their pizza when I little girl drowned at the pool. There were two men there, they clearly had a lot more training and experience than the two lifeguards on duty, who were able to revive her before the ambulance arrived. The hotel clearly had procedures in place for emergencies and carried everything out really well; had someone out front to get the paramedics to the right pool as quickly as possible. I actually wrote a letter to the hotel after we got back, saying I thought it was handled well, but I was concerned that they didn't have a cordless phone on sight so the rescuers on site could speak directly to the 911 dispatcher rather than having someone shout instructions across the pool. The hotel manager called me and let me know the girl recovered and that they had reviewed their emergency procedures. 

Finally, this happened. They were talking and giggling their little heads off, then suddenly, they weren't.