The photo from the Tower of Terror is the one I kept hounding her for. Though (due to the time of year and a not-so-packed park) we were able to ride the Tower about five times, this photo is from the first ride down when it was all a surprise. What made me laugh was that my sister Janet (sitting next to me in the back row, left), despite everyone else screaming during the drop, somehow calmly held onto her bottle of Diet Coke with a smile, as if she were doing an advertisement for Coca Cola. If you look closely, you can even see the pop rising in the bottle. Everyone else is screaming and about to grab at the seat handle, everything stowed below, while she somehow was drinking her Diet Coke on the way up and held it through all the plummeting drops.

Janet, calm. Me, screaming my head off. (I’m a big screamer and laugher on rides.)

The next photo was a few days later. I hadn’t really wanted my picture taken with any characters since I am a little creeped out by who might actually be dressed in the costume. Just my luck — I’m not even a dog lover! — I found myself pushed into the line for a photo with Goofy and Pluto, the only ones we really saw the whole time we were there. I wasn’t going to have my photo taken, but my sister Janet “encouraged” me to do it. So, there I was, in a line full of kids, dreading the moment, pushed between them and asked to pose.

And then Goofy laid his hand on my shoulder and I at last understood why little kids cry when they get forced to sit on Santa’s lap at the mall.

I hadn’t even been aware she’d paid for the photos. I was just going to suffer through the event and not get the actual photo.

The next photo was from the day we visited Kennedy Space Center, which was another amazing experience. There was a shuttle out on the launch pad (we didn’t see the launch, though). The tours and Apollo exhibits and the room the simulated the Apollo launch (complete with rattling windows) still stick in my mind.

All in all, it was one of my top three trips of my life; I had such a fun time with my sister and nephews and finally (as cheesy as it is) completed my dream of going to Disney World.

When she had called and asked me, many months before, if I wanted to go, I remember how I ran into the next room and started jumping around and hollering “I’m going to Disney World! I’m going to Disney World!”

Yeah.

I’m like that.

The actual trip was rather hilarious in all that went wrong. My nephew Cody and I listed all the things that went haywire as we were stuck in the Orlando airport. It went like this:

• Drove to Omaha and got lost (we flew out of Omaha).
• First flight had mechanical problems and was delayed. Missed connecting flight.
• Got Orlando late and had hassle with rental car. Trey wanted to eat an old pop tart on the baggage carousel because we were starving.
• Got to hotel room and got food after 16 hours of no eating. Power to entire hotel promptly went out.
• Magic Kingdom: thunder Mountain broke down after we waited in line 1 hour (eventually rode it).
• Space Mountain broke down (eventually rode it).
• Splash Mountain broke down while we were in it.
• Kennedy Space Center: bus driver sounded like he was dying of a heart attack the whole time.
• Hollywood: Stupid High School Musical crap was featured.
• Busch Gardens: almost arctic weather, three roller coasters down (two eventually ran, so we rode all but one), Trey puked in the parking lot before we went in, and thousands of Brazilian teenagers were there on some event and annoyed every other person in the park.
• Animal Kingdom: Perfect day.
• Epcot: One ride down.
• Flight home: missed first flight, second had mechanical problems, replacement plane/flight also had mechanical, spent the entire day in Orlando airport to be stuck in a hotel and fly out the next day.

Makes for some funny memories now.

I spent quite a bit of time smiling after I opened the packet that had these photos inside this Christmas. It was fun to relive the memory.

“Thanks for finally getting me those photos, Janet,” I said to her later on the phone.

“Yeah. Kinda forgot about them. Stumbled on them when I was going through some things.”

What a great memory that trip was.

Watching a marching band parade and who should stop by and give me candy?

As Mark said, sitting next to me: No candy, no vote!

My new plant, compliments of mom and dad. It’s gorgeous!

They were up for a visit and just left.

I love this plant. It looks like a rose tree. It’s an azalea/rozalea.

The UND Fighting Sioux may be no more, but the Carrington Chieftan hotel lives on proudly.