1. The Disney motto “The Happiest Place on Earth” should not imply a money-back guarantee. Especially in the middle of a 60-minute wait for the Toy Story ride, even though it turned out to be the best ride at the Hollywood park.

2. Disney World tickets are not made to be laundered in the pocket of your sweaty shorts. In fact, you will be lucky if you are able to fish a square piece of white paper out of the dryer.

3. Disney World employees are used to dealing with washed tickets and can replace them if you have the credit card number you used to purchase them. The man who helped us had helped four other people who had washed their tickets on Wednesday. One lady brought in a baggy with tiny scraps of paper and dumped them out on the counter.

4. We can’t handle more than 2 days in a row of going to the parks. The kids need a break (so do we). On day three, five of the seven of us had a major meltdown (the kids threw punches at each other, and the two women cried for an hour). This was brought on by dehydration, lack of sleep and a particularly long walk through Epcot followed by a 45-minute wait for lunch. After a day of resting by the pool and filling up on water, we felt much happier.

5. If your two-year-old is given a Mickey Mouse sundae in a lead crystal glass, keep one hand on the two-year-old and one hand on the glass. This was the meal that followed the day 3 meltdown, and we had the nerve to stay for dessert. Also, we found out that the lifeguard at the resort pool doubles as a medic for minor lacerations. Good to know.

6. You can run into a Ouachita alumnus anywhere. Kenneth Kinney performed during the opening show at the Magic Kingdom, along with a few other shows. My kids were so impressed that I knew a Disney celebrity.

7. Our favorite show was the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor at the Magic Kingdom. My husband is a computer geek, and even he couldn’t figure out how the animated characters interacted with the audience.

8. Friday was the beginning of Star Wars weekend at Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). Unless you are a really big Star Wars fan, stay away from that park on Fridays! It was crowded with grown-ups dressed up like Jedis and Wookies who were members of the Central Florida Star Wars fan club. My kids have never even seen Star Wars, so I had to explain the plot lines about 5 times.

9. Fast pass anything that has more than a 30 minute wait, and do it as soon as you get to the park. We were able to sail through the line at Expedition Everest, the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Splash Mountain and the Thunder Mountain Railroad. You do have to wait until after your fast pass time for one ride is up before you can fast pass another ride (unless your fast pass return time is more than 3 hours away).

10. Take grandparents with you if you have small children that are too little to ride the big rides and big kids that want to ride ALL the big rides! Grandparents are wonderful for taking the little kids to the Playhouse Disney show or Mickey’s Toon Town. Phillip had so much fun that he didn’t know he was missing the fun roller coasters.

We had a really great week with a lot of ups and downs (on more than just the roller coasters)! Best of all, Phillip was completely enamored with every character he met (he patted every character with fur and told them “I love you”), and even the most jaded (Ellie) danced during the afternoon parade and oohed and ahhed at the fireworks. It was worth the drama to come away with the happy memories.

When we went to the beach a few weeks ago, I was tickled at the way he played in the ocean. Every time a wave would threaten to knock him over, he would try to jump over it, then clap his hands and cheer, “Yay!” It was as if he was giving God applause for the awesome wave.

I hope he never loses the ability to appreciate the little miracles in life.