Another Week

So, let's start with updates from last week. Thomas got over his illness quickly. He never got a cough or fever or the other tell-tale coronavirus signs, so it was likely allergies or some other virus. I had my colonoscopy and endoscopy yesterday. I am not dying! There is some inflammation in my stomach and they could tell I had GERD. A few months ago, I  wrote a blog about waking up gasping for air and experiencing acid reflux. I had self-diagnosed myself with GERD and apparently, Doctor Google was correct. I have my follow-up in a couple of weeks, but I don't think there's anything to be concerned about. The preparation and actual colonoscopy were not nearly as bad as I expected; I would encourage everyone to make sure they get it done. For me, because my dad had colon cancer, I was supposed to start at age 40. There was just a news story about a 48-year old Detroit sportscaster who died of colon cancer. It is one of the most common types of cancer and very slow growing and treatable (if caught in time).

Okay, enough of my PSA. We have ventured back to the theme parks. We felt pretty safe at Disney. There was good social distancing and people were really good about wearing masks. There is no park hopping and no fast-passes. We have loved no fast-passes. With the reduced capacity, lines move really fast. We went to Hollywood Studios on Friday night and walked onto Toy Story Mania, rode Slinky Dog 4 times, Millenium Falcon 3 times (so everyone could try every position) and even managed to get boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance. I love/hate fast passes and it is definitely so much better when no one has them. The lines move really quickly and you can walk around and enjoy the parks without watching your watch and worrying about return times. 

Some pictures from around the parks. You can't see it well, but the wait time below is 5 minutes. For Flight of Passage.

This is a candidate for our annual family photo. I feel like the clouds and the masks with the castle capture the dystopian world that is 2020.

Everyone loves Slinky Dog.

Look at all those people in the background. Crazy, right?

We had planned on getting Universal passes as soon as Luke hit 48 inches, which happened recently. And, based on our good experience at Disney, we decided to go for it. We went on a Saturday. Unlike Disney, Universal does not required a reservation to get in and it felt significantly more crowded. And, the Universal crowd is not nearly as good about maintaining distance or wearing masks. We still had fun, but we won't ever go back on a Saturday. Apparently, weekdays are much more manageable. Fortunately, the wait times were still relatively short. We got to ride almost everything in both parks, including everyone's new favorite--Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure. It will take some getting used to, unlike Disney, where we have the system down. For example, we often order kid's meals for all of us, which is no problem at Disney, but Universal didn't seem to be on board with that. We do it because we also like to buy ice cream and other treats and with six us, it adds up really quickly (money and calories). So, it is little things like that we will need to get used to. Right now, we have annual passes to Disney, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Universal, the Zoo, the Science Center and Kennedy Space Center. I don't even want to think about how much we have spent on all of that! But, we didn't do a vacation this year and Disney will expire soon (which is the priciest of all).

We found out Luke's first grade teacher. He is very excited to start school again. The kids start with virtual learning on Monday and then Luke will go face-to-face two weeks later. The older kids are stuck with virtual for a while.

And, for the final update, Anna got a haircut, they took off about 6 inches: