Day 6 -- Our Padowan

I've been under-the-weather lately so I've been slacking on getting up the last two days. We spent the last few days going back to the parks and fitting in some things we didn't get to do previously.

On day 6 we went back to Animal Kingdom for a few hours, saw a great Bug's Life show, went on the new and rather scary Dinosaur ride, met Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore and of course, had to ride Mt. Everest again! Yeah!

Then it was off to Hollywood Studios, where we met up with the Caziers again. We saw the Block Party parade (wow, the energy!), Beauty and the Beast show, went on the new Toy Story ride (not sure it was worth the 90 minute wait!) and of course had to ride my favorite Rock 'n Roller Coaster again a few times.



Okay, by FAR the highlight of our day was the Jedi training show. Andrew, a HUGE Star Wars fan, had seen this show a few days prior and kept saying, "Mom, I wanna be a Jedi!" How could I refuse? So we arrived at the show early enough to be in the front, held Andrew up high and used our own kind of "force" (prayers and finger-crossing) that he could be picked as one of the few among MANY who wanted their chance! As you can see, the Force was strong around him and he was picked! He was the smallest one up there and in the very front. He wouldn't smile, but took his task VERY seriously. The Jedi trainer cracked jokes about him and even put his hood on (he was the only one! boy did he look cute!). He even got to fight Darth Vader and use the Force on the Storm Troopers to keep them at bay. After he received his diploma and returned to us, he stood there, staring at his hands, in awe of this new power he had acquired. He looked at me, stunned, and said, "Magic Hands. . ." He has even used his Force on the automatic doors a the grocery store, over and over again. Oh, he cracks me up! He truly believes he's got the Jedi powers. He is our little Padowan.


We finished our day off at Downtown Disney, at a great little sandwich shop that I would recommend called Earl of Sandwich; affordable and delicious. Another great day of Disney in the bag!

Disney -- Day 5

I promise this post will be short! Day 5 was a much warmer day--yahoo! It really started to feel like Florida. We spent this day again at the Magic Kingdom. It was nice because we slept in a bit and just spent the day going to the things we either didn't see on Monday or wanted to do again. We didn't feel any pressure to run from one thing to the next, but just enjoyed the day.

The only thing we lost this day was Todd's BYU hat on Splash Mountain (look for the pictures of him losing it). Didn't he see the reminder to stow all loose items in the provided nets below? Then they got stuck on the ride for a good 30 minutes and Drew almost wet himself. Luckily everyone still came out smiling. By the way, if you're going, you've got to get a Pineapple Dole Whip--oh, my, yummy! It's only about $2 and really refreshing and yummy. You can find it on your way to the Aladdin Magic Carpet Ride.


Did some more classic attractions: Dumbo, car racing, Teacups, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Toon Town, Jungle Cruise (try this one at night!) and Country Bear Jamboree.

Note about Country Bear Jamboree: This was one of my Dad's favorite attractions, mostly for the classic "Blood on the Saddle" song. Lyrics go something like this: "Blood on the saddle, Blood everywhere, and a great, big puddle of blood on the ground. . . " Is this really a kid-friendly song? Regardless I can't help but think of him every time I hear it and laugh aloud.

Once again, just a great day. I think you can tell how happy we were by all the smiles. . .

Day 4 -- Epcot

Epcot is so enormous that it is hard to see everything in just one day, but we tried our best. Yes, another very cold day, especially when the sun went down. We lost Andrew 3 times here--I know, I deserve the "Mother of the Year Award"! But, all in all, it was a good day.

First off we went to the Spaceship Earth ride. I have to say, they have totally revamped this and it was a HUGE improvement. At the end, each person even gets to personally choose what their "future" will look like based on their likes and dislikes. Again SO much better than what they had before.

The kids practiced a fire drill in a pretend house, how to escape, etc. They wanted to do this over and over. This was really good because whenever we try to make our emergency plans in FHE, everyone ends up in tears and refuses to talk about it! Thank you Disney for doing it better than we could!

On to the fish: this is where we noticed Andrew missing the first time. After days at parks, I had fallen into the expectation that with 4 adults and 8 kids between us, everyone kept an eye on everyone and followed each other wherever we went. Andrew is an observer and had somehow missed the fact that we left. Obviously I missed the fact that he was not with us. I ran back to our last stop (the fire drill place) and there he was tears streaming down his face, holding a nice old lady's hand. Whew! Luckily it was only a few minutes. This would only happen two more times this day! Poor Drew. Bad Mom.

Nemo ride was cool--I think the dream of being a marine biologist still exists somewhere deep inside me and resurfaces every time I'm around large tanks of fish! I love them.

We went on Soarin', which is always a fun ride and the kids loved it! We met with Mickey, a special meeting for Disney cardholders, which took some time. By this time it was already after 1 p.m. and I was anxious to get onto the countries, my favorite part of Epcot.

I neglected to mention that before we left I made the kids' autograph books. My kids love to get the characters' autographs and we got a lot this time around! I personalized each book the kids' pictures and laminated the front. I even put a Passport section at the back for each of the 11 countries we visited at Epcot (thanks to Todd for helping me on this part!). The kids loved them, I saved money by doing it myself and I have to say I was down-right proud of how they turned out!

The countries were awesome and I can't even begin to choose a favorite. They were all so beautiful and unique in their own way. What a great world we are blessed with.

In Japan, there was a lady who demonstrated candy-making. Out of 6 demonstrations, she chose Alli to be her last. Alli chose to have her make a zebra and the cute Japanese lady's hands quickly got to work. Only about 60 seconds later, she had an amazing looking zebra made out of candy for Allison! We watched several of the other animals she made and were amazed at her talent--there's nothing she can't do! I don't think she spoke much English, however, as she kept repeating the same random English words, intermixed with Japanese, over and over. Watch below:


We stopped in Germany for some pretzels, France for some great pastries, America for a funnel cake and the U.K. for some fish and chips--hhmm, maybe that's where the extra 5 lbs. came from . . . All yummy food regardless!

The day ended with, how else? Fireworks! They were of course amazing and I was thankful once again for the rented van as all the kids quickly fell asleep on our way home.

Day 3 -- Hollywood Studios

UP FRONT: I apologize to all of you who have to endure these entries day by day. Feel free not to read--it's just my way of keeping record what we did, my journal entries if you will.

Day 3, a very cold Wednesday, was when we entertained ourselves at Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom was classically my favorite park as a child, but I think as an adult, Hollywood (aka MGM) Studios is my top runner. What a blast we had here! Here is a brief list of things we got to see here:
- High School Musical 3 show (I decided after watching this that I want to move to Florida and be a dancer in this show--they were SO GOOD! and full of energy! I could pass for a high-schooler, right?)
- Went to a fun Indiana Jones Stunt show - Went to an extreme car stunt show that was out of this world! Truly amazing what some of those drivers can do. Just watch the clip below and tell me if it doesn't get your testosterone pumping (yes, even the women of the world!).


- Playhouse Disney--Live on Stage--I think Andrew really enjoyed this one. - We got to meet Prince Caspian (you're jealous, right?) and see a brief Narnia show that was not-so-worth the short line we stood in.
- Saw a fun Muppets 3D show--you've got to love the Swedish Chef! - Went on a few fun rides like Star Tours, Tower of Terror (I prefer this one to the Disneyland version by far), the Great Movie Ride and, my personal favorite roller-coaster in the entire world, Aerosmith's Rock n' Roller Coaster (I had to come back during the week and ride this another 3 times! so fun!)
- I was slightly disappointed that the new American Idol experience wasn't open until after we left, but it looks so much like the real thing and I'm sure will be a fun thing to have there.
- I have to thank my friend, Mandy, for tipping me off to a very fun place to eat for lunch. It was called "Sci-Fi Diner" and you actually feel like you are at an outdoor drive-in theater in CA somewhere. We actually ate in cars while we watched some hilarious clips from old sci-fi movies and/or Tom and Jerry cartoons. We all really enjoyed it and the service was great. Note: if you do this, call weeks before you go and make a reservation. All menus and prices for all the Disney parks can be seen at http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

For my Valentine

You, me and eternity. . .

Day 2 -- Animal Kingdom

Day 2 of our Disney vacation was spent at Animal Kingdom. This is the newest of all the parks and was being built and only part of it was open on our honeymoon 10 years ago. It was fun to see how much they have added since then. The park has an animal theme (obviously) and in the center of it all is the Tree of Life, a man-made tree with carvings of every animal you can think of throughout the entire enormous thing. The different sections of the park are broken up: Africa, Asia and a Dinosaur park area. There is also Discovery Island in the middle. Not too many people seem to be crazy about this park, but I loved it.

In Africa the streets are set up in a way where you really feel like you are walking down an average street in Africa. This is where we took a 2-week safari (condensed to 20 minutes) on a reserve that is set there. Saw all sorts of animals as you can see in the pictures. I love everying African from the art to the music so this was a fun place for me.

Asia streets are set up the same way, but the highlight of the whole day was the roller coaster they have here. It's called Expedition Everest. It's all about a quest to find a vicious yeti, aka the Abominable Snowman. I won't give away what it is like, but needless to say, Kendra, Todd and I (NOT Alli--it terrified her!) HAD to come back later in the week to go on it again!

Other highlights of this park for us were the shows! There was a Nemo show that was absolutely amazing. The actors can do incredible things with the puppets they control and they can sing! The way the story was portrayed was so cool. Who would have thought they could do a Nemo show on a normal stage sans water? Only Disney. The other show was the Lion King: acrobats, people on stilts, fire-dancers, flying dancers and great singing, etc. A friend of mine suggested we sit up front because the kids might be picked to come up on stage. We did and all the kids were picked! (thanks Jen!) The kids really felt part of the show and had a great time, circling the stage and playing the instruments. Again stunning colors, music and both shows just made me want to go to Broadway--yes, it's that kind of caliber.

Don't let the pictures fool you--this day was cold! Florida experienced an "arctic freeze" while we were there where the governor wanted to issue a state of emergency (due to crops). At night it dipped into the 20s and during the day it only got to just above 50. We weren't prepared, but luckily we had some sweatshirts and light jackets. The evenings got rather nippy. Not expected, not happy about it, but a little cold didn't stop us.

Happiest Place on Earth --- Day 1

Several months ago I tapped into the thin line of yellow in my personality and made an impulse decision to buy airfare tickets to Orlando when they came up at $99 round-trip. What's worse is I convinced our friends, the Caziers, to do the same so we could have friends to go with! We just returned from our 9-day vacation to Orlando, where, yes, we stuffed every minute of Disney into our 7 non-traveling days. I'm so glad our hasty decisions paid off because we had a great time and memories were created that will last into the eternities.


Monday (Day 1) was spent, of course, at the Magic Kingdom. Age boundaries were erased and Todd and I became equals with our children, giggling, running to rides, eating treats, being star-struck at every character we saw walking down the streets of the Kingdom. It was indeed magical and once again I was reminded--Disney just knows how to do things right!



Although it POURED on us the entire day (I'm serious when I say NO break!), we didn't let that stop us. We put on our ponchos, pulled out the umbrellas and had a VERY easy time getting on rides. We never had to wait in line for a ride and there was no need for the fast passes this day!


Since we were there the day after the Super Bowl, there were Steeler fans all over and there was even a parade held in their honor, with MVP Santonio Holmes riding with Mickey. Ok, seriously, what was wrong with the costume designer? Do Mickey's pants NEED to go to his armpits?



We had a great plan of eating breakfast at our rental house, bringing lunch and snacks with us and getting dinner in the parks. I was even able to keep under my budget of $50 per day for the 6 of us! Yahoo! This night we ate at the Plaza Restaurant on Main Street and Andrew loved his dessert!