Day 3 - Epcot

We decided not to wake anyone up today and get a late start to our morning. Here's Elizabeth with the start of her pin collection.
Here is Ben with the start of his pins. By the end of the trip these were totally full! The kids really enjoyed searching the pin booths for all the different types of pins.

Epcot! Trying to get us all in a picture.

We didn't get one with Grandma and Grandpa though, oops!

The first thing we did was head to The Seas of Nemo. We sat in these clam shells and rode around to see different scenes from Nemo - with their own twist to them. The kids really enjoyed this one.

We walked out and saw the shark from Nemo -we had to jump right in his mouth.

Meeting another guy from Nemo.

See, the posing has started! After watching all those princess Elizabeth started to try to do it herself!

While we were waiting to see Turtle Time with Crush we got to see some sting rays and other fish. The show with Crush was so great! Somehow Crush talks specifically to the kids, asking them questions, teasing them. There is obviously someone behind the screen and their voice turns into Crush, and animates him correctly. It was really neat. I wish we were allowed to take pictures in there!

This fish kept coming over to see Jackson.

After the show we went to eat lunch. Then we hopped on the boat ride called Living With the Land. It was showing how we used to live by the land and how some farmers still are, and then it drove us into Epcot labs were they are working to make new ways of growing fruits and veggies. It was very interesting. I didn't realize they have their own lab and are doing their own experiments at Epcot. Then we headed to the Circle of Life - a show talking about the importance of recycling and taking care of the earth. I think it impacted me a lot more than it did the kids - they just thought the Lion King characters were funny in the show! :)

After the show the guys went to ride Test Track - a car racing ride. The kids, Jessica and my mom went to Innoventions, an interactive Science place. Tom met us there later. We did lots of activities but one of the favorites was Tom riding the Vespa! I think he enjoyed himself!

This was all of our favorite things. The kids made themselves characters in their own video game! Do you see Ben and Elizabeth jumping?

You stand in this thing and it tells you to jump, run in place, and dance. It records your movements and then sends you over to the computer stations to let you play your game. It had me enter an email address that would send the game to us for 30 days but when I got home it wasn't there. :(

Another shot of the kids jumping.

There they are, playing themselves!

This is them dancing at the end, so fun!

We did this at least 6 different times. After that Tom, Jessica, me and my dad all rode Mission Space, where we trained to be astronauts. Jessica and I were so nervous because as you walk up it asks you if you want to be yellow or orange. Yellow is less intense, orange is more intense. It went on and on about how intense orange was, if you have any sensitivities not to do it, etc... We had heard all about people getting sick on it so needless to say I was very nervous! Lucky it was just a lot of fun, no one in our group got sick - thank goodness! We also went on Soaring with all the kids minus Jackson and my mom. It was a ride that made you feel like you were hang gliding - it was very realistic. After this we went back to our hotel for dinner and a swim!

The hotel pool was heated but it was still really cold. I did not go in.

They were freezing but they didn't want to get out.

We all went back to our rooms and went straight to sleep!

Disney, Day 2

We woke up bright and early for breakfast with Cinderella and her princess friends! Elizabeth was so excited!

We were loving this gorgeous tile mural of Cinderella, the step mother and step sisters.

Here came the big moment, meeting Cinderella! I wish I had a video of Elizabeth meeting the princesses. She was so nervous and shy, but she was brave enough to go up to them and get her book signed. It was difficult for her to make eye contact with them, but at least she would answer their questions and she got more comfortable as the week went on.

Elizabeth and her mommy.

We were loving that the breakfast was served on a Mickey Mouse plate.

Then the princesses made the rounds between all of the tables. Notice the pose?

Snow White,

Sleeping Beauty,

and Ariel!

Elizabeth was getting more and more comfortable as the breakfast went on.

Here's the room where we had breakfast, it was very regal.

Last it was Belle (my favorite, as I think I may have said before!)

Next we headed to Hollywood Studios to meet up with the rest of the group.

It started pouring on our way to the park so I didn't get my camera out during the morning. We went to two shows - The Little Mermaid (which was really good) and the Playhouse Disney live show (all the shows my kids love from the Disney channel). After the shows we had lunch and headed over to the area where lots of character hang out to sign autographs (and it was still raining at this point).

First up, Piglet and Pooh.

Minnie Mouse

Chip and Dale

Lotso (from Toy Story)

Mickey!!! (finally we got Jackson in a character picture!)

Characters from Little Einsteins

This was funny. (and I just have to say - her outfit was just like on the movies - what's up with the back of it if you know what I mean??? I didn't enjoy that in the movie, either!)

Mrs. Incredible was signing pictures with Mr. Incredible and they were being really goofy (without talking - none of the characters talked except the princess and "real" people) and she took Cooper and went and hid with him! Mr. Incredible walked all around trying to find them - Cooper thought it was hysterical!

Elizabeth with Mrs. Incredible

I think E looks like such a big kid here!

Handy Manny
That was a lot of characters!

Next we went to ride the awesome Buzz Lightyear ride - it was so much fun! Afterwords we heard Buzz and Woody were signing books so we walked across the street to all the photo ops and the signing.

Woody! (Buzz actually came out later)

Next we had some time to kill before we did the Buzz Lightyear ride again (we had fast passes for a little bit later) so we walked around a little and came across the Cars characters.

Lightning McQueen! Ben kept asking me when they would talk (and why all the characters didn't talk to them - I don't think he could figure it out).

Mator was there, too.

Now we're waiting for the Buzz ride. It was a pretty cool line to wait in (I wish I had taken more pictures) it was like we were inside Andy's toy box (from the movie) and that we were a toy. There were giant toys all over the place.

Elizabeth and Grandma about to get on the 3D ride.

And then, in the middle of our ride, it broke down! So badly that we all had to get out and follow each other out of the ride.

Jessica and Cooper on our backstage walk.

Ben and me on our special tour!

Here's all of us walking out of the ride - crazy huh? They gave us passes to go back again later in the day, once it was fixed.

Back to meet Buzz. "Watch out for the claw, Ben and Elizabeth!!"

I just thought this was so precious - Ben and Cooper looking through the window at their idol, Buzz Lightyear.

Here comes more photo ops in the Toy Story props.

I would buy that doll - even though she looks a little crazy here! :)

Finally time to meet Buzz! (it was a long line) I personally thought he looked a little creepy - I think Ben was a little unsure of that expression on Buzz's face!

Such a fun experience for the kids.

Next the kids hung out with Grandma while the other adults went to ride The Tower of Terror - a scary elevator ride - it was so fun.

We went back to the hotel to find this in our room! (Grandma told the front desk it was all of the kids birthdays so they could all get some special treatment and no one would feel left out :)

We ate some snacks and headed back to Magic Kingdom. I didn't bring my camera but here are all the rides we did...

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (3 times)

Tea Cups (2 times)

Space Mountain (just the grown ups)

It's a Small World

Peter Pan

Winnie the Pooh

Snow White's Scary Adventure (the kids were so brave to ride this! It wasn't too scary, but the name sure made the kids nervous!)

Carousel

Dumbo

We were able to do all this in about an hour and a half - it was so empty we could just ride, ride, ride! It was fabulous!
Then it was off to bed to get ready for another busy day!