DISNEY WORLD!!

Okay, I know this has been a long time coming. But I've finally decided to take the time to do a post on our fantastic trip to Disney World. I think it will end up being very long and truthfully, I don't expect anyone to read it. It is more for my own records, so don't feel bad if you get bored and don't finish!

On June, 26, 2009, Bryan and I loaded the girls on to an airplane and whisked them to Disney World for a 10 year anniversary celebration. We've been thinking, planning, saving and looking forward to this vacation for a while now! The girls were so excited to head off and have a new experience. Upon arriving in Florida, poor Addison had such a hard time breathing (she's plagued with asthma as it is). The humidity was hard for her to get used to and sent a slight panic through her until the next day. She kept saying, "Mom, I just can't breathe here." Part way through the next day she didn't complain anymore.

The evening we arrived we took a ferry from our hotel, Port Orleans Riverside, to Downtown Disney. We spent the evening wandering, browsing through gift shops and soaking up everything Disney. By the time we returned to our hotel room our luggage had been delivered! (When staying at a Disney hotel they will pick you up from the airport, pick up your bags for you and deliver them straight to your room! And when leaving they deliver your boarding passes to your room the morning of your departure, you check your bags at the hotel and then they take you back to the airport. Pretty stress free!)

June 27, 2009

Animal Kingdom

We spent our first full day at Animal Kingdom. The picture to the left is a Goofy that we know. He is a kid in our ward who has been doing an internship at DW since January! We enjoyed the Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King-a Broadway musical type show based on the movie (a lot of fun, and a must do with Emian in her lion phase!), and of course we had to fit in the Jammin' Jungle Parade (I'm a parade junkie, Bryan could do without-he's a good sport).

Addison tried her nerves on Expedition Everest (we've nicknamed the Yeti ride). She refused to ride a second time but later in the week wished she would have! We rode a lot of other small rides and saw some animals up close.

One of the rides we were having a hard time getting our girls to ride was call Dinosaur. The girls just did not want to get on this one. We were debating with them on whether we should go get a fast pass when a Disney worker approached us. She said, "How would you like to be my 'Magical Family of the Hour'?" Not really knowing what she meant Bryan and I agreed. Basically we got first class treatment for getting on the ride. She gave the girls certificates with their names and we all got dino finger puppets. Then she took us to the front of the line. The next Rover to come was ours and ours alone. Needless to say, the girls were scared witless the whole ride as shone by the picture. The picture depicted what the ride with the girls was like. Addison kept her head ducked and ears covered almost the whole ride and Bryan and I held on to the girls because they were so scared. Now, the ride itself isn't too fast or full of hills, just a little jerky and real life. They couldn't seem to get that the extraordinarily loud dinosaurs were NOT REAL! I'm sure Addison knew it all along, but she was scared just the same. We felt horrible for making them ride it, but it was fun to get special treatment and we definitely won't forget this one!
We ended the day with dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. It feels like you are outside in the rain forest. Our table was right next to a water fall with monkeys hanging from vines and gorillas perched on rocks. Every so often they come to life and do their thing. Every once in a while it would lightning and thunder and get a bit darker. The restaurant was full details and "living" creatures. Even the bathroom was decked out. Sitting in the nice air conditioning for dinner felt really nice. It was a fun dinner to end a great first day at Disney World!

June 28 & 29, 2009 - Magic Kingdom

Addison and Emian loved Magic Kingdom the most. We had great luck with lines for the two days we spent there. We covered most of the park the first day, which we did not intend on doing. I think we saw just about everything there is to see! Emian loved It's a Small World while Addison's favorite was Splash Mountain. Addison almost refused to get on Splash Mountain but then she overheard a much younger girl exclaim that she wanted to ride it AGAIN! Addison decided that if this younger girl could handle it then she should try! It was her favorite and she rode it at least 4 times. I was proud of her for doing something she was afraid of doing. There wasn't anything Addison would ride while at Magic Kingdom! They both loved getting wet by the Tikki's. The Jungle Cruise is a classic and Addison enjoyed the jokes told by the ride operator.

Meeting characters was something the girls had a fun time doing. If the line was too long no one had an interest in getting in it. The princesses were one exception. They were the longest line we stood in, including rides. Both girls wanted to wait and the line was indoors which made it more bearable! Unfortunately we did not get pictures with Mickey and Minnie because we were not willing to wait in line. Cinderella is my favorite Disney movie so I jumped in the pics with the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella herself!

Pirates are still a favorite around our house, so meeting Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Peter Pan and Wendy were a no brainer (and the lines were easy)!

Shockingly Emian didn't like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. She was so paranoid about the little hill that we had warned her about (stupid, stupid, stupid) she didn't enjoy any of the ride. To top it off, the one here was slightly different than that at Disney Land and there was no hill. Needless to say, riding a second time was not an option for Emian and once she has made up her mind there is no changing it. So I waited with her while Bryan and Addison rode. While waiting we were able to watch Captain Jack Sparrow and a side kick do a little show. This was much more fun for Emian. She was sworn in as a pirate by Captain Jack Sparrow and given a contract signed by him. She enjoyed this immensely and was so eager to tell her dad and sister that she got to participate in the show. You can barely see Emian in the picture below, she has the bright flowered shirt and is somewhat hidden by bigger kids toward the right of the pic.

On our first day at Magic Kingdom we pushed the girls pretty hard. We stayed for the night parade, Spectromagic, and then the fireworks at the end of the night. As we waited for the bus to take us back to the hotel, Emian was falling asleep while sitting on the concrete. Her head flopped forward and she was starting to go down. I scooped her up before she hit pavement. The girls were tired, and we didn't push any park that hard for the rest of the time.

June 30 & July 1, 2009 - EPCOT

Bryan's favorite of all the parks, EPCOT. Our two days here brought relief from the weather. It was overcast and a bit rainy, which was quite welcomed! There is so much to see and do at EPCOT. We starred in our own video game, visited 10 new countries, rode rides, talked to Crush from Nemo, went to space, went under the sea, soared over California, met more princesses and a few characters not previously met, and enjoyed yummy food!

Emian's favorite thing would have definitely been Soarin'. I was quite worried that she would freak out (because so many rides made her quite nervous, she doesn't like the unknown), but she loved it and on day 2 we headed straight there for fast passes in order to enjoy it a second time. Addison made the observation that "the food is so much better at EPCOT than at Magic Kingdom!" And she was right. Norway and France both had great food. Bryan loved the fish 'n chips in England. Unfortunately our stomachs weren't big

enough to sample in every country! I will say, don't waste your time and money at the sit down restaurant in Mexico. Good food (not great) but we eat much better Mexican locally.

I enjoyed the people. Every country had only natives working there. It definitely makes your experience feel a bit more authentic. They obviously speak English, but it is still fun to hear their different accents which helps make the experience.

July 2, 2009 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Unfortunately for us it was stiflingly hot, extremely humid and a bit miserable on our day at Hollywood Studios. We had big plans to stay for their biggest show, Fantasmic, but just couldn't do it. We left at dinner time and decided to call it good for the day.

The humidity actually fogged up my camera when taking this picture and a few others, ya, it was intense!

We did manage to get some fun in before our breaking point though!

While at Hollywood Studios we were actually approached again about being a "Magical Family of the Hour." We were outside the entrance to the Indiana Jones stunt show and they wanted Addison and Emian to be Junior Producers. Being the shy girls thy are, they turned it down...I couldn't stand it! I kept trying to tell them it would be fun, great, blah, blah, but to no avail. They didn't want to do it. It turns out, all they had to do was say their names at a given time and say "Lights, camera, action!" To their credit, it would have been in front of hundreds of people. They did want to stay and get their picture with the stunt people though!

July 3, 2009 - Our Last Day

We didn't plan ahead of time which park we would go to on our last day. We knew we would only have about three hours before getting on the Magical Express to the airport. We left it up to the girls where they would like to spend their last hours....Magic Kingdom was the winner!

Addison wanted one last ride on Splash Mountain, Emian chose It's a Small World, Bryan chose The Haunted Mansion, and I guess by default I chose Thunder Mountain because it was the only ride I got on that day (It's a Small World doesn't count)!

After our short visit to Magic Kingdom we strolled around the grounds of our hotel and took it all in one last time. We absolutely loved our visity to Disney World. We can't wait to go back. The plan is three years if anyone wants to join us. Next time around we will visity in the fall. A month later the girls still talk about it almost daily. We had an amazing week full of fun, family, testing of patience and plenty of memories!