Monday April 16th Part III - EPCOT
We walked over to UK where the kids played in the red phone booths.
While they were in the booths, I quickly pulled out my trusty ol iPad and went online to search for the phone numbers for the phones in the booth on DIS. I found them, and called the number while DD and DS were in. They thought it was hilarious when they heard my voice. The only thing that was a little surprising was that the ring tone on those phones are digital ring tones and not the old fashioned bell ring. I dont know why that surprised me. Afterwards, DW, DS, and DFIL moved on to France while DD and I picked up our Kimpossible communicators. It turned out our mission was back UK so we completed the whole mission which I thought was pretty cool. DD really got into it by the end but decided she didnt want another mission. In fact, the most exciting part for her was dropping off the communicator in the red mail box at the backside of UK. I heard it land with metallic CLUNK. Yikes, do those phones survive those drops?
View of UK
By the time we were done with our mission, the rest of the gang were already at the Japan Pavilion watching the drum performance. We caught up with them and finished watching the show. It was getting really hot by that point. It had been mostly cloudy in the morning but now it was clearing up and with temps in the upper 80s, I was ready for a break. We perused the Japanese department store brought back some memories as I had grown up in Korea and the layout of the department store reminded me of the old department stores of my childhood. As we exited the department store, I spotted a couple eating shaved ice treats in the shade and thought that was an excellent idea. So, I went got a strawberry flavored shaved ice treat.
We all went up to the top portion of the garden right outside the Japanese counter service restaurant, and I shared the ice with everyone. It hit the spot. The garden was very well done too. There were very few people up there and the whole place felt very quiet, tranquil, and removed from the hustle and bustle of World Showcase.
Japanese Garden
We made our way back down. Passed Italy then on to Germany.
Got these on our way to Germany.
DW and DFIL went into the caramel store to get some, well, caramels. I was sitting along the lake side with the kids if I recall, it was sort of a stonemade outlook area that jutted out into the lake. They were playing with their mist fans that I had purchased prior to the trip. I decided to take the pictures we got from Akershus out so I could take a picture of the photopass number (I took pictures of all photopass numbers and cards throughout the trip just in case we lost any of them). That led to the kids wanting to see the 4x6 pictures. DD returned them back to me as we were cleaning up and DW/DFIL returned from their mini shopping trip. DS on the other hand was tired, hot, sleepy, and cranky now since he didnt get a long enough nap earlier in the day. So, he decided he was going to keep them and try to fold them. We gave him our usual time-out warnings and counted to three and he still did not relinquish them. DFIL took the pics away from his hands and thats when all H, E, double hockey sticks, broke loose. He had the mother of all tantrums right there continuously yelling I want my pictures!! and we would quietly remind him no every couple of minutes. We did what we usually do at home. Let him run through the phases of the tantrum and wait for him to calm down. Except, its a little more difficult to do when its happening in the middle of Epcot. This went on for a good 15 minutes. Im sure most of you parents reading are thinking been there done that well maybe not necessarily at Disney, but somewhere public. One little girl, about 18-19 months of age, walked over next to him to see what all the fuss was about. Her parents quickly came by and redirected her away. Once it was over, he got back in his stroller and we were ready to go.
By then it was already 5:35pm. DD had wanted to meet Mulan again this year and since the China Pavilion is the only place where we can meet her, we headed there. When we got to the meet and greet place, I did not see her out even though she was scheduled to be there. I asked a CM standing at that spot and she said that Mulan had to go see the emperor for an emergency meeting and that she may be back for her next set which started at 6:00pm. So, we hung around, enjoying the scenery.
The kids and Grandpa found a couple of frogs sitting on lily pads in the pond along the bridge. We also got to tour the Tomb Warriors exhibit.
Well, Mulan did not show up again so as we were packing up and getting ready to leave again, we realized that the acrobat show was about to begin. So we sat and watched the show for the first time. Enjoyed it quite a bit!
Next Up: Illuminations from a boat!!
AND no line for characters!! 
We were very thankful we had rented the stroller for the week as I think it saved us in the sense that she was able to rest in the stroller rides and so wan't as exhausted as she might otherwise have been. Our DD tends to go hard and then burn herself out. 
