A Smile in my Heart–Magical Week of Friends,Fun & Freezing-10/28-COMPLETE!

[KathyRN137]

Hey Sara!

Great photopass pix!

I missed FOTLK on our last trip. Glad you were able to catch it... its amazing!!


Kathy

 

[mom2mek]

I know! I'm sorry! I thought I would get an update done tonight (while waiting for the Easter bunny). Please forgive me - I spent the day in the ER with my husband who thought it was really bright to try and move the bass boat (on a trailer) by himself and threw out his back! Now I get to play nurse.

Hey - how'd Porgy and Bess go? Are they still doing performances?

Hey Sara!

Great photopass pix!

I missed FOTLK on our last trip. Glad you were able to catch it... its amazing!!


Kathy

Oh, but you were able to catch the parade last time, Kathy. I have never caught that and am really hoping to see it next time! It's always so hard to get it all in there!

Sara

 

[MaryAz]

Great AK updates. Looks like everyone was having a great day!!

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Great photopass pictures.

 

[kcandbella]

FOTLK looks so cool! I can't wait to see it! Your pics turned out so good. You have such a cute family!

 

[kaysmommie]

Great update and pictures .FOTLK was excellent as usual! I love that picture of you and Emily, it's cute. You got great pics of the tumble monkey's too! It seems Kaylee and I missed out on those great photopass pics in front of EE. Well I thought I would get a head start on packing up but instead we rested our feet for 10 minutes before going to the lobby meet you all. We had such a fun day and Kaylee has a new favorite ride Primevil Hur

 

[SurfinTX]

We will be trying to see Lion King as well on our AK day. I didn't get to see it on the 2007 trip so this should be a highlight!

Glad to see your AK planning paid off so far.

 

[burly]

My sister and I love the Lion King, my Fav disney movie too. The only thing that would make it better is if they had seat backs, a little leaning never hurt anyone.
Great photopass pics!

Ambiance in the AK is sooo cool...

Can't wait for the new update.

 

[laashley]

Wonderful updates! Can't wait to hear about Boma. Such good character pics! Hope we can be so lucky!

 

[mom2mek]

Great AK updates. Looks like everyone was having a great day!!

Thanks! We did have an awesome first day in the parks!

Great photopass pictures.

Thanks! Group ones coming right up!

FOTLK looks so cool! I can't wait to see it! Your pics turned out so good. You have such a cute family!

Awww....Thanks! Definitely don't miss FOTLK! So good!

Great update and pictures .FOTLK was excellent as usual! I love that picture of you and Emily, it's cute. You got great pics of the tumble monkey's too! It seems Kaylee and I missed out on those great photopass pics in front of EE. Well I thought I would get a head start on packing up but instead we rested our feet for 10 minutes before going to the lobby meet you all. We had such a fun day and Kaylee has a new favorite ride Primevil Hur

Awww...I'm glad Kaylee liked PW! It was fun but once in a day would be enough for me, that's for sure!

I'm sad y'all aren't in the EE pics - maybe I will Shawn photoshop you in there!

We will be trying to see Lion King as well on our AK day. I didn't get to see it on the 2007 trip so this should be a highlight!

Glad to see your AK planning paid off so far.

I can't believe it was Dec of 2008 before I EVER saw FOTLK! What was I thinking?? Now it is a "can't miss show"!

My sister and I love the Lion King, my Fav disney movie too. The only thing that would make it better is if they had seat backs, a little leaning never hurt anyone.
Great photopass pics!

Ambiance in the AK is sooo cool...

Can't wait for the new update.

You are so right! More comfortable seating would be nice! It's especially nice to have backs when you have a kid who is like static cling and won't sit in her own bench seat!

I agree - ambiance is fabulous in the AK. Especially in the cooler months when you aren't suffocated by all that ambiance!

Wonderful updates! Can't wait to hear about Boma. Such good character pics! Hope we can be so lucky!

We were really happy with the amount of characters we were able to see on this trip!

Boma should be in the next update or maybe the one after that....

Thanks for sticking with me everyone....I know I'm ever slower than usual....just a busy time of year right now. I'm hoping to get the next installment up tonight! Here's hoping!!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

February 7th - Animal Kingdom - Chapter 8

We probably have all had an experience taking our children to have formal studio portraits. Get the kids all dressed up in bowties or fancy dresses. Hair perfectly styled, bows perfectly tied. Usually after all that preparation you get to the studio and someone is sleeping, someone is grumpy, or someone has managed to get food on their face or clothes. So much effort goes into the preparation, and sometimes, (not every time), the pictures turn out just kind of "eh". If you are really lucky, like me, you try and take pictures with a whole bunch of small kids who are all cousins and end up with one kid looking to the right, one kid looking down, one frowning, one dazed and confused, and just one child sitting sweetly with a great big grin. It's such fun! LOL!

Once the kids hit a certain age, it gets easier, but I think most people have had that experience where no matter how much preparation you put into the pictures ahead of time, the pictures themselves just turn out to be challenging and frustrating.

Enter Animal Kingdom Photopass Guy!!!

After taking family pictures of our family and Monica's family, we decided to attempt a great big group picture with all 16 of us (if you remember, Nichole and Kaylee had left to head back to AKL for a quick rest before dinner).

The guy got us all set up, moved us around as if we were actually at Sears getting our family portraits done ("you move over here", "now put your arm on her shoulder", "chins down", "look here"....) it was very funny.

So after a full and busy day at the parks, how do the pictures with 16 people including 9 kids turn out? Well , you tell me.

Holy Moly! All the kids are looking in the same direction, they are all smiling, it's truly shocking. Just goes to show you....you can plan and plan to have great kids pictures taken, and then get completely taken by surprise when you happen to get lucky with a wonderful photographer. They seem like they are getting fewer and further between lately. He was funny, relaxed, not pushy, not obnoxious, willing to take the time to get us situated but not too long that the kids got bored or aggravated. I'm so glad we stopped!

The kids looked so cute, I had to crop the adults out of the shot so as to zoom in on the cuteness!

Then we did the obligatory "hands out" shot:

Then the "wild animals" showed up:

The "silly faces" shot:

Then he asked us to "smoosh" our faces together (i.e. get closer together for more of a close-up shot). Well the kids took him literally, and most of them actually used their hands to literally smoosh their own faces together! It was hilarious!

We finished up with a "ta-da" shot!

Ahhh...my favorite! Aren't we such a happy little family??



Sometimes you really get lucky and we definitely had some luck that day...great photopass guy, great moods from the kids, great atmostphere....just some of the best group photopass pictures I have ever had the pleasure of being included in!

With all that fun over, we headed the rest of the way towards Everest. We had 18 fastpasses to use, but Megan, Luke, Katie, and Kaitlyn were not going to ride. Charlene, Peggy, and I stayed back with them while Shawn, Monica and Dave, and Michelle took Hunter, Michael, Sam, Rachel, and Emily for a few spins on Everest. This would be Emily's second ride on it and she loved it once again! It was 5:45 at this point so the line was non-existent anyway but they still used up the fastpasses! Might as well, right?

Samantha and Rachel in the front and Shawn with Emily behind them.


The 9 of them got off and then let Hunter, Michael, Rachel, and Sam ride it again alone. Which of course, they loved!

Hunter and Michael

Meanwhile, the rest of us took the other kids and went back over to Dinoland to take a spin on Dinosaur Dumbo one more time!

Charlene rode with Luke, I rode with Katie, and sweet Kaitlyn took Megan with her. We had a great ride!

Getting ready to take off - a not-so-good self portrait:

This time I was smart and I reached my hand to the back seat to operate the forward and backward motion of the dino while Katie operated the up and down motion. I had forgotten to do that when we rode it twice that morning and couldn't figure out why we weren't doing it! Duh!

From up-high!

We made our way out of Dinoland to find our Everest riders, but stopped quickly to get a picture in the car:

As we finished up with our goofy pictures, we saw our thrill-riders rounding the corner and we all joined back up to head out of the park and over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma!

Up next....uh-oh...it's Superbowl Sunday....where is Shawn? When will we eat? What is going on with Michael?

Sara

 

[mrsksomeday]

What a great AK day, I loved all the PP pictures and the group shots were amaing, everyone smiling and eyes open!!

 

[stinkerbell007]

Hey - how'd Porgy and Bess go? Are they still doing performances?

They just wrapped on Saturday. It was a great success. I am very proud of them. So now we are counting down the days until we get to celebrate their success at WDW and more specifically at the Poly (oh, yay!!). My DS is counting down the days until we go. Can you blame him?

We goin' ta Disney!!!!


But anyway (thanks for asking!).....carry on (I love reading your reports!).......

 

[mom2mek]

What a great AK day, I loved all the PP pictures and the group shots were amaing, everyone smiling and eyes open!!

Thanks Tracy! They are some of my most favorite pictures of the trip! What fun!

They just wrapped on Saturday. It was a great success. I am very proud of them. So now we are counting down the days until we get to celebrate their success at WDW and more specifically at the Poly (oh, yay!!). My DS is counting down the days until we go. Can you blame him?

We goin' ta Disney!!!!


But anyway (thanks for asking!).....carry on (I love reading your reports!).......

That's great - I'm sure you are very proud of them! Wow - you are so close!! Only a little more than a week! Woo-hoo!!!

Sara

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Oh my goodness! I didn't realize how great those photopass pictures turned out. That first one is definitely going to get a home in a frame on my wall. That whole photoshoot was one of those unexpected things that we just happened upon and turned out to be so much fun.

Love the picture of Katie on Dino Dumbo with her big wide eyes , she is adorable.

Great update as usual. Only you (and I mean this as a compliment) can get a whole post about less than an hour's time in AK.

Looking forward to more!

 

[KathyRN137]

Awesome group photos... plural!!

So glad you got pixie-dusted with a great photographer!

Hmmm.... SuperBowl Sunday.... time for the men to disappear!! I had similar issues with the World Series on my trip!!


Kathy

 

[BippityBoo]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the photopass pic!!! What an incredible photo, you are so lucky You know the difference is that the kids were truly having fun and it shows.

I laughed outloud at the Everest pictures. Shawn's "rock star" hands and the boys looked like they were having so much fun riding alone.

I can't wait to hear about your next day. Wondering where Shawn was

And Superbowl Sunday...WHO DAT? WHO DAT? WHO DAT SAY THEY'RE GONNA BEAT THEM SAINTS?!

 

[kaysmommie]

Sara,
Those pics turned out awesome! Nice to get a good photopass photographer once in a while . The ride pics are funny too. Looking forward to more .

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Wow the photopass shots are amazing every one looks happy and is looking at the camera. Just prefect. I love boma. Cant wait to here what happens next

 

[Poohtigeey]

Oops, missed two updates!! I guess I need to catch up on my report so I can tell all about Ms. Lilo and my son! Sara, your memory is truely amazing! I don't feel like I'm reading about a trip that I was on!! My mom got a shot of the birds in the trees. If you need a scenery shot or some obscure shot ask me. My mom most likely got it! I LOVE our group Photopass shots! Why didn't you post the zoomed in shot of you and Shawn making your silly faces? I made that on Photopass just for you!! Great updates. I can't wait to read about Boma and see what I forgot!