I awake to the sounds of music, because I remembered to change the alarm settings. yeah! I hop out of bed, and head to the kitchen to get me some coffee!! Oh yeah! This time I got mine right away!! I then wake up Brian and head for the shower. I emerge fresh and clean! We are making decent time, so I make some oatmeal and then start heading over to wake up the girls, but I hear that Mom has beat me too it. They hadn't woke up yet, so Barbara and I took over. The girls woke up quite quickly.
Heather had made everyone (except Henry, who was being a party pooper) really cool shirts with our names on them and the Disney characters perched atop the letters, so we were all wearing those in the morning. The backs or mine and Heather's also had a lime green Mickey head that said, "Do you Dis?"
Oh yeah, we were STYLIN'!!! Even though Henry wouldn't wear the shirt with his name on it she had tricked him into matching us all anyway by buying him the same style and color of shirt as the guys all had and laying it out for him to wear on that day. She is a clever one, that Heather!
I helped get the girls ice cream cone outfits around and we pack them to take with us. Our plan was to have the girls change at Epcot before we took a boat to Beaches and Cream sometime in the afternoon.
I helped brush hair, slather sunscreen and get breakfast while Brian once again made us some lunch. Barbara made sure that Brian was packing plenty of water and granola bars. She got really thirsty in the parks, and had been drinking quite a bit of water. I then woke up Lydia, got her dressed and sun screened and fed and checked on Corey, who was about ready.
We had planned on leaving at 8:00, at 8:00, Heather came in and cheerfully said, "It's 8:00! Do you need help getting the kids ready?" Thankfully, the kids were all dressed, brushed, sun screened and fed, so they were pretty much set, except last minute potty breaks. We started loading our gear and crews into the vans. Mom kept telling me "We have to go!" Brian had forgotten to put his sunscreen on, so he was doing that, then Lydia realized that she didn't' have her sunglasses (a necessity in the Florida sun!) Mom kept frantically saying, "We have to go." So, I told her that I was not going to stress myself and my family out by yelling at them. To which she replied, "Well, we have to go." So, I told her, "Well, you can go ahead and leave without us then." We both knew I didn't mean it.
I went back into the house to grab Lydia's sunglasses, and walked out of the house and saw that everyone had in fact, left us!
Now, I suppose for most families, this wouldn't be a big problem, because they would have cell phones or at least have set up a time and place to meet later in the day. But, we had no cell phones, and had not set up a specific time to meet. I was really upset, for one thing, I wanted to spend the day with the family, and I had worked really hard on all the ice cream outfits, and now unless we found them somehow, we weren't even going to be going to Beaches and Cream together.
Brian saw how upset and close to tears I was, and started making jokes in a failed attempt to make me feel better. The kids knew I was upset, and got upset and started crying, I was crying, it was a mess. Corey was just really quiet in the backseat, and I could hear him saying things like, "Why would they leave us?"
Then, as we were driving down 192, we saw them both turning at a light up ahead!!! I was so happy to see them! But, we were still quite aways behind, and as we knew from the previous days experience in the Magic Kingdom parking lot, it is hard to find people in the parking lot unless you pull in right behind them. We lost site of them until we were approaching the troll booths at Epcot. They were waiting in line, as we pulled up to an empty booth, payed and took off.
Ahead of them.
heheheehehe
I asked Brian to go slow so that they could catch up to us. He saw them rounding the corner, so we went ahead and pulled up to the parking line. We got lucky, and were close to the end of the parking row. Mom and Dad pulled in shortly after, and Heather and Heather pulled in as we were getting the strollers out of the van. Unfortunately, Heather and Henry pulled up just as our row filled up! So, they pulled into a spot right behind us. The parking attendant rushed over to them as they were getting out of the van and told them that they could not park there, and would have to park at the end of the row. Henry refused to drive to the end, and the attendant let them park in the reserved spot at the beginning of our row.
So, we were all together again, and I was happy and excited!!!!
We walked up to the entrance, and the park had not opened yet. yeah!!!!
But then, someone had to use the bathroom, then someone else had to go, and another, and then my DAD had to go!
Let's just say, my Dad does NOT take quick bathroom breaks...... and apparently, neither does David...
So, we waited for them,
and waited....
and waited some more.....
I suggested that we might as well enter the turnstiles and then Dad could join us on the other side when he came out.
Unfortunately, David had his family's tickets with him in the bathroom, so Barbara had to wait by the bathroom. But, Brian and I made it through, and we decided to have our picture taken by the Photopass guy while we waited for everyone. Unfortunately, the Photopass guy was really slow, and by the time he was done, everyone was out o the bathroom and waiting for us.
Actually, I'm wondering if we ever made it to the photographer, because I can't find this picture on the photopass cd, but I would have sworn we did... hmmmm...
So, we missed rope drop, but we were inside shortly after they had opened, so it wasn't too bad.
We headed for Soarin first. I really LOVE this ride!!! It is so much fun. There was a small wait, but it wasn't too bad.
My Dad got a little Goofy while we were waiting!
We were all having a pretty good time. It appears that Heather and I were laughing at a joke only us girls "got" because Brian is giving me his, "you guys are insane" look.
While we were in line, we spotted a large group of people with lime green shirts, with the distinctive Home Depot paint chip Mickey head shape on them, in white. Heather and I discussed whether or not they may be Disers for awhile, and then we asked them. They were not, but one of them had a brother, or brother in law, who was one of those nutty Diser people. He had apparently warned them that if they wore lime green shirts with Home-Depot-Paint-Chip-Shaped-Mickey-Heads on them, that people would ask them if they were Disers. Apparently, they didn't believe him. I don't remember what they said the Disers name was, but it seems like it sounded familiar...shoot, I wish I had wrote it down!I keep thinking his username had an animal in it, like wolf or fox, but I could be totally wrong!! Hey, did someone out there have a group of relatives go to Epcot in May???
I dubbed them the "Reverse Disers"
I took a picture of them but I can't find that either!!
ETA: found it!
When we approached the front of the line, we realized that we had scored the coveted front row!!!! Woo Hoo!!! No feet!!!
Heather was going to leave her shoes on, but I talked her into taking them off and leaving them on the floor, because it's cool to come back down and have your feet go into your shoes! I am easily amused...
Everyone loved the ride. Of course, who wouldn't????
And we came back down, and Heather and I giggled because, our shoes were right there at our feet!
I guess she is easily amused as well!
Then we headed over to the Living Seas!
I really enjoy the whole underwater theming of the line. And I think the ride is really cute. So much better than the little blue cars that use to go on the track in the carpeting!!
We hoped into our clam shells and we were off on an undersea adventure!!!
It looked like everyone was enjoying it.
Heather took that picture, and as you can (or maybe you can't, so you will have to take my word for it) see, the entire line of clam shells is filled with our family! I thought that was pretty cool! (easily amused, remember?)
We exited the ride
and headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush.
This is a cute little show. Crush even talked right to us! Which was fun! As I recall, he had said something about raising your fin, and then he commented that the ladies in pink in the front row weren't doing it! ]
That was us!!!
Crush talked to us Dude!!! (That's for you Angela!)
Sawyer started fussing a bit during the show, so Heather or my Mom gave him a mint, and the show was over shortly after.
We walked around the aquarium for awhile and took some pictures with the shark
(That's my hubby, Brian)
and looked at manatees,
and sang "Barbara manatee, you're the one for me." a few times. In honor of UtahMama.
Corey and the girls looked into the aquarium trying to find hidden Mickeys they found one, which made them happy.
Lydia started complaining about her bun, and asked me to take it out. I put her off for awhile, trying to get my money's worth out of it! But, then I figured that I did it to make her happy, and if it was bothering her now, I should relent and take it out, so I did.
It took quite awhile!! There were about 25 bobby pins stuck in there!! I'm pretty sure her bun would have lasted several more days if I hadn't taken it out!!! I wish I had taken a picture of all bobbi pins, because it was pretty funny actually! I just kept pulling them out, and pulling them out, then I'd find some more!
Tessa decided that she wanted hers out too, and once Heather saw that I had taken out Lydia's she went ahead and took out Tessa's. I think Heather was afraid she would hurt my feelings if she took it out too soon. She's pretty sweet like that.
I like the Living Seas pavilion, but there is only so much time that I can spend in there, so I was glad when we decided it was time to leave.
Heather and Henry went off in search of some food, and we decided to meet back up at the Imagination pavilion.
We were really thirsty, so Corey suggested that we go to Club Cool and get a drink. We went inside and started sampling the drinks. Then, I got an idea into my head...hehehehehe....
"Hey Courtney, if you drink this pop, I will pay you a quarter!"
Oh, yes, I am an EEEEEVIL aunt!!!! I was paying her a quarter to drink
The Beverly!!!!
heheheheehe'
She took a nice big gulp!!! We got it on video even!(Heather has the video, I'll have to get it from her, so you can all see it!
She made a horrible horrible face and tried to wipe her tongue off!!! And said, "I don't like that!"
Best quarter I EVER spent!!!!
We then talked Casey into trying it. She took a big gulp. NO REACTION
AT ALL!
We asked if she liked it, she said, ''Yes"
So, we asked her if she wanted more, and she quickly said, "no"
Now, my Mom, she actually thinks the Beverly isn't bad. She would rather drink it than the watermelon flavored one. Go figure....
We had had our fill of pop, and were nicely cooled off, so we took off to meet up with Heather at the Imagination pavilion. We went inside to the activity area to look for her and play around awhile. When we were all back together again, we started heading for the ride, but first me, Dad, Henry and Brian went to see about getting Fast Passes for Honey I Shrunk the Audience. There was no line, and it was starting soon, so Henry went back inside to ask everyone if they wanted to do that right then. We waited quite awhile for him to come back, and then we saw the rest of the family getting ready to get into line on the Imagination ride, so we went in to see what was up. They hadn't seen Henry, but decided they wanted to do the Imagination ride first, so we went back to get Fast Passes for "Honey I Shrunk the Audience".
Henry still hadn't come back, so I waited near the activity place for him to let him know what was going on. After my Dad got his Fast Passes, I told him to wait for Henry so he would know where we were and went to join the rest of the family.
Apparently, Henry was inside looking for everyone, and they must have just passed each other as he came in and they went out. He then had problems with the Fast Pass machine, so it took awhile for him to join us.
Yeah, that's me waiting behind the glass.
Soon enough, we were all back together. We began entering the line, and another family attempted to jump in the middle of us. We told them that we were all together, and they got rather peeved that we were all going ahead of them (even though we were already entering when they came up to the entrance!) We encountered a lot of that sort of attitude on our trip. People don't like to see large groups! It's not like there was much of a line for this ride anyway!
Lydia had become obsessed with Figment on our last trip, so she was pretty excited to be going on his ride. I was slightly less thrilled. It's just ok, if you ask me. I can barely remember what it was now, and it hasn't been that long since I went on it! But, the kids liked it, so I'm glad we went on it.
We then went into Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
Yeah, we realized that Fastpasses for this attraction were rather pointless! We had no trouble getting in, and I seriously doubt that there is EVER much of a line!
Can I ask
, HOW LONG are they going to keep this movie???!!!???!!!
The humongous glasses,
the 80's style clothing...
I mean come on, I do believe that Disney has the money for a NEW 3-D movie!
I say
bring back CAPTAIN EO!!!
And, wasn't there another one? I remember kids running through a field of flowers...
as the red red robin comes bo bo bobbin along...
Wake up, wake up you sleepy head,
get up, get up get out of bed,
Live love laugh and be happy,
now when I've been blue I've been walking through fields of floooowers,
as the red red robing comes bo bo bobbin along....
along....
Whoa! Sorry about that 2nd grade concert flashback!
Brian had to go do something near the fountains, don't remember what it was,
Maybe someone had to use the potty???
but I told him that I was going to get the stroller, and to meet us when he was done. So, I got the stroller, and then waited with the rest of the group for Brian. He didn't come, and didn't come, so I went up by the fountains to see what was up. I found them:
At least they were having fun! He had thought that I had said I would meet him up there. So, we went down to the rest of the family.
And, we were off to do some globe trotting!