Day 7 continued...our evening at EPCOT
Stuffed to the gills we started out around the World Showcase. The first country I "had" to stop at was France. I had a hankering for some lipstick that is hard to come by in the United States. It's the Guerlain store that had me drooling in anticipation. I am ashamed to say how much money I spent in a make up store (and I am NOT a girly girl/make up all of the time gal, I shudder to think what it would have been in that case). I knew going in that dh and the boys would be better suited to other pursuits so I left them to visit with Sleeping Beauty and headed in. While I was spending way too much money on lipsticks and such the boys did a bit of posing with a princess.
After my spending spree we headed over to Japan. We were on a mission, we wanted to see Miyuki, buy rice candy and enjoy the drum show. And it didn't have to be in that order. When we first got there the drum show was just starting up so dh (who was the requester of that entertainment) found a shaded area to plop down in and watched the show. While he did that I took the boys one by one into the big department store shop in Japan. It's a family tradition. They like the stuff in there. And I like the few moments alone with each one. The two younger boys each picked some stuffed Pokémon someone or other. "Aladdin" chose a carved tiger figure. My sweet tooth was satisfied with some DELICIOUS rice candy. Bon Ame rice candy OH YUM! It's even got little edible rice paper wrappers. I love that stuff! I bought $18 worth
and now less then a month later, it's gone. In my defense, dh and the boys like it too...although I did do the most damage.
After the shopping/drummers we still had a bit to wait before Miyuki came out. We were starting to walk toward a bench to wait out the time when a Japanese story teller approached us. She asked "Aladdin" to help her tell a story. A small crowd gathered around and she began. Now this is where I need help. I will try and retell the story and somebody please...ANYBODY PLEASE...tell me what this story is about!
There was a boy who lived by the ocean. A good kind boy. And he found a turtle lying on it's back one day that couldn't get up. Instead of killing it or just leaving it to die, he was kind enough to flip the turtle over.
Well, the turtle turned out to be a magic turtle and it was so happy and grateful for the kindness of the boy that he took him to a magical village under the sea.
Once the boy got there he met a beautiful princess and they had so much fun having a party with the sea creatures that the boy was very happy.
After a while, the boy missed his home and his family so the turtle gave him a magic box but told him not to open it.
Then the turtle took him back up to the surface.
When the boy got home everything looked different and nobody was there. The boy was very lonely and very sad. While he had been under the sea many years had passed and everyone and everything he had known was gone. So he opened the magic box that the turtle had left him cause he was so upset. Upon opening the box, he turned into a very old man himself. He quickly shut the box. The boy was even more sad.
All of a sudden the turtle returns and opens the box again and fans the boy (?) and the boy becomes young once again and thanks the turtle. Then the turtle swims off.
???????????????????????????????????? Is it just me?! Did I miss something somehow? **If I did, so did dh and "Aladdin" and the other boys, we all think this is how the story teller told the story.**?????????????????????????????
What is the point of the story? Does this story even make any sense?! HELP!
Even though we still don't know what the moral of the story was (or if it even had one) "Aladdin" had a lot of fun helping her tell the story. Both he and the little girl who had been called up to be the princess got "World Showcase Actor" buttons to wear. "Aladdin" thought that was very cool. And he seemed to drink in the applause at the end of the story. I guess he is not shy in any way shape or form.
After our little actor did his thing we lined up over by Miyuki's stand. We were the first ones out there. While we waited, the boys decided they would ask for a monkey, dragon, eagle or panda bear if they were picked. Then they debated the animal and even the color and finally came around to an orange monkey. With a choice in hand (should they be lucky enough to be asked to make one) they were ready for the candy making presentation.
Miyuki told the crowd that one treat per family would be the limit and that families should pick together. Then she started in on her wonderful creations! She picked two other families first and made such beautiful creatures for them. The way she snips and pulls globs of candy into beautiful creations in a matter of seconds is flat out amazing. It starts as melted white rice candy (that sort of looks like a shiny taffy) and with a few dots of food coloring and her fingers and a pair of scissors it ends up like this:
The third family picked was ours. The boys were so happy. And they stuck by their earlier decision and picked an orange monkey.
*I have a video clip of her making the monkey if I can ever get it to upload, I will insert it.*
The next family she picked was, huh, how do I say this nicely? Having a bad day? They had two little girls and the instant Miyuki picked one of them, the other sister (the older one, about 10-12 years old) starts pouting and stamping her foot and on and on. Miyuki even tells the pouting girl, "you are so lucky, not all families will get one...but your family will have a special treat". Miyuki repeated this a few times and then ignored the girl. While she is making the pop the girls are HITTING each other and pushing each other out of the way to be the one standing closer to rope to get at it first. The parents are doing nothing. Other people are getting pushed into (not us, we were not standing next to them, they were on the other side so we had a great view). Miyuki finishes the lollipop animal and sets it up in front of a fan to dry (like she always does). The girls are now trying to get at it by pushing over other people to get to that side of her cart. Either Miyuki didn't see it or she is a saint. Finally another dad told the girls to stop pushing (they were pushing into his son). So they stood there all sullen and pouty and teary eyed. When the pop was dry Miyuki handed it to the mom. Instantly the girls were on her and before either of them even got to hold it, it got dropped in the grabbing frenzy and shattered. Miyuki was making one of her last creations at this time and the mom shouts out that they need another one. Bless Miyuki's soul, she just smiled and said "One per family please".
Fast forward to her cleaning up her area and getting ready to leave. "Aladdin" went over to tell her domo arigato (I must have killed the spelling, but thank you in Japanese). "Stitch" and "Goofy" joined in thanking her, but used their native tongue.
Well, Miyuki had some left over scraps of candy she had snipped off while making her creations and gave it to the boys after they thanked her. That other family stood fuming over seeing the boys get those little scraps (think the size of a quarter each at most) to suck on right away. Both of their girls were still fighting with each other but the parents were glaring. This was one of those times I lost my cool and I just laughed out loud right in front of them. It was SO funny to see them standing there fuming that someone who said thank you got a tiny little scrap (that she would have thrown away otherwise I bet) while their screaming, hitting, pushing, fighting girls had tossed away their creation as soon as it broke. They could have eaten it still (it was plastic wrapped so it hadn't touched the ground) but they tossed it in a fit of anger. As we walked away I heard the parents telling the girls that they would go and buy better candy then that lady could make anyways so come on.
Now, I don't know about you, but my kids would have gotten something...T-R-O-U-B-L-E for behaving like that...not candy!! And those girls were big girls. I highly doubt the younger of the two was less then eight and the bigger girl was surely a few years older then that.
My mean laughing moment aside (but I had to include it because I was so shocked at the behavior of those girls) I swear I am a nice person. But oh my goodness!
After standing in the heat to watch Miyuki I was H-O-T. So on our way back toward the front of the park we hit the kaki gori stand and each of us got a shaved ice. That really hit the spot as we walked slowly back toward the front of the park. We didn't venture in and explore any of the countries we passed. However, we did make a quick pit stop (thinking we would use our fast pass from the Garden Grill) in Norway. However, the fast pass was not needed. We were able to walk right on.
Then passing the Mexico area we remembered that the ride was updated, so being fans of the Three Caballeros we had to make another quick pit stop. I was very glad we did. On our way out of the pavilion a little Mickey figure in the Arrabaas Brothers store window caught my eye and I was able to run in and grab him. One of their artisans was blowing part of a glass dragon and the boys were fascinated to watch him work for a few minutes. The man was very kind and even stopped working for a minute or two to answer any questions the boys might have had. It was an unexpected bit of interesting fun.
But by then I was beat. Tired. Ready to go before I fell over and slept on the concrete sort of tired. But we still had that fast pass and Test Track was on the way out so dh took the "Stitch" and "Aladdin" and Goofy and I found a bench and parked it. Turns out they walked right on to Test Track too so the fast pass went into my pocket. And we slowly made our way out of the park with the sun setting in the background. It was truly a BEAUTIFUL scene. Forgive my photography skills...but it looked something like this:
By the time we made it to the front of the park it was almost totally dark out. For no good reason at all, I love this picture of my boys (big and small) as they walked out that night.
Not only was it dark by the time we got to the front gates, it had started to rain. WARNING-
Crocs are dangerous when wet!!! "Stitch" was wearing brand new Crocs (well at this point he had owned them all of 10 days) and walking through the turn style to leave he slipped on the wet pavement and went down hard. He bumped his head (thank goodness he is hard headed!) and scraped up his elbow. He was crying so hard. I felt so badly for him. But I couldn't pick him up. Dh gave the stuff he was carrying to "Aladdin" and instantly scooped him up while I fawned all over him. Before I had even had a chance to see what was wrong a very sweet CM came over and asked if he could get us anything. I told him it was okay (by then I had seen it was just scrapes and a small lump on his head) but thank you. The CM insisted we didn't leave just yet, made us promise to wait and walked away. Within three minutes he was back with a small stuffed Mickey doll and ice pack for "Stitch" and a handful of stickers for all of the boys.
THANK YOU KIND CM! That little bit of caring helped us to soothe a tired and lumpy headed little boy! And it really was NOT Disney's fault. Or anyones for that matter. Just be forewarned...it's not only Crocs with worn out soles that are slippery when wet. Even almost brand new ones are very slick on wet surfaces.
As we walked VERY carefully to the bus stop, I was praying a bus would be there. I was so tired and I knew at that point that I had overdone it and needed to get back (yes, I am too stubborn for my own good). I almost told dh we should just cab it as we were walking up to the bus stop but as I opened my mouth to say it, a bus glided up and within a half an hour we were back at AKL (where I limped slowly to our room). While I turtled my way to the room, dh and the boys ran up and brought us back down some desserts and drinks from the lounge.
That night we didn't do any swimming or resort exploring. Instead we ordered room service once again. Hey, when you eat at 4:00 PM you are hungry when 10:00 rolls around!
Once again we had a great meal and then drifted off to sleep.
Although I was so tired that I could barely lift my feet into the bed, it was one of the best days of our entire vacation. Our day had a very magical start with lunch and continued to be just as fun and packed with special moments throughout. This day stands out as one of my favorite Disney days ever!
Up next to Animal Kingdom we would go!!
TO BE CONTINUED!!
And what better to place to meet than Disney???
I love this character. He is silly, creative, sweet and just a bit on the naughty side. We walked right on (I have NEVER seen even the smallest line at this ride). We sang, we laughed, we held our breath (skunk smell and morning sickness are not good friends). We had so much fun that we did it twice. After the second time the boys played around in the What If labs for a bit and then we were off to try and visit with Figment himself. And lucky for us, he was in! 
I am surprised that they didn't turn into hot dogs after all of them they consumed on our vacation!
What a great thought! I think I may use that idea on a scrapbook page if you don't mind! I just LOVE that image in my mind!! 
Not a very happy thing to have to do. However, the little baby-to-be comes first and we will have an even better trip the next time being as we can bring him along for his first trip! It helps knowing our next trip is only 11 months away. 
Anyway, you must be sure to report back on what it was like to be at WDW then. If it's possible, DO STAY concierge at AKL. Our experience was so outstanding that I cannot say enough about both the IPO and the onsite concierge staff. It was such a treat! 
