I beat cancer,now we're going to Disney World!!! 4/23-5/1/10

[mickeystoontown]

Oh, you got to see all sorts of characters! We've never seen Bolt and I didn't even know he was still making appearances.

 

[KatMark]

Okay, somehow I missed not one, not two, BUT THREE updates. Just shoot me now, it's okay.

Love the updates. We love Sci Fi -- I just love the atmosphere. And those onion rings make it all the better.

Glad that Donovan loved Star Tours. I can't wait to see what they do with it during the rehab. Amazing what a short talk can do to change an attitude.

 

[Mombits]

Attitudes freshly adjusted, we decided to see what Mr and Mrs Incredible were up to.

Then Hannah found a pic of her new favorite, Stitch!

I was pretty mesmerized by the rows and rows of these:

We wandered around and found ourselves in Radiator Springs! The cutest little town in Carberator County.

I was really excited to see our friends Tow-Mater and Lightening McQueen, but really upset that Donovan wasn't there to meet them too.

Right after we left, we ran into a new friend- Jessie!!! She was all by her lonesome and Hannah ran over to meet her. Jessie LOVED Hannah's hair

Then we started heading over toward Jedi training, to see what the guys were upto. Along the way, we found another Green Army guy.

When we got there, Donovan was STILL waiting patiently for his turn to do Jedi training. It had been at least an hour. Shortly after we got there, he was given his padawan robe and his light saber and training commenced!

Donovan is the one right in the middle of the pic, with Jean shorts on

Look at the look of concentration on his face!

Then D took on the bad guy!!!

Enemy is defeated and runs away like a little girl and D is victorius!!!!

 

[Mombits]

Oh, you got to see all sorts of characters! We've never seen Bolt and I didn't even know he was still making appearances.

We were really happy to see him! He only had about 10 kids in line, so we jumped right in. I really did feel like we got to see lots of characters. I had tried really hard to convince the kids to stand in line for Woody and Buzz, but Hannah wouldn't do it.

 

[Mombits]

Okay, somehow I missed not one, not two, BUT THREE updates. Just shoot me now, it's okay.

Love the updates. We love Sci Fi -- I just love the atmosphere. And those onion rings make it all the better.

Glad that Donovan loved Star Tours. I can't wait to see what they do with it during the rehab. Amazing what a short talk can do to change an attitude.

Hi Kathy! I wasn't sure how much the kids would like Sci Fi, but we all really did. It makes me really miss the old drive-in theaters. There aren't even ANY in neck of the woods. I googled it and the closest one is 4 hours away. Hannah is like me- quick temper, short fuse, but doesn't usually burn for too long. She got over her crabbiness pretty quick and was fine for the rest of the day.

 

[Mombits]

Donovan just LOVED Jedi training and he wasn't even upset that he missed out on meeting Mater and Lightening. Shocking!!! I thought it the Jedi Training was really cool and the kids were taking it all soooo seriously. I loved that he got the chance to do it. It made my day. After we left, it was time to use our second set of FP's for TSMM!!! Woo HOOO. This is seriously making me think about getting the video game for the wii because we loved this ride.

Well, now, you may remember that earlier in the day, we had gotten in line for the backlot tour, but couldn't stay because we had an ADR for lunch at Sci Fi. So now we thought, it was time.

Well, guess who got chosen to be in the show???? My DH, Brian!! Luckily he is a good sport, because they dumped 1000 gallons of water on him.

Waving to his fans:

Preparing to get drowned:

Then after he got dumped on, the tour commenced. We got to see the chicken house from the Hannah Montana Movie. Cool!

Herbie!!!

This is that sphere made of bones from the Piarates of the Carribean.

Uh oh, an accident!

Thought these were cool!!

And a different, more beat up, version of Herbie:

 

[Mombits]

At the end of Backlot tours, there was a room with a lot of neat costumes in it. We wandered around in there for quite awhile. Here are a few of the costumes we saw, don't ask me where they are from because I haven't a clue and didn't think to write any of it down:

Here is the scary Scith dude that D had fought earlier in the day:

Look, it's Boo's door!!!! To this day, my dh still calls Hannah "Boo"

Don't know if this will work or not, it takes a couple extra seconds to load:
http://static.photobucket.com/playe.../albums/kk184/mombits/Disney2010/MVI_7771.flv
After the backlot tour, we headed back to our resort for dinner. We'd had a really great day at DHS and our whole family really liked that park. In fact, we decided that we wanted to hit it again later in the week!! We ate dinner at the food court at AsMu and after a long night, we headed to bed.

 

[Mombits]

Thursday- our "sleep in" day. LOL- instead of 6:30, Stitch called at 7:30. The plan was to be at Epcot by 10am. Brian will take the "Behind the Seeds Tour" and I'll take the kids on Test Track. I was a bit concerned because today the crowd level was predicted to be at a 9. All week, we'd had mild crowds and no waits much over 20 minutes. What would it be like today? So after the phone rang, I got up. At 8am, I was still the only one up. No one has any interest in getting up! Since they were all being lazy, I decided to go do some laundry in the laundry room by the piano pool. Took a few pictures while I was down there.

Here's Hannah with the big boots:

Finally, my clothes are in the dryer and the family comes down and we head to breakfast at the food court. Hannah isn't feeling well, so when we get back she lays down for a few minutes while I fold the clothes. Man, it is EXPENSIVE to wash clothes there and I should have just saved myself the time and the money because even after all that time, they still really weren't dry so even though we layed them around the room to dry, we ended up re-washing it all when we got home.

Hannah plays the violin, so here she is playing the giant one at ASMu:

Finally, we made it on the bus. Here is D with Mickey ears:

Let me tell you, we were quite shocked when we got to Epcot! There were thousands and thousands of people!!! It was the day before Grad night and there were school groups every where we looked. It was bizarre. It was 11:15. We headed straight to test track and luckily there were still some FP's left- for 3:45pm. After we grabbed those we headed over to the Behind the Seeds tour. After we paid, we got some pins for donating to their fund and saw this cute Mickey Pumpkin:

The tour was almost ready to start, so I gave Brian my camera, which is why I don't have any pics of what the kids and I did next but I was hoping for some great photos from the tour. Well THAT didn't happen. Brian was really disappointed in the tour. He said (please pardon the pun) that the botanist who was leading the tour was "green" and didn't know the answers to anything that wasn't on her script. So he didn't take any pictures But here is one from the F & G Festival:

Earlier in the week, we'd been to Epcot and done the whole of Future World, so the plan was to see the World Showcase. Hannah, Donovan and I headed that direction and we came in at the Mexican Pavillion. It was getting pretty hot but the whole front area was packed with kids on school tours. We decided to head inside to check it out. I was already getting pooped. I knew that I wasn't really back to normal after the chemo/radiation, but I had been doing pretty darn good up til this day. My get up and go had got up and went. So the kids looked at the music instruments while I had a nice long sit down. I was getting worried that I wouldn't make it the whole day because we hadn't been at Epcot that long and here I was already tired. Finally I mustered up my strength and we went and did a bit of shopping. Hannah bought her friends some candy from mexico (which later they told her tasted like crud -only that isn't the word they used.) and some nice little leather purses and wallets. We hopped on the "Three Caballeros" ride. It was nice and cool inside and the ride was just the ticket. Both kids loved it and instantly asked if we could go again. So we did. Sorry, no pics

After we left Mexico, we headed toward Norway. We saw the sign for Maelstrom, but Hannah read that it was dark and that she could get wet, so she refused to go on. Why did we teach that kid to read anyway??? Well, we couldn't leave her by herself and D and I wanted to go on it so we decided to find a shady spot and have another sit down. Do you sense a theme here? So the kids called Brian and the tour was over and he was heading toward us. It was just a short time and he arrived and we decided that we wanted to do some "eating around the world" and I had heard good things about school bread, so Donovan and I set off to find some while Brian had a little sit down in the shade.

Here is what we got:

Let me tell you, that school bread is TO DIE FOR!!!! OMG I am still craving that stuff!!! I wonder if they ship it??
D enjoyed feeding the wildlife, even though Brian and I were telling him not to. He couldn't help himself:

After our snack, D and I headed into Maelstrom. We didn't get wet and it wasn't any darker than the "Three Caballeros" that Hannah had loved. When we told her, she was mad that she missed it. Once again, she was prejudging things and missing out. Another theme for the trip!
Next up: a jaunt to the Orient!!!

 

[buzz for boys]

Yay Im all caught up again !!

I love the fact that Hannah now loves Stitch - he is our family favourite after he entertained us at ohanas last trip !! I think my boys like him because he is naughty

Hope all thi sdashing around doesnt leave you too tired and that you get to finish Epcot

I know it was a good few updates ago but the pictures of you guys at chef mickeys were just fab - considering making an adr for us guys after seeing your pics

 

[KatMark]

More updates, hooray. Good for Brian for being a good sport at the Backlot tour. In all the years we went as a family, we never got picked. Our oldest son went last year (he's 24 now) with the 13-year old baseball team he coaches and they picked Andy. The kids on the baseball team thought it was great (they even videotaped it).

I love Donovan on the bus with the Mickey Ears...too cute.

 

[Mombits]

Yay Im all caught up again !!

I love the fact that Hannah now loves Stitch - he is our family favourite after he entertained us at ohanas last trip !! I think my boys like him because he is naughty

Hope all thi sdashing around doesnt leave you too tired and that you get to finish Epcot

I know it was a good few updates ago but the pictures of you guys at chef mickeys were just fab - considering making an adr for us guys after seeing your pics

Thanks, we like CM's a lot. My kids both said it was their favorite meal, though Hannah loved O'hana's a lot too- for obvious reasons

 

[Mombits]

More updates, hooray. Good for Brian for being a good sport at the Backlot tour. In all the years we went as a family, we never got picked. Our oldest son went last year (he's 24 now) with the 13-year old baseball team he coaches and they picked Andy. The kids on the baseball team thought it was great (they even videotaped it).

I love Donovan on the bus with the Mickey Ears...too cute.

Brian is always a good sport, that's just the way God made him

Those Mickey ears on the bus were cracking us up!

 

[Mombits]

After we'd had our snack, we wandered toward China. Donovan was really hoping to score some cool Pokemon' stuff, so he was excited. Here's what we saw:

Aren't those jade sculptures something? I thought they were exceptionally beautiful.

I was trying to get a picture of Budda, but I got one of Donovan instead!

Oh- HERE's Budda:

Artsyfartsy pictures:

I was really enjoying looking at the buildings and the kids were having a great time shopping around in the store. Brian was even finding things to look at. You can tell that I appreciated the beauty of the architecture because I just kept snapping shot after shot!

I love this next picture of Donovan- I just think he's a cutie pie in this pic!

Hannah bought herself a parasol and had her name written on it in chinese!

 

[Mombits]

Growing up, I lived in Germany for a few years and when we lived there, Christmas was always really special. So I was looking forward to going to the christmas ornament store in Germany to pick up an ornament for my mom. I was sort of disappointed by the selection that they had and really disappointed by the prices! My word!!! I did end up getting her a small ornament but there were so many breakable things that Brian and I insisted that the kids stand right next to Brian while I looked. Here is what Donovan thought of that idea:

LOL!!!! He was not liking the situation at all. So he and I went out and sat outside while Brian and Hannah looked. I took in the scenery and he sulked.

And sulked some more:

Pictures of something other than my sulky boy:

Next we wandered toward Italy:

Brian and my favorite Disney cartoon is Lady and the Tramp! We BOTH just love that movie. So we thought this was pretty special:

It was getting pretty hot and we didn't stop, so we headed toward Japan. My friend Tawnya told us about the Kaki Ghori so we decided to try one. Glad I insisted on only gettig two to share when I saw the size of them. Donovan boasted "I've eaten bigger" but I knew two would be enough!

 

[Mombits]

One thing that I had really been looking forward to was doing the "Pick-a-Pearl" in Japan. I had pre-ordered some pearl cages on ebay and planned for Hannah to pick one for herself and D to pick one for my sister and I would pick one for myself. Brian took the pictures during our pearl ceremony. First we paid and got our tickets and then the lady had us each, one by one pick out an oyster. Donovan picked out a rock at first, but once he figured out what was a oyster and what was a rock, we were good to go. I had heard that you should pick the ugliest oyster you could find, so that is what I told the kids, but truth be told, they were all ugly! Hannah went first.

Hannah got a nice big white pearl. Donovan got a nice pinkish pearl. Then it was my turn. She opened it and then slammed it shut! Guess what color I got!!!! It was a beautiful silver pearl!!! She said only 5% of the pearls are that color!!! Lucky, lucky me.

Here is my pearl/pearl cage:

My sister's:

Hannah's - her's is dolphins in case you can't tell- another one of her favorite things!

After my wonderful luck of getting the silver pearl, I didn't think that it could get any better, but when we walked outside, Myuki was out there doing her candy sculptures!!! We had seen her on the travel channel and all of us wanted a chance to see her work but never thought we'd just happen to get so lucky. Also, we got there right when she started so we didn't miss any of it! My kids were mesmerized and wouldn't leave for anything. They each got to suggest an animal for her to make and then later take pictures with those sculptures. Unfortunately, the rumors are true and she is no longer able to give them away. She is such an artist!

So that was our brush with celebrity. Then we mosied on.

 

[Mombits]

We headed toward Morocco.

Hannah was really enjoying the shopping of it all and wanted to buy everything!!! As we were walking, who should we see but Belle and Beast!!! I wanted to jump right in line but Hannah was tired of the heat and since we'd seen Belle at CRT, she wasn't up for it but Donovan was. So he and I stood in line and Hannah went to the playground right across the walkway with Brian. But before long, she decided that she might as well get Beast's signature on her books, so she came back and got in line.

Another Beast!

It was cool to see those chair stacking guys!! Man, that makes me nervous!!!

I could NOT WAIT to get in line for one of these babies!!!!!
I soooo could have drunk two of them but not at $7 or $8 a pop!!! They were absolutely delicious and lovely in every way! There is nothing bad about a Gran Marnier slush- except the price!!!

Well, just as we got to France, Hannah hooped and said "LOOK!!!" and sure enough, it was Marie!!! I knew that lots of people look for her and don't get a chance to see her, so we ran right over and there was only one family in front of us! Can I say that the people who wear those costumes in the heat should be making a mint because they deserve it!!!!

Hannah and Donovan wanted to see what was inside of the French Pavillion but I wanted to drink my Gran Marnier slush, so Brian took them inside. I saw Aurora with a really short line, but since we'd already met her, I wasn't worried about trying to get the kids over there. I sat and people-watched for awhile. I had to laugh about this older gentleman. He was also drinking a Gran Marnier slush and then another one!!! And he was acting so silly that I was just getting such a kick out of him. Finally the kids and Bri came back and we headed over the bridge. There was a photopass photog there and I was thinking it'd be great to get our pics taken there but who should we see but...

And she was practically perfect in every way!!!! I do love Mary Poppins!!!!

We saw a few more beautiful topiaries:

We headed toward England. I thought the tea garden was pretty special!

I'd love to have a cottage like this!!!

 

[Mombits]

Oh No!!! The Croc from Peter Pan is eating Brian's finger!!

And guess who was hanging around outside the tea garden?????

And she was excited to see the kids!!!

She was a great character and both she and Mary Poppins had wonderful accents. It was fun to meet them. After we saw her, we were hungry so we decided to get a little snack. We ordered some fish and chips and sat in the back of the restaurant to eat.

Once we'd had our snack, we continued on with our trip around the world!
Of course I had to pick up some beatles memorbilia for my BIL, who is a huge Beatles fanatic! Love, love, love those british accents!!!

Then it was on to Canada. We just started looking around, when D announced that he needed to use the restroom. I was thinking that I'd like to too and Brian and Hannah both agreed. So I purchased some "Moose Spit" (chapstick) and some "Beaver Butt" (also chapstick) and we scooted over to the restroom. Aside from the cute names- there is nothing good about "Moose Spit", in fact, I ended up throwing it away.

I was a little bummed that we didn't get to really shop in Canada. When I had come to Epcot in 1998, Canada was my favorite shop, but this time we barely scratched the surface. In fact, I sort of felt that way about the whole day. I wish we could have really spent more time in each store, but we had other fish to fry!!! I thought we'd be leaving Epcot by around 4pm or so but here it was after 6! We had places to be!!!So we snapped a few more pics from the Flower and Garden Festival on our way out and bid Epcot a very fond farewell and hoped that someday we'd get to come back and see it all again!

And then we jumped on the ferry boat and headed to MK!!!

 

[KatMark]

Great updates.

I agree with you on Germany. There are limited ornaments and they are quite pricey. I bought a "thank you" gift for the people who let us use their condo on Marco Island after we visit Disney, and I bought them a lace thing to place on the mantel at Christmas and I gulped when I looked athe price tag.

Love the pics with the characters. Hannah's umbrella looks really nice.

I have to try one of those Gran Marnier slush -- I've never had one.

I have never seen Mary Poppins or Alice in Wonderland in Epcot...kudos to you.

 

[Guatemommy]

Very nice TR! I am a cancer survivor too so it's extra nice to see others enjoying life after beating that bad guy!

Your family is beautiful and I am eagerly awaiting to hear about the rest of your trip!

Kudos to you for all the walking. I broke my leg twice - once before cancer and once afterwards, so ECV is for me these days on such long walks!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Yeah!!! I got all caught up Chris!! I missed sooo much! I love the pic of the kids with Bolt! We didn't see the movie until after our trip but the kids would have LOVED to see him! You and DD saw lots of characters cruising around DHS! Your DS looked GREAT at Jedi training too and Brian did a great acting job during the Backstage Tour!! LOVING your WS pictures the best! We only saw it at night and really only DH and saw all of WS, the kiddos missed it! You guys saw EVERYTHING it seems! I really really love your Cinderella Coach pearl setting, it's beautiful!!!!!! Looking forward to hearing about MK!!!!