July 2010 Big Bdays Family Reunion (Update 9/28 Final Thoughts)

[Marshay]

My little girls love the Leapsters too....Naomi-Ruth uses my oldest DD's old one...they are a bit finicky in their old ages, but great time distracters...we have the tink game too. My Rachel got it for Christmas last yr.

we have made that gas mistake before too.... so glad you made your destination and the evening wind down and meal sounded great...only 1 more day of driving ahead of you now?

hope the wallet thing isn't too bad

Yeah, we only have like 2 more hours but we decided to call it a day. Next time we go in November we are only taking 2 days to do it. We just weren't sure how well they would do so broke it up into 3 days.

That looks like a very nice hotel.

 

[cherbear]

that hotel looks serene! In that pic there is NO one out there, wow!

 

[Marshay]

that hotel looks serene! In that pic there is NO one out there, wow!

that was taken in the morning around 9am ... there are two people over by the pool but that's it.

The night before there was definitely a party going on in the other gazebo! but they were just having fun!

 

[kaoden39]

The hotel look so nice in the setting.

 

[Marshay]

I actually decided to do another PTR for our November trip. It won't be a long or chatty TR. Just a place to share some thoughts on our trip and to get to know others going in November, too.

If you wish to join, please see the link in my siggie.

 

[kaoden39]

I actually decided to do another PTR for our November trip. It won't be a long or chatty TR. Just a place to share some thoughts on our trip and to get to know others going in November, too.

If you wish to join, please see the link in my siggie.

I just visited.

 

[Marshay]

I just visited.

Yeah!

 

[Marshay]

Today is Sunday, July 11th. We had a wonderful full FREE breakfast at our lovely hotel with french toast, waffles, fruit, cereals, muffins, eggs, canadian bacon and drinks. We went back to the room for final packing and left at 10:45am. This was much later than I wanted to leave but no worries.

We went straight to Wal-mart for groceries. Now we go to this Wal-Mart every trip and everytime we arrive it is PACKED!! I swear everyone is grabbing the same foods -- breakfast and snacks. The aisles are always clogged with people and it is chaotic. But somehow, it just seems part of our experience -- we now embrace the chaos! We spend about an hour in Walmart b/c (1) it was busy and (2) there was a super-duper huge torrential rain and we decided I could nurse Elie while waiting out the storm.

My mom calls and tells me that they are at BWV but the room isn't ready yet. And Dad doesn't have his wallet. So he goes back to the hotel they stayed at the previous night and opens up the safety deposit box and sure enough, there is his wallet! Another tragedy averted!

We arrived at BWV around 2:30pm, arranged to have luggage to our room (2nd floor which is the same floor as the lobby), checked out the suite, unpacked and took a nap from 5-7:30pm. We found out that my parents have the room right next door to us with the walk-through door -- yeah!! My Sis's family is down on the first floor.

Then we went to MK. Our goal was to see the parade and fireworks. However, with our late start, we didn't get into MK until 8:45pm. But luckily we found a spot right in front of City Hall. Rachel could sit on the curb and Jerry, elie and I were behind her. After the parade we got dinner at Cosmic Rays (so we missed the fireworks) and then Rachel wanted to go on the rides. Which one? Rachel wanted her first ride to be IASW! I thought that was a great choice. But on the way, she sees the Winnie the Pooh ride and then begs to go on it. It was a walk-on, so why not!

Then we went on Dumbo, Snow White, Carousel and Buzz Lightyear. It was getting late so we left.

Here is Rachel on the Carousel in her Minnie dress

Check-in day is just such a wonderful, glorious day -- you have your whole trip ahead of you and everyone is so excited!!

 

[mousescrapper]

Yeah you have arrived...

glad the wallet was found hope they didn't have far to go back and find it.

love the picture of Rachel so cute...you guys actually got a ton done on the first day...good thing for the nap and the extended summer hours

I'll be over to your Nov PTR real soon (so we can compare notes )

I'm on the laptop right now and your siggie is cut off so I don't see the link, have to wait till I'm back on my main home computer ..but I like the new ticker

J~

 

[Trentmom]

oh wow..so glad your dad was able to get his wallet back

Sounds like you realy got a lot accomplished in short period of time

Yay for Pooh Ride

Rachel looks so grown up

 

[Marshay]

Yeah you have arrived...

glad the wallet was found hope they didn't have far to go back and find it.

love the picture of Rachel so cute...you guys actually got a ton done on the first day...good thing for the nap and the extended summer hours

I'll be over to your Nov PTR real soon (so we can compare notes )

I'm on the laptop right now and your siggie is cut off so I don't see the link, have to wait till I'm back on my main home computer ..but I like the new ticker

J~

YEah, it would have been bad to be at WDW w/o a wallet! We did accomplish a lot and that gave me high hopes! We didn't see any tour groups that night ... I was thinking ...oooh, maybe they didn't show up this year ... NOT!!

oh wow..so glad your dad was able to get his wallet back

Sounds like you realy got a lot accomplished in short period of time

Yay for Pooh Ride

Rachel looks so grown up

Rachel is definitely growing up!!

I thought of you guys when she said she wanted to do Pooh!!

Actually, it is a very cute ride and I think my "anti-Pooh" resistance is running low...don't tell anyone but he's beginning to grow on me...

 

[Marshay]

Today is Monday, July 12th.

I forgot to show you what our SUV looked like -- we were packed to the top and then some!!

Here is our SUV

And here is the trailer we towed to help carry some of our stuff!

OK, so they are actually pics from the parade ... I just couldn't resist!

This morning was going to be a relaxing time and then our goal was to go to Animal Kingdom @ Night for EMH and to see the parade. These would both be new to us. I heard there are some really cute night-time things to see with all the lighting, specifically the lady bug lamps since the lights shine through the "spots" of the ladybugs.

So we had a leisurely bacon and eggs breakfast and then went to the pool. DH and I loved the Clown slide but Rachel was too scared to go on it. She said, maybe when she is 5 years old (which would be tomorrow!) Now Rachel cannot swim but with a life preserver and us at the bottom waiting for her, it should be fine. We'll see.

Here is the pool slide.

Well, we get about 30 minutes of swimming in and the rest of my family (parents, and sister's family) finally join us. However by this time, Elie is T-i-r-e-d and yep, she falls asleep in the pool!

DH takes her out of the water since we didn't want her to really sleep there -- she'd get too cold with the water...but it was a cute photo.

About 10 minutes later, there is thunder so the pool is closed down. It was fine with us since we'd been in the water about an hour but my family only got about 15 minutes.

I suggest eating lunch at the pool bar, since it looks so cute -- just like a merry-go-round, but they really didn't have that much and you could only eat at the bar since it thundered and they were clearing the pool deck.

So we go back to the room to change and then head to the Boardwalk Bakery for lunch of sandwiches. It was so nice to sit here in the shade and watch the boats and birds and people walk by.

Then off to Animal Kingdom. We all had volunteered earlier in the year so we had four Give A Day passes to use for Fastpasses. My sister's family decided to use the passes to purchase their tickets instead.

We were able to exchange one of the vouchers for Fastpasses and off we go. It was almost parade time so I went to nurse Elie in the childcare center and the rest of my family got spots to watch the parade and eat ice cream.

If you haven't seen this parade, I highly recommend going at least one time. It really is quite beautiful with all the Animal characters. Here are the ones I liked the best.

Rachel was quite popular with her "Birthday Button" and lots of characters came up to her. I this one ... she was having a great time but didn't want those lips anywhere near her!

A cool camel

This guy was pretty cool ... his eyes moved as he walked

Cont'd in post #277

 

[cherbear]

Great update!!! Rachel is looking too cute in her minnie dress!

Check-in day is just such a wonderful, glorious day -- you have your whole trip ahead of you and everyone is so excited!!

When I read this, I was instantly drawn into that awesome amazing feeling, and for a split second....I forgot I was sitting at my desk at work eating a plain ole non-Disney lunch.

 

[Marshay]

Great update!!! Rachel is looking too cute in her minnie dress!

When I read this, I was instantly drawn into that awesome amazing feeling, and for a split second....I forgot I was sitting at my desk at work eating a plain ole non-Disney lunch.

I hear ya!! I just added our pics from AK and I was already feeling the excitement of the parade and being there for our first full day...

Now Elie just woke up and started crying so I'm back to reality, too.

Enjoy your lunch! I'll update more tonight!

 

[Trentmom]

That pool would scare me too

Seriously,I go down it creepy and all, the slide

How cute that Elie fell asleep in the pool

That is a hilarious pic of Rachel dodging Kiss from Louie

You need to submit that to allears...

 

[cherbear]

love the start of AK pics! I hope you got a pic of the ladybug lights, I had never heard of those so I'd really like to get a glimpse.

 

[Marshay]

I thought this pic was really cool!

Cher -- you can see the ladybug lamps in this pic. I didn't get a pic of them at night, though.

Another pic of Rachel dodging the parade animals -- they were just out to get her!! You can see Elie and myself in matching purple at the bottom of the pic. At this point, Elizabeth wanted nothing to do with these humongous things coming after her big sis!

A vulture

Now Timon's chance to get Rachel

Timon tried to say hello to Elie but she crawled all over me to get away

This guy was neat too, with his bouncing head

Con'td in post 278

 

[Marshay]

You can tell Rachel was just having a blast ... clapping away

Then we decided to head over to Africa to ride the Safari and Kali River Rapids. However, by this time the parade was back again in Africa. So my sister's family and I watched the parade again. My parents wandered off somewhere as they weren't interested in the parade.

Immediately, after the parade was over, they began the Taste of Africa Street Party. It was really neat with the drummers and dancers. Here is a pic of Elizabeth and I dancing in the street.

Rachel and her cousin Mark dancing in the street with a Disney Dancer all in costume. This was only the 2nd day of the street party so Disney was out with their "official TV cameras" recording it. I'm still waiting to see if any of our family made the final cut!

My nephew Mark (in Red) acting up. He gets lots of attention when he's out. You can also see the Camera guy again and more of the African dancers.

It was sooooo hot at this point. 5pm on a 90+ degree day and here we are all dancing in the street. It was so fun but we HAD to stop and get something to drink and cool off.

So our first ride was the Safari where we saw lots of animals. This is always a fun ride.

Note the baby elephant underneath its mom's legs!

The white rhino was right next to the road -- good thing he didn't want to charge us! We could almost have touched him, he was so close!

The baby rhino was trying to hide in the trees, but we found her

After Safari we decided to do Kali rapids. Rachel decided not to go on and neither did Elie, of course. So we split up our group into two and 1/2 of us ate at yak & yeti CS and the other 1/2 went on the ride and then we switched.

Oh, so this meant we skipped our Tusker House ressie. It was just easier.

Then we rode Expedition Everest 2x while my parents took Elizabeth and Rachel on Triceratop Spin. Here is Elie with my dad. She liked this ride!

After Trispin, we went on Dinosaur. Rachel went on and was scared but she said she liked it. The best part for her was at the very end where the TVs show the dinosaur going from room to room and the scientists trying to get away.

Then we played on the dinosaur children's area until the rest of my family got off the ride. We even found a hidden Mickey!

My parents left at this point and the rest of us decided to ride Expedition Everest one more time at night. It was awesome!

Before leaving the park we got photopass pics in front of the tree. I'll post them later.

The GAD FP was a god-send. Since we only arrived around 3:30pm, there was no way we could have ridden so many rides. The GAD FP allowed us to get a FP to ride immediately ... even if there were no more FPs available! We were definitely the envy of many people!

 

[kaoden39]

How wonderfully fun that street party looks to me. I wish they did something like that at Disneyland.

 

[Native NYer]

Great parade photos!
The girls are adorable.