A Few More Random Disney Pics

The lake at Epcot..... while we were watching, they were pushing out the big, black fireworks barges onto the center of the lake. We found out that night why they were black.... the whole thing becomes engulfed in flame during the show.

Here we are with Belle at the Princess breakfast. I was surprised that it was not the absolute highlight of the little girl's Disney experience. She was more pumped about " the very fast cars".

Waiting for the early morning tramride to the Magic Kingdom. Sweet, eh?

Wednesday

Just thought I would give y'all a few looks at the beautiful pool at the place we stayed in Orlando. There were two pools actually, an indoor one, and this one. They had live music on the pool deck and a bar, as well as a mini water park and a big slide. Needless to say, my folks enjoyed it. Many THANKS again to Grandpa and Nana Grace for the gift of our week in the sunshine!

Last year's swimsuit......

Needless to say, we had to stop at RonJon's Surf Shop and get a new suit ........for some reason her daddy didn't like this one anymore.

Home at Last!

Hey folks! We are home, but I am tired, so I will try and do some more pictures for you either later tonight or maybe even a few a day for the next month! I think I downloaded over 600 picsoff two cards. It may take a while to sort through them.

We are doing laundry and recovering, because we have to go back to school and work in the morning!!!!!!!!!

Disney Hollywood Studios

Here we are, the tired old people......the hat is definately me, don't you think?

The whole crew really enjoyed the stunt show.......it was pretty alarming when the guy caught on fire. The baby REALLY wanted his "Uncle Firefighter " to be there so he could put out the

"fi-yuh".

The fountain in front of the Muppett theater. Miss Piggy was in the middle dressed like the Statue of Liberty.

In the Animation Studio, there were glass cases full of real Academy Awards. I took this picture so that I can make copies to give out to my own little drama queen and king.

The kids really loved the movie Bolt ( out on video this month- YaY!), so the character meet and greet was a real must-do. The line was long, but worth it!

How often do you get to hug a hamster bigger than you are? We can't wait to tell Violet about this!!!!!

More Epcot................

I am not sure what we were waiting for here, but it must have been something good because no one is grumpy.

The stone warriors in the China exhibit were a big hit. There was some movie we watched at some point where the stone warriors came alive. We all remembered seeing it, but no one could think of the name. Anybody out there know?

Note to self......stay on diet and don't wear sleeveless shirt when there is a camera around.

You have to be a handsome dude to be able to pull off princess mouse ears.

Try-outs for the "Goofy" job. Think he'll get it?

These two are having a great time together. She likes being "bigger" for a change.

Today we are going to Hollywood studios.....both my kids are feeling exhausted and pooky, so I have given them both some tylenol and cough syrup and they are eating ice cream for breakfast. Oh well.......it is vacation, after all.

Epcot

Epcot is the place where "God's big Golfball" is.......according to my nephews. Actually, it is where the princesses hang out, or at least they did today. You will have to excuse the lack of male participation in the photos, but the guys were not all that enthusiastic about the princesses.

Princess Aurora came by for a little chit-chat while we were waiting for our drinks to be served. Then, the carefully braided hairdo was falling apart, so Jasmine volunteered to help out and get it put to rights for us.

I think we liked Jasmine the best because she knows how to do hair and she is into belly dancing.


Snow White was very pleased to hear that we not only have her movie, but also a dress very much like the one she wears. Oh, she was just so sweet.

Mary Poppins was out in the courtyard signing autographs and giving advice. She told us that proper ladies always use a parasol to keep the sun off their faces.
After we saw the princesses and Mary Poppins, we ducked into the bathroom and ditched the dress and put on a LULU's shirt and some shorts and got to the business of riding some thrilling rides. We did about all of them, but the ones I remember in particular were Maelstrom, the space stuff, and Test Track. We did a few of the tamer ones too, which was nice in between the walking and waiting.

Tomorrow we go to HollyWood Studios! Then on Friday it will be SeaWorld and then my favorite, Margaritaville.

Magic Kingdom

Just a quickie from the Magic Kingdom......we got in REEEEEEEEAAALLLY Late last night and I didn't have th eenergy left to do anything except wash and dry all our "soaked to the bone" stuff from Splash Mountain. Above, monorail ride.

Here are the folks meeting Minnie Mouse.

On one of the Monorail rides, we rode in the very front car! It was really exciting and very informative. There must be Prozac in the water here because everyone who works here is so HAPPY!!!!!

We are off to Epcot today and to the princess breakfast. I will show you some more tonight.

Green Day!

Top O' the Mornin' to ya! ( That was spoken with a cheesy fake Irish accent).
Today we will be doin' an Irish jig to the Magic Kingdom to have breakfast with Chef Mickey and then on to all sorts of adventures.

I'm up early .....drinking coffee and still doing laundry. The children are still sleeping like pigs in sunshine, and Pumba (dad) is in there rolled up like a burrito in ALL the covers. Hopefully they will be well rested when they get up and be all smiles.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO SARAH AND JOHN!

One More Thing....

Since we were coming to Florida and my hippie-girl Susan ( and Ed) live here, and pretty close by, we arranged to have a little visit in Cocoa. It was so great to see them, and NOTHING has changed. Same Susan. Good thing.

Here we are.

And again. What is wrong with that kid?

Something's brewing.

I guess she didn't like the photography technique. Or maybe it was because the picture was not all about HER?

See what I mean? We found a sign with her name on it and she was off to the races.

There ya go!

I probably could have left her there with her new best friends. Susan said she would fly in and babysit for a week whenever we needed her to. I am studying the calendar!!!

It was so wonderful to visit, and it certainly wasn't long enough, and WAY too long in coming!

One thing that the internet is exceptional for is keeping in touch with all the tumbleweeds that you know. Because of it, I can keep up with so many of all of you.....many almost daily. Sometimes it is just a quick FW: , but no matter what comes, it means that we're all still making the effort to connect. I think that is so cool.

Hakuna matata!

The Himalayas......

Ok, Martin is now not the only one who has "been to the mountain." I been there....and it scared me. In a good way though. The number one coaster at Disney is this one. You can make out the ascent track just to the left. That mountain is HUGE. If you look at the little shrine in front of it, the tops of the little temples mirror the mountain peaks. Disney misses NOTHING in the details. Of course, I have been thinking about things like: who cleans the bathrooms? How do they not run out of stuff? do they have crews touching up paint all night?

Anyway, our little family rode that thing and had a blast. There really wasn't time to visit Dinoland with the long waits to ride, and we missed the parade, but I can't think of anything else I would have rather been doing than being right there with those kids getting the living daylights scared out of me. The picture when we were on the coaster was hideous..my hair was standing ON END and I had my hand on the boychild's knee....I guess I was going to hold him in the car should he start to fall out . Both of them were talking a mile a minute when we came off of it- wanting to get back in line to do it again.

Well...everyone else is asleep and I am still up drinking coffee and doing laundry. The other half of our entourage came here to swim and eat dinner ( Subway - It was closeby) and left some of their laundry too, so I may be up a little while. Tomorrow we go to the Magic Kindom and have breakfast with Mickey Mouse at Chef Mickey's. I can hardly wait.

Where Dreams Begin...

My tiny dancer was all about clapping and jumping until this part of the show. When the ballet began, she stopped moving altogether and just stared at the girl playing Zazu. She reached over and touched me on the leg and said, "Mama.....you know, someday, that could be me. "

Well, she's right. There is really no limit to what someone can do if they put their mind to it. I hope she does it if that is what she wants to do. I can see her being a cast member here. I can also see brother being an Imagineer, designing all sorts of exciting things.

Coco's Disney Debut

The Lion King show was about a 20 minute version of the broadway show as far as the costuming and such goes. It is definately something that you don't want to miss if you get the chance to visit Disney. Our girl was right on the front row and ready to volunteer ( thanks Sarah!) and they picked her, or at least this monkey who kept winking at her did. She had so much fun and we really were tickled that she was invited to participate. Our star is the one in the long pink tee shirt and glasses.

First Installment Disney Pictures

Today was the "bestest day of my life" according to the young master of the family. Of course, he will say that any time things are going his way, but I do have to admit that this ranks right up there for them.

Here is the little princess posing ( imagine that) for a snap in Rainforest Cafe.

The obligatory brother/sister shot. I had to threaten to get them to do this one. They have had a bit too much togetherness for the last few days.

Here we are meeting Kenai and Koda, the bears from "Brother Bear". There were other characters on the greeting trails, but the lines were LONG and we had shows to see and coasters to ride.

Here are a couple of silly boys . The kids all got along well considering that it was HOT, they were TIRED, and we were having to WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, and WAIT some more.

Trip to Disney world....$ 5,000 ( or at least it seems like it).....stroller rental.....PRICELESS. They ought to have wagon rental because we had so much stuff hanging off the back of this buggy that it would try to tip over without a sturdy kid in it.

This is our "Map-meister." He made extra sure that we stayed on the right path and would let us know where to find the next attraction that we needed to see. Since he has learned to read, I rarely have to check up and see that he is telling me right...he rarely makes a mistake. He even had East, West, North, and South figured out today.

There were a few educational moments scattered out around the park today. One little guy was showing off an anteater skull next to the giant anteater exhibit and our little country kids wanted to know, "Reckon he would eat FIRE ANTS?" Hey, if they would, we need to start raising them and turning 'em loose up in Mississippi.

I promise more pictures as I get them, but I have to say that it is very hard to take pictures because things move pretty quickly and there is so much happening that it is hard to decide what to do next. I'll do the best I can and we'll see what we get. Stay tuned for a precious video of Coco participating in the Lion King show.