05.27.2009 Walt Disney World - Epcot

Well the trip we have been talking about and planning for nearly two years has finally arrived! We left Tuesday afternoon to head down to Orlando for 5 days to meet my entire family for a fun-filled vacation at Walt Disney World. We were not sure Chris would have Tuesday off, so we had to get a hotel off campus for Tuesday night. We had a great time at Downtown Disney. We took the kids to T-Rex for dinner. It's like a Rainforest Cafe, only with dinosaurs. About every 20 minutes, there was a simulated thunderstorm. The lights were flashing, the dinosaurs were moving and making all sorts of strange noises, and both of our kids were going crazy. We had to take them both out numerous times because they were screaming. But beyond our rather frustrating dinner, we had a blast. Grant was caught up in the magic of Downtown Disney. He was enthralled with all the "Pirate" themed merchandise (we had gotten the pirate-themed rooms at the Caribbean Beach Resort and had been talking about it for months so he was very excited about this) and we even saw a life-sized Buzz Lightyear outside the toy store. Life just can't get better than this! :-) Until we had to tear him away from Buzz because other kids wanted to take pictures with him, too. Grant just wanted to stand there and hold his hand. Ha!

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early, packed up our things and headed over to the Caribbean Beach resort to meet the rest of my family. They hadn't gotten in until about 8:30 the night before, so we were very excited to see them. After a quick breakfast, we headed over to Epcot, our first park for our vacation. Grant was so excited to go to "Disney World" and he and Jaybin stood at the bus stop with great anticipation. Every bus that would come they would squeal with delight and jump up and down with excitement. But 5 busses passed us by before the Epcot bus arrived. We were all excited to begin our journey!

As soon as we got into Epcot, Stef and Dan ran to get fast-passes for the ride, "Soarin." (which was a fabulous ride, by the way! So much fun!) In the meantime, we saw Daisy Duck off to the side, greeting people. So we went and stood in line waiting to meet Miss Daisy. While we were waiting, Stitch came out and greeted us, too. I had made little Mickey Mouse heads for the characters all to sign, so our Autograph book was well underway! Grant was thrilled to meet the characters. I think the characters were his favorite part of the entire trip. He really bought into the fantasy aspect of Disney World. The rides, however, were a different story. He was terrified! He'd bury his head into whoever was holding him and not look up until the ride was over. Poor guy. Mason, on the other hand, was intrigued by everything and wanted to see it all! He, too, was intrigued by the characters and wanted to touch, wave to, and kiss them all.

We had a beautiful day in Epcot. It was sunny, and hot, for sure. The humidity was high, but it didn't seem to bother us too much. It did rain a couple of times for short periods, but it seemed to really cool things down, so it was quite welcome! We purchased the meal plan, so we had lunch at the Coral Reef. It was my favorite meal of the trip. There was a beautiful aquarium that made up the main wall of the restaurant so we watched the fish, shark, dolphin and sea turtle swimming while we ate. I had a delicious New York Strip for lunch, and Chris had mahi-mahi. And our waiter convinced us all to order a "Jack Daniel's Chocolate Mousse" for dessert. There were other options, but he insisted it was the best. My favorite quote from the day was mom asking him, "None of us are alcoholics...are you sure we'll like this?" He said he didn't drink either and it was a must! So we all ordered it and I must say, after he showed us the proper technique in eating all three layers at the same time, it was quite delicious.

We had a small mishap today...Grant and Mason both had gotten sick over the weekend right before we came. We got Mason on an antibiotic and it seemed to be helping a lot. Grant was doing great...as long as he didn't have milk. If he had milk, he had severe diarrhea just once and then he was fine again. Well, it had been like 3 days, so I assumed he was fine. He shared some ice cream with Jaybin and Kinsen, however, and while Chris and I were on a ride the boys weren't big enough to ride, they stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Kendra and Uncle Jason. Suddenly, he started telling them 'No!' backing away and yelling for his mommy. That's when they noticed that, as they put it, he had "pooped in his shoe." His sick tummy had struck again and Aunt Kendra and Grandma had their job cut out for them. It was pretty much cleaned up by the time I got there to help. But he sure was a mess. And as I walked into the bathroom, I noticed several ladies walking out with quite disgusted faces. Thank goodness for loving family members who helped take care of this poor little guy. Luckily, this was the last of the sickness for the trip.

We took the kids back to the hotel around 4-ish. They hadn't had naps and were getting cranky. Plus, the next day was the Magic Kingdom and I didn't want to wear them out for that. Mason had slept through lunch for a little while, but all of the kids were tired. So Jason and Kendra took Jaybin and Kinsen back, and we took our kids back. After naps, we took them swimming down at the cool pirate-themed pool. After we put the kids to bed for the night, Jason, Kendra, Chris and I sat outside our rooms at a picnic table and talked for a while. The plan was to go to Mom and Dad's room and play games, but they were still in Epcot with Stef and Dan, so we didn't have a key to get in their room. We called the front desk and said we were locked out, but after 2 hours they still hadn't come. When we finally got them to come let us in the room, it wasn't 5 minutes later and mom and dad arrived, ready to crash. Oh well. It was nice being outside for a few hours just relaxing! :-)

Waiting for our Epcot Bus to Arrive!