Disney Vacation 2008, Day 4....

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Magic Kingdom here we come! Once again, the alarm was set that we could get to the park for Early Magic Hours. EMH are only for resort guests and we get to get into the park an hour earlier than the general public. Only certain rides in the park are open early, but it's all the ones we want to hit in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

First, we have to have a picture in front of Cinderella's castle:

Next up, we grab fastpasses for Space Mountain which tells us to return at 10:05, so we hit the rest of the rides in the areas that the kids want to hit.

The Astro Orbiter:

The Tomorroland Transit Authority, which is a raised train that runs through all the rides in Tomorrowland, including Space mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Star Command. It's a great ride with absolutely no wait for it:

Next up is Tomorrowland Indy Speedway where Wyatt is tall enough to ride on his own:

After that is The Mad Tea Party, aka The Teacups, which is one of my favorite rides. LC and I rode together, in a pink teacup, of course:

And now, a break in the action for a shot of cuteness from the boys:

Back to the rides we go, and next up is Dumbo's Flying Circus:


Finally, it's 10:00 and time for Space Mountian. First to go is Todd and the boys. I'll go with Wyatt as soon as they are done. Wyatt, the lucky dog, gets to go on all these rides twice so that I can get to go, too. Henry is fine going just once.:

The last ride we hit for the day is Goofy's Barnstormer, which is a kiddie coaster in Toontown. It was the longest wait we had all day, but we figured that LC needed to experience a roller coaster all her own:

We went to dinner at The California Grille, located in The Contemporary Resort, which was very, very good--some of the best Sushi I've had, as a matter of fact. Afterwards, we went into one of the gift shops and had some fun trying on some silly hats:




And off we head to watch fireworks from the beach before starting it all over again in the morning. Next up, Animal Kingdom...

Disney Vacation 2008, Day 3....

Monday, August 4, 2008

Today we wake up with the kids buzzing with excitement because they get to meet Lilo and Stitch--their all time favorites--at the O'hana Breakfast at our hotel. The Mickey pancakes are a hit as is the Passionfruit/Guava/Mango juice that is served. LC loved it.

The kids meeting Stitch and Lilo and Mickey:



They even took part in an O'Hana parade and shook their maracas:

After the breakfast was over we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, the Star Tours ride, and the new Toy Story Mania ride.

Arriving at HS:

The kids in front of the tank after the Stunt show:

After we successfully met our mission, the kids were spent and wanted to go back to the hotel for a swim and to get ready for dinner where Todd enjoyed a fruity drink. Actually, he enjoyed a couple of sips of it and then I confiscated it:

That night the kid were very cashed and ended up sleeping in very odd positions:


On to Day 4. Are you sick of this, yet? I hope not because Magic Kingdom is next and you want to talk about pictures...

Disney Vacation 2008, Day 2....

Sunday, August 3, 2008

It's Sunday Morning and Early Magic Hours are starting sharply at 8:00am at EPCOT, so much to Todd's dismay, I set the alarm so we could get there as the gates opened to do as much as we could early in the day before the heat hit and the crowds got horrible.

The fountain in the middle of the park:


LC with the "Golf Ball" in the background:


It was freaking hot and the kids' moods were reflective of that. This picture reminds me of one from when I was a kid visiting FL in the middle of unGodly heat:


Their favorite part was the Living Seas with Nemo where they could see live Eels, seahorses and clownfish swimming around:


Dinner was at Biergarten, a restaurant in the Germany section of The World Showcase:



Some of the kids having fun. Henry and LC don't understand the concept of sticking their head in a hole.LOL :



The boys decided to go on Mission Space (a perfectly awful ride if you choose the orange "intense" line like I did to take the boys on) and the Test Track with Todd,, so LC and I stood in the character line and met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale. She loved meeting them and even got to dance with Minnie:


We then stayed for the Illuminations Laser Light Show and fireworks before heading back to the hotel for the night to be well-rested for Day 3...

Disney Vacation 2008, Day 1....

Saturday, August 2, 2008

You asked for it, you got it. I'm going to do a daily pictorial and try to remember what we did that day. They all seem to be blending together right now because of how busy we were. While Disney may be known as the happiest, most magical place on Earth, it is also the most exhausting and overwhelming.LOL

As I posted before we left, Henry spiked a fever and was completely miserable. I had also found out that there was a kid in his swim class that had strep dx'd earlier in the week, so I called our doctor and he prescribed abx for him which we started right away. Bernard also told us to go and enjoy the trip even if it meant Advil and Tylenol the whole time. Reluctantly, we went with me having a panic attack the entire way to Florida. I'm not kidding. Heart racing, nauseated, chills. Major anxiety.

But, the flight went great, Hank took a little nap--where his fever broke, never to return-- and we reached our destination, The Polynesian Resort. We got to the hotel and were immediately lei'd the minute we arrived.

Here is a picture of LC wearing all of them while I was checking us in:


And one of Henry in the beautiful lobby:


Here is a pic of the "towel art" that greeted us in our room when we arrived:


As I said earlier, we stayed at The Polynesian, which is one of the prettiest resorts I've stayed at, and probably the most conveniently located of all WDW resorts. We were able to take the monorail to both Magic Kingdom and Epcot and the bus stop was only a 5 minute walk from our room to get to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

Here is a picture of our longhouse, Tokelau:


We had a Princess Dinner reservation for that night so, off we headed to dinner after a couple of hours at the volcano pool and its water slide which I, unfortunately don't have a picture of. The boys loved that water slide, though. It was tough to tear them away from it, especially since it was to just go meet Cinderella.

Speaking of which, Here is LC meeting her for the first time:




LC didn't care for Lady Tremaine, though, She was trying to get as far away from her while in my arms:


But, Drucilla and Anastasia were on their best behavior and even complimented LC on her dress and bow, and even tried to win over Wyatt:




Henry wasn't feeling the love, so avoided all pictures with the Cinderella family, but did pose for a picture on the Monorail on the way back home:


And Heather, just for you, I had Todd take some pictures of a bride at her wedding at The Grand Floridian. Her dress and flowers were gorgeous:


And that concludes Day 1. Only 7 more to go which I will cover more tomorrow...

We are home...

We are home, had a great time, and will have pictures posted later after Todd converts them over for me.

But, to tide you over, here is our photopass link:

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photopass.aspx?cat=professional&album=All

password is decker

You've got to freaking be kidding me.

We leave for Disney World tomorrow.

Henry is sick. 102 degree fever sick. How did I freaking know that this would happen? I have no idea what we are going to do.

Welcome Home, Uncle J.J!

Justin arrived home today at 2:30pm after a long 7 months of being deployed to Iraq and was it a homecoming! To say that Heather was happy to see him is the the understatement of the year.

Here are the kids waiting for his return with the sign that Heather and I made:


Vivi with her daddy's sign:


JJ with the long-awaited reunion with his beautiful daughter:


A family together, again:


I love the last picture the most. I'm just not sure Heather will enjoy having people see her like that. *insert paranoid look*