Epcot...

Our final park... Epcot.  I found this to be the most beautiful of all the parks.  Gorgeous, colorful flowers everywhere, trees in bloom, lush green grass.... so delightful.  We also found Epcot to be our least favorite of the 4 parks.  While we found a lot to do at the beginning in the "Future World" part, once we reached the "World Showcase," we got a little bored.  We still had a wonderful time.  Here's what we did:

Soarin', Living with the Land, Mission: Space, Test Track, Maelstrom, Gran Fiesta Tour, and O Canada!

Our companions for the day:

Izzy took a lot of pictures on this trip.  To be honest, out of all the ones that I've posted, many are quite possibly hers.  :-)

We listened to a neat-o Japanese drum presentation...

Another family photo in the land of France...

Cute, right?!

OK, I'm done.  I don't have that many cool pictures from Epcot.  And to be perfectly honest, I'm ready to be done posting about our trip to Florida.  It was WONDERFUL, for sure, but it's busy around here and hard to find time to post on the blog.  These posts have taken a little time.  So, there... that's all of the Florida/ Disney pics... for now.  :-)  I do have more.

Thanks for sharing in our fun at the most MAGICAL place on Earth!

Magic Kingdom...

This was the busiest, longest, warmest day we had while visiting the parks... Disney's Magic Kingdom.  You could tell that the Magic Kingdom was a very popular place.  And wouldn't you know that we actually ran into a family we knew from church at the attraction "It's a Small World?!"  No kidding... it IS a small world!  That was a fun surprise! :-)

We arrived at the park by 9:00 a.m. and didn't leave until after 9 p.m.  We were all pretty tired by then... we did so much:

Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mt. Railroad, Country Bear Jamboree, The Hall of Presidents, it's a small world, Peter Pan's Flight, Mad Tea Party, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, Electric Parade AND the firework display. 

We started in Adventureland and worked our way around.

This is Splash Mountain in Frontierland.

Getting ready to go down the final, BIG, drop (that you see in the above picture)!  Izzy was so brave, but very nervous.  We are proud of our kiddos... they gave almost everything a shot, as long as their sibling or cousin "Genna" was going too.  :-)

After....

J & E on Big Thunder Mt., getting sprayed with water.  E was pretty intense and hung on very tightly!

Lunch Break!

'Must have' pictures with the Castle behind us...

My cute parents.

My sister and her awesome family!

My kids.

The Indy Speedway was one of my favorite rides of the day.  I laughed SO hard and had such a good time -  Izzy was driving and we went from side to side of the strip that keeps you on the track the whole time.

My sister and I.  :-)  Luv you K!

The group waiting in line...

Time for some fun!

Joel's favorite ride. :-)

My sister was the only adult interested in going on the tea cups with the kids...

they had fun (and no one got sick from going around in circles).

Pictures from "it's a small world."

I've always loved this ride.  I think it was recently renovated too.

It was so cool to see how many colors the castle turned at night.  Very beautiful!

The Electrical parade was so cool!  So bright and colorful, with fun music playing.  A favorite!

And last, but not least, the fireworks. 

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So, this post is finally done!  I've been working on it, when I have time, since Tuesday.  I took too many pictures and wanted to share them all.  Enjoy!

Animal Kingdom...

Back to reality today.  I miss Florida!  I keep thinking, "last week at this time..."  Yea, I know, you don't feel sorry for me.  Anyway, here's more about our trip.
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The next day, Sunday, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  This was a nice park, very shaded. 

We did the following things at Animal Kingdom:

Festival of the Lion King, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Wildlife Express Train, Flights of Wonder, Expedition Everest, TriceraTop Spin, and Dinosaur.  (We left a little earlier than the rest of my family and they also went to Finding Nemo- The Musical, It's Tough to Be a Bug, and saw the parade.  Everything was awesome except the express train.)

First up was the incredible Kilimanjaro Safari.  This was so cool!  We rode a safari vehicle through an African savanna and saw giraffes, elephants, rhinos, and more!  This was enjoyed by all.

The Festival of the Lion King was AWESOME and one of my favorite things of the day!  

The kids thought the TriceraTop Spin was so fun and I love this picture of Izzy laughing. :-)

Still more magical adventures to come... stay tuned for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot!

Hollywood Studios...

It's time to start to tell you about our surprise vacation to Florida!  The kids had no idea that we were flying to Florida, going to Disney World, OR that their cousins and grandparents were going to be there too.  So many fun surprises for them!  I'll be thinking about this fun week for a looong time!

First up was Disney's Hollywood Studios.  This was a neat park, with lots of cool things to do, see, and watch.  Here's what we accomplished: 

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set playground, Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, Toy Story Midway Mania!, Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian, Beauty and the Beast- Live on Stage, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror.  (The playground and narnia thing were pretty lame, but everything else was great.)

Buzz and Woody!

We love all of the Toy Story movies so it was fun to see these guys.

Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids.  The cousins had a fun time together.  My sister and her family live in Georgia and Sam is 9 and JK is 6.5. 

Getting ready to go on the Toy Story Midway Mania.  Everyone liked this!  It was a 4D, interactive game/ ride.

Beauty and the Beast - well done, not too long; nice to sit and take a break too.

Extreme Stunt Show - one of everyone's favorites... cars, motorcycles, wave runners, fire, chasing, shooting, etc.

A great day to start the week!

Orlando, Florida.... here we come!

We just returned home from a vacation in Orlando, Florida.  We had an AMAZING time.  Needless to say, it was very tough to come back to cold, wet weather.  Ugh!

This is where we stayed for the week:

It was a 3 BR, 3 BATH condo, generously "given" to us to use during the week.  It was big enough for my parents and sister and her family to join us too. 

It was sunny and warm and wonderful!!!

We did some of this:

I miss it!

We also visited all four of the Disney World parks... Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  (We got majorly discounted tickets thanks to my dad's military background.  It was too good of a deal to pass up... free place to stay, half off Disney tickets...)  I'll post more about our time at the parks soon.  :-)

did you see...

...my new blog header pictures? 

just a little sneek peak at what we've been up to. 

more to come later...