Disney Vacation: Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney

One morning we went to downtown Disney because that is practically a park in itself! There are of course the shops, but there is plenty to see and do as well. The lego store is absolutely amazing and there are many lifesize lego structures outside of the store as well! You can also fill up a bucket of any color/size legos that you want. This is where we get a majority of our pink and orange legos!
A toy filled Christmas tree.

Watch out honey! A lego sea monster is about to get you!

K and Thumper with their new family.

Call me, ok?

Hollywood Studios is a park where I could happily hang out all day. There is always something going on in the street whether it be a pretend movie scene, comedian, show, etc... The rides are more like shows, so sometimes the younger kids get annoyed with that. We did go on a fun back lot tour that had a fake dam break. For those of you confused, Hollywood Studios used to be called MGM. That took me awhile to get the name change. Oh and if you like crazy rollercoasters, you would probably like the Rock and Roll-er coaster, but none of us were brave enough!
How does Disney do stuff like this?

DH and K went on this and wished that they hadn't!!!!

3d glasses are so hip.

And cute!

Loved this live show out on the plaza! The only thing missing was my heart throb, Zac Efron.

Were we at Disney or in NYC?

I almost squealed with delight when I saw this huge wall of M&Ms!

Hey Zac, if you are out there, and you feel like doing HSM4, we're your girls!

Disney Vacation: Animal Kingdom

OK, back to vacation. We will have been home one week tomorrow and I feel as if we went away 4 months ago. Thanksgiving was great, shopping at 5:15 Friday morning was great, my nap yesterday afternoon was great.....

Some people diss the Animal Kingdom because they don't think there is enough to do there or enough rides or something. We happen to love it! B is really into animals, especially giraffes, and DH and K love scary rides and Everest is one of the scariest of them all! My tip for AK is to get there right when it opens and ride the jungle safari ride. That is when you will see most of the animals because they have just been fed. Everest is the new ride at the park and it is roller coaster scary. I don't do rollercoasters. One night we ate at the AK Lodge which was beautiful and I guess during the day when it is not pitch black out you can see animals from all the windows!

A baby giraffe..
A baby elephant..
A large gorilla. Their fur turns gray at about 12 years of age. Tough to get old.
A magestic tiger.
B and a giraffe head. (So it was a little cold the morning we went!)
The tree of life that has hundreds of animals carved into it.
Why did Tinkerbelle land on Tiggers foot?
Because she didn't want to step on Pooh!
This was freaky tree lady. She was dressed like a tree/vine thing and was wrapping herself around this pole. Do you think they picked her out of a strip bar for her excellent pole work?
Rain ponchos a must for the white water rafting ride!!!
Everest in the background.
K with a friend from the petting zoo.

2 more parks to go. Nothing like dragging my vacation out for you!

Disney Vacation: Epcot

OK, so I have been back since Sunday night, but re-entry into the real world has thrown me. Our vacation was great! The weather in Florida was lovely for a hearty New Englander....mid 60's during the day, mid 40's at night. Not quite tank top weather, but my cheeks got color nonetheless. I wasn't sure how to post about the trip and include some of the 500 pictures I took, but I think I will go park by park....

We start with Epcot. Epcot is like 2 parks in one. There is a cool futuristic, learning side and the countries side. We did one half the afternoon we got there and the other half one afternoon after doing the Downtown Disney requisite shopping.

The parks were decked for Christmas....

Everyone has to have a photo (or 50) of the "ball". This ball actually has a really cool ride inside of it.B and I visited with Chip and Dale while DH and K were on Test Trak and almost throwing up on Mission to Mars.
Didn't take DH long to get into the vacation spirit. This is so out of character for DH that I thought the girls were going to wet their pants laughing! (Johnie Depp's Pirates of the Caribean hat, complete with hair).

I could return to France without traveling over the ocean. It is amazing how Disney pays attention to detail!
The Eiffel Tower, next to the Seine.
There are always street shows in Epcot. I have no idea how this guy kept catching bowls on his head.Can you guess? Yup, England with it's token red phone booths. (Of course having never seen a phone booth, the girls thought this was pretty cool.)
And yes, we did rent a wheelchair for the broken footed one. It did score us some line cutting, but only about 1/2 the time. Some times the wheel chair people had to wait in the wheel chair line. K did enjoy us moaning about our feet at the end of the day, though. Nice kid!

I missed you guys and will work hard at catching up, between laundry and baking, cooking and the family thing for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

Disney or Bust

Twas the day before departure,

And all through the house,

Bags, clothing, cameras

Excitement to see THE MOUSE.

The washer was going, the vacuum too,

A pile of homework to bring with, EWWW!

The children were jumping and bouncing off the wall,

"Where are my mouse ears, where is my shawl?"

While I stress about shoes and weather to come,

My husband relaxes and sits on his bum.

The dog is all clean and ready for doggie daycare,

Will she behave, will she eat, how will she fare?

Just one more day of school and activities after,

Then it's off on a plane to the land of much laughter.

As the temps drop here, I will get the 'to do list' done,

I will run here and there, to get to the land of the sun.

If I were Trump I would have hired a jet for you all,

With all of us there, we would have had a ball!

This trip, however, is just for us four,

Stay tuned, sit tight, I'll have stories galore!