Meeting up with family in Disney

It just so happened that my Aunt and cousin were also visiting Disney the same week we were.  So, we took a few hours one afternoon to meet up and ride a couple of rides, drink some ice lemonades and catch a parade together.  One of the rides we rode together was Splash Mountain and I think it's safe to say that we all loved it!  Nora is still telling people that she rode Splash Mountain!  It was fun to make a family memory with Rara and Darcy at the Magic Kingdom. 

Disney Virtual Photo Book

One of the best offer we took advantage of was the Disney Photo Pass.  We made it our mission to seek out every Disney photo spot we could see at each of the parks and have our picture made!  We had bought a special package before we left for Disney.  Click this link: Disney Photo Book to view our memories!

Fireworks at Magic Kingdom

 So, the Magic Kingdom is just breath taking at night!  The music, the lights, the dramatic effects!  Nora and I had special mickey vision glasses so we could see mickey mouse in all the lights!  It was a neat effect on the fireworks!  Thousands of colorful mickey heads everywhere! 

The Castle all lit up at night!  Main Street is beautiful!

Disney Character Pictures

 Handy Manny at the Disney Jr. Show in Hollywood Studios

 Jimmy Cricket was a surprise guest at Epcot!

 Tinker Bell at her fairy garden spot in Epcot!

 Alice outside of the tea shop in Great Britain at Epcot.

Alice was the best character we saw! 

 She talked to Nora for a long time and she was so believable.  

 Sleeping Beauty in France at Epcot.

 Marie in France at Epcot. 

 Jasmine & Aladdin in Morocco at Epcot. 

 In Epcot we ate dinner at the Garden Grill with Chip & Dale, Mickey and Pluto.  The food was all you can eat and they bring one of everything to your table.  The food was so fresh and yummy!  We were all so very full!  The Garden Grill is inside The Land and it rotates very slowly as you are eating.  Very fun!

 At the Magic Kingdom

 At the Magic Kingdom we had dinner a the Crystal Palace.  Excellent food again!  I started with two plate of food!  Pooh Bear and friends visited us while we ate.  We also sat right by the window and we could see the parade in lights going down the streets as we ate.  The lights were so pretty and magical!

Nora loved getting her book signed by the characters and having her picture made with them. 

Disney characters are a big part of the magic of Disney!

Lucy's Last Birthday

Enjoy this clip of Lucy's Last Birthday after all Lucy is forever 29 not 100!  This clip always makes me cry!  

Happy Birthday Lucy!  I love that you were silly, beautiful, confident & independent.  Thank you for your legacy of comedy and strength.  Our family loves you Lucy!

Hollywood Studios

 At Hollywood Studios

 Dinner at Prime Time Cafe

We all had the meatloaf...yummy!

Our server was Uncle Richard and he told us to do less talking and more watching TV. 

Toy Story Mania!

 On Tuesday we headed over to Hollywood Studios for the day.   We did some of the usual's The Great Movie Ride (Nora hated it, scared her to death) & Muppet Vision 3-D. We ate lunch at the ABC commissary and after lunch we headed to the new Toy Story Mania attraction.  Because we were not thinking, we never got a fast pass that morning...duh, so we had to stand in line for 90 minutes!  These two pictures are from the street outside of the Toy Story Mania attraction.    

 These next few pictures are from the inside of the attraction where you stand in line.  The whole inside looks like Andy's playroom.  There are toys everywhere even on the ceiling there are giant board games.  The giant crayons looked like they had been used.  I guess the idea is that we are all the size of toys.  Anyway, lots of really fun stuff to look at! 

 Nora is scratching his arm pit?!   This ride was totally worth the wait!  It was like a crazy fast, twirling, giant arcade game!  We loved it and we wished we could ride it 10 more times!  Lot's of  fun!

More Pictures of our Resort

 Well, we all loved the pool at the Animal Kingdom Lodge but Nora LOVED it! The best part of the pool was the water slide!  She must have gone down that slide 100 times!

 That's Jason coming down the slide!

 Nora had her face painted while we ate lunch at the resort the first day.  Purple mickey mouse!

 This is my lizard friend that jump on my chair by the pool!  YIKES!  He is a jumping lizard!  I jumped when I saw him too!  There were lizards everywhere in Florida!

 Nora and Daddy sitting around the campfire!

Nice cozy beds!  Much needed after a long, hard day of play in Disney World!

Animals at the Animal Kingdom Lodge

 This is mama bird...she is an East African Crowned Crane and she was our favorite!  

 Mama bird was right outside our balcony and she had 2 eggs that she was taking care of.  She never left their side.  She stayed right there either standing guard or sitting on them.  It was so very cool!  We hoped that they would hatch while we were there but they told us that it would probably be another week.  They have probably hatched by now.  Everyday Nora would say "let me go check on mama bird".  She loved that bird! 

 This is the view from our balcony.  We could see giraffe, zebra, antelope and more!  We loved the view of the animals! 

The landscape and animals were beautiful at the lodge!  

1st Day of 1st Grade

I am in denial like a lot of parents that summer is over and we are back to school.  I had a sick feeling in my stomach this morning making nora go back to school.  Part of me feels like the evil step mother...yuck.  Anyway, Nora was excited this morning as she put on her new dress & new hello kitty shoes!  We bought her a new mickey mouse backpack in Disney World and it is packed with lunch box, snack, folder and agenda for the day!  Jason and I drove her to school and walked her inside.  We watched her from the classroom door for just a minute as she started unpacking her backpack and trying to figure out this new place.  I know she will have a great day!

Disney Pic of the Day: Animal Kingdom Lodge

Well, we took 380 pictures on our camera during our Disney trip this summer not including all the Disney Photo Pass spots we stopped to have our picture made!  So, I am going to try and post a Disney Pic of the Day each day and then write some kind of memory caption to go along with it!

Picture #1 is taken outside of our fabulous resort the Animal Kingdom Lodge on the first day of our vacation!  We loved this resort, the rooms and there African decor, the animals out your balcony, the pool with a slide and movies at night, the $14.99 cups that you can refill whenever you want with whatever you want (coffee and root beer for mom and dad, hot chocolate and root beer for nora), the drums being played in the lobby, the FOOD (BOMA), the kids activities and this is just a taste of it all!  I wish we could have stayed another week just to do everything the resort offered!  Our first day we did stay at the lodge because it was nice and relaxing and we wanted to explore this new place! I have never stayed in a Disney resort, so this was my first and I am hooked!  It was like being on the Disney boat!  We swam in the pool and walked around the Savannah to see the animals and sat by the camp fire and heard some African stories.  That night we ate at our resort in the restaurant Boma and it was my favorite!  Everyday when we would walk past it I would ask Jason and Nora if they wanted to eat again!  It was a buffet all you can eat African style foods and if you know me you know those are some of my favorite flavors and foods!  We had the Disney dining plan and I think that might be our favorite part of Disney!  We ate until we couldn't breath!  Disney=Good Food!