July 27, 2009

Downtown Disney--LEGO STORE!

We went to Downtown Disney one evening. It is a large area with MANY shops. It is the epitome of Disney Shopping. They have one of the largest Lego shops, which is the reason we went, but we had to walk around first. Tyler got so frustrated with us going into other shops and procrastinating going to the one store he wanted to go to! It became comical.
The dragon was made entirely out of Lego's



The family of Lego's

I love Tyler's face. This was probably his favorite part of the whole vacation!


Lego men on the Wall..........WOW!

After searching high and low, he finally narrowed down his choice!!

Also at Downtown Disney was Disney QUEST, an indoor interactive themepark. It was AWESOME! Massive amounts, 3 stories, of free video games and rides. It was neat to be inside after walking in the heat all day.
Please pray for Stellen. He is not doing well and needs us all to lift him up in prayer. My heart breaks for this family!

July 24, 2009

Bibbity Bobbity Boutique--Addyson

We finally made it to Magic Kingdom, "Where Dreams Come True". We only stayed 4 hours this first day. Just enough time for Addyson to go to the salon and have some fun with the princesses. We came back a few days later and stayed the whole day. I will have those pictures next. This day was about Addyson. The boys were super with that, they had been having so much fun on all the big rides, they totally understood that this was for her. (Plus we were going to "Downtown Disney" that night where they have a HUGE Lego Store). Here the kids were as we entered Magic Kingdom. Had to get a picture with the Castle!
We arrived at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and the guys headed out to find some "manly" rides. LOL


Addyson wore her Snow White dress that I had made her for Christmas last year, but you could of picked from one of these dresses. These came with the crown, shoes, wand, etc. They really know how to make a little girl feel like a princess!

Just getting started, not to sure what she was thinking. They give them a brochure and get to pick their favorite hair style.

This is Addyson's "Fairy Godmother" and she introduced herself as so!




She LOVES her crown. I have even duplicated the hair do yesterday. I didn't do to bad either!! LOL

Make up and Nails... We got to keep it all, of coarse we paid for it!
Then it was Pixie Dust time!! It was the NEATEST shimmery glittery powder. I asked where I could buy some and her fairy godmother told me that "Tinkerbell doesn't give it out. Only to the boutique" Addyson LOVED that! (The princesses and fairies were real, remember)

They finally turned her around and let her see herself in the mirror. Priceless picture!!

This is the back!!!!!!!!! Love the Mickey Ears that BLING!

Right after we left the boutique and she was still beaming, we ran into the "white rabbit" from Alice in Wonderland. He grabbed her hand and she went and rode the Tea Cups with him. She LOVED it. Everyone was staring wondering who that little girl was with him. It was great!!

Does she look happy or what!

When the ride was over he let me get a picture with all the kids. It was FUN!


Next up, Downtown Disney

July 22, 2009

Hollywood Studio

Hollywood Studio's was our favorite park. Well 4 out of 5 of our's favorite park. Addyson like Magic Kingdom the best. Hollywood Studio's was magical for us "older" children. The rides were AWESOME!! Tyler's favorite was the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror. It takes you really high up and drops you. Addyson was too short so I "had" to stay with her. Kamron chose to stay with us as well! Todd, Kamron and myself LOVED the Aerosmith Rock-n-Roller Coaster. Disney has the greatest invention called "Child swap" If a child is too short to ride a ride, like Addyson was, they gave us a 'Fast Pass' and one parent stayed behind with the child while the other one stood in line for the ride. The wait time was short that morning so Todd and the boys rode it first. They LOVED it!! When they got off, the boys rode it with me again AND we didn't have to stand in line!! IT was AWESOME. It was hands down the best ride we rode. LOVED the Aerosmith songs blaring and the 0-60 mph in 2 seconds and the upside down in the dark thrills were great too! Another high profile ride was Toy-Story Mania. If you don't look at any of the links, you HAVE to look at this one. This ride was amazing. We stood in line for 20 minutes just to get the Fast Pass. When we returned to ride it 3 hours later the stand by wait time was 120 minutes...2 hours wait time. We enjoyed just walking onto the ride. The Fast Passes for the day were out in 2 hours. CRAZY!! IT was a fantastic ride though. We stayed at Hollywood Studios from open to close that day. We rarely did that but was just having so much fun. 95% of the rides located here we rode. The Star Wars one we rode 3 times. The kids loved it. We stayed late to watch Fantasmic, the laser water light show that evening. We waited 2 hours in line for a good seat. It was SOOOO worth it!! Here are crazy pictures while we were waiting: Mom was a sucker for light saver souvenir's that lite up and changed color's.
The kids could of played at the "Honey I Shrunk the Kid's" playground for hours. We definitely relaxed there while they played.

Aside from the night firework shows the BEST show we saw was the "Light's, Motor, Action, Extreme Stunt Show! Check it out! Here we were waiting for them to open the doors. Once again we had AWESOME seats. I have 2 FANTASTIC books that helped me plan this trip. If you are planning on taking the plunge and going to Disney, email me and I will tell you which ones. They were invaluable!!

In front of the Star Tours ride they had an "Imperial Speeder" that the kids got to sit on. I had to make Addyson sit on it but she loved it once she was on it. The boys LOVED it!!




While poor Addyson endured the endless waiting with me while the boys were riding the "grown up rides" she posed for a cute picture.

At Disney they take pictures of you and group them all together on our Photopass card. When we got home I plugged in our photopass numbers and all the photo's from the trip they took were grouped together. I can share them with you if you let me know you want me to. Comment on my blog or shoot me an email and I will invite you to look at them.
Next up...Magic Kingdom and the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique where they turned Addyson into a PRINCESS!! She LOVED it!!!!!!!!

Animal Kingdom

We went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. It was not our favorite park, but one we enjoyed. I think the horribly hot and humid weather with no breeze probably added to the less than enjoyable time at Animal Kingdom, plus it was Saturday and was definitely more busy than Epcot was the prior day. We stayed from 8-1. We took our lunch into the park and that worked really well. We decided to do it every day like that. Our favorite attractions at Animal Kingdom were the Kilimanjaro's Safari, Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, and Primeval Whirl. The Safari was awesome and Addyson LOVED it. Everyone but Addyson loved the Dinosaur ride. It took you back into time like Jurassic Park did and at one point a HUGE T-Rex jumped out at us. The picture from the ride was priceless. I had her head in my lap and her eyes were covered the whole time. She has no idea what the ride was even about. If we have any chance of getting her out of our bed at night, shielding her from that ride was a wise choice! The boys all rode Expedition Everest. It is one of the Roller Coasters that Animal Kingdom is famous for. We went there first since the line was small. I had a rule that anything that Addyson was big enough for she was riding. We made it to the front and her heart was beating out of her chest and she was bawling before we even got on the ride. I made a quick decision to not make her ride it and it turned out to be a good one. Todd and the boys LOVED it. Todd said it was way to intense for her and we are glad we opted out at the absolute last minute!! The boys and I rode Primeval Whirl and waited for an hour in line! They were not taking fast passes for that ride and we thought it was going to be awesome. We were so disappointed. Addyson was too short but would of loved it. The large playground at the park, the kids posed all on their own for these pictures. They are so funny!!

She tried so hard to do what the boys did!
Being silly one more time!

Then dad said NO more! We want a good picture!
We were waiting for "It's a Bugs Life" 3D and a really nice lady took a family picture. There were so many 3 D shows in all the parks. Some were really great. This one wold of scarred any little children. Thank goodness ours loved it!!

Carved from wood!! WOW

Look at the carvings in the tree. There were so many like this. They were really neat!
This is Expedition Everest!

Next up, Hollywood Studios! It was every one's favorite that was over 7 years old. Addyson loved Magic Kingdom the best!

Epcot, 1st full day at Disney

We started the Disney World journey at Epcot. We started there because I had reservations in Norway for our character lunch with the princesses. Pictures below. We also met all the other characters. It was a SUPER way to start our vacation. Epcot ranked up there as being one of our favorite parks. We LOVED the ride Soarin' and Addyson will tell you it was her favorite. We rode it twice thanks to the Fast Pass. The boys LOVED Mission-Space. Addyson and I opted for the "less intense" green version while the boys did the full force orange version. To give you a little glimpse at how intense it is, each seat is equipped with barf bags! The boys loved it! Todd didn't enjoy it as much. We also loved Test Track. Picture to follow. It was a 5 minute ride that went 60mph at one point! Addyson loved Nemo and Friends. They also talked with Crush from Nemo in an interactive show. It was really neat!! It rained daily on us so during one of the down pours we took the time to stand in doors and visit some of the characters. Here are the pictures.
I just LOVED the pictures with Addyson and Minnie. Minnie LOVED her outfit and Addyson's smile never went away!

Look how cool Kamron is, they didn't enjoy the characters as much as Addyson did. (Or so they said)

The one who started it all... Mickey!!
Here we are at the Princess lunch. Focus on Addyson's face. It was priceless. I am only posting a few, I have a ton catching her staring at the princesses. She truly 100% thought they were the "real" princesses. She even told me that they slept in the castle every night.
Ariel from Little Mermaid:
Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty:

Addyson talking with Cinderella.

Snow White, Addyson's favorite.

LOVE this picture of her! It captures her whole emotion when she saw each princess this is the look she had!

Family Picture with Bealle from Beauty and the Beast.

Eating our exquisite lunch at Norway.



Epcot has the famous jumping water. Guess how many pictures I had to take to catch the water in mid air! LOL
Waiting for test track!! The first ride we rode!! I love this picture of the boys. They LOVE the roller coasters! Can't say I blame them, I do too!!




Looking at the sting rays waiting for "Crush" to start.

One of Addyson's favorite rides, Nemo


Test Track!!!!

Next up, Animal Kingdom!!