We Loved Disney!!

I have always heard that Disney is a magical place. Well...it is! We had an incredible time. It was great to experience Disney for the first time..all together. I have had a very hard time deciding which pictures to share. I wanted to share ALL of them with you...but that is impossible. My grand picture total was 1379...that's my final count. So you can imagine how hard it was to narrow those down. I also wanted to post each picture and talk about each one. Well...after a couple of late nights trying to do that...I figured out that would be way toooo time consuming to do. So I chose to use slide shows. I think it works out pretty well. I hope you enjoy our pictures...I have enjoyed sharing them with you. Maybe you can take a walk down memory lane with us....or experience it through these pictures for the first time. Pictures don't do Disney any justice at all. You have to go and see it for yourself to experience all of the magic!!

We left out very early on Saturday morning. It took us a little over 11 hours to get there. I always go and get some little "surprises" to hand out to Jarrett and Blake every couple of hours along the way....you would be amazed at how that keeps them happy. That's a little tradition I have started with them anytime we go on vacation and they always enjoy it. I also rented a couple of Disney movies they hadn't seen yet and we played the license plate game on the way down and back. We didn't get all fifty states we were short 14. Boo-Hoo!

We stayed at the All Star Movies Disney Resort. We were VERY pleased with it. Our rooms were no bigger than a standard size hotel room, which didn't matter to us at all. We knew we would only be in our room long enough to shower and sleep...and that's exactly what we did. Jarrett and Blake loved the resort. As you will see in the first slide show our theme was 101 Dalmations. Blake thought the resort WAS Disney!! We kept telling him that he hadn't seen anything yet!

The next morning was Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny surprised us and left Easter baskets in our room!!! Jarrett and Blake couldn't believe it. That Easter Bunny is a good one! We hated to miss Easter Sunday at church. That was a definite first for us. It will probably never happen again. We didn't realize when we booked this trip that Easter was on that Sunday. I actually didn't even think about it. Why does Easter keep getting earlier and earlier each year?? We are going to have to start buying Easter snowsuits instead of Easter dresses!! Brrrrr!
We read from the Bible and talked with Blake and Jarrett telling them what Easter is all about. Actually, they told us all about it. Even little Blake knows exactly what Easter represents. We have fun with the Easter bunny, but our boys know that Easter is to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Then we headed out to the parks, we had mapped out our trip. I had read over a book that my friend Tanja had given to me called "The Unofficial Guide to Disney". It was alot of help...for us first timers. Thanks Tanja! One of the biggest points the book made is that if you have never visited Disney before you needed to visit the parks in this order....Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and then The Magic Kingdom. That's exactly the route that we took. The book said that Epcot was more educational and visual and that The Magic Kingdom was full of all the razzle and dazzle. It said you shouldn't go to Magic Kingdom first because it would make the other parks look a little less dazzling. I totally agreed after visiting all the parks. If we would have gone to the Magic Kingdom first....Jarrett and Blake would have been disappointed with Epcot I'm afraid. By taking the book's advise...and starting with Epcot....every day just kept getting better and better!
We really enjoyed Epcot.
When we got to the park we found out they were having an Easter egg hunt at the World Showcase. Jarrett and Blake were so excited. The Easter Bunny even showed up for some pictures. How cool is that!
Epcot had some great rides. We loved the ride "Soarin", and "Test Track"...those were our favorite rides there. We all liked "Nemo" too....especially Blake. Oh, and we loved "Turtle Talk With Crush" that was just too cute!
I had a great time visiting all the different countries...within blocks of each other! We visited Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada...within a couple of hours. How awesome is that!!

For some reason these slide shows keep going to an "add picture" screen....if that happens to you just click on the little X in the upper right hand corner of the "add picture" screen. That should take you back to the pictures.

The next day we got up and was ready to explore Animal Kingdom! Yee-Haw! To say we were excited would be an understatement! We had so much fun at Epcot...we couldn't wait to see what was in store for us at Animal Kingdom. As soon as we walked through the gates Jarrett and Blake were in amazement. Jarrett watches Animal Planet all the time on television. He was in heaven.
After being at Epcot and waiting in line for over 2 hours to ride Test Track....we quickly figured out how IMPORTANT a Fast Pass was!!! A Fast Pass allows you to swipe your park entry card and get a ticket to a ride with a return time on it...you return to that ride at the time on your ticket and you can get on the ride with little to no wait! Man..Oh..Man..I would like to pat the person on the back that came up with that ingenious idea! That saved us so much time!!
The first thing we rode of Expedition Everest. It was a indoor/outdoor high speed roller coaster. We all rode it. It was AWESOME!!!! Michael, Jarrett and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT...Blake, however, not so much. The ride has a Yeti (monster like creature that is rumored to live on Mt. Everest) that comes out at the roller coaster. Blake was having a blast until that ugly thing showed his face! That pushed Blake over the edge pretty quickly!! He was not happy. He cried. It takes ALOT to scare Blake...and that Yeti was just the right amount. Michael and I felt sooooo bad. I told Michael we were bad parents for letting him ride that. We had NO idea it was going to be that scary. He got over it pretty quickly and was ready to ride something else.
Our next adventure was Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were all pretty stoked about riding this one. We had heard alot of great things about it from our friends. It completely lived up to all the hype! About 20 people piled into an actual safari vehicle and headed out into the jungle. Jarrett and Blake thought it was the best thing EVER!! If we heard them say "Wow" once we heard it a thousand times. We saw crocodiles, zebras, hippos, giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers (and bears..OH MY! just kidding!) gazelles and rhinos just roaming around freely as we passed by. It actually felt like I was on an African safari. Disney ROCKS!
We rode several other things that we enjoyed...but, those two were our favs.

When we made it back to the resort that night we decided to get a late night snack in the food court. While we were eating two of the girls that worked there came over and asked us if we were in a hurry. Michael and I just looked at each other like....Oh no they're going to try and sell us something...it wasn't that at all. They asked if Jarrett and Blake could be the "Chef's of the Day". They got to make their own spectacular sundaes. It was so cute! Those girls made them each a little hat with their names on them...that said "Chef of the Day". They sat up a table in front of everyone, had lots of yummy toppings for their sundaes on it and Jarrett and Blake put their hats on. They were both ready to get down to business!! Then one of the girls announced at the top of her voice....."Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce Jarrett and Blake, they are our Chefs of the Day!!!" then everyone clapped for them. They both were glowing! They had a blast making their sundaes and we ALL had a blast eating them. The girls took pictures of them and printed them off for us to take home. Then, they also gave them Chef of the Day certificates, signed by Mickey Mouse himself, to bring home with them. Jarrett and Blake loved every single minute of it.

The next day we headed to Hollywood Studios. By the way...since we were staying at a Disney Resort we could take the bus back and forth from our resort to Disney each day. It was so nice to park our van and leave it and let someone else do the driving. Michael really enjoyed that. We were told a few stories about the wait time being long and that it wasn't worth it..and that it was better to drive. I couldn't disagree more....we never had to wait any longer than about 5/7 minutes. We were pleased.
When we arrived at Hollywood Studios we knew it was going to be great! Along with all of the rest of the parks....you could just walk around and look at all of the scenery all day long. We were quite overwhelmed when we walked into each park....luckly we had mapped out what we were planning to do each day. If we hadn't done that we would have been walking around aimlessly for hours upon hours.
We once again headed out to get our Fast Passes. We first rode The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Oh my goodness that was SOOOOO much fun! The ride was based on a hotel that was struck by lightening and was a gateway to The Twilight Zone. You walked into a lobby then you were boarded onto an elevator...strapped in and then DROPPED completely at random 13 stories!! WOOOO-HOOOOOO!! Can you say AWESOME!
We all loved it....ok..Blake didn't exactly love it...he liked it. We stood in line to ride it a second time another day and he backed out at the last minute. He just wasn't too sure about that ride. Blake could ride EVERYTHING in the park except the Rock'n'Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. You had to be 48" tall to ride that one and Blake is 44". 40" to 44" was pretty much the normal height requirement for most of the rides.
Next we watched a show called "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show". That was right up Jarrett and Blake's alley. It was an actual stunt show. They wrecked cars..flipped cars...raced cars...and they even set one on fire, along with the stunt man. It was pretty intense. I don't think Jarrett, Blake OR Michael blinked while they were watching it.
We also thought the Rock'n'Roller Coaster was unbelieveable!!! Not only did it have some great music blasting by Aerosmith the whole time....it shot you from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds! That thing had some MAJOR G-Forces going on! This one was my FAVORITE ride of ALL!! Like I said...Blake wasn't tall enough to ride it. So Michael and I used the parent swap (another great thing at Disney!!) and we each took turns riding it with Jarrett. Our Jarrett is definitely a thrill seeker just like his Momma and Poppa!! He loved it as much as Michael and I did. Blake loves roller coasters too....he likes going fast, he just doesn't like the scary Yeti and the Twilight Zone characters. Other than that type of stuff he does great! We will be doing alot of family roller coaster riding in the next few years! Cedar Point HERE WE COME!!
We also walked through the exhibit...Walt Disney: One Man's Dream. Michael and I really enjoyed this. Walt Disney was an extraordinary man. He had a vision of making a park for families to come to and have fun together. He accomplished that and so much more. He bought the land in Florida to construct DisneyWorld, but never lived to see it completed. He passed away suddenly at the age of 66. His brother Roy took charge and made Walt's dream come true. It was very interesting to read about his life. What a great man!
We rode several other rides that we enjoyed. We ended our evening at Hollywood Studios with a bang! We watched the show Fantasmic. It was a nighttime show with lasers, lights, dancing fountains and lots of special effects. Boy, Disney knows how to put on a show!! It was fantastic! I had tears in my eyes while I was watching it. What a way to end yet another wonderful day at Disney!

We had great weather all week. No rain, the temps were between 70 and 80 the whole time. It would be a little chilly in the evenings so on the days it was in the low 70's we would wear pants...then by the end of the week it was HOT. It only reached a high of 84 the whole time we were in Florida, but Florida's 84 and TN 84 is alot different. Alot more humid. So on Thursday we took advantage and spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the pool. Oh it was GREAT! The smell of chlorine and sunscreen/suntain lotion....two of my most favorite fragrances! I was lovin' every second of it! Laying in the sun...playing in the pool. Two of my favorite things to do!! =-) I couldn't ask for more!

Then last but certainly not least we went to Magic Kingdom. It was just beautiful! It was COMPLETELY overwhelming. Magic Kingdom was a HUGE park in itself. So much to do..so much to ride....so much to see! So much going on everywhere! It was great...just great! We spent 2 days each at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. I think you have to take at least 2 days for each of these parks to see and do everything you want to.
Soooo much to do and see....the ones that we couldn't wait to ride were...Pirates of the Carribean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. We ALL loved each and everyone of those. Blake absolutely LOVED Space Mountain...I was so afraid it was going to scare him, but he was laughing and screaming in delight the whole time.
We did alot of eating while we were at Disney. I was impressed by their food choices. Not just burgers and french fries everywhere....they had some good healthy choices. We debated on getting the meal plan that Disney offers. Which would have been $40 a day for Michael and I, then $10 a day for the kids..that included getting 3 meals a day and snacks. That sounds like a great deal at first. We decided we could do it cheaper and we opted not to do the meal plan. Disney allows you to take snacks into the park..and we took advantage of it. We would eat a good breakfast in the food court at our resort before we headed to the parks....then snack off and on until around 3:00...then eat a good dinner. We had plenty and only spent at the most $50 a day on food. We were happy. Michael and I both felt like everything was reasonably priced at Disney. We certainly didn't want to spend $700 for the week on food. YIKES!
Anyways....we ended our day at Magic Kingdom with the parade and then the fireworks. They were both just fantastic! Disney really makes you feel like a kid again. I couldn't believe how excited I would get to see those princesses...and all those characters. It was ridiculous!! LOL!! While Michael and I watched the parade and the fireworks we both got a little teary eyed. It was all so over the top wonderful, you couldn't help but to get chill bumps! The looks that we saw on Jarrett and Blake's faces were priceless. We didn't want to leave. I'm not just saying that. We actually called the night before we had to leave to try and get another nights stay. We finally regained our senses and realized all good things have to come to an end. It was really sad to leave the happiest place on earth!
I hope you enjoyed my post and our pictures. We had such a wonderful time...together as a family. I think we all agree that Disney was definitely worth the wait.
Oh..one more thing....while we were waiting in line to ride at the Magic Kingdon a lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if we were football fans. I said yes...and she proceeded to show me a picture that she took of Brett Farve earlier that day at the Magic Kingdom. He was there with his family. How cool is that!!