a short day at hollywood studios

i'm skipping our epcot day because it was our favorite, and i want to save it until last... so let's move on to thursday morning! we arrived at hollywood studios and rushed to the back of the park to get our fastpasses for toy story mania. we knew we only wanted to spend half a day at this park, so we hoped we'd get a fastpass time that was not too late. those toy story fastpasses go really quickly! our fastpass time was for 11:30, which was perfect. we also got right in to meet buzz and woody before a line began, which was a great way to start our morning!

they had different props for the kids to mess around in while you're standing in line, but there was no line! :)


we were surprised that buzz stamps his name instead of signing it! i guess those space rangers are pretty efficient guys!


i loved that the floor looked like we were standing on andy's bed with the toys. :) clever!


besides toy story mania, the other "must-do" for us at hollywood studios is the animation academy. in this class, a disney artist teaches you how to draw a disney character.


brian l-o-v-e-s this class. in february, brian went to the animation academy alone, but this time, i thought ethan would really love it too. at least to watch daddy draw if he wasn't interested in drawing anything... and i was right. he did love it! for this class, we drew pluto. ethan let daddy worry about pluto while he busied himself drawing miniature slingshots and other doodles at the bottom of the page. :) here are my boys after the class.


now the animation academy's classroom has swivel stools that are attached to the desks behind you, and they are kind of a hazard for small children... so caroline had to sit in my lap. "sit" isn't really an accurate word, but anyway... let's just say that i had a little trouble keeping my drawing neat and tidy. but in the end, i was pretty happy with my pluto! i was just going for recognizable, but i don't think he looks that bad! especially for having a wriggly 3 year old in my lap!


after the drawing class, we crossed the park to make the first beauty and the beast show, caroline's favorite part of hollywood studios. it really is a great show, even if you're not eating and sleeping princesses like my caroline. ethan was on the edge of his seat for the whole show, despite seeing it just 3 months ago. i put the camera away for this one and just enjoyed it!

after beauty and the beast, we retraced our steps and got in line for toy story mania. the queue for this ride is so interesting-- but we shouldn't be surprised, right!? there are giant toys everywhere, like tinkertoys, dominoes, and playing cards. the ceiling is covered with game boards, like checkers and chutes and ladders.


i am determined to eventually get some good pictures on this ride, but it's a challenge since you spin around from station to station! all the carnival games are so fun... and the kids enjoy it even if they aren't very good at it. ethan and brian rode separately from me and caroline, so i have no pictures of ethan on his favorite ride. but here is a not-so-thrilled caroline being spun around a little too much...


the last attraction we went to before leaving the park was the star wars jedi training. ethan didn't want to ride star tours on this trip, but he was so into watching all these kids fight darth vader and darth maul with their light sabers! and his daddy was maybe kind of into it a little bit too... :) caroline and i were not so much into it and were hot and tired, so we went shopping while the guys cheered on all the padawans. i am not exaggerating when i tell you that over half of our day's pictures were of stormtroopers, the darths, and the jedi! but at least we did not come home with a $25 light saber.


we saw what we came to see at hollywood studios, and we were ready to get back to the condo for lunch and a long afternoon nap! there's some other shows at hollywood studios that we enjoy, and we still haven't seen their parade.... but this time around, it was nice to take a mid-day break before heading back to the magic kingdom for the evening. this may very well be my shortest disney post ever! only 10 pictures!? hardly any characters!? well, i will make up for it in my next post. epcot was our most fun-filled park by far. lots and lots to tell about! be back soon from "the big ball", as my kids call it!

going wild at animal kingdom!

our second (hot) day at disney was spent at the animal kingdom! i wish this park was open later... each time i've been, i've felt like 5:00 came way too quickly! :( this time, we did get to do pretty much everything we'd set out to see, but it just felt wrong leaving before sundown, you know!?

as soon as we got there, we headed over to africa to pick up fastpasses for the safari. while we waited for our fast pass time, we walked through the pangani forest exploration trail to try to get a good look at the gorillas. they must've been sleeping in some shade because we really didn't see any close up this time around. there were some off in the distance, but nothing worth getting out the camera for. i did get a great shot of a sign, though. :)


disney has done a fabulous job with the "feel" of the animal kingdom. granted, i've never actually been to africa or asia, so i can't say how authentic the disney versions are compared to the real places... but it's pretty amazing to walk around and look at the surroundings. and these guys also do a great job at making you feel like you're there...


i wondered how many animals we'd really see on the safari this time since it was significantly warmer than our last trip, but i am happy to report that we saw lots and lots! we even saw two lions this time!! we were in the back of the vehicle, which meant a pretty bumpy ride... but it also meant that i could turn around behind me and snap some pictures of the wildlife! here is ethan loving the safari in his leopard shirt. :)


caroline had a better view (and a more shock-absorbant seat!) in daddy's lap.


the beautiful (fake) savannah. again, i've never been to an actual savannah, but this is lookin' pretty real to me.


an ostrich struttin' its stuff....


and my favorite on the safari... the giraffe.


the safari is definitely one of our family's favorite disney experiences! after leaving africa, we headed to asia. though we knew we weren't going to ride expedition everest, we just wanted to get close to it and watch the people scream as they fly out of the mountain! brian found a great shirt in their gift shop on clearance (clearance! at disney! who knew!!), and i was totally entertained by observing all the everest riders who were catching their breath in the gift shop after their ride. :) while we were in asia, we went to the "birds of wonder" show. we'd never seen this show before, though i'd heard it was a great one. indeed it was! they show birds' amazing abilities in their natural environment--loved it! it was also a hilarious show. the cast had us laughing through the whole thing. most of the show was too swoopy and too quick to even try to take pictures of... but brian did get this shot of a bald eagle!


after the show, we visited the maharaja jungle trek, where we saw the really cool tigers last time. they were sleeping in the shade this time (don't blame them!!), but the kids still seemed amazed to see tigers! sleeping! from really far away! wow! i love this picture of caroline's sweet little hand on the glass as she peers at the snoozing tiger. can you see him!?


speaking of sleeping animals, we did see some really cool bats. we stood in front of a bunch of windows to look at a large number of bats sleeping upside down on trees and some banners hung like clotheslines across the habitat area. i wanted to take a picture of the bats (for nancy since bats are her favorite! just kidding, nancy!!!), so i got right up to the window... and then i realized there was no glass. i was momentarily freaked out at the thought of a bunch of bats being less than 10 feet away from me with nothing to stop them from eating my face... but i got over it and snapped this picture. (nancy, close your eyes and scroll down real fast.)


here are brian and caroline looking at some animals... i can't remember which ones they were watching at this point, but i can guarantee you it wasn't the bats... caroline was not smiling this big at those bats!!


my one hang-up with animal kingdom is that they talk ad nauseum about how endangered all these animals are and how their greatest enemy is (insert evil, sinister music)... MAN! (cue lightning and a wicked laugh.) the ironic thing is that right after the statement that we are the reason these animals are endangered, we listened as disney boasted about how they (men, remind you) saved these animals. ok...soooo.... man is the enemy... man is the hero... which is it?! it just got old. everywhere we turned, we were subjected to the glorification of these animals. now please, before you call the humane society on me... i know. these beautiful creatures are God's creation. they are amazing and gorgeous and i think they should be taken care of. however, i also know that God created us, man, in His image. we are different than the animals. no matter how smart an animal may be, God did not make them like us. We are the image-bearers of God. the animals are not. and i betcha 70 frozen lemonades that these same people who would have a fit if you hurt an endangered owl would not bat an eyelash at the millions of unborn babies slaughtered each year in this country. it really, really bugged me. and i can guarantee you that the people in front of me wherever we happened to be know my feelings on this. :) i'm a little outspoken, you know. ok, getting off my soapbox now. time for the lion king show!

the festival of the lion king was one of the kids' favorites again. you just can't help but singing along in this one!!! the costumes are such an eyeful-- there is definitely always something to look at during the show!!




children are chosen to dance with the cast in the finale, and our kids were asked to be a part this time! ethan declined the offer, but caroline gladly hopped down to dance. we didn't really get any good pictures of her, but i had to include this one to at least document that she was a part of a disney show. :) i promise she enjoyed it, even though she doesn't look like it in this picture!!


after the lion king show, we staked out a shady spot for the jungle jammin' parade. i hunted down the frozen lemonade stand, and we enjoyed our (now mandatory) cool treat while we waited for the parade to start. we'd never seen this parade, so i had no idea what to expect.... well.... let me tell you... this is such a neat parade! i expected the typical animal characters to come by... which they did... but i did not expect these ginormous puppet-like animal contraptions to come rolling down the street! how amazing are these!? i think the short video helps you see how cool these were in motion...






i read that these parade contraptions were designed by the same company who created the puppets for the lion king broadway show. quite an imagination. my engineering-minded guys were totally enthralled during the parade.

and never fear, mickey and all the gang were there as well!


each one of their floats were as if they were going to a safari... donald was taking a boat, and check out minnie's polka-dot ride! she's taking her bathtub! (which was blowing bubbles...) and a whole lot more! :)


just take a look at all the loot goofy is taking... a grill, golf clubs, a broom.. love all the disney details!


here's brer rabbit...


we ended our day with my very favorite... finding nemo the musical!


a family gave us their reserved seating tickets, so we were guaranteed a great seat with no waiting in line! we had literally a front row seat to the sea creatures that made their way through the audience. the swordfish jousted right in front of us! (it's hard to understand what they're saying in this video... but at least you can see how close they were to us!)


and here i am with my kiddos as we wait to sing "go with the flow oh oh oh oh oh oh!"


please do not go to disney without seeing this show!!! it was just as good the second time around! i can't help but share a little video from the final number with all the bubbles falling from the ceiling! (and i never said i was a good videographer...)


as much as i hated that animal kingdom closes early, it was good to get out of there before we were absolutely bushed. our condo was right outside the park, so we were able to get back quickly and get the kids in bed early. they got a very, very, very (much needed) good night's sleep, and they were up at 6 am wednesday morning ready to roll!!

disney: just as magical the second time around!

we had another fun-filled week in disney world with ethan and caroline two weeks ago! i was so excited to be able to use our passes again before disney gets packed for the summer! we left amelia in good hands with my mom and aunt kristie, and we were on our way. i am sure amelia enjoyed her week at home (and in aunt kristie's pool!) much more than sweating profusely while missing her naps and being confined to a stroller and a carrier for 5 days! and while i did miss my sweet baby girl, it was truly a treat to get to spend this special time with my other two babies! and i did not miss pushing that double stroller down a very busy main street for one single second!!!

when i planned this trip for early may, i envisioned somewhat warm weather with cool morning breezes and nice evening temperatures. ummmmm, no. my weather ideals were apparently a week off... it was H.O.T. i'm talkin' mid 90's at dinnertime. i was told that we missed the nice spring weather by just a few days (and that it's usually just in the 80s this time of year)! we had not had real hot weather at home yet either, so it took us all a couple of days to adjust to all the sweating and the not being able to breathe in the heavy humidity... especially since all ethan and caroline knew of disney is to be freezing their cute little tooshies off. by the second day, ethan asked me, "does muggy mean the same as hot?!" i had to laugh... i guess i'd been saying "muggy" a lot since we'd arrived! and disney knows how to capitalize on hotness and mugginess.... we saw these seventeen dollar misting fan contraptions everywhere. ethan was absolutely convinced that life could not go on until we owned one of these spray fans. i deemed them our disney villain for the week. :) you usually end up splurging on something at some point in your disney trip... but i was bound and determined not to play my splurge-card on a ridiculously overpriced spray bottle! ethan got the picture that we would not be buying one, but he continued to look hopelessly at the foreign and american children alike who sprayed away as they walked past us. we got plenty of second-hand spray during the week, which was far from refreshing, lemme tell you.

ok, on with the fun! we did have fun! so. so. so much fun! we visited magic kingdom for our very first day again. our goal was to first see the parts that we didn't get to last time, while also making time for our favorite rides. as soon as the park opened, we booked it straight to dumbo to beat the long, slow lines. i took pictures of ethan and brian riding, since brian got pictures of me and caroline last time... but i am evidently not too talented at taking pictures of a flying elephant while also riding and steering my own flying elephant. so the best one i got was before we got off the ground... (but isn't the castle so beautiful in the background?!!?)


after dumbo, we hopped on a boat to ride it's a small world. this was the one ride i really wished we'd not skipped last time, and i was right. the kids loved it. this was the one ride they asked to ride again. i guess i was smitten with this ride, too, because i failed to get a picture of the kids riding their favorite ride. :( i was having so much fun pointing out all the details to the kids to worry about taking very many pictures. ethan did request that i videotape the whole ride when we rode it a second time... so at least i have that for the kids to relive. :) here's a shot of one of the scenes... can't you just hear those little ducks quacking?! :)


so as you can already tell, we tried to just enjoy this time with our kids and not worry about getting pictures of every little thing. (gasp!) never fear, we still took a ton of pictures... but there are just some rides and shows that are tough to capture on camera, and you just have to put the camera away and relax. brian will tell you there were many times, though, where i'd give him back the camera to put away only to ask for it again in a few minutes. :) ha. one of these days, i may get a good picture of us riding peter pan... it is such a cute ride. but i have yet to even try. i'm always wisked away to neverland before i can get my camera out. :)

so after it's a small world, we headed over to toontown and got in line to see cinderella. we missed her the last time because of freezing rain and feverish kids, so i wanted to make sure caroline was able to see her this time. the line was only 15 minutes long for the princesses, which probably felt like 150 minutes to the brother who did not want to meet the princesses. it was a good lesson for him in putting others before yourself, and before long, we were next in line to meet sleeping beauty, cinderella, and belle. here is caroline closing those lips, which she did not open again until we left the presence of the princesses. cinderella's words to her were, "i hope you get your voice back, princess!" (umm, could i please rent a princess for my home? really. just every day from 10-12 would work.)


you might want to put your sunglasses on before the bright gold princess curtains blind you! this was quite a contrast to meeting the princesses in epcot, where they're outside among beautiful gardens and in natural light... but caroline did not seem to mind. and the air-conditioning was nice.

caroline had a quick visit with sleeping beauty....i think caroline was thinking about meeting cinderella.


i think she's loving finally meeting cinderella, what do you think!?



and she also finally got to meet belle in her yellow dress! the only belle we saw last time was provincial belle in her apron... so this was a treat for caroline as well. while this belle did not exactly remind me of disney's belle, she was really fun with the kids. she saw ethan hanging out at a safe distance away from the princesses, and she talked to caroline about her "beast". she asked if her brother took care of her just like the beast takes care of belle. here they are talking about their beasts. (keep those shades on for belle's BRIGHT! YELLOW! DRESS!)


with caroline on cloud nine and ethan ready to do something for boys, we headed to mickey's house. this is such a cute walk-through, with so many fun details for the kids to notice. we leaned our heads too far into the kitchen for a picture and set off the alarm! haha! here are the kids in front of the huge front door.


brian had fun showing ethan all the disney details in mickey's garage, like the "craftmouse" tools and the clamps just like daddy's.


i got a kick out of these overalls hanging in the garden!


we decided to skip the hour long wait to meet mickey and headed over to minnie's house next.


i guess everyone else decided to do the same thing because minnie's house was packed! there were so many cute things i wanted to get pictures of with the kids, and it was virtually impossible with all the people in there! like this picture for example... i didn't even have time to get a sharper picture with the flash on because some old ladies were rushing the sewing machine! haha! but i had to include this picture for gram and all my quilting friends!


minnie's kitchen was really fun. caroline loved this teaset, and ethan had a ball watching the popcorn "pop" in her microwave.


we left crazy toontown and walked over to tomorrowland. we rested our feet and cooled off during the monsters, inc. laugh floor show and then rode buzz lightyear's space ranger spin. ethan and brian had a "blast" on this ride!


we ate our packed lunch and then headed back to toontown to ride the train around the park. we were hoping the kids would crash for a little while on the train, but when it was obvious that naps weren't happening, we got off at adventureland. i reaaaaally wanted the kids to enjoy the swiss family treehouse, but it was the heat of the day, and they were tired, and as we approached the awesome treehouse, i honestly expected to have to carry caroline the whole way. i was so glad to be wrong! the trees provided some cool shade, and there were just enough slower, older people walking ahead of us to make it a leisurely walk up all the stairs. ethan and caroline both loved exploring this treehouse. ethan's favorite part was the waterwheel.


we stopped awhile to watch the water. the kids were pretty amazed.


i loved the bunk beds!


we got a big kick out of the pirate's tutorial, which is right outside the pirates of the caribbean. jack sparrow teaches young boys how to sword fight, and while ethan did not want to participate, he sipped his frozen lemonade and enjoyed every minute of the show. and caroline sang "yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" at the top of her lungs (since there were no princesses around).


the pirates of the caribbean ride is one of the rides that ethan absolutely loved last time and did not want to ride this time... see, before, he had no knowledge of the small drop down that the boat makes at the beginning of the ride. it didn't seem to bother him last time, but i suppose he has had 3 months to think about it, and he was not going on it again. the same held true for his very favorite epcot rides, test track and soarin'. we didn't want to force ethan to ride something that he genuinely didn't want to ride, but we knew he'd enjoy pirates once he was on it... plus, we really wanted to ride it! so, we convinced him that he'd have fun, and he agreed to ride... the pirates gun that he got to take on the ride helped a little too. :) and sure enough, he loved that ride again as much as the first time!

our last ride in adventureland was the jungle cruise! we didn't get to ride this one last time either, so the kids were so excited to get on the boat and see the fake animals. i forgot that this is a slap-stick jungle tour, and i was laughing so hard at all the punny jokes. (you should not be surprised.) jen and sam, you'd have loved this one!!! again, no pictures of this one... we weren't really ever sure when we were gonna get sprayed by an animatronic hippo, so we didn't get the camera out much on the boat.

so, once you've been at disney most of the day, and you're hot and exhausted, what's the best thing to do!? make your kids stand in front of cinderella's castle for pictures! we started off with a family picture, thinking that if we got nothing else, at least we got our family shot there. i was determined to not have 7,000 of our closest disney touring friends in this picture with us, so we took these real quick. i was pretty happy with this one. but do not be deceived. the park was packed this day.


i loved the first picture of ethan and caroline that we took in front of the castle (at the top of this post), but i wanted one with their ears on too... so they got back into place with their ears on and stood like they'd never met each other...


so i said, "c'mon, act like you love each other!" well, apparently that meant to dip your sister like you're on a dancing reality show because the next thing i knew, they were falling backwards into walt's flower bed...


and yes, i still have some normal motherly instincts left in me because rather than snapping a picture of them laying helplessly in the bed of petunias (or whatever they are...), i actually went to their rescue. and probably banged the camera on the railing in the process. now i wish i had that picture.

ethan and caroline were unharmed, but i'm afraid i can't say the same for the flower bed...


we did finally get a brother-sister picture of the kids with their ears... though it looks as if caroline is still thinking about that flower bed plunge!


i joked around with the photographer standing nearby about them falling in the flowers, and he was sure to let me know that it was a good thing security didn't see them because you are not supposed to cross the railing! um, yes, i know that. he acted as if they'd kick us out of the park for our flowerbed accident! then again, couple that infraction with the alarm going off in mickey's kitchen, and yep, we're nothing more than bonafide disney perps. shhh, don't tell them that we ate our packed lunches in their air-conditioned cafeteria! (i guarantee you by opening the next morning, that flower bed was as good as new.)

so we pretty much fled the scene of the castle and headed back to fantasyland. there was no wait for the carousel, so we hopped right on.


and before i could get the pictures i really wanted, we hopped back off! that was the shortest carousel ride ever. but before we stopped, i snapped these sweet pictures of my kiddos.



by the time we rode peter pan, i was just about ready to call it a day. we were really hoping to stay until closing to see the spectromagic parade and the amazing fireworks, but as we wearily walked back toward tomorrowland, i knew we wouldn't make it. ethan and brian wanted to ride the race cars, and caroline wanted to ride the teacups, so we split up for those last rides. we got two rides on the teacups in before brian and ethan met back up with us! i love that my daughter's biggest thrill has no lines!! i had fun snapping away at her on the teacups. i thought this one really captured the essence of the ride: it's just one big blur!


i'm so glad she loves this ride!!!


when the teacup stopped, she exclaimed, "i want to ride it FIVE MORE TIMES!"


i was not surprised that ethan loved the cars! he didn't want to drive the first time, but as soon as he saw how much fun daddy was having, ethan asked to drive... so they rode it a second time with ethan driving, and i was able to get pictures since we were finished on the teacups!


i was getting a headache by this point (all the squinting? i hate sunglasses... and maybe from breathing all the exhaust from the cars as we waited for brian and ethan to turn that corner?? i don't know...), so we decided to call it a day, knowing we'd have other days we could come back. the kids did not protest one bit. they'd had a full, fun day, and they were pooped. i guess i wasn't feeling that bad on our way out because i managed to snap a couple more pictures. i love these bundles of disney balloons! i refuse to buy one (again, saving that splurge-card!), but aren't they picture perfect!?


and we ended the day with one of our kids' favorite rides... the monorail. and isn't the grand floridian so beautiful in the background!? i love the amazing deal we got on our condo, but before i die, i would love to slap down that splurge-card and stay at the grand floridian. i think i may have mentioned this to brian a few hundred times this week. :)



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we ventured back to the magic kingdom on thursday night after our short day at hollywood studios and a big fat nap. we rode it's a small world another time and then joined the masses to camp out for the spectromagic parade. the kids ate their sandwiches with daddy, and i ran to tomorrowland to get a burger for me and brian. we loved splitting the double bacon cheeseburger! we just bought an extra bun and it was two meals for the price of one! we finished our burgers just in time for the parade to start, and wow. i love the spectromagic parade. here's mickey all lit up.


after i took a few pictures, i just decided to enjoy it. and then i decided i needed to videotape it. :) here's a little snippet for you. after you hear me lament about mary poppins going to the other side of the street, you can hear ethan exclaim, "i saw mary poppins!" when he's 10, i'll really love those little things on video.




after the parade was over, we, like everyone else there, headed toward the exit to watch the fireworks. it's amazing that main street itself is not one giant fire hazard. we moved like cattle for awhile and then just decided to stay put on an empty piece of sidewalk that i grabbed. nevermind there was a big fat lightpole obscuring our view! we weren't goin' anywhere. and really, they are amazing fireworks no matter what may be blocking your view a little. call me sentimental, but it's hard to watch those fireworks without getting a little choked up. they are beautiful. i usually do ok until they play the music with the children singing. it gets me everytime. (my mom is very proud right now. i used to always make fun of her crying at everything.) so we just enjoyed the fireworks without any documentation. can you believe it!? it's like they never happened. but they did. i promise. the kids can tell you all about tinkerbell flying down from the castle and everything. ethan and caroline enjoy a good fireworks show as long as their hands are free...


one last picture from our night there... brian captured the castle in all its evening glory. isn't it beautiful?


so that's our magic kingdom story for this trip. i'm sure the next time we go back, the kids will want to head straight for it's a small world... we'll stop and admire the amazing castle... and we'll try to stay out of walt's flowers. i'll be back soon with some wild pictures from the animal kingdom!