Insert pause here

I am taking a short "pause" from Disney blogging to post other news.

My birthday was last week and I had a wonderful day! We went out to Red Lobster for dinner (lots! of shrimp!) and got pumpkin cheesecake from Barnes and Noble for dessert. YUM! I would like another piece please! We also did a little shopping at Target.

From the kiddies I got some "comfy pants and a comfy shirt." Exactly what I asked for. Now I just need longer legs. I am not the giant that these pants were made for! Oh well. I guess they can be hemmed. I got some scrapbooking stuff and a new book and some money for new books from family people (you know who you are-thank you!). Daddy always gets me the ESPN college football game plan package. This year I am watching FSU not do so swell.

To back up a few days before my birthday, Daddy had a work dinner downtown that he had to help set up. For his hard work, he got to bring home one of the beautiful centerpieces!

This week (Monday) I finally got my haircut! I was waiting til after Disney (so I could put it up while we were in HOT Florida!) I took this picture of my self, so keep that in mind. And do you like the huge pile of hair?

Hollywood Studios-Tuesday

Tuesday morning we went to Hollywood Studios. We decided to go there that day since they opened early; however, that did mean that they closed early that night too. Which wasn't a bad thing: #1 we had a late night the night before #2 we could get to bed early Tuesday night #3 we went swimming Tuesday before bed.

There were 2 major things that were on the "must do" list for Hollywood Studios: The Star Wars attraction and the Indiana Jones show. We also did the Toy Story Midway Mania, the Beauty and the Beast Musical, and Daddy and I did the Rock 'n' Roller coaster.

So let's start with the Star Wars tour. We knew C would be tall enough; K was a question. We got up to the line and ----she wasn't tall enough. She cried and cried! Poor thing! And I really don't see why she couldn't have ridden that. It is just a simulator where you sit in a seat and watch a movie while your "ship" shakes all around. She would have been fine. So my mom sat outside with her while the rest of us rode. I can remember riding this ride when Daddy and I were at Disney for our honeymoon. We stood in line for awhile (we saw Chewy while we waited). This time we walked right in! Didn't even need a FastPass! We did walk through slowly so that we could see R2D2 and C3PO and some of the other "droids" that were being worked on. C LOVED the ride! After the ride, you exited through the store--of course. The guys spent some time in there looking while I went out and found mom and K. We also waited while the guys watched an interactive show, Jedi Training Academy, outside the ride. Young "Jedis in training" were selected from the audience to battle Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers. C did NOT get picked but he still really enjoyed watching the whole thing.

The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular became both my kiddies favorite thing of the entire day. The show uses professional stunt crews to demonstrate stunts with a blend of behind the scenes information. A boulder chases Indy, Marion gets stuck in the cockpit of a small plane, gasoline spills catch on fire...... It is kinda cool, and once again we didn't have any wait. Afterwards, we stayed seated for a time to let the crowd disperse. I am so glad we waited because Indiana Jones and Marion came out to sign autographs and take pictures! Both of the kids have commented on meeting them! I think it is one of my favorite pictures of them too. They both have really good smiles. So neat!

One of my favorite rides of all Disney was the Toy Story Mania ride. K was big enough to ride (thank goodness) and it was such a fun game! The ride is located down a "street" that has all kinds of Toy Story "props." They have huge game pieces, the monkeys, even the Pixar lamp. The lamp "comes out" and "puts on a show" to different Toy Story music. It's really cute. Anyway. The ride is a 3D interactive shooting gallery. You travel through virtual booths that offer ring toss and ball throwing and other games. You use a cannon on your vehicle to play as you move through the ride. Smells, wind and water spray add to the fun as you compete with your riding mate. We all loved it! It was so much fun! It would have been worth going on again if the line hadn't been long.

We also watched the Beauty and the Beast musical. Daddy was not crazy about going to see this, but the kids, especially K, loved it. We had really good seats which made it even better. Each of the kids had a disposable camera to take pictures throughout the week. K used up at least 13 pictures at this show. It is actually really well done. I really enjoyed it too.

Daddy and I rode the Rock 'n' Roller coaster. They were still building this ride when we were here 10 years ago. It is a good coaster--for Disney. It's fast; it's in the dark; but it's really loud (Aerosmith anyone?) Would I wait hours for it? Probably not. Thank goodness for FastPass.

Lunch was at the Sci-Fi cafe and Dinner was back at the hotel that night. Besides Indiana Jones and Marion, the only other character we met was Minnie. We did see a few minutes of a parade and saw a few other characters in that-mostly from Monster's Inc ("blame the little guy; with the one eye!")

And here are some misc. pictures from DHS.

Do you like the Snow "green" White in the background?C had so much fun trying on different hats all week long. Crazy kid.Daddy thinks this is one of the funniest pictures from the whole week!Notice the light saber that C has. Remember that for a future post.

Downtown Disney-Monday

Monday after we arrived at the hotel, we took the bus to Downtown Disney. There were a few stores there that we wanted to see and we ate dinner down there. The main store that we wanted to see was the Lego store. I am not into Legos (except for C's sake) but that store was awesome! There were many huge "creations" outside of the store. Inside they had every set imaginable. Outside there were tables set up with baskets full of all kinds and colors of legos--just for kids to build. Inside there were other "creations" set up. One section of the store was called "pick a brick wall" It was a huge floor to ceiling wall where you could choose whatever you wanted and fill up a cup for a certain price. What a neat idea! C found some unique Star Wars legos that attach to magnets that he picked out and I got some cool salt and pepper shakers that look like Lego blocks. Here is proof that Stanley went with us. All these "creations" in these pictures were made of legos: the crab, the dogs, the people, the transformer, the dragon. So cool. So amazing!

We also visited the biggest Disney store ever. So cool. I could have spent so much money there. I did get a pair of salt and pepper shakers there. Mickey and Minnie sitting in a car. They had so many cute others too; Pilgrim Mickey and Minnie were my second favorite. There was also a Disney sports store that was pretty cool too. C got a baseball with Yoda and Darth Vader to add to his collection (I have GOT to figure out what to do with his collection). At the sports store you could get a personalized bat and watch them etch it.

There were so many other stores there that we could have visited, but due to the long day we decided to head home. Oh we did get a free piece of chocolate at Ghirardelli's. Very yum.

When we got back to our hotel this is what was on the bed to welcome us.

Now here are some misc. pictures from Downtown Disney.

There were 2 guys walking around on stilts. It was kinda funny to see Daddy and C next to him.

There was a T-Rex restaurant there too. I think it may have had a gift shop too but we didn't go in.

This was a "hot air balloon" that went up and down over downtown Disney. You could pay to go up and look out over everything. That would have been awesome! I saw some people were in it once it got dark, looking out over everything all light up.

So that was day one. Oh, I did forget to mention that when we got back to the room our luggage had not been delivered. PANIC. Actually it was at the front desk. They had tried to deliver it but we had locked our door and went out through mom and dad's room. It ended up getting delivered within 30 minutes; but that was 30 minutes we had to wait for jammies for the kids to get to bed. Oh well.

Yummo!

We ate so good at Disney! We had the dining plan that included one snack, one quick service (fast food), and one sit down meal per person per day. We didn't have to pay anything except the gratuity (that was kinda confusing-another story).

Monday night we ate at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. What a neat atmosphere and good food. I had what they called "LA lasagna" It was fried lasagna. I've had fried lasagna before but this was sooooooo good. Very rich. My mom had a very good cob salad. It was fun to see some of the movie memorabilia there. My favorite was the Herbie car hanging from the ceiling. We also saw some gold bricks from Goldfinger (James Bond-Daddy's fav) and the idol from Indiana Jones (C's fav-even though he's never seen the movies) And even better, there was no wait (amazing since I had called for many days in advance to get reservations and was told there were no openings)

Tuesday our big meal was in Hollywood Studios at the SciFi cafe. It was a drive-in-movie type theater with very old SciFi clips playing. It was a neat experience. I had a very good turkey bacon sandwich with avocado mayo on it. It was pretty yummy. My mom had ribs which were good too. That night we ate back at our hotel's food court. This was considered a quick service or "fast food" meal. But the meals were huge! My dad got a full turkey dinner! Daddy and I got a nice sized chicken Cesar salad. For a "food court" meal, the food was pretty good.

Wednesday we ate in Magic Kingdom. The restaurant was called Tony's and was based on the movie Lady and the Tramp. They had the table decorated with confetti for my birthday. I had mushroom stuffed ravioli. The kids had regular ravioli shaped like Mickey Mouse. For dessert I had pumpkin cheesecake. It was so creamy! During dinner, there was a parade down the street. The kids and I left the table and went to the porch to watch for a few minutes.

Thursday we had a character meal at 2:30 in Epcot's Akershus restaurant. It's a castle in the Norway section of the countries. The food was FABULOUS! Everyone got to start out with the buffet which had salads, shrimp, meat, cheeses and fruits. Mom and I had a salmon burger that was so yummy! While we were eating, the Princesses walked around for autographs and pictures. We met Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), Cinderella, Jasmine, and Snow White. K had gotten a small wand (in the dentist's office treasure chest no less) that she took with her to this meal. She had to show every princess that stopped at our table. It was so neat! The meal was yummy, and the billed proved it! For all 6 of us I think it was close to $200! But it was all covered on the dining plan (except for the tip). So awesome!

Friday we had another character meal at a nearby resort (so much nicer than ours). It was Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. This was a buffet, again with very good food! They had salmon, ribs, turkey, pastas, bread, soup and a big dessert bar. I got a cupcake with a candle on top for my birthday. At one point, all the characters sang and danced for everyone's "celebrations." This bill was pretty pricey too. Friday night we had hot dogs at Casey's Corner. Good hot dogs. Daddy and I ate there way back on our honeymoon.

Through all the meals and snacks, I still think we ended up not using maybe one meal each. We were able to "downgrade" a few into snacks to snack on before we went to the airport. I would say the nicest thing was that I didn't have to think of the meal, cook it, or clean up!

Disclaimer: All character pictures will be featured on a later post. Stay tuned!

It's a bird, it's a plane!

Here is the start of many posts to tell you all about our trip to Disney! We had such a good time! Hot would be an understatement though. But some of that later.

We flew out last Monday. The kids were excited about flying. C had flown a few times before, but he doesn't remember any of those times. (They were all before he was 2 and we didn't have to pay for his ticket.) I had packed their "back-kacks" with stuff that they hadn't seen before we left. They were dying to see what was in there. It's the small things in life.

We looked around the airport before we went through security. We found a Harley store and took some pictures.

On the way there, C sat with me and played PSP. K sat with Daddy and watched Dora and Backyardigans (Daddy had to watch too) It seemed like the flight there went really fast.

Disney knows how to treat their guests. They picked us up, took care of our bags, got us to our hotel, delivered our bags to our rooms...... How very nice.

On the way home, they took our bags to the airport, checked us in for our flight, printed our boarding passes........ so nice.

On the way home, Daddy had both kids but K fell asleep and slept the entire 2hours! Poor thing! She was so tired after our week. This flight seemed to take forever! I guess cuz I just wanted to be home.

The Orlando airport has some cute places to take pictures.

BTW: I had heard that Orlando's airport was busy and insance to get through security. I have to agree; it was very busy! But we made it through without any problems. Future note: do NOT go through the family line unless you have to (baby formula, baby food, etc.)