Showing posts with label Disneyworld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disneyworld. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
FINALLY FINISHED!!!
Hurray! I have FINALLY finished posting everything from our family vacation! It took much longer than I thought, but I wanted to include all the details for our family journal. It is a bit of a novel and I don't expect that everyone will want to read it all, but it is there for those that are interested! I am happy to have it finished so I can get some other more recent summer activities posted soon! It is fun to have all those photos up on the blog - Logan LOVES when I open the blog and read to him about Disneyworld! He will say "Tell me about Epcot" or one of the other parks. It is so funny! That is why I LOVE blogs! It helps me remember all the fun and all the everyday things that make up our life! Enjoy!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Day 7: The Animal Kingdom
For our final theme park day, we headed to the Animal Kingdom. This park is really different from all the other parks and we really enjoyed it. It is a little more relaxed and so green! 
It is beautiful! We headed straight for the Dino Land section and tried "Triceratop Spin"! It is basically a Dumbo Dinosaur ride and 
Logan LOVED it! We ended up doing it 3 or 4 times while everyone else rode the roller coaster! Rylee also went on in once and really liked it, too.Then we rode Dinosaur. It was pretty scary! It is similar to Indiana Jones at Dinsneyland with Dinosaurs. We thought about taking Logan, but he was barely too short and they wouldn't let him go, which was probably good because I seriously almost peed my pants when one of the dinos came out. My brother took a picture of the picture they took of us on the ride and I thought it was so funny! 
Logan got a little spoiled on the trip from everyone! He knew just what to say to get what he wanted - He told Aunt Heather and Uncle Jay that "a popsicle sounds good", so he of course ended up with one! He LOVED it, even though it made quite a mess!The Animal Kingdom had a lot of really fun things! The Nemo Musical was SO amazing! We all really enjoyed it! We also rode the Expedition Everest roller coaster and loved that too. 
It had a part that went backwards in the dark and did corkscrews and was SO CRAZY!!! Logan and 
Rylee also liked playing around in the boneyard and some of the fam tried the river rafting ride. Then we went on the Safari. It was pretty awesome! We saw crocs, giraffes, rhinos, 
elephants, ostriches, monkeys, zebras and lots of other antelope and stuff. I was a little bummed we didn't get to see the Lions, but it was still really cool. Logan insisted on riding the safari with Grandpa and Rylee wanted to ride with Uncle Jeff. They both loved seeing all the animals! Then we walked around some animal exhibits and saw gorillas and some other animals.
It had a part that went backwards in the dark and did corkscrews and was SO CRAZY!!! Logan and 
Rylee also liked playing around in the boneyard and some of the fam tried the river rafting ride. Then we went on the Safari. It was pretty awesome! We saw crocs, giraffes, rhinos, 
elephants, ostriches, monkeys, zebras and lots of other antelope and stuff. I was a little bummed we didn't get to see the Lions, but it was still really cool. Logan insisted on riding the safari with Grandpa and Rylee wanted to ride with Uncle Jeff. They both loved seeing all the animals! Then we walked around some animal exhibits and saw gorillas and some other animals. We saw a bird show and then were taking pictures in front of the big tree when the rain started!!! Within seconds, it was POURING
and we were all drenched! We got our ponchos on and ran half-way across the park to see the Lion King show since it was inside. It was INSANE!!! The rain was coming down so hard that even with our rain gear, we were SOAKED and running through huge puddles! We were very glad for a chance to sit down and get dry and watch the Lion King, which was also a really cool show. By the time the show was over, the rain had mostly stopped and we saw the Jammin' Jungle Parade, which the kids loved because it had so many Disney characters! 
Logan and Rylee trying to get a view of the parade!
By then, the park had mostly cleared out because of the rain so we went to meet some of the characters at Camp Mickey-Minnie. 
Logan loves meeting the characters! He gets so excited and runs right up to give them a hug and will chat to them and everything. It is the cutest thing and one of his biggest highlights. Rylee, on the other hand, is usually terrified of them but by Day 7, she was handling them very well! She loves to blow them kisses! I think she has decided if she blows them kisses from a distance, she won't have to get much closer! Because it wasn't too crowded, we got to meet Donald, Mickey, Minnie and Goofy without really a wait at all! 
We went to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. It was really fun! The kids really loved the cool rain and thunder storms that happened during dinner and all the robotic animals. They had yummy food and we got a HUGE volcano cake that was SO great! We, of course, celebrated Dean's birthday... AGAIN! I think that was cake #4! 
Rylee also loved "jumping" from stool to stool with Uncle Dean's help! She thought it was the best game and wanted to do it over and over again!
After dinner, the big kids all went on one more ride and me
and my mom took Logan and Rylee to explore the HUGE tree in the center of the Animal Kingdom. It is SO amazing! It is made up of a whole bunch of animals carved into the trunk and it is so incredible to look at! There is even stuff carved into the roots! I took SO many pictures from all different angles because I thought it was so awesome! 
Here are some of my favorites!
Logan loves meeting the characters! He gets so excited and runs right up to give them a hug and will chat to them and everything. It is the cutest thing and one of his biggest highlights. Rylee, on the other hand, is usually terrified of them but by Day 7, she was handling them very well! She loves to blow them kisses! I think she has decided if she blows them kisses from a distance, she won't have to get much closer! Because it wasn't too crowded, we got to meet Donald, Mickey, Minnie and Goofy without really a wait at all! 
We went to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. It was really fun! The kids really loved the cool rain and thunder storms that happened during dinner and all the robotic animals. They had yummy food and we got a HUGE volcano cake that was SO great! We, of course, celebrated Dean's birthday... AGAIN! I think that was cake #4! 
Rylee also loved "jumping" from stool to stool with Uncle Dean's help! She thought it was the best game and wanted to do it over and over again!After dinner, the big kids all went on one more ride and me
and my mom took Logan and Rylee to explore the HUGE tree in the center of the Animal Kingdom. It is SO amazing! It is made up of a whole bunch of animals carved into the trunk and it is so incredible to look at! There is even stuff carved into the roots! I took SO many pictures from all different angles because I thought it was so awesome! 
Here are some of my favorites!
All
in all, we really liked the Animal Kingdom, although it would have been nice to be able to really explore it a little more without all the rain! They had some really cool things and we loved the different atmosphere!We had thought that we would get back to the hotel really early, but we didn't get back until a little after 9. We hadn't been to the pool yet, so we decided we should try it out, even though we didn't head out there until almost 10! It was a little crazy, but the kids LOVED the pool and had a great time and it helped them get to sleep a little quicker! Both Logan and Rylee loved jumping into the pool and did it OVER and OVER!!! 
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Day 6: Logan's Day!
On Thursday, 
we had a bit of a day off. We were even able to sleep in a little, which we really needed. I think my kids slept in until around 8:30 or 9, which was much later than the 7:00 am wake up time the rest of the week! My brothers, dad, Darren and Heather and Jay left around 9 to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. They had a pass to go to both parks, as well as a Express pass to go to the front of all of the lines so they could fit everything in. I think they had a lot of fun on their day. With the Express pass, I think they thought they would be done really quickly, but it ended up being more stress and stuff to do than they planned, and they had more of a full day than they expected. They loved all the cool rides there, especially the roller coasters, and had a lot of fun despite a few problems. They came home pretty tired! These are a few pics of them at Universal/Islands of Adventure.
This is the crew on one of the rides - I'm not sure which one. They take up the first 2 rows.
All the boys at Islands of Adventure. Jeff, Brad, Dad, Kyle, Dean and Jay with Darren crouching in front. I think Heather is taking the picture...
Brad and Darren at the Universal entrance.
Since the Universal passes were pretty expensive and there wasn't much there for the kiddies, I decided not to go. I was a little bummed to miss out on all the fun rides, but I probably would have gotten sick anyway. My mom and sister Vanessa also stayed with me (my mom hates roller coasters and Vanessa just went to Universal last summer and didn't want to pay to go again), so we planned our own day of fun. I think they would have preferred to chill at the hotel, but I wanted to take the kids to do some fun things since we were missing out on Universal. I decided it would be Logan's Day and we could do whatever he wanted at the Magic Kingdom. Rylee is happy to go along with pretty much whatever, so I figured a day for just Logan would be great for her too. Before we left for the park, I bathed the kids, since we hadn't really had time for that. I also made them pose for these pictures. They are actually the clothes from the previous day, but since we were always in such a hurry in the mornings, I didn't get the pictures I wanted. And I tried at the park, but Rylee kept ripping off either her little 1st time button leaving a hole in her shirt, or her Mickey ears. What can you do? I thought they turned out really cute (at least them together and Logan. Rylee is a little crazy!), even if they were posed after the fact!
Then we decided to ride the Thomas train at the hotel.
Logan had seen it a few times during the week and wanted to ride, but we hadn't had time and I kept promising him that we would go. What a fiasco! We had to wait for about 20 minutes for the train to pick us up. After about 3 minutes, the train stopped and I thought 
about getting off, but decided if we waited for that long, we might as well ride a little longer. Well - It took 45 minutes to get back close to our room! Logan was very bored by then and Rylee was a mess! She was screaming because she wanted to jump off the benches while the train was moving, and being the mean mother that I am, I wouldn't let her! I had to put her in a choke hold while she screamed at the top of her lungs and squirmed to be put down! Logan kept asking when we could off - It was SO fun! We FINALLY made it back and had lunch and then headed for the Magic Kingdom.
We didn't end up getting to the park until about 3 and just missed a major rainstorm. We took the monorail over to the park, as this was Logan's request and it was HIS day. Here are the kids ready to go again!
We stopped at the 
entrance for a couple pictures and then headed for Frontierland. As we headed into the park, a few people kept staring and pointing at Rylee's stroller. I didn't think much of it - Rylee gets attention a lot at places like that - but when we stopped I found out why. She was totally passed out in her stroller with her binky half hanging out of her mouth. It was pretty humorous! 
The main reason we went back to the park was to see the Woody's Roundup show. I wasn't really sure what it was, but I knew Logan would like anything to do with Woody. Here are the kiddies waiting for the parade!
It was really cute - It was a little parade with Woody, Jessie and Bullseye and some other cowboys and cowgirls. Then they stopped and let the kids join in for some cowboy singing and dancing, like "She'll be Coming around the Mountain" and the "Hokey-Pokey". Logan had a great time dancing and playing and even managed to sneak his way right up to Woody, which I don't think he was supposed to do! There were lots of cowboys around Woody who kept trying to redirect Logan, but he just maneuvered his way through and made his way to Woody. Woody almost stepped right on him - I don't think he can see out of that suit, which is probably why they try and keep the kiddies away from him. After the show, we were able to meet Woody and Jessie, which Logan was so excited about. We were right next to Splash Mountain and Logan wanted to tell them both all about Splash Mountain. He is like a mini-tour guide! Rylee managed to sleep through the whole thing.
We finally got Logan away from Woody and Jessie, and asked him what he would like to do next. He wanted to go to Tom Sawyer Island, which is a great little play land for the kids. It was raining a little, so I was kind of nervous to go over there and get soaked, but it didn't rain too hard. Logan and Rylee 
had such a great time exploring and running all over Tom Sawyer Island. They especially liked the little tree house, the bridges and shooting guns at the Fort. We finally convinced them to leave and headed back over to the Magic Kingdom. 
There was a little show featuring Mickey and his friends that we went to next. We had missed it the day before because of rain, so we decided to check it out. The show featured Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy along with the Princesses and characters from Peter Pan. Logan and Rylee really liked it. We also took a few pictures in front of the castle.
At one point, Logan told Grandma that he was "feeling brave and wanted to try the Magic Carpets." We had tried to get Logan to ride these a couple different times since they were so much like Dumbo, which is one of his favorites, but he wouldn't ride them for some reason. So, we headed there next, only to have Logan tell us when we got there that "I just want to check them out. I don't want to ride them right now." After we "checked them out" for a few minutes we told Logan he could pick one ride. He picked the rockets, but I told him that they were closed because of the rain. He argued about that for a little bit since he could see them going. I really didn't want to wait 45 minutes for that ride again to ride in the rain and get sick, so I convinced him to choose something else. He chose "It's A Small World". He and Rylee both love that one and had a great time. We tried several times to get a picture of ourselves with all of us in it, and this is the best we did!
After that, we did a little 
shopping and then headed to dinner. We had planned to leave by around 6, but it was almost 8 when we left. After a lot of driving, we finally decided on TGI Friday's for dinner. The wait was pretty long, and the kids were both asleep (it was past 9), so we decided to get take out and go back to the hotel to eat. We got our food much quicker this way, and were putting the kids back in the car and Logan woke up and had a meltdown that we were not eating at a restaurant! (he loves going out to eat!) We finally made it back to the hotel and ate dinner around 9:30 - So much for our plan of a laid back day and early bedtime! We did have a lot of fun though and I think the kids appreciated a day just for them! Thanks Mom and Vanessa for helping me out with the kiddies - We had a fun day!
we had a bit of a day off. We were even able to sleep in a little, which we really needed. I think my kids slept in until around 8:30 or 9, which was much later than the 7:00 am wake up time the rest of the week! My brothers, dad, Darren and Heather and Jay left around 9 to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. They had a pass to go to both parks, as well as a Express pass to go to the front of all of the lines so they could fit everything in. I think they had a lot of fun on their day. With the Express pass, I think they thought they would be done really quickly, but it ended up being more stress and stuff to do than they planned, and they had more of a full day than they expected. They loved all the cool rides there, especially the roller coasters, and had a lot of fun despite a few problems. They came home pretty tired! These are a few pics of them at Universal/Islands of Adventure.This is the crew on one of the rides - I'm not sure which one. They take up the first 2 rows.All the boys at Islands of Adventure. Jeff, Brad, Dad, Kyle, Dean and Jay with Darren crouching in front. I think Heather is taking the picture...Brad and Darren at the Universal entrance.Since the Universal passes were pretty expensive and there wasn't much there for the kiddies, I decided not to go. I was a little bummed to miss out on all the fun rides, but I probably would have gotten sick anyway. My mom and sister Vanessa also stayed with me (my mom hates roller coasters and Vanessa just went to Universal last summer and didn't want to pay to go again), so we planned our own day of fun. I think they would have preferred to chill at the hotel, but I wanted to take the kids to do some fun things since we were missing out on Universal. I decided it would be Logan's Day and we could do whatever he wanted at the Magic Kingdom. Rylee is happy to go along with pretty much whatever, so I figured a day for just Logan would be great for her too. Before we left for the park, I bathed the kids, since we hadn't really had time for that. I also made them pose for these pictures. They are actually the clothes from the previous day, but since we were always in such a hurry in the mornings, I didn't get the pictures I wanted. And I tried at the park, but Rylee kept ripping off either her little 1st time button leaving a hole in her shirt, or her Mickey ears. What can you do? I thought they turned out really cute (at least them together and Logan. Rylee is a little crazy!), even if they were posed after the fact!
Then we decided to ride the Thomas train at the hotel.
Logan had seen it a few times during the week and wanted to ride, but we hadn't had time and I kept promising him that we would go. What a fiasco! We had to wait for about 20 minutes for the train to pick us up. After about 3 minutes, the train stopped and I thought 
about getting off, but decided if we waited for that long, we might as well ride a little longer. Well - It took 45 minutes to get back close to our room! Logan was very bored by then and Rylee was a mess! She was screaming because she wanted to jump off the benches while the train was moving, and being the mean mother that I am, I wouldn't let her! I had to put her in a choke hold while she screamed at the top of her lungs and squirmed to be put down! Logan kept asking when we could off - It was SO fun! We FINALLY made it back and had lunch and then headed for the Magic Kingdom.We didn't end up getting to the park until about 3 and just missed a major rainstorm. We took the monorail over to the park, as this was Logan's request and it was HIS day. Here are the kids ready to go again!
We stopped at the 
entrance for a couple pictures and then headed for Frontierland. As we headed into the park, a few people kept staring and pointing at Rylee's stroller. I didn't think much of it - Rylee gets attention a lot at places like that - but when we stopped I found out why. She was totally passed out in her stroller with her binky half hanging out of her mouth. It was pretty humorous! The main reason we went back to the park was to see the Woody's Roundup show. I wasn't really sure what it was, but I knew Logan would like anything to do with Woody. Here are the kiddies waiting for the parade!It was really cute - It was a little parade with Woody, Jessie and Bullseye and some other cowboys and cowgirls. Then they stopped and let the kids join in for some cowboy singing and dancing, like "She'll be Coming around the Mountain" and the "Hokey-Pokey". Logan had a great time dancing and playing and even managed to sneak his way right up to Woody, which I don't think he was supposed to do! There were lots of cowboys around Woody who kept trying to redirect Logan, but he just maneuvered his way through and made his way to Woody. Woody almost stepped right on him - I don't think he can see out of that suit, which is probably why they try and keep the kiddies away from him. After the show, we were able to meet Woody and Jessie, which Logan was so excited about. We were right next to Splash Mountain and Logan wanted to tell them both all about Splash Mountain. He is like a mini-tour guide! Rylee managed to sleep through the whole thing. 
We finally got Logan away from Woody and Jessie, and asked him what he would like to do next. He wanted to go to Tom Sawyer Island, which is a great little play land for the kids. It was raining a little, so I was kind of nervous to go over there and get soaked, but it didn't rain too hard. Logan and Rylee 
had such a great time exploring and running all over Tom Sawyer Island. They especially liked the little tree house, the bridges and shooting guns at the Fort. We finally convinced them to leave and headed back over to the Magic Kingdom. There was a little show featuring Mickey and his friends that we went to next. We had missed it the day before because of rain, so we decided to check it out. The show featured Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy along with the Princesses and characters from Peter Pan. Logan and Rylee really liked it. We also took a few pictures in front of the castle.
At one point, Logan told Grandma that he was "feeling brave and wanted to try the Magic Carpets." We had tried to get Logan to ride these a couple different times since they were so much like Dumbo, which is one of his favorites, but he wouldn't ride them for some reason. So, we headed there next, only to have Logan tell us when we got there that "I just want to check them out. I don't want to ride them right now." After we "checked them out" for a few minutes we told Logan he could pick one ride. He picked the rockets, but I told him that they were closed because of the rain. He argued about that for a little bit since he could see them going. I really didn't want to wait 45 minutes for that ride again to ride in the rain and get sick, so I convinced him to choose something else. He chose "It's A Small World". He and Rylee both love that one and had a great time. We tried several times to get a picture of ourselves with all of us in it, and this is the best we did!
After that, we did a little 
shopping and then headed to dinner. We had planned to leave by around 6, but it was almost 8 when we left. After a lot of driving, we finally decided on TGI Friday's for dinner. The wait was pretty long, and the kids were both asleep (it was past 9), so we decided to get take out and go back to the hotel to eat. We got our food much quicker this way, and were putting the kids back in the car and Logan woke up and had a meltdown that we were not eating at a restaurant! (he loves going out to eat!) We finally made it back to the hotel and ate dinner around 9:30 - So much for our plan of a laid back day and early bedtime! We did have a lot of fun though and I think the kids appreciated a day just for them! Thanks Mom and Vanessa for helping me out with the kiddies - We had a fun day!
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