Walt Disney World

We went to Disney World!

Most people think Disney World is a lot of fun to bring your family to, we think Disney World is a fun place to bring your kids over the age of six when there are no lines. Let's just say Joshua and Joy Anna were so tired and grumpy, they made our time as miserable as they could. Ok, so maybe they weren't actually thinking that, but they definitely seemed to work at it!

When we first got to Magic Kingdom, our first ride was Space Mountain. After waiting 90 minutes, Dad, Nathan, Grace, Isaac, Promise, and I got on a rocket and took off into pitch blackness. It was a wild fun ride and Dad, Isaac, and I screamed the whole time. However, the moment it stopped, Isaac shouted, "Grace lost her ears!"

Yes. Grace lost her ears on the ride.

When the first cochlear implant went flying off, she didn't think to put her hand over the second one to keep it from flying off. The result was that both cochlear implants were gone.

To say we were unhappy is an understatement. There was $20,000 worth of equipment on that ride! 

Even though the line was amazingly long, they stopped the ride for ten minutes to search for her ears and found one of them. They promised us they would look that evening when they closed the ride for the other one.

During the day, we stood in lines and explored Magic Kingdom and Joshua and Joy Anna were squirly. That night, we gathered outside Cinderella's castle to watch the light show and fireworks. Afterward, we all walked off and a minute later realized Grace wasn't with us.

Grace likes grand finales. She was gone.

We all started screaming for her and darting through the crowd looking for her. Disney security was alerted and they said they were coming, but they never showed up. Twenty minutes later, Mom saw Grace with a shop keeper. Once Grace realized she was lost, she walked into a shop and told the shopkeeper, who then went and helped her find us. It was a very stressful twenty minutes, but we were thankful to have her back.

After that, we rode tea cups a few more times and the carasel (Joy Anna's favorite) and the Buzz Lightyear ride and left around 11:30pm. We were all exhausted and ready to go.

The next day was Hollywood Studios. I think Hollywood Studios was our family's favorite park.The lines were shorter, it was less crowded, and it was more "our style." First off, it had the Indiana Jones stunt spectacular, where it explained how the stunts were performed in Indiana Jones. Everyone but Joshua loved it.

Then there was Star Tours. It was a Star Wars simulator ride with fifty different story options. Isaac and I rode it three times while everyone else rode it twice. It was my favorite ride. :-D 

After that we went to Lights, Motors, Action, a car stunt show. It was really neat, watching how well the drivers could maneuver their cars. Scroll through the picture and there's a really good picture from the show. Everyone loved the show.

The next day was Epcot. Epcot was also wonderful. First, we went on the space ride through time which was a lot of fun. Then we went to the Finding Nemo ride which was awful. By then, Joshua had lost it and started screaming and crying that he was done with rides and just wanted to stay outside. No one was pleased with Joshua. 

After that was the space simulator ride, where we were sent on a mission to Mars. It really felt like we were taking off and flying to space. When Mommy rode on the ride, she got motion sick and started looking for the barf bags... 

Then *finally* we got to proceed to the world showcase, the part of Epcot I had been dying to see. It was awesome! We hadn't spent any money in the other two parks, but we made up for that at Epcot. In Germany, we split pretzels and black forest cake, in Morocco we shared some baklava  Fish and chips was the name of the game in England and finally, we treated Mom to chocolate croissants in France. It was a very delicious day, spoiled only by Joshua's screaming and crying about anything we did (except eating - he liked that part).

The final ride was my favorite - Soarin'. We sat in swing/rocking chairs and were lifted into the air before a giant screen. It simulated a hang gliding flight over California and sometimes it brought us so low to the ground, Grace and I tried to kick the kyakers. I loved that ride and was very sad when it ended...

Enjoy the pictures from our trip! :-D 

Joy Joy at Downtown Disney so excited to see everything there was to see

life-sized Woody and Buzz made out of legos

pictures that were taken of us on the Buzz Lightyear ride

me and Joshua were a team

the mill wheel on Tom Sawyer island

the kids loved the barrel bridge

this was my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom - Thunder Mountain, where we rode in trains and zipped and dove and screamed. It was fun. :-D 

the party pooper

we all got on the carasel and sat...and sat...and sat... until they announced that the carasel had broke so we all needed to get off...

this was Joy Anna's favorite ride

the only Disney character any of us got our picture taken with - Jessi from Toy Story

I loved Cinderella's castle - it was as perfect as I imagined!

all we could see of Joy Anna on the tea cup ride was her little eyes peeking over the top

this is Susan's dress from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I love that movie and love the dress she wore, so was excited to get to see it in real life.

grand finale of the Lights, Motors, Action show!

she was a daredevil - her favorite rides were the scary ones, like Space Mountain and Tower of Terror

I love muppets!

the street lit up and the lights synced with music at Hollywood Studios

the ball at Epcot looked like a building in Singapore called the "Durian" so I kept calling this the "giant Durian"

Norway

Mexico - this was where Mom's favorite Epcot ride was - the Three Cabelerros 

Promise in China

Japanese drummers

oh, you know, just taking a nap here at a Japanese restaurant in Epcot. Everyone else does it too, right?

this is Joy Anna's "smile for the camera" face

these huge birds were just wandering around this parking lot on our way out of Florida

In fact, the one on the left was trying to eat this car's license plate and windshield wiper. It was fun to watch

big firework display in Epcot