More Disney

We stayed at the Contemporary Resort this year. It's the closest resort to the Magic Kingdom, and the monorail goes right through the building. Ron managed to sweet talk his way to an upgraded room with a view of the Magic Kingdom. We were able to sit on our balcony at night and watch the fireworks. It was a nice size room and in a great location within the hotel. (Nice job, Ron.) The first 4 pictures are from our balcony or right outside our room looking into the hotel.

We started our first full day with breakfast at Chef Mickey's. It was a buffet and was just adequate, but we did get to see the "big 5", which saved us from waiting in long lines in the parks. We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, & Pluto. The kids had fun and enjoyed the celebration song and waving their napkins.

We spent our first full day at the Animal Kingdom. Tyler gathered his courage and rode Expedition Everest (twice). We enjoyed the Flights of Wonder bird show. We've seen it at least 3 times, but it's always a little different and always very good. We really enjoyed the Nemo show, too. Doesn't Ron look thrilled in the Primeval Whirl car?

We finished our day with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We mainly went for the Volcano, which Tyler was pretty excited about. It was a very good first day!

Disney 2010

We were on vacation at Disney World last week. Normally I would post some pictures during our trip, but we were too cheap to pay for decent internet service this time. We attempted to connect via Ron's phone, but I couldn't keep a connection long enough to upload any pictures.

We had a good trip. It wasn't my favorite vacation, but it was still a really good trip. To put it in perspective, I don't think there was a time the entire week when all 4 of us felt well. Ron, Danielle, and I had colds when we left, and they did not improve while we were there. Between the 2 kids, we had 3 bouts of vomiting, 2 mornings of fevers, and 1 the-line-was-too-long-for-the-bathrooms-so-I-didn't-quite-make-it accident (and a very limited supply of long pants). After we got home, Ron made a trip to the Urgent Care for some antibiotics because he was so miserable. And given all that, when you consider that our cruise in November was the most relaxing and perfect vacation EVER, you can see why this wasn't my favorite vacation. Still, it really was a good trip. We enjoyed being together, rode lots of rides, experienced lots of new restaurants, and made lots of happy memories together.

We spent a total of 3 days at the Magic Kingdom and 1 day at each of the other parks. Here are some pictures and highlights from our days at Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios.

The Flower & Garden Expo at Epcot started the day we were there. Unfortunately it was too cold to visit the butterfly house, but the topiaries were really neat.

I traded my big camera for my point & click by the day we visited Epcot. The kids enjoyed taking turns with it. Tyler took the pictures of the water creatures. The cuttlefish were so neat to watch. This one changed colors and sent waves of colors up and down his body from time to time. Tyler took the fish picture for Uncle Ron. It's some type of toadfish. :)

It's never to chilly for an Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich.

Ron and Danielle went back to the hotel after dinner, but Tyler and I stayed for Illuminations, Epcot's fireworks display. I think this was the first time in the past 4 years of going to Disney that I really got to watch it. It was beautiful. Tyler and I had a very nice time together. It was a special evening.

On Thursday we visited Disney Hollywood Studios. We rode our favorite ride, Toy Story Mania, 3 times.

The kids enjoyed the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area. It was so nice to visit Disney with older children. In this case, we didn't have to follow the kids all around the busy play area. We stationed ourselves at one point and the kids came and checked in with us periodically.

We ate lunch at Mama Melrose's. The kids tried calamari for the first time. Tyler especially liked it and only paused for a second when we finally told him what it was.

We watched a Beauty & the Beast show. I don't know how we managed to miss it on our past visits, but we really enjoyed it this time. I think it was one of Danielle's favorite activities.

We stayed for the evening light show Fantasmic! We attempted to watch this show on our first visit in 2007, but Danielle was too scared. We thought she was old enough to handle it this time, and she was. We all really enjoyed the show.

Photo Sundries

This and That

Before bed tonight I read a couple chapters of Clementine to the kids. One of the girls in the story told Clementine: "...when there are two kids in a family, there's always an easy one and a hard one. I guess it's a rule." I stopped and looked at the kids. They paused for a minute, looked at each other, and then both kids quickly pointed to themselves and said, "I'm the easy one!" And they both meant it! HA!

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I took this picture Wednesday before I knocked all the icicles off the back of the house. I left the ones at the end so we could watch them "grow". I took the second picture today. The big icicle has grown at least a foot, although it's a little hard to tell in the pictures. We have seen some icicles that have reached from the roof to the ground, and some that are nearly as big around as Danielle. I realize that's not too good for a roof, but they are cool to look at. Thankfully they didn't get that bad on our roof!

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My valentine tulips

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Ron and Danielle working on her Pinewood Derby car for AWANA. Please excuse the stubble (Ron) and uncombed hair (Danielle). It is Saturday, after all.

And Still More Snow