Riding home from Epcot tonight, with a sleeping Abby on my lap, I chatted with the big girls about what their favorite things were from the day.
As we talked about our morning at magic kingdom, our afternoon in the pool, and our evening in Epcot, we realized everything came back to food.

We had breakfast in our room, with some peanut butter, pop tarts, and snacks from the food court. After our first few rides in Adventureland, daddy bought ice cream for breakfast on our walk to tomorrowland. Granted it was orange flavored, so it counted as both fruit and dairy, but still, ice cream before 1030am?

After sweating through Tomorrow land, and since it was lunchtime but we didn't want to stop, we had milk shakes for lunch. Again, dairy! It was actually just what we needed!

When we got back to the hotel about 2, we had real lunch, pizza, carrots, grapes, yogurt, pudding (chicken Caesar for me!) the deal was, no pool until good eating - which meant the girls ate without complaining. (remind me to install a cool pool at our house)

We went to Epcot tonight because we changed our dinner plans yesterday. We decided that we could see/do more if we ate at Epcot vs downtown Disney. But the only place we could get reservations was Mexico. Chris is not usually a fan of Mexican, and the girls only eat chips and salsa. I was told they could get chicken tenders. Ole!

Everyone was a little squirrely as we waited for dinner, and when we finally got to our table and saw the menu I was pretty nervous. Not a chicken tender or Mac and cheese or pizza to be found. But guess what? The girls all loved their grilled chicken and some green beans and rice too! What did Grandma Geraghty always say? "Hunger is the best sauce?"
Chris was happy with his pork loin and I had carne asada, also yummy. The best was dessert. Abby was thrilled with her ice cream (more ice cream!) and Maggie tried churritos for the first time and LOVED them!

While we were eating, we were aware that outside it was pouring rain. We were hoping to enjoy Illuminations after dinner, but we're nervous about the rain. We came out and found barely a drizzle, but kept our ponchos on just in case.

Illuminations did not disappoint, always so cool. Abby slept through it all, but the big girls were thrilled, especially with their light up Minnie ears. And it never rained again.

Tomorrow Animal Kingdom!

Sometimes, on a hot day,lunch is a milkshake. And sometimes, a saxophone quartet shows up to entertain you while you drink!
Sometimes......



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Rain rain, go away. Or stick around, you won't stop us!
We started our day at Hollywood Studios today. We decided to do Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster first, before lines were too crazy. Maggie was brave enough to ride both twice (love the rider swap) but Katherine only did the tower once and was too short for Rockin Rollercoaster. And then, the rain. At first it was just a heavy drizzle. We found inside rides, covered stroller parking area, and went on with our day. But when we came out after Muppets 3D, we came out to a torrential downpour. We waited it out as long as we could, but then it was it me to venture out. Ponchos on, we took off in search of lunch. Chris carried Abby to keep us moving faster, and she wouldn't keep her hood on, they both got wet!
Once we found lunch, Maggie and I had to stand in a long, long line. I saw beer on the menu and made the executive decision that it was required for our lunch. Good decision!
The rest of our day there was incredibly humid, but not as wet. And all in all, we just had a blast!
We came back to the hotel to get cleaned up, no time for pool, today due to dinner reservations. We did have time for a little shopping, which we did. Each girl chose one treat. (see previous blog about the bee sting)
Then we went to the Backyard BBQ. I don't think we really new what to expect, but it was fun. Hot and humid, but fun. We had decent food, loud music, dancing, characters, and beer/wine was included for adults! And ice cream too! I had to laugh at Abby, the poor girl could not sit still, she just wanted to be on the dance floor shaking and grooving!
We came back "early" and plan to sleep "late" tomorrow.








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Yet another awesome service moment. We were walking to the gift shop to pick out our first treasures when Maggie was stung by a bee. We went right to the hotel desk where we were given an Ice pack and a local anesthetic cream. Her tears subsiding we went to the gift shop. On our way across the lobby, we met the animator, Jason, who teaches a workshop everyday; today is the first we've missed. He stopped to see why Maggie was upset, and then engaged her to giggles, and then told us to wait right there, he came back a moment later with a stuffed "squirt" for Maggie, one of the characters he taught her to draw.
Above and beyond, that is Disney!




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Day 3
Everyone was feeling a little slow this morning. Katherine more than anyone, she hid under her covers until the last minute. We actually took our time, sort of, and didn't rush to be first to Epcot, but we were still there early.

2 years ago I had one of my saddest "mom" moments when Katherine was turned away from the Epcot ride Soarin. She was tall enough for other rides with the same height requirement, but a change of shoes and more attentive staff meant she was not allowed on. Her tears were so sad it took all i had not to cry with her.

Today that all changed. And I got to see her glee, and watch her love the feeling of flying. Another highlight was Maggie and the Figment ride. For whatever reason, she loved that ride 2 years ago, even choosing a stuffed Figment as her souvenir, she has been singing the song since then too. So to see her ride it again today was really fun.

We made our way to Norway for our brunch with the princesses. We weren't sure what to expect, but we found Belle waiting for a picture as we arrived, and the as we ate, the other classics came through as well. Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White. Definitely one of those that they'll talk about for a long time......to talk to and old hands with the princesses? Whoa!

We decided to head back to the hotel for a bit, and not a minute too soon. It started pouring just after we got on the bus. So no swimming Today, but that gave me time to do laundry and for the big girls to take another lesson from the animator on drawing cartoons. (offered every afternoon!)

Also, I had to pick up tickets from the concierge for our dinner tomorrow. While I was chatting with her, I mentioned that I kept getting a different answer about where to buy a simple loaf of bread. She was able to confirm that it was not available on site, but asked if I'd like the runner to pick up a loaf for me. What? Sure enough, they sent a runner to the store (I was told not just for my bread) and in less than 2 hours, we had a loaf of white bread delivered, for only the cost of the bread. Now Katherine can have her peanut butter in the morning! Gotta love Disney service!

So we went back to Epcot for the evening. We rode Nemo, and talked with Crush (Duuuuuuuude!). Maggie even asked a question, check back later for video (I think I need to be home to load that). We weren't sure where to eat, so we wandered toward the world showcase. We stoppoed andpicked up a new "toy" - a gps/geocachingtype thing with Phineas and Ferb theme. It seemed cool, a small cell phone that guides you to find clues to solve mysteries. But with 3 kids trying to hold/see/hear the clues, and parents who also needed to see, it was complicated. Add in that there was a band playing loudly where we were trying to search, and it made it nearly impossible. We ended up in America, where it started to rain, or pour, really. We were inside, but knew we'd have to go out, so we unveiled the ponchos, and set out.

Sadly, we ended up skipping Illuminations, but wisely, we took a boat from the back of Epcot over to Hollywood studios to catch our bus, rather than walk all the way through to the front of the park. It was a nice ride, we saw some of the fireworks, and Abby fell asleep on me. Which was cozy, until I had to carry her.

Another exhausting day.....can't wait for tomorrow!














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Sometimes vacation is glamorous.......



Sometimes it's not.......



But it's all still so much fun!

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Day 2
We started during Early Magic Hours at 8am at Magic Kingdom. We went right to Dumbo, which had been Abby's request. We learned quickly, that Abby's trouble with sharing extends to theme parks. She had no clue that we had to share with everyone around us. We were walking to Dumbo and she saw it starting to move. Se freaked out shouting "mom they didn't wait for us, they have to wait for us, they started without us!" It took her 3 rides before she figured out that other people could ride as well, and that we had to wait in line until it was our turn!

Maggie and Katherine also got their favorites out of the way with splash mountain and big thunder mountain. I fact, thanks to 'rider swap' they got to ride each one twice! We played until about noon and then went to the Grand Floridian for a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel for rest time.

HA! Rest time on vacation? Abby was not buying that one, despite really needing a nap, it took me about an hour to get her to zone out to the TV for 45 minutes, and that was all we got. But it was good.

While I fought that battle, Chris and girls spent some time with an animator, learning how top draw 'Squirt' the turtle from Nemo, and then they swam for a bit. (til they closed the pool for lightening, we never had rain)

After getting all cleaned up, we went to OHANA for dinner. It was delicious, even Abby and Katherine were happy with the food, and Maggie did try a few things. We enjoyed the wandering musicians, playing Ukelele of course. And the girls land I took part in the group Hula lesson!

Then it was back to MK to wait for the electrical parade. Let me say this, it is still as magical as ever! The girls loved it, convinced that every character who glanced in our direction was waving to only them! Aside from the man who squeezed in front of us and then took a cell phone call during the parade, it was fabulous!

Before bed, no one could decide on only 1 favorite thing from the day, success!



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