Disney World, Part IV

Monday we went to the Animal Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom is only open from 9-5 daily, so we didn't plan to take naps that day, but to go back to the hotel at closing and have an early bedtime. It worked out pretty well. We went straight for the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was pretty neat seeing the animals along the ride. Some of them were fairly far and hard to see though. And the sun still fairly low in the East made it difficult if the animals were on that side of the ride. It might've been better mid-day, but then we probably would've had to fight long lines.








Afterwards, we headed over so we could go on Expedition Everest. Fun roller coaster with a cute yeti-search theme. Jock and Kaylen went while I waited with Elijah & Josephine - they weren't tall enough, and then I went with Kaylen while Jock waited with the little kids.

We all went on the Dinosaur ride, which probably wasn't the best idea (Josephine was VERY scared!), but we all enjoyed the gift shop at the end of the ride. Elijah came out with a dinosaur puppet, which he still enjoys at home.



We went to a small petting zoo, where the kids enjoyed brushing a few goats.






Then wandered around the park a bit more. There's a lot of walking, and not a lot of attractions, so we weren't too impressed with the rest of the park. The animal sightings were pretty cool, and we ate lunch at the Yak & Yeti Restaurant.



We decided to forgo the walking through the forest, the jungle, and the Island, as our feet were hurting us. This park is HUGE so plan on walking a ton! We were told that Animal Kingdom is the largest park at Disney World - so large that all the other parks could fit inside it, and still have room for parking. No wonder! Maybe if we'd wanted to do more walking, we'd have seen more animals and this park would have been much more fun for all of us.

After lunch, we headed for the Lion King show, which was REALLY neat - all of us really enjoyed it. After the show, Safari Mickey was out for pictures with visitors, so we stopped there before we headed home. We got lucky, and missed most of the rain showers while we were in the Lion King show. We just got out our squeegie towel and wiped down the stroller before heading over to Safari Mickey. It was still sprinkling very lightly when we came out, but we didn't even get out all our rain ponchos that we carried around to every park.

After pictures with Mickey and a photo in front of the Tree of Life, we headed back to our hotel room for supper and early bedtime.

Disney World, Part III

Sunday we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. We took the ferry boat directly from right next to our hotel, across the lagoon, and got there right about opening time. (Our hotel room was in the first building on the left in that first photo - second floor.) The kids were so excited to be heading to MK!!!

After paying our stroller rental for the week, we got Elijah & Josephine seated and headed towards the back of the park, for the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. We encountered almost no lines (actually for most of the time we were at Disney World). We then went through the Haunted Mansion before headed over towards Space Mountain, and got Fast Passes to save us the wait time. We did a couple other Tomorrowland rides while we waited for our Fast Pass time to come up, then I went on Space Mountain with Kaylen (E&J weren’t tall enough, so Jock waited this time).

We tested out our strategy of taking a break in the middle of the day to head back to the hotel for a couple-hour nap. The heat (low 90s) and humidity (100%) were not something we were expecting this time of year, and really sapped our energy, not to mention all the walking and excitement. We did this most days, and we all needed the naps – all 5 of us! Also, most days we ate breakfast and a late lunch at naptime in our hotel room, and took snacks to the parks for late morning and evening, which saved us a ton of $$$. We also realized Sunday when we woke up that we'd been spared a heavy rain. Then we went back to the same park (we did not buy park-hopper tickets – only regular 6-day passes to the 4 theme parks – no water parks) for the late afternoon and evening.

When we got back to Magic Kingdom and re-retrieved our stroller, we went on several other rides that we hadn’t hit earlier in the day. We saw the electrical parade, then saw part of the fireworks while riding a few rides and having ice cream in Fantasyland (behind the castle). The electrical parade was awesome - there was just about every Disney character imaginable, and even their clothing was lit up! The streets were packed, and we had a hard time finding a spot to watch from, but the crowds were worth it!

Some other things we did that day:
* Waited in a fairly short line to greet three of the princesses: Cinderella, Belle (Beauty and the Beast), and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).







* Took photos of the castle

* Dumbo








* It’s a Small World

* Peter Pan's Flight (only Jock, Elijah & Kaylen - Josephine and I needed a potty break)


* Caught a little bit of a daytime parade.







* Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel

* The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

* Mickey's Philharmagic 3D movie (This was our first 3D movie at Disney - Elijah was crawling under his seat to hide from the things flying towards him - Josephine took off her glasses because the 3D stuff was scaring her)


* Tomorrowland Speedway

* Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

* Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

* Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress rotating show

We had the opportunity to stay at the park very late (actually early – until 1am, due to the Extra Magic Hours offered to resort guests) that night, but we headed back to the hotel shortly after the fireworks, knowing we had another full day ahead. We were all pretty worn out anyway. We decided to take the monorail, because it was a little faster than the ferry boat. There were a couple things we didn't get to that we'd wanted to, but we planned to come back to MK later in the week, so we didn't fret about it.

Disney World, Part II

Saturday, we hadn’t planned to do a whole lot, because we’d planned on being overtired from arriving very late Friday night or early Saturday morning. We did have late breakfast reservations at Disney’s Beach Club Resort’s Cape May Café, for breakfast with Mickey and Friends. We inquired of the front desk how to get there via Disney transportation, and took the bus to Hollywood Studios, then a boat to the resort.

We got there in plenty of time, and even got seated ahead of our reservation time. The euphoria on the kids’ faces when they saw the characters starting to come around to all the tables was so fun! Goofy, Donald, and Minnie were there, all dressed up in their beachy outfits. :)

After breakfast, Jock met up with his uncle Matt, who lives in town. Matt took Jock to get a few groceries to help us save (a lot!) on the food bill. I took the kids back to the hotel and Jock later joined us at the hotel pool.

We had reservations around 5 for a luau dinner at the hotel, and we were able to upgrade from 5-6 people, so Matt joined us for dinner. The dinner and entertainment were excellent!







The kids were even invited to learn a little hula dance - Elijah chose to remain seated, but the girls participated. The finale was the fire dancer, which had us all entranced.





And did I mention how awesome our resort was, as well as the view from our room? This photo was taken on the walk down the beach from the luau building to the building our room was in.

We were back in our rooms after the Luau for the kids to get to bed at a decent hour, so we'd be rested up for a full day at Magic Kingdom on Sunday!



Jock and I sat out on our room's deck to enjoy the night scenery for a while after the kids went to bed:
The castle was beautiful with the lights changing colors, and we could see Space Mountain from our hotel room also.


We had a great view of the fireworks over the castle, and there was a traveling musical floating light show on the lake most nights - it moved around from one resort to another on our lake. I couldn't get a very good photo of the musical floating light show, but that's what those blue lights are beyond the palm trees - after it stopped and floated to its next location.

We also were right next to the Transportation/Ticket Center, where the ferry boat lands to and from the Magic Kingdom. This meant we were close to both monorails that go to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and to direct busing to the other parks and resorts. This saved us a lot of time getting to and from parks.

Disney World, Part I

I never got around to blogging about our Disney trip, so I thought I'd take the next 8 days or so to do some catch-up. This is the first of an 8-part series...

Yes, Disney World was so fun, and we jam-packed the vacation with so many fun things, that it’s going to take multiple posts to properly document it!

We left home on Friday, September 23th. Our flights left Des Moines around noon, and we were to fly into Milwaukee, have a 4 hour layover, fly to Atlanta, and then arrive in Orlando around midnight. We were not looking forward to this, but we had taken entertainment activities along, and had planned to eat an early dinner at Chili’s in the Milwaukee airport.

However, when we arrived to Milwaukee and went to our next gate, we found that there was another plane boarding right then for Atlanta. We inquired about any available seats, but when they saw that we were ultimately headed for Orlando, they sent us to a different gate, where there there was a plane boarding directly from Milwaukee to Orlando. They must have had pity on us poor souls with three little kids not scheduled to arrive until after midnight, and gave us 5 available seats. The plane was fairly full too!

So we arrived in Orlando about 6 hours ahead of schedule, and had one less leg to our journey. This also meant that the Disney baggage service would pick up our checked luggage for us and bring it to our hotel room for us, since we arrived before 10 pm. We just got off the plane and headed straight to the bus with our carry-ons and the kids. The Disney transportation took us directly to Disney World and our hotel!

When we checked into Disney’s Polynesian Resort (which we loved and recommend whole-heartedly - and try their pina colava drink!), they upgraded our room from a “garden view” to a room with a view of Magic Kingdom’s castle, across the Seven Seas Lagoon. After checking in, we dropped our stuff in our rooms, then we had time for dinner at one of the hotel restaurants before bedtime – about the time our checked luggage arrived to our room!

Such blessings, as our Walt Disney World adventure even began!

New Blog Background

Despite not having had any measureable snow that's lasted longer than a day and many days with temps that feel more like early spring, it is, in fact, winter. So, I've decided to go with a winter theme for my blog.

Starting 2012

Happy New Year! What are my New Year's Resolutions? Well, I don't really make them, per se. I do try to set some goals every year, and then revisit them every month or two to see how I'm doing. Like most New Year's resolutions, I don't always do very well on them, but I still like to set the goals.

Uncharacteristically, the weight/health goals I made last year are the ones that I did the best on. I started at Farrell's in January, completed my first 10-week challenge in March, and then joined with an annual membership. I see-sawed a bit for the next 6 months, but then did a 10-week FIT challenge October-December, and made some more progress. Following Farrell's kick-boxing, resistance training, and nutrition program, I ended the year down 13 lbs from where I started in January (although I've gained a few back over the holidays). I am in much better shape, healthier, and I feel much better. I hope to continue attending my 5:15 class regularly, and continue making progress towards the next weight goal - another 10 lbs! I also plan to do more 5k races this year as well - my sister already asked me when we should run our next one! :)

I hope to get back into regular Bible study. We attend a small group study weekly, but I have not been good about doing my weekly reading. And not only that, I want to get back to daily reading. I've found in the past when I've stuck to it, I've found it to make a big difference in how I live my life.

Family time has become a more regular occurrence in our home the past couple months. Some of it is because we are not racing to practices 3x/week in the winter, but some of it is also a committment Jock and I made to (mostly) stay off the computers until after the kids go to bed - and even then, a couple days a week, we stay off them after that too, so we can have some time together. It's made a positive difference in our home, and I'd like that to continue!

And along with the family time, of course, I can't forget our adoption process. We are praying that things go smoothly this year. We will likely travel once this year for court proceedings and immigration paperwork processing. If things go REALLY well, maybe we'll even have another one or two little people home by the end of 2012. Probably a little too much to hope for at this point, but...

I hope you all have a wonderful 2012!