Experiencing the Magic is exhausting!

Tuesday, February 17th -

Today we woke up very early to have a full day trip at Disney World Epcot and Magic Kingdom.
Mike and I were very excited to see Disney together. We purchased a Hopper Pass so we could visit more than one park in one day. Sara and her family all came along for the morning with us. Since she and her family come often they knew a lot of tricks and short cuts for having a good time. For example, we sprinted across Epcot to sign up for Fast-Pass tickets to Soaring, a newer ride at their Land exhibit. We got there 5 minutes after it opened and our Fast-Pass was for 1 that afternoon! Crazy how fast they fill up and I'm glad they knew that trick or otherwise we wouldn't have waited the 2+ hours to ride it.


We spent the time waiting for our Fast-Pass by going to other exhibits around. Mike and I liked the race track ride and the Mission Space. I especially liked the Mission Space thing. It was a mission to Mars and has simulations for taking off from a space craft and traveling through space. Very cool. After wandering around for awhile looking at everything it was already almost 1 and we needed to go to catch our Soaring Fast-Pass ticket. Everyone but Sara, Robert and Clare were able to on the Soaring. For those of you who don't know, it's like a giant IMax screen with a bit of a ride attached to it. Oliver did a great job on it. He wasn't scared and even thought to raise his feet when Soaring went over water. When we asked if he thought he would get wet he replied, "No, I didn't want to lose my shoes!"

There were many very cute statements by the kids over the morning. First, Robert is attached to Mike and likes him very much. Unfortunately he keeps calling him Mark and has no progressed to correcting him when Mike tries to tell him that's wrong. He says, "Uncle Mark!" And Mike will say "No, I'm Mike." Robert replies, "No, you're not. You're Uncle Mark." Robert helped Mike buy a pretzel and drink and when we all sat down to eat it, Robert took a sip of our diet coke and exclaimed to Mike, "That is NOT juice!" Mike and I thought that was so cute =) Then, while we were in line for Soaring Robert watched our drink cup with pride. When we got back the straw was gone, the cap was pushed in and Robert told us he "dropped" it while we were gone =)

Oliver is very bright and questions many things intelligently. When I told him the race track ride took his picture while he was on it and he could buy a copy if he wanted he told me that was impossible. He's thinking of his digital camera and how when he takes a picture he has to have the actual camera to take the photo off. He said if the camera was on the track they could not have a copy without the camera present! For the past few days we have also been discussing building a roller coaster and his imagination and ideas are all very smart and well thought out. When I told him I have to leave on Friday he said that was not enough time for us to build a roller coaster and it will be up to him to finish the task!


After Soaring we sprinted again to catch our lunch reservation in Italy. The wonderful thing about Epcot is they do a great job of having very authentic foods in their various countries around the world theme. The food at the Italian restaurant was very delicious and Mike and I ate much more than we needed to. We weren't hungry again until well past 9 that night =P After lunch Mike and I broke off from Sara and the family to head to Magic Kingdom. We spent the rest of the day running around on the all the rides. We managed to make it on the all rides I cared about - Tea Cups, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and the New Stitch ride. Overall Mike liked looking around more than rides so he was fine with riding just what I wanted to ride. I did get some pretty funny pictures of us on the Tea Cup ride - we had ourselves spinning at a nauseated pace!





By 8:00 Mike and I were exhausted... we made our way out of the park and to our car back at Epcot. By about 9 we were on the road the heading to a restaurant for dinner. We had a really great time at the park and after dinner we headed back to the villa and crashed.

Today we're heading out to visit St Cloud, my old high school town, and find a golf course for Mike to play half a round at. This afternoon we're hoping to swim with the kids and maybe Oliver and I can work more on our roller coaster!!!