Last Days in Disney

Chris and I walking to our first film shoot.


Chris is driving the boat and calls me down in the ship to give me a warning.


Here I am getting LOTS of water dumped on me.


I know we just came back from Disney less than a month ago, but I miss it already. It would be great to live close and go for day or a night every two months. That would be a nice way to spread out the Disney fun to last all year around. Anyway the pictures are from Hollywood Studios. I had so much fun at this park. You have the HSM 3 dance show they put on with the songs from High School Musical 3. I love the new Disney parade at HS. I talked about it that last time. The new Toystory ride is really fun, but go there first to get a fast pass the rides wait is over 2 hours long. Christina and I went on The Tower of Terror. We all went on the Rockin Roller Coaster. My favorite is the Fantasmic the laser light, fireworks, and water show with all the characters. I never get tired of seeing that show. Well we went on the back lot tour which I had never done. Can you believe you can go so many times and still have stuff you have not done? Anyway they asked us to particpate in the show. We were like okay and they asked us who wants to do the least work and I volunteered not knowing that meant the most wet too! LOL! Anyway we were to be a movie scene. They us took to put on protective clothing and give us our jobs and they film each shot and put it together with sound to show how they put together a real film. The rest of the tour was great and the ending was really surprisng and fun but I will not ruin it for you go take a back lot tour.




Here is Rachel in front of the NEW attraction due to open Feb 2009. The real American Idol attraction where you can sing, be a judge, or and audience member. You can also be picked to sing in front of the REAL American idol judges if you are 16-28 years old. I guess that would happen on their next tour for next season. Neat! Read more on Disney's site.

Okay I think I can talk about it now

Okay there they are my Ugg boots that I bought myself right before we left for Disney. I had thoughts of wearing them in Disney. I know what was I thinking. Not only was it too warm, but what would have I done if it had rained. I not only bought them for myself but I bought them for my oldest, my mom for christmas, and my youngest who is only 8 and is terrible with shoes. So this is how my obsession started, but I am better now really I am. LOL! They are expensive!! I do not spend a lot of money on clothes, because my style is very casual. (What not wear to wear would have a field day with me. My daily outfit now consists of jeans, uggs, a long sleeve shirt, and a zippered jacket.) Well because they were so pricey I became obsessed with keeping them clean. I personally would be in a Wawa getting coffee and someone would look clumsy with their coffee and I in my head was like you better NOT spill coffee on my shoes they are Uggs you know. And heaven forbid someone make a quick turn in my head I would be screaming Are you trying to step on my light sand UGGS, are you stupid??? I know a little crazy. Well my 8 year old the one really too young for this shoe responsibility wanted them the most, so the pep talk before she wears them to school starts, when she got home the inspection would begin, at home I would stare at her feet and say be careful your stepping on them or don't sit like that your toes is on the floor. My husband was so sick of hearing me caution everyone on the proper Ugg wearing etiquette that he was about to go make them dirty so it would all be over.
I took precaution by spraying them with the protector. I spilled RED powerade all over the table and thankfully because of the protection it splashed on my boots but beaded up and came right off.
I am doing better at this point and have stopped focusing on the condition of the Uggs. The only person that has a noticeable stain is my oldest who is got the rim dirty from the wet snow mixed with dirt, but we plan on cleaning them soon. It is a big project to clean them with the cleaner that you can buy directly from the company so we will get to it and I will let you know how it all works out.
Thanks for being supportive during my phase of needing to get over already. LOL!

Wedding Weekend

Mr. and Mrs. Dale and Shawna Adkins.


My cousins Melissa and Tracy. Aren't they pretty.


Rachel and her two cousins. (Christina was not in any of my photos. I thought I took one of her in the baby. I think it may have been with the table camera.)

We had a little wedding get away in Conneticut this weekend. My aunt who lives in Virginia had been trying to get in touch with me about my cousin's wedding. It was only four hours away and the hotel stay was only $65, and I have not seen my cousin's in so long. It is ashame how you lose touch with family especially when they live so far away. My aunt, the mom of the bride, was so happy that we could attend the wedding. She has such a big heart. It was wonderful seeing my cousins they grew up to be such beautiful women. We left early on Saturday around 8:30 am. We were supposed to leave by 7 am, but when I went to bed without packing I knew that wasn't going to happen. We arrived in Connecticut around 12:45 pm. We checked in, changed our clothes, and off to the chapel we went. The wedding started at 2pm and we made a wrong turn. It was snowing too! We walked through the church doors at 2:03pm. Thank goodness we were trying to get in when the bride was coming down teh aisle. The church was so adorable and the service was beautiful. It was still snowing as we headed off to the country club. The food was deliciuos and we were starving. I think we tried every hors orderves twice as they came around to serve us. Okay the next part is going to be a shock to anyone who knows me well. My cousin Tracy had an 8 month old little girl Chloe. She was in the wedding party and you know how that goes you have to actually work. (pictures, dance, etc) Well she asked if Christina could keep an eye on her baby which she did, but I helped ALOT. Chloe was adorble, but she was tired. It was just funny for my husband, because I never take on baby duty. I am just better with the potty trained, feed yourself, and play with others nicely 4 year old and up kids. Well at 8 pm the last song was played and it was time to hit the snowy roads. The area got about 4 inches. We stayed up late in my uncles rooms talking as the kids hung out in our room. It was nice my kids are 13 and 8 and my uncles are 13 and 10. So they had a blast too. The morning came and we went to Dunkin Donuts for flatbreads and coffee. (I have to say when I was there I remembered that I do not recall grabbing my camera from the wedding. We were close to the country club so we stopped in to ask about the camera. They did not have it and I thought okay my fairly reasonable weekend away got really expensive. How could I not remember. I am thinking it was because I was holding the baby. My husband said check your bag. I did not because I would have remembered putting it in there. Wouldn't I? Well, I FOUND IT in the bag that I should have checked. My memory is terrible.)



Us in front of the diner. Also note my husband was wearing his throw back Reggie White Eagles jersey. The Eagles played and beat the NY Giants. There were lots of NY Giant fans in the diner since the stadium was right down the street and the game just ended. It was a play off game and since the NY Giants lost it was their last game. Thankfully we did not meet any overly unhappy fans. We did get a good luck next week, Go Reggie White.



The framed article that as featured in local paper.

Okay I feel like I am boring everyone to tears with all these details. We drove through Hartford, saw Yale University, and was heading to a diner that was on the Food Network's show Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives. Guy Fieri went on a New Jersey tour of Diners We went to the Tick Tock diner. It was really neat to go there and the food was good. We ate the Disco fries that Guy had. They were fries topped off with gravy and cheese.

Our day in Epcot

Our next day was at the Epcot park in Disney. Sometimes we think about visiting Disney and going to the water parks, so if we ever do that we would only go the three parks instead of a day at each one. I will tell you that Epcot would never be taken off the list. I am not sure which one would I go back and forth with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
1)Magic Kingdom to me is where it all started and is the heart of Disney's magic.
2)Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park that you get the feeling you really went somewhere other than Florida.
3)Hollywood Studios is a neat place where I love the rides, the fun restaurants, the shows, the NEW parade is fun, and Fantasmic the night show is the best. Fun Place.
4) Epcot is two parks in one. You have the park with the rides that is enjoyable. The fun part especially the adults is the world showcase with the different countries. We love to walk through and I get excited to eat at the different restaurants. I still have yet to go and eat in Canada it is always booked far in advance.

Okay so here we are in Epcot and we go two days in a row because our family is scheduled to come the next day. We have lunch planned in Norway with the Princesses. We get in line to take a photo with Belle, which in this restaurant the photo is a gift to you as part of your reservation. (I need to scan in to show you) You start out your meal with a salad bar with the usual and some added Norway flair of cheeses and smoked fish. You choose your entree and I chose the lamb stew which was delicious. My favorite part is the dessert which is served family style and my waitress heard me say it was my favorite so she brought two. Ugh! Now we just had to eat everything on the dessert plate so as to not offend. LOL! It was a yummy rice pudding(for me anyway) with strawberries, flour less chocolate cake with raspberries, and a huge vanilla cream puff.



During the holiday you can find a show in each country to tell their holiday story. This was in Canada which was similiar to our Santa story, but with a few differences depending on the region.



This was in Germany and she was great and told the story of Christmas with Jesus and some stories of Toy soldiers and warm german spiced wine.

Very Merry Mickey Christmas Party

Magic Kingdom Tree in the daytime from the railroad deck.


Magic Kingdom Tree at night.

We had a magical time going to the Very Merry Christmas Party. We had went before and had a great time. You do have to buy these tickets separately and they have the party on select night from November and this year's last night was December 19th. I was really excited that we just made their last night. I will tell you that if you are staying the week of Christmas you can see the same holiday parade and the same christmas show that before that week are only available to been seen at this party event. The party is located at the Magic Kingdom. They close the park down early and you can only stay if you have the special wristbands it is from 7pm to midnight but they let you in starting at 4pm. This was our first visit to a park since we arrived. We did ride some rides like the Pirates of the Carribean. Really this night is for the parade, fireworks, castle show, fun dance party, and the twas the night before x-mas show. Now we were with other people and I was afraid I was not going to make it to everything. You really have to plan this part with the events being at certain times. My husband was so proud of me, because I did not complain once. I was just glad to be with others and guess what I got to see everything on my list. I was looking forward to the parade and my thing is I want a good spot to view it.(I like to be in the front and be able to see everything even their feet) Now I know it is for the children and I will have you know I will let kids in front of me, but adults stay back. You do have to get a good spot early which means up to an hour before the parade you want to select an area along the parade route and plant yourself. Okay now for some photos. Now do not worry the rest of my Disney blog postings will not be as long, because I did not take many more photos.


Cute Jeana-Marie with a Christmas headband.


Goofy Claus at the eatery. They have a full DJ teaching a bunch of fun dances. Chris and Rachel did the YMCA, cupid shuffle, and many more. What a great time we had here.


Disney castle at the start of their fireworks display. Holiday Wishes.


Cinderella and Prince Charming in the holiday parade. This parade is one of my favorite. It is filled with so much holiday themed floats even dozens of toy soldiers marching down the path.


All of us pictured in front of the holiday lit castle.


Mickey and Minnie during the Twas the night before Christmas show. An awesome show with an orchestra playing the music, live singers and dancers, and lots of character play in the fun musical.


Another spectacular shot of the castle lit with thousands of Christmas lights.

Our second day in Disney

Okay this was our second day in Disney. It was a relaxing day that started out with breakfast at Boma's restaurant located at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Wow what a wonderful place. I would definitely visit here again. The restaurant was a buffet that serves mostly american breakfast foods with a touch of some African choices. My husband were definitely up for trying some themed foods. We tried a poridge like grain that was served with sauteed tomato and onions. They also had a curried meat hash which my husband liked alot. I tried and was surprised I liked the curry flavoring, but I could only eat a small portion. They also serve a tropical juice punch with three juices that was delicious. We wanted to try Boma's for breakfast first, but we would love to go back for lunch or dinner that is when you can really get a selection of different African foods. We love to try different things and with a buffet it is great to try to a little if you do not like it go back and try something else. Okay besides the beautiful themed thatched roof restaurant we took a walk around the Animal Kingdom lodge. Wow! If I could pick anywhere to stay in Disney and money was a factor than this would be at the top of my list. It seemed very kid friendly but quiet. The pool was beautiful with a few hot tubs to choose from and best of all on the outskirts of the pool area were animals look outs. You could see a giraffe, birds, and other animals. So really neat.


The rest of the day we visited a couple of hotels to see their Christmas decorations. We took the monrail to visit the Floridian which is home to this enormous life size gingerbread house. We even bought a gingerbread house shingle. It was a soft moist gingerbread cookie. It was different but after the second bite I liked it. Later that evening we were going to the Very Merry Mickey Christmas Party.

Happy New Year and some Disney pics

Wilderness Lodge Tree-each hotel and park has a themed tree they are so beautiful.

Chris wore the I am grumpy because you're dopey hat and Kev had the matching shirt and they did not even plan it.


Here is Christina at the restaurant. Now remember we left the house at 5 am to catch our 7 am flight.
Side note: This reminds me of us our flight we checked our bags at the airport and we were going to the security check. Well the electric went out in that section so we were routed to another area. That area had a super long line so we waited patiently. The clock approached 7 am as we were retrieving our belongings from the conveyor belt and we thought well they have to hold the flight everyone has been delayed. Right? No, we RAN to our flight as the closed the doors behind us at 7:03 am. WHEW! We just made it!

This is Rachel in front of Pop century's Christmas Tree.



We stayed at the Disney value resort Pop Century. This us walking to our room which was in front of the bowling pin pool. I love Pop Century the best it is the newest and the cafeteria is the biggest and it offers slushies (coke and blue raspberry) Rachel is pushing Kevin and Tammy's grand daughter Jeana-Marie. She was such a good baby.


I am going to blog over a few postings on our trip to split it up. Our first day we arrived early and met up with family to eat at the whispering cove found at the Wilderness Lodge. It was a nice meal of all you care to eat lunch of chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, slaw, and beans for $18. I would have liked a dessert to have been included, but that is just me. I would not go out of my way to eat here again.


We were on in the Disney dining plan which you pay for ahead of time and it gives you a table service meal, counter service meal, and a snack. Depending on where you go it saves you quite a bit a money and you can only get that option if you are staying on site in a Disney resort and have a park package. They offer so many great deals through out the year it is very affordable to visit Disney with hotel, parks, and food included especially for a family of four.


I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I have been home for several days. I am just now feeling back to a normal schedule. We came home late on the 27th. We had family over on the 28th, church on the 29th, more family over on the 30th, some lazy days, and my nieces over on the 1st. I have lots of ideas in my head and so many things I want to do. I don't know what to do first. I am looking forward to the kids going back to school only because that will open my schedule up during the day. They do not drive crazy they are too old. It is nice being home with them over the holidays. (Especially because I do not have to drive them to school and we can sleep in late. lol !)

Okay we had a great time in Disney. It is always a great time to visit during Christmas. I will say that it was not as exciting because we had just been there not too long ago. Do not get me wrong we had an awesome time it was just familiar. We did so many things that we had never done before. We had always left by December 21st so this was the first time to stay until after Christmas. It is their most busiest and expensive time of year to visit that is why we only stayed through the 26th. The parks were crowded but not too bad only Christmas Day. (If we ever did this again we would stay back at the hotel with family and maybe eat at one of the hotel restaurants on Christmas Day.) So anyway it was busy but we did not wait long for any ride. The fast passes are a great way to go on the popular rides without waiting. I am not sure why anyone would wait. Usually we would arrive in a park around 10:30 am (we are not early risers). Christina would take all of our park cards and get us a fast pass for the most popular ride. That gives you a come back time for the ride you just go through the line without waiting long at all. Within two hours you can go get a fast pass for another ride and so on every two hours from there. Now the only thing is you might be way on the other side of the park so it is a pain, but my oldest was happy to go get them. She knew exactly where she was going and we both a phone to keep in contact during her short travel. Okay I had promised to take photos but I was good only on the first day and thankfully my kids took some from there. I am just terrible getting photos. We really need to get a video camera both my husband and his side kick Rachel love to take them. We had forgotten the flip video, but that has limited abilities.