This is the highlight reel

ok, here is a 30 minute summary of our week at WDW. It has a Disney Soundtrack, so turn your speakers up if you can. I will try to finish the blog soon. There are also a couple more video clips that i need to add. I left them out of this movie so you can hear he original sound. 2 of my most favorite moments are in this video. Max chasing streamers at the opening ceremony, and being tickled by Chip and Dale. Truly, the expression on his face and the excitement of those moments made every bead of sweat, every dollar, and every step worth it all. Enjoy!

safari and petting zoo

Day 3- Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom covers the most acerage of any Disney World Park. But most of it's for animals. It also tends to be 3 degrees warmer than any other park. It was the hottest, most crowded park we visited. We went straight to the tree of Life, then did the Kilamanjaro Safari, Rafiki's Animal Rescue, lunch, and Finding Nemo the Musical. That is really all we managed to do. The other 2 rides we would have liked to try were out of fast passes. A Fast pass holds your place in line. You plug in your daily ticket, and it spits out a special ticket with a time range to come back and go straight to the front of the line. We felt a little guilty when we would pass hundreds of people to go straight to the front, but it sure was a nice perk. Anywho, we didn't want to ride those 2 rides bad enough to deal with the long waits in the heat.

The tree of Life is the centerpiece of AK. It's pretty cool, carved with all kinds of animals. Rafiki's is the animal hospital and there was a petting zoo and lots of scientific-y displays. Oh, and you got to ride a train to and from it. Th safari was really cool, taking you through the Jungle to see the wildlife closer up. By far though, everyone's favorite of that day was Nemo, the Musical. It is done on stage with puppets. It was very colorful and cool. Max loved when the bubbles fell from the ceiling. WHen this was over, we had trouble locating our stroller. The employees move them around to help with traffic flow, so they aren't always where you leave them once you leave an attraction. By the time we found it, the intense crowd had squeezed us to the front of the park, so we decided to take a pool day for the rest of the day.

Minnie Mouse

Here are a few clips from our brunch at Chef Mickey's!

Chef Mickey's

Ok, one of my favorite things was breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary resort. We had Max's pillowcase, which we were getting signed by all the characters we dined with. After the Pooh fiasco, we seated Max with his back to the wall, so he could see them coming and not be surprised. He was delighted to watch them from across the room, but not so much to see them close up. Donald was having none of that though, and tried yanking the napkin off his head. Because he was hiding under his napkin whenever they got close.

Day 2- Epcot Future World

Day 2 was Epcot day. We rode the spaceship earth ride, inside the giant golfball, and Max played a shuffleboard type game with another boy. it was really neat. Most of the rides and attractions at WDW are indoors, and you can't always take pictures or film, so we didn't get a whole lot of pictures of our activities. We also rode the Nemo ride and explored the aquarium. Max really liked that. He even posed inside Bruce the shark. Heather and I took turns riding Soarin' while Max napped. It was one of my favorites. It simulates hang gliding and you soar over mountains, oceans, orange groves, and city-scapes. You even feel wind and smell the scents to match the scene. Very cool. Max would have loved it, but was 1 inch too short to ride. We ended with Ellen's Energy Adventure, which starts with Ellen and Bill Nye watching Jeopardy, and then takes you through time to see where energy comes room and why it's important. It was really cool. We also did a character meal this day and got to meet the fab 5. It's coming right up.

Baby you can drive my car!

It's really hard to film and drive at the same time!

Magic Kingdom

We started off our first day with a surprise. We had breakfast with Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, and Piglet in the Crystal Palace (not the churchy one in California with the flight attendant hitting preacher, but a different one) and we got to enter the park before it opened! That was pretty cool. Max really didn't know what to think, especially when Eyeore surprised Max, scaring him a good little bit. For the next few days, Max tried to avoid characters.

After breakfast we headed to Dumbo, and rode everything in fantasy land but the scary Snow White ride. It's a small world wasn't nearly as annoying as I thought it might be, but I think we all liked the pooh ride the best. Max really liked riding in the honey pots. He also rode the rocket ships and the carousel. We found a Jack and the Beanstalk themed gift store. He liked that a lot too. And no, I don't think he's doing what it looks like he's doing on the wall. It started to get hot and crowded after lunch, so we did one last ride, then headed bac for swimming. I'll try to post video of the last ride. Max got to drive a car, and he made me play the video clip on the camera a million times this past week.

Disney Arrival

We got into Orlando, and found our way to Disney's "Magical Express" now this isn't a special teleporter, or air shooting tunnel, it's just a bus. I know what your thinking, I didn't think it was all that magical either. But you know who did? Yep, Max. He thought riding the bus was really neat. They loaded us up and took us to the Wilderness Resort for our stay. We checked in and found we had an upgrade to a pool view room, and discovered a Mickey towel animal on the bed. Then we headed down to the Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner. It's a very Branson-y type restaurant, but Max really got a kick out of the stick horse race and our silly waiter.

Leaving, on a jet plane

Max loved the plane ride. We flew out of Branson's new airport (which is easy to miss) and had a layover in Atlanta. Following TSA's instructions, we were there 2 hours early. FYI, you do NOT need to arrive at Branson's airport 2 hours early. He loved taking off and landing. And he wasn't bothered at all by the lurching and jolting of the turbulence from Atlanta to Orlando. I was, but not him.

Technical Frustrations

Ok, I have tried to update a few times, and can't seem to upload pictures right now. So, here's the scoop. Coming soon- We have pics and some video from playdates, lake visits, and soccer camp. I hope to get them up soon. We have vacation to Disney World starting this Saturday. They charge 10 bucks a day for internet, so I'm not even gonna take the laptop. When we come back though, it'll be up. In AUgust, we also have a family trip to Hannibal with the Mosley cousins, and a weekend in St Louis planned at the end of the month for the American Idol tour.

You can see, there will be a lot to look at-- eventually.

peace, D.