2008 DisneyWorld Vacation

The kids were out of school for fall break - so we headed to Orlando. We have been planning this trip since last fall, so it was highly anticipated. We drove down on Friday so we would get there early enough to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a waste because Karter was so scared of the gorilla by our table and the thunderstorms that Brad had to eat fast and get him out of there. Kennadie had to order calamari, which she said she liked but she still left quite a bit on her plate. She did convince Jaxson to try it.

We headed to Magic Kingdom on Saturday. We spent the whole day and night there and the kids were able to ride everything they wanted. Linc was tall enough for Space Mountain and Reag was tall enough for Splash Mtn. and Big Thunder Mtn. Railroad (his fav) this year. Karter had two favorites, Buzz Lightyear (we went on it 5x in a row while Brad took the others to Adventureland), as soon as the ride would end, he would look at me, hold his index finger up and say "one more time" and Barnstormer, he loved to fly Goofy's airplane thru the barn.

On Sunday, we slept in and then took a drive to the Orlando Temple to take a few pictures and read scriptures. It's a beautiful temple, it's the first temple I did an endowment session in after Brad and I were sealed.

On Monday we headed to Epcot. The kids got really lucky because they went on Soarin first and some official Epcot employees gave them Dream FastPass Lanyards. The pass had little tabs that gave them fastpasses to all the "cool" rides at Epcot for the day. They were then able to ride Test Track, Mission Space, Soarin (again) and a few others without waiting in line. It was also great because Reag was tall enough to ride them this year. We of course had to walk around the world for Brad and ride the Maelstrom in Norway and take pictures with the troll (a tradition). At the end of the day we rode in the Epcot ball which Linc had been waiting for all day and then we decided to stay for Illuminations. It started raining about 10 minutes into the fireworks so we then made a quick run for the van.

Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios (previously MGM). Reag was tall enough to Tower of Terror & Star Tours and Jaxson was finally tall enough for Rock'n Rollercoaster. I ran and got fas passes for the new Toy Story Spin ride while Brad took the older ones. Jax & Linc refused to ride Tower of Terror that day but Reag was excited to finally get to do it, but he didn't want to do it a second time. Jax said Rock 'n Rollercoaster is now his all time favorite and of course Kennadie loves them both. We had fast passes for Toy Story at 11:30 and the kids, especially Karter loved it . You wear 3-D glasses and sping in a cart to different screens where you shoot pies, plates, targets and build up points. Karter said "one more time" at the end but unfortunately, fast passes were gone for the day by noon and the wait was 70 minutes. We ate at Pizza Planet and watched the Muppet 3-D show. Karter loved Playhouse Disney where he got to see Handy Manny and Mickey & Donald. He really loves Donald and tries to talk like him. Reag loved Star Tours and Jax got to see Indiana Jones for the first time. My favorite part was the mint fudge in the Villains store.

On Wednesday we went over to Animal Kingdom. We got there at opening and I ran and got fast passes for Mt. Everest while Brad took Kendi, Jax, Linc & Reag to the Kali Rapids. They got wet on their first ride of the day. Then he took Kendi, Jax & Linc on Mt. Everest. It was fun because it was the first time Linc was tall enough to go. We did switch rider on this, so I was able to go when they got off with Kennadie. Reag got to go on the Dinosaur ride for the first time and I took Karter on the Triceratop spin (like Dumbo) a few times. We went to Africa where I had us fast passes for Kilamanjaro Safari whick Karter thought was fun. There was a baby giraffe and a baby elephant pretty close to our vehicle. And of course, Linc wants to know if everything is real or fake. Last time we were here Reag hated "It's tought to be a bug", but Karter & Reag both loved it this time. The kids got to do Mt. Everest again, and then we headed back to the hotel so the kids could swim.

The pool at our hotel was awesome. The cool part was this huge area with pirate themed toys and fountains for the kids to play in and two forts that faced each other where the kids could shoot water across at each other and fill a huge water tank at the top that would tip over and drench everyone in the fort. The kids (& Brad) had a great time.

Thursday we went back to Magic Kingdom. The kids had already rode all the rides they wanted to on Saturday, so they just rode their favorites. They hit Splash Mtn and Big Thunder, Space Mountain and of course I took Karter to Buzz Light year several times. Kennadie & Jaxson rode the rockets which they had never done before. We hit Barnstormer several times. Kennadie had to have her 4th Turkey Leg and Linc ate his favorite hot dog and popcorn. Linc's favorite ride was the Monster Comedy Club and was disappointed when they didn't choose him. We tried, and sat in one of the rows with the cameras but no luck. He practiced his own comedy on me the rest of the day. Jaxson had a crazy incident happen to him: He was headed over to the Jungle Cruise and when he got to the top of the stairs he just stopped. There was a guy walking right behind him that didn't see him stop and tried to avoid knocking Jax over and tumbled down the stairs around Jaxson. I missed it, but Brad said it was quite the event. Jaxson went over and apologized and the guy was fine about it, but was holding his knee. We went in the Haunted Mansion and saw the new sets, and then I took the older three back on Space Mountain and Brad to Reag & Karter on Small World, Peter Pan, & Snow White. We his Buzz one last time and then headed back so the kids could swim again.

Friday we went back to Hollywood Studios so the kids could ride Tower of Terror which Jaxson finally gave in on and Rock 'n Rollercoaster. I took Karter, Reag & Linc to see Sorceror Mickey and play in a design center for a while. That was a total nightmare, Karter kept running under the ropes away from me and I had a heck of a time staying in line trying to keep a hold of him, and then we finally saw Mickey he didn't want anything to do with him. We were able to ride the Toy Story spin twice today. Brad got in line with the kids while I went and got fast passes. We were in line for about 40 minutes and then were able to go back around noon. We all loved this ride, but Karter was disappointed when he didn't get to go "one more time". We left fairly early so the kids could swim again.

The pirate ship pool was open and the kids loved it. They had a pirate party at the pool where the kids went on a treasure hunt for some "loot" (garbage) and we had a whole bag of bubbles, eye patches, beads & rings. They swam for hours and slept great that night.

We Went to downtown Disney on Saturday morning to get a few things. Jaxson needed a few legos, Kennadie wanted a shirt and I needed some mint fudge for the ride home. We had a really great time, I just can't believe how fast the week went by. It was hard coming back to reality and the shortage of gas in Georgia.

We didn't even know there was a problem until we stopped for gas on the way home. I guess we were lucky to be able to get home.