Day Five: Wednesday, 5/4/16 - Walt Disney World

Today's post is going to be a relatively short one. The reason behind this is the fact that we are going to try to make it to Animal Kingdom today (Thursday) as early as possible. But first, a quick summary of yesterday, Wednesday, 5/4/16.

Our plans for yesterday included plans to visit Animal Kingdom. However, there were some pretty severe thunderstorms in the morning and, after we saw that the forecast in the morning called for rain up until 6pm, we decided that skipping Animal Kingdom for the day would be fine. We were totally okay with this mainly because we had built in two off days in our original plans so our off day, which was scheduled for Thursday, got shifted to Wednesday. But, despite the fact that we got some much needed rest and relaxation, it really wasn't an "off" day because during breakfast, we all kind of decided that we should add one more days' worth of tickets so we could visit Hollywood Studios. I'm so glad we did.

The forecast called for the rain to end around 5:00 but, around 6:30 it was still raining pretty steadily. But that was okay because we were had ponchos and we were able to still stay fairly dry. Also, when it's rainy like that at a theme park, you kind of get excited about going inside buildings and seeing shows so we watched MuppetVision 3D, which I still find very funny and entertaining. We also saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

Of course the rides at Hollywood Studios are all pretty much indoors so we really had an awesome time. I think it was enjoyable mainly because this was our second time visiting the park this trip so, we didn't have any of the self-imposed pressure of "we gotta do this" or "we haven't done that yet! We have to do that or trip won't be complete!" (None of us actually said these things. Just exaggerating.)

Anyway, all in all, a very good time. Some quick things I'll record here for memories' sake: When we arrived for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Lily held her magic band up to the terminal and it accepted it before she got the okay from the cast member. I think she was afraid she'd done something wrong but, the cast member very sweetly asked Lily to help her open the chain so we could go in. It was very cute.

Sophie got to ride Rock n' Roller Coaster again, this time with Joy, Caleb, and Molly. Lily and I waited over near the American Cafe (I think that's the name. I'll correct this if it's wrong). After that, we rode The Tower of Terror and that was great as usual. Not for Sophie, though. I think she honestly got a little sick to her stomach so I'm glad she didn't end up proving it to us by actually getting sick.

After that, we went and got our pictures taken with Kylo Ren amidst all of the hardcore Star Wars fans (it was May the Fourth, after all), so that was kind of cool. To end the evening, we hung out in the main roadway and watched the Symphony in the Stars which is really just great fireworks set to Star Wars music and quotes.

Well, we are just about off to Animal Kingdom. Hopefully, I will get up early enough tomorrow for some updates.

Before I go, here's some highlights from yesterday:

Joy gets a signature from her favorite Disney character.

Sophie and Lily waiting on the Symphony in the Stars to begin

On our way to Hollywood Studios!

We're both looking at the lens!

Dinner at Everything Pop

Dinner at Everything Pop

Day Four: Tuesday, 5/3/16 - Walt Disney World

Tuesday, May 3rd was our day at Epcot. We got a fairly early start after having a light breakfast in our room and headed down to the Disney Transportation System pick-up area. Or, in layman's terms: the bus stop.

We didn't make rope drop but we still arrived at the Epcot gates at a very reasonable hour. After going through the bag check process, we went to the character meet and greet to see Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. Along the way, we saw a line of people waiting to get their pictures taken with Pluto, one of Joy's favorite characters. But, we made a very common mistake and said, "We'll do that later." Naturally, we didn't but, the character interaction with Minnie, Goofy, and Mickey was still very good.

After the character meet n' greet, we got in line for Spaceship Earth. I rode with Caleb, Joy rode with Lily, and Molly rode with Sophie. We've been on the ride several times before but I still enjoy it, if only for the cool settings and practical effects that Disney employs on there.

Joy and Lily on Spaceship Earth

The silly video that plays near the end of Spacsehip Earth

A little while later, we headed over to the Electric Umbrella to have lunch. The upstairs dining area was open but we opted to sit outside. I'm glad we did because the temperature was very comfortable and there was a nice breeze. Plus, we got to hear the Epcot area fountain-view music that I love so much. A few years ago, we ate outside at the Electric Umbrella and the birds that hung around outside were a bit of a nuisance. In fact, one of them took a french fry right out of Caleb's fingers--and he wasn't even trying to feed it! He was literally holding a french fry with the intention of eating it and the bird kind of flew up and took it! This time, Caleb saw one of the birds (not sure what kind) pick up food from the ground and feed it to another, larger bird. I'm no ornithologist and I'm really not familiar with Florida birds at all but, this really puzzled Caleb and me. We were wondering, why is this seemingly adult bird feeding the other, larger bird? Truly deserving of some cursory internet research.

Lunch at the Electric Umbrella

After lunch, we rode Test Track. We all enjoyed creating our cars and then seeing how they "performed" during the ride. The car that Caleb and I (mostly Caleb) designed was pretty cool and did pretty well. The cars that Joy and Lily, and Molly and Sophie designed were appropriately funky and fun.

Joy and Lily's Car

Sophie and Molly's Car

The Car Caleb and I created

We headed over to the Seas area and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. This ride is simple and cute and includes some music from the Finding Nemo the Musical, an excellent production that still runs over at the Animal Kingdom.

Since we were already there, we spent some time at the Seas area and looked at some manatees, a diver in the aquarium with a HUGE stingray, and we saw a diver enter the lockout tank.

A clown fish at The Seas (a.k.a. Nemo)

The diver is in the lockout tank.

Leaving the Seas behind, we went over to the Land.

The whole Land area really used to be a very busy location. Always, there were crowds outside, crowds of people inside, and so many people eating at Sunshine Seasons that the place really felt alive. This time, though, it was very different. Not empty, to be sure, but definitely not the crowded area we were used to. Joy and I both attribute this to one thing: Soarin' is currently closed. Set to reopen this summer, Soarin' always had crazy lines and, unless you had a fast pass, you would easily be waiting over an hour to ride it. And rightfully so, because I think Soarin' was an awesome experience. I hope the revamp of the ride maintains the secret recipe that made it such an amazing attraction to begin with.

At least the sign is still there.

After we left the Land area, we saw what looked like storm clouds approaching so we decided that we needed to seek out another attraction that was indoors. (Also, the butterfly garden was closed and that was one of Sophie and Lily's must-do's.) So, Journey into Imagination was the solution.

Joy and I rode Journey into Imagination when we first visited the park back in 1996 and I really didn't remember anything at all about the ride, other than the music (thanks Subsonicradio!) and the fact that we found it boring. I know, I know. That isn't nice but, since I didn't visit Epcot as a child in the 1980's, I never grew attached to Figment or this attraction. Still, it's a cute ride.

After Journey into Imagination, Molly, Caleb, and I went to Fountainview--which doubles as a Starbuck's--and got a couple of drinks. We met Joy at the playground and we were able to visit the butterfly garden (I probably have this out of order so, Caleb or someone can correct me).

At the butterfly garden

The Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure was something that Caleb was really looking forward to doing. Quite honestly, I was looking forward to it too so, we were all pretty disappointed when we saw the "recruitment" station already closed at 5:30pm, even though the signage clearly showed it open until 6pm. But, as we were coming out of the playground area, Caleb could see a cast member opening the little kiosk area back up so we headed on over there and signed up. 

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Disney has updated the phones they use for this experience from older flip phones to smart phones. Also, you can use your own device to go on the Adventure. I almost used one of Disney's devices for the experience but decided against it when the cast member told me that if you use one of their devices, the experience times out after 10 minutes of inactivity. Using your own device has no time-out limit. Knowing that we have six people in our family with different interests, I decided to use my own phone.

This worked out great. We were able to do the mission in the UK and in France. After that, we decided to take a break and restart in Mexico since that was where we were going to eat dinner. Unfortunately, when I gave Caleb the phone in the Mexican pavilion, the "quit" icon was accidentally selected rather than continue. Caleb was extremely disappointed at this and so was I. But, at least we did get to solve a couple of missions.

Speaking of the Mexican pavilion, Joy's plan was to eat at the outside, quick service restaurant, La Cava del Tequila and watch Illuminations from there. When we finally got there after 7:30 (later than planned), we saw that a lot of other people had the exact same idea. In fact there was absolutely no where to sit and eat. Thankfully, though, it took a ridiculously long time to get our food and, by the time I picked our trays up, we Joy and the kids had found a table.

After dinner, Lily had to use the bathroom so Joy took her and Molly, Caleb, Sophie, and I waited just outside the cool Mexican pyramid, listening to the countdown to Illuminations. Joy and Lily came out of the bathroom just in time for us all to enjoy watching the show.

After Illuminations, we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. I love that ride. It is so simple and laid back. Kind of like It's a Small World, only with WAY better music and theming.

 Love this ride. That's an order, not a comment.

Sophie and Lily, pre-fight formation

Singing their song

Leaving the Mexican Pavilion, we decided to ride Test Track one last time and I'm glad we did. Riding that at night was totally worth it.

For the return home trip, we were able to get on the first bus back to Pop Century, even though we had to stand. Thankfully, Sophie was able to sit right away and before we left the parking lot, a lady gave up her seat so that Lily could sit. Sophie fell asleep quickly on the bus and Lily asked me, "Can I take a nap? My eyes are shutting down." I thought that was so cute! And she did fall asleep, if only for the fifteen minute ride back to our resort.

Well, that was probably way too detailed but, as I write this post this Wednesday morning, there's been a crazy thunderstorm going on. In fact, it's supposed to storm pretty much until at least 1:00 today. We were supposed to go to Animal Kingdom today and then take tomorrow off but, it's looking like we're taking today off and going there tomorrow. So glad we built some "off" days into our schedule.

Until tomorrow...

Day Three: Monday, 5/2/16 - Walt Disney World

Yesterday was our "off" day, which means we didn't go to any theme parks. Instead, we just hung around the resort, played in the pool, and saw some sights. So, I hate to use the word "off" because it sort of implies that going to the parks is some sort of work but, after going to the parks, being on your feet all day in the heat, failing to properly hydrate yourself, and then carrying the occasionally sleeping child, it gets very tiring. So, that's why we call these sorts of days our "off" days.

For this off day, we had a nice relaxing late start. We ate breakfast at the Everything Pop dining area here at the Pop Century Resort hotel and it was pretty good (no, I didn't take pictures of our food). After that, we hung out at the pool for a couple hours. Before we went to the pool, I was very careful to apply sunblock to the kids and myself. Somehow, though, I still managed to get sunburned on my shoulders and back--and my scalp, I think. This is probably because the sunblock we used (water babies) is only waterproof for 80 minutes and we were swimming for 2 hours. Oops! I'm probably spending too much time talking about this for too long but, when we first visited Walt Disney World twenty years ago, I got the worst sunburn of my life. That totally changed the way I spend time in the sun--particularly with my shirt off so, I'm a bit overly cautious.

After the pool, we got cleaned up and headed over to the Art of Animation resort, which is just across the Generation Gap Bridge and Hourglass Lake. We walked around for a bit taking pictures of the beautiful theming and cool movie-based sculptures and statues. A couple years ago, we walked around and enjoyed all of The Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Finding Nemo areas. This time, we focused on just the Cars area. In addition to some photo ops, we ate lunch at the Landscape of Flavors dining area.

Some Pictures From The Art of Animation Resort:

 Lover this cool Cars motel sign.

 Lily's blurry but Simba held still pretty nicely for this picture.

 Simba, in the Art of Animation Resort Lobby

 Caleb, keepin' it real in the Art of Animation Resort Lobby.

 The Ink and Paint Shop.

 These girls are always playing. Always.

The Cozy Cone signage.

From the Art of Animation resort we decided to ride the monorail at Epcot so, we hopped a bus and headed on over. The ride on the monorail was neat but uneventful. The particular train we rode on had Zootopia see-through decals on the windows so, it looks pretty cool from the outside. Unfortunately, these sort of decals make for so-so viewing from the inside and horrible photography so, I didn't even pull my camera out once.

From Epcot, we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just to check it out. Right when we got there, it started raining but, wow, what a beautiful resort! We walked out onto one of the balconies and saw a couple zebras prancing around a few other Animal Kingdom animals in the distance but, we couldn't make them out.

 In the lobby of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Waiting for the bus at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We hung out at Animal Kingdom Lodge longer than we expected because we had to wait out the raging thunderstorm outside but, when it finally let up we decided to head back to our resort. So, we hopped a bus for Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney). When we got off the bus at Disney Springs, it was raining pretty heavily so, we were thanking the Lord when we stepped out into the rain after seeing a Pop Century Resort bus coming and, we were even more grateful when we were able to step right onto this virtually empty bus and ride it back to our hotel! All told, it took us over an hour to get to Pop Century from the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Back at Pop Century, we ordered a couple of their seriously very delicious pizzas and called it a night. On the way back to our room, we saw a frog perched on the top of one of the trash cans. Lily happens to like frogs (and all small critters) so, that was a neat treat for her.

Today, we visit Epcot. I'm mentally preparing myself for a lot of walking but this ought to be a nice day for a seemingly strange reason: we don't have a lot of must-do's for this park. But, I'm glad to just go there and see the sights, shops, etc.

More updates to come tomorrow!

The First Full Day - Saturday, 4/30/16

We spent our first full day in Walt Disney World at the Magic Kingdom and, wow, that really wore me out.

We started our day out early with the goal of making it to the rope drop ceremony, which we did, so that was awesome. Our first stop was to see "talking Mickey" and then Tinkerbell. Both experiences were cool and, I wish I could have taken non-stop pictures in that little room where Mickey was because the attention to detail is just amazing.

After that, we ended up riding the little double-decker bus down Main Street U.S.A. which was also a first time and a very neat first experience.

I don't remember the exact order of all of the rides and attractions we did yesterday and, since Joy is still asleep and I can't verify what I'm forgetting, I'll just hit some highlights:

We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and, for some reason, Sophie got herself worked up to the point that she did not want to ride it. So, being the loving, understanding, compassionate parents that we are, we forced her to get on. Before you gasp in horror at this, just know that she's ridden it before and she ended up absolutely loving it (again). As soon as the ride was over, she said she wanted to ride it again. I want to mention that there was a cast member working the ride named Rachael that, when she saw Sophie upset, she took the time to squat down and explain to Sophie how the ride would be and that she could totally do it. This was despite the fact that there were people waiting to get on behind us. This cast member took her time to encourage my daughter and it was just very nice to see.

After this, we hit the classic Splash Mountain. This was Lily's first time riding it and she LOVED it. Even though Disney will probably never ever release The Song of the South for anyone to see, ever again, the ride endures. It really is like being inside a cartoon.

I almost forgot to mention that we rode the TTA, or People Mover twice in a row. I know that's not a thrill ride but, it's a classic that our family enjoys.

Well, we've got another busy day ahead of us, this time at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Lily has been talking about riding the Tower of Terror since the moment we got here so I really hope she likes it.

I will leave you now with a few highlights, or pictures/videos I took with my phone. The stuff on my camera will have to wait to be processed in Lightroom. I will probably write another post sometime that gives more details (like how crazy Sophie and Lily acted during Mickey's Philharmagic), but for now, it's time to sign off.

Proof that we made it to the rope drop show.

Enjoying some treats just outside the exit of The Enchanted Tiki Room

The Countdown Continues...

In exactly one week from now, what will we be doing? We won't be on the road quite yet. Most likely, we'll be packing up our suitcases and making some last minute checklists. But, what I hope we'll be doing at this time next week is... sleeping.

For our last trip, we had lain down to try to get some sleep at about 8:00pm until midnight. I lay there for four hours but I didn't sleep at all. Joy thought I was mistaken but, it's true. I think I was so wired thinking about our drive to Disney that I literally couldn't sleep. I got a little physical rest since I was actually lying in bed with my eyes shut but, I didn't really get any mental rest. But it was okay because I didn't have too much trouble driving. And when I did, I just switched places with Joy.

Regardless, about 14 hours after we haul our sleeping kids into the van, we'll see the awesome iconic Pop Century structures. Like this bowling pin:

So looking forward to this trip.

Signs!

Walt Disney World is full of awesome signs. The one above here is kind of goofy but, that's really the idea.

But, seriously, there are so many wonderful signs in Disney; ones that fit the associated theming just perfectly. Check out this one from the Flame Tree Barbecue:

Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm having trouble finding a lot of pictures of Disney signs on my flickr stream so, it's time to go. The main point of this post is to say that, for this trip, I'm going to make a conscious effort to photograph a lot of the cool signs in Disney World.

Now, where to start..,?

(39 days to Disney!)

Don't Knock The "Standard View" Rooms

Let me start off this post by saying... 48 days to Disney! Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to say, "49 days... we battled that beast". That's a very sloppy paraphrase of a very funny song:

Now that that's out of my system, I wanted to briefly address some of the room types I'm familiar with at Disney. Granted, we've only stayed at Pop Century, All Star Movies, and Port Orleans Riverside so, I don't pretend to be an expert but I wanted to defend the "standard room view" (or whatever it's called). These "standard" rooms are in contrast to the slightly more expensive "preferred" or "pool room view" rooms.

Our rooms this year are "standard pool view" rooms. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not exactly sure where our rooms are but, I'm really not worried about it. We have yet to stay in a room that was in a bad area.

The best example of this is our 2009 trip to Walt Disney World when we stayed at the All Star Movies Resort. That year our room was undoubtedly a standard view. I say "undoubtedly" because from our balcony area, you could look to the right and see the main lobby area of the hotel. We had an especially good view of the Disney's Magical Express buses unloading and loading people.

At first, you might think, "Yuck. Who wants to see that?!" But Joy and I really thought it was cool seeing so many people coming in, starting their vacations; kids skipping along, completely consumed with the excitement of starting a vacation in Walt Disney World.

Here's what our view looked like:

See? That's a pretty cool view, I think. Parking lot and all. We really didn't care.

Plus, looking directly down to the little tree/mulch area below our door, we were greeted with the following:

And then, on another day, it was changed to this:

I really thought this was pretty cool. Maybe some guest did this, maybe a cast member--I don't know. But you know what? It put a smile on our faces. As usual, it's the little touches like this that make a "standard room" become "preferred".

Keep up the good work Disney. We'll see you soon...

What Emotions Does This Image Conjure?

The picture above was taken in the bus queuing area at the Magic Kingdom. Obviously, this was taken during the day and, unbelievably, there's almost no one in this shot! 

But back to the title of this post: what kinds of emotions does this image trigger in you? If you've never been to Walt Disney World then the answer is probably nothing. If you have been to "the World", you're either thinking, "Aww! I can't wait! Remember when... [insert special memory here]". But, you may see this waiting area and think, "Ugh. My feet and legs hurt just looking at this." 

For me, I see potential. Potential of a new day at The Magic Kingdom with my family, having awesome new experiences and making memories that will last a lifetime. But, I also see the potential of standing in that line at 11:30pm behind hundreds of other people that just want to get on the bus, get back to Pop Century, and fall onto their bed immediately after trudging back to their room. I also see the promise of a quick bus ride back to the resort, only to be dismayed by a family of 20+ people accompanying their family member that happens to be on a "jazzy". (No offense to those that need to use jazzies. My wife and I had a couple experiences of disappointment at the hands of large families mostly filling the bus before anyone else can get on. Is this complaining? I hope not. I don't mean to be complaining.)

But, no matter what the reality ends up being, waiting in line at Disney is still better than "no line, no waiting" anywhere else in the world.

We'll find out what's in store for us in this waiting area in 52 days!

Unless we drive to the park...

The Hollywood Tower Hotel (also: 55 Days to Disney)

The Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I have a special place in my heart for this attraction and it doesn't really have too much to do with the actual elevator "thrill-ride" element of this attraction.

I love The Tower of Terror for one main reason: theming.

When I step into the area surrounding The Tower of Terror, the first thing I notice right away is the music. It echoes in and around the attraction and it has an eery, yet beautiful, echo-ey quality to it. It really sounds as if someone left a radio playing in an old abandoned hotel lobby. The lyrics to the song themselves fit the mood perfectly. "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn is, for me, the quintessential soundtrack for the attraction. The mood of the song is almost forlorn, yet hopeful, and the notes are held out just long enough to fit the ethereal mood that permeates the entire "hotel".

But, it's not just the music. It's also the hotel itself. The lobby, of course, is the centerpiece of the attraction. Cobwebs are on everything and it really looks like everyone sort of just suddenly abandoned the hotel for good. But, then there's the queue line which comes complete with an old, decorative fountain that has fallen into disrepair after 60+ years of neglect.

Disney really knows how to do theming for their attractions. It's that attention to detail that always amazes me. But at The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, they really just nail it.

Can't wait to see this amazing attraction in about 55 days. 

Until then, "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..."

The Hollywood Tower Hotel (a.k.a. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror):

That awesome area music that I really do just absolutely love:

56 Days to Disney (missed 57--been busy), and Tortuga Tavern?!

Time kind of got away from me last night so, I skipped the "56 Days to Disney!" post. So, here we are. It's Friday night and, tonight, Caleb was able to get the Wii U version of The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker; Joy and Molly watched some old Fred Astaire movie (which, surprisingly, had a lot of inappropriate scenes); and I was able to finish working on my schoolwork. Sophie and Lily hung out and played in various places.

Instead of just saying, "X-number of days to Disney", I decided to write about something Disney-related: The Tortuga Tavern (formerly El Pirata y El Perico) at the Magic Kingdom.

A couple trips back, Joy and I discovered this quick service restaurant located in the Magic Kingdom, near the Pirates of the Caribbean. We were super excited to find out that this restaurant served our favorite sort of dish: Mexican food! Well, maybe not super authentic Mexican food but, Taco Bell style burritos--which is completely awesome! And they didn't just serve some mega-burritos; you would order your food--which was a tortilla shell with meat and/or beans--and then go to the fixin's bar (for lack of a better term) where you could load up on lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, etc. We truly enjoyed eating there.

Our only problem with the restaurant was the hours. This place keeps really weird hours. And I do mean weird: how about 11am -2:30pm (going off my memory here)? Try checking for the restaurant's hours on the Disney site and the hours are "varies". Definitely strange.

But, knowing they weren't open all day long, we arrived at The Magic Kingdom one day and, even though I was already full from breakfast, we ate at El Pirata y El Perico. I really shouldn't have done that because, as I stated, I was already full but, I couldn't bear the thought of passing up the opportunity to eat there since, by the time I would be hungry again, they'd be closed. I felt a little sick after that and that's probably as close as I've ever come to gluttony.

But, anyway, El Pirata y El Perico went from this:

To this:

When we saw this in 2012, we were really okay with the change. Tortuga is an island in the Caribbean so, it fits with the Adventureland/Pirates of the Caribbean vibe of that area but, I was shocked, and slightly dismayed, this year when I looked at the Tortuga Tavern menu and I saw that, instead of burritos and other Mexican fare, they now only serve barbecue. Barbecue?! Yes, barbecue. Reading the menu on the Walt Disney World website spells it all out.

I know that I can't really complain and say, "Hey, they didn't eat barbecue sandwiches in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies!" because, did they even eat bean and beef burritos in a tavern, with a fixin's bar? Not that I recall.

Anyway, suffice to say that the pressure to force feed myself the next time we're walking by the Tortuga Tavern won't really be an issue. I mean, I like barbecue but, it just doesn't have the same pull (get the pun there? Pulled pork? Not funny, I know.) that the burrito bar did.

Oh well. We'll still go to the Magic Kingdom and we'll still have a great time, even without a Taco Bell-style lunch.

I'm hungry now.

Are These Post Titles Getting Old?

I was, of course, originally going to title this post "58 Days to Disney!" But then I thought, maybe the sequential titles are getting old. I mean, they're a little old to me but, what else am I going to write? Posting a little bit everyday causes me to kind of run out of ideas--quickly--so, I'm going to pick another picture from my Flickr account and write a quick note about it.

But again: 58 days to Disney!

This picture was taken inside one of the Rubik's cube staircases at Pop Century. This particular picture was taken May 1st, 2010 but, on our last trip in 2014, Joy, the kids, and I were walking down these Rubik Cube stairs and, as were climbing down, I heard a loud slap against  the concrete steps. Joy and tripped and fallen! The slap sound was a combination of her hands and her leg hitting the stairs. Thankfully, she did not fall very far, but those stairs are just not very forgiving.

We'll all be sure to be a little more careful this year.

Tomorrow, another shot from Flickr and some more nonsensical comments. 

61 Days to Disney!

As a way to force myself to blog daily in the lead-up to our Disney trip, I'm going to try to do daily "countdown" posts. I'm also going to try to post pictures of our Disney trips from years past (except for the first one since none of those are digital yet). So here goes:

At the risk of being redundant... 61 days to Disney!

Joy and Molly worked on an awesome countdown chain (pictured below). So, it's officially "on". As Molly has told me, once Tuesday rolls around, we'll be able to start saying, "We're going to Disney next month!" (See, we're going to Disney at the end of April so, once it's March... Well, you get the idea.)

Well, that's it for this countdown post.

The countdown chain:

Soon, very soon, we'll be standing near this spot. In 61 days. Or more, depending on when we go to The Magic Kingdom:

My Guess About Our Room Location

Okay, this is probably going to be very boring for almost everyone but Joy, Molly, and me but, I found some pictures from our 2010 trip that were taken just outside our hotel room door at Pop Century Resort. I don't remember if that was a "standard pool view" room then but, it wouldn't surprise because, with a little effort, you can see the pool from your room--sort of.

Anyway, I do remember coming out of the door, looking left and seeing the laptop pool so, I think it would be cool if we were in generally the same area again this year. Although, it would be cool to be near the bowling pin...




And here's one from 2014 that I just love. This shot was taken in the Everything Pop eating area at Pop Century Resort but kind of off the to the side, near the area where you pick up pizzas. I'm just so amazed at how much Caleb and Lily have grown in two short years. Especially Caleb! He's even taller than Joy now! (That's not saying much. No offense Joy! But you know I'm right. And remember, you're not short, you're petite.)




I might post some more pictures from our previous trips because, well, I've got a lot of them and there are some great memories tied to each and every one of them.