Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Disney Recap - Part Two

Let's see...where did we leave off?
Ah, yes...Disney World!Tuesday morning:
We woke up, bright and early, so we could be the first ones in at Animal Kingdom. I must have finally hit exhaustion by this point, because I hardly have any pictures from the rest of the trip. I'll have to try to steal some from everyone else and post them later;)

Grandma T. with all 4 grandkids
The 15 of us took up lots of room wherever we went. Either that, or they just fled when we came near.
The "roller coaster riders" battles Expedition Everest. Jack loved it this time (thought it was a little scary a couple of years ago). I heard that my uncle was a little frightened, and I was afraid that Jack may have come home with a few new choice words from that experience, although we haven't heard them, yet;)
13 of us went on Kali River Rapids. I was the big loser on this ride. I got completely soaked. Afterwards, we planned on meeting back up with my aunt and grandma, but they went missing. So, we searched for a while before some of the crew decided to head back to the hotel and swim. Five of us (the ones who obviously love them the most) searched a little longer. Of course, they didn't even know they were lost, until we found them;)
Dinner that night - to the Polynesian for a Luau! This ended up being another entertaining evening. Fire eaters, hula dancers, massive amounts of food, and a little stroll on the beach after dinner.
Wednesday:
My sister and brother-in-law signed the kids up for a pirate cruise. They left in the morning and went sailing around in search of buried treasures. They had an absolute blast. When we met back up with them, we spent the day at Epcot. The kids loved Test Track and Brooklyn was finally tall enough to ride Soarin'. She said it was the best day of her whole life!
Dinner that night...Epcot's German Restaurant. There was nice German entertainment, a big German buffet, and really large German beer. A few of the tipsy adults in our party took the girls out to dance...
Thursday morning, we packed up our belongings and sadly checked out of the Boardwalk Resort. We made one quick stop at MGM (Disney's Hollywood Studios) so the kids could take Zac and I on the Toy Story ride. This was the highlight for me. My favorite ride, by far. (Can you tell I'm not one of the "roller coaster riders"?)
It was just like you were in a huge video game. I'm amazed by how they are able to do that stuff. Anywho...then on to Downtown Disney to do our souvenir shopping. This is where we split... the Newman's went on to Vero Beach, the Trent's and most of the Pardieck's came back to Illinois, one Pardieck went on to Ohio, and the Chatterton's rented a car and drove to Ocala. Zac's brother and wife live in Ocala and are expecting a baby, oh, last week. We were sure we were going to meet our new little niece, but she still hasn't made her appearance, yet. It was sooooo nice to end the vacation with them. It was so relaxing and gave us some good recovery time from the days prior. We left there Saturday and flew back to Chicago!
All in all, a wonderful vacation, but it sure is nice to be home!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julie-
Looks like you all had a wonderful time!! Thanks for sharing your adventures!! Always in our prayers...
Kara

Judy said...

The pirate cruise sounds like so much fun! Disney is such an amazing place! Your kids are going to have so many great memories. That's a very sweet picture of "Grandma T" with her grandkids!

Judy said...

It's me again...Make sure you let us know when that new Chatterton baby arrives!

Kim said...

Sounds like you had a blast! Joy and I were talking the other night on the day you came up to the unit. We think you should visit at 9 pm, so we can see you, too. ;)

~ Kim

Nic said...

Oh, I forgot about the pirate ship thing. Make sure we talk about it tomorrow! I won't call and bother you at the zoo. nic

Claire said...

Looks like so much fun!

Cxx

The Malcolm Family said...

I am so glad you all had such a good time. I am sure it was a much needed fun vacation. always thinking of you. :)

Anonymous said...

We loved your pictures and stories! Thank you for posting them. We are so glad everyone had such a great vacation.

Judy, Kevin, Jeannie & Kevin