Disney Photos - Misc

Okay, this is the final set of Disney Photos, which means I have to think
of something New and Insightful to post about tomorrow ...



I realized, while looking through the pictures, that there are almost no shots
of any rides. But here's Rebecca on the Carousel!



The Christmas tree at the entrance of Animal Kingdom was pretty cool.



Can you stand some more character shots?
Here's Minnie Mouse signing Rachael's book. I really do need to learn
how to make hard copies.



Rachael always had plenty to tell the different characters.
Notice how "in awe" Rebecca looks in this picture.

Well, it was a good trip, even though we did feel kind of cheated
due to getting sick. Well, I guess that just means we'll have to go
back again, huh? I'm tentatively thinking maybe Fall of 2010.

Disney Photos - More characters

We had two character meals: Chef Mickey's, and the Princess Storybook Lunch
that only Rachael and I could go to.

In addition to that, we saw lots of other characters. Here's a few:


I think both girls said that seeing Ariel was their favorite.
This is "Ariel's Grotto" in the Magic Kingdom.

I kept thinking to myself (rather wistfully, I suppose)
how fascinating it would be to be a Professional Princess all day.




We really did not care for Hollywood Studios.
Unfortunately, that was sort of the last real day of our vacation,
because the series of vomiting began the next morning.

However, the Playhouse Disney show was really fun.
Here's, um ... Leo and Annie, from Little Einsteins,
outside the Disney Playhouse theater.
The kids also got their picture taken with the characters from JoJo's Circus.



Rachael with Chip and Dale at Animal Kingdom!



Rachael and Benjamin with Donald Duck at Animal Kingdom!
Rachael told DD that he was her favorite character, so he wrote "#1"
next to his signature in the book. She thought that was pretty neat.

Disney Photos -- The Grand Floridian

What was ironic about this trip was that my parents were originally going to go with us.
My mother spent quite a bit of time of the phone making the arrangements,
and they paid for a good chunk of it as well.

Then my mother got sick, and they weren't even able to come.

Anyway, my mother really wanted to stay at the Grand Floridian Resort,
so that's where we were.

Of course if it had been us planning (and completely
paying for) the trip, we would have stayed at some hotel off Disney property.
Robert even made some sort of joke that we were like the Beverly Hillbillies
staying there.

But it was very nice being able to hop on the monorail to get everywhere.


Watching the monorail go by was the main form of entertainment when we were actually
in the room. Not surprisingly, the monorail was the Big Hit of the trip for Benjamin.



There was a big Christmas tree in the lobby.
I took this picture of Robert and Rachael right before we left to go to the Princess lunch.



There was a also a big gingerbread house/candy store in the lobby.
Yes, it's made of real gingerbread, and the entire lobby smelled of ginger.

I kept telling the kids we would buy some candy there, but come to think of it,
we never did. Oops.



One night Rachael and I walked over to a part of the resort where there was a good view
of the boat light show and fireworks. That was nice, just because it was kind of different.

Disney Photos -- Animal Kingdom

On Thursday, Rebecca was still sick and Robert was Not Feeling Great
(he got Officially Sick after we got home, just in time for Christmas),
so Rachael, Benjamin, and I headed to Animal Kingdom ourselves.

Benjamin was excited because we got to ride the "cool bus" to get there.



We had lunch at the Tusker House in Africa.
It was very good, probably my favorite restaurant, with Whispering Canyon as a close second.
I loooved the bread pudding.



We had never been to Animal Kingdom before, and I had heard some mixed reviews.
Basically, I liked it. It was pretty and shady and a little different.

In addition to enjoying the Tusker House, we saw a neat bird show and got to see a lot of characters
(which Rachael really liked now that she had the autograph album).

We would have stayed longer, but Benjamin wasn't doing so well. I thought he was just tired.
It never occured to me that he (and I) were the next to be hit with the stomach virus.

These animal photos are all from Kilamanjaro Safari, which we all liked a lot:

Disney Photos -- Magic Kingdom at night

We didn't go to any of the evening shows at the other parks,
but we did get to see the parade at Magic Kingdom.


I took a lot of pictures of the parade, but the only one that came out
semi-decent is this one of Cinderella. They're all pretty blurry.
The parade was cool, though.

After the parade Rebecca really wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion,
and Rachael really did not want to ride the Haunted Mansion.
So Robert took Rebecca while the rest of us waited and watched the fireworks from
inside a restaurant (due to the noise).



Here's the Cinderella Castle. Beautiful, beautiful.



Me and the girls on Main Street. I took a picture of Robert with the kids,
but unfortunately it came out even more blurry than this one.



I guess these pictures are better than nothing, but they really don't capture
the truly magical feeling at night, especially at Christmas time. It was wonderful.

Disney Photos -- Minnie's House

The girls wanted me to take a lot of pictures of them inside
Minnie's house in ToonTown.

So I did.


Here they are by the fireplace.



This picture sums up Rachel pretty well.



Oh, but I like this one of her too.



It's always nice, as a parent, to see pictures of your kids looking like
they really love and enjoy each other.

Of course, seeing it in real life is always a good thing, too.

Disney Photos - Wilderness Lodge

Our first full day at Disney (sorry, I'm not writing these in chronological order),
we went to the Magic Kingdom and had lunch reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe
at the Wilderness Lodge.


We took a boat from MK to WL, which was half the fun.



Here's the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge. We liked it a lot.
We said that maybe our next trip we would consider staying there,
but Rachael insisted that the Grand Floridian was much nicer.



Here's Becca and Benjamin in another part of the lobby.

The lunch was really good -- ribs, chicken, that kind of thing.
The kids loved the cornbread, funny as that sounds.

At one point they gave all the kids a stick horse and had them take a ride
around the inside of the restaurant. Rachael liked that a lot.



Here's Robert with the kids, looking at the geysers while we waited
for the boat to come and take us back.

Disney photos - Princess Lunch at Epcot

Wednesday morning we were all scheduled for a Princess Storybook Lunch in the Norway section of Epcot.

Less than an hour before we were going to leave, Rebecca threw up.

When she was done, she said she was fine and still wanted to go, so we cautiously headed out, thinking that maybe she got it out of her system and would be okay..



This is me and the girls in front of the huge Christmas tree in the Grand Floridian lobby,
about five minutes before Rebecca said she still felt sick and wanted to stay home.
Robert (who wasn't feeling that great either) took her back to the hotel room for the day,
and figured he might as well have two year old Benjamin stay behind too.

So it was just me and Rach at the lunch


Here's Rachael with Cinderella. She was a good Princess.
She asked where Rachael was from, and when Rachael answered, "Georgia,"
Cinderella said, "Oh my, that must have been a long carriage ride!"
She also commented that she and Rachael had matching headbands, which Rachael liked a lot.

It was an interesting contrast to Jasmine, who said to Rachael, "Can I borrow your pen?"
and then left and never came back with it, causing Rachael to burst into tears.
(Fortunately, Ariel got her a new pen.)


After the lunch, Rachael said she was disappointed that Mary Poppins wasn't there ...
well, look, who do we see here, down the street from Norway? Look how happy Rachael is!



Then someone told us that Pooh and his friends were at the toy store around the corner.
There was no line or anything; we just walked right in and saw them!

When we first showed up for the Princess Lunch, the restaurant workers asked if Rachael
had an autograph book. When she said no, they gave her one!
So maybe one of these days I'll actually learn how to make a hard copy of digital pictures
so we can put them in the album with the autographs.

Disney Trip - Chef Micky's

On the third day before our trip, before people started getting sick, we had breakfast at Chef Micky's.

If you're not familiar, it's a buffet in the Disney Contemporary Resort with Micky and his friends coming to each table. Like Rob said, the atmostphere and food is similar to Shoney's breakfast bar (which is not a bad thing), at about three times the price.


Here's me with Micky and all three kids.



Here's Minnie Mouse (Rebecca's favorite) looking at Benjamin's car.
When we checked into our hotel, one of the workers gave him this car, from the Cars movie, which was pretty neat.



Here's Donald Duck with Rachael and Rebecca.
Rachael said that DD is her favorite.



Here's Rachael with her Daddy!

Disney Pictures: Part One

Two weeks before Christmas, we went to Disney World.

It was fun to go at Christmas time, but it was also a bit of a whirlwind. I don't think I will plan a vacation in December again for a while. I had a bunch of doctor appointments for me and Rachael to squeeze in before we left, one Christmas concert the week before, and of course had to do all the baking and shopping before we left.

Then, at Disney World, we all got a stomach virus, starting with Rebecca. Actually, Rachael was lucky; she was the only one to get it after we came home.

One or more people in our family stayed sick through Christmas, and until December 30, which happened to be the day that Rachael had to be put fully under for an MRI.

So ...

It might be understandable that I hadn't even looked at any of these pictures til about a week ago, let alone post them.

For some reason, I can never post more than pictures at a time. So here's the first installment: These are pictures of Rachael and Rebecca in a little store in ToonTown, right after the waited in line to see the Princesses:



This is so Rebecca.



Fun with hats!




A car on Rachael's head -- Benjamin would have liked that!
He and his Daddy were riding the race cars in Tomorrowland at the time.

More to come ...