Florida Trip, Part 5: Downtown Disney and Wrapping up our Trip

The night we went to Downtown Disney was our coldest night in Florida.

We hurried over to the kid-friendly section and stayed inside as much as possible there.

We've been to Downtown Disney several times in the past, but there's a fun new T-Rex restaurant there.

The kids loved digging for dinosaur bones!

Robyn, Eric, Mierae, and Jolie in front of the T-Rex restaurant


The kids also loved the giant Lego creations!
Julia, Mierae, Jolie, and Ethan in front of the Lego dragon


Julia in front of one of the Lego windows

Julia was excited when she saw this Bionicle made of Legos, "It's a Toa, Mom!!"
Sounds impressive, though I'm not sure what a Toa is.


Mierae was especially excited to see the princesses outside of the Disney store and insisted on getting a picture with her sister and cousin.



We got some group shots before Buzz and Susan (Derek's parents)
headed home.

Us with Buzz and Susan



(we're missing Eric in this once since he took the picture)


When we got back to our hotel/condo the kids were not quite ready to settle down yet.
They had scooted the beds together in their room
so they could all sleep in there together.

It wasn't always easy actually getting them to go to sleep.

Mierae and Julia

Mierae, Ethan, Jolie, and Julia

On Wednesday we left bright and early for the airport. We flew to Detroit, then Minneapolis, and finally to Salt Lake City.

After we had boarded the plane to Salt Lake the pilot told us that we would be delayed due to a valve problem. It ended up taking an hour and a half before the mechanics had taken care of the problem and we were able to leave, so we arrived later than we had planned but our flight went smoothly.

Julia insisted that her Panda needed his head

to stick out of her backpack on our way home

We had a wonderful trip.

The kids can hardly wait to go back again!

Florida Trip, Part 4: Magic Kingdom

We went to Magic Kingdom on a holiday (Martin Luther King day) and it was crowded. But thanks to Derek running all over the park for fast passes, we still got to do everything that had wanted.

Everyone loved the Dumbo ride:

Derek and Julia

Me and Mierae

Robyn and Melodie

Eric, Jolie, and Ethan

And Mierae and Jolie especially liked It's a Small World.

Eric, Robyn, Mierae, Melodie, and Jolie on It's a Small World




Our little family on It's a small world

Me and Ethan on It's a Small World

The flying carpet ride was great for all of the kids too!

Julia, Jolie, Eric, and Ethan

Melodie and Me

Robyn and Mierae

Derek and I before going on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Ethan and Derek on Pirates of the Caribbean

The kids loved looking at the map. Jolie called it her "castle"

since it had a picture of the castle on it.

Looking at the map

Eric and Ethan on the teacup ride (Jolie was in there somewhere too)

Right after the Buzz Lightyear ride

Ethan, Jolie, Julia, and Mierae modeling their Disney shirts

Sisters! On the Peter Pan ride

Cute Mickey and Minnie bushes in front of the castle

On the carousel!

We finished up the night riding on Space Mountain.

Even Julia got to ride, and she loved it.

It was a wonderful day!

Florida trip, Part 3: Pool Day in Orlando

Although the weather was much colder than normal while we were in Floriday, luckily we did have a few warmer days.

My sister Robyn, her husband Eric, and their kids Mierae and Jolie flew down from Ohio and met us in Orlando.

The kids loved our day at the pool!

Carrying the alligator back to the condo

A warm bath in the giant tub

Florida trip, Part 2: Epcot

Epcot is the only park at Disneyworld that we hadn't visited before, so we were really excited to go!

We started out by going on Soarin' (sorry, no pictures). Everyone loved that ride, so we immediately got a fast pass so we could do it again later in the day.

Ethan really liked the Spaceship Earth ride.

We then headed over to Test Track:

In line at Test Track

In line at Test Track

That was a favorite ride too...

After going on Test Track


We enjoyed the World's Fair area a lot, but we did kind of have to rush through it to make sure we were back to Soarin' in time.

Mexico

Mexico

We decided to sample food from each country,

and we just shared as we went along.

At the restaurant in Mexico with Aunt Mel


At the restaurant in Mexico



Norway

On the Viking Ride in Norway

At the "Outpost"

In Germany

Japan

The kids found a big rock to climb on right in the middle of the World Fair area

All of us!

Our family, you can see the Spaceship Earth golf ball in the background

France

I wanted a picture with the Eiffel Tower in the background, but it didn't really show up in the picture at all.

The Eiffel Tower

So I got another shot of it.

United Kingdom

We got to hear a live band playing Beatles music in the UK.

Epcot fireworks

The fireworks show at the end of the day was amazing.

We ended our day by riding Mission:Space,

and we loved it!

Leaving Epcot

We really enjoyed Epcot. It wouldn't be ideal for families with really small children, but our kids loved it.