Disney World: Monday, November 2nd

"Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out."

Deuteronomy 28:6

Monday morning we decided to sleep in a little bit after our late night Sunday at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue.  We all were up relatively in good time and after a big, yummy breakfast we boarded the bus for the outpost and then the bus for Epcot.

The Epcot "ball".

Eden smiling for me after we had checked-in and made sure everything was good to go.

Diana in front of Epcot.

Amanda and Hannah.

Before you got to the ball they had these plaques with peoples names and pictures on it from a project Disney World had started a few years ago but is no longer continued.  We looked for Wassenberg but didn't find any names or pictures (I don't even think that was found the "W" section).

After looking at the plaques, we found Stitch in the park getting pictures with children.  Now, none of us really know who Stitch is never having seen the movie.

Truthfully only Hannah, Alexis, and I really remember the Disney Princesses (Ariel, Cinderella, etc.) but the rest (Caleb on down) just thought they were people dressed up (they might've known a very little bit about them).  We had talked about Mickey Mouse and stuff before we left but none of us knew who he really was.  We don't watch a lot of Disney movies for different reasons, but just keep in mind that we don't know who a lot of the Disney characters we met were. :)

Watching Stitch hug a little girl.

Lydia was truly terrified of anything that didn't look real.  Stitch for example.  You can see from the picture that she's trying to back up from him.

Stitch tried playing "Peek-a-boo" to get her to smile but it didn't work.

Getting a hug from Eden.

After our meeting with Stitch we went beneath Epcot and headed toward one of the buildings.

These glass-mirror-like things were holding up the Epcot ball (look at the 3rd picture on this post for a better idea).

Eden

We went inside one of the buildings and got some Fastpasses for Soarin', went to the bathroom, and decided who would go where.  The difficult part about having a group of 17 ranging in the ages of 1 to 60+ was that everyone wanted to do something different and sometimes the younger ones were too short to ride, so someone had to stay behind with them (Mama, Grandma, and/or Grandpa were normally the ones who watched the younger guys for us - thanks!).  So, Monday afternoon Uncle Greg, Aunt Amy, Grandma, and Grandpa took all of the older ones who wanted to go on the rides and everyone else went with Daddy and Mama.  I went with Uncle Greg and Aunt Amy.  Daddy took the camera with him so the below pictures of Eden, 'Siah, Mama, and Lydia are from their time together.  I wasn't personally there so I can't tell you in detail what happened.

Eden and Lydia by some of the beautiful Epcot landscaping.

In the 3-D theater for the "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," movie.

All of us went to this movie at some point of the day.  It was freaky yet fun.  Some of the special effects felt like mice were biting your legs, that you were as small as an ant (it felt like that), a snake was about to eat your head off, etc.  Josiah got scared so he took his glasses off.

Lydia and Mama

It was Lydia's nap time so that's why she's rubbing her eyes.

Lydia did a great time most of the trip.  She would have really fussy moments right before she fell asleep and then she didn't wake up for a couple hours.  (That's an answer to prayer!) :)

After we all had rode some rides, we went back to the building we had first went to and got ourselves a snack (icecream!) while we waited for Mama and their group to show up.

This was the inside of the building. 

We ate in the little lunch area and for dinner we were up near the middle of the picture where Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast was located.

Once they (Mama, Daddy, and the younger ones) returned all of us (except for Grandpa, Grandma, and Lydia) went to Soarin'.  It wasn't as awesome as they portray it as but it was still fun soaring over a screen!

When the ride was over Grandma and Grandpa went on Soarin' and we watched the younger ones while we waited for dinner (we didn't eat any lunch because of our big breakfast and early dinner).

Look at her eyes! 

Dinner was at 4 P.M. that afternoon so after Soarin' we were all waiting for the time to go eat!  Until that time came we were just sitting around, doing different things.

Josiah and Mama read about some of the rides we could do after dinner...

Diana braided Lydia's hair...

People smiled...

And smiled some more! :)

Finally our ringer beeped and we could go eat!

For dinner they had chicken, beef, pork, salad, bread, and more!  We dined with some of the characters such as Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Mickey Mouse!  One of the neat things about this restuarant was it was moving in a circle while we ate dinner.  Not so fast that we were dizzy but just a gradual, slow turning.

I took too many pictures of the characters to put on here, so go to this link to watch a slideshow of them (warning:  in order to view the slideshow you must be a member of Snapfish)

Josiah eating some "Dirt and Worms" (a.k.a. chocolate pudding with gummy worms).

Some of the family at the dinner table.  Our waitress is at the end of the table.

It got dark fairly quickly after our meal but it was all the more beautiful!  The parks were my favorite after dark because they had sparkling lights everywhere and the temperature was just right.  It just felt so peaceful.

I could've sit and watched this fountain all night.  It changed colors and spurted up in time with the soft music that was playing.  Beautiful.

Alexis, Grandma, Eden, and Josiah.

Grandma and Grandpa rented some scooters for the trip.  It definitely helped a lot...they could just zoom all over the place and very often 1-3 of my siblings were riding with them.  (It really cut back on the little one's legs getting tired from walking)

Going to Test Track.

I think you get a better idea of why I loved being at the parks at night from the above picture.

Test Track was the 2nd to last thing that we rode.  It was probably the best ride of the entire park.  By the end of the week we had rode it at least 4 times (even if we went to Epcot just for that one ride).  They took pictures of you while on the ride and some of them were so funny!  Aunt Amy and Uncle Greg bought some of the pictures but I don't have the copies of them. 

After Test Track we went to Mission: Space.  I rode with Diana, Stephen, and Alexis, and let's just say that it messed most of us up for the rest of the night.  Mission: Space had some sort of pressure that it exerted on you so much so that you could hardly move your head (or any part of your body in that matter).  Not very fun.  Diana was messed up for most of the week after that!

We stopped at a store before we left for the night that had practically everything you could imagine.

Eden with the Minnie Mouse veil on.

Lydia taking off a Minnie Mouse veil.  (You can't get anything to stay on her head for an extended period of time!)

'Siah playing with some grabber contraption.

Seth with a Mickey Mouse hat.

Hannah, Mama, and Lydia by some of the sour (what we called) Pixie Dust.  We're a sour family (most of us) so it was tempting being around all that yummy candy!

(They had an entire wall full of candy - jellybeans, sour stuff, smarties, etc.)

The Epcot ball at night.

Alexis, Grandpa, Steven, Diana, Uncle Greg, Caleb, Grandma, and Josiah around the fountain that was situated in front of the ball.

Another view of the waterfall.

Okay - an explanation for this face. :)  I was thirsty after a day of walking and wanted something to drink other than the nasty nap tap water from our cabin so Grandma said I could have some seltzer.  It was in Grandpa's basket on his scooter so I went over and opened it not remembering that the seltzer had been jiggled around for a day.   For those of you who have never heard of, or drank, seltzer...it is very much like soda without all the bad stuff.  So, it reacts like soda after it's been juggled around - explodes! :)  So, I opened the top and it squirted out the top, onto me, and my surroundings while we waited for the bus back to our cabins.  Thankfully I held it away from my body as soon as I saw it overflowing so I was hardly wet! :)

Grandma laughing (I don't think it was at me...just something that happened while we were waiting)

It seemed like it took forever for the bus to appear and as we waited the amount of people waiting to leave Epcot was growing. 

Lydia playing with Grandpa's hat while waiting for a bus.

The heat's gotten to her!

The bus finally showed up, so we boarded and returned home tired and ready for bed after a wonderful day at Epcot!

---

All for Jesus,
Kimber

P.S. - A lot of the pictures on this post (and the ones to come) have been taken by Daddy so I could go play with the cousins without having to worry about what shape my camera was in - thanks Daddy! :)