"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:"
Numbers 11:5
(Keep an eye out for links to videos I took)
Wednesday morning we had another sleep-in after some early days and late nights. Daddy took us (Hannah, Seth, Eden, Josiah, and I - Kimber) to the Meadow Swimmin' Hole and we swam around in the pool and relaxed in the hot tub until around 11:00. We then went back to the house and got ready to leave for Epcot, once again, for lunch. (Everyone else had already left) Once in Epcot we made straight for the Coral Reef Restuarant where we would be eating lunch surrounded by swimming creatures (in an aquarium of course!). We arrived with lots of time to spare!
Grandma and Aunt Amy waiting.
(You may notice that we decided to do our Nemo shirts again since we would be eating around fish!)
This was the view you saw while sitting on the benches waiting to be called! :)
We looked at the menu while we were patiently waiting ( ;-D). They had some stuff in their food that I had never heard of before but at least they had chicken!!! :)
Grandpa finally decided to go inquire about our tables after groups of 5-8 people were getting seated. He returned with our waiter and we were led to our tables! :)
Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Grandma, and Uncle Greg watching the fish.
Uncle Greg has the fish guide in his hand.
Once again, the service at this restuarant was very good! Our orders were taken and after waiting some more, we got to eat!
This turtle in the aquarium glided by us and settled down on the tank floor for a snooze.
A ray relaxing.
Shark!
Yes, they had sharks and other creatures that swim in the ocean in the aquarium - not just fish! :)
The meal sizes were a whole lot smaller than what we had been used to for the beginning of the week. (Most of our meals had been buffet and this wasn't) I got the New York Strip Steak with Roasted Potatoes and some sort of herb on the side. For dessert, I got the lava cake (I think that's what they called it).
There it is! :)
(I thought you might like to see what their food looked like)
The raspberries on the left side of the picture were shaped like Mickey Mouse's head along with the hard purple candy on the left side of the picture.
Lexi got a sour apple smoothie for her dessert but she ended up not liking it so I finished it off for her! :)
After we were done our meal, some of us went outside and rode Grandma and Grandpa's scooters around while waited for everyone to get back together.
They had these gorgeous trees by the restuarant that were just bursting with these blooms!
Some more flowers (see all of them behind them, too?).
Never having been anywhere tropical I loved all the different plants.
Now you can see what I'm talking about when I said "bursting with blooms!"
I thought that the storm cloud in the sky contrasted beautifully with the vibrant flowers... Thankfully Jesus held back the storms for us the entire trip!
Soon everyone appeared and Uncle Greg and his family went one way and we went another with Grandma and Grandpa. We decided to go to the Nemo ride (and other Nemo stuff) around the corner.
Daddy beneath Bloat's statue.
Eden outside of the Nemo center. (That's what I call it)
After going on the Nemo ride, Grandma and Grandpa parted with Alexis and Caleb and the rest of us looked around at the fish in the aquariums.
Inside they had this demonstration with a diver. I don't know what exactly they were doing because we didn't stay and watch for long.
Lydia with a Nemo! :)
Lydia absolutely loved the fish. She would do her short little "Ah!" scream of delight and then stare at them and sometimes go "Oh" in a tender sort of way - it was really cute! She would've loved to get her hands on one of them but thankfully she couldn't! :)
Eden by some more Nemo's (I guess there was a Marlin in there too).
A giant clam (yes, that big brown and white thing on the right) and "Bubbles!!!!"
Dory!
After looking at the fish we went downstairs to a little play area for the kids where they had huge replicas of the sharks from Nemo.
(Sometime within here we went and saw the dolphin in one of the aquariums perform tricks for us. Go to this link to watch one of the videos I took of him (or her) performing for us.)
Seth
Eden with a hammerhead.
Seth and Eden in Bruce's mouth.
Lydia wasn't very happy about being put in there.
Eden hangin' out!
After playing around for awhile in there we went towards the Turtle Talk With Crush attraction. The doors weren't open yet, so we looked at some of the creatures they had in there, took some fishy quizes, etc.
Lydia with (?)
Turtle Talk with Crush was really, really neat! The younger children sat up front by the screen (on the floor) while the older people got the seats! :) Once Crush came out and talked a little bit he saw Eden, Seth, and Josiah up front with the matching shirts and Seth got to talk to him. And then Crush asked where the parents for the "little blue fish here up front" were so Daddy and Mama got to talk too! Daddy was trying to be "cool" like Crush so when he asked his name, Daddy responded with "like dude scott man," and the turtle gave this look of absolute incredulity and then said "Like...Dude...Scott...Man?" It was really funny! Anyways...we had lots of fun in there!
When that was over, we bought some sour and sweet Pixie Dust and then went to get our stroller.
This cute little squirrel was scavenging through all the strollers for a snack.
Epcot at dusk.
Seth in front of a topiary tree.
We stopped at this little water fountain area as we made our way to dinner. The little fountains would randomly spurt up every now and then, so it was fun for the little guys to try and not get wet!
More water-sky reflections! :)
Okay - this is one of the last! :)
We had some time to spare, so we decided to go to the Viking ride in "Norway". The ride was a little freaky (trolls with glowing eyes and such) so Josiah and Eden had their eyes covered but the film after the ride was neat.
Josiah in the Viking shop.
Then we went to dinner where everyone else in our family was waiting. Dinner was at the Biergarten Restuarant in Epcot's "World's". We (the Wassenbergs) have a lot of German roots in us (great-great-great-great somebody immigrated from Germany to the U.S.A.), so Grandma made reservations for us in the German restuarant! While we were waiting for our buzzer to blink Daddy and I went in the German shop nearby. We stopped and talked to the cashier who was, consequently, from Germany. We asked her if she knew of a Wassenberg, Germany because Uncle Greg had found a town with that name in Germany but she didn't. So, we then went and browsed the shops until someone alerted us that we could go eat!
This was the water fountain (one of them) outside the restuarant. Above it was a statue of St. George slaying a dragon.
Once we were seated our waitress came and took our drink orders (they came in big tumblers) and then we went up and got in line for food. They had lots of options - some tasty and others, not so tasty! Hannah got some Potatoe/Leek Soup that she said was really good but I never got a chance to try it (soup after dessert just doesn't fit! :).
My favorite dish was some sort of fruit bowl that had raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc. in a sugary fruit juice syrup. It was really good! (They actually gave us the recipe when we asked for it!)
While we ate they had the "Oktoberfest" come and perform for us on stage. We were seated as close to them as we could get, so we had a wonderful view of the stage.
They played German songs such as "Happy Birthday" and others that I didn't know. All of them were sung in German, but don't fear, the performers spoke English too! :)
They played these Alpine horns (and later some cow bells) for us and they were so beautiful!
Often people were invited to come on the dance floor and dance to the music. One of the songs they played is what we know as the "chicken dance."
Lexi and Uncle Greg doing the chicken dance. (Poor Uncle Greg felt terrible that night - and in that case, the rest of the week - but he still managed to make every day at Disney with his family)
During one of the songs, people were invited to come do a waltz and Grandpa convinced Grandma to go with him!
Aren't they so sweet!?
After about 3 minutes of dancing, Grandma left Grandpa on the dance floor...
...Grandpa was very disappointed! :)
Anyways, after about 1 hour of eating, drinking, and stuffing as much food as we could into our bodies, we went and found a place for the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth (click on link) show that was over the lake. While we were waiting we talked to the family right beside us who lived in Woodbridge, VA (that's where my grandparents and uncle and family live)! :) Funny how we end up beside people from the same state in Epcot for the show.
While we were waiting for the show, the torches above us simultaneously lit up and flickered around the lake and then turned off again once the show started.
(They turned back on towards the end of the show)
The "earth" that circled around the water. You can see in "Africa" a hot air balloon. Well, they had video clips playing in the "world," as it slowly spun around. It was very fascinating!
At the end they had lasers and fireworks go off...
...ending another wonderful day at Epcot!
All for Jesus,
KimberP.S. - That night Hannah, Alexis, Amanda, Diana, and I had a sleep-over in Grandma and Grandpa's cabin. We watched Home on the Range while eating popcorn and candy.
