Excellent Epcot!

On day 3, we decided to venture to unknown lands.  Epcot was our destination.

 

We hopped on a bus bound for Epcot and arrived a short time later.  We had rented a double stroller, but couldn't figure out how to get it folded up, so it got left behind at the bus stop--oops!  Thank goodness we had a nice bell hop guy who snagged it for us and kept it safe. 

 

We arrived right when the park opened (go us!!) and got a beautiful picture in front before we took off in search of our first ride, sans our double stroller.  The big kids had to rely on their own two feet!

We were pleasantly surprised by how small the park felt in comparison to Magic Kingdom, and we easily found The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

 

Since we got there early, there was no wait at all!  Yay!  And it was a really cute ride.

After that, we checked out some of Nemo's friends, like this guy...

 

 

and this guy:)

 

 

Jackson took the Shark Challenge...

 

 

and the girls checked out the manatees and sea turtles in the aquarium.

 

We were the first group in line for...

 

 

Turtle Talk with Crush!  A really cool interactive experience where the kids get to actually talk to an animated sea turtle.  Crush even chose Madison and she got to ask him a question--she said, "what do sea turtles like to eat?"  So cool!

After that, we headed over to ride Soarin'.  I heard this one was very neat and it was a favorite of many in our group.  Cami and I let the others go since she's not quite 40 inches tall yet.  They told us all about it when they got back, though, and said it was a ride that took them over all of California.  Lila said, "we went over mountains, mom!"

 

Cami had a good nap waiting on everyone else and when she woke up, we saw Chip and Dale!

Since the line was pretty short we decided to meet the friendly chipmunks.

 

Then we headed over to Norway for our lunch reservation.

 

 

We had picked up this reservation at Akershus just the night before and I'm so glad we did.  It was awesome!!  Great food and lots of princesses, too.

 

 

We met Belle before we were seated and Maddie told her that she was her favorite princess.  She and Belle also devised a sneaky little plan for Jackson.  Belle told Jackson that she had a secret to tell him.  Then she leaned in towards his ear and at the last minute...

 

 

planted a smooch on his left cheek!  He was smiling from ear to ear!!  Quite the ladies man at Disney World:)

We enjoyed some appetizers from the buffet and then the princesses started making their rounds.  First up, Princess Aurora.

The girls wore their new Minnie Mouse ears for all the meet and greets.

 

Then Cinderella came over and since sweet Cameron was in such a good mood, I asked if she could take a picture, too.  Cinderella accepted my request very graciously and even sat down so that she could hold her.  So precious!

All the kids love Cinderella.

Ariel is also a fan favorite and the girls jumped at the chance to talk to her again.

They don't know Snow White as well as the others, but they told her how cool the new mine train ride is at MK.

Our food got there in between all the characters and was so, so good!  Most of us adults got the Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and asparagus with cream sauce.  Amazingly good food!  During lunch, the princess parade took place.  Maddie got to hold Ariel's hand and they paraded all around the restaurant with the other little kids.  Very special.

After lunch it was time to use another one of our fast passes for Maelstrom.

It was a boat ride through Norway and such a cool ride.  Check out the photobombers behind them!

Unfortunately, the ride didn't last too long and soon we were back outside in the Florida humidity!

We admired the view of all the countries from our shade beneath a big tree and then made an executive decision to take the four kids back to our resort.  I knew we'd never make it without that stroller!  The menfolk went on, had a few beers and met us a little later.

On our way out, we came upon Goofy playing some World Cup soccer.

My two soccer fans thought this was way cool.

As you can see, the enthusiasm for Epcot was waning by 2:00!  Time to go, fo sho!

About an hour later though, all spirits were lifted.  J man loved going down the slide 33 times.

Lila got turned around backwards on her first ride down, so she declared that she "hated that slide."

Madison and Jackson both loved it, though!

Lila was happy as a clam just floating with this life jacket on!  Whatever works!

She loved swimming with her daddo...

and even Baby Cami got in the water for a while. 

Love my water babies.

 

That night the rest of us were some tired dogs, but J man and Daddy were still going strong, so they headed back to MK around 9:00.  And what an awesome fireworks show they got to see!

They both loved the show and said it was one of the best they'd ever seen.

They rode a few more rides after it was over...

and even got this cool picture in front of the castle, too.  Such a neat time for my boys, and a great way to end the night. 

Stay tuned!  More fun to come!