Day 4: Animal Kingdom and Epcot

I should just pause for a moment to remember the smells and tastes of our first stop of day 4.  Mmmmmm....ok, thanks.  Super yummy breakfast at Tusker House.  And with Mickey and friends...really hard to beat.  :)  

(Love the pic of our families together, but man, I look so rough!)

While we ate (and ate and ate :)), the characters came around to visit, sign autographs and take pics.  They also did a fun little dance around the restaurant that was fun and hilarious.  Greer was so busy taking it all in, she would back the line up a bit.  We always knew when there was a gap, Greer would follow around the corner.  :)

On to check out the animals.  It was so beautiful and peaceful there.  And since our kiddos love animals, they were good to go!

Possibly our favorite ride for the whole family...Safari ride.  Amazing that they have created those natural habitats there and so fun for B since he's always wanted to go on an African safari. :)

Afterwards, we told the bigs to line up for a pic...cutie Sam joined in.  I could just squeeze him!

I loved the Tree of Life in the middle...

And Gehr's top pick for his favorite thing at Disney...Mount Everest!

He got to ride twice and loved it!  He talks about it constantly and was super excited to get home and learn about the real Mount Everest the next week in school. :)

Later in the day, we hopped over to Epcot.  We enjoyed a few rides, dinner and got a few last autographs, but were pretty tired (esp the babes).  We missed the fast passes for the bigger rides and ran out of time to check out the worlds, but will have something to look forward to the next time we go!

All in all, I can't believe it's already over.  It was so fast and fun and special.  Again, much, much love to the Links.  Can't imagine sharing our family's first Disney experience with anyone else.  We love you guys so much!

The full album is on the right :)

Day 3: Hollywood Studios

I loved Hollywood Studios!  The scenes walking around, the smaller feel to it, and really everything...the shows, rides etc.  Thankfully, Matt and Jenn knew to head to Toy Story first thing to get fast passes.  (Even doing so, our time was 5pm!)

We headed over to the Disney Jr show.  Outside, they had my kids new favorite DJ character, Jake!  I love watching their faces as they study these guys.  :)

And then inside, for the Disney Jr show.  It was really cute!

We also went to the Ariel show and it was really cool.  I love how all of the shows are different.  I kept telling Jenn that we had no idea what we were walking into...something Broadway-ish, puppeting, something on screen etc.  We loved them all :)

Ran into Tigger outside that area :)

Next we headed to Star Tours and lunch.  My kids loved this ride!  Greer still lists it as her #1 favorite thing at Disney :)

Lunch at Pizza Planet!  I love the perfect-ness of this pic.  Just seems to capture their personalities so well :)  And the food there hit.the.spot.

Next up...Indiana Jones stunt show.  Super cool and made my boy laugh like I haven't heard in awhile with all the pretend punching and kicking :).  He likes the physical comedy just like his dada!

Some cute dads right there...

Greer loves to get in the Ergo :)

One of those other random things I remember from childhood...the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground...

And another awesome show, Beauty and the Beast

While we went to the show, the boys rode Rockin Roller Coaster.  It was the only thing Gehrig wasn't tall enough for.  So sad for him, but the dads loved it :)

And the Tower of Terror.  Without all the attempts at spooking you beforehand, it was just a fun ride.  Greer was even tall enough, so all 4 of us went while Garner stayed with the Links.  Greer did great on the ride and said she just saw everybody's hair flying up. :)  BUT afterwards, she calmly said, "I'm never gonna ride that again."  No prob, babe :)

At dinner...

Jenn and B got the brownie for their dessert and it came a little loaded.  Not exactly what they were thinking, but interesting for sure!

And finally, after dinner we ended the day with...TOY STORY!  :)

Heading out of the park...B made it clear that he wanted the kids to stay with him.  And they did :)

AND the big news of the day and possibly my favorite part of Disney...their lost-and-found and customer service.  We called them to check back in on the lovey, describing it as green and brown and homemade.  They came back to the phone asking if it also had a piece of red yarn through it.  I thought I was going to cry..."yes, that's it!"  Not only did they find and keep up with it, they even sent a runner from our villa to Magic Kingdom to get it since we were at Hollywood Studios (and it isn't that easy to get back to MK).  It was waiting for us when we got back.  That, my friends, is SERVICE.  :)

Disclaimer: just in case you're wondering, we did wash and dry it before we gave it to Garn to sleep with that night since we weren't sure what it's journey had been the previous 24 hours.  She was a happy girl!  Such a great ending to a great day :)