Colleen & Family - June 2006

Cast of Characters: Kurt -41 , Colleen (me) – 41, Sarah- 12, Kristen -6
Day 7 - June 15th, 2006 - Happy Birthday Dad

Today started off with a trip to the food court for breakfast, I would get up first, shower and get ready then while everyone else was getting up and ready, I would walk to the food court and purchase some pastries, bacon, and sausage. I would then go to the gift shop and buy a quart of milk. Much cheaper here than at the food court. Today is Dad's (Kurt's) birthday and Sarah and I had figured out a plan to surprise him. Shortly after we left the room for the day I suddenly remember something that I had forgotten. I gave Sarah her key to run back to the room to get it for me. We continued to walk towards the busses and I reminded Sarah that she would need to hurry, but if she missed us to just get the next bus to Epcot and we would wait for her there. She got into the room did what she needed to do and then came running to the busses just as we were getting on the Epcot bus. We ended up not missing her at all.

When we first arrived we headed to guest relations to get a birthday button for Kurt. Everyone but Kristen wants to ride Mission Space again so we head over to that ride to get on. No waiting, I really like going in the morning, afternoon needs to be forgotten about. After Mission Space, we head over to the Character Connection. We totally missed this the first time at Epcot. We had a lot of fun here and even made Dad get autographs with the characters. Sarah and I had purchased one of the small blue autograph books for Dad to use today only for everyone who wished him a happy birthday. We even had cast members at stores and restaurants sign, if they wished him a happy birthday. We then went over to the Living Seas. On the way there, found a really neat photo op place just before we got to the living seas with Nemo and all of his friends. I took a few pictures here. When we went into Living Seas there was a very cute little shop that was selling Crush and Squirt stuff. I love turtles and always wanted my own turtle. I ended up purchasing a stuffed crush, a squirt pen and a squirt magic towel. Sarah spent the last of her money and purchased a dolphin key chain for her purse and some Epcot postcard pictures. While we were here, we of course had to go see Talking with Crush. A very funny show and would love to sit through it again if we had the chance. At one point Crush asks the kids for help. He said that he found a human thing but wasn't sure what it was. He went to get it and brought out a bikini top. Most of the kids were telling him that it was a swimming suit for women and that humans had to have special swimming suits. Finally one little girl blurts out that it is to hold the boobies in. Well by now everyone is laughing and Crush is having a hard time gaining control over what was just said. When the time is up Crush wishes all good bye and then wishes the parents of that little Dudette good luck as they will need it when she gets older. We let Kristen play around Bruce for a while and then we walk around and look at some of the fish in the area. I am surprised at how good the pictures turned out. When I took them I was just hopping to recognize something but they turned out really well.

From here we wander over to the land to ride the Living with the Land boat ride. This was a very cool ride, all of us enjoyed seeing the greenhouses. When we come back we have decided to take the Behind the Seeds tour and spend a little more time in the greenhouses. Besides that is one of the few tours for children. Kristen spots the Nestle Jr. Chef program so we promise her that we will try and come back later so that she can do this. We head to World Showcase to tour three countries. The other day we had just briefly visited France, United Kingdom and Canada, but we wanted to spend more time there. We were able to make it through Canada and United Kingdom before we had to head back to the Land for the junior chef program. While in the United Kingdom we decided to eat lunch and chose a nice little place the Yorkshire County Fish and Chips. Kristen had to have the child's PB and J and the rest of us tried the Fish and Chips Snack size. Of course Sarah and I shared a little of our meal with Kristen. She was starting to get tired of eating chicken nuggets and PB and J meals for lunch. I would have to say the worst thing about the dining plan is the lack of choices for kid's meals. I don't think that it would hurt to create a few more kid's meal varieties especially since not all children are extremely picky when it comes to food choices. We also had shortbread and crisps for appetizers with our meal.

We head back to that Kristen can do the Nestle Junior Chef program. While waiting Dad and Sarah get a little tired and decide to go shopping at Mouse Gears. (that is another store that I could spend hours in if I didn't have children. Actually Sarah is getting good at shopping now, maybe the two of us could get lost there.) Kristen was at the end of the line for the cookies so they had her hold the chocolate chips. When it came time to open the chips, they made each child holding a bag raise their right hand and swear to not eat any of the chips. Kristen wouldn't promise to eat the chips. She can be very honest when she needs to. Since she was at the end of the line when each child made the cookies, she also got to scrap up all of the rest of the dough and just fling it on the cookie sheet. This is not a good thing to have taught her because now she wants to do that when we make cookies at home. After she gets the cookies that she made we wander over to find Dad and Sarah. (I need one of those magical ovens that bake and cool things off so quickly.) After this we have to go ride Space Ship Earth one more time. This is by far Kristen's favorite ride. From here we head to MK for a few minutes before our dinner ressies.

Our first stop at MK was quest relations to pick up a birthday button for Kurt. Wished that I could have talked him into getting one at every park, but hey at least we have one from two of the parks. At MK we still have the good FP so decide to head over to Space Mountain and use them on the that ride. Sarah was a little nervous about this ride, but I reminded her that this was one of the first roller coasters and therefore it was a more tamer one than the new versions out there. When we got off, she was thrilled and wanted to go again. There may be hope that I will finally have a roller coaster fan in the family other than myself. We also take the time to ride the transit Authority ride. This was a very nice relaxing ride with no problems. I think anyone could ride this.

It is now time to head to Mickey's Backyard Barbeque for supper. We get on the boat and take the ride over to the Wilderness Lodge. I have a little problem with motion sickness on the boat but nothing to be concerned about. We are also getting hot by this time and I just want to cool off. It took about 30 minutes to get to WL. What I didn't know is that they take your picture before you go in. I think that this was the only place where we didn't purchase a picture. I thought that the ones with just the girls were good, but DH didn't like them. The best part was that even though the food wasn't out when we arrived they already had the drinks out; Ice cold lemonade, fruit punch and water. I probably had three glasses of water before the food was ever put out. Even though it wasn't supposed to start until 6:30, they announced at 6:15 that the food was out and whenever you wanted to go through the lines that you could. The food was good, especially enjoyed the coleslaw. Cold food is always good for a hot day. We had to sign a sheet if there was a birthday or anniversary that you wanted recognized. At one point all that they did was read off the list of people and their ages. I would have liked to see a little bit more. Maybe bring them up to the dance floor. The girls really liked the dancing with the characters. The one thing that I would have liked more, was a chance to get better pictures of the characters in their western attire. That was hard to do and they were usually surrounded by kids, so all that you could get was their faces. We were getting tired around 8:00 so we went ahead and left. I had noticed that there were many others who left early. This was a nice show, but I don't know if I would recommend using two table credits on it again.

By the time we take the boat back to MK and then the bus back to ASS it was after 9:00. We stopped at the resort gift shop to purchase a few things and Kurt decides that he would like some pop so he sent Sarah back to the room ahead of time to bring back the refillable mugs. While in the room Sarah makes sure that all of Dad's things are on the bed. Two items had been delivered, I knew about one and then the stuff from KSC that we had purchased earlier in the week. Of course the good child that she can be, she doesn't say anything to Dad, just whispers to me that there are a few additions in the room. When we get back to the room Kurt finds three surprises waiting for him. First off were the mouse pad and screen saver shots from KSC that Sarah and I had picked up earlier in the week. I had also ordered a snack pack from Disney Florist and it was there is the room. A nice blue lunch bag filled with fun snacks and a couple of pops, of course they were coke. If I don't get a Pepsi soon, I may go nuts. The third was also a surprise to me. A couple of the people that he works with had sent him one of the those large cookies with happy birthday written on it. Well a large cookie means only one thing. Another trip to the resort gift shop for more milk. Can't have a cookie without milk. After the cookies and mile it is off to bed, we have 7:30 breakfast ressies in the morning.

Miles Walked 7.34
Steps Walked 16618
Activity Points 8

Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7