Epcot 2010

We started our Disney vacation at Epcot, spending our first afternoon there, and then going back later in the week. I have loved Epcot since going there in middle school and again on our honeymoon and really looked forward to taking Sam.

I think he liked it, too!

I know he liked the water features scattered throughout the park—he has a thing for waterfalls!

We rode some fabulous rides but I think one of Sam’s favorite things may have been the seagulls outside of the Finding Nemo building.  They were hysterical!  I think he could have watched them for hours!

We had a lot of fun watching the animals under the sea!

We test drove cars and went over 60 mph…3 times!  We flew over Northern California and smelled the cedar trees and the vineyards.  We talked to Crush and looked for Nemo.  We walked around the world, stopping to eat in Japan, play maracas in Mexico, and of course, play drums, too!

Be careful, Sam.  That’s exactly how Daddy got Mama!  Many girls are suckers for cool dudes playing drums!

Sam and Daddy could have played here all day, I think, creating a truly unique symphony!

So much fun!  Here are a few more photos from our travels.  I can’t decide which one of these I like more, so I’m using both!

It was a good day!  Click below for just a few more photos from our travels around the world and through space and time!

The Blizzard of 2010

It snowed again last night.  See this:

That’s the bowl Sam excitedly insisted on using to collect snow so that we could make snow cream again.  I went to bed hoping that he wouldn’t be disppointed.  But, alas, we woke up to find our bowl holding nothing more than about an inch of icy cold water.  Sam was devasted.  So, being the ultimate cool mom that I am, I took him to the grocery store and introduced him to one of my favorites:

Score! He thought I was so cool!  And, this made him forget about our bowl of water.

I know this is totally out of order, but since I did mention that it had snowed already, I might as well go ahead and write about it while I’m here.

About 2 weeks ago, we got a gorgeous 9 inches of snow.  It fell so fast and heavy for hours.  This was really Sam’s first good snow experience and he was over the moon! Like most kids, we couldn’t keep him inside.  The only problems were that the snow fell on Friday night, so no snow day for me, and it was pretty much all melted before sunset on Saturday.  But, Sam sure enjoyed it as much as he could all day!  And thankfully, Scott wasn’t able to fly out of town that morning, so he got to play with Sam ALL day!  ‘Cuz if I’m being honest, I will photograph it all day long and pray for a blizzard…but Mama ain’t goin’ out in the snow!

Here are some photos of Sam and Daddy playing and the snowman they built only 2 hours into the snowfall.

We woke up to a winter wonderland and found beauty everywhere we looked!  We also found our poor, poor pirate snowman…half-buried!

And, again, thank you God for allowing Scott to stay home and suffer the cold with Sam so that I could stay inside, cozy and warm, eating the entire bowl of snow cream.

  

Sam loved when Daddy made it snow again!

I’m so glad that Sam got to enjoy this day!  Maybe next Winter we’ll have at least one snow day so that Sam can make more snow cream and get really good at throwing snowballs!

Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort

If you’re trying to decide between staying on-site or off-site during your own Disney vacation, you should know that there are lots of factors to consider. I, however, only considered one factor: Disneyworld has a value hotel that sports a Toy Story theme. That’s all I needed to book our room. (Well, that and I found an internet code that saved us more than 40% off the already reasonable off-peak price.)

Sam LOVES Toy Story right now—I mean, he LOVED it then. Right now he’s on a Star Wars kick. But I was glad to pay just a little extra in order to request a room in the Toy Story building of the resort, even though we were still not be guaranteed a room in that building. It was soooooo worth it!

When you arrive at the resort, you are welcomed into the lobby via a red carpet. The coolest thing about the lobby is that there is a small open theater for children to wait in while a parent stands in the sometimes very long line to check-in. Buses run from the hotel to all the parks and we used the buses on and off. (Let me know if you need any advice on whether to drive into the parks or take Disney’s transportation. I do have some pointers.) We were pretty pleased with our room. We’d certainly stay there again, but next time we’re looking forward to staying in one of the fancy resorts. (I’m already saving for that splurge!)

And here’s what made our building extra special! The courtyard between the Woody building and the Buzz building is actually Andy’s room. Well, you know. Not actually. Check out these cool photos and be sure to notice the scale of the toys. Very cool!

I think my favorite part of the resort was the toy soldier buckets that enclosed the stairs at the ends of each building along with the army men that were positioned along the roof. I couldn’t take enough photos of those gorgeously huge buckets! (Can you find Sam in one of the photos?)

There are lots of other goodies offered by the resort. If you’re interested or on the fence about where to stay, let me know and I’ll hook you up with more info.

Oh, I almost forgot to show you the HEATED pool. I was very sad that I forgot my swimsuit, even after packing Sam’s and reminding Scott to pack his.

Writing these posts is making my heart ache for our next vacation!