Disney World - Day 4

April 13, 2012 – Friday - We went to the Orlando Temple this morning. It is about a 30 minute drive and is in such a gorgeous part of Orlando. The temple itself it just exquisite and stands out. We started out by the oldest 2 being able to do Baptisms for the Dead. Dad Beck, Byron, Tanner, Camille, Mom Beck & Melissa all headed in. I stayed outside with the youngest 5 – we just sat in the van and enjoyed playing electronic devices. After around 15 minutes Melissa came back out to tell me to go in and that she would stay outside with the kids. I was so overwhelmed and grateful I had the opportunity to go in and watch them baptize. I had not experienced anything like this since I was a youth doing them around 20 years ago. I was very emotional as I witnessed it. How awesome to be in the temple with two of your children!!! Byron was able to do the baptisms. It was awesome because they both were able to do 10 names where they normally just get to do around 5 in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

After the baptisms, Byron went outside to spend time with the kids and Melissa came back in for an endowment session. The workers were all so gracious and overly kind to us while there. We were in a session with 6 total people. It was a little different being in such a small session, but equally powerful and special. I felt so grateful to have had this opportunity to start my day in the House of the Lord. I had a really hard time staying awake, but succeeded (luckily we are getting to bed a lot earlier tonight than the past 4 nights).

We came out of the temple to find Byron walking around the temple grounds with the kids. They had found a lot of lizards and Byron even had one go the bathroom on his hand. We enjoyed taking some pictures then headed out to Wal-Mart. We are always excited to see Disney t-shirts there since they are so expensive in the real place. We had fun all picking one out that we will be wearing tomorrow. I was so excited at the selection for girl and women shirts – they were all really cute.

We headed out to find a Long John Silver’s for lunch. Dad Beck was very excited to eat at one since they are not in Utah anymore. We followed out GPS to a location a couple of miles away to find it was not that anymore, but a Popeye’s. We ended up eating there. I enjoyed a yummy chicken sandwich.

We headed back to our condo to change clothes and enjoy relaxing for one hour. I played a game of pool with Tanner - he is really good – not sure how he learned how to play so well, but he was beating me both games.

We headed out to go to Tom and Jerry’s for an air boat ride. It is about 1 hour 15 minutes away. When we arrived all we could see was a trailer park. Upon calling the company, we found out they were located behind the trailer park next to the water. I wasn’t impressed with the facility as a lady was sitting on a picnic bench with her phone, but no electronic devices or verification that we had prepaid our rides. After her calling the person in charge of the computers, we finally found out the information that supposedly we were supposed to bring with us. From there it just went uphill. We got onto an air boat with 3 other people in our group. We had Captain Ron as our tour guide and driver. He was awesome and so knowledgeable of the area we were in. We started out by going into a swampy grass area and just drove right over all of the green plants – it was crazy how the boat could go through practically anything and not hurt it at all. We found a cool crocodile just hanging out in the sun and plants. Then we had fun for one hour going all over this swampy area to find other crocodiles and other wildlife that lives in the water area. There were moments when he was driving so fast and turning such sharp turns, that we would get splashed with water. It was a moment like this that Bradley was ready to be done. He was pretty nervous how fast we were going and worried we would tip out. He did relax more and ended up enjoying the ride. We saw about 7 adult crocodiles that were about 4-12 feet long. There were also many small 2 feet or smaller babies. I was surprised how some of the alligators didn’t seem to be afraid of the boat and not try to run when we came with this very loud boat. We got some amazing views. The water area with all of the vegetation was absolutely gorgeous. We learned that alligators more scared of us than we are of them which were pretty comforting as we were a couple of feet from some large ones. We also saw cranes, fish, and ducks. It was so fun – unlike anything I had ever done before.

After the air boat ride, we headed back and stopped along the way for some Taco Bell/Long John Silvers (we ended up finding one on the way and had to stop since a Taco Bell was also in the same location). We then headed back to the condo, the boys all jumped into the pool for 20 minutes to have a quick swim – enjoyed playing some fun water games. Then we called it a night and sent them to bed around 8:30 p.m. We have not been sleeping near long enough the past few nights and with tomorrow being such an early morning we are all getting to bed early.

We have had an amazing time so far and have seen such amazing things. I think we will be going home to actually get some sleep, though. We are heading Magic Kingdom tomorrow morning and very excited to experience this first hand.

The group before heading into the Temple.

The whole family after being in the Temple.  Parker (navy blue), Carter (light blue)

Carter and a lizard.

Everybody who wanted to had a turn holding an iguana.

Swimming time after dinner.

Disney World - Day 3

April 12, 2012- Thursday - Our morning started early as I was up at 5:30 a.m. and we left around 7:15 a.m. We headed out to Animal Kingdom. We arrived about 15 minutes before opening. We ended up waiting behind ropes until the workers took them down. We started out with Byron running to Expedition Everest for FASTPASSES while the rest of us went to a kiddie area that had some fun rides. We rode a ride called DINOSAUR that is like Indiana Jones at Disneyland. It was jerky and bumpy, but really fun. Bradley even enjoyed it. The next ride was Expedition Everest. Everybody rode except for Bradley. I did the baby swap and rode after the rest did. It was one amazing ride! I absolutely LOVED it! It was like Matterhorn Mountain but had a fun twist. A monster chewed up the track, so the train stopped on the track and it started going backwards for quite some time in the dark (a weird sensation). Then the train starts going forward again as it twists through the mountain in the dark. It was really a fun ride. Dad Beck got really sick from riding it since he had no clue about it going backwards – he was imagining Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. He was out of commission for about one hour. After that ride, Mom Beck, Melissa, and the rest of our kids (minus Bradley) enjoyed Kali River Rapids. Byron, Bradley & I were not excited about getting wet so we opted out. They ended up riding it twice in a row and got soaked! I think it took them at least 4 hours or more to dry out after that one. We had fun watching a Flight of Wonders bird show. It was so fun to see different varieties of birds compared with what is shown at Hogle Zoo.

One of my favorite parts was the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We all got into safari jeeps that held about 30 people. As we went along we saw some amazing animals just roaming without any fences between them and other animals. It reminded me of Jurassic Park with the beauty and openness. We saw some beautiful giraffes, Hogwarts, ostrich, elephant, black rhino and white, hippos, cheetah, huge ox with large horns, and other miscellaneous animals. They were all magnificent and so beautiful in their natural surroundings. The Hogwarts burrowed large holes all over their area – it was just fascinating to see. We later learned that this park closes earlier than the rest because it takes 3 hours to round up each animal at the end of the day. They all have certain calls they sound to call them to their individual cages.

Parker bought a cute Mickey Safari hat – he was so excited about his purchase.

Animal Kingdom is enormous as far as area it covers. We walked from one end of the park to the other a couple of times probably covering 5 miles or so today. We ate lunch at a Chinese place and enjoyed some yummy lemon or sweet and sour chicken. It was so filling and tasted yummy.

Two amazing shows we were able to see was “Festival of the Lion King” and “Finding Nemo Musical.” “Festival of the Lion King” was combined with dressed up characters from Lion King along with some natives that sang the songs (they were amazing!). We were all thoroughly enthralled the whole time. It was definitely first class. “Finding Nemo Musical” was amazing also. It was about a 45 minute production in a beautiful large auditorium with a stage. The characters were all large puppets carried around by the person who played their voice. It was fascinating how they did it and very entertaining. The songs were also really fun. Bradley ended up falling asleep during it – he has had 3 very long days in a row and can’t keep up with all this excitement.

Before heading out around 6:30 p.m., we got a turkey leg for all to share. The kids were devouring it! It was a pretty funny sight to see.

After leaving the park, we headed over to Chilies to eat dinner. Since it was so packed, we ended up doing take out and eating back at our condo. It was so nice to actually get back at a decent time to relax before bed. We all enjoyed some swimming time together. The water was so warm (pretty much the perfect temperature). Bradley was practicing holding his breath under water. He was cracking us all up. He first started out thinking he could only hold his breath with goggles on, but then graduated to doing it without them. He would hold his breath for about 15 seconds at a time. I was very impressed. If he keeps this up, I will have to get him into swimming lessons this summer.

All of us upon entering the park - Parker light blue, Carter navy blue

The Dinosaur ride was pretty scary when the large dinosaurs came out of nowhere right above where you were.  I love this picture of Johnathan ducking down and all of the facial expressions.

After the water ride- all soaking wet!

In line for the safari ride.

Refreshing treats after lunch.

Parker and his new hat.

Tanner next to a possum and Parker at the petting zoo.

Yum!

All of us together while leaving the park.

Fun water time.  Below - Camille, Bradley, Parker, Melissa, Mom Beck, Tanner & Carter.

Disney World - Day 2

April 11, 2012 - Wednesday - Woke up around 6:30 a.m. to be out the door by 7:30 a.m. – We had originally planned to attend Magic Kingdom today, but after looking at one of our phone apps, the crowd meter was higher their today so we chose Epcot instead.  We arrived 45 min. early and waited in line for about 30 min.  All of the adult tickets had to put their finger into this machine to scan our fingerprints before entering.  I had never seen this before.  Then when we went to each additional park, the fingerprint had to match the ticket.  I guess this will keep people from buying 5 day passes and selling half of the days to somebody else.  We used the WDW Lines app which Byron paid $15 for.  The app told us what ride to go on in order and when to get fast passes for certain rides.  The plan was for it to help us save 3-4 hours by jumping around this way.  It was amazing how nice it worked.  We followed this list at each park and didn't have to wait in many lines especially for being one of the busiest times of the year to go.  We loved not having to think about what to do next. Fast Track was the first ride we went on.  It was a huge hit and so fun.  Bradley was scared at first, but then seemed to like it at the end.  Next we went on a “Mission: Space” - you can either ride the Orange (extreme)Green (easy) simulated rocket ride.  Since the adults were all going to go on the easy ride, I decided I was brave and didn't have problems with sickness so I would go with the kids on the orange ride.  Boy was I wrong!  You are strapped into a small space into a simulator that makes you feel like you are going to Mars.  I felt claustrophobic and very sick most of the time.  I was so grateful it ended when it did or I don't know what would have happened.  I guess I am getting too old for these kid rides :).  We went on Soarin’ twice and loved it each time.  Mom Beck had never been on this ride and he said it was her favorite she had ever been on before.  Living on the Land – very interesting – I loved seeing tomato trees and all of the plants growing in their facility. We also loved Crush the Turtle – awesome how he actually talked to children in the audience – not sure how they did it. The rides at Epcot are based on educational experiences compared to fun at the other parks.  So some of the kids liked Epcot and some didn't as much. 

By noon we had hit all of the rides in the park and headed over to the countries area.   Their is a huge lake that is surrounded on all sides by different countries.  It was a lot of fun walking through each one getting a good feel for the atmosphere.  They had entertainment in each area along with food that is native to that country.  It was also fun to go into the shops and see souvenirs from these areas.  For dinner we ate Chinese food.  It was so good and filling.  I ate orange chicken - each child shared a plate.  For lunch we shared meals and were still hungry after eating.  This dinner made up the difference as we definitely got our fill and more.  In France we saw a cool 5 screen (around half of room) show.  The crowds felt pretty light, but found out that Epcot is massive after walking around it all day.  By following the app we didn’t hit huge lines at all – Soarin’ and Fast Track were 110 min. lines without the FASTPASSES. So nice we didn’t experience those lines. Melissa bought gelato for us to share - so creamy and good.  We sat to see the evening show for 1 ½ hours, then people stood in front of us and wouldn’t sit down  after it started - that was pretty upsetting.  Luckily the kids were on the front row next to the water so Byron & I went over with them. It ended up being a very late night.  We went by Walgreen's on our way back to the condo.  The kids bought some Disney World things for a lot less money.  I was glad I had brought snacks in my bag since we ate them all through out the day.  The food is so expensive in the parks.

 The crew before entering Epcot - Parker, red and Carter, green

 Waiting for Fast Track and Bradley looking a little scared before the ride started.

 The lines were so long to wait and see the characters, that we opted to just take them from a distance.

 Soarin' with the crew.

 We finally waited in line when we saw one not very long and had fun with Chip and Dale.

 Their is a Coke store where you can test coke from different countries.  Byron & Dad Beck were in complete heaven:).

These cool character bushes were all over Epcot.  They were fascinating to look at.  Below are some fun hats we had trying on in the different countries.

 Bradley wiped out half way through the day while looking at the countries.

 The yummy gelato.  She got chocolate, lemon and another really good kind.

 Fun telephone pictures in the United Kingdom.

 Waiting for the evening show to start.

A beautiful view on our way out.