Our 12th Anniversary...what a celebration!

Okay, so it's taken me quite a while to get this done....I'm finally updating my blog. I'm going to go all the way back to Val & my 12th anniversary celebration! We took the boys and went to Disney World.! It was the best trip ever! They were really good travelers & we enjoyed the trip together a lot! The only bummer was that Katie & Haley couldn't go with us. I guess the plan from the beginning was that Katie would be in Pocatello, so it was a non-issue. Plans changed midway and she was home, so that was sad to have to leave her. Haley had to stay because of her biological mother's 3rd wedding....bummer! We had a great time, but felt like part of us was missing!

This may seem a little backwards, but I'm putting it in order if you go from our first day on.... We arrived in Orlando on Sunday, September 28th (the actual date of our 12th anniversary). We settled into our room & had late dinner reservations for the Whispering Canyon Cafe' at the Wilderness Lodge resort. (If you're a Jon & Kate Plus 8 fan, you'll know that resort is the one they stayed at). Anyway, we went & looked around Downtown Disney while we killed a little time. Then we went to the Lodge for dinner. It was great food & more than we could eat! The boys were starving & Jordan even got to have salmon for his dinner!!! This is not a quiet place to eat. When you ask for ketchup, your server yells "This table needs ketchup!" Every bottle of ketchup in the place is rushed to your table. It's pretty cool! Then when they yell it at another table, you run all the ketchups you received to that table. They also had a stick horse race & a lot of loud singing!

Second day in Orlando, we went to the Magic Kingdom. It was a pretty humid day, but all in all it was fun. We had a character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern, where we saw a bunch of characters. Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale & Pluto. There were definately a lot more characters out at Disney World than in Disneyland. I'll probably have a slide show just for character sightings. Anyway, we had extra magic hours, so we were there from 9 am to 12 pm....lets just say we were able to ride most rides with a minimum wait & one after another after 9 pm.

Third day we enjoyed Epcot. There were so many cool places to check out, we decided if we ever go back, we're going to need at least 2 days in Epcot. We rode rides in Future World & then walked around & around the World Showcase. Our favorite ride Soarin' was there & our character dinner was in a revolving restaurant. We saw Goofy, Mickey, Donald, Chip, Dale & Minnie there. We also got to visit: Germany, Norway, Paris, Japan, China, Mexico, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Morocco & Italy while we were there. Each country has only people from that country working there. Dylan counted in Japanese for the little gals in Japan. They also had these fun projects where the kids could make things & collect from each country. The boys had their names written in Japanese, Chinese & Moroccan.

Our Fourth day we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and that was very nice. We had a character breakfast & it was really delicious. We saw all the usual characters & went on a safari. We were able to walk some cool paths & see some great animals. We also tortured Jordan by making him ride Expedition Everest. That was scary & fun! He survived, but I'm not sure my arm did.

Our Fifth day we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. There we had a great dinner at the 50's Prime Time Restaurant & watched some neat stunt shows. We also tortured Jordan again by making him ride the Hollywood Tower of Terror. It was great and again, my arm didn't survive, but Jordan did. The boys favorite ride was there and they rode it over & over. It was the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster. They rode it 4 times, I had to bag out after 3 rides. Dylan loved to sing the music as loud as he could as we rode the super fast roller coaster.

Our last day, we went to Downtown Disney & walked around. Our flight didn't leave until 5 pm, so we had quite a bit of time to waste. It was a great trip & we can't wait to go on the cruise when Haley graduates!!!