Off to Orlando!

One of the highlights of 2010 for our family was our trip to Disney World!  Paul & I had been considering taking the girls, and we realized that if we did decide to plant a church (We weren't sure about this yet.), it would be more difficult to go afterward.  And then we found out some of our good friends were also thinking about going, so we decided to go together!  (I think this really sealed the deal for Paul.)  Their kids got out of school the last Thursday in May, and we left the following day.  Our friends have 6 kids, ranging in age from 2 to 13, so we had 14 people total!!  I know it sounds crazy, but we had a blast!

We took a couple of days to drive, so we got to Orlando on Saturday afternoon and went to Animal Kingdom.  Since it closes earlier than the other parks, we didn't have much time there.  We did the safari ride first.  Since it had been raining that afternoon, it was a little cooler, and we were able to see a lot of animals, including Hope's favorite, elephants. 

 
The older kids and the dads rode the rapids ride, while my friend and I stayed with her two little ones.  It was no sacrifice for us because neither of us wanted to get our hair wet!  However, everyone got soaked when it started pouring rain.  We quickly discovered that the Dollar Tree ponchos weren't sufficient!  We were able to see the Lion King show on our way out.  Then we got settled in our rooms in The Port of Orleans French Quarter and headed out to eat and to Walmart to get snacks and better rain ponchos.

The next day we went to Hollywood Studios.  We had heard that the Toy Story ride was very popular, so we immediately got fast passes for it.  My girls really liked the Narnia exhibit and enjoyed seeing costumes from the movie.

They also were impressed by the stone table.

 

Lunch that day was a disaster!  We waited about an hour to order and get our pizza!  Fortunately, our meals went smoothly the rest of the trip!  When we rode the Star Wars ride, Paul discovered that simulators mess up his equilibrium.  But the rest of us enjoyed it.  In the afternoon, the dads and older boys went to see the stunt shows while the moms, girls, and little boys saw the Beauty and the Beast show and The Little Mermaid show.  Faith was selected to announce The Little Mermaid show before it started!  So cool!  We met back up for the Muppet show and dinner.


The Toy Story ride was great and definitely lived up to the hype.  We were all disappointed (but not surprised) that the line was too long to ride it again!


My friend and her oldest daughter stayed to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster, while the rest of us took the bus back to the hotel.

  


We had just experienced our first full day of Disney, and, I must say, we were impressed...and exhausted!