SHOPPING - O.E.A. - Day 3

On day 3, we didn't really have any specific plans except get closer to Disneyworld.  So, we loaded up the car and decided to stop at an outlet with a Disney store so we could get a few things before entering the exorbitant prices of the parks.  The only thing I was really looking for was warmer clothes - jackets, sweaters, rain gear, etc.  There wasn't much in the Disney outlet that day, but we did get some great rain gear and a couple warmer hoodies that really helped out later.  Most of us didn't shop too long here because we wanted to get to Downtown Disney and enjoy the ambiance.  There is so much to do at Disneyworld.  Last time Jared and I went to DW, I explored a few of the hotels but not all of them, and they are AMAZING!  So, fun just to go and walk through and enjoy how each one is perfectly decorated.  Also, Downtown Disney has a huge gaming area called Quest that I thought Jaxon might like.  So, I was ready to get on the road and start exploring.  There were a few who wanted to shop longer at the outlets, so we did stay until around noon.

So, here some of us are enjoying the indoor eating facilities.  We had A&W root beer while waiting for all the boys!  Can you believe that?  Yep!  We girls have our priorities in order at least.  Josie is taking the picture.  :)

So, when we finally all decided we were ready to go, it was about a 20-30 minute drive to DD.  Off we went, I had Disney Christmas music playing in our van quite a bit.  I would trade it off with Alabama and Oak Ridge Boys Christmas CD's.  Some of the best Christmas music ever!!!  One of the kids favorite things was that Gpa and Gma had an extra seat in their car, so each day one of the kids would get to ride with them.  They loved that!  Don't know why, we had the best music.  :)  I think this day Josie was riding with them.

So, as we parked and turned around, this is what we saw.  This is not a good omen for the rest of the trip.  It is only day 3 and Jake and Jainie are sleeping every chance they get.  Uh oh! We might be in trouble.  I guess we should have brought 2 strollers, which was actually a point of contention with Jake.  He did not think it was fair or right that Jainie got the stroller.  So, sometimes we would carry Jainie and Jake would ride in the stroller and a few days we rented a stroller from Disney just to stop the whining.

So, this is what we walked up to, Gpa, Gma, Ry and Josie got out of their car first and were waiting for us.  This is outside of a restaurant like "Rainforest Cafe," but it is called, "T-Rex" restaurant or something like that.  Anyway, it was pretty cool and Ry and Josie was just chillaxin' having a bamboo lesson.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were Christmas trees all over and lots of picture spots.  We thought this would be a nice spot for our first family pic.  You can see how well it worked out.  Jake in stroller and Jainie barely awake, wanting to be in the stroller.  Good thing the other kids were good sports.

In order to get Jake out of the stroller, the first place we went was the lego shop, which is totally awesome, like all Lego shops.  Jake played outside in the legos building houses but mostly building cars and then racing them down the ramps for at least 45 minutes, everyone else was either in the lego shop or had moved on without us.  I was just trying to help Jake enjoy his vacation (he had a particularly rough one this time :)).  (It should be mentioned that the majority of my pictures are taken at the beginning of the day, the medium portion at night.  This is because I was ready and excited for the day, as it went on, I would get more and more drained and put the camera away, then at night, I would think, "I haven't taken as many pictures as I should have, I better pull out the camera and snap some more."  And, honestly Jared wasn't too helpful in the photography dept. this time around.  He was tired too, I think.)

So, these pics weren't taken by me, they are of everyone else during Jake's play time.  But, aren't these sweet, I never even saw them!

Ry, Jaxon, and ? petting some ferocious dogs they have tamed.

Jainie and Josh trying their luck with the man-eating dogs.  :)

They had lots of these portals with landmarks of different countries in them, this pic turned out with the least glare.  Go  Russia!

I love this sea serpent, I remembered it from the last time I was, I actually remember it from the first time I was year, YEARS ago.  Pretty sweet.

We finally got Jake to go INTO the store and he loved it!  He ended up choosing his own legos from the bins there.  He choose everything he would need to build a couple little cars to drive around.  I thought it was perfect, it would entertain him the rest of the day so I could do some shopping.  But, nope, no such luck. :(

Grandpa has always loved trains and here he and Jake were looking at some lego ones while Gpa was explaining things about them to Jake. 

Ah, we finally get to leave the Lego shop, we seriously spent more time here than any other shop!  Including World of Disney.  It's a crime really.  Anyway, we were all getting hungry so we decided to go try to find something to eat.  Last time Jared and I ate at Wolfgang Puck's express place and it didn't look too busy, so back we went.  It was yummy and the kids enjoyed eating outside and getting a little break.  (It was pretty warm outside by now).

It was fun just wandering around and enjoying all things Disney.  Jainie "woke" up and started posing everywhere - she loved these brooms from "Sorcerer's Apprentice".

Josie and Josh outside of "Rainforest Cafe" waiting for me to quit looking at art.

Another of the cool Christmas trees.  This one was outside the Disney toy shop, "Once Upon a Toy" so it had cool "old" toys all over it.

Some of my favorite shops were "Mickey's Pantry," where I got some cool spices and a mug for Jared that says, "Beneath this Grumpy exterior beats the heart of a Dashing Hero."  I always get him a mug when we go to Disney for a souvenir because he likes mugs and hot cocoa but will never choose something out for himself.  He has a pretty good collection of Grumpy and Eeyore mugs, this mug I thought was particularly fitting. :)  I also loved "The Art of Disney," which I love every time.  It was actually cooler before, but now everything is online apparently so you go in and find a picture on the computer and then mail it to yourself.  I would rather see the picture in person before buying it.  I knew I would spend a lot of time in "Disney's Days of Christmas" because I love Christmas and Disney and so the two together are unbeatable!  Every year the kids get an ornament for Christmas representing something they have done that year, so Jared and I decided that this time we would let them each choose out their own ornaments.  We spend at least an hour in this store choosing ornaments.  We then decided to get them personalized and mailed home to us, we got them a couple days before Christmas, it was a fun present.  I took pics of each child with theirs and will post them later.  :)  Jake, however, didn't choose his ornament because he was extremely grumpy!  The men and Gma were outside taking turns trying to mollify him.  This a picture of him trying to spit at me when I asked him to come choose his ornament.  What a kid!  He just wanted to go on rides.

The boys favorite shop was "Team Mickey," which had all things sports.  Josh got a cool baseball there with his name engraved on it.  Jaxon got an ESPN camera bag for his FlipVideo.  They spent a lot of time in there.  While they were there, Grandma, Josie, Jainie and I went into "Goofy's Candy Co." and bought fudge and chocolate covered strawberries.  YUMMO!  This was probably Josie's favorite spot.  There was a LOT of candy!

Before heading back to the boys Gma snapped this picture of just the girls with Tigger and Pooh.  I could've stayed and taken pictures at cute spots all day long, too bad the kids weren't interested.

While the boys were finishing up, a little cart outside was selling turkey legs, which we love and he came and started telling people if they would do the chicken dance, he would give them a leg free.  So, naturally, Jainie got up and started dancing!  It was so cute.  Jake saw that she got a turkey leg, so he got up and started dancing for the food.  He got one, and then I asked Josie to dance so she could get one for the boys because she didn't want one.  It was pretty fun.  We should have all done it for free dinner, but most of us are just too bashful.

This is us enjoying the night and our free dinner.

We still hadn't been in "World of Disney" which has 12 separate rooms, it is HUGE!  Most everyone was tired and ready for a rest, but I just can't waste time while on vacation, I want to see EVERYTHING!  Unfortunately, kids usually win, so we didn't spend a ton of time in WofD.  But, it was fun to see what they had.  (Just a note to my future self:  I wouldn't do vacation this way again, with the shopping day first.  The kids were all ready for more rides, weren't really in a shopping mood, didn't know what was available, etc.  This would be a nice mid-week break, just a relaxing day to hang out.)

At the boy side entrance into WofD.  Jake thought it would be hilarious to be feeding his turkey leg, which he insisted on finishing himself, to the skeleton.  Boys.

Right inside the door, Jake and Jainie were a bit nervous by the creepy skeletons.

After we entered the store, the boys stuff was everywhere.  But, the girls, ironically, weren't too interested in that, so we split up.  Dad kept the boys looking at swords, guns, and lightsabers, while the girls and I went looking for the princess dresses.  Meanwhile, happening upon these fun hats, we had to try a few on.  I think Josie looks adorable with orange hair.  She could pull anything off.

I, on the other hand, should stick with blonde, I think.

Josie and I tried to get Jainie to get a princess dress, but she was not interested.  She only wanted some Minnie ears with flowing netting.  So, that is what we got her, I wasn't taking pictures at this time, Josie was, so we didn't get one of that.  Boo!

After finishing up here, we made a needed stop at the yummilicious "Ghirardelli Soda and Chocolate Shop,"  where we each got some ice cream and drinks.  It was tasty and a much needed pick me up.

One of the main hotels I wanted to go to was "The Grand Floridian" because I had seen a special on Disney and Christmas and knew they had the largest real Gingerbread house in the world!  I thought it would be fun to see so after leaving DD, we went to find TGF.  It was magnificent, the hotel, I mean.  I loved it - one of the most expensive places to stay onsite, of course but pretty fun to visit.

The grand staircase, which was much more magnificent in person.  The kids all sat at a little TV and watched Disney cartoons while enjoying our time here.

Every hotel had a huge Christmas tree with a chair like this and a photographer taking pictures on the other side.  We just took advantage with our own cameras.  Oh, and there are Jainie's ears, yes! we did get a picture!  Ironically enough, all the kids were back up to par by the time we got to the hotel and loved exploring it.

I wanted Jared and I to get pictures at each hotel.  Josie thought this was hilarious!  It was pretty cute - Jared was getting tired, unfortunately, he is not quite the Disney fanatic that I am.  :(  You can see the beautiful lobby in the background.

So, here is the gingerbread house, which is pretty cool.  They sell gingerbread inside the house and we had to buy a shingle, of course.  I even splurged and bought the one with chocolate on the bottom.  It wasn't very good - pretty dry, disappointing.  (Jake refused to join us in this pic and really a lot of others.)

Jared wouldn't even eat the gingerbread, if you can believe that.  But, isn't he cute?!

Josie is a girl after my own heart, she loves exploring with me.  So, we went upstairs and looked through the shops.  There was this one called, "Basin White,"  where you could try bath bombs and this shea scrub.  So, Josie, Gpa and I all tried some out.  It was amazing - made our hands so soft and smooth and smelled SO good.  So, we bought a bath bomb and went on our way (later we ordered some other stuff off the internet).  I put the bath bomb on the floor of the van in the front seat and it made the car smell so good every time the heat vents came on.  Yum!

While we were meandering, everyone else was in the lobby, watching Jake and Jainie dance.  It was so cute, they danced and danced and Jainie would tell Jake what to do and how to do it.  There was a live band at first then they packed up and a piano player came. it was pretty fun.  I hope Jake and Jainie will always remember it.  I couldn't get either Jaxon or Josh to dance with me.  Or Jared, for that matter.

On the way out, there was this carriage that Josie loved.  I think it was for the weddings, which were close by.  Unfortunately I was vetoed on stopping to see the Wedding Pavillion.  Sometimes I think I need to go to DW by myself to see everything, but what fun would that be?

All in all, another fun vacation day.  It was time to go back to the hotel and pack up.  We were moving to our cabins the next morning, early.  Yippee!!!  Disneyworld here we come!