ANIMAL KINGDOM - Day 4 - O.E.A.

We were a little late getting started today because first stop was checking in at our new on-site accommodations.  We decided to stay at the Fort Wilderness Cabins because they had beds for 6 people in each cabin.  So, Mom and Dad got one and we got one right next to them.  Then, each night one of our kids would get to sleep at Gpa's and Gma's.  It was great!  Plus, they have their own "beach" - man-made of course, but I'll take any beach I can get.  Plus, they have these great sing-alongs there with Chip and Dale and they have an awesome pool with a water slide, etc. etc.  And, they are supposed to have the best Christmas lights out of everywhere Disney.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience much of the place - too cold.  It never warmed up enough to go swimming unless it was during the middle of the day, which I was not willing to return from a theme park to check it out.  We did see the beach - which looked like so much fun (you could go fishing, paddle-boating, rowing, swimming, etc.) but it was freezing - the wind was breath taking - not in the good way!  We did get to experience the Florida forest which is really not much like ours, I thought the ground was spongier, needles everywhere, the trees were interesting - I wish I would have taken more pictures!  Always too busy running.  One of their cool traditions is that people who visit there bring Christmas lights and decorate their cabins, tents, etc.  It was so neat driving around and seeing all the lights up - some people really go all out - I figure they are the people who drive campers and don't have many kids, who else could bring all that extra stuff?!  We also got to enjoy Fort Wilderness' "Hoop De Doo Revue"  which I absolutely LOVE - will write more about that on the last day!  :)

Anyway, on to A.K.  We were so excited to finally be at Disney!  Gpa, Gma, Dad and I love A.K. and love what it has to offer - something different, yet so great!  Here we are enjoying the unique A.K. Christmas tree at the entrance.  You'll notice Jake is still happy at this point - it doesn't last long.  :)  Oh, and Josh, Jake, Jared, and I are in shorts!  Woot woot!

I love this picture because it shows how exciting Grandpa knows all things Disney are.  We were definitely ready to be here!  Cool ornaments, right?

So after entering the park, we knew we had to go to "Primeval Whirl" first.  I had pretty much read every single Disney tourist book and knew exactly what I wanted to ride and when, what shows we should definitely see and where to sit, where to get snacks, and of course, where to shop.  We already had all our reservations for food months in advance.  That was a chore in and of itself.  This day our sit down meal was in the Animal Kingdom lodge at a place called "Boma."  More to come on that.  

So, Jainie wasn't tall enough to go on the ride, Gma had run to get fastpasses to "Expedition Everest" (best ride ever, to some) and I decided to stay out with Jainie.  I didn't mind, unfortunately, I was still feeling sick from Universal.  This is a fun ride though.  In retrospect, I wish I would've tackled it just once.

 So, Josie, Jared, and Jake went together - yep, Jared was a bit sick afterward.  So worth it!

 Jaxon, Ry, Gpa, and Josh go in the next car - it is like a roller coaster that spins around in circles too.  Yeah!  Jaxon has been to DWorld before when he was 3 and Josie when she was 1 but none of the other kids.  Jaxon and Josie didn't really remember it, except for pictures, so it was a new experience for all.

While these guys were enjoying their ride, Jainie and I went on "Triceratop Spin" - which is basically Dumbo except you can not only control up and down but tilting.  Jainie loved it and convinced Grandma to go on it with her again before the big kids got off their ride. You can see it behind Jared in the next picture.

Jainie got these darling "earpuffs" for her birthday and wanted to wear them for a few minutes of every day, so we ended up taking them everywhere with us.  Usually they were on the stroller or in a bag - or on Jared.  He really liked them and I think he really rocked them - right?  Who's the coolest dad on the planet?  :)

Right off of the ride, Goofy and Pluto were taking time to meet people.  There was no line, so we totally took advantage, but first I had to run into the nearest store to buy some autograph books, of course, everyone needs their own - every time.  It is always fun to meet the characters.  The funny thing is the last time we went to Disney, about a year ago, we could still convince Jaxon to jump in the photos, but Jainie was usually nervous and would refuse to meet some characters, this time Jaxon was waaay too cool to get pics with characters, but Jainie was fine.  Kids!  The Dinoland sign in the background is there because we were in that section of A.K.

Everyone knows that I can't enter a shop and just buy one thing, especially if I see something I think is super cute, so while getting autograph books, I picked these up for Josie.  The rest of the trip, people would look at her and tell her how darling she was.  I think it is so cute that it is as big as her head!  :)

On our way over to Asia to Expedition Everest, Jaxon and Ry took the opportunity to get this great pic at the entrance to Dinoland.  I think they planned the blue tops - too bad we didn't get them embroidered with something.  

 Some fun pictures we stopped at on our walk.  It really is a pretty place, fun to just walk and enjoy.

Another character we found on our walk was "Meeko" from Pocahontas.  He was pretty funny.  Jake was sick of not being on a ride at this point and refused to take any pictures.  Jainie did NOT like him.  He pretended to eat her autograph book and she didn't think it was funny at all.  She is still not sure if these characters are real or not.  (She asked me about them again the other day, "Mom are those things real?"  It is now the end of March.  Isn't childhood sweet?)   The rest of the trip she would ask me about any animal character, "Is this a nice one or one like that mean animal who tried to eat my book?"

 Okay, here it is - are you ready?  Expedition Everest - hands down favorite ride at A.K.  I think Jake's favorite ride of the trip.  We couldn't convince Grandma to try it and Jainie was too little (she wouldn't go on it if she were tall enough, not ready for these yet).  Jake is a daredevil, it is never fast enough or scary enough.  He looks hilarious on the rides, huge eyes, mouth shut tight, worried, then after we go on it he gets off and immediately declares it was scary and he won't go again.  Then, a couple minutes later, it was the best ride and "Can we go on that again?"  Unfortunately, after going on this ride, the older kids only wanted to do it over and over again, nothing else.  Too bad for them, they all dealt with it pretty well, except for Jake, who was a pain the rest of the day.  We did go on it a couple times at this point and went back to it at the end of the day and went on it a couple more times.  It is a thrill!

My mom took this picture when she and Jainie were by themselves, not sure where it is but it is a great pic of both Belle and E.E. in the background.

Grandma and Jainie were so patient with us, we decided we better go on Gma's favorite ride next - "Kilimanjaro Safaris".  It is over in Africa, of course, so off we headed.  On our walk in between Asia and Africa, we saw these playful - we'll call them monkeys/orangutans :)   We watched them for at least 10 minutes, they were pretty cool.  Animals are fun to watch, but personally, I like people watching better - until they notice you watching them and then, Watch out!

So, the Kilimanjaro Safaris is this cool ride through A.K.'s animals - they are all roaming around you with no fences - supposed to be like a safari - duh :).  Anyway,  we saw so many great animals here, I have only posted the favorites.

So many cool hippos hanging out in the water.

Some great termite hills.  (Are they real?  not sure.)

Jainie loved this ride - so many great things to see but no scare factor sitting on Mom's lap.

? Your guess is as good as mine - can't remember - the boys liked the horns.

I love this pic Jared got of a giraffe.  One of Jainie's favorites.

Who doesn't love elephants?  They are so interesting.  Jake pretends his hand
is a trunk daily and picks things up.  Too bad it won't work for getting jobs
done - I've tried it.

These are the craziest birds - flamingos.  They are so beautiful and unique - I love
their color.  But, boy, do they STINK!  Maybe that is their protection?

If you look closely you can see a leopard - I think.  Hanging out behind the rock.

This was pretty cool to see the ostrich eggs.

And, an animal that I am not particularly fond of.  But, Jainie LOVES it!
She even said when she just saw this picture, "That's mine."  What that means
I am not sure but there is definitely a connection there.  Maybe her husband
will be an ostrich farmer?  Let's hope not.

So, after all this, it was time to stop for a treat.  I knew what I wanted - some of these tasty treats.  I had read about them somewhere.  So, we stopped at the 1 place in A.K. that sold them - a brownie paw, a Zebra Cupcake, and a White Chocolate Elephant cupcake.  They were pure deliciousness.  I should really start a food blog - not one of things I make, but of food I like - wouldn't that be great?  Anyway,  they were scrumpditiliumptious!  My favorite was the hmmm - I really couldn't pick just one.  Try them ALL!  We all shared them together - it was just perfect!

 Jainie thought she would LOVE the white chocolate elephant on the top of the cupcake, she didn't like it too much - I think she prefers milk chocolate - smart girl!

We gobbled up our treats as quickly as possible to be able to get to "The Lion King" show.  It is supposed to be the best show there and Jared and I missed it last time because we were doing too many other things and ran out of time.  This time as we walked into the park, a lady stopped us and had us made early reservations so we could have priority seating at the 2:00 performance.  So, we were hurrying to get there.  Gpa, Gma, Ry, and Jake made it there before the rest of us - but we all got in and sat in great seats.  It is a really fun show - with singing, dancing, acrobats, you name it.  Our group was the warthogs so we would put our fingers up to our noses and snort.  Jainie did NOT like our group, she found it to be not only hard to do, but very gross and demeaning.  Next time she is hoping to get in any other group.   In the picture the blurry thing in the background is a bird (well, a girl dressed as a bird) that was hooked to a wire and would spin and spin - she must have been VERY dizzy by the end.  We all loved the show - except Jake and probably Ryan, who was sitting by Jake trying to get him to be quiet and not kick the people sitting around us.  Sorry Ry, thanks for being a trooper.  I am sure both Ry and Jake will enjoy it more the next time they see it.

Right outside the show, there was a meet and greet of Minnie and friends, unfortunately, no one was in the mood to meet anyone.  Everyone was getting tired and hungry for real food.  We did stop to meet Minnie, however, much to Jainie's delight - she and the princesses were the only ones Jainie was "dying" to see.  She and Minnie thought it was so cute that they looked so similar.  This definitely improved Jainie's mood - and made Jake's even worse!

 We had to take a mandatory potty break at this point, which gave Jainie some much needed time to explore on her own and go where she wanted to go.  She loved looking over the bridge  at the cute little figures of Mickey and friends.

 I had bought this little passport book for A.K. thinking it would give the kids something extra to do, in case we got bored.  A.K. has the least amount of things to do out of all the parks.  I did not need to do this; it would be fun, if you had time to do it, but it just caused us more run around time.  While we were trying to find a stamp, Grandma happened upon Pocahontas, who we had never met before.  It was so fun and Jainie loved her hair - so did Josie, she just wasn't as vocal about it.  I wish you could see her hair better, it went clear down to her bum!

Here Josh is modeling in front of the place we went to for lunch.  It was really good - I think the men enjoyed it particularly.  We used the Disney Dining Plan this trip, because it was free if you stayed on-site, which is why we splurged.  The plan we were on had each person have a snack everyday, a quick-service meal, and a full-service meal (sit-down) per day.  That was a LOT of food.  Especially because we are used to sharing and cutting to minimize the crazy Disney cost.  Needless to say, we ate really well.  Jaxon and Josie were both considered adults too, so we had a LOT of food.  I can't remember what everyone ate, but I know Josie and I shared a fruit platter and a salad.  I wanted to save my appetite for desserts!  :)

This cute nameless bird followed us at lunch time hoping to get some scraps.  All he got was chased around by the kids.  All of them were willing to chase him, not catch him though.  It was a great break, I think they all needed some down time.

Jake, like Jaxon, has a hard time not letting others know what he has to eat.  You can see here, he really enjoyed his chocolate mousse he had after his lunch.

At this point, we decided that there was NO way we were going to get everything in.  So, one of my top priorities was getting to watch the "Jingle Jungle Parade,"  pretty much the only Christmas parade in all of DisneyWorld - what a sham!  Good grief it is Christmas!  Anyway, I knew Jainie would love it so I wanted to go.  The other kids were not too excited about a parade.  I knew they would want to go on a ride called, "Dinosaur" that we had skipped before in DinoLand.  So, everyone but Grandma, Jainie and me went to the ride.  We decided to head back over to Africa because Mom saw a shop there she wanted to go to and it was on the parade route.  On the way there, look who we ran into - "Turk" from Tarzan.  Jainie was not about to go meet another animal character by herself - so I got to go with her.  Good times!

 As predicted, Jainie LOVED the parade - seeing the characters was so great, so was the dancing and the cool A.K. float- things.

Both Mickey and Minnie waved right at Jainie.  While watching the parade, we sat by a couple who were drenched!  We avoided the super fun "Kali River Rapids,"  I would have loved to go, but boy, it was too cold for soaking wet.  

The older kids loved their ride and I think rode something else as well.  And, we enjoyed what we did - so all is well.  Although I really like the ride Dinosaur!  Too bad I like too many things - I am WAY too easy to please - or maybe not - since I like to do and see EVERYTHING!

After the parade, we ran over to DinoLand again to catch the "Finding Nemo" show.  It was pretty good too, but "Lion King" was much better.  After we got out of the show, it was dark and everything was closing up.  We didn't even have time to explore the shops.  It was a bummer - I thought, like Disneyland, they would all stay open an hour after the park closed, but no such luck, well, a few did right by the entrance.  But, the really neat ones were all closed.  We still had an hour and a half before we could check in for our dinner reservations, so we decided to check out the "Tree of Life,"  it really is so neat.  We didn't get to the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show inside it, but since we get to see it at Disneyland every time, no one was disappointed.

It was so dark, we couldn't get many good pictures of the tree, but this one turned out great!

As you can see, no one else was even left in the park, I don't know when they kick people out, there were a few workers milling about, emptying trash, etc.  (The magic of Disneyland is just not there - it seems everything happens by ghosts there.  Here, no one cares to hide the manual upkeep of the park - well, better than some, but not like Dland).  So, Josie took the opportunity to get this picture with this cool camel.  Yes, I teach my children to break rules as long as no one is watching.  lol

Another great pic of the tree of life - you can see it, right?

 So, after getting to the front of the park, Grandma and I had to check out the open shops, of course.  Once again, we were the only ones in them.  It was a little eery, walking around with no one else in a dark, Disney park.  Anyway, while I was looking for something memorable - I did get an ornament - Jake and Dad took the opportunity to get some great pics.

Convincing Pirate, eh?  I guarantee you, looks will trick you - he would eat
and attack every one of you, if possible.

Yeah, I don't know how he pulled off this Goofy look - does is so naturally, I guess.

Don't you love his hook - he is so cute - I would've bought him at least one of
these hats, good thing, Jared knows me well, and had him outta here before I saw.

Hmm - not sure about this look - I think he looks better as a blonde!

So, that was the end of our exciting time at Animal Kingdom!  It was a great day!  We loved it!  I didn't see much of Jaxon, as you can tell, he is definitely a teenager.  Good thing he had Ry to hang out with.  But, we all had fun together and hopefully made some great memories cause that is what it's all about!

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!