Day 1: Epcot

We started out our week at Epcot since it was supposed to be least busy, and it certainly was. We made great time and didn't have to wait in line more than 15-20 minutes all day and most rides were more like 5. This was the first time we had every used fastpasses, and we were all SOLD on them. Also, the trade-off thing worked well although Jarem was tall enough to go on nearly everything. It was amazing to walk right on a ride when others waited an hour or more on popular rides.

The girls next to the water with the Epcot dome in the background. Tessa was so excited to go on the ride in the dome, "Spaceship Earth" and also to see the castle.

The first ride we rode on was "Test Drive". The idea was that you were test driving a new car, and you tested the speed, brakes, and etc. It is a newer ride at Epcot and a more popular one. It was fun. This picture was while we waited in line for about 5 minutes. One of the keys to not waiting is getting there right when it opens.

At the end of the ride, there was a showroom with cars. Eric has been waiting for the new Camaro to come out ever since he saw Transformers 2. He LOVES this new Camaro.

This was the girls car of choice for their picture.

This is a pretty new ride at Epcot and my absolute favorite of ANY other ride we went on. We got fastpasses and went on this one twice. It is as if you are hang gliding and you soar over mountains, deserts, cities, ocean, etc. You can feel the wind in your face and even smell the pine trees, water, orange groves, etc. You can also hear the sounds. It feels AMAZINGLY real! I think I would love to hang glide. I LOVED it!

Jarem hanging on the bars waiting for one of the rides.

Jesikah waiting in line.

Notice the book sticking out of the top of the backpack...this book, "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2009" we used as a constant reference everyday. I read most of it before we left, and then we carried it everywhere we went. It was extremely helpful. It gives you tips on how to plan, which rides to go first and which to get fastpasses for in order to make the best use of your time and daily schedules for every park. It gives all the info about hotels, food, and describes every ride in detail including rating every ride and giving feedback from people. They even have a "scare" scale for each ride. We would read about each ride while we were waiting in line, and then it gave us something to do and the kids knew what to expect. If there was something that might scare them, we'd let them know ahead of time. It really made it nice. Also, they told which parks would be least busy on which days, so we planned our week accordingly, and it worked great.

Eric and the kids by one of the fountains at Epcot

The kids and I next to the water as we were going into the World Showcase area to visit the countries. We were able to visit some of the countries, but not all of them. I could have liked to go back and visit the rest, but we didn't buy the park hopper and our other days were planned out.

This was in the Canada area, I believe. I loved the buildings and castle here. And, I managed to capture a picture of Alex.

Tessa and Jarem were fascinated with the payphone near Canada. I remember using a lot of these payphones when I went with my family 12+ years ago and Alex was only a few months old. Eric couldn't get off work, so I kept calling him. :)

Tessa trying to slide down the rail, she loves to climb and do adventurous things. She was the most adventurous of anyone. She LOVED all the rollercoasters!

Alex inside the pay phone booth messing around...they were cute booths.

Here he was trying to escape my pictures. While he was in the booth, he was a little trapped! :)

This is one of my favorite pictures, and it was just a quick one-shot sit here type of thing, but it turned out really cute.

Eric making a face.

We wanted to eat at a country while we were there because that is part of the fun at Epcot, so we picked France since it was one of the few that still had openings for reservations the night before. The meal was delicious and it definitely had the feel of France. My favorite part was the creme brulee which is one of my favorite desserts and one that I rarely find.

We even had a special visit from the chef, remember Ratatouille? He moved his face and hands and made squeaking noises. I think we all enjoyed our special visitor..

A closer view of Ratatouille

This was how Jarem looked most of dinner. He started getting an allergic reaction on his face a little while before dinner and it started to get red and splotchy and swell much like what happened last time we went to Florida, so we hurried and found him some Benadryl and washed his face off really good. The Benadryl put him to sleep, and he slept on Eric's lap all through dinner not eating anything. Poor thing. The good news though was, we figured our what caused the reaction. It was a type of sunscreen that is made "especially for faces" that Eric had used on him this time and the last time it happened. We weren't sure before because he had used several different sunscreens that day, but now we are sure, and fortunately we caught it early because he was back to normal in a few hours. The dinner nap worked out good because he wasn't quite so exhausted later.

Jesikah made an autograph book before we left home for her character autographs. She had seen her friend, Ally's autographs when she went to Disneyland and Jesikah was so excited to fill her book. She was always on the lookout for characters. She hadn't gotten any signatures yet, and she kept looking out the windows all through dinner seeing Belle across the way signing autographs. She was so worried she was going to miss her. As soon as dinner was done, we headed out. The beast was with her at one point, but left before we got there. No matter though, Belle was the one she really wanted.

Tessa and Belle

Jesikah with Belle

After dinner, we went to a few more countries including the 9 screen movie in France and the American Adventure, which was a stage play/movie of the history of America. It had very realistic characters that looked real. Jesikah kept leaning over to ask if they were real people.
This is Tessa waiting for the fireworks show to start.

This is a picture of the pagoda in Japan. I thought it was cool, but in order to capture it at night, I had to have a very slow shutter speed to get enough light. Since I don't have a tripod, it resulted in a bit of camera shake, thus the blurriness.

We ended the night with the IllumiNations fireworks show and then headed home. Our legs hurt and we were all exhausted from a long fun day.