A truly magical time...

Wow... I can't believe our Disney trip, that we anticipated for so long and enjoyed every single second of, is OVER.  We're unpacked, the clothes are washed and life is back to normal.  What a whirlwind!  We had THE BEST TIME.  Mom loved her first trip to Disney -- I think it even exceeded her expectations.  :-)  We rode EVERYTHING just about... ALL of us!  It was awesome!  Matthew and Maddie will try anything now (OK, almost anything - Maddie had no intentions of getting on "Haunted Mansion" but the rest of the gang rode it!).  The fact that we have a guest assistance pass (thank you, Matthew!), we were able to bypass most of the lines... which is more awesome than words can say.  At first I felt a little bit guilty, because at this point he CAN wait in line.  Then I remembered our speech pathologists admonition years ago (when even then he could wait in line):  our life is filled with challenges that other people don't have to deal with on a daily basis... so take this gift and enjoy it.  Enjoy it we did!!  I have to remember that outsiders never see the whole story... and what a story they are missing out on!


We rode so much that we got too tired to do daily updates, so here's the summary... by park (not including what I wrote about already - hopefully):

Magic Kingdom:  We spent two days at MK.  Space Mountain is a definite new favorite - I laughed until I had tears coming out of my eyes from listening to Mom's bursts of screams on that ride.  We also love as much as ever Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain.  We were able to check out some of the new Fantasyland, including Enchanted Tales with Belle... very cool.  Maddie was Maurice in jail.  :-)  We love the Laugh Floor and Mickey's Philharmagic, too.  We stayed the first night for the Electric Lights Parade, which was magical for us all but especially for Mom.  We left before the fireworks because they were still a while a way and we were exhausted.  The food we ate their was awesome:  Tony's (Italian) and Liberty Square Tavern (home cooking - delicious pot roast!!)

EPCOT:  We had originally planned on 3 days here, but after riding the amazing new-to-us rides at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, we decided to pick one of those for a repeat.  At Epcot, our favorite BY FAR is Soarin.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it, and so did mom, as we knew she would.  We even got lucky and had the "best" seats 3 out of the 4 times we rode it!  No feet dangling above us.  :-)  We also enjoyed the new and improved Test Track... and the friendly rivalry that the SimCar adds.  We were in two teams (always boys vs girls), and you get to digitally design a car, choosing specs to maximize various testing criteria like efficiency, power, responsiveness and one more.  Then as your ride the ride, it grades your simcars.  The boys ALWAYS won!  The last time we thought we had them - we had an incredibly powerful car, and they had an incredibly efficient car... and they beat us overall by 1 point!!  We got robbed!! ;-)  Other things we love at Epcot are Space Ship Earth, Norway's ride, dessert in France (ooh la la), Living with the Land, Mission Space (we all did orange this year, although I vow NOT to do it again - even with dramamine I was praying hard NOT to hurl).  As for the night show (Illuminations - AMAZING!!), it stormed our first night (the lightening was illuminating on it's own!), but we were able to catch it the second night we were there and it lived it up to our expectations.  It's my favorite of Disney's night shows.  Epcot also has some of our favorite eating... not just dessert.  We love the Mexican restaurant inside the Mayan ruins, and we ate at the Nemo and Friends aquarium restaurant.  YUM!!!  We would've eaten in Japan (hibachi) our third day, but we changed plans and went to Hollywood Studios for a 2nd day.

Animal Kingdom:  We finally got to ride Expedition Everest, and we loved it so much, we rode it FOUR times!!  It was absolutely incredible!!!  Of course we also loved "It's Tough to be a Bug", the safari and the white water ride (the name escapes me).  We (adults) wimped out and put on our ponchos.  ;-)  We also watched the afternoon parade.  We ate a delicious lunch at the Yak and the Yeti -- YUM!!

Hollywood Studios:  Where to begin!!!  We made a beeline for Tower of Terror, and even though Maddie cried a little in line, she LOVED it and begged to ride again when it was over.  :-)  We rode it a total of 4 times I think.  We also loved the Rockin Roller Coaster - talk about something taking your breath away!  It starts out SO fast that I couldn't catch my breath!  Wild and FUN!  I think we rode it four times, too!  Other highlights here were the stunt shows, especially "Lights, Motors, Action".  We saw that both days, and the 2nd day, Maddie got chosen to "drive" the remote control car!  She even got a special pin (and both Matthew and Maddie collect and trade pins)!!  The Back Lot Tours is fun, too, and the Beauty and the Beast show was INCREDIBLE.  It rained BOTH nights we were at Hollywood Studios, so we never did get to see Fantasmic, their night show.  We enjoyed fun dining while we were there though!  We ate at Mom's Diner (which has a different name now), but the waiters and waitresses are hilarious.  They make you set the table, keep your elbows off, etc, etc.  Fun AND delicious.  The last day we ate at the Sci-Fi Drive In - truly awesome!!!  Poor Maddie felt a little nauseous for the first bit we were there, but it passed and she was fine.

Tropical Storm Andrea popped in while we were there, but all in all, the weather wasn't too big of a hindrance.  It never really kept us from doing anything, except for the night shows and swimming on our day off.  Our day off was still awesome, though.  We walked around Downtown Disney and then spent the evening with Amy, my college roommate and close friend.  Maddie gave lots of massages that night.  The girl is GOOD!!

We also enjoyed looking for hidden Mickey's - it's like geocaching! Matthew bought a book with clues as one of his souvenirs, and that really helped us step up our game!  That and pin trading add a nice twist once of you've been to Disney a few times.