Friday, January 23

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. It takes me a good two days to recover from a call night. I even took my photo of the day while I was at the hospital. I'll post that photo and others in the next few days. Now back to Disney!

On our last full day at Disney, we got up a little earlier again (which was tough after having stayed up a little later the night before going to Downtown Disney) and got to the park a little after it opened at 9AM. We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, and we had two things we really wanted to do--Toy Story Mania and the "Lights, Motors, Action" show. We knew that we would have to be fast to be able to get to Toy Story Mania. As soon as we got there, we stopped briefly to get a family photo taken in front of Sorcerer Mickey's hat by the Disney Photopass photographer. We then almost ran to the Pixar Studios area to Toy Story Mania. We sent DS#1 to get us some Fast Passes so we could ride again later. The line was so short that we had to let a few people pass in front of us because the Fast Pass line was longer than the actual ride line. The sign said 40 minutes, but really it took only about 30 minutes.

We goofed around in line, taking photos of the kids against the various Toy Story themed decorations. DS#3 was in a great mood and played with my sunglasses and then the 3D glasses for the ride. When we came out of the ride, the line looked even shorter, so we got in line again. Again it took about 30 minutes, so it was only about 10:30 when we came out of the second ride. After riding this second time, my right arm was sore from pulling the "gun" as fast as I could to hit as many targets as I could. DS#2 complained of the same problem, but he was excited because he ended up breaking his personal record. He was all atwitter with excitement as we awaited the rest of the family to finish the ride. He couldn't wait to tell them.

DS#1 really enjoyed the Magic of Disney Animation so we headed over there. During the wait for the next show, we watched a video of different Disney characters being sketched out. The boys enjoyed being able to guess the Disney character after only a few pencil strokes. Only DS#1 and I tried drawing during the show. They showed us step-by-step how to draw Bolt, the new Disney character in the movie also called "Bolt" that is out right now. How do you think our drawings compare? DS#1's drawing is the bigger one on the left and mine is the smaller one on the right.

After that show, it was time for our Fast Passes, so we headed back to Toy Story Mania again. This time DD was so disappointed that once again, she scored the lowest in the family. DS#2 was excited that he scored more than the last time. I was proud of DS#2 trying to comfort his sister (for once) by telling her that he started out with low scores, too. DH and DS#1 always made the highest scores in the family, and DH is amazing because he can score very high even while holding DS#3 with one arm.

We then had lunch and we spent some time at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area again before the 1:20PM showing of "Lights, Motors, Action" stunt show. I got to take some photos this time. Even DS#1 asked me to take this photo of him pretending to hold up a giant cookie. The sun was filtering in, which prevented me from getting a really great photo, but y'all should get the idea.

We all really enjoyed seeing the stunt show. We're big action movie fans. DH is so lucky that I don't make him see chick flicks with me. We saw this show during our last visit, so we knew about some of the gags, but still it was fun to see those cars racing around as if we were watching a real-life movie. We couldn't believe that our big car fanatic, DS#3 actually fell asleep right before the big finale. He had been sitting on DS#1's lap and I noticed his eyes getting really heavy and his head bobbing, so like a dutiful scrapper, I took some photos. He flinched a little when the final explosion made a loud "boom" sound, but he stayed asleep. Amazing show and amazing child!

The kids at this point were more excited about going back to the hotel to play with sand again than they were interested in seeing anything else. We went ahead and shopped a little then headed back. We had snacks in the Concierge Lounge before the kids headed outside. DD even went swimming. It was warm, sunny, and beautiful, so I ended up outside too. I enjoyed just watching them play with each other. DS#3 was so happy playing with his siblings too. DD even found another little girl who wanted to play with her.

We wanted to enjoy the fireworks over Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom one last time. I wanted to get some photos of the fireworks so I went outside. I wasn't as happy with these photos as I was of the photos I was able to take during our last visit, but I at least wanted some reminder of these awesome fireworks that we were able to enjoy. I miss Disney already!