The Happiest Place On Earth

And looks like I'll have nothing to show for it, at least not for awhile!!! But we'll get to that in a minute...
Our trip started last week on July 3rd when we arrived in Tampa, FL at Nonni and Papa's house. We were collected by Nonni and Aunt Tracey (my Aunt, Hailey's GREAT Aunt) a little late, I suppose in their defense Southwest did get us there a little early; none the less we made it! We got to spend the day and evening with lots of family; Aunt Lisa, Great Aunties Linda and Tracey, Great Uncles Jamie and James and cousins Scott, Jack and Anthony . . . one big ol' Scottish family reunion :) Early the next day we took off for none other than the Happiest Place On Earth. Day one was obviously spent at the Magic Kingdom...Aunt Lisa purchased Mickey ears for all the kiddos (big hit) and our evening was spent walking Disney's Boardwalk and watching fireworks in the distance at Epcot. Day two, Disney's Hollywood Studios and my favorite attraction, The Tower of Terror . . . I wish I had a pictures of my Aunt and Uncle's faces on the ride because they were priceless! Sheer Terror :) Day three, Disney's Animal Kingdom ... must say the new attraction Expedition Everest was a good thrill! That evening we spent at Epcot watching Illuminations and pigging out on lots of international fare. Tuesday (Day 4) was low key . . . I drove the rental back to Tampa to drop off Uncle James who flew home to Scotland and that evening we all ventured out to Downtown Disney for some dinner and dessert ... mmmm! Day 5, Typhoon Lagoon; I must say waterparks are a very different experience with a toddler! Rather than spending the day on slides and in the wave pool I splashed around Ketch-a-Kiddie Creek and, as it were, had a blast doing so! Who knew?! Day 6, Epcot in the morning -- rode the new attraction Soarin' which was amazing -- and then went to Magic Kingdom to tie up some loose ends -- collect some important signatures for Scott and Jack, can we say Mickey Mouse?!, ride some more rides and watch the Spectro Magic Parade and fireworks. Day 7, our final day, was spent at Blizzard Beach . . . this time I got to splash around Tike's Peak, not quite as exciting as Ketch-A-Kiddie Creek, but fun none the less.
Thanks to Karl's wonderful service to our country, and Disney's appreciation of that, we were able to get a 5 day park hopper with water parks included for only $150 -- for me that is, his ticket was totally free! Gotta love the military perks...we got to take our family for the same rate, and we even saved a day on our tickets to go back at Thanksgiving; which coincidental is my birthday . . . and as the nice man working at the ticket booth told me, if I come on my birthday AND have time left on my pass then they will give me a $75 gift card to spend at the parks (since they are currently running their "free on your birthday" promo, if I already have entrance then I get a free gift card -- can't beat that!)
Now to the question on everyone's mind, WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!! Wellllll, someone (names being withheld to protect those guilty) left the card reader from the camera in the computer drive, and rather than downloading the photos, like any normal person might, he (I mean they) just viewed the pix and left the card in the drive. WELL, typical weather in middle Tennessee, we got thunderstorms this evening and when the power went out the computer shut off and some how killed my disk; now it claims it needs reformatted which cannot be done with out erasing the contents of the disk -- so I can't do anything unless I reformat; and if I reformat I loose everything -- grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! Thankfully my Uncle James is a photography NUT and has something in the region of 2,000 pictures; half of which are from our trips to the parks! So as soon as he can burn me some disks I'll be sure to upload some of our memories from the Happiest Place On Earth . . . Until then you'll just have to picture it for yourselves ;) XOXO

AND P.S. If anyone is planning a trip to Disney with their kiddos and needs any advice or info please let me know . . . we got a whole book (literally) on doing Disney with kids -- it was a LIFESAVER. So much of the "kiddie" stuff I missed last time I went with Karl and it was really worth it this time :) The smiles were priceless (although I'd payu just about anything to be able to get those priceless memories off my camera . . . but I'm not blaming!) . . .