The Food!!

One of the greatest things about our Disney vacation is that we got to eat for free!! We signed up at just the right time to get the Disney Dining Plan for free. What a cost saver! We got one full service meal every day (including drink and dessert), one 'fast food' meal a day (including a drink and desert), and one snack every day. Each. And it was totally free.

This meant that we got to eat at some very nice places that we would have otherwise ignored (those of you who know me well know that I would most likely throw some PB & J's in a back pack and buy the kids an ice cream cone as a special treat). Anyway, it felt really good to get a bill for $125, hand over a card, and be charged nothing. All I had to do was leave a tip. Very, very nice.

Below are just some random pictures of people eating. This doesn't even begin to capture the fabulous meals we ate and the fun times we had.

The kids really loved these "Mickey Mooses."





Ginger loved making a mess with these little fruit bars.


She also got a kick out of sampling soda from China in Epcot's "Club Cool."


And that silly Miss Ingrid! Always getting herself in trouble. She stirred up such a ruckus at the Whispering Canyon Cafe' that she had eat her dinner behind bars.



More Disney - Fort Wilderness

While on our vacation, we stayed at the Disney campground - Fort Wilderness. We didn't actually camp - our cabin was air conditioned and had all the amenities of any rental home. It was the perfect place for us. There was enough space for everyone, and we were far enough from our neighbors that we didn't annoy them with all of the noise we make.


There are so many wonderful things about Fort Wilderness. When you return to your cabin at night, it is perfectly quiet - no bustling lobby to walk thru, no glaring lights. The other 'campers' treat you like neighbors. Plus, there is a LOT to do at the campground (much of it free).

We chased and caught lizards, went to a campfire with Chip and Dale, watched Disney movies under the starts, fished, canoed, swam, went to a backyard barbeque with Mickey, and road a ferry boat all over the world.






The little girls look so tired in these pictures! All that fun definitely wore them out!!!








Disney Vacation - The Characters

It has been weeks since we returned from our Disney vacation. 8 nights and 9 days at my favorite place on earth. I have planned this vacation for years. I think that I spent more time researching for this vacation than I did for my graduate thesis!

Anyway, I've had writer's block (or blogger's block) about this vacation. I'm not sure why that is - maybe because I have no way of capturing the magic we experienced every day in a single blog.
Maddie and I kept a journal together throughout the trip, and I will cherish that for years to come.

In the mean time, I wanted to get these pictures up. The pictures below are all the pictures with characters. You will notice that they are mostly Ginger and CoCo. Maddie was too busy to stand in line to see any of them, and Owen picked a strange time to become camera shy. I will say that the highlight of the little girls' trip was seeing the princess; and the highlight of mine was watching them see the princesses.