Catching Up - November part 1 (Disney World)

First, let me apologize for falling so far behind on the blog.  Right about the time that Eric, Marcus and I met in Orlando, I started having computer trouble.  I didn't want to download all of the pictures to the computer if it wasn't going to work, so I waited until we decided what to do.  Now, we have a new computer and I can catch up for the last 3 1/2 months before the baby comes and I get behind again.

The biggest event during the month of November was Eric's R&R.  Basically, that's a two-week period where the Army releases him from Iraq and will send him anywhere in the world that he wants to go.  We decided to meet him in Orlando for a couple of reasons.  One, we didn't want him to have to bear the entire travel burden.  Meeting in the middle enabled us to have a little more time together.  Another reason we chose to meet in Orlando was to make it a vacation for all of us.  I didn't want to be distracted by my daily routine and responsibilities back here while he was home and I also didn't want anybody in Iraq getting the bright idea to have him go in to work for a few days while he was here (yes, that happens).  The final reason we chose to go to Orlando was Disney World and cheap cruises.  We've gone together a couple of times and wanted to share it with Marcus. 

Below are the highlights from our wonderful trip.

We started with a week in a high-rise condo just outside of Disney World.  It was located on Lake Bryan, which gave us beautiful sunrises every morning.  We had 4-day Park Hopper tickets, and 5 days to use them, so we spent Eric's first day relaxing at the condo. 

The sunrise from our balcony

Marcus and Eric getting reacquainted

The next day was spent at Disney MGM Studios.  We wanted to ease into the whole Disney experience and knew this park had less rides than the rest of them.  Marcus' favorite area was of course the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area.

Riding the Disney shuttle to the park.

Checking out the huge mushrooms

That's a really big dog! Good thing Kimber's nose isn't that big.

Now that's a can of Play-Doh.
Although, Marcus was much more interested in playing with the water nearby.

Sliding down a lung.
 Marcus got really good at slides by the time we were done with this trip.

Looking at the WWII planes on the backlot tour.

 Our second Disney day was spent at Epcot followed by a Monorail ride to Magic Kingdom.  We really had no reason to take the monorail as Epcot took us all day, but we wanted to ride it once while we were there and figured this was as good a day as any.

Marcus and Eric exploring the fire truck

Waiting for the monorail to Magic Kingdom

 We didn't take many pictures this day as we were busy actually doing stuff.  The next day found us at Animal Kingdom.  This was probably our most active park as there was a ton of stuff for Marcus to do and while Marcus was napping, Eric was able to go on the big rides, like Everest and Dinosaur.

We started with the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride to see all of the animals that Disney has to offer.

All ready to leave on our safari.  Yes, for us warm weather folks, it was cold enough for sweatshirts.  I actually had not planned for this possibility, so we had to run by Walmart and buy sweatshirts for everybody.

A baby and mommy giraffe.  This giraffe was only two months old.

A family of elephants

Next we headed off to Dinoland while Eric waited for his Expedition Everest fast-pass time to come up.

Getting ready to go on TriceraTop Spin

Checking out the sights from up in the air on TriceraTop Spin

Going down a slide in the Boneyard

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

For some reason Daddy thought it would be fun to play in the water when we were already cold

Playing in the sand at the big dig

Marcus is so good at sharing

Once Eric had gone on Expedition Everest and Dinosaur, we headed over to Rafiki's Planet Watch which has a petting zoo and some other conservation exhibits.  The best part was the ride on the train over there.

Waiting for the train

Let's Go!!

Petting some pygmy goats

Look, Mommy was actually there too!

The last day at Disney World was spent at Magic Kingdom.  This was another day with not very many pictures because we were so busy going on rides.

My two boys on the carousel

Crawling through a tunnel on Tom Sawyer's Island

Crossing the barrel bridge, it sure was wobbly!

Marcus' favorite attraction of the whole week.  Just kidding, but he did spend a long time playing on this rock.

Daddy showing Marcus how to protect the fort

Waiting in line for Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride

Here we go!

On the Jungle Cruise

Wow, I feel like I just relived that week trying to get it on the blog.  I was planning on posting all of November in this post, but since it took me so long to get this week up, I'll have to do it in parts.  Next up?  Our 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.