Mouse House

We met Aunt Sis down here in Florida to enjoy a vacation together. (Aunt Sis is Lane's sister and you can see her in the photo to the left.) We are currently in Orlando, which we have heard being called the "Mouse House". We are beginning to see why. Those famous Mickey ears are everywhere!

Yesterday we enjoyed a day at the Epcot Center in Walt Disney World. "Epcot is where the magic of Disney comes together with the wonders of the real world" or so the Disney brochure says. Basically the front section is the "future world" where technology is highlighted in several different exhibits. The rest of the park is a walk through eleven nations, where we were able to enjoy dinner in China and dessert in France.

We really enjoyed the "turtle talk with Crush" show (he's that cool turtle from Finding Nemo). I don't know how they did it but it really felt like we were just hanging out and talking with a turtle. He was quite funny and I must admit that I find myself saying "righteous" a bit more now.

The boys loved being able to meet and hug Mickey and his friends. Click here for photos of that fun interchange. Matt had a grin from ear to ear as he met each one.

At the end of the day we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks and fire display. Moriah was way too tired to appreciate it (it was a long day even though we did take a napping break at Aunt Sis' hotel), Matt was trying to figure out how to get closer to the action through the fence, and J.D. said "that startled me" when the booms sounded right in front of him. It was cool!

We decided to hold off on visiting any of the other theme parks (there are FOUR theme parks just inside Walt Disney World as well as several others here like Sea World and Universal Studios). However, one park was fun and exhausting enough! Even J.D. asked repeatedly to just go back to our hotel so that he could play with the bug he had found the night before. So today we are relaxing at the hotel, playing with bugs, trying to catch lizards, enjoying the pool and watching Disney channel (told you that mouse is everywhere).

We will be heading down to Miami tomorrow to explore some more of this interesting state.