Family, day 2.

Today I woke up early - to the smell of bacon and eggs and the sound of my family. What a great start to the day! :)

We left the house around 8am to head right to Hollywood Studios for opening - we wanted to get onto Toy Story Mania before the line got to it's normal 2 hour wait time. It's a 3D shooter game where you 'throw' pies/darts/paintballs etc. at point targets and whomever has the most points at the end wins. It's easily the most popular ride in HS which is why the ride line is so long all day. The fast passes are generally gone by noon or so. But we were in for a treat - my cast ID got us past the parking gate for free, and Dad's VIP pass had us right up front again. We were actually into the park by 8:40am, and grabbing fast passes by 8:45 and hopping right in line. The line itself was only a ten-minute wait and so we hopped right into that as well.

It was a blast - even the queue was only as Disney does things - decked out to the nines and fun to just walk through! I beat everyone but Daddy on that round, with a total of 128,000 + :) After we were done, it wasn't even park opening yet! It was only just 9am and so we went up to see what the line was like for Rockin' Roller Coaster - but it was broken down and so the line was insane. We headed back towards the center of the park and went on The Great Movie Ride - a tour through some classic films. It was great! And not even Mom had ever been on it before so it was an adventure for all of us! :) We then went over to the Star Wars area (where I thought everyone wanted to go on Star Tours. But I guess not, so we skipped it!) and went into Tatooine Traders! Mom bought her Mashter Yoda Potato Head and we loved looking around at all the merch :)

We then split up for a few minutes - Daniel and I ran to Rocking Roller Coaster to get fast passes because we could get more starting at 10am while the rest of the family went back to Toy Story Mania. Daniel and I made record time and we got the passes for a come back time of 11am... which was perfect! On the way back to the family we stopped in Starring Rolls cafe to get two cinnamon rolls we could split with the rest :)

We met them back down at TSM and enjoyed the rolls and got back in line. The fast pass line looked really long, but the beauty of fast passes is that you speed right through. We spent less time in the line the second time! (Can I just mentioned how crazy it is to get on TSM twice with a combined wait of less than 20 minutes? That's insane. This ride is normally 120+ minutes. Yeah.) It was just as much fun the second time around - again Dad beat everyone and I came second; even beat my score from earlier! When we finished, we meandered through stores on our way to RRC and just took our time generally avoiding heat and walking slowly in air conditioned areas.

Becca and Daniel waited in the store near RRC while Mom, Dad and I used our fastpasses to get into line. We waited hardly anytime at all and before I knew it, Dad and I were strapped in beside each other with Mom behind us. Mom had done it before last time we did Disney - but that time, Dad waited with Becca! He seemed to enjoy his first EVER experience with an upside down rollercoaster. I know I loved it, as always :)

We came out just in time to head for seats at Beauty and the Beast! I know it was not high on Dad and Daniel's lists of things to do, but Mom and Becca were excited (and, of course, so was I!) and the show was good as ever. The normal Belle was out and fantastic, and the good Gaston (the one with the real muscles and a voice straight from the movie!) was there as well. Round 7 was just as wonderful as round 1!

After the show, we worked our way towards the entrance of the park, in and out of shops and shade. Instead of going to the car, we actually got on the boat headed for Epcot and got off at the Yacht and Beach clubs. My family was excited to see 'home' again! The restaurant we'd planned to eat at had a 30-45 minute wait, and we were hungry. So, instead we went to the small shop inside the beach club (it pays to have prior knowledge of these places!) and ordered lunch from there. I had a salad, but the family's sandwiches were also delicious. I also ordered the most beautiful chocolate peanut butter cupcake... which was just about good enough to have me pass out. Heaven in food form. Yummmmmm.

We got back on the boat after a recharge of food and cool air and  headed back to HS where the car was. We headed home after a short walk to the vehicle and arrived home in no time at all. Let me tell you, I am in awe of my family. It's been a long 7 weeks with people who just don't understand the meaning of 'valuable time' (thanks to Natalie and Emily, who do!). And by valuable time, I simply mean go to the parks early do do what you want to do before it gets busy so you can come home in the hottest part of the day and read, or swim, or chill or nap.

I napped, of course. I think we all did. It was wonderful though! At around supper time none of us were hungry from our sleepiness and late lunch, so we headed to Downtown Disney! It was much more crowded than we anticipated, so we split up for an hour to go where we wanted instead of trying to drag all five of us to three different spots. I love being grown up.

We met back at the Lego store - Mom and I successfully visited most of the Marketplace shops and found several of the trading pins needed for my alphabet set. We all felt like we'd seen enough for the day so got back in the car and went to Chik-fil-A for supper! It was delicious, although I wasn't very hungry. But it was my first trip there and so I quite agreed with all the hype I'd been hearing.

After that, we took a quick drive up the main road so Mom could take a trip down memory lane - trying to find the hotel where the four of us stayed on our first Disney trip. We weren't successful, but it was a fun little trip that ended at a bargain store where Mom pointed out that we could "find bargains" ;)

We didn't spend long because tomorrow is going to be a LONG day at Epcot, and we're all pretty drained from the heat and the going. Here's hoping it rains a bit to cool everything down! Four of us went to the pool for a bit and then Dad and Dano and I looked up pins sets on google to see what we're missing. Good 'ol bonding time with the famjam. I missed these hams.

Tomorrow is Mom and Dad's 26th anniversary! I couldn't be more proud or impressed or happy :) Thanks for being wonderful parents, guys. <3 I love you!