THIS IS MY LIFE: November 2013

Let me just start off by saying that EPCOT is so freaking cool. I'm a travel nut, and it was like traveling to a ton of different countries in one day and getting to experience the cultures of each. We spent quite a bit of time at the front of the park with all of the space stuff and I wish we had headed to the countries earlier, because I didn't get to see all of them! I missed out on the UK and Canada. I was a little bit devastated. But it was still amazing!

We took the monorail to the park which we were excited about because the kid's had been wanting to go on the monorail! It was pretty fun looking out the window and being that high up. Once we got to the park entrance we saw the big EPCOT ball. I have no clue what it's called, but we were excited! I had no idea that there was a ride inside of it! It was actually pretty cool. It's basically all about innovation and how technology has changed the world. You go through the whole ride with a narrator (Judy Dench) and watch the people of the world throughout history learn various things that change the future. It was interesting! After that, we went to this area that had a bunch of cool scientific tests and games. The kids loved them, especially Kian! They could have spent all day there. Then, we got some lunch at the Electric Umbrella. Once we were nice and full, we went to see the Finding Nemo musical and the kids liked it a lot! It was interesting how they made it seem like an ocean and how they did the costumes. I wasn't a huge fan of the music though! But that's just me being a snooty music nerd! After that, we split up for a bit and my Mom and I headed over to the countries, while my Dad and the kids checked out a ride. The first country was Mexico. It was really cool. They had a cute little Mexican restaurant area and this really amazing ancient Mayan type pyramid that when you walked inside, was like a little market place! There was the 3 caballeros ride inside where you got in these little boats and floated on the water. There was a beautiful little restaurant inside as well! The cool thing about the countries at EPCOT, is that the people who work in each country area are actually from that country! It makes it feel really authentic! We then walked over to Norway! There was a big Norse building built out of wood that looked like it was from the Viking times! There was also a ride that I wish we had gone on, but we missed out on because of the wait! My Dad and the kids were able to go on it though, and they said it was fun! Inside of one of the buildings there was a huge norse-style troll! It was really big, I had to take a picture of it!

The next country we walked to was China. The buildings were amazing. There was a cute Chinese garden outside of the building. I think this one was the country with the biggest gift shop, it was huge! I wanted to get a Chinese fan, but decided to save my money for something else! We then headed over to Germany! It was really cute. There was SO MUCH chocolate in their gift shops! And a lot of beer steins haha. I was looking around to see if they had the kind of chocolate that I ate while I was in Prague, Austria, and Germany in 2007! They had some of the brands that I remember seeing, but I couldn't eat most of the treats! This is when I had an embarrassing moment. I was looking at the back of the chocolate bars to see if they had any wheat in them, but the ingredients were written in German. So I grabbed a bar and took it to the check out and asked a couple of ladies if they could translate it for me. So they looked at the back and searched to see if it had wheat in it. After about 30 seconds, one of the girls handed it back to me and said, "It's written in English." Of course, the ONE bar that had English on it, I had to take to the German girls to translate. I'm pretty sure they thought I was stupid. Haha. There was also a candy shop in the Germany area that was completely dedicated to caramel. It was a caramel wonderland! They also had a really cute restaurant where you could dine with the Disney princesses for dinner. But that was one of the uber expensive Disney restaurants. There was also a cute little town square with a clock that would chime and little people would pop out and chase each other! Kind of like the clock in Prague! It was a really cute area.

The next country made me VERY happy. It was Italy! Those of you who know me, know I love all things Italian. It's my dream vacation and I have been attempting to learn the language for a few years now. I wanted to stay there for a long time! The architecture was very cool and there was a huge obelisk (which I learned about from the movie "Angels and Demons" haha) at the front of the square. We watched a little comedy show put on by these three Italian sisters, and then looked around to see if there was a restaurant we could eat at for dinner. Everything was really expensive though! I was bummed, I really wanted to eat dinner in Italy! There wasn't a ton of shopping we could do in Italy though, because it was mostly a winery and a store with expensive clothes and perfumes! It was still really cool though. I just wanted to sit and make all the people working there speak to me in Italian haha. After that, my Mom and I met up with my Dad and the kids and we went to the next country, which was America. It was pretty cool. They modeled it like 1700's Philadelphia. Inside, there was a movie/animatronic show about the American dream. I was happy because when President Bush was mentioned he got more claps then when Obama was mentioned! Haha. We grabbed some dinner in the American area and there was this adorable lady celebrating her 100th birthday! So, all of us in the restaurant sang to her! After dinner, my Mom and I stopped to get some pins (which I haven't talked about really!). So, at Disneyworld (I assume it's the same at Disneyland) you can swap pins with the cast members. I thought a lanyard and some pins was a pretty cool Disney souvenir, so that's what I spent most of my money on! My favorite of the bunch of pins I bought was my Peter Pan pin (which I only saw at ONE gift area out of the billions of gift areas at Disney) and my mickey Boston Red Sox baseball pin! I WAS SO HAPPY WHEN I FOUND IT!

After we had experienced America (lol) we went to Morocco. We skipped over Japan because it was a lot like China. I wish we hadn't though. Morocco's architecture was cool, but we didn't spend much time there because we wanted to see France! The one cool thing that happened in Morocco was that Ella got to dance with a belly dancer! One of the many things I love about Ella is that she is so outgoing! She danced more than anyone else while we were at Disney! It was so cute to watch her out there following all the dance steps and trying to belly dance! She had a lot of fun. After that, we sped over to Paris! This was the coolest area to me! All the buildings were gorgeous and so cool! I think this area was the biggest. I felt like I was in Ratatouille! There was this cute ice cream/gelato shop that had the yummiest stuff! We grabbed some and sat in the street area at a cute café table! The next place we went to was the UK but by this time it was dark and they were about to start the fireworks show, so we only got to see a little bit of it! I was bummed! We looked around for a good place to sit to watch the fireworks show on the water!

We didn't have a ton of room but we were able to find a little spot! It was so cute, the ducks on the water all came up to the grass to be away from the danger of the fireworks! They must be used to it, because they put the show on every night! I cuddled up with Ella, my Dad cuddled up with Kian, and my Mom sat on the railing, and we all watched the show. It was VERY cool! Like I've said before, if you haven't seen a Disney fireworks show then you don't know what real fireworks shows look like! I didn't want to leave, but unfortunately we had to after the show was over! The park was closing and I didn't get a chance to look at the last two countries! It was still really cool and one of my favorite parks at Disneyworld! We had such a great day, but were ready to head back to the hotel and get a good night's rest! Oh! Also, we met Goofy and Sleeping Beauty!