Disney: Day 3

We headed to Epcot....but not before some goofing off in our hotel gift shop first.

I always thought that Epcot was one of the coolest places ever when I was younger.  There are always a lot of people there but it's nothing like the Magic Kingdom.  There is plenty of room to move around and you don't have to rush to do anything.  Slow and steady at Epcot, just the way we like it.  Of course Ivy became impatient some because there weren't as many rides and it's not really catered to kids.

The first thing we did was ride Spaceship earth. Chris and I thought it was really cool and Ivy had her moments with it but overall I don't think she was impressed. Then we rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Ivy loved it. It was really cute. Also in the Nemo area is something called Turtle Talk with Crush. It was hands down one of the cutest things they have. You go into a small theater and the adults sit on benches and all the kids sit on the floor right in front of the movie screen. Then Crush from Finding Nemo comes swimming up and starts to interact with all the kids. He talks to them and answers all of their questions. It was really cool to watch how his facial expressions would change when he got asked questions. Ivy was laughing so hard!!! And when she was laughing it was one of those laughs that is contagious and she had all the adults laughing at her more than Crush.

Blurry but fun!

Then we went to Mexico. We had lots of fun there!  We ate a quick service meal in Mexico that was amazing.  Most of you know that quick service isn't the best food at Disney but the one in Mexico was just as good as some of the sit down meals we had during the week.  Then we rode the Gran Fiesta tour starring the Three Caballeros which was quite entertaining and Ivy loved it!

Then we headed over to China which was pretty cool as well. Ivy was kind of board but they give all the kids a bear that they can color when you get to the World Showcase and then they can take it around to all the different countries and get it stamped like a passport.

Then we continued through the world showcase and Chris stopped to take this picture and as you see some major rain clouds were coming in.....then it poured rain for well over an hour and we were stuck. We got stuck in Italy and we were forced to stand right outside of a perfume store. I could barely stand it the smell was so strong.

We had a character dinner scheduled for the Garden Grill so when it finally stopped pouring buckets we ran to the dock to ride the Ferry back over to the other side of Epcot.  When we got over to the other side it didn't look like it had even rained over there.

I just have to go ahead and say that the food at this restaurant was probably the best we had all week.  It was amazing and the restaurant itself rotated while you were eating so the view was always changing.  Such a cool place and the characters here were AMAZING!  They were cutting up with Ivy so much and she was just eating it up!  Chip and Dale may be her new favorites.

I know this picture is blurry but I had to add it anyway. Dale would not quit tickling and pinching Ivy and she was in hysterics! She tried to tickle him back and he knocked over one of our drinks when he jumped back and it went every where. Ivy screamed "Oh No!" I guess she thought we were going to be upset since she was playing at the table. When she realized that we weren't mad she started giggling and said "You silly Dale! You spilled the drink!" Then Dale acted embarrassed and she handed him a napkin and instructed him to clean it up.

Then Chip decided to feed her dessert and she thought that was the silliest thing!

And Pluto gave her some nose lovin'.

We were moving kind of slow after dinner so we spent a little while in a store called Mouse Ears. I think it probably has to be the biggest store on the whole Disney property. It just kept going and going and Ivy had a lot of fun just playing around in there. She even got her own pair of personalized mouse ears.

Then we passed through a tunnel to on our way to see Journey Into Imagination with Figment and you could see through the glass that Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy were all lined up for kids to meet them. Ivy freaked out and wanted to go in there right away but she had already met Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto and the wait time was 45 minutes. We convinced her that there was other fun stuff to do besides meet characters. So we agreed that when we were leaving the park if they were still there and the line wasn't too long then we would let her go in and meet them.

Well.....everything at Epcot closes early so we didn't get to do Journey Into Imagination. We knew that Ivy was too tired to hang around for the fireworks so we turned around to head back to the hotel and we had to pass through that tunnel again. The wait was still listed as 45 minutes and we REALLY didn't want to wait but we also didn't want to break a promise to Ivy. We had nothing else to do and we were at Disney World for her after all.



I don't know how we don't have a picture of her with Mickey from this but we don't. But she did the exact same thing with each character...When it was her turn she would yell their name..."MICKEY!" Then she would run up to them and jump to a stop and give them a high five then she would pose for a picture and then hug them. Then she would RUN back to us and jump to a stop and then give her Daddy a high five and tell me "That was SO GREAT Mommy!" And in between each character while she was waiting her turn she was dancing! She seriously danced the entire time.

Then I got my picture with Goofy because we were there and he was always my favorite as a kid.  Ivy fell into hysterics when I kissed him and he acted like he was going to fall over.

Then when we finished Ivy got in the stroller, we packed up the camera and camcorder and headed towards the gate. Ivy got very still in her stroller and I made the comment to Chris that I bet she would pass out before we got to the gate. Chris stopped pushing the stroller so that he could lay the seat back for Ivy to lay down. And then the greatest moment of all time happened....Ivy planted her feet on the rubber bar that connected the two front wheels and she stood up, raised her arms above her head and she yelled "I LOVE THIS PLACE!" Chris and I started to laugh because it made us feel like the 30 minute wait was worth it. But Ivy didn't just stop there. She stood up again and yelled "I LOVE YOU EPCOT!" Now she really had us laughing.....we started pushing the stroller again and for the next ten minutes Ivy proceeded to do that over and over.

"I LOVE YOU DISNEY WORLD!"
"I LOVE YOU MOMMY!"
"I LOVE YOU DADDY!"
"I LOVE YOU MICKEY MOUSE!"
"I LOVE YOU CINDERELLA!"

That went on and on and then when she ran out of things to yell she started adding in random things that she was seeing as we pushed the stroller.

"I LOVE YOU MOON!"
"I LOVE YOU STORE!"
"I LOVE YOU CHRISTMAS TREE!"
"I LOVE YOU LIGHTS!"
"I LOVE YOU MONORAIL!"

I really wanted to get the video camera out to record her but Chris wouldn't let me. He said that only we were meant to see this. And he was right. So it was just us (and the hundreds of other Disney visitors) that got to experience Ivy having an epiphany while exiting Epcot.

When we got down to the gate we stopped and sat down. Ivy was running around screaming about how much she loved everything and I was over come with emotion because of how wonderful it made me feel to see her so happy. I cried a little and Chris just put his arm around me. And then I said "I am so exhausted but I feel like I should run through the street right now yelling I am the greatest Mom ever!"