Florida Holiday--Day Eight

Friday morning we got up early. Everyone gathered in the kitchen for coffee. Then German went and got the girls up. He brought them into the kitchen. It took them a few minutes to process that we had new people. Finally Jewel lit up in a smile and ran to hug Grandad, followed by Uncle J and Dix. Flower needed more time to wake up before she was very demonstrative.




They really had no clue that the family was joining us. It was such a fun surprise!

Finally everyone was really awake and dressed and ready to go. We headed off for a day in EPCOT.

The flower and garden show was going on at EPCOT and we enjoyed looking at all the flowers and topiaries.


We got fastpass passes for the Test Track and then went to the Mars simulator. Flower was too little so she and I went to the play area at the exit while everyone else rode the non-spinning side. It was convincing enough that Jewel wasn't sure where she was when it was over! From there we went back to the Test Track. Dix decided that her stomach couldn't handle test track after going to Mars so she stayed back with Flower while I went with the others.

It was a blast! Jewel thought it was the coolest!

Then we went exploring in World Showcase. It was already hot that day, so our first stop was for ice tea in Mexico. We explored the other countries and finally stopped for lunch in Germany. Along the way, the girls met Snow White and got her picture and autograph.


We listened to the "Beatles" in the UK and heard a story in China.


We did the movies in France and in Canada--a way to get out of the sun for a little while.


We finished "traveling the world" and were headed to "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" when the clouds began to look ominous. We managed to get in before the rain came. And the rain did come! It was still coming down hard when the show ended. We made a run for the next building so the girls could see the Lion King/environmental awareness movie. By the time it ended, the rain had stopped. It was time for us to say good-bye to EPCOT.

We then took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and then the boat across to Wilderness Lodge.

We had dinner reservations that evening at Whisperin' Canyon. Wow! The food was awesome. The antics were hilarious. The girls loved it when they asked for crayons and kids from every table brought them one crayon each.

They also loved it when they got to take one crayon to someone else! The men in our group suddenly decided it was time to go when all the men in the restaraunt were called up to sing "I'm a little teapot." Spoilsports!

We got down to the boat dock just in time to see the SpectroMagic parade go by.


Then we could see the beginning of Wishes Fireworks as we got on the monorail to go back to EPCOT to our car. We would have stayed, except we had to get to the airport. My step-sister was arriving from Texas at that very time. The girls fell asleep in the car, so they did not fully comprehend that Amy had come too until the next day. Too funny!


We were showing Amy the house and somehow the topic of snakes came up. Amy said that she "couldn't stand snakes." Her room was the "animal kingdom" room in the villa. I had not noticed it before, but a six foot plush snake was trailed through the head board of her bed. It was hilarious. We decided to remove the snake for the duration of her visit. The girls would enjoy playing with it the rest of the trip.


We all went to bed with strict instructions that we were leaving the house at 730 a.m. to go to Kennedy Space Center.