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While Disney World is awesome, it’s not the only bit of fun in the Orlando area. So, Saturday we chose to leave Disney World for the day to try out a different park - Legoland. Since the girls love Legos so much, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out while in town.

To get there, we rented a car from the Car Care Center in Disney World using a deal from Undercover Tourist. They picked me up from our hotel and brought me to the center to get our car. When I told them I wasn’t interested in upgrading from our Economy (Kia Rio or similar) car, they told me they didn’t have any and gave me a lovely Jeep Patriot. We hopped in, and off we went, to be at the park when it opened.

We opted to pay $40 for their photo package, which turned out to be underwhelming compared to the Disney one. Oh, well - live and learn. All the pictures here with borders are from them.

Upon entering the park, one of the first things you see is the carousel. That’s right - they have a double-decker carousel where all the horses are giant Lego horses. We got in line right away and made sure to get a horse on the top level.

Then we wandered over to Heartlake City. The girls have long been fans of Lego Friends, and were excited to see that part of the park. Unfortunately, the only ride over there was not for us. Leah was not tall enough to ride it, and Molly knew she’d get sick if she tried it (as would Jen or I). So, we passed on it.

Instead of riding anything in Heartlake City, we decided to head toward a different ride. On the way there, we passed through Miniland. It had some of the most impressive Lego displays I’ve seen. Also, it had a small activity. They were creating a mural out of Legos. Each of us could take one square and build it with the provided Legos according to the pattern on the square.

Then we stuck our square on the giant board in its appropriate spot.

None of us knew what the final mural would look like, but it was fun to make anyway.

Next we made it to the ride that the girls had been looking forward to - Coastersaurus. This dinosaur-themed wooden roller coaster was right up our alley (now both my girls have developed a love for wooden roller coasters like mine). Leah rode with Jen and Molly rode with me. This coaster did have a couple of decent drops in it, but that didn’t scare Molly off.

Leah did not like it the first time around. But, she said she wanted to try it again. Jen and I figured she’d change her mind about doing it again, but she didn’t. There was absolutely no line, so we went back for more. This time Leah rode with me and Molly with Jen. Leah did great the second time - so well that she even lifted her arms after a bit (another first for her).

We then wandered over to my favorite part of the park - the Star Wars section. There were several life-size Lego builds of Star Wars characters, including R2-D2.

Molly was amazed at this Millennium Falcon, which was even lifted up and lit up in back.

There were several scenes from throughout the movies around the area, most of which had buttons you could push to make things happen (Luke climb up the cable under a walker, Obi-Wan and Anakin have a light saber battle, etc.).

Then we found a picnic table to eat our PB&J lunch. We planned to go on the Project X ride after we finished eating, as it was near our picnic table and looked like fun. Sadly, that’s when it started to rain. And shortly after it started to rain, we heard them stop Project X due to the rain. They actually shut down many of the rides due to the rain (maybe they were afraid of lightning, but I never saw any). So, we had to find other things to do.

First we headed to see the ‘Friends to the Rescue’ Live Stage Show, with fun singing and dancing. It contained lots of songs the girls knew from watching the TV show. It seemed geared towards kids a bit younger than ours, but the girls enjoyed it anyway.

After that, we wandered through a bunch of the shops. Surprisingly, they sell a lot of Legos at Legoland. We saw sets we’d never seen before from lots of different lines, including the giant crazy expensive ones. We gave the girls a budget and they looked for what the could get within it. No buying yet, but just making a list. While browsing the Heartlake Mall, the girls sat down with some life-size Lego Friends.

Then we headed over to the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride, where we got to ride through and shoot things. It was lots of fun. Leah didn’t quite get the hang of it the first time through, so we hopped back in the short line and did it again. I gave her a little help the second time around.

Then we headed to the Pirates’ Cove Live Water Ski Show. Yes, that’s right - Legoland has a live water ski show. We couldn’t believe it, and we certainly weren’t going to miss it. The stadium for it was covered as well, which kept us out of the rain (though the rain was slow at that time).

The show was lots of fun, if a little silly. It was certainly the first time I’d ever seen life-size Lego minifigs water skiing.

After the show, the rain gave us a brief reprieve. Leah wasn’t interested, but Molly wanted to try out the Kid Power Towers. Since Jen handles heights better than me, she and Molly pulled themselves up to new heights.

Next we wandered into Build & Test. This is the most interactive part of Legoland when it comes to building things. They even had Lego Mindstorms (programmable robots, like what Molly and I did after school), but you had to sign up for a 45 minute class in future time slots which was more than the girls were up for. But they also had cars that kids could build and race.

The girls had fun with this, though they were tired by this point. When Leah’s car crashed and broke into pieces, and another girl picked up some of the pieces, she had the only meltdown of the trip. But after a bit she cheered back up.

We then watched the only remaining show - The Lego Movie 4D: A New Adventure.

After the movie, I wanted a snack. They have a very unique one - Apple Fries. These are Granny Smith apples, sliced up like french fries, dredged in sugar and cinnamon, fried, and served with whip cream and caramel to dip in. Yum! Jen and I both thought they were great. The girls thought they were weird.

Then the girls got to do what they’d wanted to do the entire day - buy some Legos. First, Molly built and purchased 3 minifigs at the Minifigure Market.

Then, Leah bought the Olivia’s Exploration Car (with telescope and robot) as well as the Disney Palace Pets Daisy’s Beauty Salon set from the Heartlake Mall. And last, Molly bought Rey’s Speeder (our first Star Wars Lego set) from the Studio Store. (pictures below are from after we returned; the girls built them the morning after we got back home).

Then we headed toward the exit, stopped by the photo place to finish out our photo package (yes, you need to do this), and hit the road. We stopped at Publix to get a bit more cereal for breakfast, then stopped for dinner at Zaxby’s (hooray!) (yes, I love Zaxby’s).

Then drove the 45 minutes back to our hotel in Disney World, where I dropped the ladies off.

Because it was after hours at that point, I couldn’t return the car to the center. Fortunately, there was an alternative. After stopping off at a gas station in Disney World, I dropped it off at the Dolphin hotel (which is so fancy it handles rentals at the hotel). Then, to get home, I took a bus from the Dolphin to Magic Kingdom, and then a bus from Magic Kingdom to our hotel. Finally, time to rest. It was a good thing as well, since we had to up very early the next morning to make sure we got a spot in the most important event of the trip, but I’ll tell you more about that later.

During our Magic Kingdom day, we had our fanciest dinner of all. We had left the park for some rest in the afternoon, but headed back in for dinner and evening activities. Here we are with our dinner destination in the background - Cinderella’s Royal Table high up in Cinderella’s Castle.

Before heading up to the dining room, we got to meet our host. Cinderella always makes sure to greet all her guests as they enter.

We then headed up for some excellent service in a fancy (and expensive) restaurant. But we were not the only guests. There were a bunch of princesses there to come around and greet everyone.

Snow White was the first princess to come around. Trying to temper expectations, I told the girls that it may be a while before she got to our table, as there were a lot of people to greet and we were likely not the first table she’d come to. I was wrong. We were the first table she (and all the other princesses) came to say hello.

She was happy to give her autograph, have a chat with the girls, and take a photo.

After she left, our waitress said she didn’t tell us we were at table number 1 because she didn’t want to ruin the surprise. It definitely was not ruined. Next was Aurora.

And then Ariel, who was as fun as always.

And last was Jasmine.

Meeting the characters at their meet-and-greet spots is fun, but having them come to your table while you eat dinner is even better.

The meal was good, though not as good as you might like for such an expensive meal. That said, the White Chocolate-Jasmine Tea Mousse that I got for dessert was outstanding, and very unique. I’ve never had anything like it before.

On Friday, we headed to Magic Kingdom - the core of Disney World. Again, we showed up in time to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hour. As soon as we got through the gate, we made a beeline to meet Anna and Elsa. The girls were decked out in the Anna and Elsa tunics Jen had made them, which both Frozen ladies noticed right away.

After meeting them, we noticed that the line for Cinderella and Rapunzel wasn't too long. So, we decided to meet them as well. First up was the very kind Cinderella.

And then was the very fun Rapunzel.

After meeting the princesses, we headed toward Fantasyland, which is where we spent much of our time at the park. Our first stop was the Mad Tea Party teacups. As usual for something so spinny, Jen was happy to let the other three of us go on it without her.

Then we hopped on Dumbo the Flying Elephant for a slower spin.

Then we headed over to The Barnstormer. Leah has never been a fan of roller coasters, but we managed to convince her to give it a try. She sat next to me, and Molly sat next to Jen. And this was her face as we rode the ride.

She loved it, and got off asking if we could go again. There was no line at all, so we headed in for another turn. Then Molly noticed that she was tall enough to ride by herself. Jen was happy to take a break, so Leah, Molly and I hopped on the coaster. Molly was pretty excited to get to ride a roller coaster by herself for the first time.

We then rode it a third time in the same configuration, all three of us still loving it. The girls would have kept going, but we decided that it was time to see a bit more of the park. So, we headed toward Ariel’s place. First, we went into her Grotto (which also had no line) to meet her.

Then we headed over to her ride to see the retelling of her story in a new way.

Next we headed to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (using one of our prebooked FastPasses). After Leah loved The Barnstormer, I figured she’d like this as well. And she definitely did. She hid her face a couple times when it got going fast, but she was still smiling throughout.

Leah wanted to ride it a second time too, but it had an hour long wait already. So, we decided to move on. We headed over to Tomorrowland, which was always my favorite part of the park as a kid. First stop - the PeopleMover for a tour of everything. After that, we headed to a fun comedy show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.

Then we headed back to Fantasyland for Enchanted Tales with Belle (using another FastPass). This is one of the most interactive parts of Magic Kingdom, where kids get to play a role in the retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Leah opted to not participate, but Molly played the wardrobe.

We then headed over to Peter Pan’s Flight (our last prebooked FastPass) before stopping to eat our PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Then we headed to a ride with an earworm I was hoping to avoid - it’s a small world. Fortunately, the song didn’t stay stuck in our heads for long.

At that point, we decided to take a break from rides and shows to shop a bit. We wanted a souvenir Christmas ornament for our tree, and the girls really wanted a toy to bring home. So, we checked out the shops in Liberty Square and on Main Street and made a couple of purchases.

At that point, we left the park and headed to our hotel for a nap. We really wanted to partake in the nighttime activities at Magic Kingdom, and we knew we couldn’t make it all day. So, we took a bit of a rest. This ended up working out great, as the girls lasted late with no problems at all.

We returned to the park ready for our fanciest dinner of all. But that’s enough of a story to warrant its own post, so you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about it.

After dinner, we had some time before the fun evening activities. So, Jen suggested we go to the Haunted Mansion. I wasn’t so sure, but went along with it. As you may have already guessed, the girls were not fans. I rode with Molly, and she totally freaked out. She ended up closing her eyes and covering her ears for almost the entire ride. Jen said Leah did mostly OK with her, though afterward Leah said she did not like it at all.

Then, we headed to my favorite ride as a kid - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The line was really long, but I had thankfully scheduled a FastPass for it earlier in the day (after we’d used our rebooked 3). So, we walked right in. I was worried Leah wouldn’t do as well on it since it’s more serious than the earlier coasters, but she loved it (as did Molly). We got off and the girls were asking to go again. Sadly, the FastPass only got us the one ride, so there was no return trip in our plan.

We then went to Mickey’s PhilharMagic - a 3D movie that was both enjoyable and indoors, giving us time to warm up a bit.

Then it was on to find a place to watch the Electrical Parade, which started at 9:00. We followed the advice of touringplans.com and set up just outside the Sleepy Hollow restaurant. The girls were ready to go with glowing accouterments that Jen had purchased months in advance for deals much cheaper than could ever be found in the park.

And the parade was lots of fun. The girls probably could have watched it for much longer, despite being cold and up late. After the parade, we moved toward Main Street to find a spot to watch the fireworks at 10:00. We didn’t realize that there was going to be another show before the fireworks - Celebrate the Magic. Fortunately, we managed to catch this show as well as the outstanding Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks show.

We had an awesome day at Magic Kingdom. We could have easily spent another day there, as there was just so much to do. Magic Kingdom was generally ranked as either the #1 or #2 park we visited by the members of our family, but it definitely had the most to offer of them all.

The break in the middle of the day worked out perfectly, meaning we could be there early in the morning and late into the night without any grumpiness from the girls. And fortunately, our next morning was not quite as early, but more on that later.

After flying in late Wednesday night, we were up early Thursday morning to be at Epcot for the Extra Magic Hour starting at 8:00am. Before heading to any ride, we stopped to take a picture. What could say Epcot better than a picture in front of the giant sphere that is Spaceship Earth?

Um, Leah, I think there’s something on your hand there. Thanks Disney Magic!

First, we headed to take a ride in Spaceship Earth. Then, we headed over to our first character meet-and-greet - Mickey Mouse. The girls had their autograph books ready.

Next to Mickey was Goofy.

And next to Goofy was Minnie Mouse - one of the characters the girls were really looking forward to.

They even got to do some dancing with her.

Next, we decided to meet a much newer character - Baymax. The girls even got to give him a fist bump.

We then headed to Test Track - an awesome ride where you get to design your car (using a large touchscreen computer), then get to ride in a simulation car and see how your design performs. Here we are in the simulation car.

After Test Track, we hit a bunch of the fun attractions at the front of the park before the World Showcase opened. We went to The Seas with Nemo & Friends and other aquatic fun there like SeaBase and Turtle Talk with Crush. We ate our PB&J sandwiches. We journeyed into our imagination with Figment, after which the girls of course made their own figments (Nancy is Leah’s, Mig is Molly’s).

Then it was off to the World Showcase. We started off by meeting some more characters. We first headed to the United Kingdom and found Mary Poppins. She said our girls’ grey shirts reminded her of a chimney sweep, so she decided to teach them the Step In Time.

We then walked down to France to be the last people in line to meet Belle.

Also in France, we found Aurora.

After meeting so many characters, we decided to take on an adventure. The Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure is an interactive mission, in which we were given a smartphone to guide us through a secret agent mission in France. It led us to different places around France, and activated hidden features. The mission was fun, but enough at 30 minutes. At the end of the mission, we were asked if we wanted to another mission in the next country, and the girls chose not to.

Instead, we decided France was an excellent place to get a sweet treat. That was an excellent choice. Jen and Leah went to the ice cream place, while Molly and I went to the patisserie for some tarts. Yum.

After our treats, we headed down to Japan to listen to some Japanese drumming. They had a really big drum.

We then wandered down to the U.S.A. to listen to the a cappella music of the American Music Machine - lots of fun. Then we walked to Italy and saw an entertaining juggler. The girls also tried out one of the Kidcot Fun Stops, though we just did the one. Then on to China to see some acrobats.

We then walked back to Italy for dinner. We figured we’d be eating pizza on this trip, so we thought we’d go for a high quality one. We had reservations at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria. The girls were hungry for it.

It was good, though not great, pizza. Sadly, Leah was not a fan of the pizza. Combined with being tired, she turned into a bit of a grump. So, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel rather than sticking around for the fireworks.

After heading out of the restaurant, I took a quick picture of the ladies with the far off Spaceship Earth in the background.

After the long walk back (Leah rode on my shoulders), we even got a magical shot of the four of us.

When we finally got back to our room, Leah was very happy to see her bed. Which was a good thing, since we were getting up early the next morning to head to the Magic Kingdom.

Overall, Epcot was lots of fun and served as a good warmup day for the trip, with smaller crowds and fewer things planned. I don’t think any of us would say it was our favorite park, but it was still awesome.

A week ago, we were in Orlando. We took our first trip down to Disney World, and it was awesome. Over the next several days, I’ll walk you through the awesomeness of the trip, but I figured I’d start with some overall impressions and logistics.

First, Disney World is awesome. The kids and adults all had a great time. It’s a level above other theme parks. We also took one day to go to Legoland, which was fun, but not on the same level as Disney World.

Our goal for our room was to be able to get to and from the parks as easily as possible. So, we stayed on Disney World property at the Pop Century Resort and requested a room close to the front desk in order to be close to the bus stop. This meant we had very little walking to do on the resort, which worked out very well.

We chose to go now because the girls had several random days off of school without going over spring break or some other time with huge crowds. However, there were still big crowds due to three groups:

• Mardi Gras escapers - growing up in Louisiana, we know that while most folks partake in the Mardi Gras celebrations, a large contingent takes advantage of the time off to go to Disney World.
• Cheerleaders - The UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship was being held at Disney World while we were there, so there were lots of cheerleaders everywhere.
• There were 1,250 girls from Argentina celebrating their 15th birthday (quinceañera). There may have been other quinceañera groups there as well, I’m really not sure. But wow, were they loud and annoying. They stayed at Pop Century so we got to share the bus with them, but thankfully they were not in the same building at the resort as us.

FastPasses are awesome.

I’m a big fan of the Memory Maker package for PhotoPass pictures. More than half the pictures you’ll see here were taken by Disney photographers instead of me.

Extra Magic Hours are awesome as well (at least the morning ones, as that’s all we used). We planned which park we’d go to based on when they had them, and used them every morning at Disney World. Getting into the park early meant no lines for some things, and getting certain access to things we might never have gotten. We really don’t like waking up early, but it was worth it.

For food, we opted to go big or go small. This meant we used our own groceries for most of our food (delivered to the room by Garden Grocer - very cool). We ate breakfast in the room, and Jen packed sandwiches for lunch and more snacks than we could ever eat into little baggies. Then for dinner we threw in some more exciting options (more on that later). Also, this meant we did not do a Disney dining plan. We’d definitely do it this way again.

We booked our trip through a AAA travel agent we found through a friend, who was very helpful. We’d definitely do that again as well.

And now onto the fun.

Orlando posts

• Epcot
• Magic Kingdom
• Cinderella’s Royal Table
• Legoland
• Hollywood Studios
• Jedi Training
• Animal Kingdom
• Orlando Favorites

I finally arrived home Monday night. We tried to swing by Aunt EA’s house in Silver Spring on the way, but found her neighborhood had not been plowed yet. Fortunately we knew we could get to my house and Grams’s house. We came to my house first to drop me off, then Aunt EA and Grams went on to Grams’s house. Thanks to Jen for shoveling all the snow piled up at the end of the driveway by the plow earlier in the day.

While I missed much of the snow, I did manage to get out in it briefly with my girls. A fair amount of it had already melted, but the giant piles covering the sidewalk are still taller than Molly.

The snow was still quite deep, so we sunk down into it when walking around. The snow was also level, despite the ground below not being level. So, occasionally you take a step and find the snow is so deep that your leg has disappeared below you.

The girls and I had a lot of fun sledding in our back yard. Here they are showing how much fun it is.

Here Leah shows off that you don’t need a sled to sled - your bottom will do just fine. This is especially true if you use a track that someone heavy (say Daddy) has already carved out of the snow by sledding down.

The girls call this penguin sliding, which I guess is a good description. They got going pretty fast like this, though ended up soaking wet from the snow.

Or you can lift up your arms and legs for a belly slide.

There were a lot of snowballs thrown, including the blurry one obscuring Leah’s hat in this shot.

This is what I was missing when I was stuck away, so I was glad I got to have some fun in the snow with them after getting back.

With this much snow, and with me out of town, Jen was not looking forward to shoveling the driveway. Fortunately, she found a connection to someone to pay to do it. We weren’t sure how they’d get to our house, but she signed up. They made it, and this Bobcat cleared the driveway in 10 minutes flat (sadly, it was too big to do the sidewalk as well).

The truck carrying the Bobcat had a plow on the front, which is how they managed to get to us. That meant they partially plowed our street - right up to our house. For the next day, we’d occasionally have people try to drive down our street, only to find that they could not make it past our house.

Here’s our plowed driveway. The Bobcat even cleared space on the sides for car doors to open.

The next day, the girls were out to play in the snow again. They were excited to see that the Bobcat had left some giant chunks of snow to play with.

The piled up snow from the driveway made a great snow slide.

The girls decided bringing their sleds in all the time was wasted effort. So, they instead tied them up at our back porch sled dock.

Our street was plowed Monday night, after three and a half days since the start of the storm. That was much earlier than a lot of folks around here, so we’re not complaining.

What was I up to while the girls were enjoying the snow? I had hoped to drive back on Sunday. I figured we’d leave Savannah Sunday morning, and the roads would be mostly clear by the time we got to the Washington area Sunday evening. Unfortunately, the storm was so bad it was clear that was not going to happen. So, we decided to wait another day for the roads to clear. Also, by waiting till Monday to come back, that meant Grams could ride back with us as well (taking Aunt Caroline’s seat).

That meant some more family time. I also took the opportunity to take some pictures around Grandaddy’s house. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me as I’d left it with Jen. I had brought my old camera and a couple lenses, but forgot the battery to it. So, all these pictures were taken with my phone.

I first headed toward the dock. This dock was a very prominent part of my childhood. Whenever we came to visit, I spent as much time as I could on the water. Water skiing was my favorite activity, but I also enjoyed swimming, crabbing, sailing, fishing, tubing, and more. And just sitting on the dock is one of the most relaxing things you can do (though swinging in the hammock that used to overlook the dock was even better).

Here’s a panoramic view from the dock.

And another panoramic view looking back at the house from the dock.

And a non-panoramic shot of the house from the dock.

When I walked out to the dock, there were 4 dolphins playing there (only two made it into the picture, though).

So many memories at this house.

On Sunday, church was cancelled (since no roads were passable). The girls were ready to have some fun in the snow, and the snow was ready for them. Molly and Leah grabbed their sleds and waded through the snow.

Molly found a good spot to chillax while taking a break from shoveling.

Jen and the girls in the snow, making do on their own while I was away.

The girls got tired of going out the front, so Jen shoveled a path on our back porch for them to get in and out.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last. A few hours later there was a sudden crash outside. All the snow on the back side of our roof had slid off our solar panels onto the porch and ground below. Sadly, this was enough to break the railing on the back of the porch.

The crash also broke the bottom rail on the gate.

Jen eventually went out and shoveled the back porch again, so the girls could go in and out there. She’s such an awesome mom.

Friday rolled around and the snow started. Winter Storm Jonas (aka Snowzilla) came in with full force. School was cancelled (just like my trip home from Georgia). Lots of snow and wind - not something you want to be out in. The girls did manage to get out of the house in the morning before the storm got going, but they were not going outside after it began.

When stuck at home during a snow storm, make Star Wars Perler bead projects! First up, Leah made Princess Leia and Molly made BB-8.

Next, a green lightsaber (Molly) and a purple lightsaber (Leah). Oh, and a viola with bow (Molly). Not sure which Star Wars movie that was in :)

Saturday morning came, and the storm only got stronger. It was going to be awful outside, so the girls stayed inside in their jammies all day. Of course, that meant it was time for more Perler beads! Leah made Luke Skywalker, while Molly made R2-D2 and C-3PO.

That evening it was still snowing, so the girls played some games. Here they are playing Trouble.

And then they played some Uno Attack.

While they stayed inside in the warm, the snow kept falling. Here’s a view of the door in our basement toward the end of the storm. I don’t think we’ll be going out that door any time soon.

The screens on our screened in porch stopped most of the snow, but the finer stuff still got through.

The snow finally stopped late Saturday night. According to reports, we got around 27 inches of snow, setting a new record for a single storm.