11 posts tagged “birthday”
Gosh, it's hard to believe that one week ago today I was having a grand time at Disney World. Here are some pictures I got of the sun setting over the lagoon at Epcot.
If you are paying attention you can clearly see the crepuscular rays in the bottom two pictures. I was quite pleased to see that they showed up. And, if you look carefully, you can see Venus in the bottom photo.
Thursday--
We left OKC in the morning and arrived in Houston at noon. John was waiting for us at the gate with lunch in hand as we did not have enough time to get our own food. From there we traveled on to Orlando. Upon arriving at the airport we proceeded directly to the Disney Magical Express desk and then got right on to a bus that took us to our resort. After finding our rooms and dropping off our carry-on bags we headed back out the door and went over to Epcot for dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh (my choice). The food and the service made this a place worth visiting again. Following dinner we watched the nightly fireworks show. Then it was time to head back to our rooms and rest up for the big day ahead.
Friday--
After eating breakfast we began our first full day of fun by heading over to the Magic Kingdom. If our goal was to see as much as we could and ride as many rides as we could (though the Hall of Presidents and Splash Mountain were closed), I think we succeeded! Wendi really hated Small World, but we made her ride it anyway. We all agreed that Stitch's Great Escape is definitely a ride(?) worth missing.
All this fun was followed up by a monorail ride back over to Epcot where we had dinner at San Angel Inn (John's choice). The food was good and the service was excellent. If I ever get back I will definitely eat there again. Dinner was early enough that night that we had time to explore some of the park before we left.
Saturday--
Wendi chose to spend the morning in the room so John, Ken, and I headed out to Hollywood Studios without her. Ken and John will easily agree that the best part of that park is the Tower of Terror. They rode it three times! Muppet Vision 3-D was also a highlight of the day. We tried to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but it broke down just as they were loading us into the cars. They gave us passes to come back and ride later, but only Ken and John made it back for that ride. Wendi joined us for lunch and stuck around for the rest of the day.
After finishing up at that park we took a ferry back to Epcot. This would be the point in the trip where John started calling me "Mom." We arrived early enough to do quite a bit of exploring (and wine tasting) before our dinner at Coral Reef (Wendi's choice). In spite of the fact that all four of us had considered this place for our dinner choices it was without a doubt the weakest meal of the trip. The food was OK, the service was awful, and in spite of the fact that this is obviously an adult restaurant it was full of screaming small children. We did not enjoy our meal.
Sunday--
Sunday morning found us back at Epcot to finish seeing and doing the things we wanted to do there. After eating lunch in Mexico we headed over to Animal Kingdom. All of the FASTPASS machines were down and since we didn't want to stand in long lines we were not able to ride any of the rides. (I should note that we did encounter one other ride at another park for which the FASTPASS machines were down, but that ride had cast members handing out passes. There was none of this at Animal Kingdom.) I think it's fair to say that we were all disappointed with this park.
From AK we proceeded back to Hollywood Studios so that Ken and John could ride the roller coaster. I also had a pass for it, but was too tired to walk that far. Wendi and I chose instead to sit outside the park and wait on the guys. Once they came back out we headed out for our last dinner of the trip at the Maya Grill (Ken's choice) located at the Coronado Springs Resort. This was absolutely the best meal of the trip. The food was excellent, the service was outstanding, and it was quiet. It's the only restaurant we ate in that wasn't packed to the gills. I assume that this is because it's located in a resort instead of a park. If I ever get back I will most certainly eat there again.
Monday--
We got up very early and were on the bus to the airport by 7:15am. By this time we had all had more than enough of each other's company and were ready to go home. Don't let that last statement fool you. It was a jam packed, fun filled trip and I'd do it all again in a minute!
We had a wonderful time. I'll tell you all about it later.
Yup. It's almost time to head out to Disney World for the big birthday celebration. I receive little reminders in the mail several times a week now. I'm not sure I can hold back the excitement until the big day!
John's in town for the holidays and today he took Ken, Wendi, and me out for lunch. After we came back to the house he insisted that I go ahead and open that "perfect" birthday present while he was here. He's right. It's perfect.
Happy Birthday to me, indeed!!!
Where do you want to go on your next vacation?
Submitted by beth.
My next vacation is already booked and paid for. I'm going to Disney World for my 50th birthday in January!
Yup, it's finally official. I've been saying it since my 40th birthday, I'm going to Disney World for my 50th! Last night I bought the plane tickets and I just now got off the phone with Disney booking our stay there. The whole thing is paid for, all that's left to do is go. Ken, Wendi, and I will be leaving here on January 15 (my birthday) to fly to Houston where we will meet up with John and travel the rest of the way to Orlando together. We'll have a nice long weekend down there and fly home on the 19th. I can't wait! Now I can actually start thinking about what I might like to do for my 60th birthday.
This is certainly a busy, busy weekend for us. And it isn't over yet!
Friday evening we went to the Redhawks game. The start of the game was delayed half an hour by a small rain shower parked right over downtown. We got rained on while walking to the ballpark, but by the time we got some food and found our seats we were treated to a full rainbow that lasted for about 20 minutes.
The game itself was disappointing. The Redhawks self destructed in the 7th inning and lost the game. But the fireworks afterwards was definitely worth waiting for.
On Saturday afternoon we went over to Jonah's house for his first birthday party (though his birthday isn't until the 27th). He proudly demonstrated for us all that he has now decided to walk.
Jonah went swimming.
Opened lots of presents.
And had two cakes!
My video of everyone singing Happy Birthday is a bit too large for VOX and since I upgraded my Kodak software it won't let me edit videos unless I buy more software to go with it. If I can figure out how to cut the thing down with what I've got I'll post it later. In the mean time, here's what I can show you.
After we left Jonah's house we went to a cookout in memory of our friend Tom. I haven't transferred the pictures of that to my computer yet, but I will after we get home from Claire's birthday party this afternoon and will post about both of those later.
Mother went into the hospital yesterday morning for insertion of a stent in her right carotid artery. Everything went just fine. The cardiologist said that since the blockage is almost entirely scar tissue he really isn't the least bit worried that anything will flake off from the site to cause a stroke. When I talked to my mom on the phone last night she was really ticked off (a very good sign) because her nurse didn't let her sit up or get out of bed nearly as early as the doctor had promised.
This morning when I went to see her she was saying that maybe now it's time to do some of the things she's been putting off for a while like buying a new bed, having the carpets cleaned, etc. She was putting them off because she thought it would be a waste of money, now she figures she'll be around long enough to get her money's worth.
When I left she was just waiting for the rest of her paper work and my sister to arrive so that she could go home. Tonight we girls are having dinner at my other sister's house (they both had their birthdays this month and we're celebrating) and I'm spending the night with Mother.
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