Day 3–Epcot

 

We were both so excited about Epcot, as there is nothing like it at Disneyland.  We got to the park early, but everyone else was clearly excited to be there too!

 

Our “look-there-it-is-if-you-couldn’t-see-it” pictures :)

 

Our first ride was Test Track – which was so much fun! We wanted to go again later in the day, but they ran out of Fast Passes and neither of us were interested in standing in a long line.

Because it is run by GM, there was basically a car dealership after the ride, in addition to the gift shop.  You know, like buy a car, then a t-shirt.

We have been talking about what kind of car we will get after my little Honda is done (10 years already!) and we’ve talked about some GM cars. So I thought I would try them out, take a picture and let Todd see how adorable I am in them!

The guy (okay, KID) trying to talk us into taking one home really tried to steer me away from “MOM-CARS.” Clearly, he doesn’t understand that I think MOM-CARS are super cool.  I always wanted a van . . . especially now. Those vans are tricked out! Anyways, I liked the Chevy Traverse, but it is big and super bucks!! So probably not. :)

 

Me and the Queen of Hearts – one of my all-time favorite villains

Cars 2 still hadn’t come out yet and there was Cars stuff everywhere! So we took a picture together so Luke could see Mommy and Nana with Lightning and Mater.

They finally opened up the World Pavilions and we headed over to Mexico.

 

As a kid, when Todd came to WDW, he said he doesn’t remember much except for Mexico and the “Aztec wallet” he bought there.  So I thought it would be fun to buy him another wallet.  I hunted all over the place for it and finally found it in a leather shop. For $20.  So Todd got a picture of it instead.

 

Heading over to the Vikings – had to take pictures since we study Vikings in 3rd grade.  I was going to buy a Viking shield, but wanted to wait till the end (didn’t want to carry it around) and then completely forgot. DANG.

 

In China . . .

Oh, Mulan . . . did you want to be friends with me? Really? Okay!

(I was by far the oldest person in line to see any of the characters all weekend.)

 

 

“Hug a post, Linda. It will look cute.”

See – I know what I’m talking about!

 

Next stop: Germany! We had been waiting all day (we made it till 11:30) for beer and a pretzel.

 

“I’m just getting the bigger beer because I want the commemorative cup.” Sure.

 

I just like pretzels.

 

We had a great seat to enjoy people watching and coo-coo clock watching.

 

We didn’t spend too much time in Americana-land, you know, since we live there, but we did look at a few of the items they had on display – Lincoln’s top hat, Twain’s writing desk, etc. which was fun.  And they had famous Americans’ quotes up on the walls.  Noella-the-Teacher loved this one:

 

 

Japan was fun … I love me some koi ponds!

 

As a special thank you, I decided to treat Linda to a late lunch in a nice restaurant in the Italy pavilion.  We were so excited!

 

Yummy mozzarella!

 

In France, I decided to be friends with Aurora. Never met an Aurora with a strong Southern accent.  I found that to be terribly funny. (I think she is gasping at how short my hair is . . . I know I am, looking back at these pictures . . .)

 

Stopping in the UK for . . . another beer! They had a live band that was playing some English Rock which was fun to listen to for a while.

 

It was such a great day – we finished the day off with the fireworks/water show around the pavilion.  There were so many new and different things we did at Epcot – probably my favorite day of the whole weekend.

Chaos!

There has been some serious chaos going on in my house lately - certainly more than I can talk about now. It has just been busy busy busy, mostly because I'm taking on too too much. Whoops.

But . . . I am currently working on my last and final credential class!! Hooray! Granted, I left this one till the end because it is a technology class. Bleh.

One of my first assignments? Create a blog. So, I've been working on a blog that I don't even want to work on. Especially since my poor little family blog has been left alone for so long. Even Todd is bugging me for updates.

So I'll link my purely-for-educational-reasons blog. At least I'm blogging somewhere, right?

Mrs. Bickel's Classroom Blog

Until things settle down again, this will have to do!

Spiderman

During a trip to Costco, Luke found a Spiderman/phonics book that was so excited about! Because it is still at least a year or more away from independent reading, we figured we would get some good use out of it.

That's being said, Luke has been "reading" it non-stop. He sleeps with his book, will wake up in the middle of the night, read it a little more and fall back asleep. I love that he loves to read!

Camping.

The Bickels are currently in the woods. We are camping.

Yes, you read that correctly.

There will be pictures to follow when I reenter the land of modern conveniences. Luke LOVES getting dirty. Good times!

Walt Disney World–Part 2 (Magic Kingdom)

Of course I was ridiculously excited about going to the Magic Kingdom.  I was nervous about the crowds, as it was Memorial Day Weekend.  I’m just glad that Linda is as willing to be as Disney Crazy (scientific term) as I need her to be.

I made it! I’ll admit it . . . I cried when I got there.  It has been a dream of mine to make it to WDW and I finally did.

But you know what was the most bizarre thing about the Magic Kingdom on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend? That it wasn’t busy. Seriously.  As we walked around, the crowds weren’t very crowded and between fast pass and good ol’ fashioned First-Time-to-Disneyworld-good-karma, we never waited for anything longer than 15 minutes. Seriously.

We walked onto Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride:

(isn’t she cute?!?!)

And me, with my Bangs of Fury. (I don’t know if Todd will ever forgive me.)

Fast Pass-ed Peter Pan’s Flight. (Disneyland, take a hint.)

It was interesting to note the differences between CA and FL.  I couldn’t help it, since Disneyland is such an engrained part of my life.  Cinderella’s Castle is way more impressive in size, as it does not have height restrictions like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in CA.  But It’s a Small World in FL? It made me really sad. Like, heart-breakingly sad.

As we are both trying to be a bit healthier on the eating side, we decided that we’d really only eat one big meal a day and keep the others on the smaller side, sharing when we could.  So we shared nachos at the Tortuga Tavern which was the perfect amount.

They are adding a whole new section to Fantasyland which will include more of the newer classics like Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid.  It will open in 2012.  Can’t believe I’m missing it! But here is the construction on the Beast’s Castle.

And me, sad that I’ll miss the Beauty and the Beast ride.  My favorite Disney movie ever.

 

My MIL is the most awesome ever.  What I like is to see the shock on someone’s face when I would tell them that I was going to WDW with my MIL. No husband. No kid. But because I adore her and she is so much fun.

“You really get along with her?”

“Yes. I really do.”

“And it’s just the two of you.”

“Yup. I can’t wait!”

“Let the Memories Begin?” Done and done.

We did everything we wanted to do, then headed back to the hotel for dinner.  We ate overlooking the pool.  The early evening was beautiful and the food was delish.

House made BBQ chips with blue cheese and bacon dip. Seriously. Epic.

Margarita and Martini.

We headed to bed early as we wanted to be at Epcot when it opened!

Walt Disney World!–Part 1

As a wonderful surprise/treat, my amazing MIL and fabulous husband treated my to a weekend away to Walt Disney World over Memorial Day Weekend.  It was Mother’s Day, my birthday and our anniversary gift all wrapped into one.

Linda was heading out to Florida for a big ol’ conference and invited me along to hit up Disneyworld with her.  It was going to be my first time!! Woo!  I was counting down the days – I absolutely couldn’t wait.

Our flights landed within minutes of each other, but meeting up became a challenge because we were on opposite sides of the airport.  After connecting, we checked into the hotel, dropped off our things and were off to Downtown Disney!

We at Raglan Road, an Irish Pub that had been sent to Florida from Ireland.  We ate at the bar and enjoyed the Irish dancing.  Oh Disney, you don’t miss a beat!

Classiest Shepard's pie I’d ever seen . . .

I had just cut my bangs. Dang, they’re short.

I took a picture in front of the dinosaur ‘cause I thought Luke would think I was cool. He didn’t.

It was very Florida weather . . . all muggy and stormy with big raindrops.  It was bizarre . . . I was in flip flops and everyone just ran inside when it started raining, it would pour down, then just magically stop and everyone would go back out again.

Crazy Florida sky/weather and me with a Lego Dragon.

Because Linda is such a “valued customer,” the hotel had offered to give her a special upgrade.  She could choose from a room upgrade (they had already upgraded us to a pool view, so she passed), $10 off her hotel bill (no need, thanks for the hotel Sony!), or . . . ice cream! Hooray for ice cream!!

Before we left for Downtown Disney, we attempted to procure the ice cream, but to no avail.  When we returned back to the hotel, we found a tray with the ice cream and bowls waiting for us.  Sure, it was a little . . . soupy, as we had been gone for a while, but Haagen Dazs is Haagen Dazs, soupy or not!

We enjoyed our ice cream on the patio that night – lucky us!

Family Picnic

Every year, Stratford thanks its employees with some sort of event. It has been switching every other year between fancy schmancy dinner/dance in San Fran and a family picnic at Saratoga Springs. Todd and I busted our groove thangs last year at the dinner/dance (I really should have gotten a pic of Todd jumping off the stage a la Patrick Swayze) so this year was the family picnic.

As always, the Bickels have fun wherever we go. Unfortunately, this year, Luke was getting over a cold and the picnic (way back in May) was super cold. What the what? In MAY?!?!

So Todd and Luke loved the “Test Your Fast Ball” pitching net.

Todd had the fastest pitch of the day. Pretty good for an old man.

“Yeah, I want to go on that slide.”

Yup, keep climbing . . .

Poor Luke, at the top of the slide, they found out that you could only go down the slide one at a time. Todd figured that Luke wouldn’t go down the slide by himself, so he gave him a good ol’ push and down he went. Luke was happy, loved the slide, but when asked if he wanted to go down again, he gave a firm “no.”

I love my boys. I feel bad though – Luke looks all tired and goopy from being sick. Poor kid. Towards the end of the day, they had a raffle giving away all sorts of different prizes. Guess who won a prize?? ME!! I won myself a fun yellow Flip! Woot!