12/8/08- Monday

Monday morning we had planned on going to Animal Kingdom, as luck would have it, Monday is the AK's day for "Extra Magic Hours" (basically anyone staying in a DW resort gets in early on those days, or gets to stay later). We got up bright and early and met at the bus stop at 7:30. We got to the park a little before 8 and got to see part of the opening "show." We weaved our way to the front of the crowd so that when they opened the ropes, we could head back to the back of the park and hop on one of the safaris. Turned out great as we only had a 5 minute wait to get in. What a great experience. The animals are amazing and are so close to us too! They all looked like they were posing for our pictures, when we saw the lion and lionness on top of the hill, Andrew shouted out, "There's Simba!" After the safari, we walked through the Pangini Exploration Trails hoping to see the gorillas. My children are obsessed with gorillas and love to see them at Riverbanks when we go. Unfortunately the gorillas weren't out when we walked through, so we missed seeing them. We left "Africa" and headed toward "Asia" to get Fastpasses for Expedition Everest. Andrew was so excited to ride his first real roller coaster. Mary McLean wasn't tall enough so my parents took her and Emma to see a Finding Nemo show while we waited on our Fastpass time. We took Andrew over to Dinoland and the Boneyard and let him play. When our fastpass time approached we headed back over to the ride and walked right up and hopped on in no time. (Fastpasses are definately the way to go) I rode with Andrew and he LOVED it! He was laughing the entire time. I had a death grip on his lap belt and one of his hands. He had his other one waving in the air the whole time. It really was a great ride, so good in fact that as soon as we finished we got more fastpasses so we could ride again! :) I think Andrew could have ridden that one all day long and been happy. After our second ride, we walked back over to meet up with my parents and the girls. My mom came out of the Nemo show and said her camera had broken! We were really upset, but she knew she could get it fixed back in Columbia as the same thing had happened to mine a few months earlier.

We went and got some lunch and tried to decide what to do next. Mary McLean really wanted to find Pocohontas, so we found where the character greetings were and headed in that direction when we were done eating. Marc's parents took Andrew to see "It's Tough to be a Bug" while the rest of us went in search of Pocohantas. Unfortunately we didn't find her, but we did meet Daisy Duck, Minnie, and Brother Bear. It was getting later in the afternoon so we decided to head back to the resort and rest before dinner.

I had made reservations at Akerhaus in Norway at Epcot for a "Princess Storybook" dining experience for dinner. We got the girls all dressed up in their pink and everyone headed over to Epcot. We had plenty of time before dinner to ride a few things, so we rode Spaceship Earth (that's the ride in the big ball- exciting I know, but MM loved it for some reason). She kept asking Marc if the different people through history were Jesus. It was so funny! Marc's parents told us about a Nemo ride over in "The Seas" so we headed over there for one last ride before dinner. After Nemo, we split up and our parents went to dinner in Japan, and we headed over to Norway.

Dinner was absolutely amazing! MM was in love and her face was lit up the entire time. We walked in to be seated and they got Belle's autograph and a picture taken with her, which they gave us several copies free. While we were waiting on our food we saw, Jasmine, Cinderella, Ariel, and Sleeping Beauty. When Sleeping Beauty was about to go on to the next table, MM shouted, "No, you have to eat with us!" She just started laughing and gave MM a big hug.

We met back up with our parents after dinner and were going to try and stay for the fireworks, but MM was ready to go to bed and Emma was already asleep. We let Andrew stay with all the grandparents and Marc and I took the girls back to put to bed.

It was a wonderful day that I don't think Mary McLean will ever forget!