The Happpiest Anniversary on Earth- Part #5

(This is 5th and concluding post of the documentation of the most amazing trip I have ever taken- I am picking up where my previous post ended. Once again feel free to skip the text and scroll through the pictures:-) Click here to hear about our trip from the beginning!

We are down to our last and final day. And our Official Anniversary! We had been celebrating the anniversary all week but on the actual Anniversary Andrew planned a fun filled day of sentimental surprises. Did I mention I love this guy!!!! So we started off the 12th with a nice lazy morning. We slept in and headed over to Celebration. This is the little Disney town where we used to live and where Andrew's old office was located! We went and visited the old SATO team. They are such wonderful people. Andrew worked on this team while Luke was born and each of them have such a special place in our hearts. They made this vacation truly a dream come true!

Thank You!

We loved visiting, and driving through Celebration we have so many wonderful memories of this place.

So after visiting the office we headed over to EPCOT to begin the Anniversary Day Festivities. It was the most beautiful day! Oh how I love humidity and 95 degree weather!

We started by checking in for our lunch reservations at the Rose and Crown. And headed over

to ride on one of our favorite rides, Soarin. If you haven't been on this ride. It is fabulous! When Soarin first opened I was able to take my sister Cori and our friend Ali on the ride during the cast preview and ever since that moment I have been hooked. Its beautiful and exciting and I like it a lot! It was a fabulous way to start off.

Then it was time for our Anniversary Lunch at the Rose and Crown. This is the sit down restaurant in UK pavilion in the

World Showcase.

Usually we focus on the fish and chips here, but we decided to go all out for this lunch! We started out with the raspberry lemonade and Appetizers. I have to say this was by far my favorite part. I think I am Love!!!!! The first appetizer was a yummy shrimp dish with some sort of ricey stuff underneath. So good! But by far my favorite food experience of this trip was th e second appetizer. It was a hardboiled egg wrapped in sausage deep fried and served with brown mustard and spicy toast! Oh my goodness, I know it

probably clogged every atterybut it was amazing!!

MMMMMMMmmmmmm just thing about it makes me hungry!

So so good! For the main coarse we had Bangers and Mash and and amazing meat pie. And to top it off we had a Blackwell Tart and Sticky Toffee Pudding( a personal favorite of mine). Basically it was it was fabulous!

Then we played in the Uk for a little while. We went and visited a good "friend" of mine, Alice. We stood in line and got pictures. I was so excited to see her and talk to her and it was fun that she remembered me. The went to the Twinings Shop. I love tea Cups!

Then it was off to a very special part of the day. Recreating our first date! On our very first date Andrew and I went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. Well actually on our first date we went and played in EPCOT but this was our favorite part. It is set in the Living Seas and is such an awesome show. You go and sit in a little theater and all the kids go and sit in the front. It is set up as if you are looking in and aquarium. And the animated Crush comes out and interacts with the audience. He swims around and asks the kids about human

stuff and teaches the kids about turtles. It is always different and always so so fun.

After Crush, we said goodbye to EPCOT and headed back over to our favorite park for

Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party.

Andrew and I decided to dress up as Mickey and Minnie for the Party. Don't you love the costumes? We decided to keep simple just Mickey hand and ears. But they made for some of my favorite pictures I have ever taken in front of the Castle.

Mickey's Not So Scary Party is an extra after hours party. It has special decorations, and events. So we went, changed for the party, got our wristbands and Trick or Treat bags and began an amazing evening. They have a Villain's show (here is Andrew in front of the stage), A parade, Candy trails, and special Character greetings. It was a really fabulous way to end our trip. I had never been to the party and they have always been on of Andrew's favorites.

We went a little crazy on the candy trail. And ended up with 13 lbs of candy. Blahhh, hahahaha it was very humorous carrying it home on the airplane the next day. Here is the intern from Andrew' Office-

Oh and we met some of the Ghosts from the haunted mansion

But the must see of the evening was visiting our friend Ben and his friend Buzz Lightyear.

Then the party drew to a close and it was time to go home.

P.S. This is a random movie we took of the ride at Space Ship earth. It made us laugh so we thought we would share it :-)

The Happpiest Anniversary on Earth-Part#4

(This is 4th post of the documentation of the most amazing trip I have ever taken- I am picking up where my previous post ended. Once again feel free to skip the text and scroll through the pictures:-) Click here to hear about our trip from the beginning!

Yeee haaa! Are you ready for a fun filled day of Magic Kingdom goodness. This was the day that I was probably most excited for. I spent most of my time working in the Magic Kingdom and it is the park closest to my heart. SIGH.... So to begin our magic Kingdom day we decided to go to Park Opening.

I know it seems crazy but i have never watched park opening.

I participated in it but I have never actually watched it. So we got up bright and early and headed to the park to watch the Opening Show. We saw the train, the characters, the Trolley Show. All of my favorites.

***Special Thanks to Mark for main-gating us so early***

And all of it was fabulous. Side-note: I love the excitement of the morning at the Magic Kingdom. Everyone is so excited to go in. It's infectious.

So first things first, we headed toward the castle.

We watched the castle show (one of my favorites) and headed into the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique.

I was on the opening team for the Boutique

in the castle. It is a beauty parlor in the castle where little girls of all ages are transformed into a princess by their very own Fairy-Godmother-in-Training.

It was such an amazing thing to be a part of. So I had to head there first. It was so exciting to see so many of my favorite people still there from the opening team.

The Fairy Godmothers even through Luke's baby shower right there in the Magic Kingdom. He was the first of the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Babies. (there are now 3) So here are a couple of my favorite Fairy Godmothers that I was able to see while I was there. Oh my goodness I love these women!

Also many of my favorite rides are at the Magic Kingdom. So we went on each ofour favorites at least a couple of times. We will start with the Tea Cups. I am a HUGE fan of the Tea Cups. When I worked the princess shift in ToonTown, my friend Amy and I would change and go up and ride the Tea Cups during our lunch. We would wear big hats to cover our eyelashes and makeup. hahaha. I have such happy memories of this ride. Just go really fast and spin the whole time.

Where next? oh yes, we headed to Splash

Mountain.

I don't know about you, but I have never gotten too wet riding this ride... ..... until now. I didn't want to go on it early in the day in case I got wet. I didn't feel like walking around in wet clothes. But Andrew convinced me the worst I would get on it would be a little splash. So we went on it straight away. And we not only got wet, but soaked. Seriously? I have never seen anyone get that wet on this ride I looked like a little soaked dog. We could not stop laughing and the people behind us could not stop laughing at us.

Then on to more of our favorite rides.... Pirates of the Carribean - I can't decide if I like the changes with Jack Sparrow. Big Thunder- we went on this at least 10 times. Snow Whites Scary Adventure- I love everything about this ride. Mickey's Philharmagic- In my opinion this is one of the best rides on property, I think it is magical and perfect for everyone in the family. Love it.

TheHaunted Mansion- I worked in Liberty square on my first program and occasionally was able to greet at the Haunted Mansion. Once again Love this ride.

But on the way we had to stop and get a pictures with Andrew's two favorite Characters in Frontier Land.

AND GET A DOLE WHIP!!!!

(this was a iconic moment in the trip Andrew and I crave these all year round)

I feel like beautiful music should play while you look at this picture.

mmmmmmmm...

*A Dole Whip*

Then it was time for lunch.

Andrew made reservations at most of my favorite restaurants so for lunch we headed to one of my very favorite places in the Magic Kingdom the Plaza Restaurant.

Most people miss this little restaurant. It is tucked right off Main Street next to Tomorrowland. It is such a fun place. It has the feel of a turn of the century ice cream parlor. It has little white rod iron chairs and gilded mirrors all over the walls. The Mayor and other Main Street performers stop in to talk and give it such a charming feel. Basically it makes me super happy. Its like Pollyanna but a restaurant. Here is our Banana Split after we ate half of it. It was huge.

After we ate we noticed something coming down the Main Street.

It was the new Parade/Show

Move it, shake it, celebrate it!!!

This was such a fun idea. It is a great chance for kids to get close to a lot of their favorite characters with out stopping to take pictures. Basically 5 floats comedown Main street circle in Castle Hub and you have a little dance party celebrating different occasions. We had some good friends performing in the show so we had to get some pictures with them.

We went on a couple more rides, grabbed a cookie and caramel corn from Sleepy Hollow Bakery and got ready to watch the 3 0'clock parade. I had been in Share a

Dream Come True parade but this was the first time to see it since it changed to Celebrate a Dream come True Parade. I really liked all the changes. Goofy knew Andrew and gave us a shout out and we were able to see our favorite Stepsister.

Who screamed so loudly when she saw us that she scared everyone standing by us. She was so fun, Andrew had worked with Kristy on his second program.

She is the best Drizella ever!

Then we went to Toon Town and visited some old "friends". I was also

able to go meet the Disney Fairies for the first time. They came in shortly after Andrew and I left.

The evening only kept improving.

I found the most amazing glow-toy. (As pictured here) I seriously loved this Minnie-toy. It kept me enetertained for quite some time.

Isn't it cute the skirt lights up and twirls. So at this point we decided to go on some of the rides we hadn't gone on in a while.

First we went on Dumbo.

This is one of Andrew's favorite rides. I have to admit I haven't been on it in a while. But it was fun. However we found out we have different Dumbo riding styles. One of us likes to keep moving up and down. The other likes the stay up at the top the whole time.

Can you guess who is who?

-On we went-

Next into ToonTown.

We went on the Barn Stormer and played on some of the standing attractions there.

One of our favorites was Donald Duck's Ship.

This was my first time going inside so we had a lot of fun. I am trying to blend into the map inside the ship. Can you find me???? :-)

This is Andrew saluting us from the entrance ofthe ship.

- Next, The raceway. Believe it or not I have only been on this

ride once. So it was definitely time to go on it again. Oh and by the way my car completely put Andrew's to shame. Really it did. But after a while his car started crawling so slow I caught up with him and we both went at snail pace back into the station. I was worried that we where not going to make it.

I was laughing so hard I was almost in tears Fun Fun Fun.

And the night was topped off by meeting up with our good friend Ben and Luana. We went to dinner at the Columbia Harbor House. This has been one of my favorites since I first came to Disney in 2002. Love the clam chowder and fish and chips :-) We went on Small World and watched Wishes together it was so fun to spend time with them. After they left we watched the second Spectro Magic parade and went on a couple more of our favorite rides.

So we succeeded in making it an all day adveture at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived shortly after 8 AM and got to our car a little before 2 AM. Awesome!! In all my time working for Disney I had yet to experience park opening to park closing. Not only did we experience-we conquered! Our car was the only one left in our lot. We loved it so much we had to take a picture! Yay!!!!! We planned on going home and having a late night swim but instead we both fell asleep almost the moment we entered our suite. Yup.

It was a good thing that the next day was Sunday. No parks, just church! And it was late church too. So we slept in a little and got ready and went to church with Andrea, Adam, Ben, and Luana. We had planned to go to our family ward we had been in

but decided to go to this one instead. It was wonderful! One of the highlights of my trip. I miss our Florida wards and branches. I love, really love the members there. They are really wonderful people! I was also able to see my friend Raschell there. I had worked with her in Entertainment and she had just moved back to Orlando. Yay for a day filled with amazing friends. Ben and Luana invited us over for dinner and an "Office Night" this became a staple tradition our last time there. Andrea and Adam joined us for an amazing night of laughter. Seriously these might be 4 of the most entertaining people in the world! And defintately 4 of my favorites. Basically Sunday was awesome!

And on a side note, it was the first time I really missed Luke. I had thought about him before but while in Sacrament Meeting I really missed my little boy. :-)

The Happpiest Anniversary on Earth-Part # 3

(This is part 3 of the documentation of the most amazing trip I have ever taken- I am picking up where my previous post ended. Once again feel free to skip the text and scroll through the pictures:-) Click here to hear about our trip from the beginning.

One of the best parts of this vacation was that it was all planned. Andrew had scheduled our days and had made dining reservations. Which was fabulous all I had to do was get up and enjoy! Did I mention how much I love him? So day two of our Florida adventure began Friday morning with breakfast at the animal Kingdom Lodge. Such a beautiful place. As we ate out side lots of exotic birds flew around us. on landed on the umbrella right over Andrew's head. He poked it and it flew away but it made for a pretty cool picture. I was in love with the animal kingdom straws. Because of the animals, they only use paper straws and I had never used one before. I liked it LOTS. Kristi + paper straws = Happiness. So after a breakfast we took a couple of couple pictures in the Animal Kingdom Lodge it is so so beautiful!

But we finally headed over to Animal Kingdom.

This was going to be a fun day.

Two of my good friends I worked with at Playmill are now cast in the Finding Nemo The Musical. And did I mention they are amazing! Andrea plays Dory and Adam her husband is Mr. Ray/Marlin.I have been so excited to see them in this.

Almost 2 years ago I got them into the park and we all went to see this show together and now they are up there being amazing. Seriously these people might be two of the most talented individuals I have ever met. I love them!!!! We got to play with my dear friend Andrea in the morning and have priority seating for their show in the afternoon. AMAZING. After we went back and got some picture with the cast of Nemo. What do you think of Andrew and I in Dory and Ray's hats? I like it I think I need to get one of my own. On a side note, I also learned that the designer of the nemo costumes was inspired by speed skaters in the winter Olympics. - Interesting hu?

After we stopped at Its tough to be a Bug. I think we had a little to much fun with the Camera in there:-)

But the after NEMO the most important item was Expedition Everest. I had been pregnant when it opened and this was my first time to ride it. Needless to say I loved it. I know I have used that expression a lot but it was just how I felt this week. Full of Love!

Ahh, see even Everest was feeling the love.

After everest we went on the rest of the must do rides Dinosaur, that really jerky on in dino land, etc. We went on Cali-river Rapids. On which we got absolutely soaked. Some people made it through completely dry. But for Andrew and I, we could not have gotten more wet if we submerged ourselves. I seriously have never gotten that wet on any ride ever! It was fun and we had to go change for dinner, so we called it a day at the Animal Kingdom. Man o Man was it fun.

So we went home and changed for dinner and headed back to the Studios for dinner at the 50"s Prime Time Cafe.

I have always wanted to eat there but for some reason it had just never happened. So of course Andrew made it happen on this trip.When we arrived at Studios we got a picture with the boy off the bus who serenaded us and watched the Highschool Musical 3 show.

And then proceeded to the 50's Prime Time Cafe. For those of you who have never heard of it. You sit in a little 1950's kitchenette and are instructed in proper dining etiquette.

But by far the most important thing at the cafe is the

****** PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY SHAKE*****

Yes that is correct a shake.

It is a favorite of pretty much everyone I know. If you know me I don't care for mixing flavors but even I could not resist its powers of temptation. So we got meatloaf and salmon and I drew pictures on my napkins. It was so much fun. And I had to get pictures in the kitchenette after.

SO SO SO FUN.

We played a little more in studios. Went on the important rides, like the Great Movie Ride (as pictured :-)

Then we headed back to Downtown Disney to buy a Christmas ornament and eat at the Earl of Sandwich. Oh the All-American.... It is our favorite. But Andrew wanted it with cranberries and I wanted it without. But I got them anyways. I was pouting so Andrew took a picture. And even with the little bit of cranberry goop I couldn't scrape off, the sandwich was still amazing.

So we headed back home and went swimming.

It was like 1 AM but the pool was busy. The guards said people could swim as long as it did not disturb anyone.

So Andrew and I soaked our feet, swam and watched the very large security guard chase drunk 30 year olds up and down the decorative pyramid. It was so so funny. Good times. And thus ended Day 2 of the best vacation of my life!