Upon entering the pearly gates of EPCOT (Jordan called it Apricot when he was 3
whatever! Back when he was cute and sweet and respectful) I realized we forgot our new tube of Banana Boat Kids Tearless SunBlock (product placement!) back on the table/clutter area of our resort room
so I had to shell out big Disney bucks for Coppertone spray on SunBlock
not as good, smells yucky and not for faces, but more convenient!. I also dolled out Dramamine to DH, DS17 and myself knowing it takes a while to take effect, and a Space Mission to conquer later. Have you ever heard of Dramamine (the medicine to prevent motion sickness) making a person SICK as a dog? It did me for a good half hour!
A friendly peppy CM approached us wondering if Dallen (DS8) would like to be a secret agent for a Kim Possible Mission? I answered for him, YES, that would be fun! BUT, your average DS who is 8-ish, does NOT like to do girl things (wait till I tell him about our PRINCESS meal and Cinderellabration!!!) The mission led us to a certain part of the World Showcase at a top secret location
I could tell you, but then some dressed in black ninja-ish agents will swoop through your nearest window and slit your throats faster than you can say Bobs your uncle!
Our traditional first ride of Epcot is Spaceship Earth. It is kind of relaxing and it IS nice and air conditioned! It has that familiar only-at-disney musty odor wafting throughout. Like on Pirates of the Carabean and Maelstrom. I cant imagine the time when this ride had a long, long, long line as described form people whove experienced back in the day.
This is a ride I like. Not love, but claim it to be a nice ride. Sometimes anything with air conditioning is a GREAT ride, ya know?
My family just loves Innoventions! I remember in years past, I have been very impatient with my kids as they color their free souvenirs at Kid Cot stations. Not this year
no siree. Im determined to not be too commando-ish this time. So, they color and color and color.
OK, Kids! I just saw a ROBOT station!!!.
Pens down without lids
We stand at a fork in the road. Three ways to go:"Environmentality Corner, Innoventions Internet Zone, Fantastic Plastic Works. I asked my public- schooled kids which way we should go to make our PLASTIC robots??? They guessed right! Off to Fantastic Platics!! Dallen was our family sucker, I mean, volunteer to compete in a major virtual robot contest! He got to design a really cool robot on a computer and then run a race with hurdles against several other kids.His robots name was Zippy Droid.
He was totally winning through the whole thing and at the last stretch, some girl a few stations down had a cheating daddy who totally helped her win!!! He was highly competitive, I guess, and his arms went up in the air ROCKY style all victorious. WAY TO TEACH YOUR KID TO CHEAT, DADDY-O! YOU ARE ONE CRAPPY EXAMPLE! **** FOR BRAINS!!!!! I screamed
to myself
in my own head
where theres no one else to hear
luckily.
I congratulated my second place (LOSER) son and scuffled his hair and told him that little girl is going to grow up and have a rude awakening.
Zippy Droid, the robot designed by Dallen, DID win the best design contest!! BOO-YAAA!! IN YOUR FACE CHEATER FAMILY!!!!
Upon exiting the competetion, our whole family got to build a free souvenir plastic robot!!! COOL!!
We each made one
2 of us played with them all day! Brought them to our hoity-toity Le Cellier dinner. Which is later-gators.
We had a Track to Test next! The waiting to ride line area is full of fascinating details, which should come to no surprise. Safety warnings and crash dummys abound. When we were JUST about to load through the magical doors, an announcement was made to keep your feet away from the painted area as the doors swing outward
.DS17 and I made eye contact and put our toes juuuuust inside the danger zone, and being fine examples, DS8 and DS6 joined in our shinanagins. Here is our rebelious-living-on-the-EDGE foot shot! Those pink CROCS are actually called Nothingz and they are even squishier than CROCS! Very comfy, FYI.
*Crucial Note: I never, ever wear socks with crocs (on docks
). Except I found it was necessary for comfort on vacation because NO one will ever see me again
unless the world wide web has fashion police!
Imagine THIS, we got to be the test audience for some new cars yet to be manufactured! YES! They put us through extreme heat
.extreme cold
extreme chemicals
Belgan waffle bumpy conditions, anti-lock breaks, out of control skidding, and SPEED!!!! Followed by US being crash Dummys!!! Whew! What a ride!
By the way
this ride takes your picture and you can add it to your Photo-Pass card! I guess thatll be the norm in the future! Ill still take red-neck photos, just for fun, though.
So we rode this one over and over, each time posing differently for the picture. One time we acted like we were talking on our cell phones, one time acting like we were asleep, or scared to death about to be eaten by a T-Rex, or bored
Thats our idea of fun, anyway! (We dont get out much
.)
OH YA!!!! We had an EXCITING DIS-celebrity sighting!!!! One of our favorite DIS-peeps showed up for her exclusive cameo!!!!! Heres a short video snippit of her! It was suppose to be a mystery DISpeep but we couldn't get it to work just right, so PLAY ALONG... (click on this, please)
At the TT exit, you are dumped into what looks like an upscale car sales dealership. I went straight for the Big-Bird yellow Mama Hummer!!! Where we traditionally take pictures of me inside making bull-horns with my fingers or waving at my fans
what have you. ONLY a monkey-wrench got THROWN into my devine plan! My DH goes to get in too to pose for MY picture too. So, I said, I just want one of only ME then you can join me so we can get one together
but, DH only chose to hear, I only want one of me
SO! DH has a slight pissy-fit and exits out of MY ride! (what-EVER!!!!!) So DS17 takes our usual pictures. As soon as DH was distracted by something shiney with 4 wheels and a lot of chrome, I acted like I was yelling at him and having extreme road rage
. (honest, I WAS just pretending!) I did all kinds of arm, chin, and finger gestures!
(Which made Norah laugh because she has a huge sign language vocabulary!)
Since I had heard theres now Missions to Space at Epcot where you are actually put in a deep sleep and gone for YEARS yet only mere minutes, I was ALL over it! I was good and doped on Dramamine and wanting to test it out. A trip to the red planet ought to be a pretty good test!
DH and I went team ORANGE, and Dallen and Riley got to go (wimp) GREEN by themselves. Jordan wouldnt chance it after last years mission experience!
So we were briefed and totally amazed theyd let just any-body GO TO MARS! Disney must have some mighty good liability issues with that, Im thinking! So I walked my babys as far as I could without being on the wimp side myself
and told Jordan to meet them at the exit. Dh and I went for the orange side. Bravely, with our shoulders squared we went for our briefing. I was chosen to be the navigator. Which, if you know me in real life, would know this is a very ironic position for me to be assigned to!!! (right, SpongeMama???) DH was the Pilot, which went STRAIGHT to his head, by the way. (Gee, honey, I hope you dont screw this up by not pushing your two CRITICAL buttons that light up on time!!!!) This ride is indescribable! Although, I m pretty sure Gary Sinese winked at me (just me)
giving me the confidence I needed to push my own two critical red-lit up buttons for our successful mission. It was NOT that bad G-force wise. I am glad for the success of the Dramamine, though. I was not even dizzy at all.
We met up with the boys who declared the GREEN side cool in the space themed exit/dump shop. Theres actually a lot of fun air-conditioned activities to do here. Whilst the boys played some interactive space video games, I discovered the video post card center you can e-mail your friends! HOT DANG! I had planned to send TwinkieMama a virtual post card and DH wanted to do it too. So I chose one that could fit both of us. So the first time we did it, I made the loser sign with my thumb and pointer finger on my forehead and the pointed to him with my thumb! I WAS JUST JOKING, but he didnt think it was a BIT funny!!! So we re-played the mini-video and its all fun and waving tp the screen and then I basically call my DH a loser and start laughing and his face is raging mad and he looks at me and mouths the words HEY! That wasnt funny at all! I almost pushed SUBMIT to send it to Twinkie (THAT would have been a fine howdyado!) but I graciously said. Lets just do it again. So my friend got this virtual postcard of us just standing there (special bus) waving
and I think I mouthed something like How
are
you? Kinda boring. At least now she would believe I dont have an imaginary husband?! She can tell her side of it (please Twinkie??).
Next it was time to CHILL out at Club Cool. Yes, this is the day we took my famous diet Pepsi signature picture! (It was this close to being the road rage mama in a Hummer picture, so be thankful!) The only minor mistake this place has is it screams Coca-Cola! Vintage Coke, Coke Monopoly games, Red and White every-thing ((shudder))! So, in the cooler in the basket of my stroller was my secret stash of something GOOD to drink. And I got an idea! Hey, DH! Take my picture acting like I want to REPLACE all this swill and drink me an ice cold diet Pepsi!!!!! So he did (after rolling his eyes), and you see the result of that fine choice many, many times a day in my signature line!
Heres Rileys reaction to the soda called Beverly:
Its very bitter, as you may well know for yourself! Dont reach for THIS one if you are parched! It is a very good trick to play on unsuspecting family members! (File THAT little tid-bit for any future extended family magical gatherings!!!) I would LOVE to someday read a chapter heading to someones trip report titled: WE PUNKED GRANDPA!!!
It was time to go to a TOP SECRET location (in Canada, second floor, 16 paces North East) to get started on our very covert objective (to stop 2 bad guys from destroying the world
good thing they chose US!!!) We received a sophisticated cell phone and signed a document saying we agree to pay for it if we lost it or damaged it, had to give a credit card for security. Hmmmm. We had to go from one point to another to solve a mini-mystery of one sort or another. Once in France we were told to stand next to the luggage by the lake and our cell phone rang and showed us a picture of US! There is a camera mounted at the top of Le Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower). COOL!
The secret mission took us around the World Showcase to different points. Mostly, I didnt participate. I was in my favorite place in Walt Disneys World and there was shopping to do. Foreign CMs to mess with.
In France we saw the chair guys. Very exciting to watch! At what point did they realize they had a unique talent? Hey Pierre, I think we should make a tower of wooden chairs 3 stories high and climb up to the top and stand on our heads, what do you think? THAT, John-Luke, is a tres bon idea! (Note, there is a show called "Jack a**" just full of such conversations on MTV)
We ate lunch at the Boulangerie. It was tres bon! We all had ham and cheese croissants, which had a shmear of mayo. and grated cheese on TOP of the sandwich. I ordered as much as my 4 years of High School French would allow me to
.my shining moment to FINALLY speak French to a french collage student after YEARS of anticipation! I did such a great job ordering pig and fomage on two pieces of tire tread with a side order of holy socks! That CM didnt even flinch!
For dessert, I chose the Abricotine (an apricot pastry
very bon!) and DH picked the strawberry mousse. And the rest of the Clampets picked chocolate éclairs.
Right after lunch, Cinderella was standing in her character spot all alone! So Norah and I along with Ron-the-photographer went to her because the boys were needing to finish up their Kim Possible Mission. Here is Miss Norah with her favorite
When at the UK, we had Mary Poppins and Alice In Wonderland all to ourselves for pictures and autographs. The girl who played Alice was ON if you know what I mean! She totally engaged all of the kids fabulously!
Before I end this chapter, I have to add this about the Kim Possible experience. As a final reward for saving the planet, my boys each received a KP pin!!!! They are probably hard to find/valuable because not just anybody does the mission
.and Dallen and Riley TRADED their girl pins within minutes of receiving them!!!!! GEEEZ! At least Jordan kept his. Shes Hot.
Next, a fateful trip to the Boardwalk Villas to leave some pixie dust to a DIS peep coming in a couple of weeks
and I fainted!!!!! (DONT ASK!)
AND, our mis-adventures at Le Cellier!!!!
I am now considering punking my dh when we go one week from Monday to Apricot 
Though I may consider waiting till the family gathering in 2008 and punk my BIL from OK 
...DO TELL!!!
I have been reading in between loads of laundry. 
I didn't want the kids to walk around naked today. 
I can't believe they made you the navigator that is too funny. i will make a side note for future experiences um Navigator . I love the yellow hummer what a sweet ride and the road rage to dh that was real (i know you were'nt kidding) i have drove with ya rememeber ,,, 
kp i won't tell my lil princess she loves kp . she tells me that she is a princess too but a super secret agent princess (that is hilarious ). can't wait for the next installment ... kids go back on track tommorow . dh b-day also what a present. keep up the good work and as always darling picture of lil' miss attitude she looks so sweet ,an angel .. but i can see her lil horns holding up her halo 
