Photo Pass Pics...

We went ahead and bought the Photo Pass cd partly because there were a few pictures that turned out better than our own and partly because you could add the characters signatures to the photos and other fun borders!

This one of Owen with Lightning was a must-have.  The car would rev his engine and get pretty loud.  When you stood by the cars, the noise was pretty deafening thanks to an overhang above the cars.  So, in the shots Dave got, Owen had one hand covering his ear.  I was thrilled to see that the Photo Pass people got a shot before the noise started!

How cute is this shot with Mickey's signature! ;O)

The only down side was that you could only put one signature per photo.  I have to figure out how to photoshop Winnie-the-Pooh's signature in to Shawn's photo!

First Time Shooting!

I was out of town on a girl's weekend last weekend and Dave decided to take our little man shooting for the first time.  We'd hoped to do it last summer, but, it seemed like every time we had the opportunity, it would pour on us.

I was proud of Dave for getting these shots...he went alone and had to use a tripod and everything.  Owen was absolutely in heaven.  He was so proud he finally got to shoot with his dad and seemed to love every second of it.  He was still beaming when I got home.  I asked him which gun he preferred shooting and he told me the rifle...go figure! ;O)

MGM

We didn't end up spending much time at all at MGM.  It's not got a lot of rides, mostly shows that require you to stand in line for an hour just to get a seat.  So, we kind of skipped out on the main portions of the park by doing so.  However, we did make a point for Owen to ride the new Toy Story ride there, which was incredible!!!  And Shawn and Dave rode the Rock'N'Roller Coaster.  Shawnie really wanted to do the Tower of Terror, but, Dave and I both turned her down...

I did take her picture in a Goofy hat though! ;O)

You got to love the city scapes in MGM, the pictures certainly turn out realistic looking!

 This is Dave and Owen on one of the Disney Shuttle buses coming back from the park.  I swear, if all we had done was ride the shuttle buses, Owen would have completely happy!

Happy Easter!

Hope you are all enjoying the day!!  We kind of did our Easter celebration last night with my family and are having a lazy day today.  We dyed eggs at my aunts house with Owen's 5 cousins and new baby cousin (close enough to be a cousin anyway).  It's funny how an only child slides into a room with 6 other kiddos as if he spends every day with them...he absolutely loves Sherry's kids and honestly, you wouldn't really know he wasn't one of hers to look at them.  He's right between the 2 youngest and gets along with all of them.  Of course, he still wants to take baby Makenna home with us every time we leave!  ;O)

This morning we found a basket full of goodies from the Easter Bunny and lots of hidden eggs, although, Owen seems to think it was us.  He doesn't seem to have any thought that there's such a thing as an Easter Bunny.  Not sure how we blew that one.  Oh well, one less thing to confess as he gets older! ;O)

Souveniers!

I have lots more photos to go through of our trip, but, I just haven't had the motivation.  I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the "loot" Owen came home with in the mean time.  

So, these cars were more my thing than his I think, I told him he could pick 3 initially, but, they weren't the ones I wanted him to pick! ;O)  So, I sent him back for 3 more later...still, not exactly my top choices, but I had to let it go!  I'd never seen cars like these before.  They had a car for every Disney character you could imagine, they even have a Star Wars line!  From the left, Owen chose Pluto, Wall-E, the pig from Toy Story (I think anyway), Nemo, and scale size models of the monorail and the shuttle bus we took to the parks.  There were SO many to choose from and I can tell you, only 2 of the 6 he picked were on my favorites list!!  I really wanted him to get a Mickey car, but, he wasn't having it...I didn't think we needed the monorail or shuttle bus for sure!!

We of course got him some ears with his name embroidered on the back and a Mickey sweatshirt..."Shampu" he picked himself.  He's usually into little stuffdies and I told him he could pick one Shamu to take home, I didn't expect him to pick the biggest one in the store!!  What can you do!  We'd already planned to bring home a second piece of luggage, so, it wasn't the end of the world, but, definitely not convenient!! ;O)

Character Parade...

Owen was so funny about the characters he'd take pictures with and who he would refuse to get close to!    But, he was thrilled with the ones he visited!

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

For the first 7 nights, we stayed at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort a Mexican/Mayan themed resort right between the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios/Epcot.  Shawn was really disappointed in the room size for the price, but having stayed in the Animal Kingdom Lodge during our previous trip, Dave and I knew what to expect and were pleased.  The room itself was tiny, outdated, and could have been cleaner.  But, the grounds were amazing and I would definitely stay here again.  Plus, you're really paying for the bus service to and from all the parks (which is just SUPER convenient), the early openings/late closings just for resort guests, and most importantly during peak season...Fast Passes!!  The fast passes saved our whole trip, it would have been miserable to stand in the lines...some of the wait times were as much as 90 minutes, but with our passes, we'd wait no more than 5 or 10 minutes.

Here's some pictures of the hotel grounds....

 

I love how the Disney hotels are kind of an "experience", they definitely go the extra mile customer service wise and all the details of their resorts are amazing!

Owen LOVED the pool area...I didn't take too many pictures there, but, it was pretty amazing.  They had a playground off to the left of this Mayan temple and a water slide that wrapped around the temple and emptied right on the right side of the picture.  To the right of the pool was an area for the little ones where they had water that squirted out of the ground to run around in...know what I am talking about?  There was also a hot tub and a bar as well as two additional pools on the grounds.  We could have just spent our vacation at the pool!

This is just a random extra...there were lizards EVERYWHERE!!  I counted 7 between the hotel and the car one day.  Owen really enjoyed them.  You should have heard the croaking at night, there must have been hundreds or even thousands of frogs there too, although, we only ever saw one!  We also saw 2 hummingbirds while we were there, I just LOVE them!