M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E HERE WE COME!!!

Sorry guys that haven't updated in quite a while. For those of you who are close to us, I'm sure you understand why I haven't updated in a few weeks. For those of you that don't know - a lot has happened in the last 4 weeks of our life. Here is a list of a few things...we sold our house (yeah!), photographed two weddings out of town, Michael went to Dallas for a week for work while Hunter and I went to Fort Mill, and then for one of those weeks we were experiencing one of the best vacations I have ever been on!!! We took Hunter to see his favorite person - "EE" or Mickey Mouse for those of you that don't know that what Hunter calls Mickey! It was an amazing week and we had some much fun! We took about 550 pictures between three cameras but don't worry I didn't include them all! :) Although it felt like I needed to include about 50 more to get all of the things in I wanted to. Oh well, here we go...

First of all, it was the first time flying for three of our family members - Aunt Amy, Mimi, and Hunter. We flew out of Charlotte on Airtran and flew directly in to Orlando International. Since we were staying at a Disney Resort, a shuttle took us directly from the airport to our resort. That was nice and we didn't even have to go to baggage claim. They delivered the baggage right to our room!
I think all three really enjoyed flying for the first time! It was good weather so that made it much easier to enjoy. Hunter was so funny b/c I don't think he actually knew we were on the "Vroom Vroom." He could see them outside the window of the plane and kept pointing and saying "vroom vroom," like he would really like to ride on one of those things Mama and Daddy! haha He did great on the plane and really liked the pretzels and drink!
So to kind of explain our trip: We arrived on Sunday, Oct. 11. We first went to Animal Kingdom on Monday. We rode Mt. Everest, did the Safari ride, saw a Lion King show and a few other things. Then we headed over to Magic Kingdom Monday afternoon for Hunter to really understand we were there to see Mickey!
The monorail was not working, so we took the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. It was a pretty day for a boat ride and you could really see the castle. Hunter was very excited! As you can see below, we tried to get a picture with each person and Hunter in front of the castle, but he was way too interested in looking at everything all around him!

Hunter, Mama, and Daddy!

Aunt Amy and Hunter!

Mimi, Pop, and Hunter!

Since I had visited Disney World a few times since being a small kid, I wasn't really familiar with how to find out where the characters were to see them, BUT we QUICKLY found out! In "Toon Town" is where Minnie and Mickey's houses are and you can actually go to visit them! This is where the whole trip was made for me...seeing Hunter's face light up when he saw Mickey and Minnie! I am not sure I have ever seen him so happy! It was "priceless"!

We had seen a couple of characters at Animal Kingdom, but none he recognized. It was as if he had known Mickey and Minnie his whole life. He walked right up to both of them and gave them a huge hug and an even bigger smile! That very moment was worth every penny we spent going to Disney!

You know he loved them to stand in the middle of them without his Mama and Daddy not holding on to him!!

For some reason he had a fascination with Mickey's nose. Each time we saw Mickey or even on Mickey's mailbox, Hunter wanted to take a hold of it! haha

We stayed at the Pop Century Resort on Disney property. It was one of their value resorts, but we really enjoyed it! It really had some neat things around the resort to explore and look at.

We stopped by for a few games of Twister. It was actually a huge game of Twister made into the cement. Mimi, Pop, Amy, and Daddy will appreciate me just putting a picture of Hunter playing instead of each one of them! haha :)

It is called Pop Century b/c each set of hotel buildings has each own decade like the 50's, 60's, 70's, etc. Hunter was excited to see a keyboard on the ground near the pool of the 90's. He even found and sat for a picture by the "H!"

Here Daddy and Hunter posed for a picture inside the wheel of a Hot Wheel! It was huge and I couldn't get it all in the picture or Hunter and Daddy would have looked like ants!


This is what Hunter looked like in the morning as he shot out of bed and was ready to get the day started! He was so happy that he could just bounce right out of the bed and head through the adjoining door to Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Amy's room to wake them up!






Wednesday morning was a little rough for Hunter. He ran a fever but soon found out that we believed it just to be teeth. His fever lasted for most of the day but he was a trooper through it all! This was the day that we started out at Hollywood Studios or MGM as I knew it as. Hunter actually got to hang out with Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Amy most of that morning. You'll see later on down why this is.
Aunt Amy, Mimi, and Pop took Hunter to a Playhouse Disney performance with all of his favorite characters and shows - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, Handy Manny, and Little Einsteins! He ended up watching this performance twice because he liked it so much!

You can see how excited he got over the Playhouse Disney show!

Mimi and Pop got to take their picture with Mickey this time! Hunter thought it was cool to see Mickey in that hat!

Now for the reason why Hunter hung out with Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Amy most of Wednesday morning....
Daddy tried out for Hollywood Studios latest show...the American Idol Experience. He originally tried out for it b/c they were auditioning for it while we were waiting in line that morning to get into the park. They told people that if they made it past the first round, then the rest of our group would get in to the park early. So of course, we talked him in to auditioning to get us in first! He sang his song and sure enough - he made it to the second round!!! YEAH DADDY!!!
So while Hunter, Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Amy went to ride some rides and see some shows, Michael and I headed to the studio for his round two audition. He had to go to the "Coca Cola" room and pick two songs to listen to on the ipod. When he had two songs picked out and was ready, he went to the producer and sang them both. After talking with the producer and singing the songs, Ryan Seacrest came on the TV and told him congrats he had made it to the show!! So Michael got to be one of the 3 performers in the 11:00 show. The producer of the show thought he should sing Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray! haha! :) After making it, he and I had to shoot a video for the audience to see before he performed. It was silly but fun! The video guy says it really is just like in Hollywood like the read American Idol.
He showed Michael the "golden ticket" he would have received had he won the overall daily show. They told him that if he won his show and then the 7:00 performance, he really would receive a ticket to Hollywood to the real American Idol!! crazy!! Michael even went through a "hair and make-up" session, along with lessons with a voice coach! It really was something he will never forget!
Michael did so good! He dedicated his song to Hunter. It was so sweet b/c they showed Hunter up on the big screen to everyone when they talked about his song dedication!

Well the audience really didn't call in to vote but instead had a voting pad right on the arm rest where they were sitting. So each person in the show got to vote for their favorite.
Michael didn't end up winning but he did a great job and we were very proud of him! A lady that came to the park just to try out for American Idol actually ended up winning. You could tell that she had rehearsed her song and dance hoping to be on the show long before she ever got to the park. Even though Michael thought it took too long and wasted part of the day, I definitely think it was worth it. Not many people can say that they performed on American Idol at Disney!
Wednesday afternoon, we headed over to Epcot to eat "linner" at the World Showcase. We were looking forward to getting some Chinese or Japanese food. However once we got there and looked at the menu, we decided we were Americans at heart and ended up eating chicken and BBQ at the Liberty Inn (American food) instead!


While Daddy, Pop, and Aunt Amy rode Mission Space and Test Track, Mimi and I took Hunter to stand in line for the character greeting area in Epcot. The line was 45 minutes long and the person at the door said that would be smallest amount of wait you would really ever see! So we stood in line and let Hunter see these characters...

Mickey - even though it was the 3rd time seeing Mickey, Hunter was still amazed with him!


Minnie Mouse!

Pluto!

Goofy!

Here are a few more pics of characters Hunter met throughout the week...Daisy!

Donald Duck!

Eeyore and Tigger!

Thursday was a sad day...our last day at Disney! :( Even though we stayed until Saturday morning, it was our last day in the parks. This picture was taken at the end of the day, but I still like this family pic in front of the castle!

Hunter liked that all of the pumpkins in the Magic Kingdom were shaped like Mickey! Since it was close to Halloween, Disney does a "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween" thing at night. We didn't stay for it b/c it cost extra but the Magic Kingdom was definitely decorated for it!

As you can see above, Hunter enjoyed eating on our vacation as well. He wasn't so happy about eating the celery but really liked dipping it into the ranch and then licking it off! haha. We really lucked up b/c it was Disney's free dining plan time. So each day we were able to have 2 meals and 2 snacks. At first we were wondering how that would be enough, but believe me, it was WELL ENOUGH!! That was definitely the way to go though!

Pop and Hunter definitely had to get their picture in front of one of the motel signs! By the end of the week, Hunter was spelling P-O-P "Pop!"
Hunter wanted his picture in front of the "ball." All week long, he thought we were passing a ball instead of a yo-yo at our motel!


On Tuesday, we went to Sea World. Since we did not have a car rented, we had to take the city bus from Downtown Disney. It actually wasn't as scary as I had imagined. When we first arrived, Hunter got his picture with Shamu! He was amazed with him!

The Shamu show was great as always! It is just so amazing to see such large trained animals!

The dolphin show is also a favorite of ours! They had some really good gymnasts doing tricks as well from a diving platform.

Hunter hanging out with Pop during a show!

Friday was a relaxing day after going, going, going all week. We decided to visit Downtown Disney for part of the day. There we got a t-shirt made for Hunter. Outside the t-shirt shop was this cute picture opportunity!

Here is a picture of Hunter in his "MY FIRST VISIT" shirt that we made for him that day!

Aunt Amy and Hunter got their picture with Buzz Lightyear in front of a huge toy store!

When we got back from Downtown Disney, Daddy, Hunter, and I decided to get in the pool. Some people might wonder why we were swimming in the middle of October, but it was actually 95-100 degrees all week long in Orlando! The picture above is when Hunter decided he was finished swimming.

He decided he would rather get out and chase the ducks around the pool deck. The ducks had actually been in the pool with us too...kind of strange to me but the lifeguards said they are there most of the time. Finally the ducks took off into the sky to get away from Hunter!

Well that about rounds up the week. It was GREAT and I cannot wait to go back one day! I look forward to more amazing vacations with our family! It was definitely a trip I will never forget! Thanks to Hunter, Daddy, Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Amy for making this such a wonderful trip!