other stuff from the day

it was such a fun and busy day, here are some more pictures from our first day at disney! (this picture shows one of diana's favorite moments at magic kingdom: when the castle was lit up with pink lights!) pics: 1, 2

reflections of earth

epcot center closes at nine o'clock each night, and every night they cap off the day with an amazing fireworks show! we stuck around that night to see them, and they were pretty cool. at one point there is even a thirty foot globe that doubles as a video screen showing images from around the world. there is some cheesy song that plays, but the fireworks show is worth it!
after it was all over, diana called her mom and david to come and pick us up and we headed home to see barbara, nick, and grandma.

the maelstrom!!!

the maelstrom! for some reason, i remembered there being a little ride in one of the countries last time i was here, so diana and i decided to look for it. one of the nations represented at epcot is norway, and they have a little ride called 'the maelstrom', which depicts life in norway in the past and today. very unassuming and pleasant enough premise. little did we know what kind of rock-out awesomeness we were in store for!!! this picture is on the wall of the ride where you get on the viking ship to enter the maelstrom (the maelstrom!!!). what comese next is almost too amazing for words. this is, by far, the greatest ride in all of disney. in fact, i would even go out on a limb here and state that this is the greatest ride on the continent! we will definitely have to revisit this ride- many more times!!!

epcot at dusk

as the day went on, we found that we had seen everything at magic kingdom, so we hopped on the monorail over to epcot! last time i was in disney i enjoyed this park the most, so i was eager to check it out again. as diana and i arrived it was already getting a bit dark. we walked around for a bit, went on one of the rides, and then made our way to the world showcase. they have little areas for eleven countries from around the world, complete with shops that sell stuff from the different places, and restaurants with that country's food. we were getting hungry and found a neat little place to eat in the morocco area! the food was fantastic, and diana really loved the baklavah!

crunch collection

last time i was at disney i had a fascination with these little machines. what you do is you put two quarters in it and a penny, crank the wheel, and out come pennies crunched with a new image on it! i dont know why they interested me so much back then, but i still havent gotten over it. where ever i go when i travel i look for one of these penny crunchers. i have amassed quite a collection by now, with pennies from disney, colorado, las vegas, lincoln's tomb, chicago, washington state, texas, st. lewis, and a couple more. now that i'm back at disney, i have been fiendishly collecting them again! here i found one at tomorrowland with the three eyed aliens from toy story! what a random collection i have...

the future, today!

diana and i wondered our way through disney's fantasyland and finally made our way to the last part of the magic kingdom: tomorrowland. i was geared up and excited for this last area. last time i had been here it was a great time with the guys. and as a sci-fi nerd, i figured something called 'tomorrowland' would be pretty cool! turns out, its not that special. tomorrowland seems to be what they thought the future would be like back in the 60's, very retro. we got there and realized that there is not much to it at all. we wandered around for a bit, went on the carousel of progress (which was amazingly lame), and gave up. back to the rest of the parks for us!
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stroller kingdom

i know its to be expected, but it still caught me by surprise. the majority of people at disney are families, and the majority of families seemed to have at least one young child with them. and it seems that where ever there is a young child, there must also be a stroller filled to the brim with junk! strollers were everywhere! i think the biggest hazard at disney isnt the fear of hurting yourself on a ride, the real hazard is from the strollers running into you! yikes! some of those moms pushing strollers just seem to be aiming for peoples ankles! at each of the rides there were even places to park the strollers while you go on the rides. this is a photo of one such 'stroller park', but this was only one of many!

taking it easy in disney

after lunch we used our fast pass to get in the fast line for one of diana's favorite rides: big thunder mountain railroad! we really enjoyed the short lines for all the rides. we werent in too much of a hurry all day, so we were able to take it slow and just enjoy the time together in such a fun place!
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liberty fish

after wandering around the magic kingdom for a while, we were both really hungry! there are tons of little restaurants and food stands through out the park, so we had a bunch of options. we ended up going to the liberty tree tavern- they had fish! yum! it was a cool place that had an upstairs where you could eat. we found a table by a window so we could look over this area of the park and see a great view. after lunch, it was back to the park where more fun awaited us!
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a day of magic

it had been two years since diana had been to disney. in fact, when we first started chatting with each other online for the first time, she was actually down here with her family! for me its been a bit longer since i was down here in disney. i went about ten years ago with a bunch of buddies (sidestreet guys forever!). we both wandered through the magic kingdom so happy to be there, remembering all the memories from visits past, sharing them and telling each other stories of the fun and craziness! we wandered through main street, then over to adventureland and frontierland, then liberty square.
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

welcome to disney world

saturday morning we were let loose on the park- it was just diana and i, and we wanted to make the most of our first day! mom and david dropped us off at the entrance for the magic kingdom. they had plans for the day to stock the house with groceries, pick up barbara and nick from the airport, and go get grandma so she could come and stay with us for a couple days!
when diana and i arrived at the gates, we purchased our tickets (5 day passes) and found the right monorail, and we were off!

the vacation begins

friday i raced home from school. why? well, because my wife and i had some big plans for the weekend. we were going to disney land! we were gearing up for a long weekend at the happiest place on earth! when i got home my wife, her mom and david, were all waiting there for me ready to wisk me away to the airport- we had a 6:30 plane to catch! fortunately we got there in plenty of time, which was a good thing since diana had some problems with her ticket and we needed that time to sort it all out. barbara and nick were supposed to join us at the airport, but when barbara called us they hadnt even left south bend yet. oops. they had to switch their tickets to the next morning, but everything worked out well and they joined us saturday. everything else went smoothly though, and we arrived in orlando later that night. when we got there we got a rental car and headed out to find the rental house david had booked for us for the week. we arrived at the house and it was huge! like excited kids we wandered around the house checking out all the bedrooms. we picked the second best room (mom and david got the best one, of course!) and unpacked. we didnt stay up for too much longer that night, after all, we had a big day at the magical kingdom ahead of us!
[ed. note: content corrected for factual accuracy]

ali's reception

over christmas break one of the teachers i work with got married. she and her husband are not from around here, they actually are both from oregon, so they had their wedding up there with family. they didn't want to leave out all their friends here in indiana, so they had a small reception at their church here after christmas break. diana and i went to celebrate with them on this saturday evening. they showed some photos from the wedding, as well as the video of their childhood pictures. we all had some cake and enjoyed the time together. congratulations again, ali and jeremy! hey, another married couple? -want to hang out sometime?

miranda and levi drop by

sunday miranda and levi stopped by for dinner with the family. diana's aunt, uncle, and grandma were supposed to be with us for the weekend, but the 10 inches of snow that came pouring down friday and saturday left them stuck down where they live. since there was so much extra food, mom and david insisted that miranda and levi stop by and help get rid of some of it! we had fun talking and catching up with everyone that afternoon.
since miranda was around, she and diana made plans to color each other's hair! so all that night the two of them were cutting, coloring, and tinkering away in the kitchen- i think they were at it for about six hours or so! yikes!
now that the weekend is over, its time for me to head back to work. it sure has been a ton of fun and another great christmas vacation!
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gifts and such

since diana's mom and david were visiting alanna over christmas weekend we didnt get a chance earlier to exchange gifts with them. this weekend we found the time when all of us were there together. a tradition that diana and her family have always had is gift stockings. her mom and david got all of us a stocking filled with fun little gifts which we had a great time unwrapping and playing with!
one of the gifts i got that afternoon from nick was the new 'star trek' on dvd. mom and david hadnt seen it yet, so that night we gathered around the living room and had a great time watching it- i loved it cause i'm a trek nerd, they both loved it because of the clever references to the old tv show. it was really a great night!
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