The Mickey Adventure Day 4

This morning was our breakfast with Mickey and friends at the Contemporary Resort!  It was a little frazzling getting there even though the breakfast was close to 10am due to travel times and just exhaustion from the night before!  The sky was so blue and beautiful this morning and we have fond memories of eating here when the big kids were very little!  We enjoyed the characters so much and the food was delicious..especially the Mickey Waffles!  Caelyn, Cam and Corey all did well with hugging the characters and asking for autographs.  Corey really liked Donald Duck the best.  The buffet was wonderful and we enjoyed sitting for some time after eating and just resting up a bit before we went on with our day.

Cam had not found anything he liked and kept saying "Cam not find something" and then...

He found the perfect thing..a little kids' set of Star Wars figures..it was so adorable watching him walk out of the Contemporary with his little bag in hand..so proud!

We headed to Hollywood Studios for the rest of the day.  None of us had even been there before (not even 11 years ago when we visited Disney) so it was a bit confusing and overwhelming for us.  We also were feeling some of the effects of tiredness from the previous days but ended up having a good day together!

One of the things we had been looking forward to was the Muppet 3D show.  Ever since we watched the new Muppet movie, Corey has loved them and he calls himself "Waffle the Muppet".

See he really is about the same size as Walter the Muppet! We enjoyed a Studio Backlot Tour which showed a bit about film making and special effects (which our older boys really enjoyed) and then went to Toy Story Mania which was an amazing game/ride (here we were super thankful for the Corey Pass since there was a 100 minute wait and we bypassed the entire wait!)  I had the privilege of beating my teen son who rode in the car with me on that ride and it was a fun experience!

Our younger ones really enjoyed the Disney Clubhouse stage show (and our older kids were great sports to go along with us!)  After this we looked at the schedules and realized we'd have to split up.  We had bought a cell phone with some prepaid minutes in case we needed to separate so we sent the older 3 off for 2 hrs on their own.  They enjoyed the Star Wars ride and then a cars stunt show (which would have been too intense and loud for our younger ones).  While they were busy, we took the little ones to see the Beauty and the Beast show and we had front row seats!!!!  

Cam told me to take a picture of the teapot and the cup..he whispered during the show "you and me"..what a sweet boy!  He had some serious wiggles today!  I think he was tired and that was his way of expressing it!  Afterwards we took the little ones to the Little Mermaid show which they also enjoyed.  We made our way back to the Indiana Jones stunt set and our older kids finally made it back to us!  All of the kids enjoyed the show since we sat in the back of the seating to keep the noise levels down (and used headphones).  I think the older boys really enjoyed the behind the scenes aspects of movie making throughout the day.  We were all very tired today but made it work.  I think overall Hollywood Studios is a great place for shows and a few wonderful rides, but as a family we found the part overall to be very hard to navigate and very overwhelming from the layout, to the overall noise as well as less "Disney" like.   We did enjoy the shows that we saw but decided that it wasn't a park that we'd go back to for a 2nd day on this trip.

Corey happily eating raisins during the Indiana Jones stunt show :)

Some funny memories of this day:  Caelyn explaining that a tram was "like a train without seat belts..and there is no smoking, no drinking and no eating" (clearly she is listening to the instructions).  Cam being very serious on the tram each night and insisting that the driver said to take off all hats and glasses..and he dutifully obeys..maybe I should start talking to him via microphone so he can focus on what I'm saying :)  Chels..when we were deciding about jackets vs. no jackets...says "well I found that either you need a sweatshirt or you don't" (umm that clears a lot up Chels!)  Corey ending each day very perky while everyone else sleeps on the way back to the house and he suddenly pipes up and starts his sentence saying...."Well...." and then proceeds to share his day and the things he remembers.  It's so cute!

We actually got back to the house in time to snap some before bedtime pictures of the kids here (they have a few Disney themed rooms that the little ones enjoy!)

Don't you love the new additions to our fam???  Chels stayed up doing some college class work while the boys and Dad and Mom went for a late night swim ...ahhh heated pools are an amazing thing!!!