The Big Trip! Days 5 & 6

 On Tuesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. It was all decorated for Halloween/Fall and looked AMAZING!

 Waiting for the morning show:

 Sasha and Teddy plan their day:

 The morning show was WEAK!! The major came out, but there were no dancers, no "Good morning" song, and the train didn't come it! What??? So I was a bit bummed but that first glimpse of the castle took all my blues away.

 Can't wait to get there!

 We headed straight to Dumbo for a first ride of the day.

 Then we headed toward frontierland

 This is how we kept the children under control!

 Then onto Splash! This may be my all time favorite ride pic.

 Big thunder!

 Then we wandered back to Liberty Square.

We checked out the Hall of Presidents and then ate lunch at the Columbia Harbor House. I could tell that my Dad was getting it when he said "the atmosphere is just so 'up'!!" That's my favorite thing about the MK. Just being there and listening to the background music and everyone and everything around you being so happy and jubilant. At that moment a marching band came out a side door and started playing some wonderful music. It never stops!
We headed toward the central hub:

All of a sudden the speakers came on all around us and we hear "HEY! Get up! Get Loud, Start Pumping up the party now..." And super fun music starts playing. So we knew "Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it" was about to come around the corner. So we hung out and had a spontaneous dance party and I loved it!

We rode the Carousel of Progress and then headed out of the park. But on the way out ice cream was calling. Had to stop on Main Street!

Everyone had a great rest back at the resort because we had a big night ahead of us.  It was Mom and Dad's anniversary so we sent them to Narcoosee's for their Anniversary dinner.

Team Stolasz meanwhile headed back to the MK for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

 We ate dinner at the plaza.

 And then raced into Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain and start Trick or Treating!

 Space!

 Trick or Treating at the party was so much fun! They scooped giant hand fulls of candy into our bags and they were full after only 3 or 4 stations!

I always have to fall on the grenade and take the kids for a spin on the teacups.

 And of course we had to visit the Haunted Mansion on Halloween:

Then it was time to snag a spot for Hallowishes. Jeff attracted many young fans who lined up to have their picture taken with him. This happened more than once and I think it's like totally against the rules but when you're fabulous you just have to go with it right?

 We had to get Sasha a Pascal to make her outfit complete. She was so happy!

 Then Hallowishes began. I was blown away!

After the fireworks we headed down Main Street to get a good spot for the Boo to You parade.

While we were waiting the kids and I wandered around a bit and we got this great shot:

Then Teddy and I went into the candy shop and he was so lusting after the M&M's that the cast member working there gave him a free bag! That's Disney Magic....

 Then the parade started in the Spookiest way imaginable. The Headless Horseman rode right down Main Street.

 The Boo to You Parade is the single best Disney Parade I have EVER SEEN.

The performers had so much energy and the music was infectious.

Then we finally gave up and headed home. We felt like this:

The next day was our rest day (as if!). In the morning I went for a run and I ran over to the entrance to the Studios and the Mater and McQueen topiary was gone! In it's place was a massive, gorgeous Christmas tree! It's like we went to bed on Halloween and woke up the very next day to Christmas. Those Disney elves must be speedy!

We had a nice, lazy morning at the resort. I knew my Dad was fully hooked when I caught him watching the DVC propoganda channel. The woman was saying in her overly perky voice:
"If you could go anywhere on Earth, where would you want to go?"
Dad to T.V. -
"Right. Here!".
Ahhh Success!! We headed to breakfast at the Cape May Cafe.

 The food was awesome and the characters were hilarious. Here's me and my fav. I told him that we had a hot date lined up in 2013 and he was psyched!

 Donald actually sat down with this guy because his wife was getting food. He was so funny! Then he couldn't get up again!

 The meeting of the 2 ducks:

 All the characters were in their best beachy attire of course.

 After breakfast we headed to the pool! The Beach club pool goes on forever. One area has a sandy bottom and some sand bars to play on.

 And to get to the slide you have to cross the sidewalk, go up to the crow's nest of a ship and then slide down the mast back into the main pool!

 Sasha heading down:

 View of the Boardwalk from the Crow's nest. What a beautiful day!

Then we decided that for lunch we wanted Food and Wine booth food so we headed into Epcot for a leisurely, mellow lap of World Showcase. Here's us in France:

 Of course Germany had to be a pit-stop. Their booth featured a bratwurst on a pretzel roll. Heaven!

 Beer and Pretzels!

Then into Mexico. Jeff and I both thought that the Spicy Shrimp Taco at the Mexico booth was one of the best things at the Food and Wine fest.

 I had every intention of getting people down for naps before La Nouba and Fulton's Crabhouse. I really did. But we had so much fun at Epcot that we just didn't make it. La Nouba was MIND-BLOWING! If you're ever at WDW please just go see it. After that though, the kids were shattered. They got to the restaurant and pretty much asked to lie down and sleep on the benches. We rush ordered their food and managed to get a few bites into them.

 Pasta shield. When Sasha gets tired, food gets everywhere!

 Then after a few bites this happened. Then we had a kid-free meal with adult conversation. Hey, not so bad a plan after all!

 Our waiter was fantastic and he saw my parents' anniversary pins and brought them a special dessert. They got the royal treatment wherever they went!

The Big Trip! Days 3 & 4

Sunday morning was the official start of the big trip - no more Jet lag coddling days. Mickey brought us Pin Lanyards and we were ready to start trading! We packed our bags and dropped them with Bell services to be dropped off at our next resort.

Then we headed to Downtown Disney. The very first event on my Parent's First Trip to Disney Extravaganza was the House of Blues Hallelujah Gospel Brunch. What a great way to start the trip! We ate an excellent breakfast and listened to some fantastic Gospel music. It was so good I forgot to take pictures because I couldn't eat, dance and take photos all at the same time! Lisa didn't get in until 1pm so we had an extra ticket and my friend Larissa was able to join us for the breakfast. It was so good to see her.

Next we headed to the Beach Club Villas, our home for the next 5 nights. We checked in and just as we were about to head to our Villa a Magical Express Bus pulled up and my mom said "let's just see if Lisa is on it." And she was! Perfect timing!

We got all settled in and then took a boat to the studios.

 The first thing we saw when we got off the boat was this amazing Topiary with McQueen and Mater.
 We had to stop and get our first photopass picture of the trip.

We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show and then ate dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. What a fun restaurant! The whole place is themed to look like your grandmother's kitchen in the 1950's. When they called us they yelled "Stolasz kids - time to eat!" and we came running.

Our waiter was hysterical. He made us set the table and then yelled at us for various infractions. It was an excellent meal.

After dinner we rode Star Tours. There were some real life stormtroopers outside!

This was Jeff's first time on Star Tours II. He loved it!

Then we decided to try to snag seats for the first showing of Fantasmic. We got there just in time and got a pretty good spot. Fantasmic is something we always try to do on our first night. It's such an incredible show!

Then we headed over for our first ride on the Rock and Roller Coaster. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, those are my PARENTS about to get on just behind Jeff and Sasha!

And then there's this guy. He has been wanting to ride this since his first trip when he was 3. He's been eating his veggies and everything but he wasn't quite there. We took smoothie caps and flipped them upside down and stuck then under the insoles of his shoes. Worked like a charm and Ted made it! He's sooo happy in this picture!

Love how nonchalant he looks compared to the rest of us!

The same can NOT be said of this crew... Dad looks like he's actually being tortured. (He loved it though...)

We did it!!

The next day we woke up and headed to the International Gateway of Epcot. Beach Club is an amazing resort in it's own right but to me the best thing about it is being able to walk in and out of Epcot right from your resort. This day was the only horrible weather day of the trip but it only lasted until noon. In the morning it was POURING! Jeff and I had a Segway tour but we were only able to do the training, not the tour around World Showcase because of the rain. Meanwhile I sent the rest of the gang to do some indoor attractions so they rode Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and Living with the Land until it was time to meet up. We were a bit soggy and cold by then so we got lunch and headed back to Beach Club to change. And then the rain stopped and the sun came out! We had a great afternoon touring World Showcase:

Dad and Mom loved the Germany Pavilion. We ate a lot of pretzels on this trip! And Dad got some beautiful wine glasses.

Germany:

 Perfect afternoon!

We headed back to Future World to eat at Coral Reef. Love the way the monorail goes right through Epcot. And look at that sky! Hard to believe it was raining so hard that morning!

Coral Reef sits up against the main Seas tank and so one entire wall of the restaurant is massive aquarium. This is just a tiny bit of it. There were some Scuba divers in the tank.

We had an amazing meal!

Sasha got to design her own Sundae!

After dinner I went to stake out my favorite spot in Canada for Illuminations and the rest of the crew rode Soarin' one more time and then came and met me. Lisa brought the kids some great light-up things to play with while we were waiting for the show.

Illuminations is such an incredible way to end a day at WDW. When I see it, it's my favorite night-time show. And then I see Wishes and THAT's my favorite. It's impossible to decide!

Early December

 There are all kinds of sleeping traditions right now. Teddy first. Ted has to leap into his bed each night and set up his "guarders". These are 4 animals which have to face out of the 4 corners of his bed. According to Ted the guarders watch out for dreams and keep all the bad ones away. He is hysterical scrambling to all 4 corners to set this thing up every night. They have to face outwards but the animals are interchangeable.

EXCEPT for the chicken. The Chicken guards the ladder. Always. And let's face it, the ladder is probably the weakest link in his whole bed defense so the chicken is one tough bird.

 Jeff and I have rationed Sasha to 5 sleeping toys at any one time. Because there is no room for her in her own bed. By the time we go into check her she has gotten out of bed, fetched all the exiles, and is waaaay over her quota. Don't know how she functions sleeping like this.

 Then there's this guy. This is his "I can't sleep because YOU left the lights on" pose so he sleeps with one paw over his eye. Oh the humanity...

We are trying to gear up for Christmas. It's soooo hard because there's just not much going on in Korea. No music or lights around town, no anything really so it's quite sad. But we're trying.

 We got a little tree and it's all decorated!

 And Santa came early for me this year. I FINALLY got a car!! I love it. It's a '04 Rezzo and it's got all the driving ease of a small car - easy to park and easy to swing a U-turn, but it's got a flip down 3rd row of seats for when you have more people around! I can take 7 passengers all with seat-belts!!
It's runs on propane (!). So I have to go to a special gas station that says LPG on it. I'm trying to figure out where all those propane gas stations are. But it fills up for $40!

Teddy had a cool Pre-Christmas project for school. We had to shop for cookies, crackers, and anything else they thought they could build a structure out of. Their class has been studying buildings. This is what he brought home:

 I thought it was excellent and he informed me that the red gummy bear on the marsh mellow on top is actually Santa coming down the chimney.

 My friend Cora had a gathering last Friday called "Christmas Cheer" Everyone came to her bungalow and we had Christmas treats and mulled wine ect. It was quite nice. I wanted to make my traditional Christmas castle for the kids but my Korean oven is so small that I literally can't bake a castle wall in it. So I took pictures of her bungalow:

 And made that instead! I had to lug a lot of stuff from the U.S. - you can't get molasses or candy canes here.

 The kids loved it. They hovered around for about 2 hours. We had a sign on it that said "do not eat until 6:30" and as the time came they got closer and closer. Then they got to tear in! It was gone fast. I think Ted made off with an entire wall!

 Also keeping me busy is the Christmas play. I was in charge of making 10 hedgehog costumes. I have NO IDEA what hedgehogs are doing in a Christmas play, but I guess I will find out next Wed. I finally figured out how to make a hedgehog after much experimenting:

The best thing about it all is the discovery that Max ADORES felt. He would come tearing around the corner and leap and attack me every time I was working and then start attacking my felt pile. Adorable right? We made him a fort out of all the left over pieces and he drags in from place to place in the apt and then crawls inside his felt tunnel.

 Then last Sat was the Smith's pour-out. That's a party for someone who's leaving. They are headed for Dubai. So we ambushed them in Burkas. I can't believe Zoe is leaving. We thought we would be here together until the end. So, so, sad about this.

 The Smith's left on Sat for good, Cora left on Tues until January and then this week all the Australians left the compound for good as their project is over. So we had a fun weekend and then it felt like the Grinch came and took everything and there's nothing left but a bit of wire on the wall. 90% of our friends are gone, the parties are over and we still have 2 weeks until Christmas and it's dreary and freezing outside. So sad. I forgot how hard it is to be an Expat at Christmastime. So I have been running a LOT just to have something to do. Max is doing really well right now. He's gained his weight back and seems to be puking a lot less. It comes in waves with him so it's nice to see him doing well for a change. Look at those luscious paws. Love him!

 And I got to go on a Field Trip with Sasha's class. We went to the Busan aquarium.

 Me and my girl:

 Year 3 class!

 And last but not least, trying to stay busy and summon some much needed Christmas Cheer, Sasha and I made candy canes. It was hard and there was a definite learning curve. We can't wait to make some more but we were actually very proud about how our first batch came out!