Oregon!

 Our trip continued with a visit to Oregon - one of our favorite states! We had to leave sunny Orlando and put on our waaaaarrrrm clothes.

We stayed in a rustic cabin high on a hillside overlooking the Mountains. It was FREEEZING! We fired up the wood stove and got cozy.

 Not quite as posh as Kidani and Beach club but still tons of fun!

 Jeff keeping the fire stoked

 We woke up to a beautiful Central Oregon Morning and the kids were happy to play upstairs in the warm sleeping loft.

 What a view!!

The sun was just rising through the trees.

 Our tiny cool cabin:

 We had a blast hanging out looking at the views and drinking coffee and just relaxing. On our way out to go meet Nimanim and Aunnie we met some neighbors:

 The cabin:

 View to the South of a big ranch.

 We had a blast in Bend visiting our fav brew pubs and restaurants and shops. One of the things we loved to do when we lived here was drop in play time at the Gymnastics studios. The kids LOVED this and it was a great way for them to burn off some energy on a freezing cold morning.

 Flipping out!

 Look at me Mom!

 Right before Jeff had to go back to Korea we visited the Bend Distillery. They distill a nice range of craft spirits.

 Tim and Cris are like our Oregon Grandparents. When Sasha was tiny she was trying to say "Uncle Tim and Auntie Cris" but she couldn't manage it. What came out was "Nimanim and Aunnie". And they've been called that by us pretty much ever since. It works out as S &T have specific names for all 6 of their grandparents so we're never confused about who we're talking about!
Tim and Cris about to head into the main part of the Distillery:

They have awesome pets. This is Willie. He is a lucious beast. I call him "Big Fat Kitty" He seriously weighs like 50 lbs...

 And then there's Tucker. With our delicate selves all used to Orlando we thought Bend in November was like an Ice Planet. (We've gotten so soft). Tim and Cris thought we were hilarious. But Tucker agreed with us:

 And the kids had to bundle up just to watch TV!

 On one of our last days we hit one of those creat-your-own yogert places. LOOOOVE this. You get whatever flavors you want, add a bunch of yummy toppings and then pay by weight. So good! Check out Sasha eating yogert in her coat.

Then we enjoyed a final breakfast in America: (Sasha's still in her coat - it was COLD!)

Teddy got one last shot at experiencing American Excess!

 Then we hopped on over to Portland and got on a big plane headed for Japan. These 2 goofballs got invited up into the cockpit AGAIN!

 Lucky-Ducks!

Next stop: Tokyo Disneyland!

The Big Trip! Days 11 & 12

On Monday we went back to Animal Kingdom. The kids had been hankering for a face paint and we decided that this would be a good day for it. They looked AMAZING!

We spent some time looking at the bats and Tigers:

Love them!

And then took a gen-u-ine pic of the Himalayas that I used to torture some friends of mine that had recently been to India. (MY version comes with Mickey bars. Sooo much better!)

We took a ride on EE, keeping ever vigilant for that elusive Yeti,

I love the theming at Animal Kingdom. It's one of those parks that you could walk around all day and just take in without going on a single ride.

Then we hit Flights of Wonder. This is an attraction I had never done and anyone I have gone with has been like "Nah, we don't want to see a bird show..." but on this trip I was FINALLY traveling with an awesome gang of Disney commandos whose mission in life was to do whatever I told 'em to, and gosh darn it, I wanted to see that bird show. So in we went.

It was AWESOME!!! One of the best shows I've seen. Really funny and informative and cool and interesting. A bird took a dollar out of my hand and then flew back to me and gave me the money back!

The 2 Hysterical bird guys.

Wow!!!

Since we were having a really mellow day we decided to try for a walk-up table service at Yak and Yeti. We got in and had a very nice lunch.

On the Safari's this baby Elephant was sooo tiny and our truck stopped for quite a while to watch him. He was running all around his mama and into and out of the water. Soo cute.

Then the kids wanted a treat. I love treats at Disney. Go big or go home right? Sasha got the paw print brownie. She literally ate the chocolate paw print off the top and said she was done. Days later she told me that this was her favorite thing all trip! Geeesh!

Teddy got the cotton top tamarind cupcake. It was literally bigger than his head. Yikes! Just look at his face. "Bwahaha!!! It's all MINE!!"

Lisa and I got hair wraps and the nice women who did them gave mom and Dad clip on ones for free. They were so nice and I STILL have my hair wrap in 2 months later. What a good job!

We got to take some great pics today as well:

 Our Scary Yeti faces:

 

Sasha and her little friend. Proof positive that fairies DO exist!

 

 Later on we went back to Kidani and chilled by the pool for a bit. And by the way, we discovered that there are bigger Disney fans than myself out there in the world. Scary I know....

 

That night we checked the kids in at Simba's cubhouse and went for an Adults-only dinner at Jiko. It was magical, delicious, fantastic and practically perfect in every way.

I don't know what we were laughing about but I remember the whole meal being like this. My stomach hurt afterwards!

We had this amazing server that kept bringing us free wine samples to try. And I remember the food being out of this world but I seriously can't remember anything we had! I just know that we loved it.

What an evening! Look at my Mom, she's still in hysterics!

When we picked the kids up, they had spent a wonderful evening as well, with a fun dinner and some great activities and crafts. They couldn't wait to show us what they had been up to. It's so nice to leave kids somewhere you know they're going to be happy.

"Check this out Grammy!"

Tuesday was our last day. We voted to go to the Studios and ride Toy Story as many times as we could. Here's Mom at rope drop chatting up EVERYONE!

Game faces ON!

My guys!

We had actually spent some time outside of the parks hypothesizing and strategizing about the game and there had been promises of domination and quite a bit of trash talking. So we were all very keen to throw down. BTW, I remain the family champion and was undefeated for the entire trip. Suckas!!

After Toy Story Jeff and the kids went back to the pool but Mom and Dad and I just wanted to walk around a bit more.

We had a blast just walking around, checking out the shops and absorbing the atmosphere.

Since mom had hip replacement Surgery in May and Dad was going thru Chemo, they came with a handicap tag on the van. See that Honda Odyssey on the corner? Yeah that's our car. Disney+Handicap tag = AWESOMENESS!!! We literally could not have parked closer!

When we got back to Kidani Jeff and the kids were enjoying some bento-box lunches poolside. Rough.

These two have so much fun together!

Then we all took a rest so we could enjoy our last night. We drove to the Poly and ate dinner at O'Hanas. This was the view from our table:

I loved this restaurant. The food is served family-style and it just keeps coming, of course my tasty beverage might have had SOMETHING to do with my fondness for the place...

Then as the sunset, we got to watch the Castle light up for Christmas!

Wow! A picture just doesn't do it justice...

Dad and the open fire kitchen.

We took the monorail around to the MK just in time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

The park looked amazing and we enjoyed the Christmas Parade, hot cocoa, and some sugar cookies.

The other big guy...

Then we watched 'The Magic, The Memories, And You' again but there was a holiday tag at the end of it! They made the castle look like it was tied up in ribbons and then open like a giant present and they turned the whole thing into a Gingerbread Castle. It was even better than the usual show. So Cool!!

Getting to do both Holiday parties in one trip was super-special and I have to say that the Boo To You Halloween Parade was better than the Christmas Parade, but Christmas Wishes takes the fireworks award for me. It was so multi-dimensional and at one point it seemed like there were fireworks going off all around us.

Then we walked down Main Street and it was snowing!

It was sad to leave but it was an excellent capper on a truly awesome trip.

It was one of those trips where everything goes down the way you hope and dream that it will. No one got sick, everyone got along, we did a TON but the pace seemed relaxed. We ate ourselves silly, and it was so fun to watch my parents fall in love with a place that is so special to me. We have no plans to get back to the world in 2012, but we're already planning our next trip for Marathon Weekend 2013 so the magic stays alive in writing about this trip and then planning for the next one. Oh, and I have a wee bit of running to do too...