Around the world (Details)… Day 612 18JUL10

We started off Jarrod's birthday by getting up early. I made waffles for breakfast at Jarrod's request and as soon as we were done we loaded up and headed for EPCOT. The ride over was fine and we got there just as the park was opening up for the day. We rode every ride that could be ridden, visited every pavilion that could be visited. We walked. A lot. 

First stop was Spaceship Earth. Next up was the living seas where we had a great time interacting with Dude Crush from Finding Nemo. Disney has an amazing experience where the audience interacts with a cartoon character on the screen. It was really like he was actually there. After looking at all the cool marine life Joshua got chosen to be the dive buddy  for the demonstration of the lockout chamber. He did a great job and the divers name was Josh. What a coincidence. 

The morning went by quickly as we worked our way around through Canada, the UK, France, and Morocco on our way to Japan. Jarrod had requested that we eat sushi in the Japanese pavilion for lunch. We had a great meal and then did a little shopping at Mitsukoshi downstairs before setting off again on our round the world tour. 

Next up was America, Italy, Germany. We stopped in China and watched a neat movie about their country. Off we bounded to Norway to experience the Maelstrom. This turned out to be Joshua's favorite country. A quick journey through Mexico and then we headed off to test our bravery and mettle against the rides. 

Test Track was invigorating. Jarrod and Joshua really like going fast. No big surprise there:) 

Our next stop was Mission Space where we formed a four man crew for a voyage to Mars with Joshua as Navigator, Dad as Pilot, Mom as Engineer, and Jarod as Commander (what else;). We all thought the ride was awesome! Mom thought otherwise and made it clear that she will never join us for another space mission. In our continuing quest for adrenaline we went to Innovention and designed our own simulator rides and then strapped ourselves to the end of a hopefully benign robotic arm and let it flail us around in the air for a bit. It was great! 

We finished off by riding Spaceship earth again. Jarrod really liked the planetarium at the top of the ride and wanted to see it again so off we went. By now the day was winding to a close so we bid farewell to EPCOT and headed for the LEGO store. Jarrod found several new Technics kits to build and Joshua managed to come home with a new addition to his Star Wars fleet. Downtown Disney was a madhouse so we decided to start driving home and stop for dinner on the way. Jarrod finished off his day with another one of his favorites, crab legs. Joshua had some too and I was proud of my little shelling units, they learned well. We finally made it home late last night and after a few minutes to wind down the boys promptly crashed. To quote Jarrod, yesterday was "A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!"

Today we spent a  quiet morning building LEGOS and then Jamie, Christian, and Allie came over for the afternoon. We had a great visit and had fun watching Allie crawl and stand up all by herself. She is getting real close to figuring out how to become a true biped. It won't be long before she is speeding around all over the place. We had a nice ice cream cake and then spent a relaxing evening hanging out with our new teenager!