Vader!

Days 9&10- EPCOT and Hollywood Studios

On day 9 we got to go to EPCOT and had an absolute blast!  Silas loved Soarin’ and was so very excited he wanted to ride again immediately!  Sadie loved the Nemo ride and we all enjoyed visiting the different countries. 

 As we mentioned before, we have been handing out suckers along the way to people we encounter.  On the sucker is a tag that says, “Our family is on a 3 week family road trip.  We have been greatly blessed and hope to bless you in some small way today.  ‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  We love because He first loved us.’”  For us as parents, we have been so proud of our kids as they become conscientious of the little things people do every single day to bless us.  It is great to watch Silas and Sadie have encounters with complete strangers and then turn around and come running for the sucker stash!  Sadie always whispers to us and then hides the sucker behind her back until she gets someone’s attention, and then pulls the sucker out as if it is the greatest surprise in the world!  It is so easy to become fixated on all that is wrong in our daily lives, but when we create a culture of awareness it is amazing all the things around us we would often miss.  Yesterday at EPCOT Sadie handed out a sucker to a grandma who rubbed her leg as she was trying to fall asleep on a bench and Silas to the Disney worker who told us the best place to stand to see the night light show.

 We had a blast, but also came to quite a realization early on in our trip.  If you, like us, have wondered if there could ever be too much Disney, let us assure you….there can be.  After spending the best day at EPCOT, we decided to head over on the monorail to Magic Kingdom (at 10 pm) to see the “Wishes” fireworks.  We missed most of the fireworks while using the bathroom instead, almost missed the monorail and spent the entire ferry ride around the 7 seas lagoon listening to Sadie sob, “But I’M not big.  How come I’m not big and everyone ELSE is big?  You and Daddy and Silas are big and just me and Corinna are little.  Why would God DO that?” It was not a magical way to end the day.  J.L. assures me that it has less to do with Disney and more to do with Sadie being a girl.

Wednesday and today we hit up Hollywood Studios, also known as the hottest place on earth!  We have seen more stunt shows and movie scenes than we ever thought possible, but our favorite came this afternoon.  For those of you who have had a single conversation with Silas in the last 7 months, you will understand the significance of the next story.  At 8 o’clock this morning we were busting it through the park to the Jedi Training signups at ABC Studios.  Silas made it in to one of the training academies and got to fight “real live Vador”.  It was slightly terrifying, but he rose to the occasion and defeated the dark side!  He actually got to go up on stage and, after being outfitted with robe and light saber, got to fight, man to man.  If the age limit was not 4-12, Sadie and J.L. would have been up there, too!

Sadie ended the day watching Belle in the “Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage” show.  It was magical for her!  And the biggest highlight was that Corinna learned to clap during the “Indiana Jones” show.  She LOVES it!  Whenever the audience applauds, she reaches out and as far as she can and brings her hands together over and over and over again!  It is so much fun to watch and she is just too proud of herself! 

Tonight we went back to the resort, made some Mexican with the limes we picked in Uncle Dog’s back yard and had hot fudge brownie sundaes!