"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day. And I believe in miracles."
~ Audrey Hepburn

3.28.2010

El Mundo de Disney

My dad has recently learned how to text.
I am pretty sure he just learned what email was a few months ago,
so you have to understand what an exciting time this is for our family.

But can you imagine my excitement when I took a sideways glance at my
phone during class to see the following ominous text message from Dad?

"Disney World?"

Umm... YES??!
This was about three weeks ago.
As you can guess, my dad was suggesting that he take
my sisters and I to Disney World over spring break.
And as you can also guess, we definitely went.

My family and I are kind of Disney fanatics
(my dad has been working as an animator and character designer for
Disney Studios for over twenty years so I guess that explains why).
We go to Disneyland pretty often (my mom said that when we were
younger we used to go every other weekend!!), but
the last time my family went to Disney World,
I was nine months old. And that is why, one of my goals is:

#030: Go to Disney World

As the official videographer, I now invite you to join me on a photo-journey
through our unforgettable trip to the wonderful world of Disney!

Are you ready?

Good!


We stayed in a beautiful hotel, called "Saratoga Springs".
It has officially made my Favorite Places in the World list.




In the dining area of our hotel, there were easels set up
with crayons and papers filled with ugly drawings crafted by two-year olds.
My dad showed off a bit...

Excited tourists actually stole his drawings from the easels!
In other news, my dad has an awesome signature.

Guess who also showed off her artistic skillsssss?
:)

We didn't have a car so we took shuttles everywhere.
Melissa was not very patient.

First stop: Epcot!
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

Mexico! (inside was sooo pretty!)

Norway!

China!


While we were there we encountered a teeeeeny storm.
And by teeny I mean massive. We were drenched and literally had to walk
through water that was a foot deep. But that didn't stop us from having fun!

That evening (after we napped hehehe)
we went to Downtown Disney.


Pretty pretty. But we didn't care about pretty.
We were staaaaarving.

We ended up eating at some italian restaurant whose
name I cannot recall. It was yummy though, I swear!

This trip, as most of my family's adventures do, revolved around food.

It also included a lot of waiting...

And a lot of acting fierce hahaha
Check out the fierce animals below.

Here we are at the Animal Kingdom!
Sooooo cool!

There was a dinosaur area.

(which we obviously conquered)

We saw some pretty awesome babies.
"I'd babysit that!!"

(Faja also enjoyed his ice cream cone)
(P.S. Check out his floral shirt. So festive!)

There was a pretty crazy looking tree there.
It kind of reminded me of Fern Gully or Avatar.

Oh! And my dad dropped a bomb on us that day.
Remember how I used to brag that my dad's grandma was Scottish?
It turns out that she was Scottish, Native American, and INDIAN.
Hollaaaaa!
My sisters and I are so exotic.

The coolest part about Animal Kingdom was that we
went on a safari and saw so many different animals!
Elephants, cheetahs, lions, rhinos, hippos, and GIRAFFES!

I tried really hard to pet a giraffe
(see #086: Touch a giraffe)
but I couldn't reach!

I touched two fake ones though...
FAIL.

We decided to go to the Magical Kingdom that night to see
how it compared to our beloved Disneyland.


Side note: Desiree + lipstick = Demi Lovato


Cinderella's castle was to die for.
I just wanted to stand under it and cry!
Just kidding!
(kind of...)

Even the inside was beautiful!

Overall, we decided that Disneyland is way better than the Magical Kingdom.
First of all, they didn't have clam chowder in bread bowls,
second, the hot chocolate tasted like hot water,
and third, the parade was depressingly half-hearted.

Take that Florida!

The next day, we returned to Epcot.
We still had so many countries to see!
Like England!


And France!



(I spy the Eiffel Tower)

yummayyyy

And Morocco!
Which was basically Agrabah...


Look who we saw!

We also saw Japan!

And Africa!

Where, you guessed it, I accomplished goal
#079: Get my face painted!

My sissies joined in on the fun.
We were such a freak show; little kids could not
stop staring at us (particularly Michelle, who had a unicornlike
animal painted across half of her face).

I don't know how my dad could stand to be seen with us.

Our last stop was Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Way cooler than CA Adventure.
We watched an American Idol show,
ate at an awesome drive through theater,
met some crazy ladies on the Aerosmith rollercoaster,
and went on Tower of Terror (which is better than ours!).


And that was the end of our trip to Disney World!
We had so much fun and cannot wait to go back...

Hello! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
theme park opens at the end of May!
And I still have to party in Miami!
(both of which are on my list!)


P.S. I have TONS of (hilarious) video clips that
I am going to try to post later. So stay tuned!










9 comments:

Chloƫ, Wardrobe Quarry said...

love the photos from disney land, looks like such fun. I want to go there one day

Gabriella said...

OMG so jealous !!! Where was my invite ?! LOL looks like you had a blast !! Im seriously so jealous LOL How did your dad get into animating ? its my boyfriends dream to go that route ! But we just dont know whats the first step!

Gabriella said...

ps you should add surf in hawaii to the list :]

Cella Babee said...

Hahaha Disneyworld was sooo much fun!

My dad applied several times to Cal Arts (an extremely prestigious art school in Valencia, CA) before he was accepted. I think he made a good name for himself there and then got his foot in at Disney Studios in Burbank, CA by getting a job in their cafeteria (or so he claims...hahah). From there I think he just talked to a lot of the workers/bosses until they looked at his work and saw his talent. I know that companies like working with him because he does as good a job as any other animator but in a fraction of the time. So efficiency is very valuable in the industry... I would encourage your boyfriend to work on his speed, not to give up if he isn't accepted/hired right away, and to be persistent and keep talking to people in the business until they give him a chance!

And surfing in Hawaii sounds amazingggg. I will have to put that on my next list! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow you and your sisters are so cute. And this looked like the most AMAZING trip ever. haha I'm glad your break was wonderful.
P.S. Take me to Harry Potter world with you!

<3 Alejia

Bryan Murray said...

1) I can almost see your bum in that picture!
2) Your dad's signature is pretty cool
3) Kinda scary picture of Melissa in China
4) Your whole life, not just your family adventures, centers around food
5) I'll admit "I'd babysit that" is kinda clever
6) That's not a baby, it's a little girl
7) Said little girl looks like she had down syndrome
8) You look like you're violating that giraffe in the second picture...and liking it
9) Strangely enough, a very fitting look for Desiree in Japan
10) You better be glad you got that face-painting goal out of the way without me there
11) From the looks and sound of it, the only thing that would've made your trip better was me :)

mina said...

I went to Tokyo Disney Sea and it was one of the most fun days of my life. I can't wait to visit this one!

Anonymous said...

i really like your narrations and editing. i think putting 90% of the photos on my facebook was overwhelming and narcissistic of me :P but this captures the trip very nicely :) p.s. i can't wait to see the videos! put them up already!

luv, shelly

Sarah Rider said...

hollywood studios in florida? they're so jealous of CA. i think i'm not signed in so it's sarah kimbrough ... but i fully enjoyed this post and i had more to say but just remember hollywood florida at this point