August in Pictures, Part 9: Disney World Blizzard Beach waterpark

Our last day at Disney World was everyone's favorite!  We spent the day at Blizzard Beach, which is one of Disney's waterparks.  It's supposed to look like a ski resort that is melting.  Everything has to do with skiing and snow.  So fun!  You even ride a chairlift to get to some of the water slides!  Our kids were amazing and rode all of the big slides.  Torsten was even able to do them all on a lap and he loved them (even the pitch dark tunnel waterslides!).  We didn't get as many pictures as we wanted because we didn't want our phones to get wet, but here's what we got...

 The biggest water slide there was the Plummet Summit, made to look like a ski jump.  It's actually one of the tallest, fastest freefall body slides in the world!  Erik said it took his breath away!

We didn't even get a picture of our favorite water ride, Teamboat Springs, which is the world's longest family raft ride.  There were so many cool things about this waterpark.  We would definitely hit this up again.

We finished our Disney trip at Downtown Disney and ate at the T-Rex restaurant.  Our kids LOVE this restaurant and it didn't disappoint!

Our time at Disney was busy, but amazing.  Our kids still talk about all of our adventures!  I hope they treasure these families times forever.

August in Pictures, Part 8: Disney World Day Two

Our second day at Disney was spent at Hollywood Studios.  It was a very eventful and full day!

As we were walking in, a jet had painted "Jesus 4 - Gives" in the sky.  Beautiful reminder!

Our first event was the Disney Jr. On Stage performance.

Next we went to the Indiana Jones stunt show where we thought they were going to show us some stunts.  Little did we know that Erik would get chosen out of HUNDREDS in the crowd to participate in the show!

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 The kids thought the show was too scary because it was very real.  Erik did a great job as an extra and even got pulled out to do his own little solo.  I was so proud!

 It was so hot that the lunch I packed melted!  We ate it anyway.  :)

Our next event was a car show where they showed us how cars do chase scenes in movies and much more!  It was the boys most favorite thing of all!  We were even surprised by a visit from Lightning McQueen!

We didn't have time to meet very many characters because we chose to spend our time on rides or in shows instead of standing in line, but we did take some time to meet Mickey Mouse!

 During our family picture with Mickey, Klaasen tried undressing him!  Ha!  We managed to stop him before Mickey lost his costume.  Klaasen's a nut.  :)

Disney illustrators at work!

While we were at Hollywood Studios, Skogen had a chance to participate in some Jedi training!

Right in the middle of a training session, the Dark Side came!

 Skogen helped fight the Dark Side!!!

Because he helped fight the Dark Side and did an awesome job, he was awarded the honorable title of  a Padawan!  So proud!!

We took part in the Disney's Frozen Sing-a-Long and got to see all of the Frozen characters!

 Torsten joined Minnie on the dance floor!

The rest of the evening was filled with rides, dinner, and the show Fantasmik!  Maida and I have seen this show twice, now, and it is AMAZING!  The boys were scared, but there's nothing that can describe the magic you see and hear.  It was a very well-spent day, making many more memories!

August in Pictures, Part 7: Disney World Day One

The kids had NO idea we were going to Disney World while we were in Florida.  We got a great discount and decided to go on the spur of the moment, so it was a surprise to us, too!  We decided to tell them in a cool way.  First they put a puzzle together....

The puzzle said, "Surprise," and the kids didn't get it, so Erik told Skogen to look closer.  When Erik picked up the puzzle and held it to Skogen's face, Maida and Klaasen were able to see Mickey Mouse on the other side!

Then they each got a gift bag of Disney goodies!

The next morning we packed up and headed for three days at Disney!

 We spent the first day at Magic Kingdom.  Klaasen puked all over himself in the car, just 10 minutes from Disney, so we had to pull into a Target and get him a new Mickey shirt.

 Maida, Skogen, and Klaasen played parts in "Storytime with Belle."  Skogen was the Beast, Klaasen was Chip, and Maida was the jail.

They practiced a short play with the kids and then the kids "surprised" Belle with the play!

 In the play, Skogen jumped out and scared Belle!  And then later they had a nice, sweet dance.  He was SO proud!

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To save money, we didn't purchase any food at Disney! We brought all of our own meals and snacks.   This was our lunch break!

Middle of the day parade with lots of characters!

 The day we were at Disney was the hottest documented day in Orlando that summer!  We had to drink a lot of water!  It was SO HOT!!!

Skogen and Klaasen both enjoyed their first roller coaster!

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After a day full of rides, we enjoyed a movie that was shown on the front of the castle and then some fireworks over the castle!  It was so magical!

Despite the heat and trying to cram so much into one day, we had an amazing time at Disney.  It was a day full of memories that we will never forget!