I got invited to go along on the family vacation with my friend Meghan, plus her mother and her two children Katelyn and Benjamin.

Some of these were taken with my phone, so please excuse the poor quality. Click on the thumbnail or the words to see a large image.

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Thursday, July 14

Here is the view from our Disney hotel. We were on the third floor and you can see the pool.

This is me in the hotel room before everyone got there.

Our pool, viewed from the third floor where we were staying. I didn't get to swim in it though.

An artistic shot of me by a potted plant.

Better-lighted picture of me by the plant.

After everyone got to the hotel, Benjamin quickly began attacking Katelyn.

Benny, Mommy, and Mommy's mommy.

But you see, sometimes it is Naked Time for Benjamin.

Actually, most times are Naked Time.

Friday, July 15

I'm ready for EPCOT!

Here is another shot of the EPCOT ball. I love it.

Katelyn is by some beautiful flowers. And she is quite a flower herself. ;)

The Land sign!

First attraction: Environmental Fable feature!

Ben's enjoying the show!

You'd think from this photo that Benjamin is just sweet as sugar all the time as he cuddles with his grandmommy, eh?

Next up: Living with the Land!

Meg takes photos on the Living with the Land boat tour. Benjamin looks at me.

They were growing an extremely hot pepper in the hydroponic garden.

Here is the hot pepper.

Would you look at that! Meghan, daughter Katelyn, and son Benjamin.

And there's me with my pals. Yes, I'm wearing a tutu. I am not ashamed of that. Because if you can't wear a tutu at Disney, where can you?

The Living Seas. . . . Cool!

"Jellyfish" on the Nemo ride.

Ben was enthusiastic about the sea life.

Benny is certainly enjoying his Mickey chocolate ice cream.

Ice cream usually keeps squirts happy.

At Club Cool, you can try soda from around the world.

Me drinking Beverly. Seriously, I actually liked it, but you can't really tell from my face.

Here are the flavors they had from different countries. I was psyched because the last time I went to EPCOT they were out of several flavors!

Okay, so, at first Benjamin was cautious about playing with the jetting water.

He quickly got very attached to the spouts.

Mommy Meggie is watching, and probably wondering by this point if taking him away from the jets will be a hassle.

Oh yes, he was enjoying himself.

Enjoying himself a LOT.

Who knew jets of water shooting up from the ground could be so fun?

Water's especially fun when it shoots higher than your head. But then he didn't want to leave and he had a huge tantrum, and was literally carried from the scene kicking and yelling. ::sigh::

Time for the boat to see all the countries!

Arrival in Morocco!

I got some pretty shots of this fountain in Morocco once we got to the other side.

Cool buildings from the Morocco area.

Here's the Morocco sign.

Wet little boys who have tantrums get not one but two lollipops. (A shopkeeper gave them to him for free because she thought it might help stop the meltdown he was having, and of course he wanted to open both.)

It's France! Just passing through!

We found Mary Poppins signing autographs while walking to get fish n' chips in Britain.

I think these buildings were in the Britain area.

We are now in Britain, whee!

O Canada . . . what if I wanna buy syrup?

Here's how some of the countries' buildings looked from across the water.

More of the various countries in World Showcase.

Benny is having fun spraying Mommy.

Katelyn shares with others when she gets tasty treats. Three straws!

Now journeying into Imagination. :)

AW YEAH CAPTAIN EO

Oh boy . . . time for FLYING on the Soarin' ride. . . .

Thanks for Soarin' with us!

Uh-oh, looks like it's gonna be a rain day at Disney.

So, yeah, I . . . had to buy this pin of Maleficent and Aurora. Sometimes I hate myself.

We're back in World Showcase in Japan now. Going shopping!

Now we've come to the USA country showcase. Looks very patriotic!

This guy would get along with Ben. He doesn't like to wear clothes.

Italy? Woo!

Cool building in Italy.

Gotta love the architecture.

Germany time, heeee.

I believe the teeny villages were in Germany. I love these models!

More li'l models.

Little city models.

German buildings.

Outpost stuff. This place is so cool.

China looks neat but the restaurant is expensive.

We ate here in Norway!

Aaaaand . . . Mexico! Pyramid!

And here are some more buildings from Mexico.

The EPCOT ball now has colored lights on it.

I needed an iconic Disney shot. Surrounded by merchandise, holding Mickey and Minnie!

Why so sulky, Benny? We got your pretzels!

Katelyn attempted to cheer her brother up.

Hanging your brother upside-down is usually effective for inspiring cheer.

That's right, you unholy terror! Get hung upside down for your crimes! . . . Aw, crap, you like being upside down?

Golden eyes, blue eyes. Waiting for fireworks.

Reflections of Earth fireworks show!

It's hard to capture fireworks with a camera sometimes.

Pretty 'splosions.

Yay for colored lights.

They made loud noises.

Boom! Boom!

Saturday, July 16

Ben's ready to go. Seriously, Benjamin, stop opening and shutting the lock. . . .

Mommy and daughter on the tram to Hollywood Studios.

Hey, I'm in Hollywood Studios!

American Idol Experience audition! (Did not get in though, d'oh.)

About to go on Great Movie Ride!

It's a Little Mermaid production, wheee.

Ooh yeah, gonna eat some pizza.

Muppet show now!

Miss Piggy, you look beautiful in the fountain!

Sweetums! That's Meghan's sweetie--look how he's looking at her! Katelyn gets a big hug, too.

I do NOT want the Swedish Chef editing my documents.

Katelyn and her Happy Birthday button. She's thirteen!

Countdown to Fun parade. Man it's hot out here.

Here's the parade. Woody's going by.

I like the Toy Story dudes.

Hollywood Studios hat.

One Man's Dream exhibit time!

The sign for the park!

Exploring the Pixar stuff.

Here's a car stunt show!

Here's more stunt car show.

Jet-ski stunts!

You know it's an action movie when things start being on fire.

The film crew had to drive around to tape the moving cars.

I photographed myself on the bleachers, figuring I'd probably look like I had sunstroke. I don't even look hot.

This is the cool stunt show we just did.

Going on Star Tours now!

Waiting in line for Star Tours . . . here's R2-D2!

And it's C-3PO! He worries a lot, doesn't he.

See, I was tall enough to ride this ride!

My friends after Star Tours! Look at these awesome people!

Here's our group shot, taken by friendly cast member Adam.

And a close-up also provided by Adam, after which he gave us Fast Passes to ride the ride again!

So here's the funny security robot on the inside. He said obnoxious things that made me crack up.

Here the security robot is looking a different way. He has duck feet.

Katelyn's birthday cheesecake.

Candles blown!

Sunday, July 17

Everyone but me decided against going to Disney a third day because we were all pretty worn out. I still wanted to go but it just wasn't meant to be. So we stopped at Downtown Disney before leaving town:

At Downtown Disney, we did some shopping . . . wall art in the Disney villains room.

Woody and Buzz from Toy Story, made of Legos!

Lego Dwarfs!

Maleficent in dragon form fighting the prince. Bah.

Pretty Princess Aurora. . . .

Jeeeez . . . Aurora again.

I can't believe this guy is made out of Legos.

Because of the wearing out on Day 3, Meg gave me a couple unused tickets that I had to make use of immediately, so the next weekend I went to Hollywood Studios again with my friends Stephanie and Eric.

We found these heads in a garden of heads. Bill Cosby is posing with Stephanie.

I am being eyed creepily by Harvey Korman.

I don't know what he wants. . . .

Eric's a T-shirt head.

This is Eric and me waiting for the Star Tours to start. Unfortunately it made motion-sickness-prone Stephanie sick and we had to take a break for a while after that.

But she was well enough to ride this once our turn came, and it was amazing! And creepy, being a Twilight-Zone-themed ride.

Then we stopped for lunch. This is Stephanie's yummies.

Eric even found a veggie burger he could eat. Trust me, he's thrilled.

I had a lovely frozen lemonade, but it made me very sloshy after.

And then we headed to the Aerosmith roller coaster!

We had to ride separately because we'd opted to stand in the Single Rider line, but that meant I got to photograph them before it was my turn to ride. There they are in the back!

This cool store is Disney villain-themed! YES!!!

There's a very familiar dragon.

There are other pictures, but Eric seems to be unable to find them. We're hoping they weren't lost, but so far they haven't turned up. Oh well!