the magic kingdom!!!

aw, we saved the best park for last. we were all happy and ready to get the day started!

jason told us that the magic kingdom is set up higher than ground level. underneath the whole park is a tunnel system to help all of the characters get where they need to be without walking in the open through the park. he also said that sometimes it'll be raining in the other parks, but the weather will be perfect in the magic kingdom...

we went on a few rides before getting in line for the Be Our Guest Restaurant. it was a long wait, but the interior was worth it! we ate in the ballroom and walked through the beasts area that had the rose and his portrait. i would recommend this to everyone because it really was as though we were in the castle, it was awesome! the only unfortunate thing was i waited too long to tell jon that i was hungry. so by the time we got in line, placed our order then sat and got our food i was soo sick. i just felt like i wanted to lay down and/or throw up. that's about when he gave me a firm talking to about getting food when i'm hungry and not waiting. yes sir! 

jon and gaston!

it was so much fun to be here with Jon. we have many fond memories at disneyland, so although this was different, it felt very similar. 

robinson's.

john took this to come back and show kat the menu while she waited in line. i think it'll be a cool picture down to line to show the prices. people always complain about how expensive disney park food is but jon and i think it's great compared to sea world!

dole whip. heaven in a bowl. my pregnant self can't handle this picture.

this was on big thunder mountain. i decided to go on it and although it wasn't too jerky, it made me really sick. the gang wanted to go on it again so i just waited and watched the fireworks.

Jon took this picture as they were ascending on the roller coaster. he said it was amazing to be riding the roller coaster while the fireworks were exploding in the sky.

all in all, this trip was awesome. kat and john were great company and of course, any time with jon is perfect in my eyes. i want to go back already and experience it all again!

disneyworld: epcot!!

the next morning, as we turned around the hotel corner towards the car, jon said "okay guys, i can only blame myself for this." we all looked over to see what he was talking about: the three boxes of CPK pizza sitting on the roof of john and kat's car. all night, in the rain. i guess jon had pulled them out of the trunk and put them on top of the car and then forgot to take them inside!

we were sooo bummed, as our whole plan was to have leftover pizza in epcot all day long! the pizza was mostly soaked, but i ate a piece of mine that was a bit dry and almost immediately regretted it. we threw it all away!

it didn't damper our mood too much, i mean how grumpy can you be at disney world? we were so excited to go to epcot because john and kat raved about it and said it was all about innovation and culture! two things we're totally into, but mostly cultural foods/accents.

 a couple hours into the day, it started POURING RAIN! it came down hard and fast! it started raining while we were on Rocket to the Red Planet. full disclaimer: there are two parts to this motion simulator ride. you can either go on the side that isn't so thrilling, or the side that is very thrilling. john and kat had been on the side that wasn't as thrilling since john gets motion sick. our friend jason told us the day before that we needed to go all in and go on the one that is very thrilling. i think all of us knew we were in line for the very thrilling side except john. RIGHT before we got into the very cramped 'space ship', kat told him that they had never been on this side of the ride and its supposed to be more intense than the ride they went on! we all watched his smile fade into a look of panic. there were so many signs everywhere saying "Do not ride this ride if you are prone to motion sickness!" another unsettling sight was a group of four teenagers getting really pumped up, jumping around nervously and screaming before getting into their space ship. kat and i exchanged very worried looks. we got in our space ship, the doors closed and we were looking at a screen that showed us getting boomeranged into space with major g force. kat was sitting next to me screaming "john i hate this! i hate this so much!!" totally freaking out! i finally yelled "KAT YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE." the four of us rode the rest of the ride in complete silence. i was sweating and talking myself out of throwing up. my eyes were closed and i was riding gerry in san diego, going over jumps and cantering around the arena. jon was holding my hand and i was careful not to squeeze it because i knew he'd already be really worried. the ride lasted way too long and when we finally finished and stepped off of the ride kat started profusely apologizing to me. it wasn't her fault and we were all very, very sick haha! the night before, at cpk, i told them i was really nauseous and they watched me take a zofran. immediately after taking it i said "i'm healed!" kat teased me saying it couldn't work that fast. after this simulator ride, i offered a zofran to kat. she took it and said "wow, that really does work fast." luckily the rain was coming down so hard that we had time to sit inside the gift shop waiting for jon to buy a poncho. it gave our stomachs time to settle. i decided to take off my shoes while it was raining, i felt like a sicko walking around the park barefoot, but i was happy later when it cleared up and i had dry shoes to put on!

the best part of epcot is obviously the food. we got chocolate in the UK, stopped in France and ate sweets and sandwiches. in japan we watched the drummers, in the US we listened to the presidents and the choir sing about america and just all around loved where we are from.

7 weeks 4 days.

Morocco. 

we stopped in italy and had the greasiest pizza. this is about the time that my cousin said "a.j., i'm really trying to keep up with you." (eating wise) in germany we got jon's favorite food: bratwursts. he said they were eh but still enjoyed the experience. 

in china we stopped and watched flexible chinese girls and strong chinese boys flip around and hula hoop. everyone else was more impressed than i was, but i loved the terra cotta warriors they had on display! i wrote a paper on them at San Diego State, so i loved seeing the replicas. these are the only replica of the original 8,000 warriors discovered in 1974 by a local chinese farmer trying to drill a well in Xi'an, china. i'm standing by a tall one, but in the room they had all the tiny warriors!

 jon loved norway because it reminded him of sweden! we rode the ride that wasn't great called the maelstrom. some parts were cool, but it was over all kind of weird. we heard that it was going to be turned into a Frozen ride which will probably be awesome.
our last stop was mexico! i love mexico and the little mart reminded us of old town san diego (haha). the ride was super cute and the atmosphere was really fun. we were pretty done at this point, so we didn't eat here and just headed home. i hadn't been sleeping very good since i got pregnant, but this weekend i didn't wake up hungry in the night once and i slept hard every night! it was awesome!
our last day was spent at the magic kingdom!!!