Epcot

Today we decided to visit Epcot.  Race cars are some of Owen's favorite things, so we knew
he was going to love the ride Test Track.  You basically design your own race car, then race
around the track at speeds upwards of 60mph.  Needless to say, he and Ryan both
thought it was pretty cool.

Meanwhile Joe and I went exploring.  We had gotten there right as the gates opened
because we knew how busy Test Track would be, so Joe and I had the park to ourselves.

After Test Track we went on a few other rides, then headed over to a Meet and Greet with
some of the characters.  In case you didn't realize by now, Owen LOVES hugging them all.
As soon as it's his turn he runs right up and gives them the biggest hugs.
It is the greatest feeling to see him so genuinely happy.

 And Joe made huge strides today in his comfort level with the characters.  

Goofy and then Minnie both got big hugs from him today.

 We walked around a little more and went on what turned out to be one of Owen's favorite
rides there, Gran Fiesta Tour.  It is essentially the Mexican version of It's a Small World,
 hosted by the Three Caballeros, one of whom is Donald Duck.  Obviously anything with
Donald is sure to be a favorite of Owen's.  Then we made our way over to Disney Springs
for a very special lunch date we had planned with my Aunt and her husband Hector.

My aunt moved to Florida a few years ago and I haven't had a chance to see her since.
Between being pregnant, having babies, and then small kids it simply never worked out for
us to take a trip there.  So I was really excited to not only be able to see her, but introduce
her to Owen and Joe, and in turn meet her husband Hector.

While in a perfect world my kids would have been on their best behavior and given the best
first impression, that was not the case during this lunch.  We had to wake the kids up this
morning so Owen was absolutely exhausted by the time we got there.  He cried through
roughly half of the entire lunch.  As frustrated as I was, I couldn't help but feel bad for him.

We took them right home after lunch for naps and ended up having to wake them in order to
make it to dinner on time.  Dinner followed the same path lunch had taken.  Owen was
overtired and nothing could make him happy.  It made me realize that we need to slow
ourselves down a little and just relax.  At Disney it is so easy to get caught up in squeezing
in as much as possible, but when things stop being magical it's time to step back and
reevaluate priorities.  My goal for tomorrow is to slow things down a bit.

Looking back at the picture we took this morning upon entering Epcot, 
this sheds so much light on how the kids were feeling.

Tomorrow will be a better day.