The Simons Seven: The Fifth Day, Downtown Disney & Epcot at Night

This day was probably my favorite, although coming in close after Animal Kingdom. We decided to sleep in and swim in the morning. We then took the kids to Downtown Disney to do their shopping for souvenirs and Christmas gifts. It was totally a rip off on prices, the same stuff would cost a fourth of that at Walmart, but there is something sort of disappointing shopping for souvenirs at Walmart. Downtown Disney was a blast and the Lego store stole the show. The kids (even the biggest kid of all) played and played until I had to drag them away.

Later in the afternoon, we returned for our final Disney day to Epcot. We did a couple shows we missed. We went to Innoventions where the kids practiced fire drills in play houses and dressed velcro frogs. We saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience, went on two stupid tree hugger rides and then headed to the villages. The kids signed up to do this Kim Possible adventure. It was probably the highlight of our trip. We divided into two teams, boys against girls and we each received a cell phone transmitter device. The cell phones sent us on missions to different countries and gave the kids tasks to do. It was amazing. We did the UK and when we accomplished the task we would push a button on the cell phone and neat things would happen. At the old telephone booth a golf ball shot out of the old phone and the girls had to take it to a Sportsman shop, find a secret trophy and deposit it. At one store the phone made a toy soldier start talking to the kids. The boys did Paris and a cement gargoyle began speaking. We also did China and a jade monkey rose up out of pond and shot water at them. It was so cool. The kids loved it. They had concerts going on in UK and colonial USA. We shopped in the little shops in Morrocco, saw a great movie in China, ate fish and chips in England, and made masks in Mexico, where we also took a little boat ride. At 9:30, we gathered around the giant lake in the center and watched the most amazing firework show I have ever seen with a giant globe with digital video playing across the continents. We had a spectacular time and it was the perfect ending to a perfect vacation. This is the way to celebrate Christmas--the kids told me time and time again that this far surpassed any gifts they could have received for Christmas. I totally agree!