Highlights from Epcot; Day 1

We spent our first day at Epcot. The weather was wonderful - about 80 degrees at the high. Here are some highlights from our trip:

• Rose rode a super fast rise, Test Track, and loved it. She is definitely my roller coaster girl.
• We rode Nemo, the Mexican boat ride, and Norway's Maelstrom together.
• We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the Biergarten. It was such a treat to have the German buffet and we love the Oopma show.
  
• The kids loved - I mean really loved - the miniature village outside of Germany. Johnny and I loved the Kim Possible trick that turned the village people into zombies.
  
• We played at Innoventions together and Christopher and Rose sat through a hurricane simulation. Graceblew her $25 disney card on candy and a necklace. I think she felt regretful about all the candy - she said it came out of the dispenser "really fast."
• Rachel kept searching for princesses all day, and called for Jasmine all through Mexico. I think she's a little confused.
  
• We were really dragging by the time we got to America in the World Showcase. I was ready to head home and sent Grace into The American Adventure show to retrieve Johnny who was waiting for us to come out of the bathroom. She came out carrying a nicely scripted card, saying that our family had been selected as "The First Family." It was actually really cool - we got a special balcony seating to wait a singing group and then we were able to enter the theatre first. We also were introduced to the whole theatre. We thought Grandpa would have really liked that.
• We finished the night by tasting soft drinks from around the world, and then riding Spaceship Earth, which has to be one of my favorite rides in the whole park.
• We are going back to Epcot later this week. Here's what we have left on our list to do: Ride Soarin' at the Flight Pavilion, have Mom ride Test Track, Ride Mission Mars, Shop at Japan, Tour China and see the Dragon Legend Acrobats, take Dad to see the Beatles cover band in the UK, and watch Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.
• By the end of the day, we had logged almost 17,000 steps according to my pedometer, a little more than 8 miles.