This picture reminds me of one of the best days of my life...definitely one of the best birthdays of my life! It was in January 2007. Lloyd and I got married in Florida just the day before - 'honeymooning' in Asia and Africa c/o Animal Kingdom ;)
For my birthday though, I got to choose where I wanted to go - and I chose to go to Epcot! It turned out to be my favourite of all the Disney Parks and will always have a special place in my heart because of that birthday!!
I remember going in to the Patisserie in France and we couldn't decide what to buy, so we basically said "we'll have one of everything"....and we all sat together at a table outside enjoying our Pain au chocolat's and chocolat chaud and other delicacies :) It was a lovely little courtyard type alleyway and so easy to think you were far away from central Florida!!
In Japan Lloyd surprised me by giving me a ticket to pick my own oyster from the tank - I chose the fattest one I could see and they fished it out for me - inside was a lovely big beautiful pearl :) My birthday pearl :)
This picture above shows the girl getting my pearl out of the shell for me :) You can see the sizer next to the tray for sizing the pearl. Picking the fattest oyster shell worked in my favour as I ended up with a larger than average pearl :)
The picture at the very top of this post shows Sam running away from Belle. Susannah loved having her picture taken with all the Princesses, but Sam was not interested at all. He was only 2 years old and there was NO WAY he was having his picture taken!! Belle tried to catch him each time he ran by but he was too fast ;) She was laughing at him :)
We really enjoyed our day at Epcot. Laurence and Christopher went off on their own for a large part of the day as they wanted to enjoy the rides, while we took the younger children to meet the characters and we saw the different 'lands'....we enjoyed seeing 'Canada' and 'Great Britain'. We had such fun on the Finding Nemo ride too and I strolled around some stores while Lloyd took the girls on some rides.
It was just a wonderful place and I loved it so much!!!
My birthday dinner was at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. We had never been to a Rainforest Cafe before but loved our experience. I had the most amazing crab cakes there and then I shared a Volcano dessert with the children - a HUGE dessert with chocolate brownies and ice cream and sparklers coming out of it - they run through the restaurant carrying it and yelling VOLCANO with it all on aflame and it's wonderful :) The kids loved it and even wit 5 of us sharing, we struggled to finish it!!
It was a birthday to remember...a day to remember....a holiday to remember!!! A time I will never forget - no matter how many times we return to Florida and to Disney, I think that first time will always be the most special and hold special meaning to me.
I had become Mrs Lloyd Thorpe, we had become a whole family....blended as one....and this holiday seemed to represent that. The whole holiday had been about that, but this day was special to me, for me and about me because it was my choice for us all of where to go and what to do. I hope I chose well that day - I think I did......the many pictures I have from that day seem to reflect that :)
(Florida trip Jan / Feb 07 if you'd like to see more)
