The Holden House: Epcot

Carter tried to fool Mom and Dad into thinking he was sleeping the next morning...

But he was really ready to get the next day going!

First, a stop at Mickey's drop box where Carter received a light toy and some other night time toys.

On the way to the bus, we stopped at the concierge office to get some balloons for Carter (note to anyone thinking of going to Disney with a stroller, balloons are an excellent way to find your stroller).

Next stop, Epcot. Here they were celebrating their International Flower and Garden show. The whole park was decked out in more flowers than normal, a ton of Disney topiary displays and a lot of special food vendors in the International Showcase (something Mom and Dad were very eager to try out).

Carter made a friend with one of the Disney photographers and magically one of his photos included even more balloons than we knew we had!

We told Carter before entering the gates that this was a great place to meet Mickey and he immediately wanted to head to the big mouse. We walked in and there was no line, just Mickey waiting to take Carter by the hand.

Carter got a great big hug and a nice Happy Birthday signature from Mickey.

Mom and Dad also wanted to get in on the fun, let's be honest, everyone wants a photo with Mickey!

Then it was Pluto's turn.

And another kiss for Minnie!

Being the Flower and Garden show, there were a lot of events and things to see above and beyond the normal Epcot attractions. First we stopped by Tinker Bell's butterfly garden.

Here Carter and Mom had a fun time searching for butterflies and locating the butterfly home like the one below.

Soon, the real attractions started to grab Carter's attention and we were off the The Seas.

Carter was all to happy to take this picture.

While watching the fish in the aquarium, one of the volunteers came to talk to Carter about the fish. Mom and Dad weren't paying much attention to the conversation, but after about 2 minutes, the nice lady came to us in and very frankly asked how old was Carter. We said he was about to be three and she seemed truly confused. Turns out Carter had been paying attention on all those trips to the Georgia Aquarium as it seems Carter was telling her more about what he saw than the other way around.

The aquarium did have something new to our little man, manatees. Carter was memorized by these gentle animals and came back to their tank three additional times.

A short walk from The Seas was The Land and a boat ride that Dad can't seem to get enough of. Luckily Carter also seemed to enjoy the tour through the experimental greenhouses and would try to identify what was being grown on every different crop.

As we continued around, Dad had to show of his little man at Pride Rock!

Mom and Carter had some fun jumping tires at the Radiator Spring garden

Not to mention making sure to get a great shot with Lightning McQueen.

and Tow-Mater.

Then Dad made a rookie mistake, he invited Carter inside the dancing fountains in the sidewalk.

For the next 20 minutes, we could not get Carter to move out of the fountain.

As he chased the water, more and more parents would mumble "uh-oh", or would laugh and some had to tell their kids to keep walking.

We just watched more of this...

and some of this...

Finally Dad had to pick Carter up and walk him out, luckily it wasn't far to see more fun Gardens and start our journey around the International Showcase.

Who doesn't like Fiesta Donald?

Carter seemed to enjoy walking through the different countries and in many instances made full use of the local attire.

Watch out for our little viking.

Here are the boys making their best Troll faces.

Carter's dragon face seemed to require a lot of arm flailing.

In China, Dad kept showing Carter how a parasol worked, but it seemed that all he wanted to do was pretend it was a sword.

Then Carter's imagination started to go, he decided he wanted horns like the viking hat he wore earlier. As we didn't have anything to help with that desire, he decided his balloons would to well and walked the park for about 5 minutes like this.

Unfortunately, we had feared this day may be a wet one and by the time we made it to the African Pavilion the skies started to open up. Luckily the large array of African drums kept Carter entertained.

There were some brief respites to the rain, Dad enjoyed one with a full flight of beer from Germany

As soon as they were gone, the rain started again. This time though, Carter didn't want to be distracted from what he was watching, so dad (the tall one with the yellow poncho) stayed in the rain with Carter while Mom found some shelter in France.

The reason for Carter's wanting to stay, the large model train display in Germany. Put a raincoat on that kid and he could care less what the weather was doing.

As we continued around the world, we tried to get some good family photos in with the unique displays. But Carter was way to distracted to keep still. The main culprit...

Puddles that needed stomping!

As we walked Mom and Dad remembered our last time in Disney just over two years back and tried to re-create a photo we had taken previously. Here is the recent shot.

And here is Carter when he was only 8 months old.

As we continued around, Mom and Dad stopped for some BBQ in the good old U S of A, here Carter made friends with a very nice mom duck and her seven ducklings. Turns out they didn't like the jalapeno corn bread Carter kept throwing their way.

As we walked, we found a topiary that Carter knew and like. The alligator from Peter Pan (he doesn't really know who Peter Pan is, but Peter's friend Jake and the Neverland Pirates are one of Carter's favorites).

Soon the rain again came and this time looked like it was here to stay, so we headed inside to innovations where Carter learned some rather interesting financial and money saving advice.