Epcot!!

Today was our first day at the parks this trip and it was about as special as it gets.  We had a fabulous day and it started with waking up early to make sure we were at the gate for rope drop.  We arrived and were on the first row which is usually the start of a great day.  After the Grand Marshall's completed  the countdown the confetti came flying out and Samantha got covered in it.  We always have one goal at Epcot and that is to get to Soarin' as quick as possible but today something was different; Daisy was right at the gate doing autographs and pictures.  Samantha is a huge fan of Daisy so we made a quick decision to get in line and see Daisy and then we would proceed to Soarin'.  Somewhere Daisy picked up Samantha's dance moves and watching the two of them do the tail feather shake had the entire line laughing and cracking up.  Off to Soarin' we went; mom and I went first because we thought Samantha was not tall enough. After checking with her standing on her tip toes she was just at the 40 inch mark and they let her in on the ride.  Now I love Soarin' but watching her ride for the first time...a whole new level of cool.  We then needed to head over to the different countries as we had brunch reservations coming up.  It was time for breakfast with the Princesses in Norway.  What a wonderful treat; Samantha and the Princesses finished it off with a parade around the castle so that everyone could see them.  After saying goodbye to the princesses it was time to go visit all of the different countries.  Paige had made Samantha and Grandma Bern a passport book to get stamps and have the local cast member write something special in it for their country and both Samantha and Grandma were ready to get started working on it.  We visited each country; talked to the local cast members; saw what they ate and drank; looked at the stores; and rode rides.  While walking through Italy, Samantha got picked out of the crowd to help the juggler out with throwing a soccer ball.  She thought she was very cool after doing that.  We got a couple more signatures and it was time for dinner.  We had reservations in Japan at the Japanese Steakhouse.  I have had alot of Japanese in my life but this was by far the best I have ever had.  They do not do alot of tricks like we are use to but once they found out Grandma Bern was celebrating her birthday and Samantha kept saying dad, is he going to do a fire, the cook decided it was time to show us how much talent he really had by creating a Mickey Mouse out of onions.  After dinner we visited a couple more countries prior to heading to our seats for the Candlelight Processional which Paige had got us special seats for (we ended up on the 6th row).  The show was incredible which is what you expect from Disney.  We hit a few more countries (finished our passport in Canada) and then went to ride Nemo prior to heading to our special viewing area of Illuminations.  We had a very special time at Epcot to say the least and Paige did an excellent job planning this one!!!