Star Wars Weekend!!!!

So, I warned you this was coming when I said we were headed back to Orlando for a Star Wars Weekend.  While visiting our friends, the McCalls, on spring break, JMc asked if we were coming back for a Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios.  Staying with them again sweetened the deal enough to say yes.  (At first Brent said he could take the big kids and I promptly said we were all going!)

Anyway, the weeks progressed and JMc sent us some neat things he and his team had worked on for the Star Wars Weekend.  They were pretty funny - http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/05/new-behind-the-scenes-video-looks-at-star-wars-weekends-2012-debut-to-celebrate-launch-of-event-themed-mobile-website/

and http://thedisneyblog.com/2012/05/14/star-wars-weekends-2012-poster-video-collection/ are the links to some of his work.

A quick 2 hr plane ride and the whole gang was back in Orlando!

 We got up early the next morning to hit the park and see all the extra Star Wars events at the park.

About an hour or two into it, the rain started.  No worries.  That meant we could see the shows and wait in line for the rides instead of seeing all the characters that couldn't come out into the rain.  Of  course some characters aren't affected by rain...

 As he was leaving for a break, Darth Vader strode, quite quickly I might add, right up to the kids.  He pointed to Bishop's Darth Vader had and gave a nod.  Very Cool!!!

 Like I said, since it was raining, we didn't feel we were missing anything by going into the shows.  At this show, hosted by James Arnold Taylor - the voice of ObiWan in The Clone Wars - we saw Silas Carson, who played Nute Gunray and did a few other voices and minute parts, and Jake Llyod who played Anakin as a boy.  There was another show where we saw 2 women who were voices on The Clone Wars -- not a big interest to the adults in our group, but he kids thought it was sort of cool since they watch that too sometimes.
And by the way, the StormTroopers "show" while we waited was hilarious!  You can see it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JyobDz5Xbc

funny, those guys sound a lot like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Then the rain cleared...

I love it when the Daddy gets involved -- a hug from Chewy!

The next day we headed back with the ENTIRE group.  I sent this photo to a friend who said, "who's that in the middle?"  haha!!

And as we were all waiting in line for a frozen lemonade, I saw a Jawa.  Apparently Brent and I yelled, "UTINI!" at the same time and the Jawa stopped.  So we got an autograph and photo.  JMc thought our "unbridled spirit" of the moment was awesome.  ; )

Then it was over to "Darth's Mall" to see other characters.  I'd had a list and upon returning to the park Saturday, the listed was down to C3P0, R2D2, and the Cantina Band.  So, Princess Leia was a bonus, especially for Brent.  C3P0 and R2 talked to us for real - he even said Bishop's name - all that freaked out Vay.  LOL

Then we found The Band!!!!!

At the end of the night, we gathered at the stage for Hyperspace Hoopla.  Here is a snipet of the show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtjxfmmTt2I

Daddy had to go back to work Monday, so he left us to enjoy our company a couple more days (flights were decidedly cheaper for 5 people on Tuesday!).  On Monday I took the kids to Animal Kingdom bc we had not gone there during our trip last year.

This might have to be an annual event...

oh, did you notice everyone had t-shirts for the event?  ; )