Disney World Day 3

Saturday, May 7th: We went to the Animal Kingdom park on this day. Our breakfast reservations for Donald's Safari breakfast at the Tusker House were at 9:25 am. The morning went extremely smooth and all 5 of us were ready and out waiting for our bus at 8:30!

The bus took us directly to Animal Kingdom because the restaurant was inside the park itself.

Donald met us right before we were seated at our table. The girls were so excited! Breakfast was buffet style with jamba juice (and anything else we wanted to drink along with it.) They even had a special little section where the buffet tables were kid-size!! So cute!

Mickey Mouse came right to our table! How fun is that?!

Then came Daisy! Mikenna took note of her shoes! She thought they were neat and now wants some "fat high heels" too. Ha!

Then came Goofy! He started a kid parade right in the dining room! Gave all of them each a maraca and marched around the room!

Then he stopped by the table. Adiee had to go to the bathroom, she was missing Goofy! :( But I had a little chat with him and he kept giving me the thumbs up/thumbs down for him to come back so she didn't miss him! How sweet! It took about an hour and a half for all the characters to come in and visit with everyone.

When we were done eating, we set out to enjoy our day at the park. Outside the restaurant there was a man who was singing and Isla was hooked! He thought she was pretty cute, shakin' her tush and all! :)

Look who we found!! We were making our way to the Expedition Everest ride when Kasey spotted King Louie and Baloo from the Jungle Book in a little cove! We went up the pathway and we got there right before a whole slew of people started to form a line! Now that is some good luck! They saw us pulling up in the stroller and they came part of the way to meet us. King Louie got on his knuckles and right in Adiee's face! Wow, it was great! And there was also a park photographer up there so he got some great shots like these as well! :)

SO CUTE!! Our day was already 10 times better than the day before!

After we were done visiting with the Jungle Book characters we made it to Expedition Everest. The line was only about a 35 minute wait. So Mikenna and I waited in line, while Kasey had Adiee and Isla. He went and got fast passes for later. The wait went by pretty quick for Mikenna and I, the lines at the big attractions are pretty entertaining with lots to look at. This one had a yeti museum, and a room full of necessities if you were to actually climb the Himalayas. Kasey was in a spot that he could see the people in the coaster so when he saw us on it, he met us in the air-conditioned gift shop at the ride exit. He took both the big girls. Remember how I had to wait 35 minutes just for the line? Well that's the beauty of 'rider swap'. He got to go in the fast pass line. So I only had to wait about 15 for them to be done completely! While he was gone, I took Isla to get her a popsicle, played in the shade where he said he was, and let her play in the dirt. When they got out, he said that he couldn't believe that I was letting Isla play in the dirt. He spent the entire time that I was gone trying to keep them out of it (thinking I would go nuts if he let them get dirty! I don't know where he would get an idea like that?! Haha) They are kids, they are on vacation, and we decided to be 'go with the flow' parents to make the best out of our trip - I think I just proved that I was serious about that! Haha :)

With fast passes on hand, we started on our way to Dinoland U.S.A. and we noticed another character greeting cove. Though we had to wait in line this time, it wasn't too long. Plus Adiee asked specifically if we were going to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends, and Isla got really excited when I said, "I don't know, maybe!" There were more park photographers, so again there are more great shots of the girls here.

 Eeyore! He's adorable! 

Tigger!! They LOVED Tigger!

We stopped at a little fountain, the girls went crazy over it! It was pretty hot outside, so it was an opportunity for them to cool off. Plus Mikenna needed to wash off that Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich goatee off her face! LOL

Isla doesn't usually go for things like this when she is in her clothes, but she made an exception with no hesitation! haha! It was that hot! While we were in the Dino-land U.S.A. area, we did the DINOSAUR ride. It was another ride that wasn't ok for Isla to go on, so Kasey took the big girls and we did the rider swap again. It was SO cool, a bit too loud, but it was really fun! Of course when I took the girls, Adiee had to go to the bathroom soooo bad she was almost in tears, but we were at the point of no return... In the seat, buckled, and ready to go! I felt so bad for her.

When we were ready for lunch, we ate at Restaurantosaurus. Cute name! Their kid's meals were served in buckets. Hamburgers/Hot dogs with carrots, grapes, and a juicebox.

Right after lunch, we hurried over to the Finding Nemo musical line since the previous showing was full. Kasey ran to park the stroller while the girls and I got in line. That show was wonderful!! This time it was me that was getting goosebumps! Ha! Mikenna had already filled up the memory on her camera, then she got ahold of my cell phone and took about 100 blurry pictures of the Nemo show herself. lol Isla was getting pretty tired, so she fell asleep. After the show, we promised the girls that we would go back and do the "Triceratop Spin" and I felt so bad because this was actually a ride that Isla could go on, so I tried to wake her up but she wasn't having it! By the time Kasey and the girls got off of the ride, it was time for us to go back to Expedition Everest for our fast passes, and we decided to head over to the "Kali River Rapids" (a 40 minute line) which worked out since Isla was sleeping. That ride got you pretty wet and we still hadn't gotten any of the pictures that I wanted done with the park photographers in front of the "Tree of Life" a 14-story tall, 50-foot wide tree in the heart of Animal Kingdom! But that didn't stop us, we went and got those pictures done anyway. I can't show the pictures they took yet...

With the park closing at 6, we decided that we were spent for the day. Our feet were KILLING us and we wanted to beat the crowd again to the bus stop. On our way out, we couldn't resist the "Discovery Island Trails" which took us all over and under the roots of the "Tree of Life", it was super neat! Isla didn't want to stand next to that commodo dragon (or alligator, whatever...) above for very long! Haha :) He made her nervous!

A rabbit carved into the tree root.

Look at all those various animals carved into the trunk! The girls really enjoyed pointing out all the different ones that they recognized! And this was taken right underneath it!

Our beautiful babies next to a waterfall under the "Tree of Life". We made a loop and then hobbled out of the park. We weren't the first ones this time, but the wait was only like 20 minutes. We didn't even come close to seeing all Animal Kingdom had to offer, not enough hours in the day!

The girls were so WILD when we got to the hotel room and all Kasey and I wanted to do was to take a short little nap! And do you know why they had all that energy?!? Because we let them all ride in the stroller! We had a 40 pound stroller, 20 pounds of cargo, and 100 pounds of kid that we pushed up and down, in and out, ALL over the parks for the last 2 days... Not to mention the fact that they didn't have to wake up until the last second in the mornings. But they did have a point... You can sleep when you get home to boring Rawlins! Haha :) We figured it was useless even trying, so we took them down to the food court for some dinner and then had the option to watch the outdoor movie, or go to the blizzard kiddie pool. They picked pool, total shocker there! They played their little hearts out while Kasey and I rested on the loungers and chatted with other exhausted parents doing the same thing! haha :) We finally talked them into being done at about 11!!