Today was a little nuts. The kids started off the morning with cereal in a cup :)
AND THEN!!!! with getting slimed at the pool, which if your a kid is a totally awesome way to start your day! Notice the humidity fogging up my lens?! I took this picture standing right outside our room so we were literally right by the pool.
Thanks to our lovely friend Katie, we had two 1 day park hopper passes to WDW, so we thought we'd be all cool and maximize our time/money/tickets and buy 2 more park hoppers and bonsai through two parks in one day!! Well, let me tell ya, that was a very lofty goal....our experience was wonderful and horrible all at the same time, lol. We didn't even get to Animal Kingdom until 2:30. We thought it would be cool to eat at the Rainforest Cafe so we made reservations and the last one they had was at 5:30 which meant, even though the park was open till 7, we only had 3 hours inside before our reservations. It was a little bit overwhelming, I have to say, but after a while we relaxed a bit and had some fun.
First up was The Oasis Exhibits which are tropical garden pathways with different animals and birds inside, just as you enter the AK park.
Animal Kingdom is really beautiful and relaxing, and it seems just like yesterday I was pushing Chris around there in a stroller. The top two things on our list were the afternoon parade and the jungle safari.
Here they go again with their silly faces :0
It was sooooo hot & humid, we were all sweating to death. The boys went to check out a show call It's Tough to Be a Bug, which is inside The Tree of Life, a 14 story/50 feet wide, man-made tree with over 325 animal carvings on the outside of it!
While they were in the show, I took Lex (and Mikey) to get her picture taken with some of the characters, which she absolutely loved! Christopher was always freaked out by them and hated taking pictures with them.
Minnie & Miss Mae
Pocahontas was so pretty and sweet & I swear that looks like her real hair!! But is that even possible? There's no way!
The boys finished before we did so they snagged us a good spot for the parade which Lexi loved. All the people at the park kept saying Hello Princess to her, because she was wearing her Ariel crown...they have been trained well, very well.
After the parade we got some really expensive ice cream and then we headed off to my favorite part, The Kilimanjaro Safari ride!!!
The ride was really bumpy but I did manage to get a few good pics.
Nile Crocodiles
A rare look at a family of Hussey's
After the safari we bought the kids each a souvenir and walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail as we made our way out of the park to make our dinner reservations.
One more view of The Tree of Life
Expedition Everest over in the Asia area, we never even made it over there, maybe next time.
The A/C in The Rainforest Cafe was a very welcome change, it felt amazing!
Silly daddy was trying to get Mikey to make a squishy face
Success!
Lexi's new love, Pandy
Next stop, cause we're crazy like that, was Magic Kingdom!
Waiting for the ferry over to MK
This place was made for Lexi! OMG, she was in absolute heaven and I swear every employee we passed from the shuttle drivers to the people in the parades acknowledged her with "Well, Hello Princess"! It was pretty awesome and she loved every second of it.
Here is one of the first of many attempts to get a picture in front of Cinderella's castle....how do like that pose she's striking, lol!
First thing, the kids wanted to get their souvenirs so Lexi got a Minnie/Mickey balloon & Chris got a light up sword. Then we rode Prince Charming's Regal Carousel & waited in line FOREVER to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
Next up was the Mad Tea Party teacups, which was one of the kids (and my) favorites ;)
Next, we met back up with Page, who had been wrangling Mikey and was feeling really bad/overheated. I suggested he & the kids go into an air conditioned building/ride and Mikey and I went to buy him a Sprite. It sounded like a solid plan but they had to wait outside in line for about 30 minutes grrr! Anyway, they finally rode Peter Pan's Flight and Page drank some Sprite and felt a little better but was really just grumpy and over it at this point. I was bummed to find out It's A Small World was closed for re-modeling :(
We decided on one last hurrah before the parade, so we split up again and Page took Lexi to meet the Princesses while Chris & I went to ride Space Mountain, which was awesome! It was so cool inside and the line was in an air conditioned building...ahhhhh!
Sleepy boy isn't having nearly as much fun as sissy!
Chris & I met back up with Page & the gang and we convinced Page he would feel much better after hanging out in the A/C of Space Mountain (plus Chris really wanted to ride it with his dad). We decided to scope out a good spot for the parade and have them meet up with us there.
We tried a few more times for the castle pic on the way ;)
Mikey pooped out on us
Epic fail!
One more souvenir while we waited
The boys joined back up with us and Page was still grumpy, but as soon as he saw the look on our little girls face while she watched the parade, his mood did a complete 180. He said afterward, that her face made it all worth it, lol! She was amazed and even the characters on the rides were looking down at her and saying Hello Princess, it was awesome!
On our way out we grabbed some popcorn & a slushie and then it was shuttle, ferry, car & ugh we were beyond exhausted!!! We kept getting turned around on our way back to the hotel and going in circles! We felt like the Griswalds, Look Kids, Big Ben, Parliament! But the kids of course were crashed out in the back. We finally made it back to the hotel and got our turn to crash for the night, WHEW! What a day!