A week ago today: Animal Kingdom

This was the first time any of us had ever visited Animal Kingdom, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I had read that you can observe medical procedures when Rafiki's Planet watch first opens in the morning, and since Big Sister wants to be a Vet, that's what we did.

We saw Rafiki himself, along with Jiminy Cricket.

Pocahontas was not far behind, so we went to the "Affection Section" (read: Petting Zoo) while we waited. I was a little disappointed. I guess I thought someplace like Animal Kingdom would have more exotic animals- something the girls could pet for the first time. But this was like the 11th time they've petted goats.

When we came back in, Pocahontas was still nowhere to be found. We explored the exhibits- stations showing what the animals in the park were fed and other fun stuff. Then Big Sis and I checked out the observation area to see what the vets were doing, but it was all being broadcast from another room and she couldn't tell what was going on. They kept saying that the animal (some sort of hog from the petting zoo Affection Section) would be coming into the exam room soon, but "soon" slowly started to lose it's meaning for my four year old.

Luckily, Pocahontas arrived. Little Sister was excited to see her- she recognized her immediately and said something like, "Po-hat-on!" She even gave her a hug.

Then there were a few photos with the "animals" inside. Big Sister has started striking model poses for certain shots. Sometimes I refuse to take the picture, but I thought these were actually kind of creative/cute.

By the time we left this small part of the park, it was after 11. The girls had a lot of fun, but we were on track to run out of time since Animal Kingdom closes at 5:00.

We ran into Tarzan's friend Terk as we were leaving the train from Planet Watch. Big Sis got her book signed and smiled nicely for the picture, but when we were finished she let me know that she had no idea who that was. I had to rattle off several of my favorite Rosie O'Donnell quotes from the movie and sing most of "Trashin' the Camp" before she put it together.

Then we watched a great show called "Flights of Wonder" featuring some very talented birds. My favorite was a parrot who sang "How much is that doggie in the window" and a Seriema that eats lizards by first catching them, picking them up and SLAMMING them repeatedly against a rock. Sounds violent, but it was fascinating. And the bird was adorable...in a violent, lizard-thumping sort of way... oh forget it. See for yourself, that's her in the last photo.

We had lunch Flame Tree Barbecue; it was one of our yummiest in-park meals. Then we headed back to Africa.

Big Sister, drumming with intense concentration, reminds me a lot of my college roomie. Anyone else see the resemblance?

The girls enjoyed playing the drums. A little too much. Little Sister did not want to share and had to be carried away, screaming.

But she got over it when we started the safari. It was a lot of fun and one of Big Sister's favorite moments of the trip.

Can you spot the baby giraffes?

Then we walked down to Camp Minnie-Mickey and saw Festival of the Lion King. It is supposed to be rated the best show of any of the parks. We all enjoyed it, but I think Hubby and I were expecting too much after seeing the mind-blowing Broadway production a few years ago. Little Sister either liked it or hated it- she fell asleep.

The problem with Animal Kingdom was that if you wanted to do everything at the "ideal time" there was a lot of walking involved.

With it being the fourth day, we were all moving a little slower than before, and getting a little tired (and grumpy). I was moving especially slow because I just wanted to soak in the atmosphere at the park. I could have spent hours just wandering around, taking in the landscaping and wildlife.

We wandered upon Lilo & Stitch.

And then we wandered into the parade route. Things got a little crazy and we got separated. We waited for a bit, watching the monkeys.

See what I mean about the posing thing?

Then we wandered through the Asian animal exhibits until my mom could get through the parade.

Our time was almost over. My dad and I took Big Sister to DinoLand USA for a quick glimpse at what we hadn't done. Big Sis and I rode TriceraTop Spin together and then went to meet everyone at the RainForest Cafe for dinner.

The gorillas, elephants and "thunderstorms" during dinner were really cute, but Little Sister wasn't sure about it all, especially because the closest gorilla was directly behind her. After a day filled with fresh air and walking, we had worked up an appetite. Both girls ate everything on their plates.

We spent some time in the gift shop and then walked out to see something shooting through the sky- almost straight up. Daddy noticed it first, and wondered if it might be a rocket. A few moments later, we saw some red lights falling from the bright "something" now further up in the sky- boosters being released, perhaps? Sure enough, we read later that there was a launch that night.

How cool is that?! Another magical ending.

Sidenote/Disclaimer

I've not seen any comments on my LONG, photo-heavy posts from our trip to Disney.

I'm afraid that this might mean that I have become the 21st century version of those people who invite you over for dinner and then pull out the slide projector with three carousels of pictures from their family vacations.

If this is the case, I apologize. I'm not trying to bore you. It was a great trip, and I'm trying to share that with all of the people who have asked (I think sincerely?) to hear about it and see pictures. Maybe they didn't know what they were getting themselves into!

But more than that, I'm trying to write it all down for us. If you like to read along while I revisit our trip, awesome.

If not, I'll try to get back to my usual randomness in a few days.

A week ago today: Magic Kingdom (part I)

Magic Kingdom was, well, magical.

Especially since we got there before the park opened and got to see the train roll into the Main Street USA station. Being the goober that I am, I got all teary eyed with sentiment and excitement before we even went through the gates.

We went straight to the back of the park to enjoy Fantasyland first. I read several "inside tips" that suggested starting in the back of each park, and I really do think we avoided crowds this way. We walked right on to Cinderella's Carousel. Hannah even got to ride Cinderella's very own horse! (It is the only horse with a golden ribbon on its tail- another insider tip I discovered, which was confirmed by the Cast Member working the ride who showed us right to it.)

Little Sister screamed when I tried to get her to sit on the horse with me. She fussed until the ride began. Then she started fussing when it ended: "I ride ponies!" But then we showed her our next destination, and she started saying "I ride elephants."

This is a terrible picture of me, but I made the sacrifice of sharing it to commemorate Little Sister's favorite ride. After this, all she wanted to do was "ride Dumbo."

We rode Peter Pan and then headed to ToonTown. We missed the "ribbon cutting" (I'm still not sure what that entailed) but got there right after it opened so we didn't have to wait long to see Big Sister's favorites: The Fairies of Pixie Hollow.

I was actually very impressed with how they did this, since fairies are roughly five inches tall. But as we got nearer to the characters, the objects on the walls around us seemed to be getting bigger & bigger. We were shrinking to Fairy size! Then we rounded a corner and were met by TinkerBell's friend Fawn.

Little Sister was not interested in Fawn or in being in the picture. But Big Sister was very excited! Especially to see the next Fairy, Tink herself.

The last fairy in Pixie Hollow that day was Tinkerbell's best friend, Terrence. I don't think Big Sis was as excited to see him at first (her favorite fairy, Silvermist, was not there). But he was possibly the most friendly and fun fairy of them all. When Little Sis started bouncing, he yelled, "Look out, Tink! She's going to take off!" which prompted Tinkerbell to remind us that Mickey said Magic Kingdom was a no-fly-zone. Then Terrence showed Big Sis how to use her fairy wings, too.

After visiting the fairies, we went to the Judge's Tent to see Mickey and his friends. I was hoping we'd see Donald or Goofy too, but it was just Mickey and Minnie.

Big Sister rode the Barnstormer twice with Daddy; she loved her first "real" roller coaster. But she still wasn't ready to put her hands in the air, Daddy.

We left Toontown to see someone else before the lines got too long. Nope, not these guys. The girls just wanted to keep on going.

Even though we'd seen Ariel with legs at lunch the other day, Big Sister really wanted to visit her grotto. While we waited, the girls played in the little splash area, even though it was probably only 50 degrees with wind. After they took a picture with Ariel, Big Sister reached into the pocket of her Minnie jacket and pulled out a little white seashell. At first we thought she was just going to show it off, but then she gave her treasure to Ariel to keep. It was very generous and very precious.

At the Grotto we met up with some other people too, Penny & Nicci! They "Gave a Day" to get to come to the Magic Kingdom for Penny's birthday. We loved sharing the day with them and hope they had a good time enjoying everything through our girls' eyes, too.

Also, they did most of the heavy lifting for us because by the third day of Little Sister refusing to ride in her stroller (and Big Sister needing to be lifted up several times to see better) our backs were worn out!

We watched a 3D show called Philharmagic (cute!) and rode The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I awkwardly rode it by myself because of how the lines divided up. I was worried I might miss some cute reactions from Little Sister (she sleeps with Eeyore every night) but Penny said she was more concerned with the Baby Wipe she was carrying around.

We were heading out after lunch when we passed the castle and saw the last part of a great show featuring the princesses & princes, Mickey & Minnie, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Malificent, and more.

And then we settled in for the parade. At this point, my camera battery was on its last leg. My Mom & Dad didn't have their camera, although Dad did run and buy a disposable. Penny & Nicci were cameraless. Big Sister only had a few shots left on the disposable we bought for her to record her own memories of the trip. After these few photos...

... we couldn't document anything else. I'm hoping there are some fun pictures to show for the rest of the day. So we can remember how cute the girls looked in their Mouse ears- and how Nicci had to run down the parade route with them just before everything got started. Thanks again ladies!

I hope someone got a picture of the girls riding the Carousel and Dumbo again- this time with Penny & Nicci. Little Sis got them with her "Iiiii ride ponies."

Then we all rode "It's a Small World" (okay, not all, my dad refused to ride it because he remembered having the song stuck in his head for days the last time he got on it) and headed for a treat. I'm really hoping that when we develop the film we have some pictures of how ridiculous we all looked covered in sugar after devouring three+ funnel cakes.

I do not, however, want a picture to remember my daughter's meltdown when the sugar came crashing down. But the trip to Tom Sawyer's island afterwards was sweet and calm. Then we found Aladdin's carpets, but Big Sister's favorite princess Jasmine was nowhere to be seen. Little Sis didn't want to get off of the carpets, but when we told her we were riding the choo-choo, things were looking up.

We rode all around the park, from Frontierland through Toontown and into Main Street USA. By then the sun was setting and it was FREEZING! We found a seat (outside, unfortunately) and had dinner. Thankfully we picked a restaurant that had chili and hot chocolate. And a table with a perfect view for the Fireworks.

We were dreafully cold, but the colorful lights on the castle (Little Sister caught them changing one time and said, "Oh! I saw it! Blue!") and the spectacular fireworks really were... well... magical. And like many of the magic moments in my life, there are no pictures to capture the moment. To remember the magic.

But it's okay. We'll not soon forget it.

It's not like a picture could ever really do it justice, anyway.