Animal Kingdom

Monday was Animal Kingdom day. Matt headed to the conference for the first part of the morning, and I was charged with rousing and readying these sleepyheads. It was well past 8 and this was the scene....

After a fast breakfast downstairs in the hotel, the girls waited for Matt by spending some time outdoors doing more vacation journaling.

The trek to Animal Kingdom took us 2 hours. Yes, that's right. Our hotel only offered direct shuttles there until 9:30, and we couldn't leave until 10. So, we had to just shuttle to tickets and transportation, then ride a ferry to Magic Kingdom, and then take another bus to Animal Kingdom. It was not super awesome. At all. I nearly wet my pants, and Jillian had plenty of drop-to-the-ground moments of drama. Waiting is hard, OK?

Once at Animal Kingdom, we had lunch at Yak and Yeti (fairly decent food for Disney) and managed to convince Adrienne to sit through the 'It's Tough To Be A Bug' show that Matt had to take her out of screaming last year. Then we hit our first fast pass--the Kali River Rapids ride. As we were waiting in line, I saw people putting on ponchos. And so I got nervous. I really didn't want to get soaked. Right as we boarded our circular river raft (with a few other people), I read the sign that said, "You will get wet. You may get soaked". Awesome. The ride was fun, and the usual ride-fearing Jillian absolutely loved it. What Jillian and I loved even more is that Matt and Adrienne got completely soaked, while she and I remained mostly dry. We lucked out with our seat position! While I always carry extra clothes for the kids with me, my sherpa refused to do so, and therefore Adrienne had to just dry out (as did my sherpa).

We hauled a wet Matt and Adrienne to the Lion King Show. After the show Matt asked me if Adrienne (who sat on his lap) was still THAT wet or if she peed her pants. We asked Adrienne, and she didn't know (wasn't sure who to ask at this point...). Then she piped up and said--"if it's warm water, it's pee. And that was warm water". I guess she figured she was already wet so it didn't matter? Daddy wasn't super thrilled about this, but it certainly drove home my point about carrying extra clothes. Oh well. I took A to the bathroom, threw her underwear away and so she went commando the rest of the day. Thank goodness for dry-fit skirts with built in shorts.

We enjoyed another Safari this year, with great views of giraffes and elephants and lots of other safari animals.

But it was the rhinos who stole the show. A couple of them decided just to block the path of the trucks, so we had to wait for them to pass

You can see the rhino out the front windshield of our bus here.

When we finally could creep past the rhino, we were so close that Matt and Adrienne could have touched it. I hollered at him to move her away from the side. This rhino was a momma protecting her baby and I didn't want her getting feisty with MY baby.

The sweet baby. So cute!

After the safari, we hit the trails and saw some fish and hippos and gorillas.

Baby gorillas!

And then it was time for the highlight of the day--Adrienne convinced Matt to take her on the biggest coaster there--Expedition Everest. She was one inch above the height requirement and just begged to go. Jillian started crying when he agreed to take her, because "Adrienne is going to die if she goes on that ride!!!" We have quite the dramatic flair. I managed to calm Jillian enough to not cause a scene, and then we went over to watch for Matt and Adrienne to come barreling down the first drop. You can see them about mid-way back in the car.

Matt said it was a seriously scary and legit coaster, and that Adrienne screamed with glee the entire time. She came bouncing out the exit after they were finished.

We did some shopping and then played in the dino park. Jillian loved finding things to climb.

We had no dinner plan (very bad idea at Disney), thanks to deciding we could not make it back to the hotel in time for the welcome reception party because of all the transportation drama. So I happened to place a hail mary call to Rainforest Cafe, which was at the entrance of the park. We lucked out and had ourselves a table in less than an hour. The girls were over the moon, and Matt and I just did our best not to completely lose it. Talk about overstimulation.

We successfully navigated back to the hotel in just over an hour, and then tucked the princesses in with their growing pile of Disney purchases.

Magic Kingdom

On Sunday, we spent the day at Magic Kingdom with about a million other people. I woke our sleeping beauties up, shoved some breakfast down their gullets, and we raced to hop our hotel bus.

Our bus dropped us off at Tickets and Transportation, then we had to hop the ferry across the lake to get to Magic Kingdom. And yes, I dressed the girls identically every day of this trip. It's easier to find them this way, and I love it. However, Jillian has now declared that she does NOT want to match Adrienne any longer, so my days of matchy matchy are over. Sniff. Tear.

Waiting to get into the park....

These people were waiting too....Lord, have mercy.

After two rides on the teacups and a late breakfast at Be Our Guest (Belle and Beast's palace), Adrienne declared she HAD to meet Elsa. We didn't do this last year, so felt as though we should oblige this request....even though the wait time was listed at 60 minutes. Ouch. It was worth it to see the wonder on Adrienne's face.

Anna was there, too. Let it be known that Jillian did not want to wait in line to meet the sisters, but as you can see, she looked pretty happy about it in the end.

Teacup shenanigans....

Riding the Little Mermaid ride...Adrienne put on her brave face this year and did not scream and cry the entire ride.

Other things we did that morning: Monster's Inc Laugh Floor show, Buzz Light Year Space Ranger Spin, Stitch's Great Escape (totally stupid, we all agreed). Then we kind of just grabbed snacks for lunch. This basically meant that Adrienne ate a bag of Cheetos. Whatever.

After 'lunch' we walked up to the top of Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse, rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, took the Jungle River Cruise, and then enjoyed some Dole Pineapple Whip to cool off.

We had a fast pass to the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, but as we were waiting in line inside the building, Adrienne freaked out and thought it was too scary. So. I wandered upstream through a sea of people and took her out to wait for Matt and J. After we got outside she of course decided she really did want to go. Too late. This brings up the point that we still have two very different fears for these girls at Disney--Jillian won't ride anything that feels like a roller coaster (she basically blocked our entire family from riding the famed 7D Mine Train ride that is supposedly awesome and fun and not a true roller coaster..but she wasn't having it), and then Adrienne is a motion thrill seeker (more on that later), but if it's dark or perceived as scary--she's out. Seeing as how we try to keep the family together for rides, this makes it tough and provided lots of opportunities to talk about compromise.

Later in the day, we enjoyed a parade. Maleficent's dragon was everyone's favorite float.

Wearing 3D glasses for Mickey's Philharmagic Show.

We had dinner at the Plaza Restaurant (not as good as it sounds--truly, the food at Disney is horrible), then made it back to our room in time to grab some gelato for the tub. Hard knock life, eh?

Disney World: The Return

We had the chance to return to Disney World this year, as Matt was asked to speak at a conference. Since we had so much fun last year and know that our girls are likely approaching the end of the princess-loving stage, we jumped at the chance. I have many stories and pictures to share, so for the sake of not overwhelming any reader (or myself in the face of the large task), I'm breaking this trip up into several posts.

We left on Saturday, October 17th. I was excited to use my TSA precheck number for the first time...and boy, that was a breeze! No shoes off, no baggies of liquid out of the bag, no jacket off...awesome. The bummer (and slightly humorous) situation was that Matt's secretary forgot to put his number on his ticket, so he took Adrienne through the loooong line, and Jillian and I sped through the pre-check line and coasted to our gate with lots of time to wait.  Adrienne was my flying buddy, and the flight was a breeze. Thanks to the individual screens with gobs of choices for all members of the family, I hardly even knew I was traveling with kids!

It took awhile for our bags to get off the plane, thanks to a broken baggage truck. Some people weren't liking it.

We finally got our bags and our rental car, then headed towards the resort to check in and grab a late lunch. Here is where I will pause and scream the praises of the Four Seasons Orlando: this place was off the charts. Never have I loved a hotel so much (and that is saying A LOT because we all know I hate hotels). It opened just one year ago and is sparkling clean, fabulously and simply decorated, and super quiet (not teeming with crowds like everything else in Orlando). It is also one of the most family friendly places we've stayed with extraordinarily nice staff. So, Four Seasons Orlando I heart you. 

The girls were given backpacks when we arrived....traipsing back to the room to change after eating lunch.

Look what we found upon our arrival: chocolate lollipops and a note telling the girls their milks were chilling in the fridge. Fancy!

The discovery of the TV in the bathroom mirror was almost too much excitement to bear.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the pool facilities. We had a lazy river to enjoy, water slides, splash pad, and other pools. The best part is that nothing was crowded. All gorgeous and fabulous.

Matt and Jillian played a little basketball...

Not your everyday splash pad...

View of the waterslide tower....

Here comes Adrienne on the right, Jillian on the left.

Can you spot Adrienne?

Matt was fascinated by these gourd-like chairs near the lazy river.

The view from our balcony on the 14th floor. Can you see the Epcot ball on the left? Hollywood Studios on the right. We had a great view of the fireworks display!

Waiting for the the fireworks show while Jillian wrote in her vacation journal her teacher gave her.

Earlier in the evening we dined at Ravello, an Italian restaurant in our hotel. The wine was good, the spaghetti was house-made, and the gelato for dessert was kid-approved.