Disney World--Day 3

Our third day at Disney was the coldest of the week with highs in the 50s. Everyone in Florida was of course complaining about the cold and we too were definitely chilly. However, it was still warmer than back home! Our plan was to go see Animal Kingdom, the newest Disney park built in 1998, and Matt and I were both looking forward to the new adventure since neither of us had ever been.

I took this picture in our bedroom shortly after we woke up...Matt was sitting in our room reading and having coffee and Sadie wanted to come sit by him. She had so much fun writing on the window and it was one of those moments that I felt like I would miss one day. At some point in our lives, the fun of drawing on a chilly window in the car or in the house looses it's luster and we grow beyond it. I am thankful that Sadie is not yet there. Just look at those cute little feet!

On with our day...Just a little info....Animal Kingdom is the largest park of all 4. We learned while we were there that all three of the other parks could fit inside Animal Kingdom and there would still be room to spare. It's based around the idea of conservation and really was amazing to just stop and look at everything.
See all the different types of trees and plants behind us? Matt was reading that there brought in over 4 million trees, plants, shrubs and grasses from every continent except Antarctica. There are 250 species of animals here and over 1,000 animals, including the largest group of Nile hippos and African elephants. When you stop and think about it all, it is truly amazing! But enough of the encyclopedia and more on our trip.

The first thing we did when we got to the park was head straight for the African Safari, which takes you on one of these 'trucks' through the African savanna.

It was about a 20-minute journey where we got to see all these animals.....it truly was amazing and obviously the pictures don't do it justice at all!

I had to keep my mouth shut while seeing the hippos because I am SO terrified of hippos. Back in high school, I watched some show about hippos and learned that they are exceedingly fast, strong and ferocious....I have since been scared to death of them. (Matt finds this hilarious because I will obviously never encounter a hippo in the wild....but this was close enough!) I think he was looking right at me!

My favorite part was watching Matt point out everything to Blake...Blake LOVED pointing to the animals and being able to name them.

(the male lion was lying down just behind the female...did you know the females are the primary hunters while the males are the protectors? So the males spend most of their time at home watching for predators while the females are the ones that go out and gather food...just interesting...also, the males sleep about 20 hours a day!)

When we finished the safari, we went to see a live Nemo show, which was amazing to see how the actors/actresses played fish and sea creatures!

After the show, we walked over to see the Tree of Life. It's over 14-stories tall and is obviously man-made. But it's so beautiful.

And if you look closely, you can see a few of the over 325 animal carvings in the tree! 325! And the plaster they used allowed only 6-10 hours to complete the carvings.

Attempting a picture of the kids in front of the Tree of Life...I had to include this picture because whenever we would take a picture and Wyatt and Sadie would squat down to be closer to Blake, he would do the same thing!

..so we just asked them to all stand up.

And Blake....just chillin'

We had started to walk away and told him we were leaving, but that never works with this kid. Clearly, he didn't care about staying with us!

It was about noon by this point and all of our kids were EXHAUSTED! It may have had something to do with the fact that they couldn't fall asleep until about 10pm the night before we left and woke up at 5:30 and had been going non-stop since! And since animal kingdom is most enjoyable if you can walk around and marvel at all the detail and work that went into making it, we decided we wouldn't be able to enjoy much more that day. So we headed back.

And thank goodness we did because all three kids crashed for over 2 hours. Matt and I both got a run in and had some time to relax as well. It was much-needed for our whole family!

When the kids woke up and we were all feeling rejuvenated, we decided to head out for dinner. Matt and I were both feeling like Mexican food, so we got on a bus and headed to "Mexico" in Epcot!! How easy and great is that!

Clearly everyone was feeling much better!!

Matt and I initially weren't planning on spending much time in Epcot as several people had told us that our kids wouldn't really enjoy it since it's mostly geared toward older kids and adults. But that was not the case at all! The kids loved getting to see, as Blake called it, "the HUGE ball" or "the golf ball". And it was so much fun to get to walk around to the different countries.

Wyatt's picture of Matt and I from the other side of the ball

And a family picture, of course!

We ate dinner in 'Mexico' and the food was amazing!! Earlier in the afternoon I had posted on facebook that we were going to be eating dinner there and both my mom and sister reminded me of the Donald Duck boat ride in Mexico that goes through a restaurant....I had completely forgotten about it but sure enough, it was still there. We walked over to get on it and wouldn't you know, right as we were about to get on the ride, someone pulled the fire alarm! So they had to clear out the entire restaurant and boat ride. The kids didn't want to leave without going on it, so we walked on to 'Norway'.

Blake loved all the Viking gear..

But Wyatt and Sadie immediately exclaimed, aloud, "But we don't like the Vikings!" We had to quickly explain that there were real discoverers called Vikings that actually weren't bad football players. Several people, including the native Norwegians working in the shops and other tourists, looked at our kids a bit oddly!

We finally made it over to Mexico and, after going on the Donald Duck boat ride (which brought back great memories for me), we meandered around the market area.

We ended up staying at Epcot until 9pm and got to see the nightly Illuminations laser-light show over the lake. It was so much fun for all of us and everyone was able to truly enjoy everything after getting some rest.

So Day 3 started out a bit rough with the exhaustion and cold temps, but it ended with such great memories and we planned to come back to Epcot at some point before our trip was over.

I do have to say, however, that at this point during our trip, the kids kept asking when we were going to see the castle (that you see at the beginning of all Disney movies) as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. (We had planned to do the other parks first since we figured everything else would be a disappointment after seeing Magic Kingdom.) It was a good thing that the plan for Day 4 was breakfast at Chef Mickey's and our first day at Magic Kingdom--the place where dreams really do come true!! (and where Mommy just can't stop taking pictures of her kids enjoying everything that she once did as a little girl!)

Disney World--Day 2

OK, now for some real pictures!! We spent our first day in Disney at Hollywood Studios, with the idea that we would do Magic Kingdom last since the kids would probably find everything else disappointing after seeing it!. The kids were so excited to finally be in Disney, although I wasn't sure they really knew what to expect.

Our first family picture at Disney--in front of Mickey's sorcerer's hat from Fantasia

Disney World is truly an amazing place...there is always some type of parade or show going on. The first one we came upon was right inside the entrance of Hollywood Studios and although all the kids loved watching it, Sadie was absolutely captivated.

And after we walked around for a bit, several characters came out and we quickly lined up. The great thing about getting to the parks early in the day is that the lines aren't very long.

Goofy!!!! (Sadie was in a bit of shock!)

And Pluto!!

I wasn't sure how Blake would respond to the characters, but he was the most enthusiastic..constantly hugging all of them, repeatedly.

Blake loved trying everything on from various carts/stores (no, we did not buy this hat!)

Chip and Dale....I wasn't even sure my kids knew who they were, but they did! I did ask the chipmunks how to tell them apart and now I know...Chip has a single tooth in the front with a small black nose and Dale has two teeth with a larger brown nose.

After they explained to us how to tell them apart, I said to Dale, "So you are the one with the big nose" to which he put his head down and looked sad. I quickly turned to him and said, "Don't worry Dale, I have a big nose too. It's okay"

Not only did he perk right up but my kids thought it was so cool and kept talking about that conversation during our entire trip!

And the character Wyatt longed to meet the most......

And of course, Mater

(The majority of CARS and CARS2 characters are being setup in Disneyland at the CARSland exhibit, which is set to open up in the Fall of 2012....we actually thought about postponing our trip to go there but decided it would just have to be a separate trip. Disney World is so much bigger than Disneyland, so we figured we could easily spend a week in Orlando but only a day or two at Disneyland...so possibly in a year or two we will make a Southern California trip!)

We then headed to one of the few things we really wanted to get to see in Hollywood Studios, which was the Live Action Stunt Show. And it did not disappoint! This remains one of Wyatt's highlights of the trip...and during the show, Lightning made a surprise appearance!!!

Getting to see Lightning McQueen talk and drive--LIVE--was so exciting for Wyatt! (And of course Sadie and Blake loved it as well)

The show was truly amazing and everyone in our family enjoyed it.....

...the motorcycles..

..the jumps..

..the jetskis...

...the fire...

(in these pictures you can see how the motorcycle rider laid down his bike and slid through the fire...it was truly amazing!)

Blake sat like this the entire time....he kept pointing things out and talked about the show for hours, "Motorcycles go fast....boom, boom, boom..."

...cars jumping through windows...

..car chases through fire...

That show was a huge hit with all of us!! Afterwards, we headed to lunch at an old-school Hollywood Diner and got to meet several of the characters from some of the Disney Channel shows that my kids have watched over the years.

Sadie and Blake loved the dancing and singing with the characters

Wyatt's favorite TV character--Jake from 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates'

(for those of you unfamiliar with current Disney shows/characters, Jake is a good pirate who battles against Captain Hook and Mr. Smee to save some sort of treasure)

Handy Manny

(speaks Spanish and is a handyman whose tools are all cleverly named according to what they do--screwdriver's name is Turner--and they help people around town with odd jobs)

June from 'The Little Einsteins'

(she has another little boy with her on the show and they explore classical different areas of the world via classical music)

Honestly, Blake could not get his fill of dancing with the characters...they would call the kids out of their seats to come line up and sing and dance along with them. (Wyatt always stayed at the table with us and was quite amazed that Blake would just rush over even without Sadie!)

They started doing a 'congo line' of sorts around the restaurant and I LOVE this picture of Sadie's face....she could not believe what she was getting to do.

And Blake just wanted to be by June

Special Agent Oso

(bear character who flies into kid's lives and helps them do a specific task/chore that their parents have asked them to do that seems overwhelming to them, breaking it down into steps)

After lunch the kids were getting pretty tired. In fact, at the end of lunch, we looked in the corner of the restaurant right behind our table and Blake was laying on the ground. When we told him to get up, he 'obeyed' by doing pushups.....continuously for at last 2 minutes!! But he is my play hard-sleep hard kid. And he WAS NOT going to give-in to fatigue at any point.

We told the kids we would do one more thing and then head back to our room. So we watched a short show called "The Art of Animation" and then got to meet Winnie the Pooh afterwards.

The kids really enjoyed getting autographs...almost too much!

You are going to see this many more times throughout our trip--Blake's undying love for every character and interest in every part of them.

giving kisses**

Not the greatest picture of all the kids with Winnie, but I couldn't help but post it--no picture more clearly demonstrates Blake's deepest feelings towards the Disney characters.

And of course on Day 1, we stayed about 15 minutes too long....

the meltdowns were beginning.

The sun was too bright for Sadie and Blake couldn't keep his hands off Matt's face

but hey, we did get a picture in front of the Hollywood Studio's sign!!!

We were so thankful that we stayed at a Walt Disney World resort because we were able to go back and forth from our hotel quite easily. And our hotel was wonderful....

this is what we came home to that afternoon in our room...

...and in the kids' room...

Sadie couldn't have been more excited and it made coming back to our room each day even more exciting! (for those of you who don't know, these are the Disney fairies)

Everyone took a wonderful nap that afternoon and we headed over to Downtown Disney

(Downtown Disney was so wonderful--neither Matt nor I had ever been since it was constructed since Matt and I had gone as kids--but it wasn't a Disney park yet it was filled with DIsney shops and stuff to see as well as GREAT restaurants!)

Lego store

(Dragon from Chitti-Chitti-Bang-Bang constructed completely out of Legos)

The carousel in Downtown Disney

These pictures were all taken on my phone, but I had to try and capture Blake's desire to live dangerously, regardless of the situation!

sign made entirely of jelly bellys

The candy inside was amazing and of course, it's always amusing to see how they turn everything into a Disney-specific product

Check out this giant Rice Krispie cake!!

Each of the kids got to pick out one candy item they wanted....

(Mickey Mouse-shaped sucker!!)

..every type of bulk candy you can imagine..

Swedish Fish

Cotton Candy

And that was the end of our first day. It had started cooling off that evening and we were bracing for the coldest day of our trip the following day--a high of 55 degrees. The kids loved our first day but they kept asking, "When do we get to meet Mickey and Minnie and see the castle?"