Disney pt.3

Wednesday we headed for Animal Kingdom - yay! It was our first day in the park, and we were really excited to go on the safari - and I couldn't wait to try Everest! We got to meet some characters - Chirt from Tarzan, Baloo, and King Louie. We headed to get fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safari, then went to do a few other things. We watched It's Tough to be a Bug, which was SO CUTE!!

After the show, we headed over to get in line for Everest. We stopped on the way to see the monkeys. They were out and very active. They were yelping and hollering so loud that we couldn't believe that it was real - we kept looking for a speaker that was making all the noise! Then it was on to Everest. The wait was only 7 or 8 minutes. We couldn't believe it. I loved it, but couldn't convince any of the kids to go on it with me. Oh, well, next time, right? :)

When we finished Everest, we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safari to use our fast passes. I decided to reapply sunscreen on all the kids before walking over. Unfortunately, it was hot and the kids were really sweaty. The suncreen ran into Chloe's eye and really stung. She cried forever, we took her to the bathroom and rinsed her eyes out. Then we gave her a moist napkin to hold on her eye herself. It took a while, but she finally calmed down. I know that drama is going to be a good thing...one day! :)

The Safari was amazing. We were so close to the animals! I couldn't believe how realistic the safari was. The driver was very enthusiastic, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Then we stopped to get some lunch at Yak and Yeti's quick service. If you haven't tried it, you totally should. :D It was so yummy, and the servings were enormous! Then we headed over to Dinoland. On the way, we got a great surprise - we saw DeVine!! Oh, my goodness, this was so neat. DeVine is a park favorite, and pretty rare to get a glimpse of her, let alone have an up close and personal experience with her like we did. She is dressed completely in foliage so that she blends in with the trees. She moves very slowly on stilts, very cool to see. She came out of the trees after someone had spotted her. She moved toward us, and I was snapping pictures like crazy. She stopped in front of me, then moved on to Kelly, sliding right behind him. He was afraid to move for fear of knocking her over! It was very cool.

When we got to Dinoland, Jason and I headed over to Dinosaur with Logan, Chloe and Connor, while Steph and Kelly took the rest of the kids to the Boneyard. I was really looking forward to doing this ride, knowing it was going to be a lot like Jurassic Park. Chloe was feeling brave, so we let her go on it with me. Let me tell ya, that was a BIG mistake! We were a ways into the ride, screaming like crazy, when I realized Chloe wasn't screaming in fun. She was terrified! I put my arm around to tell her it was ok, but then she started crying inconsolably! She didn't ride anything else for the rest of the day.

We headed to Epcot from there, and Canon fell asleep on the bus! I felt so bad for
him! He'd gone hard all week, without complaint, and he literally just couldn't go any more. So when we got to Epcot, we let Caleb walk and put Canon in the stroller to sleep. He slept for two hours, then was good to go the rest of the night!
We had dinner that night at Teppan Edo. We celebrated Connor's birthday here, since it's his favorite kind of food. Unfortunately, the chef was the best part of the meal. Truly, our Japanese restaurants in Springfield are much better than anything we had here. But they treated us well, and gave Connor a chef's hat with Japanese writing to keep. He loved it. When we left the restaurant, we stepped over to the pond, and Chloe found a hidden Mickey on the grate. This was only the second one we'd seen the whole trip!

We took the kids over to ride Mission Space, then called it an early night, and headed back to the pool to swim. We didn't try to do a lot that night, because we planned on being there all the next day.

We took it easy the next morning (Thursday)and headed to Epcot about 10. We got our fast passes for Soarin', watched Circle of Life, went on Living with the Land, and got some lunch. We went to Soarin' right after that. Wow, was it totally worth it! It was so breathtaking, I couldn't believe the feeling of flying over San Francisco. It was one of our favorite moments of the trip! We then went to Journey into Imagination with Figment. Oh, it was so cute! Caleb just loved Figment, and so did Canon. We played a lot of the games and little experiments after the ride, which was a lot of fun. Then we went to watch Universe of Energy with Ellen. We loved it - the feeling of being surrounded by the screen was nearly as exciting as Soarin'. We were heading to Animal Kingdom for dinner at Yak & Yeti's. This was going to be Canon's birthday celebration. Unfortunately, he kind of got jipped. The waitress was really lousy, the food was only mediocre, and he almost didn't get his birthday cupcake. :( It was ok, though, because we caught the parade on our way out and he got to dance with Molly and Chloe. Now that's the way to celebrate your birthday! :)