Things Come in 3s: Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

Well, now we are getting into it!!! Everybody was super excited to go to Animal Kingdom. We had early morning plans for a character breakfast at the Animal Kingdom. The plan was to meet up with our whole family at the bus stop at 7:00 a.m. BUT poor Roy - he was attacked by a stomach bug and just as the AK bus pulled up to our stop, Roy ran back to the room and got sick. So the Summer/Bill Pearce fam stayed back and helped Roy and my family and Mom and Dad went on to the AK to save our reservations. Our entire family wore these Mickey/Minnie safari shirts. I found them on Etsy. Seriously (and I am not exaggerating one teensy bit) but we were probably stopped throughout the day no less than 50 times from strangers telling us how cute our shirts were. At one point, my Dad said, "If one more person tells me how cute I am, I am going to throw up." Ha!! You know the men LOVED the attention!!!

Here we are bring and early waiting for the bus to take us to the Animal Kingdom!!

Hadleigh and Rocco riding their double-wide with their fans because folks today was the hottest day yet!!!

We made it!!!!

What we didn't quite realize was the AK had an early morning opening that day so there were LOTS of people taking advantage of the early hours. People were pushing and sneaking around. I thought my Mom was going to hit some people who cut in front of us but I was able to calm her down. We found the Tusker House and waited patiently in line to check-in. While we were waiting, Summer, Bill and the boys arrived just in time!!!!

Good Morning KK!! So glad you could make it!! What are you going to order??

Our waitress said, "Why don't you hurry and get your food before the characters arrive!" I left and got Jillian and Rocco's breakfast and when I came back, I had missed Mickey. I was so mad. Hello? He is the star. Thank goodness my Mom got a picture!

The Mickster with JP, GP and RP

Daisy Duck and GP, JP and RP

Hadleigh was having a fabulous time pigging out on all of the fruit and laughing everytime one of the characters came by!!!

Goofy with RP, JP and GP

Daisy held a parade and GP, JP and RP shook rattles and banged sticks in the parade.

I was so happy because Mickey came back to our table and I was able to get more pics and tell him Hello!!!!

After breakfast, we headed off to the Kilaminjaro safari. Everybody told us not to miss the safari. I am not going to lie. The safari was not my favorite thing. Maybe because we have such a great zoo in SA??? But all of the animals we saw, we have at our zoo. Maybe because it was super hot?? Maybe because Hadleigh and Bryan were not happy in the jeep? I did enjoy seeing the giraffes so close up because the giraffe at our zoo died. Getting to see the animals so close is very neat!!

One of the beautiful giraffes on the safari.

Next, Bill stayed behind with the babies and the rest of us rode the water ride (can't think of name). Again, I thought my kids would be nervous/scared but nope!! Both of them had the BEST time!!!

Loading up the family!!

Jillian and I sat together!!

Who should get soaked on the ride?? Jillian was in just the right spot to get the brunt of the splash down the mountain. Again, because it was so hot, she was thrilled to be "soaking wet."

Next up was Mt. Everest, the biggest roller coaster at AK. That was the only thing that Rocco was not tall enough to ride. I cannot tell you how he boo-hooed when the other kids and family left to go ride. BROKE MY HEART. He screamed for a good 10 minutes while we were trying to feed the babies and find some shade. Bryan said that Jillian was pretty scared on the ride but by the time she got to me, she told me she loved it and had her hands up during the ride.

Finally, we went to the Dino Institute. Family friends had said this ride was not to be missed. Hadleigh had FINALLY decided to take a nap so Bryan stayed with her and I went with Rocco and Jillian and the rest of the family on this ride.

I asked them to make a scary dinosaur face and this is what I got!!!

Well, I am not exactly sure what I was expecting but first as we neared the ride. It was asked to both children with whom did they want to ride? They both answered me. Sweet! As we climbed into the vehicle, Rocco starts screaming that he wants Grammie and Poppy. Well, their row is full and he has to be in a seat belt so I grab him and try to force him in a seat belt. We all know Rocco's size so this was not going well. The employees have to stop the ride and yell at Rocco to sit down. All the while he is screaming and crying. Finally get him in seatbelt and we are off. Then he starts yelling "BAD MOMMY" and he starts hitting me. By this time, the ride has started and they turn off all the lights and scary dinosaurs start coming out of the darkness. Jillian FREAKS out!!! She's crying on my left, Rocco is screaming and punching on my right, and I just want Calgon to take me away. Good thing, the rides at all of these parks only last 2 seconds because we were out of there and it was agreed among my children that we would not go back to that ride again!!!

By this time, mabe 3:00ish, we were roasting and we decided to head back to the hotel.

Look at these sweet hot babies!!!

We decided that evening to head to Downtown Disney and check it out!!!

Waiting for the bus to go Downtown!!

Back in February, I had tried to make reservations for the cool T-Rex restaurant and they were full. The boys were bummed but somehow when we walked up and Bill sweet-talked the head hostess and in a flash, WE WERE IN!!!