Day 2 of our Disney excursion took us to the Animal Kingdom
Once again our plan of attack was to get there when the park opened. We ran in and stopped when we saw the tree of life. It is amazing!
Our first stop was the Kilimanjaro Safari. We were in the back of our of bus which was kind of cool because we got such good views of animals as we left each area.
Some of these animals like the zebra and ostrich were so close they could have walked on up to our bus and hopped on for a ride if they liked.
My favorite animal we saw was a giraffe nursing from his mama.
While I loved all the animals, Elle wanting to hold my hand was the best thing about the safari! She is not always touchy, so when she is it means a lot.
Next, we stopped by to get Christmas hugs from the finest mice in all the land.
And also the two finest pups!
Next stop: Cali River Rapids.
Jay "got" to do this fun water ride with Elle first. She LOVED it! They both were thoroughly soaked, but that didn't stop Caroline from hosing them down from the overlook.
She giggled each and every time she doused some poor already wet soul. She thought it was hilarious! I thought it was hilarious to see grown adults who got on a water ride scowl at a 3 year old getting her kicks outta spraying them down. She was too little to do most of the thrill rides like this one, so it was my motherly obligation to let her get some thrills in by alternate means.
We stopped again for some fun treats and then...
headed to Festival of the Lion King. The girls got called out and asked to participate in the show. They loved it for a tidge, then ran back to us before dancing in front of the crowd. The show was magnificent!
Look at how soaked Elle is from the water ride! Poor little hiney.
We ate lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue.
Elle had a hard time eating because she was too busy sneaking her lunch to all the wildlife. Sorry AK, we tried!
We did a couple of more rides and quickly realized that Elle was going down pretty fast. We didn't know what was going on, but decided to head to the Animal Kingdom Lodge before dinner at Saana.
Saana is super cool! The restaurant has near floor to ceiling windows overlooking animals that roam the grounds. While we ate dinner the sun was setting and we were watching zebra munch on dinner, ostrich prance around, other birds I've never seen just meander around. It was so fun!
Jay got some soup (can't remember what type...)
Shrimp, fancy rice and dumplings.
Steak!
Throughout dinner Elle seemed to be going down like the Titanic. I kept thinking, Girl, come on! It's only day 2! You gotta put your travel face on and do Disney! Then she said she would prefer sleep to her peanut butter smore. I immediately knew something was wrong. My child is a sleepless wonder and to want to nap instead of roll in sugar meant something was going on in that little body.
We left dinner early and took her temp as soon as we got in our room.
Umm... no thank you.
We called Dr. Whitaker in the morning (her temp in the morning was 103.5) and he called us in some antibiotics. We then alternated Tylenol and Motrin and hit Disney up spreading our germs like the good selfish family that we are.
Side note: Our pediatrician is truly an amazing man. The Lord has given him clear gifts in his practice and he uses them to minister to our family and countless others. He loves Jesus, he loves his patients, and he teaches his patients about Jesus by loving them like Jesus does. We are forever thankful for our doctor.
We let the girls sleep in a little bit and once the Tylenol had taken effect and we were asking Elle to stop jumping on the bed we headed off to Hollywood Studios.
It was super rainy and super cold so we did what Shaw's do to make things better, we ate. Thankfully timing worked out well for us and when the bottom fell out and it was pouring we got to run into "For the First Time in Forever" show. It was precious! The girls really enjoyed it... especially the end when Elsa made it snow like crazy.
We left Frozen and Caroline was convinced she needed every Frozen themed animal for sale, even the ones like Sven that she already has.
Jay took Elle to go do Star Tours
while Caroline and I visited Captain Jake
Elle joined in for a Sophia visit.
Then we headed off to Hollywood and Vine for lunch.
Doc, Sofia, Jake and Handy Mandy were all at lunch. It was such a fun super cute diner. Also, if you eat lunch there you then get tickets for reserved seating at the Fantasmic show at night.
Caroline especially was loving all the deserts. She is a girl after my own heart!
The girls went into a food coma for a bit. We wanted to curl up with them!
When they woke up it was about time to head towards the Osborne Festival of Lights. I think I was most excited about them getting to see this! When we first started talking about going to Disney, I knew I wanted to go during a time of the year that they would get to see these lights.
The girls frequently ask me to turn around when we pass a lit wreath in the neighborhood so I simply could not wait to see what they would do when their little eyes took this scene in!
As are most things Disney, it was epic and most certainly did not disappoint.
Elle was especially excited when she spotted her beloved Stitch hanging out.
We finally tore ourselves from the lights to go catch our show of Fantasmic. We had the best seats! Actually, I don't think there are any seats that aren't awesome, but we were dead center row 8. It was simply amazing! I will say, having littles the villain portion of the show was a little much (especially for our 3 year old) but even so it was fantastic!
