Since Nate is completely engrossed in watching his team win the Super Bowl, now is a good time to write another blog post about our Disney trip (though he won't have time to look over the post until tomorrow). Midweek, on Wednesday, we headed to Animal Kingdom. It drizzled off and on during the day, leaving the park fairly empty. They still had a huge pretty Christmas tree in front of the entrance:
I love this next picture. We were on Kilimanjaro Safari, riding around in their oversized jeep and saw our first wild animals. Karina then asked me if the animals were real. When I told her they were real, she gave me this reaction and dance of pure joy. The people in the row behind us started laughing. Who knew seeing real safari animals would warrant such excitement?
There were some 18 month old gorilla babies on the jungle trek we walked. The babies were dancing and doing flips for everyone's entertainment. They were just like little human babies playing.
We met Mickey and Minnie in safari dress at Animal Kingdom. Come to think of it, we met them in three of four theme parks, though they were dressed differently at each place. No kisses for Mickey from Lydia this day though.
After watching some fun shows and eating some supposedly Nepalese lunch, we went on the safari ride again. Since animals are inherently unpredictable, we saw very different things several hours later compared to first thing in the morning.
Lydia sat on Mimi's lap basically every single ride and at every show, every single day, at every theme park. One of the things he was repeatedly told by the ride operators was that she couldn't stand on his lap, but had to sit down. On the Jungle Cruise, in Magic Kingdom, the tour guide told him to stop trying to feed her to the crocodiles. He heard lots of variations on that comment, as they enforced their rules, even though Lydia was just trying to get a better view.
This is a view of the next jeep after us on the safari, but it shows what the vehicles and off-roading looked like.
During Lydia's nap time, Nate, Mormor, and Karina took a train to the Conservation Station. They met Rafiki from the Lion King:
And got to pet some fun animals, among other things:
In the next two pictures, it is obvious how thrilled Lydia was at the idea of being photographed when she would rather explore and otherwise do her own thing.
"Put on the necklace!" is probably what she was screaming here, referring to the camera's neck strap.
I will say that Lydia did become proficient at posing with characters at their meet and greets. She was always excited to give them her autograph book and pen, and learned that after she gave them a hug and said hi, she was supposed to face the camera (and not the characters) and smile. From Monday to Friday there was a huge difference in her posing skills. Karina did great the whole time, with a big grin glued to her face as she met everyone.
Nate and I were happy to get to go out for dinner without the kids that night, while Mimi and Mormor watched the girls.
On Thursday we were back at the Magic Kingdom to see everything we had missed since it is such a massive theme park, with lots for small kids to do. On the monorail headed toward the park:
Me and the silly Mickey ears my mom bought our first day there:
Karina loved the Tomorrowland Speedway. She was excited to drive crazily and did not disappoint. She swerved the car right and left over and over again, thrilled to be steering herself. I'm not sure how good all that jerkiness was for my belly, since Karina was a mad woman.
Magic Kingdom was actually pretty empty in the morning. I wish we had searched out more photospot locations (and for that matter, I wish the girls would have cooperated in standing still and smiling for the camera at such locations). Oh well.
Karina got to act out a small part in Enchanted Tales with Belle:
Karina loved playing photographer and she captured a nice one of Nate at the Be Our Guest restaurant with one of their Christmas trees:
With all the fancy rides at Disney World, sometimes the oldies that all dinky theme parks have are just as fun. The Merry-Go-Round is one of those classic rides that the girls loved, even though I don't see too much appeal.
On Tom Sawyer Island, while Lydia napped:
Here are Nate and Karina near Thunder Mountain. We didn't go on that ride, even though Karina was tall enough, because she showed us how terrified of coasters she is on the Mine Train, and I couldn't go on it with my 32 week belly.
Karina with Tiana from Princess and the Frog. Karina was very particular about having both her and Lydia's autograph books signed, even when Lydia was asleep and didn't meet the character. I thought it was nice that she was so thoughtful of her sister.
I managed to get Fastpasses for us to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Both Anna and Elsa made a big fuss about Karina and Lydia being sisters, just like them.
At the end of the night, on our way out, we popped in to meet Tinker Bell. We were carefully shrunk down to size in a special room, before being brought to the room where Tinker Bell was. Disney does seem to think of everything.
Only Epcot to go in the next post!
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