We had gotten to bed at a decent hours and the kids had some down time the night before, so we managed to get up at out of the hotel pretty early. We loaded up the car and drove over to Animal Kingdom. We didn't make it for the opening ceremony, but arrived just after. We had heard that first thing in the morning was the best time to see animals out and about so we headed straight back to the Kilimanjaro Safari. There were tons of animals out for us to see including: elephants, rhinos, giraffe, lions, hippos, and different species of deer. The kids had a great time seeing everything "up close."
There wasn't a wait for the Kali River Rapids so I sent Craig and Ellie off to ride the attraction. I figured I'd let Craig get soaked again, as there were signs posted everywhere warning that "You will get wet on this ride." Hayden and I had fun waiting for them and watching "boats" go by on the little bridge that crossed over the river. When they returned, they only had a little sprinkle of water, so I figured, it was safe for me to go. Boy, was I ever wrong! For her second ride, Ellie and I ended up being on the front part of the raft as it went down the big waterfall and WHOOSH! a wave of water crashed on to our heads. By the end of the ride, we were both completely soaked to the bone. The only dry part of me was my left big toe! Ellie's teeth were chattering so I took her to the bathroom and changed her into the extra set of clothes that we had with us. She exclaimed, "oh, it feels so good to be so warm and dry again!"
We went to the Flights of Wonder bird show so I could sit and maybe have a chance to drip dry a little. While watching the show, I wrung out my socks and my shorts to the best of my abilities to no avail. It was as if I had jumped into a swimming pool with all my clothes still on! Still hoping to dry off, we went to the Flametree Barbecue for lunch. It was one of my favorite meals of the trip: BBQ, a huge corn muffin, and key lime pie for dessert. By this time, I was realizing I was not going to dry off on my own and sent Craig and the kids down one of the jungle animal trails and I headed for the car. Thankfully, we did this river raft ride on the day we were leaving so I had all my clothes in the car! Ellie was right, it was so nice to be so warm and dry again!
Everyone met back up and we boarded the Wildlife Express Train for Rafiki's Planet Watch. There the kids had a great time at the Affection Section where they could pet, brush, and (whoops) chase goats and sheep.
While we were there, Guitar Dave was going to begin a kids music show but couldn't get anyone to sit in his audience. He announced he would award the first three kids that came to his show would receive a special Disney souvenir. Ellie decided the was game, so she quickly washed her and and ran up to Guitar Dave. She was presented with 2 special collector Year of a Million Dreams Tinkerbell pins that you can only be presented with by a CM! Since there was two, one for her to keep and one to be given away, she shared the second one with her little brother...so sweet! Guitar Dave's show was really funny and we're glad we took the time to be part of his show!
After taking the train back to the rest of Animal Kingdom, we went to see the Festival of the Lion King Show. It was a great show and by this time, I was again appreciating air conditioning! It was getting late in the day and we headed out of the park, but not before we got hit with a deluge of rain! Ugh, not again I thought! Luckily we weren't parked too far from the entrance and managed to load ourselves up before getting too wet.
We drove over to Downtown Disney to eat some dinner and use up our remaining 5 snack credits. The rain stopped by the time we got over there so we enjoyed strolling around the area for a while. We went into a few shops and tried on hats and ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express.
Then we went to Goofy's Candy Shop to buy our snacks. There they had "make your own..." treats. We each got to start with a caramel apple, pretzel rods, marshmallow, rice krispy treat or a giant Oreo. Then it was dipped in milk, dark or white chocolate. Next it was topped with any combination of sprinkles, chocolate chips, peanuts, pecans, Oreo cookies, m&ms, Butterfingers, peanut butter cups, and chocolate drizzle! Everyone picked something different but they were all delicious. My krispie treat ended up having (no lie) 4 pounds of chocolate and peanut butter cups on it!!! ETA: We took them home and it still took over a week and a half for us to finish them!
It was now 5pm, so we knew we should get on the road so we would be back before midnight. The drive went smoothly and we rolled in a little after 11 pm (as we changed time zones, in our favor).
This was an incredible dream come true kind of trip. I know Hayden won't remember it but i hope that Ellie will be able to carry some of the special memories with her. Even Craig and I shared a few incredibly amazing moments during this trip. There is just something so magical about seeing WDW through a child's eyes! Now, the only question is...when do we get to put those annual passes to use again?!?
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