Oh wow. I would have blogged about Day 1 of vacation earlier, but this internet connection is so slow. And I refuse to blog without at least a dozen or so pics, I know how your attention span gets when it's all words and no pictures.
So, we're here. At the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth. And we're having a good time for sure, but I'm not sure if I agree with it being Happiest Place on Earth. So far its a decent tie with our hotel's indoor/outdoor pool with free happy hour. And all the apple juice the boys can drink!
So let me tell you about Day 1. We're staying a short drive off property, so we had the thrill of entering the gates first thing this morning.
And then you drive and drive and drive, and come to your actual destination.
And before you can even get out of your car, you get rear-ended by an Argentinian. And because your kids watch Handy Manny, and that show has a character that is from Argentinia, when the person responsible for hitting you is trying to, in broken English, of course, ask about calling insurance, you will only be hearing the Handy Mandy character talk. In an exaggerated Argentinian accent. Luckily just a broken hitch cover, which Argentina happily forked some cash over for, and we could enter the park without too much pissiness.
The weather was lovely and the park was not that crowded.
So I have to stop here and say that we did not do much pre-planning for this trip. Some people get all crazy with planning the day at the Disney parks, but we just did not, and opted to play it by ear.
And because I didn't have anything planned, I could listen to the earth spirits beckon me home to the Africa section.
As we crossed into the Africa section across a bridge made to look, appropriately, like it's seen better days, we glanced to the right to see Asia. Or "Mickey's Mountain", as we told the boys it was called. This particular park we were in did not have the most rides, nor was it the most wow-ing, but the Disney folks really did a good job creating a peaceful outdoorsy vibe. And except for the large sections of bamboo growing in the middle of the "African veld", it was all rather authentic. (Bamboo is not from Africa, if you're not aware).
Now back to Africa. There were few people in this section and we saw there was little to no wait for the African safari ride. So that's where we headed. As you can see from the pic of us lined up below, there has been a fair amount of baby carrying. I could beat anyone in armwrestling right now.
We only waited maybe 3 minutes and then our safari vehicle arrived. I really hoped that the boys would enjoy the ride. We've had a year membership to the zoo, and at this age I wasn't sure if this ride would be any different than staring at the elephants across the zoo enclosure.
And there's no real way of knowing, but I know Cole liked the ride.
Grady did too, at first.
We did actually take pictures of things outside the car, too.
There, below next to Grady's coif, is an okapi. Above our heads was a large sign with pictures of all the animals we could possible see. Cole loved looking at the animals on the ground and then searching for them on the sign. WOOK, Momma! Der it is! A DOPAPIE!
Grady mostly sat and pulled dramatic faces. He's such a character.
I was cold here, so I pretended to cuddle with Cole, but used him as a human blanket.
OOOH. A baobab tree! Very African. And they had these large tree/bush things that grow incredibly long white thorns that we saw in SA a lot. If you see Karen, ask her about stepping on one of those thorns when we were on vacation when we were littler. And then ask her if she pushed me out of a top bunkbed on that very same trip. Or might have been a different trip, whatever.
I digress. No pictures were taken of the white thorned tree.
We all really enjoyed the reticulated giraffe.
Can you see the giraffe in the picture below? Look just to the left and right of the tree in the front. Peekaboo!
With about 5 minutes of the safari ride left, Grady turned to Keith and said "ok. I get off in 2 minutes". He's our canary in the mine.and what he said was his version of "I'm bored, NEXT!". I think he said what we all thought, to be honest.
We heard that the characters just came out over in Camp MinnieMickey. It was a total craps shoot on whether the boys would stand next to any characters, but the said they wanted to, so we loaded up the strollers and walked the 7 miles to get there.
And there was Goosy! OOH, Goosy, he's sooo shunny. The boys gave him high 5's and hugs and waved. I was so surprised and pleased.
Goosy, I wasn't a big fan of you before, but you were great with the boys. Thanks!
And then we had to see Mickey. How cute is her safari outfit?
With her big mouth she gave us loud kisses.
And more carrying of babies to go see Mickey.
Grady was excited to see Mickey, but Cole became shy. Star struck, I guess.
Not Grady.
And apparently my kids really love Donald. I had no idea.
Through the genetic lottery Cole inherited Keith's nervous nail-biting tick. See? He so badly wants to go stand with Donald, but can't make himself do it. I'd ask, he'd say "no, Momma do it". Meanwhile, Grady is giving away hugs like Donald came to see him, not the other way around.
Cole and I went to find the restroom, and Grady disappeared into Thumper's fur. Let's all hope he doesn't develop a plushie fetish later in life. *shudder*.
There. That's better.
The key to happiness for us all is simple: lots and lots of snacks. And it was time for snacks for boys, and water for mom and dad. One has to stay hydrated if you're to be a Sherpa for your kids.
Our next stop was a 30 minute musical production that we felt was a little bit of a risk. We had 17 minutes to fill before the show started, and we had to either entertain them somehow and get into the theatre at the last minute, or go ahead and get good seats and risk a pre-show meltdown due to boredom. We went for option B, and thankfully were able to avoid a meltdown.
As we sat we heard the instructions for the audience. No flash, no this, no that, enjoy the show, oh, and if you need to get out quickly (did they read my mind?), please see your counselor to get out. So here's our counselor (it IS CampMinnieMickey, hence the counselors, just like real camp. Oh, you got that already, did you? okay.) Anyway, here's Cameron, our counselor. No, that's not really his name, but if you watch Modern Family you'll know why I named him that.
Quick sidenote: We had great seats. And we got some pretty good pictures of the show, but this picture is one of the funniest I took all day. Watch your bags, people!
And the show began. Loved it. All of us loved it. I'd say it was my favorite part of the whole day. Keith agrees.
Each of the 4 above characters interacted with a section of the audience. This guy was our character. Not the best picture, but he was fantastic. At one point he came up to Grady and gave him a fist bump and pretended that it hurt because Grady was so strong. G-baby LOVED that.
Our seats were right where the floats and performers entered. Our boys' heads kept whipping back and forth to see the people enter.
This guy was on 4 or 5 feet stilts and he was dancing like he was just standing around on his regular feet. Keith got some awesome pics of him. He too gave the boys a few up-close waves.
The floats were spectacular.
And the monkeys, they were spectacular too. After the show Cole kept repeating "and the monkey were flying!" and he's show me his pretend gymnastics moves.
And Grady loved the flying bird-lady.
Awesome show.
And then, lunch! To be followed by cookies and silly faces.
The best place to wear off some of those cookies are in Dinoland, naturally.
We rode our first up/down/roundandround rides. You know the type, it's a character/animal, and it goes up and down and spins in a circle. It's the staple of the little kid amusement park rides.
A dinoland view from the top of the ride.
And then, playtime in the boneyard. I'm trying to finish this entry before naptime is over, and I feel like I'm on borrowed time, so quick captions for now, more detail later.
Up the steps.
Down the slide.
Up the steps again.
Wait for brother....
There he is!
Up again and down once more.
Then stomp dinotracks to make the dino roar.
And finally, dig in sand to uncover mammoth bones. Complain about sand in shoes, but say nothing about sand in bucket/hair/hands.
Also: be scared to death of bug type show under big tree. Cry and have your parents rush you out.
