Day Three: Animal Kingdom!
We had another late night, the night before. So, again, we tried to let the girls sleep in a bit. Which equalled them waking up at 8:00 am. Which AGAIN for my girls is sooo late! They are almost always up at 6:00 am sharp!
They woke up and promptly checked out what Tink left them. Notice Gwen is still in her clothes from the night before. She didn't want to put on her PJ's and we just let her crawl into bed.
Morgan reading the note. Again super tired but not quite as hung over looking today. Probably because she slept till 8.
Today, was Snack Shirts!!!! I was excited to wear my Snacks Shirt. And the buttons. I gave myself the Dole Ship button but some how I ended up with Mickey Waffles Pin.
I am pretty sure we skipped breakfast at Roaring Fork before heading out. As we didn't make it down to the buses until 9:00-ish. It was rough getting them ready, particularly Gwen. She was a HOT mess. I turned to Andy at one point, and started to say, "I know you don't want to hear this..." And before I could finish, he said "I think we need to get a stroller today." THANK GOD, he was on board. We had a full day planned today, and there was no way the girls were going to make it the entire day. When we got down to the buses, there was a ton of people waiting when we got there. And I kind of figured that was a good sign that a bus would be coming soon..
Gwen made some pressed pennies while we waited. And waited and waited...
A bunch of busses for a bunch of other places came and went. We debated taking an uber over. And we kept holding out. And finally we decided to just call an uber. We waited maybe 5 minutes for an uber to show up. And off we went. I kept waiting for our bus to show up while we were waiting for the uber. And low and behold one showed up as we were pulling away.
But we were already ahead of the bus since we didn't have to wait for everyone to be loaded in and all that. EXCEPT.... Our Uber driver wasn't paying attention and ended up getting into the regular parking lot. At this point, I just wanted to be in the park. So we got out and waited for the tram... A first for us! It wasn't too bad, just annoying after all the waiting we already did. But we were FINALLY at the front of the park at 10:30!!!
By now, I was really questioning this plan of late nights and getting to the parks later.
After making it through the lines, we stopped and got a stroller. It didn't take too long but again, I just wanted to get moving. I got a double stroller figuring it would give them a little more room. Well, Morgan hopped in and she practically took up all the space! Ha. They agreed to take turns, and Gwen got first dips, as she NEEDED it!
But thankfully, by 10:45 we were doing this!
Morgan really wanted to start over on her stickers, now that Pandora was in the book. So, we promised to get new books. So we stopped and got re-initiated. (Not sure what Andy is doing in this pic but...)
After that we continued on towards the tree of life!
Got a few pics in front of the tree of course!
Another attempt at a selfie, a little better but still not great.
Andy wanted to get some iced coffee and water. So, he headed into the Starbucks while the girls hit the first Wilderness Explorer Stop!
Flamingos!
This guy was really great. Really engaging with the girls. He was impressed that the girls knew the answer to why the Flamingos were pink. I was kind of standing to the side, letting the girls do there thing with him. And he did keep looking for me, like I was going to just leave them there or something.
After we were done, Andy was still inside the Starbucks, so the girls and I sat down in the shade and waited. I had packed snacks for the day, so I took some out for the girls. Andy came out and we let the girls chill and eat there snack. We of course had to have a bathroom break as well. And then we got ready to finally do some exploring!
I had heard that the trails around the tree were opened. So, we decided to check them out a bit. Which was fun, but there isn't too much to see. Other than checking out the carvings up close which was pretty cool.
After exploring at bit, we finally made our way towards Africa!
It was about 11:10 by now and we had a fastness to ride Kali River Rapids at 11:35. And we were HOT, so we were looking forward to actually getting wet! The girls spotted another Wilderness Explorer Station. So, they stopped to check it out.
It was a music themed stop.
And the girls had fun playing the drums, even if no one was around. But I think I finally told the girls to ask the lady working at the merchant stand, and sure enough she had the needed stickers!
While the girls did that, I spotted something of interest to me!!! Spiked Dole Whip!!! So, while they did that, I got in line to get us a cold refreshment. I got one regular and one spiked with rum!
I have to say... It was just ok.. I mean it was good but I think I prefer a float with pineapple juice. I mean I won't complain... It was good but just not the thing I was dreaming about later.
The cold though REALLY hit the spot with the heat and gave us a good little burst of sugar to keep going.
We continued onto Kali River Rapids, and that is where I think I am going to stop for now!