Whew... That's a big 'Tato Head! 10 Amazing Days in May '14! **That's a wrap! 10-1**

[anniebabymu]

Whew… I’m back guys! Sorry about that little hiatus. I’ve been insanely busy since the 4th of July working, working, working. Since I’m part-time, I normally work 24 hours a week and this past week I worked 44 hours! And on top of working 44 hours… I did 2 nights without having a baby-sitter the next day to watch the kids. Brutal. Enough of my whining and on with the show! I’ve got a few days off now, so I’m hoping to get quite a few updates done!

May 25th: Day 4, Part 3

When I left you we had just gotten back to Pop Century to take naps. We all laid down and had a wonderful nap. My FIL usually isn’t a napper, but he got pretty used to our mid-day siestas that he was turned into a nap believer! Ha ha!

We got up and got ready, met my in laws outside our doors and headed to the buses to meet our friends. We planned to meet up at 4:30 and all of us were there right at 4:30. “C” didn’t have any issues napping today… I think I was successfully wearing him out!



Once again, the kiddos enjoyed loving on each other on the way back to Epcot!

We got there and got in with relatively no issues. My FIL was still having problems scanning his finger… hadn’t quite figured out that he was putting too much pressure on it quite yet.

We took our time walking in and were pushing it to get to our first FP+, Nemo and Friends from 4:30-5:30. Not that we really needed a FP+, although the wait was 15 minutes or so. We got there and parked our strollers just in time! We headed in at 5:28. Whew!

We thought that if Addie rode with Sean, Chelsea and “C” that maybe he would be okay with the dark parts of the ride. Nope. Not even Addie could make him not cry during those parts. Poor guy!

After we hopped off the ride we went to go see if we could see the dolphin and manatee. After we watched then for a bit we thought about heading to Turtle Talk with Crush, but they had just changed the wait to 20 minutes because they had just closed the doors on the show that was getting ready to start. We knew we wouldn’t have enough time to do our next FP+ before dinner if we did that, so we decided to scratch that and just head over to The Land.

On our way over the kids found some baby ducks and were having fun watching them!



Our next FP+ was for Living with the Land from 5:30-6:30. I don’t know what it is about this ride, but I really enjoy it! We got into the Pavilion and realized that we had two small children in diapers that were stinky, so we took a slight detour to the bathrooms before the ride so we didn’t stink up the ride!

We got to the ride at 6:10 and the stand-by wait was 20 minutes… thank you FP+. There was NEVER wait pre-FP+. Luckily we hopped right on with out FP+ and had a great ride! I was really happy to get this FP+ right before dinner. Why, you ask? Because we were headed a flight of steps up to dinner…

The Garden Grill!

I was really looking forward to this dinner because I had heard so many good things about it! At first our friends just planned on eating dinner with us at Be Our Guest, but then when she saw the menu Chelsea couldn’t resist this dinner too! We checked in at 6:20 (for a 6:30 ADR), got our buzzer and went to sit down… and it went off within minutes of checking in! Woohoo!! I was hungry and ready to eat some, what I hoped we be, delicious food!

I had heard a few days before we got to Disney that the “rotating” part of the restaurant was broken and I was hoping that it would be fixed for our dinner. Upon checking in, we found out that it was not fixed yet. And when we got seated we were in a part that was facing the front of the restaurant instead of one of the “scenes” so that was a bummer. But fortunately, that was the only thing that stunk about this dinner!

When we got to our table, we were immediately greeted by our first friend… Dale! This was a WONDERFUL interaction. Dale was so funny! He loved the girls Anna and Elsa Mickey Head shirts I made and when pointing to Addison’s Elsa shirt he started making the arm movements that Elsa makes when singing, “Let it go, let it go! Can’t hold it back anymore!”. It was hilarious!!





And here he is “singing” Let it Go! Ha ha!









What a great meet!

As soon as Dale was gone, we were able to sit down… but barely! Chip was right on his tail!







Chip was another great character meet! Not as entertaining as Dale, but we still had a great time with him!

And you’ll be happy to hear that “C” was MUCH better with these characters at dinner than he was at the Character Spot earlier in the day! He really was loving giving them kisses and fist bumps. Love it!





Love meeting Chip and Dale here! It was the first time we had met them too… great times! And this wasn’t the only time we’d be seeing them tonight. The characters were by our table too many times to count! It was awesome seeing them just walking around enjoying themselves. They didn’t have a particular handler with them like some do at other character meals… it was like they were just free to meet whoever they wanted to. Love it!

Our server came over, explained how dinner worked with the family style serving and took our drink orders. He was GREAT! Between sitting down and getting our first course, Chelsea took this picture… and I had to steal it from her!

​

 

[anniebabymu]

May 25th: Day 4, Part 4

After our visit from our furry friends, Chip and Dale, it was time to sit down for a minute before we had our next visitors. Our server brought out our drinks and then brought out our super fresh salad and yummy rolls! Oh that salad… it was amazing! And those rolls were delicious too. If this was just a preview to come, I knew that our tummies were going to be very, very happy!

While we were eating our salads, we got a visit from the main man himself, Mickey!



While Mickey was saying “Hi” we had another visit from Chip! It was so fun watching the two of them interact!











Daddy even got in on the action!



“C” did much better with Mickey than earlier today!





After Mickey left, we had a little pooch sneak up on us! Well, hello there Pluto!















“C” loved him!



After our final visitor left it was time to dig into the good stuff! Oh my gosh. DELICIOUS!! The beef, turkey, stuffing , veggies and mashed potatoes were soooooo yummy! I’m not really a fish person, but everyone else who had it loved it as well. They brought out drumsticks, mac and cheese, sweet potato fries and broccoli for the kiddos. I think we all sampled the kids stuff too! Mmmmmm… good! Our server brought out extra mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey and beef for us, but we barely broke into the extra stuff that was brought out.

Sometime during our meal my in laws noticed on the menu that they had light up Tinker Bell and Buzz Lightyear cups, so they had asked the server for two Tinks and a Buzz for my girls and my nephew who wasn’t with us. Our server brought them out and gave them to the the girls and “C”… oops! I would have assumed the same thing if I was him, so my in laws just simply asked for another Buzz one and didn’t make a big deal of it. So it was super nice of them to buy “C” the little light up Buzz toy. The kids loved them!






As if we weren’t full enough from dinner, it was time for dessert! They brought out a Berry Cobbler with ice cream. I’m a little on the picky side and am not the biggest fan of mixed berries, so I stuck with the kids dessert… a cupcake cone! I have to say, that was pretty yummy! The rest of the party loved the cobbler and they managed to find just enough room to gobble it up!

This dinner was amazing! The food, the characters, the service… all amazing! Like I said before, the only thing that was a negative was the fact that the restaurant wasn’t rotating while we were there. Looks like we have a reason… besides the amazing food and experience… to go back! Ha ha!

Our plan after dinner was to head back into the World Showcase to watch Illuminations, but it had just gotten done down pouring (conveniently while we were inside!). There was still lightening around and the radar didn’t look too promising, so we all collectively decided we’d rather just head back to Pop Century instead of getting the kids, and ourselves, soaked.

When we got to Pop we thought about watching the movie of the night, but we weren’t exactly sure what it was. We found out that they moved it inside up by the check-in area due to the rain so we all headed there. My in-laws decided to head back to their room so we hung out there for a bit with the kids. It ended up being the Muppets and the girls weren’t too interested in it. They were more interested in it jumping around on all the cushions. Then Addie proceeded to have a huge meltdown so we just thought we were better off taking the girls back to the room and getting ready for bed… so that’s exactly what we did!

While I was getting the girls bathed and ready for bed, Derek and Sean decided to meet up at Petals Pool Bar and hang out for awhile. He ended up not getting back to the room until almost midnight. I think they had a good time hanging out!

And that wraps up another great day at Disney! ​

 

[pigletgirl]

Great updates! I had no idea that summer time is the busiest in labor and delivery.

It's great to see that your friend's son really warmed up to the characters. GG gets a lot of great reviews. We'll have to eat there some day.

 

[anniebabymu]

May 26th: Day 5, Part 1

Today was a special day and a day that we were all looking forward to! Today was Harper’s 3rd birthday!

We had a sleepy Birthday Girl!



We got to sleep in a bit today because today was our no park day. We were just going to get to hang out with no real places to be. The only thing we had to do was get up and get to breakfast! What a nice feeling!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!

We got up and ready for our day, feeling rested from an early night (well… for everyone but daddy!) and getting to sleep in a bit! We were headed to breakfast with just my in-laws. When planning our trip, our friends decided that since they were checking out this day they really didn’t want to get up for a breakfast. I don’t blame them! They ended up staying at the hotel and taking “C” swimming and we were going to meet up with them later in the day at Downtown Disney.

We were at the buses at 9:00 and decided to hop on whatever bus was there first between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The Magic Kingdom bus pulled up right away, so that’s where we were headed! We got off the buses and passed up the Magic Kingdom entrance and headed up to the Monorail because we didn’t have a date with the Castle today… we had a date at the Polynesian!

We were eating breakfast at ‘Ohana! This was the only ADR that my MIL wanted to make sure we got… and we thought Harper’s birthday would be a perfect day for it!

We got to the Polynesian and my FIL decided he’d check out their gift shop right off the Monorail entrance to check and see if they had any Olaf merchandise.



There was a bit of a line at check-in and we ended up checking in about 10:05 for our 10:15 ADR. At check-in they noted that it was Harper’s birthday and then we were off to get our picture taken!



We waited for probably 15-20 minutes and we were seated. Our hostess that seated us also brought another Happy Birthday button for Harper! This was Happy Birthday button #3 for her! When we checked into Pop the first day we had one in our little packet of stuff that they give you and the girl who checked us in must not have known that she had one in there because she made one for her! Harper just had to put it on too, so she was wearing 2 birthday buttons today!

We sat down and were immediately greeted by our “cousin”. He was another wonderful server! He met us with pastries and POG juice! That was my first experience with that juice… and oh my, so yummy! We were busy getting the girls all situated and gave them a piece of the one pastry that was brought out, when we realized that the ENTIRE cinnamon roll was gone. My FIL must have forgotten the whole “family style” concept and ate the whole thing! Ha ha! We got a good laugh about this and proceeded to tease him about it for the rest of the trip. We’d say things like, “Girls, you better grab a piece before Grandpa eats it all!” Don’t worry… we asked our server for more so we could try it too!

While we were eating our pastries we were greeted by our friend, Stitch!







Addie thinks that Stitch was way calmer than he is in the movie! He must have known it was Harper’s birthday so he was on his best behavior!

On Stitch’s heels was his “’Ohana” Lilo! This was our first time meeting Lilo!











We had a great meet with Lilo!

After Lilo and Stitch came through, our Cousin brought us our breakfast! A huge skillet full of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, sausage, biscuits and all the Mickey waffles we could want! It was ALL amazingly delicious! We filled up our plate from the skillet and they brought us out another one without us even asking! Soooooo much yummy food!!!



Harper LOVED the bacon! I think that’s almost all she ate! Bacon and a Mickey Waffle! Not many people can say they got Mickey Waffles on their birthday!​

 

[anniebabymu]

Great updates! I had no idea that summer time is the busiest in labor and delivery.

Oh my gosh... it really is a busy time! Most teachers try to have their babies in the summer so they get a longer maternity leave and generally most people would rather have their babies when it's warmer out! This summer has been weird though, because we really haven't been all that busy... until the last few weeks that is! We've had like 10 people on the night shift quit! Of course that means we're short-staffed and all the patients that weren't coming in to delivery in May and June are here now! Craziness!

It's great to see that your friend's son really warmed up to the characters. GG gets a lot of great reviews. We'll have to eat there some day.

I was so happy he was warming up to them! I think it made his parents a little more relaxed! And you should eat there! It was GREAT! I don't know what I'm going to do because my "must eat at" list is quickly growing... I guess we're just going to have to up our 10 day vacation to a 14 day vacation so we can eat every where! Ha ha! Not so sure my DH would go for that...

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Oh, the kids looks like they are having so much fun a dinner! Sounds like a great experience and great food! I've always heard good things about garden grill. We really have to try it one of these trips!

I'm glad harpers bday started off so awesome! Bacon and Mickey waffles sound like the perfect way to start your birthday!

 

[AprilRenee]

We had the same experience at garden grill. SO much fun!! And we were just 2 adults!
Andrew had a Star Wars shirt on with a Brady bunch style grid with a different character in each box and chip (or dale. Can't remember) pointed at each character and acted them out. We were laughing so hard we were in tears! One of our best memories from that whole trip!!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Garden Grill is pretty awesome! We had a great time there too!
Breakfast with LILO and stitch? Sounds like a great starry to a birthday to me!

 

[pigletgirl]

Nothing like Mickey Waffles and bacon for a birthday girl! What a great start to a fun and relaxing day. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[anniebabymu]

May 26th: Day 5, Part 2

While we were stuffing ourselves with delicious food at ‘Ohana’s Best Friends Breakfast we were visited by a friend that we had seen just the night before… Pluto! He was his same old loveable self.





And then following Pluto came Mickey in his lovely Hawaiian shirt! I think I loved this outfit of his the most… although, that Farmer Mickey was adorable too!





Man, I wish I got a hug from Mickey on my birthday!!

As breakfast was winding down, our Cousin came out with this…



A birthday cupcake for Harper! Addie loved that they brought her out a cupcake. He lit the candle and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her! What a great moment!







Mickey waffles, bacon and now a cupcake?! Best birthday ever!! Ha ha!

As we were finishing up and paying the bill the little Conga line started! The girls hopped up to join in the fun!







Harper was really getting into it! It was so cute!

What a fantastic birthday breakfast!! Atmosphere, food, service and characters were all great! So glad we decided to come here for breakfast!



And if you’re reading Miss Julie… you’ll appreciate this picture! They were playing Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride and Addie was doing her dance right along with it! Ha ha!



After breakfast was over we were figuring out what to do next! I had a couple of options for today planned out. We could either head back to Pop and swim, then around dinner time hop on a bus and head to Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping. Or option 2 was heading over to the Magic Kingdom, hopping on a bus to POR, showing my in-laws around POR (where we stayed our last trip when they didn’t come with us), then getting on a boat to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and eat an early dinner, then back to Pop for the evening. Option 2 had just a few more steps!

We knew that our friends were heading to Downtown Disney to check out Disney Quest, but we weren’t sure when they would be there. Derek called Sean who said they were loading up the car and heading to Downtown Disney. If we wanted to see them, it appeared we needed to head to DTD sooner than later. Option 2 for the day it was!

We hopped back on the Monorail and got off at the Magic Kingdom and once again bypassing the main gate. So hard to be so close and not go in! We made our way over to the buses and had to wait just a few minutes for a POR bus to come. Once it got there we were on the bus with only a handful of other people… nice, quiet bus ride!

We pulled into POR and my in-laws were taking it all in! We had to go around the “loop” because the South stop is the last one, but we didn’t mind. We were there to check out the resort… and maybe convince my in-laws to stay there next time… wait, did I say that?? Ha ha! The “loop” around the resort gave them a good glimpse at the whole resort! We got off and headed into the main building. I hung out with the girls while my in-laws went to check out the whole check-in area and gift shop. Then of course when Addie found out they were in the gift shop too… since that’s the only thing she seemed to be concerned about this trip. So frustrating!

When they came out we went down the ramp towards the food court and went outside. I love this area when you come out the doors with the water right there! We took a left towards the bridge and the pool. While we were at the pool my MIL said that she thought this resort was awesome and more “relaxing” than the values we’d stayed at. And it most definitely is! Love the theme of this resort!! I could tell the wheels were turning in her head and Derek said, “You wanted to bring them here to convince my mom to stay here next time, didn’t you?” Ha ha… I plead the 5th.

We went back down the bridge and towards the boats to DTD. The main reason I wanted to come to this resort before DTD is so that we could take a boat there! We loved our boat ride to DTD our last trip, so we wanted to share that with my in-laws! We just missed a boat, so had to wait probably 10 minutes for another one. While there Harper got a Happy Birthday phone call from her Uncle Kyle (Derek’s brother) so we chatted with him a bit and he was jealous that he wasn’t there with us!​

 

[anniebabymu]

May 26th: Day 5, Part 3

Once on the boat, we had a great ride! We pointed out the building in Oak Manor that we stayed at our last trip and the beautiful grounds surrounding it. And then we also got to show them a glimpse of POFQ when we stopped there to drop off and pick up some more passengers. Then we pointed out the Treehouse Villas as we passed. And when we passed the golf course, my FIL was like… “Why did you have to do this to me!?!” He has been enjoying his retirement by playing golf multiple times a week and has joined a club. He loves golf!

Pretty soon we were coming into Downtown Disney! Oh man… from the moment you get your first little glimpse the construction is evident. There is construction EVERYWHERE! I almost felt bad that this was my in-laws first impression of DTD. This was their first trip to DTD because our first trip, we went on our last day… the day they left. We docked and Derek called Sean to see where they were. They were at Disney’s Quest so we decided to take a right and head their way to see them before they had to take off.

We made it there and it was HOT. Sooooooo hot today! We found some shade next to the building and Derek went over to one of the little food shops and grabbed some ice and water for everyone. Much needed! Love the free ice and water!

Around 1:30 our friends came out and they were going to be heading to their car and back to Miami to pick up their dogs very soon. So we said our good-byes and gave hugs, but before we left them Chelsea said, “Oh wait! Sean, get out that bag!” They got Harper a little birthday present and got Addie a present for being so helpful with “C” over the weekend.





The girls loved Chelsea’s Minnie ears, so Sean and Chelsea got them a pair of their own! So incredibly nice of them!! They thanked us over and over for letting them “crash” our family vacation… but they didn’t “crash” anything. They’re family to us. There was a period of time where Sean was up in STL by himself (before he met Chelsea) so he came out to my family’s Easter Celebration and then came to my family’s Thanksgiving celebration… and even brought the sweet potatoes! Ha ha! They are most definitely family to us! It was so great spending those few days with them!

After we said good-bye, we walked back towards the boat dock and the Marketplace. We HAD to stop at the Lego store. Addie had some money in her pocket that she was saving for Disney that she just needed to spend at the Lego store. And we planned on getting Harper a little something for her birthday there too!

While Addie was shopping for herself, Harper was busy entertaining herself with these two…





Addison picked some castle Lego set and Harper got a cute set that makes ice cream and popsicles! While daddy was paying for them, the girls enjoyed the Lego tables.





Up next was the World of Disney where we met these two lovely ladies!





We spent quite some time in there browsing because Addie just HAD to spend the rest of her money. We started over in the girl section, working our way into the stuffed animals. I swear we were there for at least 30 minutes and Addie kept picking silly baby stuffed animals which she does NOT need and I know she would never use again. So finally I talked her into holding onto her money because we would be going to more stores. We then went out to find my in-laws who were in there somewhere! My MIL ended up getting a few charms for her Pandora bracelet.

Derek decided to go buy MY Minnie ears… the ones that I’ve been wanting our other 2 trips and never bought… while I went to search for my in-laws. I found them and then text Derek asking him where he was. He was by the far end (opposite end of the girls section) and said it was POURING outside! Every time it rained, we were conveniently INSIDE somewhere! We had some luck on our side this trip! So we decided to hang out inside and wait for the rain to stop.

It stopped probably 15 minutes later and we were off to the next destination… Once Upon a Toy!





Harper played with the Mr. Potato Head stuff and Addie was on a mission to find something… without Harper. She was tired of finding something, then Harper coming over and wanting it to. So she said to me, “Mom, can you come with me… WITHOUT Harper!!” Ha ha!

Of course Addie didn’t find anything she absolutely wanted except for the make your own Pixie Stick thing. So I told her that we were going to go over to Goofy’s Candy Co. and she could maybe get something there. So that’s where we were headed to next!

We got to Goofy’s Candy Co. and Addison found the by the pound loose Candy, so that’s what she decided to spend her money on and was happy with that. My goodness! So she got about $5 worth of candy and was happy to realize that she still had money left over to spend at a later date. And then we used a snack credit and let her make her own Pixie Stick. You would have thought we gave her a million dollars!

After we were done getting everything for her sugar high, we did what we must do every trip! We went into the Christmas store to look for our family’s Christmas ornament! We get an ornament every trip! Our first trip we got the gang with a glittery 2012 on it, last year we got Minnie as a glittery white angel and this year the girls picked out Donald holding a stack of glittery presents… I guess you could say our theme is “glitter”. Ha ha! Poor Derek in a house full of girls!

When we got out of the Christmas store it was around 4:30 and we were conveniently right next to Wolfgang Puck Express! We hadn’t really eaten anything since our 10:15 breakfast at ‘Ohana, so we decided it sounded like a perfect time to grab an early dinner! We had never eaten at WPE before and I had always heard wonderful things about that restaurant, so I was excited!

Once again, no pics, but my in-laws both got pepperoni pizzas and cookies, Derek got the BBQ chicken pizza and a cookie, Addie and Harper shared the kids cheese pizza, I got the Cavatappi Chicken Alfredo. I had SOOOO much pasta, so I shared mine with Harper too! We couldn’t get over the size of these pizzas! They were HUGE!! We ended bringing some pizza back to the rooms with us, but never ended up eating the left-overs. Delicious meal and I will definitely be heading back there for my Wine and Dine trip!

After our tummies were full we decided it was time to head back to Pop. We went over to the buses right next to WPE and waited just a teeny bit before a bus pulled up. Today was a no nap day, so you could tell that these girls were losing steam! On the bus they just had to pull out their Legos and look at them… they wanted to open them up so badly! Legos are bad enough at home, I was not about to lose them on the bus!





Oh sleepy birthday girl!!



We got back to Pop around 6:30 and Derek took the girls and headed back to the room while I went to Everything Pop to grab another birthday present for Harper… something she had her eye on EVERY time we went in there! I bought it and I made my way back to the room for some birthday fun!​

 

[anniebabymu]

May 26th: Day 5, Part 4

We got back to Pop and the girls most definitely got a second wind! They were sooooo excited to go swimming and for Harper to open up her birthday presents! Before we left my MIL was asking me if she should bring Harper’s presents down to Disney and even though I knew it meant we had to pack that much more stuff to take home with us, I thought it would be fun for her to have presents to open up! So she had a little something from us to open, my in-laws brought presents for her and then my BIL and SIL left a present with my in-laws for her so that was there to open up too!

So now I’m going to bore you with all of her “present opening” pictures!

First up… what I had to stop off in Everything Pop to get!



A Bullseye Pillow Pet for my Toy Story loving 3 year old!



What should she open up next?!



Addie taking charge like always…



Addie reading Harper’s birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa.







A princess tablet for the princess…



And a princess mirror!





Some new pool floaties… those will come in handy later!



And then she got a couple of outfits including a cute Tinker Bell dress!



Addie reading the card from Uncle Kyle and Aunt Brandy.



Love my sweet girl!



A princess phone…



And a fun tea party set!



She loved all of her presents!

After presents were opened the girls were begging to go swimming! So we all threw on our swimming suits! Unfortunately, today was the day that momma needed to do some laundry. Yuck. Nobody should have to do laundry on vacation! But I guess if doing laundry means that I get to spend more than a week at Disney, I’d gladly do it! So along with the swimming stuff, I had to pack up all the dirty laundry and laundry supplies… thank goodness for our stroller!

We decided to head to the Hippy Dippy pool since Addie had only been swimming in the computer pool and we thought the Hippy Dippy pool would be a lot of fun! Since we weren’t in a hurry, we decided to take the scenic route to the pool so of course that meant passing by our friends again…



And this would be where the “tag line” of this trip report came from! Harper was giving Mrs. Potato head a HUGE hug when all the sudden she said, “Whew… that’s a big ‘tato head!” Ha ha! Oh my gosh. I was dying. That girl is so funny sometimes!





We made our way to the pool still giggling from Harper’s comment. Derek, his dad and the girls all jumped in the pool and I made my way to the laundry facilities to put the laundry in. I came back, made note of the time and hopped in the with kids! Derek was playing with Addie and I was playing with Harper. Harper was jumping in, getting out and doing it all over again and having a blast!

So Harper got out when I had an awful sinking feeling… something inside told me to check her pants. Oh yes. The sale at Wandering Oaken’s trading post wasn’t the only “Big Summer Blowout”. Oh my gosh. This is probably way more than you want to know, but she hadn’t pooped since we’d gotten there and it was absolutely awful! I took her over to the towels to change her when I quickly realized that this was not a simple change! My MIL had a plastic bag with her, so we put that down in the stroller and I RAN with her back to the room to change her! You don’t realize how far away your room is until you’re booking it, soaking wet, with a little girl with poop all over her!

We got back to the room and I threw her in the tub to wash her up, we put on a new swim diaper and suit and headed back… with nasty swimming suit and towel in hand. Thank goodness I brought extra quarters with me because I most definitely needed to do another load of laundry! Unfortunately, this “event” pushed my laundry back about 30-45 minutes. It was getting a little chillier outside, so everybody was anxious to get out of the pool. Derek took the girls back to the room to get some clothes on and left them with his mom and dad to come back and help me with the laundry.

When the girls were all washed up and dressed, the laundry just happened to be finishing up. So my in-laws brought the girls down to the food court because we needed some dessert before bed! My in-laws found a table over by “dessert” section and by the TV. They got themselves some ice cream, Derek and Addie both got cookies and cream ice cream and I got the Deluxe Brownie. Yummy, yummy dessert!

Unfortunately, our long day had gotten to Addie and she had a MAJOR meltdown. It was most definitely time to head to bed! We got back and the girls crashed before their heads hit the pillow.

I think Harper had the best birthday ever!​

 

[anniebabymu]

Oh, the kids looks like they are having so much fun a dinner! Sounds like a great experience and great food! I've always heard good things about garden grill. We really have to try it one of these trips!

I'm glad harpers bday started off so awesome! Bacon and Mickey waffles sound like the perfect way to start your birthday!

It was awesome food! Reminded me a little of Liberty Tree Tavern with the Turkey and stuffing. And I LOVE LTT, so that was a good thing! Harper's birthday was awesome! Mine and Addie's birthday's are a week apart... so maybe when we win the lottery her and I will take a birthday trip to Disney! I'd love to be there for my birthday at some point in my life!

We had the same experience at garden grill. SO much fun!! And we were just 2 adults!
Andrew had a Star Wars shirt on with a Brady bunch style grid with a different character in each box and chip (or dale. Can't remember) pointed at each character and acted them out. We were laughing so hard we were in tears! One of our best memories from that whole trip!!

I think I can pretty confidently say that it was the best character interaction of our trip!! It was great!

Garden Grill is pretty awesome! We had a great time there too!
Breakfast with LILO and stitch? Sounds like a great starry to a birthday to me!

I'm so glad we decided to try it out this trip! Breakfast was most definitely the perfect way to start Harper's birthday! It was a great day!

Nothing like Mickey Waffles and bacon for a birthday girl! What a great start to a fun and relaxing day. Can't wait to hear more!

It was most definitely fun... and relaxing in a different way. It was exhausting because we were on the go all day, but it was nice not having to keep track of the time so we didn't miss our FP+ time or our ADR's! We could just take our time and do what we wanted! So nice to have a day like that in the middle of your vacation!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I am so glad Harper had a great birthday! It looks like a fun schedule-free day!

'Ohana for breakfast or dinner is one of my favorites!

I was seriously a your big summer blow out! Every time I get Charlotte in a suit with a swim diaper she takes the biggest most disgusting poo ever! And those diapers just do not do as good of a job as the regular ones do!

 

[anniebabymu]

I was seriously a your big summer blow out! Every time I get Charlotte in a suit with a swim diaper she takes the biggest most disgusting poo ever! And those diapers just do not do as good of a job as the regular ones do!

They do not! I'm not even convinced that they hold pee! The most disgusting poo ever... so much that I told Derek he owed me diaper changes for the rest of her diapering life. Yeah right. I was still changing diapers the next day! Although, I think I can safely say that we're day time potty-trained now!!! Still using Pull-ups for naps and night time... but she wears underwear during the day and actually tells me when she needs to go! Even while swimming! Maybe there is hope for Charlotte yet!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Sounds like a great down day!

I love the picture of Harper almost asleep on her Lego box!

Oh--the swim diaper blow out. We had one of those in our past while staying at a hotel. Our room had to be the furthest one from the pool, I swear. I always wonder what those swim diapers actually hold too!

 

[anniebabymu]

May 27th: Day 6, Part 1

Day 6 was taking us to a park we had yet to visit on our trip… so we were all excited! Where were we headed?? Animal Kingdom!

Animal Kingdom had an 8am park opening today, so decided to meet at 7:00 and head to the buses. We got up and ready, opened up our door and met my FIL outside. My MIL wasn’t feeling so hot this morning. She had a migraine in the making and knew if she were out in the hot sun that she’d get to the point where she was feeling nauseous and would be down for the count for the rest of the day. So she decided that she’d stay at the hotel and sleep it off so she could be good to go for the remainder of the day! We were bummed not having Grandma with us, but we wanted her to feel better so it was the best for everyone!

We got down to the buses and was met by a bus rather quickly. It was a full bus, but the kids and I managed to find seats while Derek and his dad stood up with the stroller. When we started leaving, I heard “Andrea?!” Startled, I looked to my right and I was met with Melody from the DIS and my May Facebook group! An impromptu DIS’meet! We chatted with her and her son all the way to Animal Kingdom so it made the ride go by rather quickly. We made sure to get a picture when we got off the bus!



We said our good-byes, even though it ended up not being good-bye… we were next to them at the park entrance too! They were headed to Tusker House for breakfast and for some reason the CM’s weren’t letting all the people with reservations in early! There were quite a few unhappy people. The CM’s kept reassuring them that even if they were a few minutes late to their ADR’s they would still be able to get in and wouldn’t be turned away. Those people were all fine with that, but they were concerned that they were going to miss FP+ times scheduled very close to their ADR’s. It was just so weird that they weren’t letting people in! I didn’t get it…

Anyways, I jumped the gun a bit! We didn’t take the time to stop and get a Photo Pass pic, but Derek did stop to take this beauty…



It was a bit crowded at the park entrance already and I knew that a lot of people would be heading the direction we were going… especially if they weren’t letting breakfast ADR’s in early! So when we finally got in, my FIL needed to stop and use the restroom. I was a little frustrated because I knew all these people would be beating us to our destination. These non-DIS people just didn’t understand the urgency… ha ha! So the girls checked out a few of the animals right at the entrance while we were waiting on Grandpa!





When Grandpa met up with us, we briskly walked back to our first destination… a big attraction that we did NOT have a FP+ for. Kilimanjaro Safari!

Once again, we bypassed another iconic Animal Kingdom photo op because we were on a mission!



We got back to Safari and the line was HUGE! Like outside the queue huge. Surely not THAT many people got in line before us! And of course in my head, I was thinking… if we didn’t stop to pee… grrrr! Well, turns out they just weren’t letting people in the queue yet because we got in and were on our truck by 8:15!

In line for the Safari, the girls were of course “starving”… you know, because they hadn’t eaten in an hour so they broke into the snacks at 8:00 in the morning. So we let them get into the pretzels before we got up to the trucks since we knew we’d have to put them away!



We zoomed through the queue and were on our truck in no time!



We had the BEST Safari I’ve been on! The animals really are more active in the morning and our driver was awesome! So here’s a bunch of our Sarafi pics!



That Rhino wouldn’t stop walking around!





I wish I was a hippo… lazing around in the water all day long and it’s perfectly acceptable to be fat and lazy. Ha ha!





Look at those chompers! Don’t wanna mess with that guy!

Before we knew it, we were headed into the Savannah!

​

 

[anniebabymu]

May 27th: Day 6, Part 2

We were back in the Pride Lands and we were soon to meet one of my favorite animals… and what a fantastic meet it was!

But first… I’m sure you other moms out there can relate. Looks like we’re not the only ones that can’t have a moments peace while going to the bathroom!



This poor guy was instantly bombarded by everyone else in the “family” as soon as he started going to the bathroom. And I didn’t realize what was going on until after I took the picture… at least us moms don’t have people taking pictures of us relieving ourselves. Ha ha!

Then we met this guy who really was super close to our truck…



I thought that animal was close… but then we came up on my favorites!



The giraffes! And not just the giraffes… we were met by the BABY! Oh my gosh. One of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen! Only thing that tops this experience is getting to see the new baby giraffe at the St. Louis Zoo MINUTES after he was born! I mean, this little guy wasn’t even standing up yet that’s how new he was! Anyways… back to our trek in Africa!



The baby’s mom walked in front of our truck and it looked like this little guy was going to keep walking straight when he turned in front of us too! He ended up walking RIGHT next to me! It was so awesome!!





Next up were the elephants… and NONE of them were really in a good spot to take pics of!



Mickey Island!



More Rhinos…



And then the Cheetahs were hanging out in the shade. Kind of hard to see them... but they're to the right of the tree.



And then the Lion was out! What a majestic animal.





Who would have ever thought you’d see these two together!



When he was a young Warthog… when I was a young WARTHOG!!!





It really was an awesome Safari! Definitely a good tip to go in the morning before the heat of the day really kicks in!

After our Safari was over, we had a little time to kill before our first FP+ rides so we headed over to the Pangani Forest trail! We had never been back on any of the trails because this really was only our second time at Animal Kingdom! We spent a half day our first trip and had a day scheduled to go on our second trip, but ended up not going and staying in and having a pool day instead. Our first trip I really didn’t have anything planned in this park… so we really were just winging it. I think the only rides we did was the Safari and It’s Tough to be a Bug, we met a few characters, ate lunch and we were done. There was so much more to this park to explore than we ever gave it credit for!

We enjoyed looking at all the birds… although, I was afraid of getting pooped on the whole time. But our favorite part of the trail, by far, was these guys!





When we were at the end of the trail I had two little girls who had to pee RIGHT NOW and couldn’t hold it. So I took them and ran out to find a bathroom before we headed to our next destinations! ​

 

[STLMickeyMom]

fun safari! we got pretty close to that cute little baby giraffe too, but not that close! awesome pictures! I always forget how much I like doing the safari.

how awesome that you got a surprise DISmeet on the bus! great way to start your day!

I think our girls were destined to hang out--i'm pretty sure Madison needs some sort of IV for continuous food supplies and Hannah ALWAYS has to go to the bathroom "RIGHT NOW, I CANT WAIT!" i'm sure I was never that way as a child....

 

[Jackiemarie21]

How werid they would not let the ADR people in, I've never seen that.
Looks like a great safari! The morning ones really are the best! What a nice dismeet.