March 6th, 2009 - WDW Day 2

The girls wake up every morning around 5am and chatter at the ceiling and their crib toys for about 20 minutes. It's fairly harmless, and they usually go back to sleep fairly quickly for another hour and a half or so. Not in WDW! The close proximity of their cribs had them both standing and bouncing and reaching for one another like crazy kids in a matter of seconds, so this mama hopped out of bed to replace The Sheets. We obviously didn't leave these on overnight, but they clearly needed them in order to get any more sleep... which I thought was absolutely necessary! So, I got up and showered to keep an eye on things while they quickly fell back asleep.

In the shower, I felt optimistic. It's a new day, let's start a good vacation from here forward! I thought. When the girls got up at about 6:30am, I told them the same thing. They drank their breakfast and played on the floor, and everyone was full of smiles. Much better so far!

Zach woke at about 7 and made the trek for mug refills. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the girls seemed tired. We had a park to see, but I wasn't about to argue with a nap if they'd take one, even if it didn't make any "sense" to me! :-P They ended up napping from about 8:15-9:15, so we were already making significant improvement in the sleep department for the day!

Finally, after stopping in the lobby to talk to some of our new "friends" (the fabulous CMs at the Boardwalk Inn/Villas) and take a few pictures, we were on our way to the Animal Kingdom!

(Please ignore a) the spit-up coming out of my oldest child's mouth (I'm told they'll stop someday, and this is the only picture I have of the two of them that morning) and b) the serious issues of pattern conflict (outfits vs chair). I hope neither thing makes you lose your lunch.)

We got to the Animal Kingdom just in time to snag the last AAA Diamond Parking Spot (that we could see anyway), which was fabulous. We set up the stroller (fighting the girls, of course) and headed in! Our first stop was to get a FP for Everest, because it was the one grown-up thing we wanted to ride here. It was then almost time for the girls' lunch, so we headed to the Flame Tree BBQ to order our own and start them with theirs. I know for a fact that most of the counter service restaurants in the parks used to open at 10:30am, because we ALWAYS used to eat then. We're usually up so early at home anyway that it's not a stretch for us to eat lunch then (especially if we don't eat breakfast), and that way we beat the crowds. Blame it on a recession or whatever you'd like, but none of them do anymore. Flame Tree opened at 11, but several of them didn't even open until 11:30! It was about 10:40 at that point anyway, so we just headed to the seating area (one of our favorite places to chill in the AK) and fed the Emmersyn and Hartley first while we waited for the restaurant to open.

Let me correct myself. This USED to be one of our favorite places to chill in the AK. I never minded the birds that would hang out nearby, but there were horrible problems with them this time. Ducks literally nipped at Zach's feet. What is UP with birds these days?!

After lunch (which included a cute "celebration themed" chocolate cake that I thought was fun and also included sharing some of our pork and chicken with the girls ), we headed back to EE.

Side note - the Yeti is SO broken. I had read that he was, but thought (hoped?) that it was some Disney fanatic over-reacting. We do that sometimes, don't we? It wasn't though! Not only did he not move for my ride, but they didn't even have the lights on him. I swear to you, had I not been looking for him (and ridden several times before), I wouldn't have even SEEN him. When Zach rode, they at least had the regular lighting (strobes, etc). He said it wasn't bad that way, but goodness - I was really surprised on my trip! Still, the ride is always a decent one, and you can't argue with using a fastpass and the rider swap program! While we rode, the girls napped in the stroller in the shade, right outside the exit.

When we finished, we thought it was probably time to head to the Expo (for the Princess 1/2 and Family 5K) and back to the hotel room for a bit. Since the girls were still sleeping, we walked the Discovery Island trails a bit so as not to wake them when transferring them to the car. We were learning!

After just a quick little nap (15 minutes or so), we were on our way to the Wide World of Sports to pick up our race packet.

I must say, they did the Expo right with the Princess event. I'm not sure if it's just the fact that the theme lent itself to better merchandising or if it was the fact that it was a much smaller enrollment, but the packet pick-up was much more enjoyable, even with two tired girls in tow. It was much more organized, much easier to get through (as in physically getting around), and the stuff was SO cute! Had we been running in a timed race that we had trained for, I would have been all over so much of it!

After the incredibly long walk back to our car (what with Braves spring training and the Expo going on at the same time that afternoon), we headed back to the room to let the girls play and nap. Hartley only slept about 30 minutes and was rarin' to go again, but Emmersyn slept over an hour. These days, that's a decent nap at home!

As Emmeryn and Hartley were taking their afternoon bottles and I was enjoying a soda with the balcony doors open, I couldn't help but notice the day had already been so much nicer! The babies were still thrown for a loop, crying any time we disappeared around a corner or tried to put them down on the hotel floor (bed and couches and cribs were fine, but the floor took an adjustment each and every time ), but overall it at least felt like the pendulum was swinging in the right direction!

We headed back to Animal Kingdom at about 4 for our dinner reservation. Odd how nobody at all is entering then! We missed Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade by a few minutes (or, rather several minutes if we had wanted a spot to see), but we knew the naps were infinitely more important, however short! We were a bit early for our Tusker House ADR so we kept walking to see what the line for Kilimanjaro Safaris looked like. The stand-by sign said 20 minutes, but I ventured a guess that it was incorrect. The park was totally clearing out, and I assumed they might have just not updated it toward the end of the day. I was right! We literally walked on to what was almost our own vehicle at about 4:30pm. The animal viewing was decent, and the girls seemed to enjoy actually being able to ride something.

How ridiculous is it that most of the way through our second day of the trip we were averaging 0.5 attractions per day?! Who cares, though, we were enjoying ourselves and actually calling it a vacation!

We signed in for our ADR at Tusker House a few minutes early, while Hartley hung out with her new buddy Fernando. I was shocked at how quickly she reached out for him, given her usual stranger anxiety!

The staff outside was remarkable, and our server Joe was even better! The food was excellent and the girls enjoyed lots of new things there as well. I hadn't intentionally booked multiple buffets in a row, but it ended up being perfect for babies of this particular age!

Since our ADR was obviously at park close, we thoroughly enjoyed our quiet walk out, savoring the empty park along the way. I wondered if the CMs would rush us out at all, but they didn't even come close. There were a few out at various junctions to make sure we were at least headed in the right direction, but nobody cared whether or not we were in a hurry, and many even encouraged us (and those leaving with us) to stop and take pictures.

It was an absolutely gorgeous evening with a slight breeze, the girls were very playful, and I was the happiest walking through there that I had been the whole trip.

We decided to make a quick trip to Downtown Disney that evening. I love spending time (and money ) there anyway, but there were a few things in particular we were looking for. First, I needed to replace a necklace On my solo trip in December 2007, I had purchased a beautiful Minnie necklace from the Arribas Brothers shop in the Mexico Pavilion. The pendant fell off at some point though, and I think a small cousin might have taken it during a party we had, but I won't go there The point was, I needed a new one. I found a gorgeous classic Mickey one that night, and I was thrilled! There isn't a clasp, per se, on this one, so I'm hoping it holds up a bit better.

The second thing we were looking for, which we wouldn't find the entire trip, was new Disney Bears for the girls. I got these when I was pregnant with Hartley and Emmersyn --

they went to the hospital with us when the girls were born, and they LOVE them now. The only problem is that the shed. A lot. I would find my newborn girls with a mouth full of fur, and it hasn't gotten much better even after being washed a few times! I was looking for the cute cloth ones they used to carry, but we saw none.

Anyway, DTD was hopping that night. All of the lots except one PI lot were full. No surprise though, as the night remained absolutely beautiful. We watched a CM teaching High School Musical dance moves to a crowd of adorable kids while we fed the babies. We hit a few stores, but weren't really there long. I picked up a 2009 DVC pin (the open edition one, if you care. I'm so not a collector, just get the one I find cutest ) and a few toy sets for the girls, and we were "home" by about 7:45pm.

The girls played for a little while, and went down to sleep like saints. You can bet we were knocking on wood until our hands were sore, but they did

While they were sleeping, Zach and I settled into the room a bit more and got things ready for the early race morning to follow. We reminisced a bit about our half marathon trip (January 2007) and all the things surrounding it, as well as everything that had happened since. I heard fireworks going on, but couldn't for the life of me figure out what they would be at 8pm. I knew they weren't Illuminations, so I didn't even really pay attention to how long they lasted, hear the blasting finale, etc. After all, Epcot ALWAYS closes at 9pm, 9:30 sometimes in the summer.

Except now.

Now, when Future World has EMH in the evening, the World Showcase closes at 8pm and Illuminations happens at that time as well. What in the world?! I'm sure you all knew that, but since I hardly planned this trip I didn't. Instead of being annoyed by it, I just laughed. Something so major, and I was completely clueless. I think that Zach secretly enjoyed it....

So there we were, sitting on our balcony at 9pm wondering where the fireworks were. No joke. We debated what day it was and whether Disney would do something so confusing as to have the event early for Daylight Savings, even though it didn't happen until 2am. We remembered that it wasn't even the right day for DST and confused ourselves more. Yes, my friends, we were that senile the first few days into this "vacation".

We laughed that we would have actually been able to watch and enjoy them, prayed that the girls would stay asleep after starting off so well, and headed to bed shortly thereafter. It was shaping up to be a different kind of trip than we had ever taken, but not really a different one than I was expecting.... 0.5 attraction per day average and all.

Next: March 7th, 2009 - WDW Day 3