Eventually, they calmed down. Zach walked right on to ride Expedition Everest while the girls and I got fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We said hello to Baloo, met back up with Zach, and headed to wait for Thumper and Miss Bunny. We also caught Meeko and Pochanotas, and the girls were thrilled to get four new autographs that morning after we had warned them the increasing crowds might mean the opposite.
Lunch was at Flame Tree BBQ before we headed to the Studios. Once there, the girls were asleep almost immediately. I only got to do the Animation Academy once, thanks to people (like some I know ;)) that can't make their kids wait for anything throwing off the count. I'll stop there, since the same tangent would be redundant. It was fun though, as always, and Zach enjoyed more "not suitable for pregnant women" rides, including Star Tours 2.0. Twice. So jealous!
The girls and I watched Jedi Training Academy while waiting for Zach to finish, then we all headed over to Muppetvision. Hartley and Emmersyn hadn't seen it since they were quite small, and really loved it. It was so crowded at this point that we weren't going to get a good parade spot, so we made the somewhat difficult decision to skip it this trip. Instead, we opted to hang out by the Buzz & Woody meet and greet location and grab snack #3904823. Because of the parade timing, we were first in line - but didn't think that would mean much since it wasn't the start of the day. We were wrong!
A green army man came to get "the recruits", and led the girls through all of
the fun photo ops before posing with his friends for a picture. Emmersyn and Hartley
were very cute, if a bit overwhelmed. :)
We were then first in line to say hi to the Incredibles, though that wasn't nearly so exciting. Still, it meant more autographs we hadn't had previously! We spent a little time playing games in the Magic of Disney Animation, before going to eat at Hollywood and Vine. Dinner was pretty bad this time, and was made worse by the pouring rain threatening to cancel Fantasmic. You might recall, F! was our priority this trip. With their relatively new-found coping skills (read: "skipping" things) and the glorious noise-cancelling headphones, we figured they'd finally be ready for it again. This was our only chance to see it this trip, and was the sole reason we had put up with the crowds at the Studios all afternoon
After hiding out in the stores down Sunset Boulevard for much of the evening, we
decided to go for it since they hadn't officially canceled. We were soaked, and
at one point the skies opened up again during the show so we were "forced" to
huddle together under a sopping wet blanket for some semblance of protection...
but the girls did so well - and I couldn't have imagined anywhere I would have
rather been with my favorite 3.5 people in the world!
When the rain finally stopped (for the night?) we were not terribly cold, so we walked quickly through the Osborne Lights. It was still breathtakingly beautiful, as was Zach talking to the girls about the nativity and the Christmas story in the midst of the spectacle.
By the end of the night we were sleepy and soaked, but so happy. Would we have preferred to be dry? Of course - but the night was still pretty special.
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