Surprise Orlando Trip Days 3 & 4

WARNING: NOT AS MANY PICTURES AS MY LAST POST, BUT STILL TOO MANY

Day 3: Blizzard Beach

After having a send-off breakfast with Mema and Papa in the morning, the kids and I made a trip to Target then spent the rest of the day at Blizzard Beach (which is only open 10am-6pm) while Ben worked.  Blizzard Beach was so much fun! The weather was perfect for being in the water and the lines weren't too long.   There were fun water slides and play areas and a big wave pool and kids were all old enough to enjoy pretty much everything.  I told myself I'd love to go back to DW in the summer just to go to there again, and try the other water park too.

This was the first of many times a bee has hung out with Eliza,
perhaps thinking she was a walking garden?

Luke, you're doing it wrong.

I wasn't taking pictures when we were on the big rides but I did get a few pictures of the kids at the big kid play area called Ski Patrol Training Camp.  This had smaller slides, floating "ice" to walk on, and a zip line.  The younger kids probably would have been content to just stay in that area the whole time.

For the second day in a row, Luke fell asleep on the shuttle back to the hotel.  We had time in the room to shower and get changed before meeting up with Ben for dinner at one of the restaurants on the hotel property where we were able to hang out with some real characters.  Then we walked around outside for a bit, enjoying the lights and the sights and the very comfortable temperature.

  

Day 4: Cousins & Resort Time

By Friday the kids were completely worn out and really needed to sleep in, so it worked out well that they could.  This was our latest morning of the trip.  Ben was working again, so once the kids were up and ready to go, I took them to Michael and Keturah's house to have a few hours with family.  We were so excited to see everyone (and enjoy their big yard and exotic wildlife) that the time flew by, just hanging out.

This is a real grasshopper called the Eastern Lubber.
It really is enormous.

The kids and I left at lunch time and spent the rest of the day at the resort.  They LOVED the fun pool and, again, probably would have been content to just stay there all day.  Once the older kids found some other kids to play games with, I took Luke to some of the other activities nearby, including a pond where we could paddle around on Swan boats for a little while.  Then we tore the older kids away from the pool, stopped at the arcade for a few minutes, went to the room to change clothes, and met Ben for dinner.  We put the kids to bed as early as we could (mostly because we would be having a very early morning the following day), left Cat in charge, and Ben and I went out and walked around to see the neighboring shops and resorts.  (I decided that I wouldn't mind staying at the Beach Club or Yacht Club resort some time.  They have some really cool pools.)  Pools were still open, there were movies being shown on big screens outside, restaurants, fireworks, and more.  Disney World really is a never-ending family-friendly party.

Surprise Orlando Trip Day 2

WARNING: TOO MANY PICTURES

The next day we all went to Animal Kingdom for the first time.  We loved it!  We wanted to be in the first wave of people in the park so we were up and at 'em early in the morning, on the shuttle headed toward Animal Kingdom by 7:30.  Just like everyone else, we rushed straight for the Avatar Flight of Passage ride in the Pandora area.  The line was really long even though we were early and hurried to go there first, but it moved really quickly and we were on the ride in less than 30 minutes.  This was similar to "Soarin'" at EPCOT but with the CG environment and animals of Pandora.  We loved how the whole Pandora area really looked like the fictional world from Avatar (even though none of our kids had seen Avatar).

Then we walked to a different area of the park, past the awesome Tree of Life, to ride on the Kali River Rapids.  We expected to get wet on this ride but we were merely sprinkled.  We wouldn't have minded a little more moisture with the Central Florida August weather being what it is.

Then we enjoyed seeing some animals in Animal Kingdom.  It was as if they planned it that way.

If you can find the animal in this picture (not Jack) then you earn a Gold Star.

Next was Expedition Everest.  This is a cool roller coaster that takes you up into a mountain only to discover that a Yeti has destroyed the track, so you have to go back to base camp backward.  Of everything we did in Orlando during this trip, this is what Luke still talks about the most (as of writing this 3 months later).  He was really into the Yeti thing.  This was a pretty intense roller coaster and riding it once was plenty for me.  Mema and Papa even decided they didn't mind sitting it out from the get-go.  So after Ben and the kids and I rode it once, Cat and Eliza were really excited to get to ride it again using Mema and Papa's fast passes.  Worked out great.

A quick rain shower and another walk past the Tree of Life later, we were in the Africa area ready for our Safari Ride.  This was really cool.  We saw a lot more animals than I thought we would and had great views of most of them.  The only animals I feel like we missed out on were the lions, and that was mostly because we did the Safari in the middle of the day.  Next time we'll be sure to plan this for the evening.

While still in Africa, we caught the Lion King show, my personal favorite attraction of the day, but then again I'm a sucker for a good live show.  This one had great music (of course) talented singers, acrobats, cool costumes, and air conditioning.  I loved it.  We stayed in the area and had an (authentic?) African lunch, then walked over to see the Nemo show.  This was really cool because of the larger-than-life puppets and different levels of the stage that were used to tell the story.  It also had original music, air conditioning, AND comfy seats.  I might have had a short nap while Marlin searched for Nemo.  Though I did like what I heard of the music.

By now it was about 5:00 and Luke was really grumpy.  Mema and Papa were ready to take a break so Luke and I took the shuttle with them back to the hotel.  Luke didn't mind leaving too much, until he realized that the older kids were all staying at the park and having fun without him.  He threw a major fit and cried for the next 20 minutes while the other people on the bus wondered what in the world was going on with him/me/us.  He finally fell asleep as soon as we dropped Mema and Papa got off at their stop, right before our stop.  And he stayed asleep while I carried him to our room and put him in his bed.  I'm glad he got a nap, and I didn't mind putting my feet up for a little while either.

Meanwhile, Ben took the big kids back to the Pandora area to ride on the Na'Vi River Journey.  I was actually bummed to miss this ride because I wanted to see all the bioluminescent plants but Ben said it wasn't all that great.  He might have just been saying that to make me feel better, but it worked.  We had dinner at the hotel then let the kids play in the lap pool for a little while before finally going to bed.