Disney-Day 3

welcome to day 3.
chris was in class all day today too. so mck & i headed to our first full day at magic kingdom.
we got there early to see the "opening ceremony."
the disney train comes into the station & all the characters come out to countdown the opening of the park.

very exciting!

mck & i went straight to buzz lightyear to ride and get fast passes. sadly, i didn't get a picture. it was one of the rides we enjoyed the most. it's part ride, part video game and very fun! (now that i think about it, though, i took a picture when we all went back. so that's probably day 5.)
after buzz, we rode astro orbiter. while we were on it i took this picture of tomorrowland and the castle.

another pretty shot of the castle

one of me...

and mckinlee

looking into tomorrowland from the bridge

one of us together...

and one of them together!

mckinlee rode the mad tea party by herself
(absolutely no way i was getting on that!)

and loved every minute of it!

on our way to adventureland, we walked through liberty square and listened to this band for just a few minutes. that guy in the middle was really into it!

one of my favorite old disney movies is swiss family robinson. this was a "tour" through their home.
their water system...

the sons' room...

mck walking down to see their study...

and their kitchen.

by this point, we were extremely hot and a little cranky!
so we headed down main street to catch a bus and leave.

but not before stopping at the cutest old fashioned ice cream parlor!

at disney, EVERYTHING is disney, even the rice crispy treats!

that night we had reservations at the rain forest cafe in animal kingdom. mck had never been to one so she was super excited!

chris & mck by the huge aquariums

chris & i after dinner

mckinlee with her dessert!

it was pretty good!

all three of us by the aquarium

then we went over to the store side of the restaurant and had more fun over there.
love her face!

and his!

we spent a long time in the store where mckinlee purchased a bagful of rocks that she meticulously selected one by one.
then we took pictures of her on the stools which she thought were funny.

just to clarify...even though i might have felt like it by this moment, that is not my wheelchair!

there...a little cropping took care of that!
(while i'm grateful for the kind people that agreed to take our picture when we asked, it baffles me to think that someone wouldn't zoom in a little to crop out a wheelchair! oh well--no big deal!)

that is the end of our fun day 3.
we were glad that chris would be with us the rest of the time.
day 4 is tomorrow...hollywood studios!

(i also may have another fun little post up later...check back!)

Disney-Day 2

day 2 is all about animal kingdom.

chris was in his class, so mckinlee and i set off early in the morning.
without meaning to, we ended up being at the gates a full hour before it opened. we had stopped at the hotel cafe and picked up breakfast, so we were able to eat it while we waited.
i planned each day of disney on the plan we got from tour guide mike and it really paid off!
as soon as they let us through, we were on our way to the safari. i had read that it's good to do that first thing while it's still "cool" (ha!) and the animals are out.
and we saw a ton of them!
rhinos...
and hippos...

and crocs! oh my!
(did you know that open their mouths like that to regulate their body temperature?
i had no idea!)

at first, mckinlee was a little upset that we were doing the safari first instead of riding something. but as we clung to the sides of this huge jeep like thing in the back row, it was as wild as any ride we could have been on! she was pretty happy!

cool termite mounds

giraffe

elephant

more giraffe

cool rock structures

a lion sunning himself

when we finished the safari, we walked back through the little village and saw some cool things, like this man carving a wooden animal,

and this neat little scene.

i just loved this old bicycle and the old wall!

i also love doors and windows--call me strange!

the tree of life

and a closer look. isn't that so cool?
fun fact: 10 artists and 3 imagineers worked full-time for 18 months to create the 325 carvings on the tree!

inside the tree is the theater where we saw a 3-d bug's life type show.

i didn't get pictures of the river rapids ride since mck & i were covered in our ponchos and my camera was in the protected area.
when we got off that ride, people were sopping wet. mck & i just took off our ponchos, poured the water off and went on our way!
(helpful tip: stop at wal-mart before you go and get plastic ponchos--i think they're only $4-5.)

then it was time to get some autographs!!
mck & pooh

and eeyore

and tigger!

then it was off to find a tame ride, since, much to mckinlee's dismay, there was no way i was getting on DINOSAUR (i had heard it was really rough and my neck did not need that!)

instead we rode this seemingly calm little kid ride. it was so jerky and rough i could hardly stand it! mck loved it and wanted to ride it again!

she decided to get her face painted

and, surprisingly, this guy did a fabulous job!

i love this picture of her looking at herself.

then it was off to ride something i would get on--a little flying dinosaur!

after we got off we saw goofy and had to stand in line for pictures and an autograph.
mck was terrified he would mess up her face paint!

i know the people in these costumes must have been DYING of heat, but they were so sweet to every single child. here he is dancing with mck!

i think we walked back over to the tree to get an ice cream...

and realized we were in the area where more characters were.
mck and miss bunny--not too sure who she is, but isn't she cute?

mck with chip. or is that dale?

ok--this picture totally cracks me up. maybe because i'm kind of bent over or maybe it's the fact that i'm not even as tall as a chipmunk. i just think i look like a little person (no offense to any little people.)

i just love thumper!

mck with brer bear. she kept saying this was bear in the big blue house, until she looked at his autograph! she had no clue who this character was.

we walked through a little shop to cool down and she just had to try on this goofy hat!
(i have almost the same picture of chris in this hat--look for it on day 5 or 6!)

there weren't many people on our bus, so she got to stretch out for the ride to our hotel.
the dolphin is considered a disney hotel so there was bus service and water taxis to the parks. this was so helpful--i would not have wanted to mess with finding my car, finding my way back to the hotel, etc. after being at a park all day!

we thought we were going to be able to go with chris to dinner with other families from his office, but it turned out to be just a dinner for the ones who were at the class, so mck and i got cleaned up and went to a little restaurant in the hotel.
it was pretty good.
she, of course, had a cheeseburger but it was nice they served strawberries with it.

and i had a salmon salad.
(chris is really rubbing off on me--even when he's not around, i am eating healthy!)

but we just had to have this chocolate mousse!
(and we also got three huge gourmet cookies to take back to the room.)

another picture of the island princess (or whatever it was called) before she had to wash her face.

and a close up of one side.

and what she'll look like when she can wear eye make-up, she says.
i say, i don't think so!

so there is our day 2 (but really our first full day at a park)
tomorrow is day 3...