Day 2- Animal Kingdom- Sunday

I have to give a big shout out to my cousin Kathy because she gave me the idea to go to Tusker's House at Animal Kingdom. Like myself, I scheduled this breakfast before we booked our airplane tickets. I had this one done back in October...yes OCTOBER! I am nuts when it comes to travel plans... just ask Jeremy to verify. I am very particular and there are certain things on my list that I want done and if they get messed up then all hell breaks loose. I am one of those!

SO after making everyone get up at 6:00 in the morning, I thought our reservations were at 8:05, but they were at 9:00...whoops.... and this is why....Since this is a little tricky and I didn't know what the weather was going to be like, I actually booked 2 breakfasts with the characters at Animal Kingdom. I actually got the times mixed up for the days... whoops! Since Tuskers House is actually inside ANimal Kingdom, you have to get a ticket to the park and then plan on some time to walk back to the restaurant. It was so nice because we got into the park early...noone is around. You make your way back to the restaurant and take some pictures along the way. It was so nice not to have to worry about the crowds this early in the morning. Oh- I must also saw, that if you have the chance take a handicapped parking pass with you! This was AWESOME! unfortunately we got to take advantage of this since Jeremy's dad is currently going through chemo.... at least that was one of the positives to the nasty cancer disease!

SO we arrive at Tusker's House!!! we get our photo taken with Donald Duck and Addie is just so happy! She wasn't scared at all and gave him a hug and had the biggest smile on her face! I had to hold her, but no screams, no nothing! We were then escorted inside to the restaurant and we were towards the back for our seating time. This is a buffet style restaurant so I had time to get our food before the characters come to the table. I will say, the money for the character breakfasts are worth it because they come to you and you are guaranteed to MEET them and get your photo with them! It's a price worth paying for, especially the smile on Addie's face! So as we were eating, it was time for the Mickey parade in the restaurant and Addie and I were able to participate. It was so much fun marching around the restaurant to the music. I held Addie the whole time since the pace was kinda fast and wanted her to feel comfortable!

AFTER the parade, we were greeted by Daisy, Goofy and Mickey! Addie loves Daisy!! I was the proud mama and took all the photos with her and the characters! I loved it!! Addie was having a blast. Addie's favorite at the breakfast was the jungle juice! She could have just drank this all day long....until she came across one of daddy's smoothies (later stories about that).
SO after the characters, since we were there to celebrate Addie's birthday, they brought out a birthday cupcake and we sang to her and then she received a signed card from all the characters! Made my day as a parent that we got to do this for her!! Her smiles on her face were worth everything!

ANOTHER good thing about Tusker's is that you are super close to the safari ride. So it's about a 3 minute walk from the restaurant to the ride... we only had about a 15 minute wait, which didn't seem like it at all. This would be Addie's first ride at Animal Kingdom!! She loved sitting on Grandma's lap during the ride and looking at all the animals. I had forgotten that this ride does last about 20 minutes. Addie called the safari truck a choo choo! I loved it!

NEXT on the list was the Forrest exploration trail. We saw lots of fish and a gorilla (which threw up it's food and then ate it, disgusting). When seeing the fish, she had to go back to the fish tank and say bye bye to the fish and she even kissed the fish tank. too adorable. We quickly learned that we had to say bye bye to each exhibit in order for her to be ok with moving to the next one. We had to blow kisses alot and wave too! No meltdown this way. We learned with the gorilla because we didn't say by to the gorilla and she freaked out, but once we did, she was fine!

SO after breakfast, the safari ride, Addie was tired and as we made our way to the train station to go to Rafaki's area and waiting in line, Grandma was holding Addie and she passed out on Grandma. Too cute! grandma loved it of course. So we boarded the train which Addie loves trains so she missed this train ride there. When we got there, we sat down and still let Addie sleep for a bit. After a little bit, she woke up and she was off! We went inside Rafaki's place and got to meet Jimney Cricket (which she was fine with) and then Rafarki... not so much of a fan of him. She didn't want to go near him at all. She loved hearing all the animal noises and looking at all the pictures of the animals. We finally made our way outside to the petting zoo. She is so not afraid of anything. She went right up to the goats and started petting them. Only my kid!

IT was now time for lunch and for us to grab the train back to the main land. We went to a pizzeria there. It was good. Since we didn't stay at a resort, we didn't do the meal plan and actually meals were too out rigorously priced. They were on average about $8 a meal and then a few bucks for a drink. After lunch, we made our way to Camp Mickey and met Chip and Dale! She loved them and had the biggest of smiles on her face. Chip and Dale are some of daddy's favorites so he got to hold her for these photos! She also met Thumper and another bunny and the Bear from Brother Bear. She went right up to Thumper all by herself!!! So proud of my girl!

up on the list was it's a bugs life. We didn't know if she would be scared or not. We made it fun for her and laughed alot at the bugs popping out. She didn't even get scared at all. She was fine! Again, so proud of my girl!!!

WE tried to walk around Asia, but it was 3:00 and it was getting HOT. About 98 outside and it had been along day at this point so we decided to head back to the car. We got to see what we wanted to see and didn't force staying any longer.

ted alittle bit and then did dinner. After dinner, we went to the pool. Addie got to wear her first bikini!!! She had the kiddie pool all to herself and then a little girl who was scared of the water came over with her mom and Addie was so good not to splash the little girl. She played in the little pool and then she kept wanting to go in the big pool. Daddy and Grandma got in the big pool and swam around with Addie for awhile. She had a blast. Who would have thought swimming at 8:30-9:00 at night in Florida would be warm!!!

9:00 was bedtime and we were all wiped out! Jeremy included! OH- side note- we heard "Papa" about 1000 times. Addie had to keep track of her Papa! she also learned to call Daddy "Jeremy"! that went over well!