Day 3: Disney's Animal Kingdom

Rest you say. Take a breather. Enjoy some down time. 

NOT US! It's run, run, run, and we love it!

Day three was off to do another adventure! Disney's Animal Kingdom. I give this an A attraction. It's just the right size and there are a variety of things to do!

Like hoping on a Wildlife Express train.

Or Taking a ride on an Open sided safari bus and see Animals of all kinds, oh and you get to track down poachers at the same time!

Visit the Tree of Life

See Mt. Everest and the get a close encounter with a Yeti. Liam was NOT a fan of this ride not because of the ride itself, but he was terrified of the Yeti! I personally LOVED this ride it is really fun.

Enjoy a bird show:

Take a ride on a Triceratops

Play in the boneyard where you can help find a dinosaur fossil and climb through a netted structure and race down all sorts of slides.

(Owen decided he's had enough at this point and took a nap.)

They also had some really good shows like the Lion King and an 3D interactive show called it's tough to be a bug. If I could have caught the terror on Owen's face when the lights flash in the theater and you see spiders crawling down from the ceiling, I would be a millionaire. He was Terrified. It wasn't just him. In the beginning they shoot air at your hair and a few kids started to cry, then there were the roaches crawling under you seat and that got most of the other toddlers to start to wail. By the end I thin most kids were crying or screaming to get out. I thought it was really entertaining.

This is how we looked at the end of each day...

Trying to find shade in the Orlando heat of October. Seriously still hot!

We wore him out GOOD!

Day 2: Disney World

There was no resting the next day, it was off to DISNEY WORLD! I wasn't sure how we could top Harry Potter World, but there IS something magical about Disney.

We stayed with Poulsons part of the time at the shades of green military hotel on Disney property. It was really nice because they had shuttles that take you to ALL the Disney theme parks.

Disney World is actually called THE MAGIC KINGDOM. fyi

Teddy had a HUGE crush on Minnie, but I don't blame him.

We RAN to Splash Mountain so we could get that one out of the way first! Owen was tall enough so we decided to take him along, BAD CHOICE! Stupid parents!

He actually wasn't that afraid of the drop itself, it was the Br'er Fox and Bear. He was really worried for the Rabbit and still talks about it.

But we made him happy and Nate stood at the bottom of the ride and let them get soaked!

Their faces tell it all!

We then waited in line so the boys could see Woody and Jesse. The wait was long and hot, but what can you do?

Loves for Teddy. He was spoiled!!!

We did a few other rides then it was off for another ride, parents choice. Pirates!!!

Just the name made both boys nervous.

Liam seemed a little more at ease when he saw pirate goofy waiting to give him a hug.

And another one from Uncle Justin!

Owen was SCARED of the pirates, he thought Jack Sparrow was mean, but was happy when the ride dropped you in yet another gift shop full of all things pirate.

We let O choose the next ride and he chose The big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster.

He thought it was Thomas the train. But he loved it and said "Thomas is fast!"

It was the kids turn to decide and the obvious winner was the Buzz Light Year's Space Ranger Spin. This is a ride where you sit in a cart and have a lager gun that you try and shoot targets at. (If you have been to Hershey Park, it's similar to the Reese's cup Challenge.) 

This was Owen's FAVORITE ride and we rode it 4 times in a row!

Watch it Zurg!

We mean business!

My favorite ride as a child and I am sure every other girls for that matter has always been it's a small world. Well...It was closed for renovations! I was devastated, but they got me some cotton candy and that seemed to help. (Not really)

More kiddie rides...My feet are starting to feel it now!

We did go to Space Mountain, but at this point Owen had lost ALL faith in his parent's ability to make decisions on what rides were kid appropriate and was thrilled to find out he really was too small to go on this one.

Liam however was THRILLED and rode in the front seat all by himself and loved every minute of it. No photo to document.

And last but NOT least, what would Disney be without a street parade to send you home???

Universal part 2

No Harry Potter World wasn't all we did that day, We also did the rest of the Universal theme park.
Part of us went to do the "big kids" rides. (Me, Nate, Justin and Kristin) while the rest of the crew took the two boys to the kiddie rides in Suess land. Can I reiterate how awesome it is to have 10 extra hands when you go to a theme park!!! Unfortunately for those extra hands, they waited in line for over two hours so Owen could ride the Suess train. But the Hulk ride was fab in the mean time! But to be honest the best coaster was the dragon one in Harry Potter world!

The boys thought this ride was so funny. You can make it go up and down, but watch out there are little guys on the side that spit!

Liam was so excited to get Nana wet! You can tell she was taking over the controls...

We went and saw "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" "A stunt show of Heroic proportions!"

It was pretty cool, the stunts were entertaining, the acting cheesy, the script cheesier, but Owen sat in his seat the whole time, that has to mean something. Afterward we went to meet to actors, Owen was hesitant...

(The good guys.)

(The Villains)

I wish I had pictures of the boys playing with the Mystic fountain.

It's this rock statue and some guy is hiding somewhere and talks. He can see you, but I didn't figure out where he was hiding? He tells jokes and riddles, but he also shoots water at you. Liam thought this was HILARIOUS, The best part was Owen. He kept shooting his spiderman webs (invisible of course, but the sound has to be scary. Pew, pew, pew...) at him and the guy would try to spray him, but somehow he was standing in a spot where all the streams would just miss him. It was awesome. One of my favorite parts of the day!

The last ride of the day was the Spiderman ride. I thought O would be ecstatic, but he was worried! You see kids under three are FREE to all the theme parks, mostly because they aren't tall enough for many of the rides, but not O. He was tall enough to ride almost all the in between rides!

I felt like I was cheating the system, but Hey he was under three!

He still talks about the Spiderman ride. Some days it's scary, other days it's his favorite. 

I only got a picture of Liam with Teddy for this shot. I am sure O was off running around, trying to steal candy from a stand or something.

We really enjoyed Universal. I wish we had a few more hours, but my feet didn't.