Animal Kingdom day and the pool

So the next day Emma and I ventured to Animal Kingdom alone so Mark and Katie could catch up on some sleep.  We had some morning fastpasses scheduled and a character lunch.  Number one thing to do on Emma's character list was meeting Pocohantas, so that is the first place we went.  When we got in line, she wasn't even there yet, so we were some of the first people to see her that day.  

Emma meeting her favorite:

Our first fast pass of the day was for Expedition Everest which is one roller coaster Emma did not get to do last trip.  I think she was a little bit nervous but she trudged through and did it.  I was very proud of her:

We spent a little while in the Dinosaur section riding some rides with little to no wait:

Our second fast pass of the day was for a Mickey and Minnie Mouse meet and greet.  Even though we have seen them a few times already, I love these cute outfits:

After we left Mickey and Minnie, we came across a meet and greet with Dug and Russell from the movie Up.  The wait was a little long, but Emma really wanted to meet them (we have never seen them before), and we had some time to kill before our lunch.  It was also a nice covered area with a fan!

The face of true love:

Last thing on our list for the day (we decided to skip our last fast pass for the safari b/c it was HOT and we really wanted to have some time in the hotel pool) was our lunch at Tusker House.  I LOVE this buffet.  The food is really good and we had not seen Daisy Duck yet on the trip.

So like I said, we decided to leave Animal Kingdom and head back to the hotel.  We thought about going to Typhoon Lagoon, but a thunderstorm rolled through and once it cleared up we just decided to swim at the pool,  The pool area was really great, and they had a nice bar to grab a drink.  Here are just a few pics of the pool:

Tomorrow we head to Disney Studios for some more fun!

Morning off, riding horses and MK night!

So on this trip, we wanted to try something new, and Emma has gotten into riding horses through her Girl Scout activities.  I was kind of surprised when I mentioned it to Katie that she was actually interested in it.  So the next day- after sleeping late, we headed to Fort Wilderness campgrounds to ride a trail ride.  I had never been to Disney's campground before.  It is super nice.  The only problem is that they don't let you take pictures and video on the rides (which is for safety purposes of course), so I just got a few pics before the girls took off:

A personal favorite picture:

After the trail ride, we ate at the campgrounds (also very good), and then headed back to the hotel to rest up for our 2nd MK night.  I had gotten some late afternoon Fast Passes for meet and greets with Tinkerbell (a first for us) and the talking Mickey at Town Hall.  I have more pics of these from my Disney Photo Pass, which I will post later, but here are a few cute ones:

Love this picture of my family - funny story - I was trying to capture this touching moment, and Katie kept turning around.  So technically this is a little posed, but cute, nonetheless!

That evening we had a "fancy" meal at the California Grill at the top of the Contemporary resort.  Once again, I only took a couple of pics:

 Yeah.. I know his eyes are closed, but I look good:

My "fancy" beet and citrus salad - yes, I love beets - its true! 

That evening we watched some fireworks from the restaurant and then headed home.  The next day will be Animal Kingdom!

Magic Kingdom Day 1

So the next day in the parks we headed to the Magic Kingdom;  by some weird chance last trip, we never got to the MK in the morning.  We ended up doing 2 afternoon / evenings there.  This year we wanted to try and make a morning, and it was great b/c we saw the little park opening show and when we first got there, we actually got to ride Splash Mountain twice in a row with no wait.  That was the best - so proud of my Katie who now loves Splash Mountain.  I will post our ride pics at the end of all these trip blogs.

Here is a quiet morning pic on our way to Splash Mountain - notice no one is around!  It was ghostly quiet.

We walked right on to the Magic Carpets ride:

After we rode Splash Mountain (did I mention we rode it twice with no wait?) and Big Thunder Mountain, we found out Tiana was meeting guests in this old store.  We were the first in line to meet Louisiana's favorite princess:

She was so great and talked to the girls for quite a while about gumbo and things like that:

Random small door in Fantasyland while we waited to meet Gaston:

So this was one of our funnest character interactions.  Gaston really talks with you and jokes with you.  So much fun:

Best Mark pic this trip.  He told Mark he had been waiting for a big strong guy to help him hold up the door - ha ha!

Best Fast Pass of the trip - meeting Anna and Elsa which waits go up to over 2 hours in the "normal" line.  When we walked up to our Fast Pass line, we waited about 2 minutes, then they let us in directly to their little room.  It was amazing.  They also talk and interact with the guests for awhile.  Anna was hilarious and did all kinds of silly pics with the girls cell phones and our Picture mat.  

Katie snapped up this picture of Mark and I as we were leaving for the afternoon rest.  Not bad!

Also love this picture of Mark and Emma.

So we went back to the hotel for a while to rest, then headed back to the park around dinner time.  It looks like I didn't take any pics that evening.  Its funny how I've noticed we take so many more pics with our phones, that I didn't have a million on my regular camera.  We did most of the rides in Tomorrowland and the rest of Fantasyland that night.  We managed to catch the fireworks that night (although Emma still does NOT like them) and then headed back to the hotel around 11.  The next day was our late sleep day.  Whew!