Our last day in Florida, Ryan took the day off work and we drove to the "Showcase of Citrus" tour--which happened to be right by Disney World!
My Aunt Joanna also took the day off from work so she could join in on the fun! She found this deal for us on Living Social, which for me is an automatic done deal!
Monster Trucks+Gavin=fun day ahead!
Joanna said we were coming at her favorite time of year because the orange blossoms were soooo yummy delicious smelling. The monster truck tour went straight through the orange orchard:
Of course Henley liked it, too! Anything her brother likes!
The driver had some crates of overly ripe oranges or those with dings in them that couldn't be sold. When we drove up to the cow pasture, they came sprinting to us. Then he told us to throw them out to them! This was Gavin's favorite part. They ate them peel and all! Juice was flowing out of their mouths as they were eating them. It was hilarious!
I loved seeing how huge the truck was in the mirror!
This may only be interesting to me--this is a fertilizer plant on their property that takes the poop from the animals at Animal Kingdom to use for fertilizer!!!
Henley got a little stir crazy toward the end of the tour!
Loopy might be a better word!
This shows how HUGE this truck was!
We think it's a school bus frame with the top cut off and monster truck wheels. Don't you agree?
Gavin I'm sure is thanking Joanna from the bottom of his heart for this fun day!
My favorite part was the store where they sold raw, pesticide free orange juice that was SOOO GOOD! Like best orange juice I've ever had in my entire life. And of course we all had to purchase orange blossom honey and a bag of oranges! Thanks for a fun day, Joanna!!
What do you get when you have a husband and wife that both love to capture memories with cameras? Way too many pictures! So even though I'm overwhelmed with pictures, I want to finish documenting this Disney trip!
When we got to Animal Kingdom that morning, I had my itinerary on my phone with my "to do" list for the day, and my #1 thing was to get to Magic Kingdom for the 3:00 parade since we missed the Hollywood parade. Ryan told me I just needed to accept the fact that we were going to miss it and that it would be a bonus if we got there on time. Well, just like so many other parts of this trip, the Lord seriously worked out timing to where we were taking this picture outside Magic Kingdom at 2:59, people!! Like we heard the music starting and ran (seriously hustled) right inside the gates and did not miss a second!
I think I loved this parade as much as Henley. I have rented Disney movies ever since we found out we were going to Disney to get us familiar with characters that we might see.
Peter Pan and Wendy:
Henley's favorite: "Beast!"
Cinderella:
Seeing the awe on this girl's face was worth it for me! She love love loved it!
I think Gav had the best view in the house!
Panorama on Main Street:
Right after the parade, Henley was out!
So Joanna volunteered (enthusiastically might I add :) ) to take a break with Henley napping while the rest of us went on Buzz Lighyear:
Gavin was CRACKING US UP saluting the talking Buzz:
Gavin LOVED this ride. If we had more time, we would have done it again and again! You had to shoot the aliens and defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg:
Instead of buying the pictures they took on the ride, people were taking pictures from their phones--genius! (And probably illegal!) If you can tell, Madison and I did a horrible job. Ha! Our scores were pitiful. I even knew from the Disney with Kids books where to shoot to get big points, and we still did awful. Of course Ryan, on the other hand, did awesome. The stinker.
The line was too long to meet Buzz but we had fun seeing him close up:
Gavin got his favorite souvenir of the trip: a Buzz Lightyear grabber claw.
It actually came in quite handy when we were standing in line for the next (AND BEST!) ride: Storytime with Belle. He moved mulch for 20 minutes!
Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. I seriously should stop here and do a separate blog post solely for this ride because I loved it so so much! :) This is one of the new rides in the new Fantasyland (although it's not actually a "ride"). You step into Maurice's Cottage (Belle's Dad) and the detail is amazing. Books everywhere, a picture of Belle and her Mom on the wall, height markings along the doorframe from Belle growing up. It was awesome for this Beauty and the Beast loving girl!
Then you were split up into around 20 people to see this:
Then the wardrobe opened up and they passed out costumes/parts and Gavin got picked to be Chip! What I didn't know is my Aunt Joanna was pointing excitedly behind me and I got picked to be the Wardrobe! I was freaking out. Probably lots more than the kids that were chosen! :)
Then we moved into the main room to put on our play of Beauty and the Beast:
Gavin was quite shy!
This is a rather long video, but here it is if you'd like to see Gavin in action (toward the end):
Then we got our pictures taken with Belle and a bookmark that says, "You'll always be part of my favorite story. ~Belle"! Yes, I am 5 and will be keeping it forever. :)
Then we went on Madison's favorite: the new Little Mermaid ride!
We split up and got in clamshells and it retold the story of the Little Mermaid.
The kids loved it even though they've never seen the movie!
(I've been on hold for 3 months at the Library!)
My itinerary sadly did not have times for us to eat! I had my heart set on "Be Our Guest" where you can eat in the Beast's castle, but it was booked way far in advance. One day!
So we stopped at Gaston's Tavern to grab a quick bite.
And when I say quick bite, I mean less than 5 minutes on the side of the road and we were off! But the food was AWESOME. A gigantic chicken leg and cinnamon roll. Quite manly food and fitting for Gaston if you ask me! :)
Beast's castle at night:
We then rode "It's a Small World" per Joanna's request (which the kids loved), but I don't have a single picture, Joanna! Please forgive me!
Then off to Peter Pan's Flight. We got to ride in a ship and fly through the story of Peter Pan:
Then onto the main event of the evening. OH.MY.WORD. The graphics on the castle were incredible. They projected scenes from all Disney movies onto it and it looked so cartoon-like it was unbelievable.
Tangled:
Here's a video so you can see the animation. Dumbo:
Fireworks:
At this point (9 pm), Joanna and Madison were starving, so while they ate, we rode one last ride on my list: Magic Carpets of Aladdin!
The kids LOVED this ride. It goes 'round and 'round like Dumbo, but it also tilts back and forth. So each kiddo got to control something. It was great! And there was NOBODY in line, so we hopped off and right back on to ride it again! Man, why can't it be like that all day long?? :)
New favorite pic of this sweet birthday boy. I would say this was the best birthday of his little life thus far!
We left right as the Electric Parade was starting, and we opted to not stay because we were all DONE. One last family pic:
We almost got caught by the parade, but they let us sneak out in between floats. Thank goodness, because we had to catch a bus back to our van at Animal Kingdom!
I think we all felt like Henley!
Apparently Animal Kingdom is the place to park if you want to get out with no traffic. Animal Kingdom closed at 5:30 while we were there, so when I say there were no other cars in the parking lot, this is what I mean:
Ryan never insisted on a single ride, but he insisted on this picture!
This little Princess had quite the day. I'd say it was a success for all of us!
Thanks again, Joanna and Madison, for all your help! Disney Day 2 was leaps and bounds better than Disney Day 1! :) Ryan says we may go back in about 10 years. Ha!
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