Disney Days 3 and 4: Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom

Our last two days were definitely the most crowded days of our trip.  Or at least they felt really crowded to us Disney newbies.  The lines weren't  too bad at all in the mornings, so we were able to complete lots of our planned activities then which was nice.  Despite the crowds, we still had a great time both days.   Here are the pictures:

Our first stop in the Magic Kingdom was the Princess Hall because the girls really wanted to meet Elena.   

She was so sweet and she remembered us from Susannah's 6th birthday party!

We had no wait for Elena, so we headed right back around the line to meet a few more friends.  

Love these faces.   And Susannah's Jedi pin.  

Magical morning.

Rapunzel was sweet and silly and told the girls all about her pets.

Tiana was so sweet and told us all about her restaurant menu.

Now we need to see her movie.   

After princesses, we rode lots of rides.  The classics were up first, like Peter Pan and Small World.  

Then we headed to SA's first roller-coaster, The Barnstormer.

Fun!  Fun!

Then it was time for Dumbo

We switched up our riding partners every time. 

Sarah Avery was dying for the carousel, so we hopped over there next.  

And then it was time for one of my childhood favorites, The Jungle Cruise.  The girls liked our driver because she was so funny.   Susannah memorized some of her jokes.  

Then we toured the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.   Susannah has been reading the book this summer so she was a great little tour guide.

Just as cool as I remembered as a kid.

Next up was my all time favorite Disney ride:  Splash Mountain.   Look closely at our faces and you will see that three of us loved it.   Susannah not so much.   At the bottom of the big drop she said, "Mommy, I'm never doing that again!"

After riding Alladin's Magic Carpets, it was time for lunch.   We had reservations at the Jungle Cruise Outpost restaurant.  It was a cute theme with good food and nice cool AC.   

We were supposed to watch the parade next, but it was delayed because of weather so we headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle.   The girls got to participate in the story telling and it turned out to be one of our very favorite attractions.   

SA was Belle's father's horse and Susannah was first chosen to be a plate. 

We all sat in Belle's library and she told her story while the participants acted it out.  

Sarah Avery was supposed to Neigh and she gave the sweetest, shyest little neigh it made the entire audience giggle. 

So proud to be talking to Belle.

At some point, the cast members assigned Susannah to be the Beast, so she got to roar and scare Belle. 

And then dance with her. 

She was mesmerized.

Such sweet memories.  

When we came out it was raining so we busted out the ponchos.   This is how SA felt about the rain.   

We split up so Susannah and Peter could head over to space mountain.   SA and I did the Little Mermaid ride.  

And after watching a Donald Duck 3D movie, we headed back to the hotel for ice cream.   And swimming.   We were all ready for a rest.

Day 4 took us to Animal Kingdom.   This huge tree is in the entrance and pretty cool.

It was pretty crowded at the entrance, even at 8am.

But once we were in, we headed over to the Safari jeeps for a look at some animals.   Susannah was much more excited than she appears.  ;)

We saw hippos.

Wild dogs.

And this giraffe who was almost close enough to touch.

We saw lions too.

So beautiful in the sun.

Then we headed over to some trails to birdwatch.

and enjoy the shade.

The girls wanted a silly picture.

We saw lots of monkeys and birds.

The highlight of our day though, was watching these one year old tiger cubs play.

They played hide and seek and pounced at each other.   It was so fun to watch.

They were so beautiful.

Next we took a train ride to another part of the park that has a petting zoo and lots of exhibits about conservation.

Our girls were so pumped for the petting zoo.

This goat was our favorite.   His name was Megatron.

They had brushes and SA loved grooming them.  She and Megatron became good friends. 

Next we went inside the conservation area and Doc McStuffins was there!   SA had just picked out her souvenir for the trip, this little baby pig, so she was super excited for Doc to give him his first check-up.

On our way back to the train, we saw Rafiki.   Susannah was terrified, especially when he tried to approach her, but SA loved him.

Susannah deemed this the scariest experience of the trip.  ;)

SA was so proud of her souvenir and has slept with him every night since.  Here he is at our fast food lunch.   We didn't get a fast pass for the famous Avatar ride, but we did another Pandora ride before lunch.   After lunch we watched an awesome Lion King show.   

Then the girls and I headed to Finding Nemo: The Musical, while Peter headed over to the single rider line to ride the Everest roller coaster.

He rode it twice in a row and we laughed because his posture and facial expression is identical in both pictures.  

We rode the River Rapids Ride before heading to the exit.   This is our good-bye Disney pic. 

We had the best time and made so many precious memories.   The girls were the absolute perfect age and we are so happy that we pulled the trigger and went.  All the planning totally paid off and the trip was really so smooth and enjoyable. (I have to offer a great big thanks to both Liz's for all the help and tips!)  That being said, we are most definitely not "Disney People" and told the girls that our next trip will be for Susannah's 13th birthday.   I think we need 6 years to work our nerve back up. 

And now we have one last weekend before it's officially back-to-school time.   Susannah has meet the teacher tomorrow and starts school on Tuesday.   We hope all of you had happy, restful ends to your summers.   We love and miss you all!