The Happiest Place on Earth - Part Two

Picking up where we left off . . .

On Monday, we headed to Animal Kingdom.  We started out early and hit up the character spot to meet Minnie Mouse.  Autumn was very excited to meet Minnie, although you might not be able to tell from the pictures.

After we met Minnie we hurried over to the Festival of the Lion King.  This was a great show that lasted about 30 minutes.  Prior to our trip I was a little nervous about taking Autumn to all of the shows, because I did not know if she would sit through them.  She actually did wonderfully at all of the shows.  Particularly the Festival of the Lion King.  The show was very interactive and Autumn stood in my lap and danced.  She loved all of the "animals" and the singing and dancing.  I enjoyed watching her face light up as she watched the show.




Working on saying "cheese"




More like it.



Showing all her teeth while saying "cheese."



Seriously Mom can you stop with the camera?




Hugging Minnie




Shaking Minnie's hand.



With Grandma and Minnie. 
She really was happy to meet Minnie, I promise.



With Mommy and Minnie.




With Grandma and Minnie again.


After the show we grabbed lunch and did one of the many treks in the park.  On this particular trek we got to see a tiger.  Autumn also got measured against a bat to show how large the bat's wing span is.  The bat's wing span was bigger than mine, if I remember right.  There weren't too many other animals out in view on the trek, because it was starting to get pretty hot.  It was about nap time, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap.




Being measured against a bat's wingspan.




Autumn's wingspan was about the size of half of the bat's wingspan.



Happy to have her paci. 
This was the only way we could bribe her to get in the stroller.

One of the best things I found on our trip was an iPhone app by Undercover Tourist that helped you determine which parks were the most crowded on which days and which rides had the longest waits. On Monday during Autumn's nap I realized that Animal Kingdom was a red for the whole day (indicating very crowded) compared to yellow's for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  We had originally intended to spend all day at Animal Kingdom, but since it was crowded (which we had noticed in the morning) we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios for the evening to catch the nighttime show there - Fantasmic.  I read in our Fodor's book that this was a must see. 

On our way back to Hollywood Studios we ran into a mother duck and her little duckings.  It was adorable and so neat to see them so close.  Inside the park we got to see Disney Junior's show, which Autumn loved.  It was geared towards kids her age and everyone sat on the floor during the show.  A would highly recommend this show for anyone with toddlers.  It was very interactive and fun.  We also grabbed dinner at the park and watched the Muppet's 3D show.  By the time we did all of that we missed getting to the amphitheater for the Fantasmic Show before it filled up.  We headed back to the hotel without seeing the show and made plans to come back the next evening.




Momma Duck and her babies.




Little ducklings.



On Tuesday I started my Accounting Seminar (Health Annual Statement Preparation - fun!).  During the day Autumn and Grandma played at the pool, napped and generally killed time.  Once I got out of the seminar we headed to Animal Kingdom for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  After dinner we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari.  I highly recommend this ride.  You get in a jeep type vehicle and ride through an African savanna.  I had read in Fodor's that this ride is best early in the morning or later in the evening because more animals are out there than in the heat of the day.  We caught it at the perfect time of the evening.  We actually almost had to skip this ride, because after we stood in line (with our fast pass) we noticed a sign that said expectant moms should not ride this ride.  We asked a Disney worker about this.  I thought it would be strange for a ride to be safe for Autumn, but not me.  The worker told us that the ride is bumpy, but that I might be fine if I sat in the front.  I figured the ride couldn't be much worse than riding around in my Jeep or on the boat at the bay.  Turns out I was right to make that call.  The ride was not very bumpy (at least not by my standards) and it was definitely worth doing.  We got to see giraffes, hippos, cheetahs, zebras, various antelope type animals, rhinos, lions, etc.  Autumn loved it.

After the Kilimanjaro ride we headed to the Disney buses to make our way to Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic.  Disney offers free transportation to and from all of their parks everyday.  This worked out well for us on this particular night.  Once at Hollywood Studios we began to kill time.  We knew we would get there too late for the first showing of Fantasmic, so we just had to wait for the second one.  We visited several gift shops and stopped for a brownie sundae.  By the time the show was starting Autumn was exhausted.  She was a trooper though.  She loved the show.  It was a pretty neat show in an amphitheater on water.  There were boats all lit up with princesses on them.  Mickey saved the day in the end and there were fireworks and everything.  We got back to the hotel pretty late (like 11:30) and crashed.




Enjoying a brownie sundae.

Wednesday was our last full day in Orlando.  During the day Grandma and Autumn played at the pool again and ate lunch with me during my seminar's lunch break.  After my seminar was over for the day we headed to Magic Kingdom for the Electrical Parade.  We got to check off some of the other must do's at Magic Kingdom too, like It's a Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show. 

We also hit up an adorable Christmas store at the Magic Kingdom.  My Mom (and let's face it me too) are suckers for Christmas stores.  When Andrew and I were  first married we inherited all of his Christmas ornaments.  Growing up he had gotten a new ornament every year and by the time we started our own Christmas traditions he had quite a collection.  My family didn't have a similar tradition, so I really appreciated his family's tree filled with a hodge podge of ornaments compared to my family's themed trees (it is now an A&M themed tree).  Since we got married we have added many more ornaments to our collection.  I usually like to pick up a fancy one when we travel, so Disney World was no excuse.  I got a beautiful orange Mickey ear shaped ornament.  Grandma also bought Autumn a Minnie ornament personalized with her name.  I even got Baby Olivia a Minnie ornament with "My First Christmas" on it. 




Mommy's new ornament.




Baby Olivia's new ornament.

 After shopping our hearts out at the Christmas store we grabbed dinner and staked out a good spot for the Electrical Parade.  Did I mention it was raining on us all evening?  Not pouring, but consistently sprinkling.  Autumn and I both had good raincoats with us and Grandma had a poncho.  We also bought Autumn a Disney poncho to put on her legs in the stroller.  It usually rains almost every day in Orlando, so it was surprising that this was the first day it actually rained on us.  We got a great spot in Frontier Land for the Electrical Parade and oh did Autumn love it.  The princesses waved right at her!  Unfortunately the parade was a shortened version due to the rain.  On our way out of the park we got to see a show that was displayed on the Cinderella Castle.  This was the precursor to the fireworks that we caught as we walked out of the park.  As were were leaving I told Autumn to say goodbye to Disney World.  She did, blowing kisses as she waved goodbye.

Thursday was a half day in my seminar and then we rushed to the airport to catch our flight home.  Unfortunately our flight was delayed and we had to be transferred to another flight, so that we would still be able to make a connection in New Orleans and make it home to Houston that night.  The flight to New Orleans was super crowded and Autumn was fussy.  She was not happy to sit in our laps.  She cried and hit and basically mauled me.  My face and chest were all scratched up.  It definitely served as a reminder to trim her nails.  When we got to New Orleans I wanted to leave immediately.  The airport was way overcrowded and the bathroom did not have a changing table (seriously!).  I could not be home fast enough.  At least it was a short connection time and a short flight to Houston.  We got into Houston around 8:00 and headed to eat dinner with Grandpa and Daddy before going home and crashing.

Friday was back to our normal routines of school for Autumn and work for me, Saturday was Autumn's catch up on sleep day.  She slept almost all day on and off.  She was definitely worn out from our trip and needed the rest.

Long Side note: Did I mention that while we were gone someone stole our bank account?  I had gotten a call from our bank on Tuesday about someone trying to cash a $1,800+ check.  I was unaware of any checks we had written for that much, but I had them get in touch with Andrew to be sure.  Turns out when I mailed our flood insurance check I was lazy and stuck it in our mailbox with the flag up rather than going to the post office or mailing it at work.  Somehow someone stole that check, either directly out of our mailbox or somewhere in transit.  They scanned in Andrew's signature, our bank routing and account number and began to write large checks on our account.  The bank actually cashed one check for $1,865 before being tipped off about the fraud.  The person who stole our account actually left his drivers license at the bank when he fled, so it should be an easy case for the police to handle.  Andrew had to deal with the bank and changing some of our automatic payments while I was gone plus the police to file a report.  This was such a pain, especially since I usually handle all of the daily transactions in our account and I couldn't easily do so while in Orlando.  I have learned my lesson - always mail checks at the post office or work or a more secure location than my own mailbox.