off to neverland
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2004
- Messages
- 703
Cast:
Me, 34, mom and wife
Dix, 43, Great husband and dad
Boo, 5.25 year-old son who likes Way Dangerous Things
Sis, 2.25 year-old pony princess daughter
Important trip items:
-The exact same rental car we had 3 months ago during WDW trip
For the record, our neighbor turned out to be a great guy who forgave my screaming but had a hard time stifling his laughter each time he saw me. .
Our goal this morning was to see a bit of Animal Kingdom. We would be doing a full-fledged touring when my family arrived for our Grand Gathering later in the week, so Dix and I decided we would focus on the kids this trip and do things that we wouldnt be doing with my family.
While researching the Animal Kingdom, I had downloaded several Animal Kingdom touring plans from the internet and had noticed that neither plan included Primeval Whirl. I had seen the ride from the distance during our last trip, and it looked like a gigantic Tea Cup spin-type ride! I love spinney rides, and was sure this would be up my alley! So, ignoring the advice of my two touring guides, I was going to try it to see if I should fit it in to our Grand Gathering plan later in the week.
I left Dix with the kids to ride Triceratop Spin while I rode Primeval Whirl. As I stood in line at Primeval, I scoped out the Triceratop Spin ride. It seemed to me that I should finish Primeval about the same time as the kids, if all went well.
When the line finally brought me to the front, I loaded a car with two teenage girls, and the ride started.
It was horrible.
It jarred, bucked, and jolted around the track, and my neck hurt the entire time. The two younger girls with me seemed to love it, and I pasted on a smile for their benefit, but inside, I hated every minute of it. There was no happy, tickly, butterfly feeling in my stomach! Just an achy, jolt-y irritation, and I couldnt wait for it to end.
I decided to never second-guess those touring plans again.
It finally quit, and I waited for the girls to exit the car before I did, even though I was in a hurry to get back to Dix and the kids. I knew they would be finished with the Triceratop ride by now, and would be waiting for me in the heat. I also couldnt wait to get away from that awful Primeval Whirl ride.
The teenage girls met up with a woman I assumed to be their mother and the group began what turned out to be a laboriously slow walk out of the ride. Honestly, they could not have walked any slower if they had tried. No one in their group seemed injured or disabled. Slowly, slowly, slowly we inched along while they chatted away. People started backing up behind me, yet these three continued to walk shoulder to shoulder, taking up the entire width of the sidewalk, while people waited impatiently behind them, wishing for their freedom to continue on their way.
Were they purposefully walking as slowly as possible?
Or were they just completely oblivious to the pace of the outside world?
Didn't they realize how many people they were holding up?
My mother complains that I move too fast and dont take the time to smell the roses. These women obviously didnt have that problem. Youve sniffed, smelled, inhaled, and enjoyed the roses, Ladies. NOW MOVE IT!
When they finally led the line to the exit, I bolted past them and walked to my waiting family on the bench near the Triceratop ride. When I caught sight of them, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight in front of me.
Sis was an absolute disaster.
Dix had obviously decided to cool the kids down by giving each a Mickey ice cream bar, which is a large vanilla ice cream Mickey coated in hard chocolate on a stick. It was hot and humid, and much of the thing had melted before Sis was able to eat it. It invariably had dripped over her clothes, face, and hands. She was happily eating away, but not fast enough to catch the drips. Her face was also covered in chocolate and ice cream, because Sis doesnt lick ice cream cones, she mouths them. She is only two-years-old, after all.
Dix shrugged his shoulders helplessly at me and told me that he was up against two obstacles. First, she had screamed every time he tried to wipe the gooey mess off her ice cream. Second, he wasnt really sure what to do about the chocolate on her shirt because when it landed on her shirt it was in nice small drops, but once he wiped them, they were huge chocolate smears.
In the end, he figured nice small chocolate drops and silence were better than giant chocolate smears and screaming, so he had given up and focused instead on his own ice cream cone.
This certainly wasnt Dixs fault; trips to Disney are all about ice-cream and having fun! Im certainly not one of those people who is so caught up in appearance that I mind if my kids shirts are messy but you couldnt even call this messy. Filthy would be a more appropriate word, because it looked like an ice-cream bomb had exploded all over her.
My sweet baby girl was covered in Mickey shrapnel!
I grabbed some napkins from Dixs hand and knelt in front of Sis. When I attempted to wipe the soggy melted mess off the bottom of the Mickey bar, Sis gave me a low little growl. AAAGh!
I knew it was a warning, but I couldnt stop. I took a swipe at it again.
With all her might, and all her anger, she let out her famous Sis BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA yell.
(For those of you who aren't familiar with this, please see: Our 1st Trip Home as DVC members... Part 5...Where is Dix?)
Boo immediately shrunk into his anti-Sis-yell defensive position, covering his ears while continuing to hold his Mickey bar. A little bit of ice cream stuck to his hair in the process, but at least his ears were protected.
I didnt look around to notice if people were looking at my darling daughter in shock. I didnt care. The ice cream situation had to be dealt with, and she could scream her head off for all I cared. I grabbed the bar from her and worked quickly. While she bellowed, I wiped away almost the entire bottom of the bar, wrapped the base in clean napkins and handed it back to her. The minute it made it back into her hands she stopped yelling and started eating again, but her eyes never left mine, and she held her little glare on my without blinking.
Lick, glare, lick.
Swallow.
Glare.
Just warning you, mother. Dont touch my Mickey bar.
I love that girl.
While the kids finished their ice creams, I sat down next to Dix. I felt so hot, and I had only been outside a short while. If this was what the weather in Orlando was like in May, I couldnt imagine what it would be like in July or August.
When we finally were ready to move on, I wiped the kids hands as well as I could with wet wipes. Dix managed to find a clean tank top for Sis buried deep in the backpack, and we gladly changed her shirt and set out for another attraction. As I mentioned before, we were trying to accomplish kid activities we wouldnt be doing with my family when we toured Animal Kingdom later in the week. We considered letting them into the Dinosaur Dig area, but decided to wait until the end of the day. I shuttered to think about Sis rolling around in the sand, after just having gone through the ice cream fiasco.
So instead, wed go see Its Tough to Be a Bug. We had seen it during our trip the previous year, and I wanted to see it again, so that Dix could really understand how right I was when I claimed that it was the best 3-D show in Disneyworld.
Silly Dix insisted that Mickeys Philharmagic held the honor of being the best 3-D at WDW.
Mickeys Philharmagic is fantastic, I admit. Gives me chills when I see it. But the best? Compared to Its Tough to be a Bug?
Boo worked himself up on the way to the show. It was too scary, he decided. The grasshopper was just too scary, and hed like to sit it out. Dix and I tried to reason with him. He had enjoyed it the last time, and he was older now. It wouldnt be too scary, we promised.
Our reasoning didnt work with him, and actually seemed to make him more determined to sit out. Reluctantly, I told him Id sit it out with him. Dix would still go, since he needed proof as to why this was the best 3-D show in all of Walt Disney World.
Boo let this soak in and then said, Okay, Ill go.
Sometimes reverse psychology works wonders on kids.
Dix and I navigated the crowds to try and get a seat in the back, in the middle. This is much easier said than done, since its really hard to judge as you step aside letting the hordes of people go before you. Finally, we made the decision to go for it, and ended smack-dab in the middle of the row. We werent sure how we had managed to pull that off, but we did!
We ate lunch at Pizzafari. I love that place; it's so colorful and bright, and the food is fresh. The kids had the crustless PB & J sandwich and I had some sort of turkey sandwich.
After we finished lunch, we walked over to Pocohontas. We arrived later than I would have liked, because many of the seats had been taken. Cast members were motioning the kids to sit by themselves in the front center, and Dix and I hesitated in sending Sis there to sit. I doubted she would stay there for the whole show, and had visions of her getting up and leaving without us seeing her.
In the end, we relented and sent Sis and Boo down to the front to sit by themselves with the other kids. The castmembers then opened up the handicap section in the front right, and asked Dix and I to sit there. It couldn't have worked out better, because we had a perfect view of our kids.
Sis was sitting so proudly with her brother! He was holding her hand and talking to her, and when they realized Dix and I were watching them, they waved at us, but Sis had no intention of getting up from that seat! She felt so big and special sitting there all alone with her brother and the other children, and Boo took pride in caring for her.
I love that memory. It is how I hope my children will live their lives: independently, while still watching out for each other. I often look at the picture that I snapped of the two of them sitting there together and I plan to frame it soon and keep it on my dresser as a reminder of that moment.
When the show was finished, we decided to check out Asia. I was really excited to try the Pangani Forest Trail, and Dix and I decided to leave the stroller at the front and let the kids walk through it. We were sure Boo would especially love this, and we presented it to him as if we were going on an exploration hike. Wed see ruins, temples and wild animals and wed be walking through the forest, one of his favorite things.
Boo has always loved to hike through foliage and trees. Near our house theres a park that has several very large Carigana bushes in it. Boo loves nothing more than to squeeze into the center of the bush where he can stand and play. Often Dix will go in there with him and the two will have a picnic or play some sort of game.
When we entered the Pangani Trail, I realized I would really enjoy this too. I enjoy walks thorugh the trees and the Disney theming was amazing, as always. Dix and I stopped a few times to look at animals, but Boo wasnt interested. He didnt want to see the animals. He didnt want to do much of anything, really. He wasnt enjoying the walk or the exploration. It wasnt fun, it wasnt cool, and when would it be over, he wanted to know!
Dix and I quickly decided to give it up. You just cant make sense of kids at Disney World. In his normal environment, I know as a fact that Boo would love to be an explorer on the Pangani trail. In his normal environment, wed have to beg him to stop exploring and come home, but at Disney World, where there is just so much stimulation, kids dont always react in their normal ways. Boo especially. I have noticed that when hes had too much stimulation, he simply turns off and thats what he did on that Pangani Trail. He was done.
We decided we would go back to Wilderness Lodge and spend a quiet afternoon by the pool, but on our way out, we would walk by Kali River Rapids, just to locate it for next week when my family was there.
The books are right; do Animal Kingdom early in the morning or late in the day. Animal Kingdom does not handle crowds as well as the other parks; the paths are too narrow to accommodate so many people.
The pathway toward Kali was especially crowded as we crunched our way through the masses. At this point, I felt my own senses shutting down. We weren't having fun anymore, so we decided to give that up too and head home but right before we were ready to turn around to leave, we saw kids playing in a water fountain on the side of the walkway. Boo and Sis instantly perked up, and we let them wade in the water, too.
Boo was suddenly happy and alive. So he didnt love the Pangani Exploration Trail. He did love this! I could probably create the same scenario in my backyard with a hose, but I think part of the fun of this for him was the spontaneity of just stopping to play in the water in the middle of a busy theme park.
As I watched the kids splash their feet in the water, I regretted that I hadnt brought swimsuits or a dry pair of clothes for them. I had read that tip somewhere on the Dis, but just hadnt remembered to do it.
The kids were becomming more and more excited, and I found myself resisting the urge to say, Dont get too wet! We have a family joke about getting too wet. Often when my dad was taking my brothers and me fishing or hiking around water when we were kids, my mother would yell out her instructions to us as we walked out the door. Her final instruction was always, Dont get too wet!
Dad would look at us kids and say, What is TOO wet?
Once you are wet, arent you wet?
Is being a little bit wet okay?
Exactly how much is TOO much when it comes to being wet?
Other mothers- those whose children had CLEAN shirts And those with places to go were only letting their kids get their feet wet. This fact wasnt lost on Boo. He studied his peers being pulled away from the water before their clothes got wet and then stared at me in anticipation that I would drag him away as well. When I didnt say anything, he started toward the water again, still watching me for signs of my disapproval. He knew Daddy wouldnt be an obstacle to fun. Daddy was the man who let Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bombs explode all over his children.
I just smiled at Boo, and watched him silently debate how to handle the situation while Dix and I whisper-discussed how wet we should let the children get in their clothes.
Boo obviously wanted to just jump in the water, but he also didnt want to get into trouble. The other kids weren't being allowed to soak their clothes. If he just came out and asked me what the wet limit was, I might wisen up to the fact that he wasn't wearing his swimwuit and he might not be allowed to play anymore! On the other hand, if he didnt ask and just went ahead and got his clothes wet, I might be upset.
To ask, or not to ask .
What to do, what to do?
He finally made a decision that seemed to cover both issues. Hed sort of ask, and sort of not ask. He confidently marched toward the water again, and without looking at me or Dix, added a verbal warning. Im going in the water with my clothes on!
I saw him hesitate as he said it, waiting for an argument. Instead, Dix and I yelled, GO FOR IT!!!!
In a flash, he was dunking his head and completely soaking himself, shrieking and laughing the whole time, while Sis followed his every move and soaked herself as well.
Passer-byes stopped to watch the production, and other kids who had been mildly splashing around, stepped back and watched as well. Im willing to bet that many of their mothers had told them not to get too wet, and they were thinking my kids were definitely crossing the wet line.
Nothing in Animal Kingdom, including duck or fish, was as wet as my children were that day.
They were definitely WAY too wet!
After they had had their fill, we headed toward the exit. We had the rental car in the parking lot, so we werent too worried about the kids getting overly cold. Their kid seats would soak up any excess moisture and wed keep the air conditioning off so that they wouldnt get chilled.
It would be nice, though, if they did dry off a bit more before we left, so Dix and I decided to check out the Dinosaur Ride. We hadnt tried it yet, and we would take turns while the kids played in a little play area nearby. The line wasnt long; we could both do it quickly.
I decided to go first, and have to say that this is a great ride. I sat on the outside of the car, and had to keep telling myself that the T-Rex in front of me really wasn't going to touch me, even though it seemed like it. I was glad we didnt consider taking Boo on this ride. He would be ready in a few months, but not now.
Dix went after me, and when he finished, he summoned me into the gift shop to see the picture that was taken of him during the ride. It was so funny! Flanking Dix on one side was a man who looked moderately concerned about the T-Rex looming above him. On Dix's other side sat a woman with a semi-smile. She seemed almost a bit embarrassed by her fear, like she was trying to hold back a bit.
In the middle was Dix, who was obviously the biggest and strongest person in the car.
He was also the most obviously afraid.
He was leaning back away from the T-Rex as far as he could, his hands clenched at his chest. His mouth was wide open in what I assume to be a silent scream. Dix has a big head anyway; with his mouth wide open, his head looked enormous in comparison with the two smaller, less-scared folks next to him.
We stood there and laughed over that picture. Boo was especially overjoyed to see scared Daddy. I have such regrets now that I didnt buy that photo! I normally dont buy the park pictures because I think they are too expensive, and buying ride photos is like a disease .. Once you fall prey to Disneys marketing tactics and start buying those ride pictures, you cant stop! Thats how I picture myself reacting, anyway.
Im not sure why I let that particular picture go, though, because Dixs terrified look is one of the funniest things Ive ever seen! In fact, it is so funny that sometimes I purposefully scare Dix, just to see him make that face.
The best way to see it is to quietly hide behind a door in our bedroom and pounce on him when he thinks no one is there. Boo and I have also elicited fantastic reactions from him by sneaking up on him in the yard and screaming when he thinks hes all alone. Either way, its always the same hilarious reaction. He rolls into as much of a fetal position as he can while standing, clenching his hands into balls by his chest. Then he gets his super terrified-scared look.
Mouth open!
Eyes wide!
Shocked expression!
At times theres a scared little yell, but I usually dont notice because the scared face is so funny, and I only have about one or two seconds to see it before he squeezes my arm or pulls my hair in retaliation.
With much laughter over a picture we neglected to buy, we left the Animal Kingdom to find our rental car in the parking lot. We wouldnt be using it after today; Dix was returning it to the Car Care Center in Walt Disney World later that evening.
We loaded the kids in their car seats. Their car seats were going to get wet for sure, but thankfully the kids were drier than thay had been earlier.
The car seats wouldn't get TOO wet.
Me, 34, mom and wife
Dix, 43, Great husband and dad
Boo, 5.25 year-old son who likes Way Dangerous Things
Sis, 2.25 year-old pony princess daughter
Important trip items:
-The exact same rental car we had 3 months ago during WDW trip
For the record, our neighbor turned out to be a great guy who forgave my screaming but had a hard time stifling his laughter each time he saw me. .
Our goal this morning was to see a bit of Animal Kingdom. We would be doing a full-fledged touring when my family arrived for our Grand Gathering later in the week, so Dix and I decided we would focus on the kids this trip and do things that we wouldnt be doing with my family.
While researching the Animal Kingdom, I had downloaded several Animal Kingdom touring plans from the internet and had noticed that neither plan included Primeval Whirl. I had seen the ride from the distance during our last trip, and it looked like a gigantic Tea Cup spin-type ride! I love spinney rides, and was sure this would be up my alley! So, ignoring the advice of my two touring guides, I was going to try it to see if I should fit it in to our Grand Gathering plan later in the week.
I left Dix with the kids to ride Triceratop Spin while I rode Primeval Whirl. As I stood in line at Primeval, I scoped out the Triceratop Spin ride. It seemed to me that I should finish Primeval about the same time as the kids, if all went well.
When the line finally brought me to the front, I loaded a car with two teenage girls, and the ride started.
It was horrible.
It jarred, bucked, and jolted around the track, and my neck hurt the entire time. The two younger girls with me seemed to love it, and I pasted on a smile for their benefit, but inside, I hated every minute of it. There was no happy, tickly, butterfly feeling in my stomach! Just an achy, jolt-y irritation, and I couldnt wait for it to end.
I decided to never second-guess those touring plans again.
It finally quit, and I waited for the girls to exit the car before I did, even though I was in a hurry to get back to Dix and the kids. I knew they would be finished with the Triceratop ride by now, and would be waiting for me in the heat. I also couldnt wait to get away from that awful Primeval Whirl ride.
The teenage girls met up with a woman I assumed to be their mother and the group began what turned out to be a laboriously slow walk out of the ride. Honestly, they could not have walked any slower if they had tried. No one in their group seemed injured or disabled. Slowly, slowly, slowly we inched along while they chatted away. People started backing up behind me, yet these three continued to walk shoulder to shoulder, taking up the entire width of the sidewalk, while people waited impatiently behind them, wishing for their freedom to continue on their way.
Were they purposefully walking as slowly as possible?
Or were they just completely oblivious to the pace of the outside world?
Didn't they realize how many people they were holding up?
My mother complains that I move too fast and dont take the time to smell the roses. These women obviously didnt have that problem. Youve sniffed, smelled, inhaled, and enjoyed the roses, Ladies. NOW MOVE IT!
When they finally led the line to the exit, I bolted past them and walked to my waiting family on the bench near the Triceratop ride. When I caught sight of them, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight in front of me.
Sis was an absolute disaster.
Dix had obviously decided to cool the kids down by giving each a Mickey ice cream bar, which is a large vanilla ice cream Mickey coated in hard chocolate on a stick. It was hot and humid, and much of the thing had melted before Sis was able to eat it. It invariably had dripped over her clothes, face, and hands. She was happily eating away, but not fast enough to catch the drips. Her face was also covered in chocolate and ice cream, because Sis doesnt lick ice cream cones, she mouths them. She is only two-years-old, after all.
Dix shrugged his shoulders helplessly at me and told me that he was up against two obstacles. First, she had screamed every time he tried to wipe the gooey mess off her ice cream. Second, he wasnt really sure what to do about the chocolate on her shirt because when it landed on her shirt it was in nice small drops, but once he wiped them, they were huge chocolate smears.
In the end, he figured nice small chocolate drops and silence were better than giant chocolate smears and screaming, so he had given up and focused instead on his own ice cream cone.
This certainly wasnt Dixs fault; trips to Disney are all about ice-cream and having fun! Im certainly not one of those people who is so caught up in appearance that I mind if my kids shirts are messy but you couldnt even call this messy. Filthy would be a more appropriate word, because it looked like an ice-cream bomb had exploded all over her.
My sweet baby girl was covered in Mickey shrapnel!
I grabbed some napkins from Dixs hand and knelt in front of Sis. When I attempted to wipe the soggy melted mess off the bottom of the Mickey bar, Sis gave me a low little growl. AAAGh!
I knew it was a warning, but I couldnt stop. I took a swipe at it again.
With all her might, and all her anger, she let out her famous Sis BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA yell.
(For those of you who aren't familiar with this, please see: Our 1st Trip Home as DVC members... Part 5...Where is Dix?)
Boo immediately shrunk into his anti-Sis-yell defensive position, covering his ears while continuing to hold his Mickey bar. A little bit of ice cream stuck to his hair in the process, but at least his ears were protected.
I didnt look around to notice if people were looking at my darling daughter in shock. I didnt care. The ice cream situation had to be dealt with, and she could scream her head off for all I cared. I grabbed the bar from her and worked quickly. While she bellowed, I wiped away almost the entire bottom of the bar, wrapped the base in clean napkins and handed it back to her. The minute it made it back into her hands she stopped yelling and started eating again, but her eyes never left mine, and she held her little glare on my without blinking.
Lick, glare, lick.
Swallow.
Glare.
Just warning you, mother. Dont touch my Mickey bar.
I love that girl.
While the kids finished their ice creams, I sat down next to Dix. I felt so hot, and I had only been outside a short while. If this was what the weather in Orlando was like in May, I couldnt imagine what it would be like in July or August.
When we finally were ready to move on, I wiped the kids hands as well as I could with wet wipes. Dix managed to find a clean tank top for Sis buried deep in the backpack, and we gladly changed her shirt and set out for another attraction. As I mentioned before, we were trying to accomplish kid activities we wouldnt be doing with my family when we toured Animal Kingdom later in the week. We considered letting them into the Dinosaur Dig area, but decided to wait until the end of the day. I shuttered to think about Sis rolling around in the sand, after just having gone through the ice cream fiasco.
So instead, wed go see Its Tough to Be a Bug. We had seen it during our trip the previous year, and I wanted to see it again, so that Dix could really understand how right I was when I claimed that it was the best 3-D show in Disneyworld.
Silly Dix insisted that Mickeys Philharmagic held the honor of being the best 3-D at WDW.
Mickeys Philharmagic is fantastic, I admit. Gives me chills when I see it. But the best? Compared to Its Tough to be a Bug?
Boo worked himself up on the way to the show. It was too scary, he decided. The grasshopper was just too scary, and hed like to sit it out. Dix and I tried to reason with him. He had enjoyed it the last time, and he was older now. It wouldnt be too scary, we promised.
Our reasoning didnt work with him, and actually seemed to make him more determined to sit out. Reluctantly, I told him Id sit it out with him. Dix would still go, since he needed proof as to why this was the best 3-D show in all of Walt Disney World.
Boo let this soak in and then said, Okay, Ill go.
Sometimes reverse psychology works wonders on kids.
Dix and I navigated the crowds to try and get a seat in the back, in the middle. This is much easier said than done, since its really hard to judge as you step aside letting the hordes of people go before you. Finally, we made the decision to go for it, and ended smack-dab in the middle of the row. We werent sure how we had managed to pull that off, but we did!
We ate lunch at Pizzafari. I love that place; it's so colorful and bright, and the food is fresh. The kids had the crustless PB & J sandwich and I had some sort of turkey sandwich.
After we finished lunch, we walked over to Pocohontas. We arrived later than I would have liked, because many of the seats had been taken. Cast members were motioning the kids to sit by themselves in the front center, and Dix and I hesitated in sending Sis there to sit. I doubted she would stay there for the whole show, and had visions of her getting up and leaving without us seeing her.
In the end, we relented and sent Sis and Boo down to the front to sit by themselves with the other kids. The castmembers then opened up the handicap section in the front right, and asked Dix and I to sit there. It couldn't have worked out better, because we had a perfect view of our kids.
Sis was sitting so proudly with her brother! He was holding her hand and talking to her, and when they realized Dix and I were watching them, they waved at us, but Sis had no intention of getting up from that seat! She felt so big and special sitting there all alone with her brother and the other children, and Boo took pride in caring for her.
I love that memory. It is how I hope my children will live their lives: independently, while still watching out for each other. I often look at the picture that I snapped of the two of them sitting there together and I plan to frame it soon and keep it on my dresser as a reminder of that moment.
When the show was finished, we decided to check out Asia. I was really excited to try the Pangani Forest Trail, and Dix and I decided to leave the stroller at the front and let the kids walk through it. We were sure Boo would especially love this, and we presented it to him as if we were going on an exploration hike. Wed see ruins, temples and wild animals and wed be walking through the forest, one of his favorite things.
Boo has always loved to hike through foliage and trees. Near our house theres a park that has several very large Carigana bushes in it. Boo loves nothing more than to squeeze into the center of the bush where he can stand and play. Often Dix will go in there with him and the two will have a picnic or play some sort of game.
When we entered the Pangani Trail, I realized I would really enjoy this too. I enjoy walks thorugh the trees and the Disney theming was amazing, as always. Dix and I stopped a few times to look at animals, but Boo wasnt interested. He didnt want to see the animals. He didnt want to do much of anything, really. He wasnt enjoying the walk or the exploration. It wasnt fun, it wasnt cool, and when would it be over, he wanted to know!
Dix and I quickly decided to give it up. You just cant make sense of kids at Disney World. In his normal environment, I know as a fact that Boo would love to be an explorer on the Pangani trail. In his normal environment, wed have to beg him to stop exploring and come home, but at Disney World, where there is just so much stimulation, kids dont always react in their normal ways. Boo especially. I have noticed that when hes had too much stimulation, he simply turns off and thats what he did on that Pangani Trail. He was done.
We decided we would go back to Wilderness Lodge and spend a quiet afternoon by the pool, but on our way out, we would walk by Kali River Rapids, just to locate it for next week when my family was there.
The books are right; do Animal Kingdom early in the morning or late in the day. Animal Kingdom does not handle crowds as well as the other parks; the paths are too narrow to accommodate so many people.
The pathway toward Kali was especially crowded as we crunched our way through the masses. At this point, I felt my own senses shutting down. We weren't having fun anymore, so we decided to give that up too and head home but right before we were ready to turn around to leave, we saw kids playing in a water fountain on the side of the walkway. Boo and Sis instantly perked up, and we let them wade in the water, too.
Boo was suddenly happy and alive. So he didnt love the Pangani Exploration Trail. He did love this! I could probably create the same scenario in my backyard with a hose, but I think part of the fun of this for him was the spontaneity of just stopping to play in the water in the middle of a busy theme park.
As I watched the kids splash their feet in the water, I regretted that I hadnt brought swimsuits or a dry pair of clothes for them. I had read that tip somewhere on the Dis, but just hadnt remembered to do it.
The kids were becomming more and more excited, and I found myself resisting the urge to say, Dont get too wet! We have a family joke about getting too wet. Often when my dad was taking my brothers and me fishing or hiking around water when we were kids, my mother would yell out her instructions to us as we walked out the door. Her final instruction was always, Dont get too wet!
Dad would look at us kids and say, What is TOO wet?
Once you are wet, arent you wet?
Is being a little bit wet okay?
Exactly how much is TOO much when it comes to being wet?
Other mothers- those whose children had CLEAN shirts And those with places to go were only letting their kids get their feet wet. This fact wasnt lost on Boo. He studied his peers being pulled away from the water before their clothes got wet and then stared at me in anticipation that I would drag him away as well. When I didnt say anything, he started toward the water again, still watching me for signs of my disapproval. He knew Daddy wouldnt be an obstacle to fun. Daddy was the man who let Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bombs explode all over his children.
I just smiled at Boo, and watched him silently debate how to handle the situation while Dix and I whisper-discussed how wet we should let the children get in their clothes.
Boo obviously wanted to just jump in the water, but he also didnt want to get into trouble. The other kids weren't being allowed to soak their clothes. If he just came out and asked me what the wet limit was, I might wisen up to the fact that he wasn't wearing his swimwuit and he might not be allowed to play anymore! On the other hand, if he didnt ask and just went ahead and got his clothes wet, I might be upset.
To ask, or not to ask .
What to do, what to do?
He finally made a decision that seemed to cover both issues. Hed sort of ask, and sort of not ask. He confidently marched toward the water again, and without looking at me or Dix, added a verbal warning. Im going in the water with my clothes on!
I saw him hesitate as he said it, waiting for an argument. Instead, Dix and I yelled, GO FOR IT!!!!
In a flash, he was dunking his head and completely soaking himself, shrieking and laughing the whole time, while Sis followed his every move and soaked herself as well.
Passer-byes stopped to watch the production, and other kids who had been mildly splashing around, stepped back and watched as well. Im willing to bet that many of their mothers had told them not to get too wet, and they were thinking my kids were definitely crossing the wet line.
Nothing in Animal Kingdom, including duck or fish, was as wet as my children were that day.
They were definitely WAY too wet!
After they had had their fill, we headed toward the exit. We had the rental car in the parking lot, so we werent too worried about the kids getting overly cold. Their kid seats would soak up any excess moisture and wed keep the air conditioning off so that they wouldnt get chilled.
It would be nice, though, if they did dry off a bit more before we left, so Dix and I decided to check out the Dinosaur Ride. We hadnt tried it yet, and we would take turns while the kids played in a little play area nearby. The line wasnt long; we could both do it quickly.
I decided to go first, and have to say that this is a great ride. I sat on the outside of the car, and had to keep telling myself that the T-Rex in front of me really wasn't going to touch me, even though it seemed like it. I was glad we didnt consider taking Boo on this ride. He would be ready in a few months, but not now.
Dix went after me, and when he finished, he summoned me into the gift shop to see the picture that was taken of him during the ride. It was so funny! Flanking Dix on one side was a man who looked moderately concerned about the T-Rex looming above him. On Dix's other side sat a woman with a semi-smile. She seemed almost a bit embarrassed by her fear, like she was trying to hold back a bit.
In the middle was Dix, who was obviously the biggest and strongest person in the car.
He was also the most obviously afraid.
He was leaning back away from the T-Rex as far as he could, his hands clenched at his chest. His mouth was wide open in what I assume to be a silent scream. Dix has a big head anyway; with his mouth wide open, his head looked enormous in comparison with the two smaller, less-scared folks next to him.
We stood there and laughed over that picture. Boo was especially overjoyed to see scared Daddy. I have such regrets now that I didnt buy that photo! I normally dont buy the park pictures because I think they are too expensive, and buying ride photos is like a disease .. Once you fall prey to Disneys marketing tactics and start buying those ride pictures, you cant stop! Thats how I picture myself reacting, anyway.
Im not sure why I let that particular picture go, though, because Dixs terrified look is one of the funniest things Ive ever seen! In fact, it is so funny that sometimes I purposefully scare Dix, just to see him make that face.
The best way to see it is to quietly hide behind a door in our bedroom and pounce on him when he thinks no one is there. Boo and I have also elicited fantastic reactions from him by sneaking up on him in the yard and screaming when he thinks hes all alone. Either way, its always the same hilarious reaction. He rolls into as much of a fetal position as he can while standing, clenching his hands into balls by his chest. Then he gets his super terrified-scared look.
Mouth open!
Eyes wide!
Shocked expression!
At times theres a scared little yell, but I usually dont notice because the scared face is so funny, and I only have about one or two seconds to see it before he squeezes my arm or pulls my hair in retaliation.
With much laughter over a picture we neglected to buy, we left the Animal Kingdom to find our rental car in the parking lot. We wouldnt be using it after today; Dix was returning it to the Car Care Center in Walt Disney World later that evening.
We loaded the kids in their car seats. Their car seats were going to get wet for sure, but thankfully the kids were drier than thay had been earlier.
The car seats wouldn't get TOO wet.
Wonderful read and can't wait for the next one. 
