The morning started early. Stormy was again pleasantly surprised that we were both up before him, but he was not pleased to be woken up. But he had a race to get to!
We got dressed and made our way to the buses. Here we made our first mistake. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to take the Epcot bus (the races were held in part of the Epcot parking lot) or the events bus. We chose the Epcot bus (we knew it was at Epcot, and we were running short on time, so we figured if the event bus was wrong, we wouldn't have time to correct the mistake), which ended up dropping us off on the opposite side of the parking lot, so we had to hustle across 10 or so sections to get to the races. It was a bit nerve-wracking, and of course, as we got to the correct parking lot, we saw an event bus dropping off people about 20 feet away. Ah well, live and learn!
So early!
I'll take that hat, Daddy!
We waited maybe 15 mins or less for them to start the races. Stormy was in the first set of races, the 100 meter dash. About 3-5 'heats' went before Stormy was up to the start line (he was very upset the whole time, stupid line waiting! He's got no time for this!). Soon, he was off!
Sweet sweet running bliss! Stormy loved it. Goofy was on the 'course', and Stormy steered clear of him.
Crossing the finish line and getting his medal! Our second mistake of the morning was pinning his race bib to his back. They tell you to make sure the bib is on the front and visible for the Princess race, but I didn't think it'd matter for the kid's races. They have picture people at the Kid's races too, though, so I ended up having to search through the unidentified pictures to find any of his.
Yay! Finisher! (And back to fussing, cuz he's not being able to run freeeeeee)
We packed up our stuff and hopped a bus back to the hotel to change quickly, then headed back out.
Start of the park day picture. His shirt says "Field Captain" hehe.
Where were we at?
Animal Kingdom!
Attempt at a family photo. Nope!
Between the Kids race and all the running around after, it was almost lunch time by the time we got to Animal Kingdom. We decided to try to catch a showing of It's Tough to Be a Bug.
Playing with daddy's 3-D bug glasses! This is basically as far as we got. Stormy started freaking out (a lot worse than he had been) about the dim lighting, the people (we were packed in) and the fact that he had just been outside in the nice sunshine, so we asked the cast member to let us out.
Back outside in the fresh air! Exploring the tree of life.
We decided Stormy must be just as hungry as us, so we decided to eat. We had chosen Flame Tree BBQ to eat at, our first time trying it (and I'd heard lots of good things!)
Baloo got the Ribs and Chicken combo (with coleslaw and baked beans, yummy!). I thought the meat was a bit dry, and that the sides were better than the main entree. There was some extra sauce that we got and that helped out a bit.
I got the Smoked Chicken Salad (hey look, a fish free meal!). It was delicious! Maybe a little too much dressing and garbanzo beans, but that's about the only complaint I had. There was a fantastic ratio of stuff to lettuce (you know how in salads there's always way more lettuce than there is other stuff?). The salad had: "Freshly-smoked Chicken, Mixed Greens, Arugula, shredded Carrots, Pinto and Garbanzo Beans, Tortilla Chips and Corn, tossed in a house-made Balsamic Vinaigrette and drizzled with Chipolte Ranch dressing"
We both got unsweetened ice tea. I had a love hate relationship with the straws and such at Animal Kingdom. I love that they're using environment friendly solutions, but dang those paper straws are irritating!
For dessert we got a Key Lime Mousse and a Chocolate Mousse.
The chocolate mousse was suuuper rich, and we weren't able to eat it all (so sad!). Once you got past the weird jello bit on top, the key lime mousse was super tasty, although it seemed more like a cheesecake (especially with the graham crust at the bottom) then a mousse.
Owl! Behind Flame Tree BBQ is a gorgeous outdoor seating area with so much space! After the last two days of eating on the ground, we were very very happy to have a table to sit at (with a very lovely view too!). Stormy even got a highchair! He stuffed his face with delicious baked beans and smoked meats. I think he probably ate the most this meal out of any of them (except for BoG lunch later on).
It was almost time for a showing of Finding Nemo - The Musical, so we made our way from Flame Tree to Dinoland! Just as we parked our stroller the dark clouds that had been gathering started to rain, we got into the building just in time! Just as we got inside, Stormy decided it was definitely time for a nap, I ended up holding him the whole show, so the pictures are a bit off.
I don't like Finding Nemo all that much, but holding sleeping Stormy makes it a bit more emotionally tugging. And how they bring it to life on the stage is beautiful!
After the show we walked out to a bright, sunny sky (yay, FL!) and Stormy woke up. It was time for fun in Dinoland!
Standing in line for TriceraTop Spin. It's a 7!
Ooo, what's this do?
Next up was Stormy's favorite part of the day, The Boneyard! We had about an hour until our fastpass for Dinosaur (my favorite Animal Kingdom ride!), so we let Stormy loose in the Boneyard. Naturally he scared his poor mommy half to death because since it'd just rained there was water everywhere, and he NEEDED to climb up and down every staircase he found. Naturally.
We don't need no stinkin' rain coats! It started raining again while Stormy was digging, and lucky for us, there was a tarp overhead. Haha, FL! We foiled you again!
We dragged Stormy kicking and screaming (semi-literally) away from the Boneyard to catch our Dinosaur fastpass.
I went first, while Baloo waited with Stormy. In the line I chatted with an older couple and they told me about the trips they'd taken with their kids when they were young, and now the kids were grown, they were back by themselves for the first time. They were really fun to talk to and hear about changes in the parks! And they reminisced about not being able to do all the rides because of the little ones.
Dinosaur!
My picture! The little girl beside me freaked out a little bit, poor kid!
Baloo's turn! It's pretty funny that he's just like "Oh hey. Dino. That's cool." He's into the whole horror movie thing though, so he doesn't scare easy.
Oh no, Dino's got my babbyyyyy!
We had a date with Expedition Everest next, so it was onto Asia next!