You know that feeling of waking up earlier than you're used to? But you're in Disney so you're excited and pop out of bed and start getting ready even though you're PROBABLY still technically asleep? And you start getting ready as fast as you can so maybe you can actually get breakfast AND make rope drop? Today was one of those days. Mom showered the night before so we was still asleep and I was like "GOTTA GET READY GOTTA GET READY HURRY SHOWER DO EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW!" and, like I said earlier, I was probably still technically sleeping.
In order to save plenty of room for souvenirs, I decided to buy travel sized versions of everything and stick it in one little bag.
Well, first things first, gotta brush my teeth. That morning breath is a killer. Pick up the nearest small white tube and put it on my cute little travel sized toothbrush and get 'er goin'.
"Wow, this is weird toothpaste"
"Ugh, remind me never to get this in full size!"
"OMG"
"AH AHH UHH!"
"what the heck is wrong with this toothpaste!"
And I just kept brushing thinking "I GOTTA brush my teeth today, I'll get new toothpaste before tonight but teeth have to be brushed! I'll just have to persevere"
At this point I'm pretty loudly "ahhhh"-ing and almost crying but I'm an adult and I never cry so I wasn't really.... (this is where the whistle-y guy emoticon goes but I don't see it)
My mom wakes up and is very curious. What could I have possibly messed up at 7am in the bathroom?
Well, you know what kind of tube looks a lot like travel sized toothpaste when it's upside down? And you know what looks an awful lot like Colgate brand toothpaste you squeeze it out onto your brush?
I reach towards that upside down tube that I had used on my toothbrush, and whaddya know! It wasn't toothpaste at all, but in fact, it was Icy Hot.
I brushed my teeth with Icy Hot.
Not only did I brush my teeth with Icy Hot. But I KEPT GOING.
And with that, I tell you, always wait 15 minutes between waking up and brushing your teeth. Do some jumping jacks, start brewing your coffee, whatever! And always store your toothpaste away from other tubes, logo side up.
After that debacle we rushed through breakfast (our usual banana, croissant, oj, coffee) and headed to the bus stop to go to Animal Kingdom! This is one of my favorite parks but we never spend much time here and I knew it would be my mom's favorite. She loves animals and was really looking forward to this park after watching "Modern Marvels: WDW". She asked at MK AND Epcot "is that big tree here?" so she was pretty excited.
We showed up at it was pretty freaking busy. Bag check lines were enormous and I realized there had been a 5K at Animal Kingdom this morning

I was pretty stressed already and I warned my mom of our plans. We had two headliners to get out of the way before I could relax.
So we finally get in and guess who has to go to the bathroom! So I hold her stupid mug while she takes her time
"MOM YOU DON'T GET IT! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!"
So we rushed through down to Kilimanjaro Safari and hopped in the line (about 10 minutes at this point). It took 7 minutes (I timed it!) and we hopped on our Safari Bus, row 1!
This was the worst safari ever. We saw 1 giraffe, none of the cattle with the big horns and of course none of the big cats.
The elephants were active and the zebra were neat so that was cool. But I was SO bummed that the thing I thought my mom would love most was so lame. She said she loved it but I think she was just humoring me.
baby rhino!
I tired to enjoy the safari this time since usually I worry about pictures the whole time and I've started to realize I can't even tell the difference between trips so what's the point? I'm always ready in case I see something AMAZING, though.
We grabbed some fast passes (about 11:30ish at this point) and then it was time to book it to Asia!
Expedition Everest was a 20 minute wait but I LOVE the cue and wanted her to see it anyways so we waited.
Look at this big rock!
Did you get enough pictures of that? Hope so.
Well, that ride is freaking amazing! She screamed the whole time but it was happy screams and we promptly decided that we were not leaving the park without one more ride! We couldn't get fast passes yet since our window hadn't opened so we prepared ourselves for one more journey to Asia later on in the day.
Next we headed to Dinosaur! We went right on past the roadside carnival. Mom was quite confused by it. I think it's cute but I don't really get it.
Dinosaur is the scariest ride in all of Disney World.
Actually, it's the scariest ride I've ever been on. Including the big roller coasters at six flags and Knot's Berry Farm and all that. It PETRIFIES me.
My goal this trip was to ride it ALL THE WAY through with my eyes open
Well, once the flying dinosaur that starts with a T that I can't spell and spellcheck keeps telling me "literacy" flies down from the ceiling I had already been further than ever with my eyes open!
And then all of a sudden that STUPID fake carnatosaur attempts to bite my head off (I seriously have to remember what side he's on, it's unavoidable) and I lose it. Eyes don't open until we're safely in the present and my mom is hysterical.
She thought the stupid picture was pretty hilarious seeing as we were riding with 5-7 year olds and they seemed to be handling the meteor shower and being chased by a carnotosaur pretty well
Next we contemplated seeing the Nemo musical but decided we didn't want to sit that long and we headed straight to Expedition Everest and got there about 2 minutes after our window opened.
We headed back to the Safari to use our fast passes. THIS ride was MUCH better. The Savannah part was still pretty lame compared to usual (where are you giraffes!) but we got a pretty good view of everyone else!
I tried not to take pictures constantly this time.
But this bird was RIGHT THERE so I just HAD to
And the Hippo was out! So I had to snap that, too
Well, the ones that were actually out didn't appear too well in picture form so you'll have to settle with that one.
And this guy was just TOO CUTE
I love his strut. Like "what up I'm just struttin past this water hole"
Everybody was stopped and looking somewhere else and I was like "OHMYGOSH LOOK!" and the rhinos just walked right in front of our car like they didn't even look both ways
So I was like "now's my chance to get a great rhino picture" I steady my shot, about to get it right on, and that jerk turns right as I snap it as if he planned it that way
And then I had to get a picture of the zebras since they're new
So much for that!
We decided it was about time for lunch so we headed to Flame Tree. I had been wanting to try it for a while so I was excited.
"hey mom, we should split the chicken, since it's a whole half chicken"
She didn't quite understand that it was an ACTUAL half chicken and said "no I'm hungry!"
Okay...but don't get mad when I only eat half!
So we order and she's like "holy cow!" TOLD YOU! Oh well, we decide to go find a nice place to sit and laughed at everyone right by the chaos of the food station when there were completely empty areas on the water!
We walked through several seating areas, being picky, before settling on this beauty of a table
A better food picture
This was FANTASTIC tasting! I was SO amazing. I never want to eat anywhere else at AK again. So juicy and had great flavor! I got a side of fries because I don't like beans and coleslaw and we sat and enjoyed the view. I think I called DH at this point to brag about my lunch view!
Then we headed back to Everest. The yeti ALMOST got us this time! We got photopass pictures after that and that's when I realized I looked like crap this day so I don't think I bought any of them. I was wearing my "I believe" shirt. It has a Yeti on it! My favorite beer is the Yeti Stout from Great Divide Brewing out of Denver and the photopass lady was like "nice shirt! Is it from here?" And I was like, "no! It's a brewery actually...."
The Yeti DOES look a bit like bigfoot, it's white but it's in that classic bigfoot stance from that video evidence. I love it!
I'll post a pic later, we have one that's half decent by the tree of life later one.
Next was the Forest Trails and then it was time to head out!
Cool umbrella
Bats!
The tiger enclosure is my FAVORITE part of the park. I LOVE the themeing