Yesterday brought us to Disney's Animal Kingdom. I knew it would be a huge hit with Duncan, our animal lover, but I think his excitement exceeded all my expectations. His favourite part of the day was the Kilamanjaro Safari, followed by getting soaked on the Kali River Rapids twice. Least favourite ride for him was Expedition Everest; he was likely extra-disappointed seeing as he was so excited about seeing a Yeti. Perhaps it wasn't a good choice for his first roller coaster... I think we have forever traumatized Danica by dragging her along on Expedition Everest and Dinosaur, though she was certainly brave through the rides.
We also got to meet Chip and Dale, Goofy and Pluto and Rafiki, plus Danica got serenaded by a musician on Discovery Island.
Perhaps the scariest part of the day was coming off the Kali River Rapids ride for the second time, reaching our lockers and coming to the realization that Danica wasn't running ahead with Daddy and was in fact missing. My heart dropped, as I am sure they did for the rest of my family as well. We had talked about what to do if this happened and both kids had bracelets around their ankles with our U.S. cellphone number on it. I had even noticed the "lost children" sign earlier. Of course we had assumed, as I am sure we all do, that all the preparation was unnecessary, but it wasn't. Trying not to panic, I instructed Duncan to stay with my Dad and told them not to move. I am not sure where my Mom and Robert were at this point but my brother and I headed back in the direction we had just come from, back towards the ride when I caught a glimpse of her. I began yelling her name and running towards her, not realizing how fast I could actually run in flip flops. I guess when she realized she was separated from us, she began to cry. This lady saw her crying, and remembering how scared she was when she was lost at Disney as a child, she asked Danica if she was okay. Danica told her she lost us and the lady took her hand and was trying to help her find a cast member when I found them. It was only about 1 minute from us realizing we'd lost her to finding her again, but it felt like hours.
Today is Danica's 5th birthday and we spent it at the Magic Kingdom. It began with breakfast in Cinderella's castle with the princesses. We got to meet Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Rapunzel and Jasmine. Duncan has known about this surprise since last summer but has kept it a secret the whole time as he wanted Danica to be surprised. I think he was as excited as she was! Heck, who am I kidding - I have always wanted to go inside the castle too! It was by far the most expensive breakfast I'd ever had but it was certainly good.
We went on some more rides, traumatizing Danica further by attempting to bring her into the Haunted House, and met some more characters. The day ended with a visit to the Mainstreet USA barbershop for a haircut for Duncan and some pixie dust for Danica before heading to McDonalds for Danica's birthday dinner (her choice, not ours).
Tomorrow we are hoping to sleep in a little longer before venturing out to see some alligators...It's supposed to be colder and may rain again but rain still beats snow and 16 C is way warmer than whatever is happening back home, so I will take it!
(note - photos to follow as they aren't uploading properly right now...)
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