Mattie Mays Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Three

I have had so much fun posting Mattie May's journal. Have you had fun reading her post? I really can't wait (well, I really can) until she can really write things herself. I can't tell you how many hours we spend, she has pencil in hand and paper in front of her and she just asks how to spell each word that she wants to get on paper. She tells me all the time she is going to be a writer.

I am definitely not the writer that she is, but I can add captions and comments to pictures. Although I don't have many pictures to choose from seeing as how I left my camera in Texas!

Day three of our adventure is actually day two of our time in Florida. Traci had told Mattie May about the safari ride at Animal Kingdom and shown her pictures, so this is where she wanted to go on our first full day. We caught the bus and off we went. This was the same bus ride where this happened.

As soon as we got off the bus, Katie and I both realized we had left our sun glasses in the room, including Mattie May's. So we stopped in the first shop we saw and got some. I don't think we could have survived without them. Seriously!

Katie's are super cute! Little Mickey's on hot pink!

Animal Kingdom still had their Christmas decorations up too. My favorite trees of all the parks. I thought of my mom when I saw these trees. Wild animals and prints all over. It was amazing. We found the PhotoPass photographer at this tree and she let us in on the secret of the Magic Photo. They are so cool. You will get to see them when I get my pictures from Disney. They are so neat.

" I look just like Tigger!"

As we headed up the path to the safari and saw the Tree of Life for the first time. Katie got so excited, I think she shed a tear. See, she does take after me! It was amazing. We have seen it on TV and in pictures many times, but it is kind of like the Grand Canyon, pictures just don't do it justice. You have to see it for yourself and feel your breath being taken away.

Tree of Life

It looks like it is coming our of our heads!

We ran into Lilo and Stitch. Mattie May had a great time with them. She had Kia Lan on her shirt and Stitch kept trying to get her to get a different shirt. It was great.

We got tickets for the safari and had more than enough time to head to Rafiki's Island?? The train ride over was nice. We really enjoyed "the island". It was fun and educational at the same time and that is always nice. Here, we met:

Pocahontas

Jiminy Cricket

and of course, Rafiki.

Mattie May wasn't real sure about him. I don't think she has seen the Lion King and isn't familiar with his character. But she did fine.

It was time to head to the safari, but as we were walking out Mattie May spotted the ice cream stand. So naturally we had to get ice cream. We met Casey here. She just started talking to Mattie May as if none of us were there. Of course she had to wish her a happy birthday because she had her birthday button on. Mattie May said to her "Thank you, but my birthday really isn't until tomorrow."

"REALLY?!?!?" Casey squealed, "Tomorrow is my birthday too!" Mattie May ran around the back and gave her a big hug and told her happy birthday too! I think Mattie May would have stayed with her the rest of the day. And to make things even better, Casey gave her her ice cream for her birthday!

Casey

The safari was so cool. It was very much like the drive through safaris that are all around, but oh so much better. This ride created another Mattieism. After she saw Traci's pictures, she kept telling us "you take a safari in a cari!" LOL So that was the name we gave it!

The Safari in the Cari

We think we get so close to the giraffes at the Abilene Zoo, but there is still a fence between you and them. Look how close we are to the one in this picture. Remember this was taken with an iPhone and no zoom! If only he would have looked my way!

Now she wanted to go ride the mountain. This was the ride we learned the importance of the FastPass! It was a two hour wait and the had given out all the FastPasses for the day. So sadly, we didn't get to ride this one. Yeah, some tears were flowing but after the promise of a snack, Katie settled down and got ready for something else.

We walked right up on the line for "Finding Nemo, The Musical" and of course, they were just shutting it off. Another disappointment until the girl saw Mattie May's birthday button. With a quick happy birthday wish, she let us in and told us to walk to the front! We had great seats! And it is a definitely a don't miss show. We had fun watching how they worked the puppets, especially Crush. I think that took five people to work! I don't know how because we were so close to the front, but Frank enjoyed a little nap while we were here!

Finding Nemo Musical

We headed over to the dinosaur part to see what was there. The roller coaster there looked really cool, but Mattie May was too short to ride. Frank decided he could get her on and the entire time we were in line, Katie and I kept telling him he would be the one dealing with Mattie May's tears this time! He kept telling us he would get her on there! Guess who was right? Yeah, Katie and I were! Thank goodness there was a popcorn stand nearby and a big bucket of popcorn can chase the biggest tears away. Katie also found the first hidden Mickey in this area!

We got in line to see Pluto and Goofy while we enjoyed our popcorn. A very interesting artist came by while we were waiting. At first we thought she was a member of the clean up cast, she was caring a broom & dust pan and dressed just like them. But the dust pan was full of water and the broom was formed into a giant paint brush. She would "paint" the characters from memory.

She said this was much more fun in the cooler weather. In the hot sun, her "art" doesn't last very long. It wasn't to much longer until we got to see Pluto and Goofy. These were the first two characters that Mattie May really interacted with. She couldn't wait to give them both a kiss on the nose!

Pluto & Goofy

Back to the Tree of Life we went. It was time to see things Through the Eye's of Bugs! This started out Innocent enough, but then the big hopper came out and Mattie May was in Grumpy's lap in a flash. Thank goodness she was there when the spiders started coming down from the ceiling! She was not a happy camper and tried her hardest to crawl inside his shirt! Katie and I were enjoying the show until the hornets stung us. Lets just suffice it to say, Mattie May didn't see a need to do this show any more!

Bug's Life

The Rain Forrest Cafe is just at the entrance of the park and that is where Mattie May wanted to eat. I don't know why. She hates it when the animals start going off and we were right in front of the big male elephant. After the first couple of times she realized he wasn't actually going to run over her and she enjoyed the rest of our meal.

We caught one of the last buses back to the hotel. Everyone got bathed and ready for bed. Tomorrow was The Big Day! Mattie May's birthday, our reason we were on this excellent adventure in the first place.

This was the wreath on the end of the Contemporary.

Tomorrow - Day Four - Mattie May's Happy Fifth Birthday!

God Bless!