Florida: Day Two

Day two was packed!  We woke bright and early and started off with breakfast a breakfast of Lucky Charms while watching cartoons--two things that never happen at home!

 

Then we dressed for the pool and headed over that way when it opened.

 

Stopping only to play in the volleyball court sand.

 

The pool was perfect!  The temperature was just warm enough for it to be comfortable in and out of the water and there was hardly anyone there.  I guess there are advantages to early wake ups.

 

I, unfortunately, didn't get a picture of the waterslide at the pool, but Amelia thought it was great!  Actually, everyone in our party took several turns on the slide (except poor, too-short Henry).  It was super fun.  I have lots of video and a great one to blackmail my mom with if that should ever become necessary. All that sliding and swimming made for some very hungry kids.  So after snacks and a few more laps it was naptime!

 

Amelia napped EVERY SINGLE DAY we were on our trip.  And of course, Henry did too.  In fact, to be perfectly honest we all did.  But for Amelia to take naps 3 days in a row is pretty much unprecedented these days.

Right outside of our cabin, some very talented person created this Mickey Mouse head out of pine cones.  I don't know if it was a "cast member" and it is standard practice or if there is some more interesting story to it.  It was pretty neat and the fact that it was in "our" front yard made it all the better.  Our cabin location (in the 2200 loop, I believe it was) was so perfect.  Tons of room in front for the kids to run around and explore and only a couple steps from a bus stop.

I decided to get a couple of pictures at the bus stop.  I had a love/hate relationship with the bus system at Wilderness Lodge.  Sometimes it was super quick and efficient and other times, not so much.

See how close our cabin was to the bus stop?  That is ours straight behind my mom and Henry's heads.

 

My friend Susie knows how much Amelia LOVES Peter Pan and gave her this super cute outfit for her birthday last year.  Amelia was overjoyed that she I packed it for her.  And while she enjoyed pin trading this visit, it wasn't quite as popular as last time.

One of the best things about Fort Wilderness was that you can take a boat to several different locations--including Magic Kingdom and some of the other resorts.  This was a big plus for Henry.  I made dinner reservations for us at the Wilderness Lodge on our first full day at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.  We headed over a little early to explore the Lodge and trade some pins. 

We told Amelia that the "whispering" part of the Whispering Canyon Cafe meant that she needed to be on her best behavior and keep her voice down.  In reality, the place is the exact opposite.  They have pony races for the kids, do the hokey pokey in the middle of your meal, and shout to everyone to "Keep it DOWN!" if they see someone on the phone. 

My favorite part, though, was when we asked for ketchup.  I had read enough reviews ahead of time to let Amelia ask for it.  Everyone in the restaurant that has a bottle comes to your table and give you their ketchup. 

This was great fun for awhile, but I was glad when the next table requested ketchup! We happily delivered the bottles!

After dinner we took the boat back to Ft. Wilderness and decided to try out the Campfire Sing A Long offered each night there.

 We brought our own s'more making supplies and we all ate our fill!

Do you see Jason's button below?  When I booked our cabin they asked if we were celebrating anything special.  Since we were kind of close to our anniversary (like 2 months close) I mentioned we were celebrating that.  Because who wouldn't go to Disney for their anniversary and bring their kids and moms?  Anyway, our 10 year is in April, so we weren't that far from a pretty big event!  The man taking our reservation on the phone said he would make a note that we were celebrating our anniversary because they would give us "extra pixie dust" and "magical things can happen".  I jokingly asked if that meant we would have 5 complimentary tickets to the Magic Kingdom in our room upon arrival.  He replied sarcastically, "That would be VERY magical".  I didn't hold my breath and when we arrived, there were "Happy Anniversary" buttons waiting for us and a signed picture of Mickey and Minnie.  Good enough!

Henry started to get a little squirrely right after Chip n' Dale came out.  So, I headed back with him and my mom while Jason, his mom, and Amelia stayed to sing and dance with the rodents.

It was a super full, but fun day.  Amelia ended it with organizing all of her pins and figuring out which ones she wanted to trade.  As usual, the "keep" pile was quite a bit larger than the "trade" one.

I'm not sure if it was the afternoon nap, the late night chocolate and marshmallows or the dancing around with chipmunks right before bed, but it took her FOREVER to get to sleep that night.   That made day 3 especially tricky since it was our day to visit the park!