The Welte's at Disney: Epcot & Animal Kingdom

I'm recapping our Disney World trip today!

If you missed our arrival day, you can find that post here.

And our Magic Kingdom day here. 

Today, I'm recapping our day of Epcot and Animal Kingdom!

Once again, we were up bright and early to get ready for our day and catch the shuttle from our resort to Epcot. 

When you arrive to the parks, you have to go through a little security screening. Our party would split up, and send the guys with the strollers and backpacks through security, and the rest of us would walk right in and wait. By splitting up, the process went a lot smoother for our group of 15, and honestly, I'd do it again if it were just the 5 of us! 

When we arrived, we had some time for photographs before the gates were officially opened and we were allowed in to the park. These girls became best friends while we were there! 

 And, we were also those people, who had a party of 15, and all of us wanted pictures which annoyed all those waiting for pictures behind us! Whoops! 

 And one with Nana and her grandchildren.

We didn't have any Fast Passes reserved for Epcot. When you split your day between two parks, you're only allowed to reserve Fast Passes at one of the parks. And we really wanted to use our Fast Passes at Animal Kingdom. Which meant that we had to be very strategic about our time at Epcot. 

Our group split up, and half of them went straight to Soarin, and the rest of us went straight to Norway to ride the Frozen ride! 

Between three of us walking, running, and two strollers, we were able to make our way through the crowd and to the ride with a relatively short wait time. 

We loved the Frozen ride!!!!

Afterwards, we met our group, and dropped off the little girls so the rest of us could ride Soarin. As we were on our way to meet our group, it was a 40 minute wait, but when we parted ways, it was only a 20 minute wait! It's totally crazy for Soarin to have only a 20 minute wait! If you're needing Fast Passes to get at Epcot, I'd grab them for Frozen, Soarin, and Test Track. 

(Flowers at Epcot) 

We rode Soarin, and then we met our group at Turtle Talk (which we walked right in on) and then the Nemo ride, which was less than a 15 minute wait too. The lines at Epcot were unbelievable short, but that's because we think most people were at Animal Kingdom for the new Avatar ride. 

After Turtle Talk & Nemo, we made our way to Test Track. We skipped this one the last time we went to Disney, and we didn't need a Fast Pass because my brother in law works for Chevrolet, and he was able to get us passes for the Fast Pass lane! 

We all made our cars, rode the ride, and then headed to lunch! 

We had reservations at the Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot. 

Because of our large group, we were seated at different tables, but all of the tables had a great view of the aquarium! 

DJ had all of the big girls at his table. 

And Nana and I had Adalyn! 

The rest of our group was seated behind us. 

And for a quick moment, DJ and I had some quiet time when Nana took all of the girls to the bathroom! 

I ordered shrimp and cheese grits. So delicious! 

Megan ordered the cutest cupcake for dessert. 

And I had chocolate melting cake. Yum! 

We loved being able to see the sharks, fish, and creatures in the aquarium, but the restaurant didn't have the best lighting for pictures, so, I tried.

And, honestly, I'm not sure if I'd take young kids to the restaurant again. It's dark, and a bit more on the romantic side, so I was nervous that the kids were being loud or bothering others. But, the food was amazing. 

After lunch, we made a quick stop to meet Mickey and his friends. 

After meeting Mickey's friends, we hopped on to a shuttle and headed to Animal Kingdom. 

Someone had a little nap on our way! 

We quickly arrived at Animal Kingdom, completed the bag check process and made our way to the Safari, which we had a Fast Pass for. On our way, we saw Mt. Everest. 

Waiting for our Safari ride! 

We were ready! 

You guys, it was so HOT at Disney, and we knew it would be, but we probably still underestimated how hot it would be. Thankfully, Nana was prepared with cooling towels, and a misting spray fan to help us keep cool. And, I could not stomach the water at the parks, so I would always stop and grab a bottle of water to enjoy. Although, any quick service location will give you a glass of ice water for free. 

We loved the Safari! We saw lots of animals up close, and our driver educated us on all of them. 

The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom. 

We had a Fast Pass for the River Rapids, and another river ride in Pandora, but when we made our way to Pandora, we found out the ride was closed down. 

Our group separated, and we took the girls over to Dinoland. 

We rode the Dino-soar.....

grown ups in the back

big kids in the front. 

And, then we managed to get the girls on the Dinosaur ride, where you travel back in time to bring a dinosaur home with you..... and I was warned before hand that the ride was scary, but there wasn't a long wait, so we talked the girls in to it. 

And, they were terrified!!!! 

Probably not my best move. 

We took the girls to the dino-dig play area, and while the girls were playing, I was all....

zzzzzz.....

And that's about where all of my picture taking stopped.

We grabbed dinner, went to The Lion King show (DJ ditched us and rode Mt. Everest) and then we joined up with some of our family who had happened to score Fast Passes to Avatar!!!! 

DJ's brother stayed with Megan and Adalyn, and we took Gretchen and several of us headed off to the ride. Gretchen was terrified, but ended up loving the ride when it was over! 

By this time it was late, and it had started to rain, but we noticed that the river ride was open, so we took the girls on it before heading back to our hotel and calling it a night. 

Addy Pearl Turns 4

Today, our little surprise turns 4!!!! I always say that I didn't know how much our family needed, Adalyn, but God did, and he sure did surprise us with her! 

 On July 5, Adalyn Pearl was born and made us a family of 5. 

Adalyn was probably our easiest baby. My guess is because I had experienced two other pregnancies, labors, and newborns, and Adalyn just fit. I was determined that there wouldn't be weeks of recovery, and that we would be able to continue with life as we knew it. Sure, there were adjustments, but we figured it out along the way, and I'll always say that three was easier than two. Our family just naturally flowed from a family of 4 to 5. 

Adalyn received her first ballet baby on her first Christmas. I just thought, it was a precious little doll, and had know idea that her ballet baby would be a constant in our lives 3 1/2 years later. I think we've been through at least 6 ballet babies, and thankfully, she doesn't seem to care if we replace a well-loved tattered one, with a brand new one. She just wants a ballet baby. 

This girl has her daddy's blue eyes, and is the epitome of a third child. Even though she's turning 4, she's still our tiny little one. 

I think our wildest memory of her is when we took our first family trip to Disney World, and she broke her leg our first night there. Hands down, it was the worst night of my life. Mostly because she was in pain, and we were running on very little sleep. But, we rallied together and made it through that week, and the 6 weeks afterwards when she had on a cast. 

She's always my little helper. She loves to just be present when I'm sewing, working, cooking. I remember so many times when she was little, that she was just always at my feet. This girl is a momma's girl. 

She's sassy and fiesty, and is strong willed and determined. She's such a typical female for my side of the family. 

Some where along the way, my little blue eyed brown haired baby, turned in to a fair skin, blue eyed, blonde hair girl. I often look at her and wonder where she came from and I try to remember the day that I realized she didn't look like her sisters anymore. For the record, I can't remember that day. Only the summer day, when her freckles popped up for the first time, and then never went away. 

Adalyn loves horses, and carousels. She often tells us which direction to take home so she can either see horses, or boats, and often times, she picks the horses. And carousel rides are her absolute favorite! This year, we are taking her out for a horse ride for her birthday and she's so excited! She's been requesting a "horsey birthday" for the last year!  

She also loves dogs! Out of all the girls, Adalyn loves our Bailey the most. 

I love this picture from her third birthday. When she turned 3, she wasn't that little toddler anymore. She was growing up and we were really able to see her interests, likes, and dislikes. 

She loves playing. She loves to swing, play babies, watch you tube videos with her big sisters..... 

and she loves dressing up! One morning she came down wearing this outfit, letting me know that she was ready for school! She's independent and knows what she likes. She mostly enjoys wearing skirts, and she picks tennis shoes and natives over almost any other shoe. She often wants her hair down, and doesn't enjoy when I put a bow in it! 

Her three year old fashion sense was the best! 

This past year, her daddy has taken her to school every day, and she loves getting that special time with him. 

In November, she asked to get her ears pierced and she was so brave! However, she doesn't like changing her earrings now, but we an almost always bribe her with a gummy bear! 

She loves playing outside. She's happy riding her bicycle, driving her car, or pushing her babies down the street with her stroller. 

I love that she's my cuddle bug. She loves to be held, we still rock and cuddle before bed, and she always reminds me if I forget to give her a hug when I tuck her in. She still sucks her thumb, and we've worked on it, and plan on working on it again this summer before she starts preschool. 

Adalyn can spell her name, write the letters of her name (although not all our legible).... her favorite letter is A. Her favorite colors are orange, pink, and purple, and she enjoys Llama Llama books at bedtime. 

While we don't consistently nap anymore, she will still cuddle up and often times fall asleep in the late afternoons. 

She absolutely loves Ningxia! She says that Ningxia helps make her grow big, tall, and strong! She's more of a snacker, and doesn't prefer eating a full meal. For breakfast, she prefers yogurt, and sometimes a banana or blueberries, but most of the time we can find her helping herself to a snack in the pantry, and then we have to bribe her to eat her dinner. 

Just like her big sister, baby dolls are her absolute favorite. 

See, skirts, and a mismatched style. 

Three year old fashionista. 

Addy is our goofy one too. Megan is goofy and crazy, but Adalyn just goes right along with it and joins in to the fun! Over the last few months, Adalyn and Megan have grown very close in their friendship, especially with their shared love of baby dolls. But, Addy is always up for having a good time. She tries hard to keep up with her big sisters! 

And just for fun........ a few shots from the last week or two. 

Disney time....

Beach time....

She's so excited about turning 4! We can get her to do about anything if we tell her "just 4 more" like how old you're about to be! She's been telling everyone about her birthday and turning 4!

I can't wait for her to wake up today and to celebrate this girl all day long! 

Happy Birthday Addy Pearl!