Life with the Yin Yang Girls: Taking a Day Off

Tim and Tessa were the first ones awake that day, as usual. They took off for the hub of GKTW to see what fun was to be had while I got ready and Phoebe slept in. Today was Nickelodeon character day and I hoped that Blue would be there for Phoebe to meet. I had mentioned to her wish granter that she loved Blue and I heard that "maybe they could set up a meet" but never heard more than that. When I had called GKTW before we left I inquired about the characters and was told there's just no way to know or request who comes to GKTW. When Tim got to the theatre he texted me that it was Spongebob today. Tessa didn't even want to meet him, and I knew it wouldn't mean a thing to Phoebe. Oh well. Tim and Tessa ate breakfast at the Gingerbread House then of course, took a turn on the carousel.

The little girl in the pink hat is Megan, who I'll introduce in a minute.

I brought Phoebe down to the main area too late to eat at the GH, so we went to see what the Ice Cream Palace had to offer. I've never been a big breakfast person so what they had to offer at the little counter in the corner was perfect for me. Phoebe and I enjoyed an assortment of bacon, scrambled eggs, yogurt, biscuits, and cinnamon rolls. I asked the ice cream servers for a cup of coffee and had them put a scoop of ice cream in it. It was pretty good that way and they were so impressed with the idea. As we sat and ate our breakfast one of the angels working the counter came out and showed Phoebe this cute little bear. She chatted with us and asked Phoebe if she wanted to keep the bear. She was petting it so I thanked her and kept the bear. She went back and got another toy, a moose I think, and offered it for her sister but I knew Tessa was kind of ambiguous about most stuffed animals and I didn't want to waste it so I told her to keep it for another child she might want to share it with. Hopefully I didn't offend her but she was very sweet. She said that her kids and grandkids were all healthy and she just felt like this was something she needed to do to give back. She played patty cake with Phoebe for a while and she got some gloves to see if Phoebe liked those (not so much, lol).

Tessa and Tim joined us at that point and had some ice cream and stole our cinnamon rolls. Thankfully they gave us more. We wandered around the main area and sat on a bench swing in a gazebo for a bit. It was very relaxing.

The Gingerbread House.

The Castle of Miracles and Enchanted Carousel.

We went back to the villa to find yet another pile of gifts on our kitchen table. It was warm and sunny at the moment so we decided to check out the pool while we could. Both of the girls loved it. There were some other kids there to play with but not at all crowded. They had some pool toys in already and the angel who was supervising the area went and got some more to throw in at one point. Tessa is throwing the ball to Megan.

They had several of these waterproof wheelchairs to use.

Phoebe took a break to have a snack while Tessa and Daddy swam.

Tessa and I went to explore one side of the pool where the splash pad was and Daddy took Phoebe in the pool.

After a couple of minutes Tim was hollering at me to help him. I asked a nearby dad, just happened to be Megan's, if he'd keep an eye on Tessa for a minute. When I got to Tim he showed me that the wheelchair had been soiled and Phoebe needed to be cleaned up. Well, at least she did it in the the chair and not in the pool water. We spent a while in the bathroom cleaning up and thankfully they had a box of Clorox wipes in the surf shack. (stock photo)

I scrubbed the chair down and we decided Phoebe needed to go home and have a bath. She was ready for a nap anyway. Tim volunteered to do that job so I stayed with Tessa at the pool for another hour. She had fun playing with Megan from Vancouver, B.C. I later noticed that Megan was in several of our photos that day. We had fun chatting about our long travel days and what the week still promised for us.

Tessa explored the splash pad some more. She was too quick to climb this wave, so I never had time to tell her where she was "supposed" to stand for the illusion.

Tessa was getting hungry but I was having trouble tearing her away from the pool. I finally convinced her and we headed over to Katie's Kitchen to order lunch to-go. We had accidentally followed Megan's family over there and I was feeling like we were all on the same wavelength that day. We got a chicken salad sandwich, chicken Caesar salad, chicken pot pie, and mac. Notice a theme here? It was all very good. Tessa was pretty tired at this point and was having a melt down over something silly. I let her ride the carousel while we waited for Daddy to run over and pick us up. There was no way Tessa was going to be able to walk back and I had all the food and drinks to carry already.

Phoebe slept while the rest of us ate, then she woke up and ate while Tessa took a bath. Phoebe went back to sleep again after she ate. This girl was tired! I think Tessa may have napped that day but I'm not sure. She needed it, I'll say that for sure! We had thought about doing a Universal Studios park that evening but I just didn't want to hassle with the rain. We hung out and watched a little tv until it was time for our dinner reservation. The one thing I kept from my original plans for the day.

I got Tessa ready while Tim experimented with his camera. Phoebe continued her second nap behind that closed door. Tessa was goofing around. I swear she could be a model, with all of her silly expressions and poses, usually with little to no prompting.

Once Phoebe was up and ready we headed on over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 6:30 ADR at Boma, the African themed buffet. We were a little concerned that the GPS didn't list it by name, but we were able to figure it out and got there a couple of minutes late. As Tim dropped me and the girls off at the front door we realized we didn't have the handicapped placard again. What the heck? I asked a guy who standing with the valets, but was wearing a more professional uniform so I'm guessing was a supervisor of some sort, if it would be okay to park in the handicapped spot anyway. He could see the wheelchair of course and said it would be no problem. Phew!

I saw a photopass photographer by the front door at a desk. I asked him where they take the pics here and he explained they do a professional shoot or just a quick snapshot in the main lobby.

Since we were now about 5 minutes late I asked how late they would be there for the lobby pic and whatever his answer was (8 maybe?) I assumed it would be late enough for us to make it after dinner. We checked in at the desk, gave them our name and the time we reserved. They gave us a pager and asked us to have a seat. We sat. And sat. And walked around. And gave Tessa a time-out for wandering away and not listening. And walked upstairs. And went outside. And rode the elevators. And had another family take our pic.

And went outside again. And gave Tessa another time-out. And sat some more. We did have plenty of time to chat with other families, several of whom LOVED the girls' dresses and wanted to know where we bought them.

Peaking over the stair rail at the food we were really hoping to eat soon.

Finally Tim went to the desk to ask what was going on since we had been there about 45 minutes, Tessa was driving us crazy and Phoebe was whining pretty good because she was hungry. There was some mix-up with the ADR and the lady he spoke to, different from the one who checked us in and gave us a pager, said something about we were never marked as arrived. She asked us to wait just a couple more minutes which we grudgingly agreed to do, when they paged us and we were finally seated. Our nerves were already frayed at this point and I knew it wasn't going to be the casual, tasting and learning of a new culture that I had hoped it would be. It was, hurry up and fill up a plate with anything the girls might like to eat, then alternate which of us got to go fill our own plate while feeding Phoebe and trying to keep Tessa moderately under control. There were definitely some delicious dishes on the buffet, and I tried to have a small taste of anything I hadn't had before. I knew I'd never remember what I ate that night so I took a pic of the menu. I still can't remember all of what I ate though!

Tessa got a lighting up Tinkerbell clipped to her drink which she played with through the rest of dinner. After that night I hid it away and asked her if she wanted to give it to her cousin who loves Tink. She said YES, until it came time to give it to her. She wanted to play with it again, but of course lost interest after a minute, again.

If that were all she had done it would have been fine. She was talking to people at the tables around us, climbing over chairs and benches to get to them, going under the table, turning every which way in her seat, etc. She had two more time-outs during dinner, one of which Tim had to take her out of the restaurant for because she was screaming. It was just a little too late for us. And we missed the photopass guys. Oh well.

One of my dinner plates. Just a taste of some things.

Tessa pointing to her favorite, a brownie. Yes, this is the second plate for her and Daddy.

My dessert plate. I left most of them on the plate after one bite because I just wasn't in love with any of them. None were bad, just not over the top delicious like I had expected. But then, I'm a really simple dessert kind of person. Cookies. Ice cream. Zebra domes. just kidding. I think my fave of these was the apple cobbler stuff. Tim and Tessa finished some of mine and even after we got home from the trip Tim said he really loved these desserts.

After we were done with dinner we explored the hotel for a little while.
Walking along a wildlife path.

It led us to the savanna where a couple of "guides" were helping people look for animals with night vision goggles. They were from South Africa and the one we were talking to was part of an anti-poaching unit there. He and Tim swapped smuggler stories for a while. The guy was impressed with Tim and his job. Needless to say Tim had fun. Tessa was playing around and scraped her knee. This owie would be an annoyance for the rest of the trip because she would either re-open it by falling again, or pick at it if actually had a chance to start scabbing.

Flamingos along the path.