Disney Day 2

(I seem to have more self-discipline about getting a segment of these pictures loaded and on my blog each day than I do about unpacking our freaking suitcases. So far I'm only managing to curse their presence in the living room/foyer, and that doesn't seem to be getting them unpacked.)

Day Two we spent in the Animal Kingdom, which is the one park I had never been to before. The first section of the park is not really all that great. If I were doing it again, I'd skip it. There are some neat animals but nothing better than you'd see at a zoo, and you can go to a zoo a whole lot cheaper than Disney. There's my tip for the day: skip the front half of Animal Kingdom, and head for the continents.

Disney has more giant Christmas trees than one can even fathom. This one was at the Animal Kingdom entrance and was decorated entirely in an amazing animal motif:



Oh, an exception to the whole "skip the front part" advice: the "Tree of Life." It is a giant tree with hundreds of animals carved into the trunk. These were all taken in or on part of the tree:









There was a section of the park with all kinds of different drums that kids (or adults) could play.


This man is from the Congo and was playing a really cool instrument:


One highlight of Animal Kingdom was a really great petting zoo. (It's on Conservation Island or something like that, and it's the ONLY thing worth doing there. Pet the animals and get back on the train.) One thing that was cool about it was they had brushes available for kids to brush the animals rather than just walking around trying to touch them. They LOVED brushing the goats and sheep:







Another highlight was the face painting. In the past, when we've done "face painting," my kids have only ever had a little football or rainbow or something painted on their cheeks. They were willing to spend their own money (and more than a little of it!) to get these great elaborate face-paintings. (See my post from 2 days ago for close-ups of Joshua's and Lauren's faces.)

Ethan's reaction upon looking in the mirror:




Ethan's favorite ride (and one that was on pretty much everyone's top 10 list) was Khali River Rapids. I think David and the boys rode it 4 times. I rode it once and got completely drenched, so I opted out when they returned to it later in the day.



Lauren and Lane had fun playing together while we waiting for everyone else to come off of the rapids.


We ate a really great lunch at a restaurant called Tusker House in "Africa." It was an enormous buffet with all types of food to satisfy the most adventurous and the pickiest of eaters. I had to take a picture of my brother Ben's plate, because he definitely falls into the latter category. His idea of adventurous eating is to try a wheat roll instead of a white one. Imagine his surprise at learning that the tofu cubes and pearl cous-cous he put on his plate were not chicken and corn after all!



Me, David, and the kids on a bridge in Animal Kingdom:


As we were leaving when the park was closing, there was a giant block party going on at the front gate with entertainment by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy.



We met quite a few characters at Animal Kingdom, so I've included just a few of them. You can watch the progression of Lauren's comfort level with them as she grew used to seeing them. (We went to Animal Kingdom 2 different times, hence the two outfits.)

This was as close as she would get to Rafiki:


Still not certain about Terk:


Getting comfortable with Timon:


Lovin' on Pluto:

Disney Day 1

Actually, I should start with the night before we arrived at Disney. We spent the night at a hotel outside of Disney World so that we could get started at the park early the next day instead of having to waste a park day with travel. Ethan slept in my mom's room that night, and we thought that would leave in our room one bed for David and me and one for Joshua and Lauren. Then, they discovered the sofa bed. My kids have never slept on a sofa bed, so this was quite exciting. Josh begged me to let him sleep in it, so I did, and then Lauren insisted she wanted to sleep there, too. So, we ended up with an entire empty bed in our hotel room that night. If I'd know a sofa bed would be such a thrill, I could have saved a lot of money on Disney tickets!


In the lobby of our hotel, The Grand Floridian, there was a beautiful tree:


and a life-sized gingerbread house:


Skipping toward the monorail:


We filled up many an elevator:


Riding the monorail:




We spent Day 1 in the Magic Kingdom where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean first as it's what Joshua and Ethan had been most looking forward to. They loved it, but as we would find out during 90% of rides during the trip, Lauren did not like the dark parts. She was scared of the dark parts, the loud parts, the interactive parts . . . you can't even imagine what she was like during the fireworks. She trembled from head to toe the entire time.

Here's Ben and Renae at the MK entrance: (Renae, if one of your pics of me and David here turned out well, I'd like it. The ones on my camera don't have the MK sign in the background . . . among other problems.)


Lauren on the Mad Tea Party teacups, her favorite ride by FAR:


Ethan on the carousel:


Lauren and her Gaga on the carousel:


Josh and Ethan at the Monsters, Inc. show:


With a nutcracker:


Cinderella's Castle with icicle lights:

We're Back

If you weren't aware of where I've been the past week, we went with my entire family to Disney World. Sorry for not mentioning it. While I'm sure it's unlikely that any burglars read my blog, I really didn't feel like being burgled while we were gone. I figured it wasn't likely given that we don't have much worth stealing anyway. Seriously, you would have to spend more money buying those silly black ski masks and, I don't know, crowbars or something, than the value of anything you would find in our house. Except maybe David's trumpets, but if that's what you're after, spare us the time and expense (and knowing me, injury) of broken window glass, and just let me know. I'll arrange to have them put on the street for you somewhere. (I jest, dear. I love your trumpets.)

So, that's where we were. I will probably be blogging about it for the next six years or so since I have 568 Disney pictures. (That is not one of my typical sarcastic exaggerations; I really have 568 pictures.) For today, I'll just say that we had a fantastic trip and are glad to be home.

Really? Did you believe me? That that was all I would say? Ha!

For the drive down, my mom and I rode in our minivan with our three kids plus one of my nieces. (David rode with one of my brothers in my mom's car, which carried most of our luggage. Yeah, that's right. For some reason I wasn't offered the option of riding with the luggage instead of the four kids. Maybe next year.)

It took us 8 1/2 hrs to get there thanks to the 6 or 7 stops we made on the way down. (Mom and I lost count and aren't sure if we stopped 6 or 7 times, but we both agree it felt more like 100.) The good news is on the way home we drove at night, so the kids slept a lot of the way, and we made it in just over 6 1/2 hrs. Yes, TWO HOURS faster driving at night with the kids asleep. I foresee a lot of Benadryl in my children's futures.

We did not get home until after midnight last night and are all extremely exhausted. My dear dad, who did not accompany us but who did coordinate most of the trip for us, decided to make a pot of his homemade spaghetti sauce for my sister-in-law and me today. When I went by earlier, he surprised me with it and said he figured we wouldn't feel like cooking today. Have I ever mentioned that I have the world's best parents?

For today, I'll just post a few pictures. My plan is to cover different parts of the trip over the next week or so rather than just doing massive Disney photo/story overload. Enjoy these cute faces for now:

My little Tinkerbell:



A goofy hat for a goofy kid:



Since he's missing his own front teeth, Joshua chose a dinosaur face so he could at least have some fake incisors: