Animal Kingdom

Thursday was by far the best day at Disney, in my humble opinion! We started off the day by going to Animal Kingdom as soon as the park opened. We went straight back to Africa so we could go on the safari and catch the animals before it got too hot--turned out to be a good plan because we sure saw a lot! We saw hippos, rhinos, giraffes, elephants and lions ... plus a few things that we had no idea what we were looking at!! I didn't take many pictures with my phone, so I'll have to post pictures later--I took a lot of them!


After our safari, we watched an African street performance, and headed over towards Asia, when we happened upon the Birds of Flight show, which was just about to start. We sat in the second row and watched as all sorts of birds showed off their tricks ... Nicholas volunteered and fed one, even! I got a picture (not on my cell phone) but I didn't have time to switch to video!

After Birds of Flight we headed down to get fast passes to Expedition Everest, and happened upon Baloo and King Louie ... Paige has the eagle eye of the group and we met several characters thanks to her! I snapped this screen shot from the photo pass website--it's the only character picture Brian and I got in with the kids and therefore one I might have to purchase!!


We finished our afternoon by riding a few rides and watching Finding Nemo The Musical, which was fantastic!!

From Animal Kingdom, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. We had a wonderful time and met Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora and Belle. We rode a few more rides and the kids stood in HUGE lines to meet Princess Tiana (and Prince Naveen) and Rapunzel. We ended the night with the Electric Parade and Fireworks, which were absolutely amazing! Such a neat night!!



The girls at the bus stop, on our way to have dinner at the castle.




Nicholas posing with Pinnochio




Princess Paige by the castle

Last 5 minutes of the fireworks show ... I should have taped the whole thing!



And I thought it was hard to get a picture of just my two kids! Here are the cousins after the fireworks, right before heading back to the resort.

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Hollywood Studios

Yesterday we went to Hollywood Studios, formally known (and forever known to me) as MGM. It was a fun day, albeit shorter than the others! We started out on the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster, which was closed last time we were here! Paige decided to sit this one out, so while Brian, Nicholas, Jay and I rode this one, Jeanne and the rest of the kids went over to the Tower of Terror and procured four fast passes for us! What a great sister-in-law, wife and aunt, right??!

We saw a few shows and got to see the Pixar and Pals parade, which was AWESOME, and then headed back to swim for a little while before dinner at Chef Mickey's. I took quite a few pictures with our "regular camera" rather than my phone so I don't have as many pictures to post from the day, but here is what I have!!!




Waiting on the bus to take us to Hollywood Studios




Brian and I after our ride!



A snapshot of the picture taken during the Tower of Terror. The two goofballs with their hands up in the back are Brian and Jason (Nicholas and I are to the left)




The men after riding the tower of terror




The kids with one of the army men from Toy Story




Nicholas, Luke and Kate meeting Phinneus and Ferb ... Paige wasn't interested this time around!



The kids in front of the Muppets fountain








Pictures of the kids with Mickey and Minnie at Chef Mickeys for dinner. We also met Donald, Pluto and Goofy, but those pix are on my camera and I can't get to them until I have my computer at my fingertips again!

Today we stuck around the hotel and swam, then went to Downtown Disney for dinner at T-Rex, which was VERY good! We're having a great time--today was a good break from being on our feet and going non-stop for all of us. Tomorrow we start back up again and will finish out our time at Disney World on Friday. I think the four of us will be ready to be heading home, but I'm sure it will be bittersweet at the same time--this trip has been a lot of fun--the kids have SO enjoyed spending the week here with their cousins, and Brian and I have enjoyed the company of Jay and Jeanne as well!

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