Animal Kingdom: Day 1

Here we go- ready???

Our trip was good. The drive down was amazingly fine. But- only after 1.5 hours on the road... we find ourselves cleaning up this mess....

Yah- we found out that baby can't have cheesy ritz crackers....... obviously a fun time... hahaha.

SO we made it to our house that was just AWESOME! nice 2000 sq. foot home with a pool in the backyard. it was so much better than staying in a hotel. I'd highly reccomend it for anyone planning a trip. If you want the info, contact me. It will seriously be so worth it. PLUS- it's the same price or cheaper than most hotels in the area!

Now for Animal Kingdom:

The day started off really foggy. I had looked at the weather reports for the weekend and said it would be warm and sunny. Well- it ended up being cloudy and rainy all day. Lucky for us, it was just misty rain, and actually felt good- so I was pleased. Besides... it was PERFECT lighting for taking pics!

We arrived when it opened and immediately started off to find the "kids" section...aka.... dinsaur-land. Kids were so excited- it was really priceless seeing their faces. So they went on their first and ONLY ride of the day. Animal Kingdom isn't about rides, it's more of the animals and shows and trails and such. So here's their only ride. Baby was pretty upset that she didn't get to do it.... but that's what happens when you're too little.

And then we ran into these guys: Which was the highlight of baby's day.... :)

We would have gotten pics with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, but they had to leave before we got pics with them. pretty sad.

We then marched off to watch Finding Nemo- the Musical. OH MY WORD. Amazing. it was one of the best things we saw all weekend. It was just amazing. the music, the costumes, the acting.....fantastic!!! The kids loved it and had a wonderful time watching it. Couldn't take any pics though.... :(

Then off to the animal trail. you just follow this trail that takes you around to view several different animals. Was nice to see a bunch of different animals and have the kids so excited to see birds... HAHAH! So- here's where the GORILLA story comes in. Freakin hilarious!

Ok- so we pull into the gorilla sanctuary and the big dude is sleeping up against the window. He's massive. But just as we get up to the window, he gets up, makes his way over to a little log- and situates himself to a nice little squat and proceeds to do his... ahem... business. #1 and #2. Yah- so I got this pic.... I snapped this before I knew what he was doing.

Ok- so once i saw what he was doing, i dropped my camera and pulled out the video camera. And it's a good thing I did too. Big dude ended up moving away somewhere and this pregnant gorilla comes out of nowhere. She sits for a second, then makes her way over to where this big dude just took care of business. She then pokes her finger into his schtuff and sniffs it. Everyone at this point- is freakin out. EEEEWWWWW- gross. right? gets better. (or worse).... she does that a few times. Then she freakin picks up the chunks of dooky and goes to another spot. And get this... she then starts EATING THE CRAP! it was so disgusting. The poor guys talking about the gorillas and their habitat was trying to explain what she was doing, but everyone was so grossed out that no one heard what he was saying. Man... it was seriously the most disgusting and the funniest thing we saw all day. Now... if you ever want to SEE it- i totally have the whole thing on video.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ok- on to other stuff.....

We headed over to the Safari. now i was most excited for this since I had been warned to bring my camera and my good lens with me. And boy.. am I glad i did! It was SO AMAZING. I couldn't believe the things I got on camera and how close! So here's a few pics from the Safari.

Ok- Amazing right? I was in awe the entire time. So cool. Make sure you have a fantastic lens and camera when you do this thing!!!

And I caught a pic of the Tree of Life sitting smack dab in the middle of the park. Here's a closeup of the detail on that thing. Isn't it incredible?

We hit a couple more things- including Bugs Life 3-D show. We were warned NOT to take the kids in. But we decided to do it, because honestly, we thought it would be hilarious knowing what we did. So we get the glasses, kids thought that was cool- but that's about it. lol-

We watched the show, where there were points that water was spit at you, bubbles came down from the ceiling, "bugs" crawled under you butts, and obviously the 3-D effect. The kids really didn't understand that it wasn't real, so they got quite scared. We didn't know what was funnier, watching the kids get scared, or the actual movie and what was going on there. regardless... we decided this got the prize for the best part of the day! hahaha... although I'm sure the kids would disagree. ;)-

So our day was good. The kids were worn out and cranky around 3 pm, so we decided to just head home and swim and play. So here's the one and only family pic we got from the whole weekend. (yah... i'm a little peeved at that). and then a picture of the massive christmas tree right in front of the main gates. It really was so cool.

So there's our day one. Kids hit the hay at 7 pm and ended up being awake most of the night because little baby wanted to play all night. (??????) so we were all pretty tired for our next day to Magic Kingdom.

STAY TUNED FOR DAY 2..............