Animal Kingdom

Our first day we went to Animal Kingdom.  We had an early reservation for Tusker House.  You will notice a theme for my Disney Trips.  It involves getting to the parks early.  It is so much less crowded in the mornings.  It make it so much more enjoyable.  Then we just stay until the kids get tired or overwhelmed.  So we our back before dinner, Amelia naps, we get to swim and everyone is happy.

The kids were super excited to get going to a park.

So anyways... we made it to the park.  Tried to get a picture with the tree but it was foggy.

We gave Amelia a little pig tail.  She looked like Cindy Lou Who from How the Grinch stole Chrsitmas

We checked into the restaraunt and got to meet Donald.  Amelia was screaming his name while we waited.

Then we were seated and enjoyed a great breakfast with tasty jungle juice (orange juice, passion fruit and guava juice mix).  I enjoyed Tusker House and it was a great way to start the trip. 

The kids loved meeting the characters and marching around with them
 

We then left the restaraunt and saw the opening crowd coming towards us so we quickly got out of there and to the safari ride.  We got on right away and saw tons of animals. 

Giraffes were everywhere and right near our car blocking the way.

A rhino and her baby were near our car too.

We got a great view of the lion which is often hard to see.

We took the kids to see the Christmas Characters.  Not sure why they are at Animal Kingdom but the lines are short no complaints from me.

We saw Mickey...

Minnie

Chip N Dale

Santa goofy

and some other characters.

We rode dinosaur.  Hayden rode it in May and hated it and told me leading up to this trip that he didn't want to ride it.  But when we go to the park he wanted to ride it so we did.  I have a love/hate feeling about the ride.  It is a great ride but it scares me every time.  I freak out the entire ride b/c I know what it coming.  So I am sure I didn't help. Hayden hated the ride and was ready to cry when he got off.  He bought a hard hat with a light on it to cheer himself up!

Here is the picture from the ride.  You can see Me cowering in the corner.  Hayden is crying.  Kennedy is just frozen.  Ryan and Lauralynn look scared and Paige does too.

Here is Hayden's hat.

After that we rode some rides and the kids got to go dig for dinosaur bones and play in the playground.

We also saw Winnie the Pooh

Tigger

and Eeyore

I didn't stay much longer. My kids were tired from our long travel day.  So we went back for a swim.  Everyone else in the family hung out a little more 

The rest of the pictures...