Disney Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Every morning we were up and out by 8:30 am. My wonderful brother, our Grand Pooba of ceremonies, did plenty of research and had our week mapped out to a T. Here is B's and my car load of celebrants on our first day of Disney park excitement. Off to the Animal Kingdom.

We went directly to Expedition Everest and hopped right on. These four yahoos and the one behind the camera, yours truly, rode first. It was awesome! Broken tracks, flying backward in the pitch black and a giant yeti with glowing red eyes, what more could we ask for?

In our exhilaration, we insisted that Jack ride Everest next. He really didn't want to but here he is after. He needed a little help standing up as his knees wouldn't stop shaking.

I have a terribly embarrassing confession to make. Total lapse in parental judgement. We put Sam, our 5 year old, on Expedition Everest. It was his first Disney ride. I won't go into detail except to say that it took a good 2+ days before he was able to get on a ride, even the likes of Small World, without screaming and cowering in my lap. Horrible! Please don't call family services on me...though I considered calling them on myself.

We encountered our first character, Mr. Baloo. The girls are still commenting on how soft and squishy he was. We got a great family photo, all 12 of us, but not on my camera. You may have to pop over to my lovely sister in law's site to catch that one. 

Yes, I put all of my 4 kiddos on Kali River Rapids. Sam screamed the whole time but he and I stayed relatively dry, thank goodness. Grace and Daddy, on the other hand, were not so lucky. A tidal wave of water completely soaked my baby but after a second of horror, she thought it was pretty cool. Grace ended up getting the all time trooper award this trip. She is tough as nails!

The entertainment at Disney was mind blowing. The fact that we could walk into the Lion King show and see incredible talent on a whim was amazing. The only snafu here was that poor Sammy has extremely sensitive ears. The show was painfully loud for him. I had to hold him and plug his ears just so he could sit through the show. We got smart a couple days later and invested in ear plugs. Life changing for my poor guy, but that's a story for another day. 

We headed home for naps around 2 pm. The kids were totally exhausted. After a good nap followed by a swim, here is where we ended up, snuggled up under a cozy blanket. Not too bad for day 1!