Animal Kingdom

Our last day at Disney World was spent at Animal Kingdom.  The temperature had cooled and it was a little drizzly, which seemed to keep the crowds at a minimum.  By the end of the day, we practically had the place all to ourselves!

We started the day at an all-you-can-eat character breakfast at Tusker House.  Super cool!  Just like the princesses had done at Epcot, the characters came around from table to table for pictures.  As soon as I saw him I said, "That's the Mickey Mouse who was in Alison and AJ's honeymoon pictures!"

 It was so much fun that morning...

Below is the funniest picture of the whole week.  I had told the kids, "Let's do something different with Goofy: make your funniest face for the camera."  As it turned-out, John's "funniest face" looked very, very angry... Ha!

Likewise funny is the picture below, which makes Christopher look like he's wearing a safari hat.  In reality, Daisy was walking behind him at the exact moment the picture was snapped, and that's her hat.

 Yes, those are waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse.  They were yummy.

And a super big thank you to the characters for my birthday card and cupcake at the end of the meal!

How blessed is my life that when it came time to blow-out the candles I couldn't think of anything to wish for???

 To walk-off our breakfast, we took a walk along one of the trails at Animal Kingdom.

 Animal Kingdom was John's Day, because he loves animals so much.  He had a ball!  For whatever reason, this bamboo-cave structure cracked him up because he said it looked like "animal jail" where they put the animals who are bad.  He then made-up a song which he sang the rest of the day that started-off, "You're in animal jail 'cause you ate a gazelle..."  He and Christopher and Anna never tired of laughing about that song.  :)

  But of course the big attraction at Animal Kingdom is the safari ride.  Because the crowd was so low, we were fortunate enough to get to ride it twice. 

John had hoped to see hippos, so we were happy that he found these:

Nile crocodiles:

 Cheetas:

Rhinos crossed the road in front of us.

The funniest thing of the day happened when our safari bus was passing the lions.  Our bus was full of young school children on a field trip.  When they saw the lions, they squealed loudly.  The male lion raised his head and looked at them almost as if to say, "Mmmm.  Yummy children."

Below, is a Baobab tree, which is the kind of tree under which David Livingston - one of Tim's missionary heroes - buried his wife Mary in Africa. 

 Well, besides seeing wild animals, Animal Kingdom held the one ride that John came to Disney World to ride: Dinosaur.  He and Christopher and Tim tackled that one.  Us girls were too afraid.

 We enjoyed the Finding Nemo Musical, which from what I understand is similar to the famous Lion King production on Broadway.  (The Lion King musical was down for repairs while we were at Disney World.)  As a former drama teacher, I enjoyed the creativity Disney used in animating their characters onstage.

 We also got to eat ate Asian food a restaurant called "Yak and Yeti."   I have to hand it to anybody who has the nerve to put the word "Yak" in their restaurant title.

And the big thrill for the Barnette Fam that day was Expedition Everest, Animal Kingdom's biggest roller coaster.  From a distance, Expedition Everest just looked like a beautiful mountain in the distance...

 But once you got up-close, you could see that it was a roller coaster.

With such short lines, we were able to ride it twice. 

 So in the picture below you see Christopher trying to climb under his chair, John holding on for dear life, and me in the back sitting with a sweet girl who probably no longer has hearing after having to ride with me.

 If you want to experience the ride, here's a YouTube link. 

 Kudos to whoever held the video camera through that ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPTWZ3pJ5c

Next Stop:  Downtown Disney.

Epcot

Day 2 of our Disney World trip was at Epcot, and it was Christopher's Day!

By far, Christopher and John's favorite ride at Epcot was Test Track.  And even though we had to wait two hours for the ride, it was worth it to see the smiles on the boys' faces when they were finished.  My guys also survived Mission: Space, which they rode with their dad.  Not with their claustrophobic mom.  :)

And yes, we did Soarin'. 

And yes. It was cool. :)  

But of course, we all come to Epcot to walk through the countries.  

It was a toasty 85 degree walk on that February Day...

Japan: 

In Japan Anna got one of her vacation souvenirs at Pick-A-Pearl:

These Japanese goldfish were well over a foot long.  

I bet my father-in-law would like to have some of these in his coy pond!

In England we saw Mary Poppins, both in vegetative form and in real life:

 China:

 And I didn't even know what country this was, but Anna joined a group of kids in playing some drums:

Canada's gardens were beautiful, especially considering it had been freezing in Florida only a few weeks earlier.  How did Disney get those spring flowers blooming so quickly???

One of the things that made Epcot enjoyable for us was that Christopher purchased a passport book, and at each country we went in and had a worker sign their country in their own language.  Here was Christopher getting his passport signed by a French girl whose accent was so thick we could hardly understand her.  Cool.

 Here we were in Morocco, which looks like a Middle-Eastern open-air market.  Morocco was my favorite country.  It was there that the kids and I learned that in the Middle East, people write from right to left.  We didn't know that!  (So that's an Instructional Day, North Carolina Department of Education!)

That bottom line is Christopher's name in Arabic:

My favorite part of "America" was the marching band that played flutes and pipes just like in Revolutionary times.  Tim says his favorite country was America because he didn't feel like he needed to look for an Embassy while he was there.  Ha.

And once again...I got wished a happy birthday!

 Italy:

We ended our day at Epcot at the laser light show on the lake.  Believe it or not...the Barnette family was out -and-about watching a show at 9:00 at night!  But it was worth staying-out late for that one.  Pretty amazing fireworks, lasers, and pyrotechnics.  In fact, I got so caught-up in the show that I forgot to take a single picture!

One of the things we'll all 5 remember about Epcot was how much we walked that day.  Whew! We were tired little monkeys by the end of the night.  But one of us found a comfy ride back to the bus...

Next Stop: Animal Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom

Of all 3 parks we visited, Magic Kingdom was my favorite! 

So here we were, walking in the gates for the 1st time...

And this was my cheesy Disney dream: to ride a flying Dumbo! 

Each kid kind of had their own day on the trip, and Magic Kingdom was "Anna's Day."  

 One of Anna's biggest thrills was when we were walking around and came upon a performance being done by characters.  It was fantastic!

Although I'm not usually a fan of spinning things, the tea cups were actually pretty fun...

Yes, Oakdale Baptist Church.  

That is your deep, serious, theological pastor having a blast riding Prince Charming's Horse.

And of all the rides at Disney World, this one would be my favorite: 

The All-Time Classic, It's A Small World.

This was one of the few rides I remember from when I visited Disney World as a little girl.  I also remember that it was my mom's favorite.  

WARNING:  Watching These Videos May Lead to Singing This Song All Day.

This is for you, Mom!

So what's the only thing better than going through It's A Small World?  

Going through it TWICE in the same day!  

And what's even better than that???

The boat getting stuck on our 2nd ride.  That was AWESOME!  (According to me.  A certain man in my household might hold a differing opinion.)

Everyone on the boat started laughing and joking when our boat kept getting stuck.  Tim said this was how Gilligan's Island happened.  Another man said Disney was stopping the boat so they could come take our children because that's where they get the dancing children for the ride.  Ha!

My birthday dinner was at Ohana, which is an all-you-can-eat Hawaiian-themed restaurant at the Polynesian Resort.   

 

 I was quite surprised by how intense my 3 guys got at the Buzz Lightyear ride!

 Christopher, who is our family Presidential buff, LOVED The Hall of Presidents. Contrary to what his Uncle Jason said, Christopher did not perceive it to be "a great place to get a nap."

The coolest part of the show was how when they highlighted each President, the other animatronic Presidents all looked at that one.

And we ended our day at Magic Kingdom with fireworks.

Amazing!

Magic Kingdom, you were incredible!!!

Dancing With Cinderella

Our family just got home from a wonderful vacation to Florida, which included 3 days at Disney World.  This was the 1st-ever trip to Disney World for Tim or the kids (I went there one day when I was a little girl).  

What an adventure we had!

  In the coming days I'll be posting plenty of pictures of our delightful trip.  My 1st blog post is dedicated to one of my very favorite parts of the trip: the princesses.  You can't imagine the thrill on the face of a 6-year old girl who is crazy about Disney princesses when she sees those princesses come to life in full make-up, detailed costume, and even voice!  

Well...actually you don't have to imagine it.  

Because I had a video going when Anna saw her 1st princess 

at the Enchanted Tales with Belle show in the Magic Kingdom.  :)

This trip was to celebrate my 40th birthday, so Disney gave me a big button to wear that said it was my birthday.  Listen carefully and you'll hear Belle wish me a happy birthday when she goes by!

But the best way to meet princesses was at the princess breakfast in Epcot.  The princesses came from table to table to talk to the girls and pose for pictures.  What a sweet memory this will be for Anna someday!

Snow White was the most authentic, even down to her high-pitched voice:

Ariel was the quietest.  I think she was going for that "the sea witch stole my voice" thing:

The funniest princess - by no fault of her own - was Aurora
(a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty).  

Background story: A Deacon at our church promised John - who hates anything princessy - that if John was nice to the princesses at Disney World, then John could come over to Said Deacon's house one day after the trip and shoot guns.  So to our shock, John jumped-up when Aurora came over and did this...which John later told us was video proof for Said Deacon that John was "nice" to the princesses  Ha!

But the sweetest princess was Cinderella.
(She, too, wished me a happy birthday!)  

I have a feeling this one's gonna end-up in a wedding video someday...

  

Seeing Anna get to be a princess for a day or two reminded me of a bittersweet song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP2YvCphHW0

I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...