Animal Kingdom-Roar!!!!!!

Since our room wasn't ready yet and we had to change clothes before going to Animal Kingdom we went downstairs to the gym and changed in their locker room.

We had to take a bus to get to the park. Luckily we didn't have to wait long before the Animal Kingdom bus came. At this point Kayla and Jordan had been tired of sitting and no longer wanted to sit still. :)
We left later than I originally thought that we would so unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time at this park. The weather was so hot and as you look through my pictures you will see how sweaty everyone is. I believe we got there around 1pm and this is what we saw first: a banner with Disney's new promotion on it.....What will you celebrate? Celebrate today
Welcome to Animal Kingdom!!!


Our first character siting......Meeko!!
We were in a hurry to get inside the park so we didn't stop to get autographs.
The famous Tree of Life and the crowds. I wasn't expecting it to be so crowded on a Wednesday in May, but I guess I was wrong.
We next paid for stroller rental for the next four days and got the kids situated. Ahhhhh hands free for a little while. Don't they look happy?
A cool bench


We were all starving so we decided to find a place to eat lunch. While we were searching this is what happened to Jordan.

We finally chose Flame Tree Barbeque
It had an amazing view of Expedition Everest and it was nice sitting outside even though it was hot.
Not too long after we started eating this is what happened:
Can you tell that the kids were exhausted!!! Plus, look how hot they look (their hair is stuck to their faces). We enjoyed our food and now it was time to venture on. We all decided to go to Kilimanjaro Safaris because we thought the kids would like seeing the animals. The wait was too long so we opted for fast passes with a time of around 3:30. We had time to spare so we made our way over to DinoLand U.S.A. to ride on TriceraTop Spin (just like Dumbo, but with dinosaurs). The kids loved it!!

After some bathroom breaks we got on Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was really bumpy and everyone enjoyed the ride. We did see a lot of animals (last time we went on it I didn't remember seeing as many).
I took a lot of pics, but most came out blurry because of the bumpiness and the fact that I had Jordan on my lap and was trying to hold on to him.

It was now 4pm and we had to hurry and get back to the hotel so that we could make our Chef Mickey dinner reservation at 5:30pm. Would me make it? Oh.......and where was the rest of our group you ask? They (my Dad, Aunt, sister, and brother-in-law) got stuck in St. Louis (plane issues) and had to take another plane with layovers. We would not see them until 8pm that night. They missed dinner with us. :(

On our way out we watched a little of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. This would end up being all that we would see of all of the parades because most days we left the parks at around 3 or 4pm. The kids would be out of it by then since we always arrived at the opening of every park.

I love this parade and it is one of my favorites (the music is very catchy...makes you want to dance)! I got to see it in 2002 and am glad because we missed most of it this time around.

I do end up making it back to this park the next day with my Dad to go on some of the bigger rides. Hopefully next trip we will be able to spend more time here with the family.

Next up: Contemporary photos