OUR LIFE IN 3D

Hakuna Matata!

Surprise!

Its me?

Remember me?

I apologize. I have all but shut this blog down. it has just been like work trying to crank a post out lately. Like tonight, dinner, wash heads for lice on both kids, laundry, pay bills and now write.  And what I have found is when I am tired my typing just goes out the window! …. have you seen it?

But I got tired of looking at the 3-year-old Christmas retread, which was my last post, every time I checked out my blog and I just had to fix that.

So I wanted to tell you about our latest trip to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL that we took for a Valentine’s weekend (Mr. Romance!) and try to liven this blog up with some smiles and some color.

Actually I thought I would try to spread our trip across three blog posts as the Disney photographers and I have a gazillion photos to harass you with. Tonight, however, my eyes are already starting to close, I can’t find my typing, and the creative juices have about dried up.

So I thought I would just be your guide around Disney’s Animal Kingdom once again and let some pictures do the talking for me….

Forgive me?

Oh, and another thing, this baby probably isn’t going to get proofed to well tonight either. Its late. So all you grammar Nazi’s out there can you please cut me a break just this one time?

OK, so Valentine’s Weekend is actually a pretty big weekend at the Magic Kingdom.

Accordingly all the parks opened an hour early. BUT! Not everyone knew that! Which was pretty cool for the day we did visit the Magic Kingdom theme park.

At the Animal Kingdom we arrived about an hour early, knowing they actually let you in the park… a little ways at least, 30 minute early.

We opted to hang on the fringes of the park at the Rain Forest Cafe, browsing through their souvy shop, practiced telling the kids NO, and listened to a talking tree.

The Rain Forest Cafe is so cool, isn’t it?

Well we walked right up to the big main gate(s) by the Tree of Life as the opening hour drew near.

The Tree of Life, I’m not quite sure what it is but it has a lot of very interesting carvings all around the tree. Our Disney photographer for the Memory Maker perk told us then, when the park opens a flock of parrots actually fly in to rest in the tree of life and that opens the park.

Say what?

That was pretty cool I thought. Then we turned around to start our day and almost tripped over a few Disney celebrities rough-housing a bit before the crowds got too big.

The Animal Kingdom is really similar to Tampa’s Busch Gardens with the animals and rides. The most sought after ride is actually  a safari, the Kilimanjaro Safari. So we hit that first while we were over in Africa.

I love Africa! I love the fun African music.

These guys were fun!

While in Africa you can also walk through some large zoo like exhibits; elephants, lions, birds, gators, and even a large spread for a family of gorillas.

So you can either take a jeep ride safari or take a leisurely stroll through Africa and take your time sightseeing the animals.

But Africa is not the only thrill or continent at the Animal Kingdom for that matter. After we saw lots of the wild life in Africa we toured Asia next. Asia, now, is the place for the real thrill seeker! It is the home to Mt. Everest!

The Mt Everest Expedition was Skylar’s first roller coaster ride last summer. She did not like it! Maybe it was speeding to the top only to find the tracks were all torn up and mangled. Or maybe it was seeing a glimpse of the Abominable Snowman yelling and taunting us.

What ever it was, she was NOT going up the Expedition Everest ride this trip and risk life and limb!

The Expedition Everest ride is my, as well as the house favorite roller coaster at Disney. Here is a little of the Abominable and what she missed:

Yea, maybe a little intense for a five-year old.

After the ride and a creative, musical, incredible puppet-show thingy presentation of Nemo we hiked back over to Africa to one of my favorite places we ate at last June, the Tusker House.

The Tusker House is an African themed buffet.  And it is really good!

Did I tell you I like an all-you-can eat buffet?

This buffet however is a Disney character themed restaurant which means some of the lovable Disney characters come over so you can get your picture taken with them.

That also means these buffets are triple the cost of a normal buffet (get on the meal plan)

And….

AND!!!

They have a dessert buffet, filled with lots of, dozens of, hundreds of tiny desserts you can sample.

(sigh) I put on five pounds walking around Disney that weekend…

Yes, good people, I had a few. I had a few too many! They had to cut me off!

But everyone enjoyed the Tusker House, the good food, Disney characters and desserts. Everyone was all smiles!

We can walk it off, right?

We walked it right around the corner to the Lion King Show.

“Hakuna Matata! Right? That’s their motto!”

“Whats a Motto?”

“I don’t know. What’s a motto with you?”

This show was our family’s favorite show too. It wasn’t a musical like you would think of. It was a great monkey gymnastics, singing, circus, character shout outs extravaganza. Check this out, your kids will love it….

Well our kids did love it! Again, all smiles!

We rode a few more rides and then headed back to the Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. It was a great first day on our Valentine’s Vacation getaway (we don’t celebrate Valentines at our house.)

I have a few more days to share with you. So stay tuned. If you have any questions about visiting the Magic Kingdom, ‘where everything is magical’, let me know..

Thanks for dropping by!

Hakuna Matata!

…No worries for the rest of your days..