The Hep's Happenings: Animal Kingdom

On Friday the 26th it was finally time for Ethan to go to his favorite park, Animal Kingdom. We were there in plenty of time for the opening where they do a little show with Mickey to open the park. I took Bradon and went to get Fast Passes for the safari ride, and the others headed towards Dinosaur. Dinosaur was Ethan's very favorite ride last year and he was really looking forward to it.

Bradon and I found Tirk from Tarzan and stopped to get a picture.

When I finally caught up with the rest of the family I found my mom repeatedly riding the Triceratops Spin with Tanner. This was his choice of ride while Ethan rode Dinosaur.

The boys next headed for the Boneyard and some outdoor play.

They uncovered a few dinosaur bones. I'm sure they were the first to discover them.

Ethan found a cave with water pouring over the rocks and he couldn't resist dipping his head in it.

Since the Animal Kingdom always feels hotter than the other parks I'm sure this was very refreshing.

That day we found the very best snack on the dining plan - yummy ice cream sandwiches. As you can see from the pictures they are huge and made for sharing and we all loved them.

We saw Finding Nemo: The Musical and then had lunch at the ever faithful Restaurantasaurus. The kids love it because it's basically McDonald's. They kept requesting to go back there.

After lunch we headed for Kali River Rapids. Surprisingly we encountered about a 20 min. wait at this ride, the longest we had to wait the whole trip. I don't think I've ever had to wait for this ride before. Ethan loved it and Tanner hated it. We then went on the jungle walk and were excited to see all of the tigers that they had on display and the giant fruit bats. We watched the animals for quite awhile and then headed for the bird show which was a lot of fun. I even got to have a bird come and take a dollar bill from my hand and then bring it back to me. The boys were jealous and wanted to do it too, but they were out of luck.

Tanner was thrilled to find some drums to test out his musical skill.

Meanwhile Ethan found the misters and took advantage of the refreshing spray.

We finally made it to the Kilimanjaro Safari, but found there was almost no wait. So much for the fast passes that I'd obtained earlier in the day. I really love the safari ride and so did the boys, although Bradon did get jostled around a bit.

After the ride Tanner managed to find Tirk so I got another picture.

We headed back across the park so that Ethan could ride Dinosaur! a couple of extra times. Grandpa chilled on the bench with Tanner and Bradon.

Tanner found a friendly dinosaur willing to give Tanner a place to climb.

When Ethan returned from his ride we got their picture together.

We had some time to kill before dinner and so we decided to go and play mini-golf. We chose the Winterland course and the boys thought it was fantastic. In fact they liked it so much that they pestered us about returning to play the Summerland course for the rest of the trip. The funny thing is that they don't even play by the rules and sometimes just move their balls to where ever happens to be convenient, but they just love to play. After our game we stopped for a family photo opportunity in Santa's sleigh.

For dinner that night we had reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. We were a little late and had quite a wait for a table. We explored the lobby and the grounds and the boys played with lincoln logs while we waited.

Finally it was time for dinner and the boys did not get what they were expecting. This place is LOUD! Our server (I think his name was Rafael) was great and really played his part, but he totally intimidated the boys. If you ask for ketchup here be prepared to get ketchup from every surrounding table. Whenever Rafael would talk to Tanner he would use his hat to cover his eyes and hide from Rafael. The one bright spot for Tanner was that he did enjoy the chicken on the skillet we ordered.