The Animal Kingdom

The day began again with perfect blue skys and even warmer temperatures than the day before. I think today was the day Nate and I were looking forward to the most, today, we were headed to the Animal Kingdom! After all the crowds and drama of yesterday we decided to sleep in a little and head to the part slightly later in the morning.

We headed out at about 9:30 and after parking at Downtown Disney and taking an hours worth of Disney transit we arrived at the park. When we walked through the gates there was a sign that said the Magic Kingdom was closed for the day, it had reached it's capacity. We were very glad to be right where we were that day and not trying to cope with the crowds at Mickey central! The moment we walked through the gates Nate was in awe, he was constantly shouting, "Mommy look at this, Mommy, look at this!" He loves all things animal so this park was right up his alley. On the advice of our friend Tracey, we headed directly to the safari ride, we walked right on, no wait time at all! In many ways it reminded me of the Bush Gardens safari but we were all impressed with how close the animals were to the truck. We have some fabulous pictures of lions, giraffes and hippos! Nate picked up a new vocabulary work, geysers. In a section of the ride we have to make it through a whole section of exploding geysers, this really captured his imagination and for the rest of the day, we had to hop over all cracks in the side walk to avoid the 'geysers!'

We then took the steam train on a back lot tour to Raffiki's Planet Watch. The boys both enjoyed interacting with a learning about a variety of different animals, including a small petting zoo where the boys could brush the animals. We walked around and looked at the small numbers on animals out at the time, Nate's natural curiosity about anatomy immediatly got the better of him. There was a goat hanging out (literally) Nate looked at me and said, "Mommy, what's that? Does a goat have a giant penis?" I don't think I managed an answer, I was too busy trying to take him seriously. By this time we were all a bit tired and hungry so we headed to a lovely little sit down restaurant for a Boate Team New Year's lunch. This really did become our main celebration for the day with beer wine and a very entertaining waitress. I know I have said this before, but I do love watching my boys charm everyone they meet on our journeys. They had a certain genuine enthusiasm for life that people pick up on and respond to. They always strike up conversations about who they are, where their from and the nature of our adventure!

After our lunch time refueling the boys were again full of energy, we headed to Dino-world where we rode the flying triceratops. Nate was in charge of a lever that tipped the Dino forward and backward, he had the best time tilting mommy all around! At this point the group separated for a bit. Ken and Eric had Fast Passes for the parks' roller coaster while the boys, Jane and I headed to see Nemo's Underwater Adventure, the stage show. It really was an impressive show of puppets and actors, singing and dancing. My favourite part was right at the end when the entire theater was filled with bubbles in celebration of the reunion between Nemo and his Dad (oh, shoot, I hope I didn't ruin the ending for any one)! The boys, Jane and I then headed to the parade route and our designated rendez vous point. It was time for Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade. Will and Nate are so close that I often forget they really are almost two full years apart, there are many things here that really highlight that difference. Nate is thrilled to see his favourite characters. As Goofy, Micky and Donald passes by, Nate waved and waved, Will on the other hand was thoroughly unimpressed, he watched the parade and enjoyed the interesting moving parts but he could have cared less if the characters had been there or not.

After we had our fill of holiday cheer we headed over to Camp Mickey Mini for the Festival of the Lion King. I had been looking forward to this all day. The show did not disappoint. It was full of songs, colour, fire walkers and incredible costumes and animatronics. By the end we were all singing along and Nate decided that he would spend some of his Christmas money on a stuffed Pumba that he has fallen asleep with every night since! After a long day of shows and excitement it was time to make the journey home. We took the bus to a Disney Resort where we caught the river boat to Down town Disney. We had done this the first time we came to Florida but Nate had no recollection of the experience. As we cruised down the river in the early evening the air smelled of summer. That lovely sent that comes from the sun warmed plants and flowers as they transition to evening and cool off from the warm sun. Another lovely day was in the books. We said good bye to 2011 and ushered in 2012 with nothing but warmth and the creation of great family memories!