magic kindgom

 Ariel was the one Sydney kept asking about all week, so we knew we needed to get her autograph as soon as possible so that she could quit asking!

 We went on the haunted mansion ride.  Thankfully I rembered part of it so I  could warn the kids what was coming up.  Poor Syd and Gid were not quite as brave as Isabelle who was giggling and excited the whole time at how creepy everything was

Thunder Mountain Railroad!This is an old favorite for sure!

We took a raft across to Tom Sawyer's island

And waiting for the raft to take us back Ryan played checkers with Gideon

Park #3 Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom was so huge that we did it for 2 days, with Hollywood Studios in between.  I hope you expect MANY posts worth of pictures from here =)  Everything is so well sculptured that parking lots are like amazing gardens with all of the flowers and greenery cut into neat shapes

 You have to park, then go get in line to take a tram (AAAAH!) or a ferry across to the actual park.  We went on the tram a few times to get back and forth for our nap time in the middle of the day.  We picked this day to stay late for the parade and fireworks, so the last night we'd be able to sleep before the travel home.

The castle

The hallway walking through the castle to get into the main ride area was decorated with cinderella's story in mosaics, floor to ceiling

 

The carousel in the middle of the park, which we avoided for a while, but of course went on later in the day

Rapunzel's castle

The ever famous Peter Pan ride.  when we got off we happened to go around the corner for shelter because it began to rain, and it so happened that Wendy and Peter were there signing autographs!  We were the last ones before they took a break, so we were able to stand under an overhang while waiting for the rain to slow down.  It didn't though, so out came the ponchos!

Last Animal Kingdom

We saw the Lion King play which I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting much after we all got treated to the broadway version by Ryan's mom.  But I think there were just enough differences to make it unique (not to mention, it was only 30 min) but enought similarities to keep it exciting.  The singers were fabulous!

 

I got goose bumps when they began rolling out the huge moving animal scenes

 

We happened to walk by a parade we didn't intend to stop and watch, but we got a decent place to watch and rest, so we caught the last bit of it.

 

There is a video of Isabelle meeting these two, which she says is her favorite part, because they began to dance with her and then goofy licked her head.  She giggles every time she talks about it!

Animal Kingdom safari

We took the safari ride in an open stretch jeep (best way I could describe it).    It was amazing how many animals there were.  You rode for probably about 40 min, over all mud and dirt roads through what felt like a very real safari.  Most of the animals were right out walking around and you could have touched a few if momentary craziness took over you.

This is a termite mound that there were several of

We had to stop several times because animals were in the road and we had to wait for them to cross, as you can see from this ostrich.  The red headed lady is our driver and she was AMAZING at how much she had memorized.  She would rattle off names of any animals we saw, facts about their food and habitats, and people asked her a few questions that she knew all of the answers to.  It was really neat.

This ostrich was extremely close, and this is taken across Ryan's lap, as it was right outside of his open door.  She was guarding her nest which I tried to get a picture of, but at that moment, she ruffled her feathers and the driver took off so we didn't get attacked (wise choice as Ryan was the nearest one!)

random tree that I thought was cool =)  it was called an upside down tree.  She of course had a story about that and an explaination with scientific stuff, but I'm pretty sure it's because the branches look like roots

Animal Kingdom

The giant mountain that we all got to ride, except for Sydney which she was fine with.  It had a Yeti in it (thus the hat) and it was FAST and turned you backwards and dropped you and Isabelle loved it.  Gideon liked it but wasn't interested in going twiceThe fast pass machine is brilliant, whoever thought that up.  You put in your tickets and it gives you a special pass so you can go in a shorter line and you don't have to wait as long.  The trick is you can only get one fast pass per ticket every 2 hours, and you have to return to the ride within the one hour window printed on each ticket or else it's expired.   But that sure made our life easier and less cranky time waiting in a hot line.

I'm not sure what Isabelle's face looks so sad for, but it was a very hot day

any water fountains we found must be played in

This tree is HUGE and it's on an island in the middle of the park, where every path leads out like spokes from this center position.  If you look  closely there are all different kinds of animals carved into the bark.  The tunnels underneath the tree lead us to a theater to watch a show

We found Rafiki there which the kids were excited about.

Ryan was excited to take this shot