Animal Kingdom!!!

On Friday Al took off of work so we could go to Animal Kingdom. Dottie (Al's sister) and Dan had flown to NJ and brought their daughter Carli to Disney for the first time, and we wanted to meet up with them. It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. We pulled Tyler from school (he didn't argue, lol) and got an early start. We actually arrived before them so we passed the time standing in line to see characters, many of which Tyler didn't even know (nor did he care).

Once they arrived we walked through Animal Kingdom looking at many animals, before stopping to take some pictures with the characters.

Tyler and Carli entertained themselves in the lines by being silly, finding big leaves, etc. Jason entertained himself by chewing on big leaves that the kids collected. Who needs toys?

We even got a picture of Al and his sister with all the little cousins. Too cute.

Tyler and Carli discovered the Kids Discovery Club (or whatever it is they called it) where you learn about the different animals and they stamp a little sheet for you. Seemingly useless, but great fun for them. They spent the rest of the day looking for the areas that had the "K" marked on the map to indicate their location.

Next was off to our only "ride" together as a group. It was the Safari ride (the one with a funny name I can't recall right now). It was fun though, and we got to see some really cute animals.

Then, for the first time, I believe since we took our "second honeymoon" in 2003, we actually got to ride a real ride together. Dan stayed with both of our boys (Tyler is still too short for many of the rides) while Dottie, Carli, Al and I rode Expedition Everest. Cool ride!

After that Jason definitely was hungry, but STILL resisted my feeding him for more than 30 seconds. He did munch on the sippy cup for a while as the kids played in "the boneyard".

Eventually I found my way to the "baby care center" so Jason would actually eat while the rest of the gang went to the Lion King Show. Unfortunately Tyler decided he no longer likes the Lion King Show, so when I went to meet up with them I found Al and Tyler outside. So the boys and I hit up the characters again for some more pictures (Tyler could do this all day)!

Finally, as the park started to shut down, we waited for the rest of the gang to finish their show.

Then it was off to Rainforest Cafe for our dinner reservations. Jason was TIRED by that point, but luckily fell asleep in my arms. After Al cut up my food like I was a child, I enjoyed my meal with everyone else. Tyler and Carli got a kick out of the animals, especially the huge fish tanks. It was a nice, enjoyable, and relaxing meal. We topped it off with a HUGE dessert for the group of us. A great end to a great day!