• Travel & Vacation: Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom (Orlando, FL)

      P1380396c

    Festival of the Lion King

    Karlie had been wanting to go to the Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom all day, but every time we passed that area we were not there at a time close to show time or we were heading for another activity.  We finally got a chance to go towards the end of the day and we only had about a 15 minute wait in the stand-by line.

    The girls were hoping that the show had live animals, but were pleasantly surprised by all the cool things to watch (even though there were no live animals).  We got great seats only three rows from the front.  If you are looking for a good show, a cool place on a hot day, and a place to sit down and be entertained this is a good spot to go.  It was a really neat show.

    P1380238c

    Bringing out the giraffe!

    P1380242c

    Super tall!!!

    P1380289c

    These orange “creatures” did some amazing flips right in front of us!

    P1380331c

    The lights, smoke, and movement made it harder to capture all the cool pictures, but this was beautiful!

    P1380349c

    The girls had a fun time trying to figure out what animals all the people were dressed up as.

    P1380364c

    Singing along to the Lion King songs as we watch.

    P1380380c

    Timon from Lion King, he was hilarious!

    P1380390c

    Lots of fun music and action with this show.

    P1380216c

    The girls enjoyed this one!

  • Travel & Vacation: Welcome to Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Orlando, FL)

    P1370722cc

    A day at Animal Kingdom with these two chickies!

    The girls and I went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, FL recently while Jake was at a conference!  They were very excited to check out all the animals in the park.  We packed in a full day at Animal Kingdom.  We arrived early and were one of the last few to leave at closing.  The crazy thing is we still didn’t get to everything we wanted to do, but we definitely did a lot.  It was a great day with my girls.  Both girls LOVED it, but Animal Kingdom was probably Brina’s favorite place to visit (which isn’t a big surprise for those who know her).

    P1370728c

     Pretty bird….was the first comment I heard from the girls as we entered the park.

    P1370736c

    A pair of beautiful birds perched on the branch.

    P1380218c

    Having a blast!

    P1370739c

    A Wallaby eating its morning treat.  At first we thought it was a kangaroo until further investigation.  Must be in the same family though because there are similarities.

    P1370741c

    Karlie and Brina in front of a gorgeous waterfall in Animal Kingdom.

     P1370743c

    Starting to get more crowded.  The tree in back is the “Tree of Life” and has over 300 animal figured carved into it.  Very fascinating to see up close.

    P1370749c

    Hanging out in line.  They were troopers even in the longer lines.  We took the time to get something to eat and drink whenever we spent a decent amount of time standing in lines.  Thankfully, it wasn’t the busiest season so at Animal Kingdom the longest line we waited in was the Kilimanjaro Safari for an hour in the Africa section which was well worth the wait (I will be sharing more about that safari in a later post).

    P1370756c

     Big black fish swimming right beside us.

    P1370766c

     Going through the waterfall as we head into the Tree of Life for the “It’s Tough Being a Bug” Show!

    P1370771c

    Bug Eyes!!!  They are ready for the show!  Such a great show and one of their favorites for the day.  Wish we had time to do it again!

    P1370775c

     Africa was one of their favorite places to visit while in Animal Kingdom.  It had great music, the  Kilimanjaro Safari tour, Lion King, and more fun activities to do.

    P1370937c

    Musical entertainment shortly after entering the gates into the Africa section.  They had people playing on and off all day.  Fun upbeat music.

    P1370939c

     Karlie trying out her musical talent!

    P1370943c

     Brina going all out!

    P1370956c

     Swinging around on their jungle gym!

    P1370968c

    Another one taking a rest!

    P1370976c

     Rodrigues Fruit Bats hanging around at Animal Kingdom.  Wonder what they eat….if you guessed fruit you are correct.  All the ones in the section we visited were male.  Did you know that their bat wings are made out of similar material that our eyelids are made out of?  They were fascinating to watch!

    P1370987c

    Beautiful tiger lounging peaceful and keeping a watchful eye on the visitors.

    P1370989c

     This tiger was literally on the other side of the glass from us.  It’s fur looked so soft, not sure it would have been a good idea to pet the big cat though!

    P1370996c

     Deer enjoying a rest in the shade.

    P1380002c

     Love the colors on this feathered friend.

    P1380012c

    Mesmerized by all the activity above them!

    P1380013c

     So much fun.  They were on the go and soaking all the cool animal sights in throughout the day.

    P1380023c

    Mount Everest at Animal Kingdom.  The mountain is the host for the Expedition Everest roller coaster.  We all agreed that it was probably a little more than we wanted to do, but it was super cool to watch!

    P1380408c

    They had a blast!  Waiting for the bus to take us back to the resort.  Thankful for an chance to spend the day with the kids at Animal Kingdom and all the fun memories as well as activities we did that day!