animal kingdom

we decided to attack the animal kingdom without our trusty tour guide, carol :)  although she told us exactly what to do while there and in what order...love her.  here is the group (minus beckett) at pizzafari.  yum!  the weather was gorgeous...so we just took our time and enjoyed the day :)

the first thing she said to do was get a fast pass for the safari.  i was expecting this "safari" to be really lame...but i was pleasantly surprised.  i thought you would drive through and it would be an "oh, too bad...must have been to hot for the animals to be out"...or something along those lines.  nope.  you literally feel like you are on a safari (or what i imagine one to be like!)...gorillas, monkeys, zebra, lions, crocs, elephants, hippos, rhinos...all roaming free out in the open...very close to you.  i guess each driver has a gun???  not really sure how that works...but it was neat...i recommend.  and now i don't have to go to africa :)

gorilla

 hippos

 crocs

 i will stop with the animal pics since i am assuming you know what they look like!

 chillin'

 we also saw a live lion king performance while there.  the kids LOVED it.  highly recommend.  they have greeting trails (meet the characters) and a few rides that my kids were not interested in (scary). and a 3D bug movie...ellis would rather die.

back to the floridian for rest...i think the kids even took a nap this day??  beckett for sure...probably not ellis.  we then decided to get crazy and check epcot out without carol (she was taking us there the next day).  beckett had been dying to get a closer look at the "golf ball that only monsters could hit".  we had been dying for drinks :)  did you know there is a no alcohol policy in the magic kingdom??  the same isn't true for epcot!  we had SO much fun walking around with our doubles we got from our favorite canadian bar...

 they were having a garden and flower festival...every character was somewhere made out of botanicals...

we stayed out pretty late that night...made it around the world a couple times...back to canada and our fav bartender.  watched the 9 p.m. fireworks @ epcot and then i took ellis to watch the 10 p.m. fireworks with her friend michael in magic kingdom.  then nighty night.  long but fun day :)

p.s.- i have tons more pics that were taken on a photo pass...this is where disney workers take your pic and scan your card...so everyone in your group can be in pics together...kinda cool.  once i figure it out i will put any worthy ones on here :)