Day 4: A second visit to Magic Kingdom and relaxin' at the resort

Rachel's 1st time behind the wheel

(blue car)

The Disney train
sweetest girl ever

our family saying goodbye to DW...for now!

collecting seashells

Bradley LOVEd getting in the water!

Trenty tasting some sand-YUCK!

Headin' for the water

sweet Trenty enjoying his Gerber banana cookie

Rach and Brad dancing on our cabin deck

Rachel is showing off her Pooh bear wearing Trent's hat

2 VERY handsome fellas

little swimming champ

" ooooh! An extra-large tub!!!" -Trent

"I like it!" -Trent

"Ribbit! Ribbit!" -Bradley the frog

Trent's first experience with being thrown up into the air

All my babes! 4 blessings in my life!!

On our last day at Disney, we could have gone to another park, but we knew we wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom and do a couple of things we had not gotten to do the first day. We took a train ride on the Disney RXR around the park, rode the race cars, went on Buzz Lightyear again, rode the Barn Burner again, and Nick and Rach rode on Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was fun to go back to the BEST park in Disney one more time. We left around 3:30 and went back to Fort Wilderness where the kids played on the "beach" and got nasty in the sand. Trent tried out the sand for the first time and loved it!! He ate a little sand (oops!) and kept crawling for the water. He was perfectly fine with crawling straight into it! After that, we played on the Fort Wilderness playground for a little bit and then visited the horse area. They had several clydesdales (sp?) and some miniature ponies. They offered pony rides, but it was too late in the day to do one, even though Rachel wanted to. Then we went back to our room for our last night and ate food that we had brought with us. Rachel had been begging to go swimming, so even though it sprinkled a few different times, we got our suits on and headed up to the pool, which was about 10 minutes away on foot. The pool was huge and had had long, shallow steps that were great for Bradley to play on. There were only 4 other people there and they left after a few minutes, so we pretty much had it to ourselves. It was dark outside, but warm, and the pool was heated, so it felt great. Trent got to try out the pool for the first time and he loved it!! He was fascinated by the water and kept splashing his little hands. He was precious! Bradley loved hanging on the steps and being a "frog". Rachel jumped back in and swam as well as she did over the summer! She's a little fish! It was the perfect way to end our wonderfully, awesome vacation at Disney!! We swam for about an hour and then came home to get some sleep. I have to say, I would have loved one more day...one more day to go to a different park (or 2) and one more day to just relax and maybe swim some more or do some shopping. This was definitely a "taste" of what a Disney vacation can be and it's exciting to think that we can do even more the next time we go. I really can't wait to go back!!!! Disney World is truly a magical place!!!

Day 3: Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney

waiting on a bus to take us to the A.K.
Rach and Brad roaring in a cave

a look at the "jungle-like" atmosphere where some of the animals lived

Nick and Rach looking for animals

Mommy and Bradley looking for reptiles

Trenty ridin'...believe it or not, we DID get him out of his stroller!!

Rachel and Bradley are getting ready to go on a safari

"we discovered a dino!!!!"

Rachel being transformed into a "Bird" girl

She had been begging to have her face painted!

our lovely bird girl!

The Tree of Life

Everyone on the safari

wildebeasts (I think) on our safari

cool elephants

Rach and Brad with Buzz in Downtown Disney

We were actually a little disappointed in Animal Kingdom. Most of the rides were for older/taller kids than ours, so there were only a few that we got to ride. However, we did like the Triceratop one, even though it was like Dumbo and Aladdin. The cool thing about the kingdom was that there was a jungle-like atmosphere and lots of animals. From wild boars to lizards to ducks and birds. It was neat getting to see all the animals. And, there was a really cool dino area that had some dino replicas, a playground and some rides. Our absolutely favorite thing about Animal Kingdom was the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was as close to a real safari as I'll ever be...and it was pretty close! We all loaded up into these heavy duty trucks that had open sides and all terrain wheels. There was a tour guide who pointed out all the wildlife we could see, and we actually saw alot! Right outside our vehicles was the Harambe Wildlife Reservation and it's home to so many wild animals: lions, zebra, giraffes, wildebeasts, flamingos, elephants, cheetahs, I can't think of them all. It was so cool how the reservation was designed...several different eco-systems appropriate for each animal. Anyway, about a 20 minute ride through the reservation, full of twists and turns, oohs and ahhs, lots of bumps in a rugged vehicle and I was super impressed! The kids loved all the animals and Bradley kept asking, "mom, is that animal real?" He was confused since all the animals we had seen at Magic Kingdom were fake. THAT was the coolest part of Animal Kingdom and well worth the trip to the park!

We left Animal Kingdom in early afternoon and decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner at the T-Rex Cafe. The cafe' was of course, designed around dinosaurs. The restaurant was full of dinosaur replicas, there were constellations on the ceiling and every 20 minutes, there was a "meteor shower" where the room would change colors and all the dinos would get upset and riled up and begin roaring as hard as they could. It was quite entertaining (and loud!!). The food was NOT very good, but it was VERY expensive. I'm sure we were paying for the atmosphere. After we ate, we went to their paleo-dig, which was a rock pit where the kids could take a dry paint brush and "uncover" dino bones. The bones were huge, permanent fixtures underneat the pebbles. The kids LOVED it and looked so cute using their brushes to move the pebbles off the bones. After dinner, we strolled around Downtown Disney and looked at some of their unique shops: Lego Land and Toy Stores, and lots of Disney specialty shops. We actually got home at a decent time that evening and just relaxed after our busy day.