Disneyworld Part 2: Animal Kingdom

The whole time we were in Orlando we had a variety of weather. Mid 70’s and humid, pleasant mid 60’s, and chilly torrential rain mixed in every so often. Which made for very poofy poodle-ish hair on me. Thank goodness for hats.

The day we went to Animal Kingdom was the torrential rain kind of weather. We didn’t mind though, we had our coats and jackets and umbrellas! And it didn’t last the whole time, just a few hours.

Riding the tram from the parking lot to the park. Doesn’t Haylie look just thrilled to be there? It was pretty chilly.

In the middle of Animal Kingdom there is this humongous tree called the Tree of Life I think. It has intricate carvings of animals and….other stuff. I don’t really know, lol! It was pretty impressive though and a huge landmark there.

Animal Kingdom felt like we were in a lush rainforest…complete with actual rain. And like I said in the Hollywood Studios post, it’s amazing how Disney pays attention to every single detail and it makes you feel like you are actually in Asia or Africa. The scenery was very cool.

Before we saw most of the animals of the kingdom, we started off by “traveling” to Mount Everest, home of one of my favorite rides.

See, we really went to Mount Everest!

Expedition Everest is the roller coaster there, sort of like the Matterhorn in Disneyland but way cooler because it surprises you and goes backwards part of the time. Brandon passed on this one but Annie went on it several times. Like mother, like daughter! I love roller coasters.

This is when Jaden and Annie were on it. It’s pretty blurry but hilarious to see their faces! Here’s a closeup:

So much fun.

We stopped and ate lunch and I took a bunch of pics of the kids. I loved these colorful blue doors and scenery. It was dreamy….

Sweet Annie-cakes…

As you can see, Haylie was being a crazy silly girlie.

Ahhh, there we go!

Look at those missing top front teeth on that cute boy!

YIKES!

Now we come to the actual animal part of Animal Kingdom. We went on this jeep safari ride and saw a bunch of animals, which was fun. And majorly bumpy.

I loved the elephants. There were mamas and babies….

My absolute favorite thing was this adorable baby elephant who suddenly took off running, with her giant ears flopping all over the place! It was hard to take a picture since the jeep was moving too, but here is a blurry one. It honestly was delightful to watch!