Animal Kingdom

My kids love Avatar. That was part of the reason we decided to come to Disney World. They were the most excited about the Avatar ride at Animal Kingdom. I made it the first park we did, so I didn't hear, "when are we going to Avatar?" for 4 days. I had never been to Animal Kingdom. David and I did Hollywood Studios and Epcot 15 years ago, but other than that, this is all new to me. And let's me honest, the parks have totally changed in 15 years.

Anyway, up first is Animal Kingdom. It was once just a zoo, but now holds a solid selection of rides.

When you first walk in, you see the Tree of Life, which is super cool.  It's lit up at night.

 

Our plan was to get there when the park opened and get to Avatar.  The wait can get up to 4 hours.  What?  We got to Avatar quickly and were super impressed with the floating mountains.

 

They were super cool and looked just like in the movie.

 

We only had about an hour wait, which isn't bad when there is so much to look at. 

 

Inside, they had a huge Avatar.

 

The ride was super cool.  It's a 3D type ride, but everybody is sitting on their own banshee. It feels like a bike, but when you take off the thing comes alive or so Disney makes you feel like that.  Literally, you could feel the banshee breathing in your legs, like a horse.  The faster you went, the breath would pick up. The wind in your face, water splashing on you a literally. It's so realistic.  Then you unlink from your banshee and your back in reality. But, the ride is a blast.

 

The kids look cute in their Avatar ears.

 

Then, they have this whole Dinosaur land.  So, Disneyland has an Indian Jones ride, but they don't have one here.  But, then Dinosaur is so much like it. The kids loved it and this other twirly roller coaster where your cart spins as you go over the tracks.  Talk about puking.  They are fun. Me, I could do it once.

 

Here's a cute squirrel.

 

And a hippo.

 

And crocodiles.

And giraffes.

 

The safari is super cool.  You are literally right there with the animals.  They can walk right up to the jeep.

 

And elephants!  I love elephants!

 

And look at this cute baby elephant!

 

And zebras!

 

And this hippo was so cute!

 

And meerkats.

 

And these gorillas were just hysterical.  I could watch them forever. They are so cute. The baby was a riot.  He'd play in this tub and just roll around like a toddler. And that's the Dad silverback in the corner.

 

It was warm out, so about 2, we left and came back to the hotel. We had rode everything once and saw the animals, so we needed a break.  We hit the hotel pool, but this is the sign by the pool. Yikes!

 

The pool felt amazing and was so nice to relax.

 

Some of us took naps.  Then, we went to a place called Noodles for dinner.

 

And we headed back to Animal Kingdom for a bit. 

 

We rode Dinosaur again and the kids did that twirly rollercoaster again. I took their picture from the fence.  I'm so glad they are old enough to ride alone.

Then, Emily HAD to get a Mickey ice cream. She said it was on her bucket list. HA!

 

Then, we could've done a nighttime show or Avatar again. The kids all voted for Avatar.  So, off we went.

 

We finished the ride at like 9:45 and all Ben wanted was the sweet Avatar drink. It's actually a passion fruit lemonade. But, it's several layers of cool colors with these little bead balls on top.  I totally thought we'd get out and the stand would be closed since the park closes at 10, but they were open and Ben got his drink.

 

It was really good. Those little balls were like full of corn syrup and you could suck them up through the straw. It was different and tasty!

 

Here's the Tree of Life lit up at the end of the night.

 

We got home at 10:30 or so and went to bed by 11. We were wiped out. 

Up next....Hollywood Studios.

A Whirlwind of 24 Hours

 Our first 24 hours of vacation was a bit of a whirlwind.  My Mom came up to watch our house and dog around 1. Emily was home from school a few minutes later. The boys a an hour after that.  David a few hours after that. We made pasta dinner and headed down to Phoenix. The main highway sometimes has back ups for hours, so I never want to risk leaving 90 minutes before we need to be the airport.  So, we got a hotel near the airport.  The kids were all exhausted, which is funny since all the did was relax on their tablets the whole way there.  Maybe it was just a long week.

 

 

We love this hotel. We've stayed there before.  They have coffee, tea, cookies and hot cocoa when you get there.  The kids love that. 

 

 

The shuttle to the airport was so quick and easy.  The check-in was fast and there was zero wait at security. It was fabulous.   So, we were at our gate with about 90 minutes to spare.

 

I got to see the sunrise, which let's face it. I don't see many of those. 

 

We went in one of the gift shops and Ben liked the worm and cricket suckers.  Do people really think that's what we snack on in the desert?  We don't. 

 

 

We flew Frontier which was our first time flying a "budget" airlines. We couldn't beat the price.  $600 to get all of us here (one way) and that includes baggage and "upgraded" seats.  They were basically like a padded folding chair, but whatever.  They charge for any snacks, so we brought our own.  Noah ate his first apple. I usually cut it for him.  But, then he kept eating it on the side of his mouth. I told him to use his front teeth. I thought he just didn't know what he was doing. To which he told me, "Mom, I don't have front teeth."  OH!! Oops.  :) 

 

4.5 hours is a long flight. We were all getting a little squirrely at the end. 

 

The boys liked the shuttle to pick up bags. I think they thought it was a subway. It lasted about 35 seconds.

 

And of course, everyone was hungry.  We got the kids Papa John's on the way to Grammie and Grampie's house.   

 

Then, Gwynne, David and I went out to a brazillian steakhouse for dinner. It one of those yummy place that walk around and serve you meat at your table. It's literally like $53 a person.  That's why we don't bring the kids. Grampie wanted to stay back with them.  So, we enjoyed our dinner.  So, we signed up for their email club as we knew they'd send out a special for dinner.  David put in that it was my birthday coming up. We got a coupon for $25 off a meal!  Then, in the fine print, it said we could use two birthday vouchers per table. You know what that means?  It was Gwynne's birthday too!  HA!  Then, they brought each of us a free dessert.  I had molten chocolate lava cake like we have on the Carnival cruises and Gywnne got key lime pie.  I didn't feel too bad for milking the system. With tip, we were still at $143.  And trust me, I usually eat a kids meal when we go out.  It was nice to have $70 in coupons and free dessert!

 

Then, we got the kids Dairy Queen.  See how we roll.  Nice stuff for us. Take out pizza and DQ for them.  They weren't complaining. 

 

Then, we made it to our hotel near Disney that we are staying at for the next 5 nights.  Gwynne's friends daughter works for this hotel chain, so she let us use her friends & family rate.  We got a great deal and it's a super nice hotel with free breakfast every morning.   

 

Now, we all need a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, we have daylight savings time, so we lose an hour. Urgh, I hate DST. We don't do that in Arizona and it's just an old idea that no one is letting go of. Anyway, on the agenda first is Animal Kingdom. The kids can't wait to do go to Pandora and the Avatar ride! 

OdySea Field Trip

We got a huge new aquarium a few years ago in Scottsdale. We've never been, but Noah got to go on a field trip this week with his class.  I wish I could've volunteered, but this one was a 10 hour affair and on my busiest work day.

 Noah wanted to bring a camera, so I gave him our little one.  Most of the pictures turned out like this. This is his best friend, Collin.

 

And this is the little girl he crushes on named Janae. 

So, the pics were all blurry or too close, but he had fun. Then, he took a 22 minute video and wondered why the camera battery died.

Luckily though, he was in a group with his best friend Collin and his Mom.  Noah and Collin have had gone to each others houses, so I was happy he was with a Mom I knew.  She got some great pictures and shared them on her FB page, so I'll share the ones she took.

Here they are at the beginning of the day.  The little girl is named Paloma.  She's good friends with Noah too and her Mom made Noah a knit cap a few years ago.  

 

They got to see lots of cool fish.

 

And even pet a stingray!

They had a great time and it's always fun to do something out of the norm during school hours.

Getting It Done

So, this is happening....Ben had future Jr. High night last week.  How did that happen?  I could tell he was super excited.  He's mentioned he'll miss his current school, but I tell him that he's ready for bigger and better things. He agrees. He was such a good sport. We were leaving and I realized I didn't get a picture of just him. So, he got out and posed for me.  Unlike his sister who gave me the major stank eye at future freshman night.




I did grab this selfie of Emily's friends and us. They are in 7th grade and in Student Council, so they were there helping out.  It'll be weird to have Ben at school with them and Emily is over at the high school.  They are sweet girls, and I know they'll look out for Ben like their own brother.

 

Ben had his thing on the same night Noah had to present his animal project at school.  He did a research paper on a black tip shark and had to put together a power point presentation.  Then, the parents came and we got to see it.  I had to miss it, but David went. 

 

He's so sweet.  He was sad that I missed it, so the next day when I went to volunteer at school we got a laptop and he was able to show it to me.  He did so great. He had to put pictures in there and make it fancy between slides. I was super proud of him.  He's 8!  

Then, Ben and Noah both have the dreaded Science Fair. Can I tell you how much I hate the Science Fair?  Just seeing the packet causes my blood pressure to rise.  The projects are due when we get home from vacation, and I didn't want to think about it while we are gone.  So, they hunkered down for like 3 or 4 hours on Sunday and got the whole thing finished!  Board is done. Prototype is made.  Sweet!

And can I just say that I did very very little.  Usually, these projects are more like parent 75%, kid 25%.  I got them set up on the computer with headers. Then, I helped with fonts and printing. They did everything else.  So, it was literally like me 10%, them 90%, which made the Science Fair not that bad.  I'd still prefer if we never had to do them, but it's not my call.  

Noah invented a snow launcher to defend yourself in a snowball fight.

 

Ben invented snow bibs that have waterproof built in socks so snow doesn't get in your boot and make your feet wet.  It's all attached, so it's like a snow onesie. He called it the onefreeze. 

 

I'm thrilled that's all done. We leave for Florida in 3 days and the Science Fair is the last thing I want to be thinking about!   

First Snow in 12 Months

I'm catching up on the blog before we leave for our Spring Break trip to Florida.

Last Wednesday, we woke up to a winter wonderland. The kids were excited. Well, not Emily so much since she didn't have any time to play in the snow. Shockingly, the school did not call a delay. The boys were out there at 7 to get in as much playtime as possible before school.

We got about 4 inches.

 

Rocko loves to eat snow. 

 

I love this Bradford Pear tree in the corner It always looks so pretty with snow on it. 

I love Ben too! 

 

David always wants Rocko to come in when it's cold and he never wants to. I found him out in the grass like this just sleeping in the snow. 

 

Then, I ran some errands and came home about 11 and this is what it looked like in the backyard.  What?  How can that be?  Seriously, it was all gone before Emily got home from school at 2.  

 

That's why we love snow here.  We get just enough to be beautiful, but not enough to be a nuisance!  And really, that's the best kind of snow!