Disney Day #4: Animal Kingdom!

Animal Kingdom is my very favorite park! I'm certainly in the minority, but I could absolutely spend a whole week there. Mostly on Kilimanjaro Safari! 

 It was a bit of a cold morning, so Ella Kate needed pink blankie with her. 

 And also a bit of a sunny morning....

Animal Kingdom is undergoing a lot of changes, so there are a lot of scrims up around the park. Makes for yucky pictures, but I'm so excited to see the finished product!

We of course headed directly to the Safari to check on my old friends...

Giraffes! My favorite!

Flamingos! Caroline's favorite!

After the Safari, we made some pressed pennies then headed to another late breakfast, this time at Tusker House. Tusker House is my must-do restaurant. I just have to eat there on every visit to Disney. 

This time, though, we didn't have the greatest experience. I really felt rushed to eat and get out by our  waitress. In fact, our meal was winding down and we still hadn't had a meet and greet with Goofy yet. She had us get up and go into another room to see him rather than just letting us wait to until he came through. Not exactly magical. Now, I know that we could've just refused to do it, and waited at our table, but we truly did feel uncomfortable staying there because it was obvious the waitress was ready for us to leave. 

And apparently my Goofy pictures are lost in oblivion, too. 

My mother-in-law talked about the experience later, and we think it may have had something to do with the fact that our reservation was so late and it was running into their lunch service. It may not have been the waitress and more of the restaurant itself trying to get breakfast cleared out. IDK. It stinks that our experience was less than ideal, but it's still my must-do. I'll go back forever and ever, I imagine. 

After breakfast, we decided to try out Expedition Everest because we were coming up on our FastPass times for it anyway. To make a long story short, insert the same scenario from Rock n'Roller Coaster. The girls didn't want to ride it, rode it anyway, rode it 97834932 more times. 

Family Everest pic!

Our next FastPass was for Dinosaur, which is the only attraction that actually still scares me a little. I was pretty nervous about taking my girls on the ride, but by this point, they were little adventurers! I miss them being babies, but it's fun to be able to do all this big girl stuff with them now, too!

I got a little off on my timeline, and I missed these Festival of the Lion King pictures. We did this right after Tusker House since they're right next to each other now. It's one of my favorites, and makes me cry every time! I have no idea why, but I'm always in tears by the end. 

What I wouldn't give to just try on one of those costumes...

The day caught up to little Ella Kate, so she napped while we did Tough to be a Bug, and was still sleeping when 

 Caroline had been so excited to meet Russell and Dug, so she wore her Dumbow Shoppe Russell bow. 

And this was Russell's reaction when he noticed it!

 I wish I'd gotten it on video! It was such a great reaction that still cameras just can't capture. It was worth everything to see him get so excited, and Caroline to get so excited about him! It's the one thing she hasn't stopped talking about, and now she wants a Dug bow for next year!

Off to Expedition Everest for one last ride!

I just wish Animal Kingdom stayed open later. We all wanted to do more, but they close at 6, so we had to make our way out. 

Until next year, Animal Kingdom!

Up next: EPCOT day #2, Disney Day #5!