Walt Disney World - Day 2

We got up early and headed off to Animal Kingdom for the day. 

Our morning started with brunch at Tusker House Restaurant...

where we dined with Mickey, Donald, Daisy & Goofy!

 

The conga line was too much fun!

After brunch, we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride...

where we saw all kinds of animals including hippos & rhinos!

I loved seeing the giraffes up so close...

We finished up the "Africa" area of the park on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail...

before heading over to "Camp Minnie Mickey"...

where we cooled off at the "Festival of the Lion King" show

(which was fantastic)...



before hitting the "Greeting Trails" to meet some more characters!

Next, we headed over to "Dino-land USA" to catch
"Finding Nemo - The Musical" (and to cool off again)!

It, too, was a fantastic show.  After the show, we stuck around in
"Dino-land USA" to ride some rides...



play on the playground...

and catch up with Goofy & Pluto one more time...

before heading over to "Asia" where B rode his first roller coaster, Expedition Everest!

After that adventure, we headed over to the Kali River Rapids for another adventure...

We left Animal Kingdom after a full day to get ready for dinner at Downtown Disney!

We rested a bit and then headed over to T-Rex Cafe...

I am so glad that sweet M woke up in time to join the party!

What a FUN day!

Walt Disney World - Day 1

We live within a day's drive to Walt Disney World,
so with dinner reservations in place for Wednesday night, we plucked the little ones from their beds and set off on our SURPRISE trip well before the sun came up.

We made our first stop for breakfast & continued along on our journey stopping to picnic for lunch...

We didn't even give so much as a hint as to where we were headed until we entered Disney property!  I think that B was finally convinced that this little "surprise" trip was going to be very fun!

He had been quite confident that wherever we were headed could never be as fun at Chuck E. Cheese!

We arrived at our hotel a bit before 5pm where "Tinkerbell" had left a little surprise for the little ones...

(I bought these Tervis Tumblers at Bed, Bath & Beyond before we left and they were even more perfect than I imagined that they could be...  There are tons of water fountains scattered around each park and we were able to fill them up constantly.)

We got unpacked and ready for dinner, hopped on the monorail & headed over to the Contemporary Resort for dinner at Chef Mickey's...

where we met Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy & Pluto!

B loved every minute of it, posing for photos with the characters & collecting autographs on his pillowcase...



L, always my cautious one, was not so sure... 

She didn't really go near the characters, but was waving & blowing kisses to them by the end of the night...

M recognized that something was going on, but wasn't quite sure what it was...  She kept pointing and making all kinds of exclamations in her own little language...

After dinner, we went back to our hotel to prepare for our first full day!

{Summer FUN} Our Junior Ranger Goes to the Movies

After church this morning, we headed back up the mountain to assist B in earning his Junior Ranger badge.  Hubby & I left the girls to nap at my mom's house and went back to the Carl Sandburg Home with B to complete the activities in his booklet.

We toured the house and looked for items that could be found in our home as well...  What did he list? 

sink
washing machine
sofa
TV
bed
books
soap
shower

We visited the goat barns, learned some fascinating facts about the 3 different breeds at Connemara Farms & met the newest baby goats on the farm, born just 10 days ago...

After finishing all the activities in the booklet,

B was sworn in as an official Junior Ranger!

Then, we went to the movies to celebrate!

{Summer FUN} Rootabaga!

My mom lives close to so many neat places, but unfortunately when we are in town visiting, we rarely get to act like "tourists" and visit all of the local sights.  This is where Camp Grandma is different!

This morning we stopped by the Carl Sandburg Home to see "Rootabaga!", a production of Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories set to music and performed by the cast and directors of The Vagabond School of the Drama, an apprentice program of the Flat Rock Playhouse.

After a bit of a hike to the top of the mountain (wishing that I had packed the jogging stroller), we arrived at the house...

and took a seat in the outdoor amphitheater.

The show was as entertaining as always...

and I was happy to pop into the bookstore and grab my own copy of the classic stories, as well as a great Appalachian ABC book.

On top of all this fun, the Carl Sandburg Home is a part of the
National Park Service...

 so we get to check another item off of our bucket list ~ visiting our first official National Park! 

As we were leaving, a park ranger presented B with an activity booklet...

to complete & return in order to earn a badge & be sworn in as an official Junior Ranger!