Animal Kingdom and New Friends

Today we headed over to Animal Kingdom and met some of the other families on the trip. Renee, who organized it and her husband Nick were there. Renee and Nick have a little boy, Nicky, who is just adorable. Nick’s brother Joe, also joined them. He’s a Disney cast member and helped us find our way around.


Lisa and her daughter Athena came on their own - Lisa’s husband is in the Army National Guard and because he was scheduled for training this weekend, he had to miss the fun! Athena is just beautiful and such a sweet baby. Lisa fostered in Antigua but hadn’t met Renee or Jan until today.

Jan Benjamin, her husband and son Josayah, are just as nice in person as she was over the internet. We have so much enjoyed meeting them.

Maya’s new best friend is Clara, Becky and Troy’s daughter. They are from Colorado! Clara and Maya are the same age and just having a blast together. The played “dinosaur” and are being very good about sharing toys. They fed the ducks, ran around the “Boneyard” , ate ice cream and mostly ran…..and ran…..and giggled…..and ran some more….. And giggled some more. TOO adorable!











We first stopped at the Nemo, live play. It was amazing. In true Disney style the kids were entertained from the moment we sat down. Something as simple as this….. On the sides of the stage there were large plastic “bubbles”. Every once in awhile, Nemo would swim through. It kept the kids busy and laughing, trying to spot Nemo. The play was done with a combination of puppets and actors. The colors were just amazing. We enjoyed it very much. My favorite parts were Dory and at the end, when thousands of bubbles poured down. Awesome!



Then we headed for Dinoland. Most of the kids when on the Triceratops Spin, but Maya said she preferred to play the carnival games. We played the one where you squirt water at a target and the first on to “fill” the balloon wins. After losing twice, the carnival lady gave us a prize - a stuffed seahorse - it pays to be cute, hehehe. Then we played a ball toss game and Maya one a stuffed thing that looks like a sea serpent, loch ness thingie but with very bright colors. SO cute.



The kids had a blast at the Boneyard and I got a workout!







We saw tons of animals on the "Safari"! Can you see the giraffes in the last picture?

We all had dinner at All-Star Music and met more families. I found a common ground with Dave and Robyn - we both like Christian Contemporary Music. They got off a cruise ship that morning with Mercy Me! It was a Music Cruise and sounded wonderful. Dave entertained us with stories of sharing a teeeeeeny-tiny cabin with two kids. Everyone had to be in their spots for anyone to even get dressed. He’d had a dream the night before about having to step outside the room to get dress and ……his dream came true, hehehe! Dave and Robyn have two children from Guatemala - a boy and a girl!


Yesterday, Maya chose a stuffed animal for her “treat” - a small fox. She has named her “Little”. We are soon going to need a full - size trailer for all the creatures, as she calls them. We have…. Lamby (of course!), lamby with pajonny’s on, Little, Sea Serpent, and Seahorse. Whew! And yes, we have lost lamby once. At Epcot, we left lamby at the USA Kidcot, went on to Japan, Morocco, France, and UK before we realized lamby was missing. I wad the hurrier and went to each Kidcot and gift shop searching. Wayne ooked on his camera and discovered, just as I got there, that the last time Lamby was in a picture, was USA. We rushed over and sure enough - Lamby! Yipppppeeeee!