Getting Animalistic! - Orlando Day 3

This morning, David was out of the hotel room early as he had to attend conference stuff all day. I tried to get Madeline to sleep as long as possible as the last couple of days have been a whirlwind. When she and I finally got in motion we decided to head over to Disney's Animal Kingdom. That place is huge and quite impressive. You know that anything done by Disney is always over the top. The first place that we ventured (not intentionally) ended up being where there were more Disney characters. Madeline wanted to do more meet and greets. Although we were there to see the animals, Madeline definitely enjoyed seeing the characters and was actually more excited about interacting with them than she was about seeing any of the park's animals. Even though we already saw some of the same characters yesterda,y I didn't mind going back to try to get a few more pictures because the charachers were wearing Christmas gear. Also, for the Buffalo Sabres fans out there, you know that they have a "I've Been Everywhere" segment on the jumbo tron during the home games that includes photos of people with Sabres gear on various vacations. I thought I might try to submit the photo of Madeline holding Sabretooth with the Santa Goofy.

After spending wayyyy too much time with the characters, we headed into "Africa". When I walked into this area of the Animal Kingdom, I felt like I was walking into a village somewhere in Africa. Actually, while there, I thought I might like to go on a real African Safari one day (we actually have friends that went on one and said it was awesome). Madeline and I went on the Kilimanjaro Safari to see some wildlife. We also did some walking trails to see the hippos and gorillas. Madeline was only partially impressed with the whole Animal Kingdom experience. The only thing that my dear daughter found entertaining was pointing and laughing at he hippos and gorillas butts.....gotta love the bathroom humor stage.

Madeline and I barely made a dent in the Animal Kingdom. I think we only saw about a third of it. After a few hours I didn't mind if we headed out and therefore I chose to give Madeline the option of staying or leaving and Madeline chose to leave. Perfect! I knew that David, Madeline and I would be heading out to dinner later and that we would most likely have Lorrie, a co-worker of David's, with us so I really did not want to have a grumpy child on my hands. We got back to the room and
Madeline actually took a nap!!!!

Luckily Madeline's rest was a power nap which made for much easier dining. In the evening, the three of us headed to Downtown Disney with Lorrie for dinner. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to dine outside at an Italian restaurant, Portobello. After dinner, the four of us spent a little bit of time strolling around Downtown Disney before heading back to the hotel (Yes, Mr. Potato Head has my head, the model of Russia's St. Basil is made out of Legos and....Holy Crap!!! Buzz Lightyear is grabbing my ass!!). It is now 11:30pm and Madeline has yet to fall asleep. I guess that is what a nap does to her. As for me, I am quite ready to hit the hay!