Nate & Marlene tre ja uff da: Disney World - Animal Kingdom & Svea's birthday!!

We were up bright and early once we arrived in Florida for our first Disney stop, the Animal Kingdom.

Being early is key. We got a great parking spot (even though there's a tram in case you park in the boonies), and hustled in with the other early-morning comers. At the end of April, when school is still in session but spring break is over, we were hoping that Disney wouldn't be too busy. And for the Animal Kingdom, we were right. It was busy but certainly not annoyingly so.

And yes, we let Svea pick the park she wanted to be at on her birthday, so she was the one who decided we should visit Animal Kingdom.

Rafiki welcomes us!

The first ride we literally ran to was the safari ride. Because really, that's the best ride, and also the busiest one, at Animal Kingdom.

And I was in tears.
My camera was not working.
My camera was not working and it was Svea's birthday. And we were at Disney World.
There would be no record of this fabulous day.
Life was over.

My lens was weirdly jammed and it couldn't focus or take a photo. I am typically afraid to mess with my camera too much. But I threw caution to the wind and was beating it, actually abusing it, trying to get the lens unstuck so I could put it back in and for heaven's sakes, start taking pictures.

Nate said, "Let me see it." He gave the lens a mighty twist. Out it came, undamaged, and was easily put back into the camera. And then everything worked. And then I stopped weeping.

Crocs.

This is an Eland. As in, sounds Elin with a D on the end.
Of course Elin was tickled about this.

And Dumbo.

This is a baobab tree. I love the spiky, stubby branches.

This is the second time I've seen this particular Disney baobab tree, and I have to wonder - is it real? First of all it looks like it's 800 years old because it's gigantic. And I've never seen leaves on it. I'm just saying.

Quick! Everyone look to the left!

Messy rhinos.

It's Pumbaa!

So pretty. I really love zebras.

Elin and Nate on the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Oh beautiful birthday girl!

Please note the official Disney "1st Visit!" button. And there is an official Disney birthday button on the other side of Svea's jacket.

We heard about these buttons some time before going to Disney and the. buttons. were. all. that. were. talked. about. for. months. I really don't know what the girls were looking forward to more: actually going to Disney World, or just getting the buttons.

Needless to say we rushed immediately to Guest Services the moment we cleared Animal Kingdom security and picked up said buttons. The rest of us have been to Disney before, but this was the girls' first visit.

Please note the lack of a crowd.

Again - where is everybody?

This super-nice gal talked to us about the hawk she was holding.
And she was from Minnesota. How lovely!

There were tons of bugs and critters to see.

I couldn't believe it when I saw that Disney was housing vermin. Camel crickets! The very bugs that haunted our basement in Delaware. And here they are, being fed and cared for. WHAT? It really bothered me that a portion of my overpriced ticket was going to nourish those worthless things.

This little piggy went to Disney World.

There are different world regions to visit in the Animal Kingdom, and nearly every one had birds. Guides were provided so you could identify the birds that were literally flying in front of your face as you walked through each airy enclosure. The birds were in no way kept from the guests. I could have stuffed one into my purse if really wanted to . . . hmm.

And then we went to say hi to Timon.

We spotted Pocahontas. And stood in line for about fifteen minutes to get to see her, which is a really short wait to see a Disney Princess.

Here's a little background: I have to be honest with you, our kids hadn't seen tons of Disney movies before we went to Disney. I have my favorite Disney movies as much as the next person, but given our druthers we just haven't watched tons of Disney movies as a family.

So then we planned a trip to Florida that involved Disney World.

And suddenly we were watching Disney movies at an alarming rate, cramming like there was some Disney final exam or something that we would have to take once we arrived at The Happiest Place on Earth. Because for real, what's the point of going there if you don't even know the characters?

The kids knew very well all the classic characters like Mickey and Donald. But - Pocahontas who? We didn't manage to watch that one before we came - whoops.

Pocahontas was asking the girls questions about her movie and telling them silly things the characters in the movie have been up to.

Blank stares were all Svea and Elin could offer her. They had no clue what she was talking about. (Neither did I. I tried watching Pocahontas once a long time ago, and fell asleep.)

Things officially got awkward when Svea turned her back on Pocahontas and walked away. Oh geez.

We took the picture and I hustled the girls out of there.

Back to the animals. Quite possibly Svea's least favorite animal was there, the Komodo Dragon. Svea seems convinced that this thing will eat her if she gets within 50 feet of it. Happy birthday, darling! Come see the Komodo Dragon!!

A gigantic bat. Shudder.

More birds.

Svea was a great bird spotter.

Elin was my ride buddy (:

Dancing with Dale!

This was taken during a ride that plunges you into darkness with huge dinosaurs popping out every now and then and roaring at you while red lights flash, telling you of an impending meteorite that will wipe every living creature off the face of the planet. Elin (huddled under my arm) was not thrilled about this one.

Viggo and Svea check out the Tree of Life.

What is YOUR wingspan?

Sleepy flamingo.

Looking for fish.

Viggo caught a lizard on a path. That's no biggie; those things are everywhere. A gentleman from Germany was so excited that Viggo caught a local animal that he had Viggo pose for a picture. So somewhere in Germany, Viggo is immortalized in some stranger's photo album.

Fabulous Elin.

THE button.

Every day, there's a parade. And woe be to you if you are not standing behind the tape that marks the route! A Disney worker will materialize out of thin air and firmly escort you to the proper place if you have one toe out of line on the parade route. And you had better stay put.

Viggo got a kick out of the parade.
Especially the Goofy part.

Goofy's float was kind of a mess.

Goofy - the very picture of streamlined efficiency.

Timon stopped to give Svea some birthday high-fives!

It was kind of hot and we were all kind of exhausted but still having lots of fun.

And there's our pal.

We did pretty much everything we wanted to do, so we went back to the safari. Because now it was later in the day, and different animals were out.

Wildebeests.

The giraffe was out and about.

These ostriches were actually guarding their nest. It had a large, melon-sized egg in it!

There were drums out. So little people got noisy.

Then we went for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and surprised Svea with a birthday volcano!! She was completely shocked. Well, you only turn 7 at Disney World once!

And here they all are, full of birthday volcano.

And then back to Animal Kingdom.
Donald was there, and he was being very silly.
That five minutes with Donald was really my favorite part of the whole day, I think.

Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the other parks (thank goodness), and we were bushed. We rode the tram back to our fabulous parking spot because we couldn't take another step.