Christmas Day 2007 - Disney's Animal Kingdom

On Christmas day, we were woken by Emily asking if Santa came. We told her he had and went into the living room of the condo to see what he brought. The little ones were awake so they also came in to check out the action. Emily's was first and the very first thing Emily noticed was her soccer ball sitting at the top of the stocking. This is something she started saying she wanted just days before Christmas, and luckily Santa was able to come through. She was so excited she was running for the door. Although she turned back when we told her Santa had brought more and it was in her stocking. She quickly pulled out her new baby doll and followed with her various other goodies, including bath toys, a shake and go plane, candy, paint, etc. Her and the little girls loved playing with the stuff while I opened mine next. I got a digital picture frame, memory for my camera, a filter for my camera, and a movie. Next we were on to Ansley. She didn't really know what to do, but Emily and I helped. She got a remote control car (special made for 12 month+ that was really neat), various snacks she liked, bubble bath, a new WubaNub Purple Frog passie, and new plate to eat off. Next John checked out his stocking, which included a shake and go plane, a Superman shirt, a USC shirt, season 6 of Scrubs, some cologne, and a game. Finally we were on to Bailey. She didn't really know what to do ether, but Emily and I helped. She got a remote control car (special made for 12 month+ that was really neat), various snacks she liked, bath toys, bubble bath, and new plate to eat off. After all the stockings were opened, John took Emily outside to let her play with the soccer ball some while the little ones ate breakfast. She was very excited about her new ball. When they came back in, she also ate and all the girls played with their Santa stuff. At around 10, we met Daddy, Katrina, Leslie, Megan, Quinten, and Blake at the Sizzler for a breakfast buffet.

At around 2, Daddy and Katrina came over to our condo to keep Ansley and Bailey while John and I took Emily to Animal Kingdom. When we arrived at the park, we say Leslie's group and all walked in together. They wanted to do the safari. John headed with them to the Africa section to try to get fast passes. As it turned out fast passes for that ride was up for the day, and since we did not want to wait 90 minutes, we opted out. While John was trying to get the passes, Emily and I walked around. As it turned out, we quickly found a Calypso band and Emily had the best time dancing. The band was playing a variety of songs, including Christmas songs like Jingle Bells. When they were getting ready to play Jingle Bells, they got some of the kids to come up front, and gave them bells to shake with the song. Emily loved playing the bells. After a while, I got a call from John and he was able to meet us at the band. Since he did not have any luck with the fast passes for the Safari, he got us some for Its a Bugs Life (we late found out this would be a big mistake). In the time we had before our fast pass was ready, we went to Dino Land. While in Dino Land, we rode the Triceratops ride and then went to the playground. In time for our fast pass, we headed back to Its a Bugs Life. When we made it to the front, we waited a few minutes in this cave like staging area, which is where Emily started not to be crazy about it. However, when we went in and were on the second row, things seemed to be looking up. The show started out cute with the main ant coming out from the moving and doing a speal. After a minute or two, then the villain (which caught us totally by surprise), came out right in front of us. Since we were on the second row on the side, the probably 6 foot tall villain bug was hanging over us. Emily was scared, but we did not have any way to leave. We tried to get her to bury her head, but soon a big spider came out on the screen and started talking about showing us what it was like to be a bug and was spraying smoke. This is when things really went bad and Emily was screaming "Get me out of Here". Luckily it ended quickly and we were able to leave, but it defiantly turned out to not be the "show" we expected. Lets just say we did not try to get Emily to go to more "shows". After the trauma was done, we say a little bit of the parade on the way out of the ride and headed back to Dino Land. On the way, we stopped at the meet the characters section, where Emily go tot see Pooh, Piglet, Ehore, and Tigger. After we ate, I was able to get in touch with Leslie, and by coincidence, they were just coming to the restaurant where we ate, so we had a little visit. After our visit, we went back to ride the Triceratops again. There was a neat ride in Dino Land, the Primeval Whirl, that was for big people. I wanted to give it a try, so John and Emily went back to the play ground, while I went to get in line. By chance, I saw Megan and Leslie a few people ahead of me and some nice people let me go up there with them. The three of us had a blast on my first "big person ride" of the trip. When we got off, we saw Blake and Quinten. They had fast passes so they were off to Expedition Everest. I then met up with John and Emily at the playground. As it turned out, in the back of the play ground was a very neat digging section with all these tiny rocks for the kids to play in. It was like a huge sand box, but with tiny rocks. This was defiantly a highlight for Emily. After that, we started walking some and ran into the Barton's near Expedition Everest. They offered to keep Emily while John and I rode. I have to say that it was a really neat ride!! You start off traveling up what is suppose to be Mt. Everest, race around, then suddenly start racing backwards. After the ride, we headed to the play ground to meet up with the Barton's. Emily was really getting tired, so we played for a few minutes with Blake and then headed towards the car.