Disney World: Animal Kingdom & Home

Thursday was our last full day in Orlando!  We did spend the majority of the morning sleeping and recovering from being out until 2 am the night before (that makes it sound like we were crazy party animals, right?  Ha!).  I think the little guy slept until like 10 am?  Crazy.  We did not complain! :)

When J woke up, he still did have a fever, but by "Doctor's" orders, we alternated Tylenol and Motrin and soon he was perking up (Sidenote:  I did take my mother's advice and e-mailed a complaint to the people over at CentraCare.  I have, of course, heard nothing in response.  But it did make me feel better!). 

We had no real plans for the day, so once J started perking up, we decided to head down to the pool for a bit.  Our groceries were also mostly gone (well, the important lunch staples like bread, etc) so we also grabbed lunch there, too.

Feeling well enough for a Mickey ice cream bar!

There were squirrels running around like crazy at the pool, and I am pretty sure we could have lured one into our stroller and taken it home with us.  Seriously, they were SO tame (thanks to everyone, including us, feeding them!  Ooops.)  J thought the squirrels were SO cool, though!  Apparently we don't see squirrels at home all that often?!?!?

No need to use the zoom... it practically climbed up our legs.

 When we went to the pool earlier in the week, I had packed J a PB&J and some crackers and put them in my pool bag (unzipped) in the bottom of the stroller.  As we were packing up to head back to our room, just a few feet away was a squirrel trying to open the ziploc bag containing the sandwich!  It had gone INTO my bag in the bottom of the stroller and stolen it-- some nerve!  You'd think we would have learned not to feed the squirrels, huh?  Nope.

We found out that Adam's family had gotten us tickets to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon, so after J's nap (and more Motrin/Tylenol), we packed up and headed out to one more park! 

Our first stop was the "Kilamanjaro Safaris," where we got to ride in these jeep things and see all kinds of cool animals!

"Which way, Daddy?"

It doesn't look real.... but it is.

J's favorite!  And look, the clouds are rolling in for the daily rainstorm!

No need for zoom on this one either, this guy was really this close to our jeep!

And yes, those clouds rolling in were for real.  After we left the safari, we took a train ride (sorry, no pics) and then it decided to downpour MAJORLY!  We all put our ponchos on and tried to figure out if we should wait out the rain or move on to the next attraction.  We decided to press on, and made our way through the rain to the show "It's Tough to be a Bug."

We got to wear super cool bug-eye 3D glasses for this one!  I think the show was a little scary for J-- he scrambled into my lap when the spiders started hanging down from the ceiling!  But, it was very cute.  And the special effects were very impressive-- at the end, they ask that all the humans wait for the bugs/insects to make their way out first.... and something on the bench you are sitting on actually moves down the bench and feels like bugs are crawling (under your butt!) down the bench!  SO funny (and took me by surprise)!!!

There were a couple other things I would have liked to hit, like "The Boneyard" which was an outdoor play area that was like a dinosaur dig site and also "Expedition Everest" (but that was shut down for some reason).  But with the rain (which was apparently not going to be a quick passing shower) and the park closing at 8 pm, we didn't really have the time.  So we headed over to "Rainforest Cafe" for dinner.  That was a nice way to end our time at Animal Kingdom!  J and his cousins thought this place was so fun! :)

And that was basically the end of out trip. :(  Friday, we got up and packed up all of our stuff.  J's fever was still there, but low-grade,  so we were happy about that.  It must have finally gone away during the day, because by the time we got home it was finally gone!  We took the shuttle to the airport and got all checked in and our bags checked.  Then found a place for lunch and hung out until it was time for our flight (about 3:30).  From Orlando we headed to Houston, ate dinner, and had a few hours to hang out there (and got some Starbucks!  I think I was going through withdrawal!!).

We finally landed in Des Moines about 10:00 pm.  Another long travel day, but Jeremiah did really well.  He fell asleep and slept for about an hour or hour and a half, and he didn't even flinch when we touched down!  He, of course, woke up when we tried to get off the plane and proceeded to cry the entire time we were trying to get our luggage.  Sheesh!  But, who can blame him really-- it had been a long day!  He fell asleep in the car again and didn't even wake up when Adam put him in bed.  I think he was happy to be back in his own bed!

It is always sad when a vacation is over-- I know I am always ready to come home, but it is also SO nice to be away from reality and just relax!  Thankfully, we have another vacay coming up at the end of July! :)

Now that we are back home, we are back doing our normal summer stuff-- swimming lessons, splash park, library, going to Adam's softball games, etc.  We have also begun potty-training!!!!!!  J is very excited to wear underwear and also to receive Skittles and a sticker for going potty (we're not even going to try #2 yet).  So far he has 4 stickers on his chart (we just started this yesterday) and has had 1 wet pair of underpants (we were playing outside today, and Adam said, "Jeremiah, what are you doing?"  J said, "Nothin'.  Just goin' potty in my underwear."  Sigh.)  But overall, I think he's doing well-- I'll be sure to keep you all updated about his progress! :)

Oh, and since we have been home, several people have asked J what his favorite part of going to Disney World was.  His answer, every single time?  "Meeting Mickey!!!!" :)