Travel Day and Boma

I feel like I need to begin this series of Disney posts with an apology for the sheer volume of pictures. It is probably some sort of sickness that requires a 7 step program to walk away from this level of incessant picture taking. My children are also probably under the false impression that they are in some way famous and I am their personal paparazzi that chases them around constantly snapping random pictures. But the truth is, from the time they were born, I have felt this great mantle of responsibility for capturing their memories for them and documenting their childhood. I have scrapbooked since day one but am now anxiously awaiting priniting my first blog book! Since our blog is serving now as our new form of scrapbook & journal, you don't just get a little blurb about our Disney adventure. You get evey detail of every day ~ I truly am sorry if that is too much, but that's just the way we roll around here.

That being said, we truly had such a wonderful time on our vacation!

We left on a Thursday with the intent of doing 2 days of Disney, 4 days of the Southern Baptist Convention, and 2 more days of Disney. We also scheduled 1 'extra day' to do some of the Disney fun that is outside the parks and also sneak in a little rest. We left EARLY EARLY the first day. Would you believe me if I told you we were all in the car and rolling out of the driveway at 5 in the morning? AND everyone had a happy heart! We love our vacations and couldn't wait to get it started. After all, the sooner you leave, the sooner you get there.

The kids were incredible in the car. Thank the Lord for the DVD player. It made the time pass so quickly and there was definitely marks that they are growing up. I mean, no tears, no arguments, no complaining, no asking 'are we there yet' and only one bathroom break on a 7 hour car ride. It was GLORIOUS! We arrived in the early afternoon and were able to check into the Pop Century hotel extra early and start exploring all the fun areas of the hotel.

Although this is the cheapest hotel at Disney ~ it has such fun, family friendly play areas for the kids. I truly think they would have rather stayed here than one of the fancy, expensive hotels without the huge cartoon statues. This is the stage of life we are in ~ and I LOVE IT!

After we got settled into the hotel, we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our dinner reservations at Boma Flavors of Africa. My plan was since we couldn't afford the expensive rooms at some of the other hotels, we would still get the expereince of the hotel by doing some of the other things they had to offer ~ like dinner.

We arrived early like they said and they ushered us on a "Culinary Tour" that explained what all of the foods were, how they were made, and they gave us some samples right off the buffet line. I was SO glad we got that crash course, or we would have had NO IDEA what we were putting on our plates. Check out those food labels....Kokonut Rice, Fufu, Pap and Chaka Laka, and Cous Cous Marakasa. Fortunately, we have very adventursome children and the food really was incredible. Micah's favorite was the peanut soup. He said it tastes like melted peanut butter mixed with hummus.

After dinner, we headed out to the observation deck to check out all the wildlife.

We spent a couple hours watching all of God's beautiful creatures.

We also spent a good bit of time searching for the hidden Mickeys.

Can you see the the one hidden in the rock?

Look right below and to the left of the wood.

Supposedly, when Disney began to expand beyond just the Magic Kingdom, they had originally agreed that Mickey would only be in the Magic Kingdom and not Epcot. Some of the Imagineers did not like this and secretly designed hidden Mickeys all over Epcot. It has continued all over all of the parks and hotels. This was the first trip that we intentionally looked for them, and we really had a fun time looking for them.

Brian and Micah searched and searched for a hidden Mickey using the clues that the hotel provided, but they never could find it.

The dinner was delicious and the hotel was breathtaking.

When we went to get in our car, we looked up and saw a sky writer leaving a beautiful message in the clouds. I am guessing that it may have been part of the Crossover Event associated with the Convention.

Then we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to get our tickets for the rest of the week and avoid the early morning long lines at the ticket counter. Both of the kids love riding the parking lot shuttle and the monorail as if they are actual Disney rides instead of just a means of transportation. Micah even got chosen out of the crowd to 'push the buttons' on the Monorail. He was THRILLED! What a magical way to start our vacation!