Dodd Daily Doses: Day 2 Animal Kingdom...

Everyone woke up to a welcome letter from their favorite characters the 2nd day.

This day I made all the kids Mickey ear shirts with their favorite characters:

This stinkin' cute boy did some modeling of his new shirt. How cute is he with that hand in his pocket:

Too much cuteness, my own little Chip and Dale:

We had an early morning because we had breakfast scheduled with a duck in Africa at 8:30.

The duck was very welcoming!

All the kids chowed down on the great breakfast:

Then we got to meet the main mouse himself:

He was so glad Nana and Pop finally came to see him!

Of course, he and I go way back, but I was so excited to see him again!

Ashton was excited to see Daisy of course!

Everyone was waiting for this family favorite to show up:

It was great to have a family reunion happen over breakfast :)

After filling our bellies and participating in a conga line (the kids did anyway), we headed out into the cold weather to go on safari where we realized Wesley has a great future as a tour guide: "Woook, elphant. Mommy ephant. Wook Pop, ephant. Nana see ephant?"

Then we went on to bravely conquer Mount Everest. I have to say how impressed I was with Nana and Pop's bravery! The kids and I didn't tell them that the ride stops then you suddenly start going backwards. I turned around when it happened and Pop's look of surprise was priceless!

Here they are proudly showing off the mountain they conquered!

The Tree of Life is one of the most amazing things you'll ever see. We couldn't keep up with all the animals we saw engraved in it. We loved it:

We jumped at the chance to have a group photo:

Jon's shoulders got quite a workout this week!

To go inside the tree you have to become a bug:

Some of us were better at it than others:

I wanted the kids to get into pin trading this trip because I thought it's be fun and a neat way to talk to new people. For those of you who don't know, you can trade pins with different characters with any cast member. So I got on Eb*y and ordered cheap ones so they'd have lots to trade. This was their first trade and the picked the nicest older men to trade with who talked and joked around with them. Ashton decided to collect pins with all the characters. Jackson decided to collect pins with hidden Mickeys on them. It ws fun all week.

While we were waiting for the parade to begin, we saw a kangaroo behind us. Here's the little tour guide pointing it out to everyone. It is so cute to hear him say kang=wuuu.

During the parade we got to meet the stars of our shirts in person- another adorable duo like my two, Chip and Dale:

We also got to meet my favorite:

After seeing the world at Animal Kingdom I forced the group to hit a 2nd park! I wanted to see Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios because I'd never seen it before. This was the only night it was showing, so despite the fatigue we persevered. I was so glad we did because it was an amazing combination of characters, fireworks, light show and amazing special effects.

This was cool because it was SteamBoat Willy- Mickey's first cartoon. We got to watch it 50 times because it played over and over in our hotel room. You should really watch ot sometime. It is so funny how politically incorrect it is now.