Tag Archives: Holiday

Family, Family Adventures, Food, Photo-A-Day

At Mimi and Dano’s

The kids enjoying ice cream outside in December
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01451

On our first full day at Mimi and Dano’s we did a few things. Mimi, Allison and I went to the store to buy food for Christmas. Dano took the kids on a golf cart adventure and both kids got to drive the golf cart in a big parking lot. Eva enjoyed it, Andy was a bit hesitant about it. Driving a golf cart certainly takes some getting used to.

Fitzy has arrived

Fitzy not only made the trip to Disney but he also arrived at Mimi and Dano’s to the delight of Andy. Andy is still into this Elf on the Shelf he was so happy that Fitzy came along with us.

Andy got a Cake Pop

We went to one of the Villages main squares to do some shopping but also to visit Allison’s old boss from American Eagle. She works in a quirky little store in one of the villages. I forget which one we were at, however. I got some new shoes and We also got some ice cream despite there being cooler temperatures than usual in Florida. We also stopped by a Starbucks and Andy got a reindeer cake pop.

Eva's Room

We got back to the house and Allison, Andy and Mimi did a lot of baking. Eva helped out as well but mostly she was setting up her room. She’s staying in the laundry room for the trip. she has a nice air mattress and a very comfy blanket to keep her warm and comfortable.

Ninjabread men

I brought along Andy’s Ninjabread men baking kit. He and Eva did the decorating on these guys.

Tonight we watched Christmas vacation. I think I connected Dano’s tv to all our streaming services so that we could make sure not to miss any of our favorite Christmas movies.

Disney, Family Adventures, Food, Photo-A-Day

Animal Kingdom 2022

Enjoying a Mickey Themed Snack
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01450

Today we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This was part of our Christmas gift from Dan and Marcia along with our stay at All- Star Music last night. Because we were staying on property we were able to get into the park early. After taking a photo by the giant Animal Kingdom Christmas tree Allison, Eva, andy and I went to the Avatar Flight of Passage ride. This is our favorite ride and it is super popular so waiting in line for it is a very long thing. I think we only waited for about 45 minutes though. We had gotten there close to when the rope drops for the park and because we were on property we got in a little earlier. However, the rope drop happened and all those people were sprinting to the line. It was obnoxious but we were able to get on the ride and I was able to book us a Lightning pass for the Safari when we were done with Flight of Passage.

The Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree

?The Animal Kingdom Christmas tree was huge. We asked someone passing by to take our photo so we could all be in it.

at animal Kingdom

Once inside Animal Kingdom we saw this painting and had to get a family photo by it. This was where we parted ways with Dan and Marcia before heading to Pandora to wait for the Avatar ride.

After the Avatar ride we caught up with Dan and Marcia and had a snack. I opted for the giant Mickey Mouse pretzel with cheese. We actually got a couple of these to enjoy before going on the safari ride. Having the Genie + was helpful because once we got on that ride I could book another ride right away and so I booked us Everest for Allison, Eva, Andy and myself. The safari was one of the best we’d been on because so many animals were out for us to see. We saw almost all of them around the park. I think it was because it was so cool out that we had such good luck. Most other times we’ve gone have been very hot so many animals are in the shade.

Andy and his Hippo Pal

After the safari we wandered the animal trail around the ride to see even more animals. Andy was excited to see a hippo. He’s really into hippos these days and has a stuffed one from my work that he named dumpling.

Andy at Rafikis Conservation Station Petting Zoo

After the nature walk we went to Rafiki’s Conservation Station on the little train and there they have a petting zoo. Andy had a lot of fun petting the different animals like pigs and goats and sheep. They had a drawing exhibt as well but we did not stay for that because we had to get back to Everest to ride that ride.

Santa on a boat

We were a little early for our scheduled time at Everest so we watched several themed boats go around a pond in the middle of Animal Kingdom. One happened to have Santa on it.

After Everest we had lunch at Restrauntasaurus. We ordered our meals through the Disney app and were able to go in and pick them up and find seats inside the building. It was very busy but we were not waiting long. What we did wait a long time for was the Dinosaur ride. Most Disney attractions have something fun to look at while waiting for the ride. Dinosaur does not. Avatar Flight of Passage is a great example of how they did a nice job of making the waiting in line easier on everyone by making it interesting.

After Dinosaur we were wiped so we had a snack, Mickey Mouse Ice Cream bars and then hit a couple of the gift shops and headed on our way to Dan and Marcia’s.

Before we got to their house we stopped for food at their favorite Mexican place. The food was excellent.