Day One: Animal Kingdom

We started this trip off with a bang. It was a fairly uneventful travel day on Friday, and now we have finished our first day in a park. We decided to do Animal Kingdom first, a break from tradition, but it was definitely the right move.
We got a nice dose of "Welcome to Sunny Florida" with the nonstop rain. It kept up until late afternoon, so we had a nice and soggy day. It kept the crowds manageable though. The boys went on Expedition Everest three times in a row because of the light crowds, so the rain was definitely a good thing in their eyes. We have been here enough to know what to expect, so we were well prepared with our U of U and Emergency Essentials ponchos. After Everest, we spent some time in DinoLand, knocking out the rides there, and then had a great time at the Finding Nemo show. The kids have the CD of this show, and so hearing them sing along was fun. It was not even annoying to hear these songs for the millioneth time. The magic of Disney!
We made the across the park trek to the Safari ride after Nemo, and Jonah got to see a hippo all the way out the water. For all the times we have been on this ride, this is probably the first time that we have a seen a hippo all the way out. Another benefit of the rain I suppose.
We ended the day with dinner a the Rainforest Cafe. Grace wanted to show how she could make her eyes look like the frogs, and man did she succeed. As you can see in the pictures, the day wiped Jonah out, he finished his slushee and was done. Lily did well today. She is going to have the adjust to not having her rigid schedule, but she will survive. She did pretty good considering.
Coming up tomorrow is Disney's Hollywood Studios and the last day of ESPN the Weekend. How tough will the crowds be? We will see!