Disney World - Part 1 - Animal Kingdom

We just got back from the most amazing week-long vacation to Disney World!  This was Vidya's first time there (if you don't count when she was in my belly), and Keshav didn't really remember when he went for his 2nd birthday, so everything was new and fresh for both of them!  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in the Jambo House, and it was the perfect choice of hotel for the kids as we could see all sorts of animals from our balcony!  We saw giraffes, zebras, ostriches, deer, and all different kinds of birds!  The kids spent so much time just observing them from our room!  We also loved the pool at our hotel as it had an awesome water slide for Keshav and a wading area for Vidya!

For our first day at the parks, we went to Animal Kingdom!  Everyone enjoyed seeing all the different animals throughout the park.  Keshav's favorite ride by far was Expedition Everest, which was a roller coaster in the "Asia" part of the park!  He also enjoyed Kali River Rapids, and both kids loved the Kilimanjaro Safari ride!  Vidya had a blast riding the Triceratops spin ride :)  We also saw two amazing shows: Finding Nemo and The Lion King!

Safari!

Spinning Triceratops

Watching the tiger play

Elephant on the safari

Tree of Life!

We did a lot of dancing during our time at Disney!  Here, an African music band was playing out on the street, and the kids really enjoyed the music!



And, of course, one of the best parts of Disney is meeting some of the kids' favorite characters!  We even had dinner at the Tusker House restaurant in Animal Kingdom with Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofy!

The whole family!

Chip and Dale!

Daisy

Donald

Selfie!

During dinner with the characters, there was even more dancing!  The pure joy that the kids felt made us so happy that we were able to bring them on this vacation!  It was a wonderful first day of our trip!