Now that Brayden is almost 5 and Kieran is 2,  hubby and I thought they were at the perfect age and it to actually enjoy a trip to Disney World.  Next year Brayden will be off to Kindergarten and that means traveling during school vacation breaks, which I am so not a fan of.  Our previous 2 trips to Disney were during the month of February and we were able to pretty much walk onto every ride and didn’t have to deal with large crowds.  We have always dreamed of staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and knew it would be the ideal place for our kids, especially Brayden, who is obsessed with “African animals.”  Not only did our room have a great view of the animals, but the food at all the restaurants on the grounds, was just fantastic.  Note:  if you do not like food with great flavor, do not eat at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Another note, when the Surprise family books a vacation, book the same week. Our last 3 vacations fell during the weeks that NY got pounded on with snow.  Not to brag, but while NY was canceling schools, we were swimming in the resort pool, hehehe.  The mornings started early, the days were very long and there was more than one occasion where my kids literally fell asleep at the dinner table.  But we had a complete blast and look forward to going back in 4-5 years.  Back to Hawaii first.  Maybe I will take my kids next time

The inside of Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the sunrise at 5 am.

Animal Kingdom Park

Being that Keiran is a little to young to go on a lot of the rides, I got to spend a lot of one on one time with him while Brayden and Daddy went on some fun rides.

Mr. Dinosaur loved Aninmal Kingdom Park, especially the Dinoland.  Only my kids would come home with 11 dinosaurs and not one piece of Mickey Mouse paraphernalia.

There was no doubt that Kieran was a character lover. He attacked several of them and could be in several other family photos due to his lack of patience of waiting in line and running right up the the characters.

I love this old camera prop, got to get the kids loving the camera young!

One of our big surprise’s for Brayden was lunch at the TREX Cafe.  We made what was our first and I hope our last trip to Build a Dino, aka Build a Bear.

Our last full day at Disney was spent at Hollywood.  It was a little overcrowed compared to the other parks, but that was  because ESPN was in town.  I can’t believe Curt Schilling was there and I totally missed him. ESPN had a great set up for the fans and kids.

The Surprise Family geared up in our Red Sox apparal.  Red Sox Nation was well represented in Disney!  Kieran on a film slide.  The poor kid will probably never know what film is.   And of coarse, what is a day at Disney without a parade!

Now I know why they call Disney the “Happiest Place on Earth.”  Not only did my family have a blast, but the staff there really seems to enjoy their work too.  One thing that really stuck out to me was when I overheard one of the staff employees at the Animal Kingdom Lodge say, “My job is to make people happy.  What could be better than that?”  I couldn’t agree anymore!