Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom with the Shumate Family (April 2016)

The next morning we woke bright and early for another fun day at Disney with our friends, the Shumate Family.  We spent the morning at Hollywood Studios doing all things Star Wars and then the afternoon at Animal Kingdom doing all things Lion Guard.  It was most definitely another fun day with our friends!

We met up with the Shumates outside of Star tours where we took turns riding the rides and eating yummy snacks.  The boys were super cute to smile whenever I requested, which was quite a few times!
More family selfies!

We can't do Hollywood Studios without doing all the different photo ops throughout the park.  It was so cute to see Dax fall right into character as he and daddy climbed on the speeder!

This kid continues to be obsessed with all things Star Wars related.  He loved riding Star Tours over and over with daddy!

I absolutely ADORE this picture below of Jack and Dax on the speeder!  They had so much fun pretending they were chasing rebels.

As we were walking over to explore the new Star Wars launch bay, Robert was carrying Jack on his shoulders.  Jack let out a rather large sneeze and when we looked over at Robert we couldn't help but laugh...
yes that is the remnants of Jack's sneeze all over Roberts head 😂
The joys of fatherhood!

The Star Wars launch bay was super fun, especially since April and I are married to big Star Wars nerds.  Dallas and Robert had a blast looking at all the different Star Wars memorabilia from different movies.  Dax could not wait to meet Kylo Ren and the different Star Wars characters in his Darth Vader costume!

As we were about to go inside the Launch Bay, a couple storm troopers started their patrol in the courtyard outside.  We knew we had the perfect opportunity for magic!  Dax threw on his Stormtrooper costume and quickly ran after them.  It was pretty funny to see him chase them down through the crowd.

The second they noticed Dax, they started to interact with him and ask him all sorts of questions.  The funniest part was when Dax turned to look at the camera and one of the stormtroopers realized he wasn't wearing a full "helmet".  The stormtrooper kept touching Daxton's hair asking, "What is the meaning of this!?  I need your identification number!"  By this point a big crowd was forming taking pics of the mini stormtrooper.  It was pretty awesome to see Daxton's face as the storm troopers marched on and he finally took off his mask.  It was a total look of awe and joy.
A perfect Disney moment!

While exploring the Star Wars launch bay, we also got to see a fun Star Wars show.  It was filled with all of Daxton's favorite characters including Boba Fett!

He about lost his mind when Darth Vader and Kylo Ren came out on the stage.  He could not have been more excited!

The highlight, by far, was meeting Kylo Ren with Dax dressed up as Darth Vader.  He was super star struck, but we did have to hold him back from hugging Kylo as we entered.

The first thing Dax said to Kylo...
"Kylo Ren, I am your Grandpa!"
We all started laughing pretty hard and I could tell it was one of the prouder daddy moments for Dallas.

Our whole group with Kylo Ren
(LtoR) Kylo, Dax, Dallas, Me, April, Jack, Henry, and Robert

After our morning spent doing all things Star Wars, we made our way over to Animal Kingdom.  Jack loves the Lion Guard series so we wanted to make sure we got to spend some quality time meeting Rafiki and exploring the animals.

Another traditional photo op
Our little family at the Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom

Dax and Jack had a blast climbing on all the carved logs around the Tree of Life.

Fun highlights from Animal Kingdom included...
Drumming on every drum available.

Taking the train over to Rafiki's Planet watch and meeting Rafiki himself!  
Jack even sat down and meditated with Rafiki for awhile😂

Dax and Jack were able to be sworn in as members of the Lion Guard.  They swore to protect all those around them.  I love Jack's face in the below middle pic as they were getting sworn in!

We also spent a good amount of time exploring Dinoland, which is Daxton's favorite.  He loved the dino dig area and all the different playground equipment for them to climb, slide, and jump off.

Of course, one of our favorite rides at Animal Kingdom is the Safari.  We see something different every time we go, which is pretty amazing.  The animals put on quite the show for us!

We especially loved all the giraffes eating next to our safari jeep.


By the end of the day, we were exhausted and ready for our drive home.  Dallas and Daxton both even fell asleep on the end of the Safari ride as we were waiting for jeeps to be unloaded.
Needless to say, it was a VERY fun weekend at Disney with the Shumate family!

Shumate Family we love you so much!
Thanks for the fun weekend!
It was so fun to remember such great memories with you guys.  Love and miss you heaps!!

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