Our New Year's Day with the animals

This year on New Year's Day, Patrick thought it would be fun to take the dumplings to Animal Kingdom over at Disney.  It's hard to believe we've only been one other time with just Caleb five and half years ago.  Yep, we mostly hit up the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  Anyway, we arrived around lunch time and conveniently forgot our stroller.  Caleb and Madeline took a lot of photos with their phones (and Patrick's), and I spent my time chasing after them.

I knew that we would be going on the safari.  So I schlepped my 80-200mm f/2.8 lens around with me...all day.  It made for a pretty heavy bag on my back all day, but it was worth it to bring it.  The safari ride is extremely bumpy.  So in order to avoid camera shake, I really cranked up my ISO so I could also dial up my shutter speed.  I took a lot more photos of the animals but am only sharing a handful.

We all really enjoyed making our way through the Maharjah Jungle Trek.

After the trek we headed over to Dinoland for some Fossil Fun games and a mini roller coaster (Primeval Whirl) for Madeline and me.

We had such a great time and were so glad we managed to find some time to enjoy this part of Disney that we really don't see.

Well, I still have to work on my Year in Review post.  Caleb had two days of tennis tournament play this weekend, which meant very little time at home for us.  He has really enjoyed playing up in the 12s. And although he didn't win this weekend, he loved the challenge of playing 12s in a higher level tournament and did well!  It was a great learning experience on so many levels.  We are so proud of him.

A week from today this precious boy of ours will be turning ten.  Ten!!!  The two digit club.  WHAT?!  It's crazy!  Well, this weekend, of course, he wants to play in a tennis tournament.  And thankfully this one is held just a stone's throw from my sister's place.   But what to do about a birthday party...so, we decided we're going to take Charlie our RV (also known as the players lounge or party bus) and have a little cookout/party during the tournament on Saturday.  When we shared with Caleb our idea of how we could help him to have a birthday "party" the weekend before his birthday while still allowing him to play in the tournament, he just lit up.  So that's the plan.  My sweet mother-in-law, Bammy, will be coming down from Connecticut to help him celebrate.  So we are looking forward to having her here.  And you better believe I'll be baking up lots of cupcakes to take with us.  Fun times await for this special birthday boy!