Disney School trip part 2

The last day of our trip, we headed to Animal Kingdom to finish up our quick tour of the Happiest Place on Earth.  

Julie and Katie after we checked out of our room

We stayed in the Basketball section of All Star Sports

The pool and Food court area

Our amazing bus driver - Dewayne

arriving at Animal Kingdom that morning

Katie and the Tree of Life

Meeting Pooh

Katie and Eeyore

Julie and I meet Tigger

Julie with Expedition Everest in the background

Self portrait on Triceratops Spin

Katie and I meet Meeko

notice the gorilla butt in the background!

The happy group with Donald before our character lunch

Kim and Richard with Mickey

Katie and Goofy

Who loves Goofy?

The safari ride - Giraffes

close up of the giraffe

elephants on the safari

this Rhino got so close!

Overall, the trip went very well, the kids behaved themselves (as well as teenagers can be expected to behave!).  The trip home was a little rough, but we survived.  I'll be ready to do this again in 2 years.  Its now time to take the Carroll family back there again!  Have a magical day!

Disney school trip part 1

Over the Mardi Gras break, my co-worker, Julie and I take a group of our students to Walt Disney World to participate in their YES (Youth Educational Series) program in science and math.  It is a fun program that lets us get some "backstage" views of 'the World' and visit my happy place at the same time.  Unfortunately, I can't post pics of my students on my personal blog, so here are some pics of the rest of us having a good time.  I have done this trip 5 times, but this is the first time Katie has come.  She had a great time.  Part 1 contains pictures of our first two days at the Magic Kingdom, the Studios and Epcot:

Around 5:30 am waiting for Nannie Kim and Mr. Richard to arrive

arriving in the World around 8 pm

greeting us when we got to our room

the well rested teachers at the beginning of  the trip

Katie and her ears!

Cinderella's castle

how we felt later in the triip

Meeting our Louisiana princess - Tiana

arriving at the Studios

Cross off of our to do list: Phineas and Ferb!

...another to cross off: Toy Story Mania ride

Toy Story Mania ride

waiting with Mr. Richard and Nannie Kim for Fantasmic

Epcot the 2nd morning

$3 grapes

This is how we felt after waiting 2 HOURS for Soarin'

Our character dinner at The Garden Grill; Katie with Dale

Richard with Dale

Katie and Pluto

Katie and I with Mickey!

LSU Vet school open house

This Saturday the LSU Vet school had its open house.  I think Katie had been before, but I don't know that Emma had ever been.  The open house was 30 years old this year (almost as old a me..tee hee).  It is a lot of  fun and this biology teacher really loves it.

At the beginning of our tour

petting the precious bunny

touching a cow eye (my brave girls)

In case you are wondering, the purpose of the fistulated cow is to breed good bacteria to help other cows!  I had to ask, of course

who was the only one brave enough to stick their hand in the cow?

... the biology teacher!

"Thanks for violating me, Mrs. Carroll"

Emma loved all the horses at the school.

"Can we have horses in The Willows"?

 Next, we headed to the petting zoo portion of the tour and saw some cuties and a friend from school:

Emma's friend, Molly.

One of the coolest parts was the equine treadmill.  I had never seen this, and they can get the horses running 35 mph.  I've never been so close to a horse going so fast.  Very cool.

checking out more horses - my city girl kids were fascinated.

Emma figured out that if she held the hay up to them, they would eat out of her hands.

some of the rehabilitated birds

Getting to ultrasound some things

Emma felt some cow lungs - they were huge!

my future scientists checking out some parasites under the microscope.

Hard to see, but this is Mike the Tiger!

A great time was passed by all...off to Johnny's pizza for lunch!