Animal Kingdom!!! (#yaylife)

Well I've had some highs and lows last week for sure! 
Thursday my awesome boyfriend took me to Disney's Animal Kingdom!  

It was kind of funny when he asked me because for some reason I was expecting him to tell me that his family wanted to go or something and he just wasn't telling me. I kept trying to ask questions via text to figure out what the catch was. I finally just asked if it would just be us and he said yes! Cool! I mean I like his family but I also REALLY enjoy spending time just us. Animal Kingdom is by far my favorite park at Disney (are you surprised?) and I haven't been since just shortly after they opened. The last time I went they didn't have any rides except for the Safari but there wasn't much else to see. They hadn't completed Africa and Asia wasn't even built yet. I was in such a bad mood after work I almost told him that I didn't want to go. Once I calmed down I went online and started looking at all the exhibits and what there was to do and I got soooooo freaking excited. I boycott most zoos and captive animal exhibits unless its a refuge of some kind. The reason for this is because usually the animals seem fairly stressed out to me in their very small enclosures. The thing I love about animal kingdom is that their habitats are quite large. Animal Kingdom is the biggest park at Disney in Florida but most of the landscape is used as habitats for the animals. I am always rather impressed by the amount of space and care that goes into these animals. 

There are several "walks" where you can view animals in their habitats playing or doing whatever they do naturally. I took soooo many photos! I had my camera (although I didn't bring fresh batteries and its a 7.1 megapixel but has better zoom than my 8 megapixel iphone 4s) and my iphone--both of which died by the end of the day. The only animals I missed out on photos were the lions and cheetahs which only came out around 6pm. I will be uploading all my photos and videos to my facebook account if anyone wanted to see more. You may have to friend me, I can't remember what settings I have for photos. Here's the link to my facebook account:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=57208657
So I really don't have a favorite part of the day, the whole day was amazing!! One of the really cool parts was going to their "Conservation Station" where you can meet some animal handlers and get behind the scene views of their laboratory and some of their veterinary areas. So total eye candy for me. hehe. You didn't actually get to go into their hospital but some of the walls are actually glass so you can see them working in their diagnostic lab and they also have cameras to show the holding pens where they do treatments. We hopped on the last Safari of the day hoping to see the rest of the animals that were hiding from the heat (BTW--if you go make sure you go early as there is a lot to do and the animals won't come out or be active when its super hot) which was awesome because we did get to see them, the only thing that sucks is that the park closes early so they can start feeding before dark. While we were on the last safari all the giraffes were gathered by their gate where I can only assume they are let in to be fed. By the end of the day my boyfriend was feeling a little crummy as he has a toothache and also some trouble with one of his crowns. 
This actually leads me into the low for my week and as I don't want to dwell on it I'm going to keep it short; my boyfriend may need to have surgery to have an implant (tooth) placed into his jaw bone as the crown (or whatever it is) won't stay in because the tooth root is fractured. This may cost us in the upwards of $3000 and we have no idea how we are going to pay for it. This weekend I may be in over-drive trying to create crafty gifts to stock my etsy shop, I may even have to create a chip-in account. We shall see, there's a small possibility that we can get his dad to cosign for a medical credit card called care credit (www.carecredit.com) so that we can make monthly payments (FYI--it can also be used for your pets in certain vet offices!!). Whatever has to happen we'll make it work but wish us luck!!! 
I hope everyone is doing well and a huge thanks to my BF (who doesn't read this site..I think) for giving me a much needed animal filled day of fun, even though we walked for almost 8 hours straight. OH and those Rhinos in the photo...there are only about 5000 left on earth. They are highly endangered and killed for their horns :(
peace, love, and pawprints