Bird Training at Disney

Over the years one of the things I have loved about Disney is the ability for people of all ages to find something to enjoy. Even in the 10 1/2 years we have been taking Ashley to Disney we have watched her interests grow. At first the changes were which was her favorite character (first Pooh, then Princesses, and then Alice and the Hatter). On the last trip we noticed her love of drawing and spent much time learning how to draw Disney characters.

This past trip, though, her interest in animals was shining. We spent our first day of the trip at the Animal Kingdom to let her explore this passion. We noticed birds in a tree, and she saw the Flights of Wonder show twice, but we only stopped to pose with one character (Rafiki) and that was at my mom's request.

While hanging out at Planet Rafiki, Ashley and Don made a beeline to see the reptiles and ask the keeper about bearded dragons (yup, we are still learning about how to take care of Sandy). The cast member told Ashley they were doing something with a bird and would she like to help. Ashley said "of course!" My parents were invited to join us and we were each handed buttons to identify us as the family chosen to train the bird.

We were told to meet his co-cast member (Jennifer) at a specific gate while he picked up the bird. Jennifer escorted us back stage to a classroom. Our only rule was we were not allowed to take any pictures. That was a really tough rule for me to adhere to, but I did.

In the classroom, Jennifer and the other cast member (whose name escapes me) told us about Kevin, the bird. Kevin is a member of the Road Runner family. He was named after Kevin from the Pixar movie Up!

As part of Kevin's training, Don and Ashley were asked to hold sticks with a landing pad so Kevin could practice flying to new people. 

Yes, it was hard to not take any pictures! Especially hard when Kevin opted to land on my mom's head. Even she agreed it would have made a nice profile picture.

Ashley's response: "It was so cool! It was really amazing!"

My response: it is amazing that after all these trips to Disney, we are still finding new forms of magic. 

In addition to this we also dressed in our Dapper clothes and I ran the Princess Half Marathon.