Well...it might take me a few weeks to get all these posts up, but I am still going to try! I am trying to make a Shutterfly photobook of our vacation so I will probably wait until I make those collage pages before I post (these days I have to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, you understand right?!).
We DROVE to Orlando (11 to 12 hours) with both girls and it wasn't too bad at all!!! We left out of Jackson on Saturday around 1:45. We had the car loaded down with clothes, strollers, snacks, activities, books, LOTS of DVD's, etc. For many of you that know my sweet Addison, you will not be surprised by this at all. Addison was so excited about the trip in general and ALL the things that we had packed in a basket to "do" on the way that before we even got an hour out of town, I think that she had picked up every single one of them and read or doodled in it somewhere! She had me turning around "playing and reading" and I was already thinking that this was going to be a LONG trip. On the other hand, Maggie didn't even make it to I-55 before she was asleep for her afternoon nap (perfect timing!). Addie eventually calmed down and settled in with a few DVD's, but she only slept maybe 1.5 hours of the whole trip (she is definitely my child - it is so hard to sleep when you are soooo excited!). Lee drove to Crestview, FL, we had dinner then I finished out the rest of the drive (more than half of the trip I might add!). Maggie only struggled for about an hour after supper so we have to definitely count ourselves lucky. We pulled in to Orlando a little after 2 AM (lost an hour to time zone change) and only made 3 stops total! Not bad considering that we set out on this journey not knowing whether we would drive the whole way in one day or stop and spend the night halfway. My mom was already down there for a conference so we awakened her to let us in her room and we had 2 giggly girls for about 30 minutes, but we eventually settled in and everyone slept till almost 9:30 the next morning (except Da'be, of course, because she had classes)!!!
We got dressed and headed out to Sea World (which was so close that we could walk across the street!). We spent Sunday afternoon and night and Monday morning and afternoon at Sea World (they have a 2 days for the price of 1 deal going on right now). The girls LOVED the animal shows, exhibits, and especially the rides! Our favorite family show was "Blue Horizon" which is a dolphin and bird show with platform divers and acrobats, but I would bet the Elmo and Friends show would run a close race as far as the girls are concerned! Maggie and Addison loved seeing all of their Seasame Street friends...from afar of course. They jumped, danced, clapped, sang la-la-la, but the opportunity to get close came and no-takers! Maggie enjoyed giggling and pointing at Elmo (I think Addison being scared to get anywhere near made her a little leary as well)! We saw sharks, polar bears, manatees, penguins, dolphins, sea lions, whales and even touched stingrays! I have to brag on my Addie because she rode the Journey to Atlantis with me (which is the big boat that makes the large splash drop at the very end). It makes a winding journey through several rooms telling the story of Atlantis and she was ok with that...but, when it started to crank up she decided that we needed to get off now! But, she was smiling when it was over! We made it around to Shamu's Happy Harbour where all the kiddie rides are and needless to say, everyone was happy! We rode and rode and rode and everytime we passed a ride, Maggie would point and say..."I want to 'wide'!" We were a little disappointed that Clydesdales are no longer at Sea World because this was Addison's favorite 2 years ago and we were looking forward to showing them to Maggie :(
We left late afternoon the second day and headed over to Joe's Crab Shack for a wonderful meal! Even though we didn't use it often, we LOVED having our car to be able to come and go as we wanted without having to rely on someone else to get us here and there...Enjoy the pictures (I hope I can get them to load so that they can be clicked on to enlarge - looks like it worked!)
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