Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Sunday we headed back in to Orlando

to check out Animal Kingdom!

Our first experience with the train/trolley rides from parking into the Park.

 

 The day we went to Animal Kingdom was 

probably the nicest weather wise.

I think it was in the low 70s and sunny.

We were told that the Safari is the best,

so we headed towards the back of the Park right away

and got in line for it.

We could have done a FastPass, 

but the wait was about 15-20", so we decided to wait it out.

 

The Safari was such a neat experience!

All of us really enjoyed it.

 

The giraffes were my favorite -

as they usually are!

After we saw this giraffe, we stopped

for another giraffe to cross the road right in front of us!

I thought he might peek his head inside our car...

 

 After the Safari,

we started our walk around the Park.

We stopped for a quick PB&J lunch.

The crowds were not heavy at all!

I tried to get one of the girls to go with me

on Mt. Yeti, the roller coaster at the Park.

But no one would go with me!

We seemed to have perfect timing as we were walking around.

We got a quick ice cream snack,

and then waited for about 30 minutes 

to check out the musical/puppet show Nemo! 

We all loved it!

The puppets and actors/singers were amazing!

It was very neat to watch the puppets come to life.

And they were huge!

After Nemo we headed over to DinoLand.

I did get the girls to go on some little dinosaur ride.

But that was it!

I am glad they are not too much into character greetings.

We did find Goofy and Pluto and decided to say hi.

These lines take forever!

And wouldn't you know it, 

right as we got to the front of the line,

they had to go take a break!

And then Pluto had to "go have a bath",

so only Goofy came back.

  

We ended the day with the Lion King show.

That was AMAZING!

I didn't take any pics,

but that whole auditorium was hopping!

After the show, we did our 1 souvenir for the day.

Claire chose a Mickey Mouse blanket wrap.

Paige chose a stuffed lion.

And Sophie chose a baby giraffe in a blanket.

 

The Tree of Life.

 

Honestly, the girls were the best to travel with!

Hardly any whining,

and they ate the snacks and lunches we packed like troopers!

They were guaranteed one souvenir at each park,

on our way out.

They didn't even ask for snacks throughout the day!

Up next Day 4: The Beach!

Day 2: Ron Jon Cape Caribe

We decided to check out the resort we were staying at on Day 2.

It worked out perfectly to have a day of rest after Sea World.

The resort we stayed at was great!

We had a 2 bedroom condo - kitchen, laundry, etc!

We could have really stayed around the resort all week if we wanted.

Day 2 was a little chilly.

But the girls didn't care!

They were in the pool/water park by 10:30 or so.

I think they lasted about an hour, and then were a little cold.

 

The pool/waterpark area was great!

 There was the main pool area,

a hot tub,

a splash pad, and

a water slide area.

After swimming for a little while,

we showered up and headed out for lunch.

We found this quaint little pizza joint,

Papa Vitos.

It was good!

 

And everyone was happy - 

Sophie could have her spaghetti

and we had our pizza!

We pretty much just chilled back at the resort for the rest of the day.

That night, we saw a few cruise ships pass by us

as they were leaving the port.

 

I can't remember what we had for dinner,

but we stayed in and ate in our apartment.

Then, we rested up so we could drive into Orlando the next day.

Up next, Day 3: Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Day 1: Sea World

We flew down on a Thursday.

Friday we decided to head back in to Orlando

and check out Sea World!

 

Little did we know that the arctic blast that was affecting MN

was also being felt down in Florida!

We arrived at Sea World around 11:00 or so,

and ate our sack lunches in the car before we headed in.

The day started off chilly,

but nothing us Minnesotans couldn't handle.

 

We really had no agenda here.

 We just started walking and the first place we ended up at

as the Shamu show.

It was pretty neat!

As you can see in the pic,

only the brave souls sat in the "wet section".

It would have been 10x as cold if we had gotten wet!

After the Shamu show,

we continued walking around the park.

It seemed like it kept getting cooler the longer we were there.

A lot of people had hats, mittens, and scarves on!

Wherever we could,

we tried to duck inside and warm up a little.

We ended up trying to decide between waiting in line for the dolphins

or walking through the aquarium

The aquarium won out!

 

I think it was about 3:30 or so,

and we were all freezing!

The girls knew they could get 1 souvenir at each park.

Claire found a sweatshirt!

Sophie picked out a beach towel - that she was able to use as a blanket!

And Paige chose a magnet.

It was a fun, but quick trip to Sea World!

We headed back to our resort, eating dinner on the way.

We pretty much just crashed when we go back.

Next up - Day 2: hanging out around the resort.

Florida

Goodness...

I have been terrible at this blog.

We all love looking back in time to the previous posts -

but I never seem to find the time to make new ones!

We must be too busy  :)

In January, we were so fortunate to take a trip to Florida!

Here is the start of my post-reflection of our trip.

Here we are the morning we left COLD Minnesota...

And at the airport....

(photo bomber in the background!)

 

The girls were perfect ages to travel with!

They were so excited to fly.

 

Our flight didn't leave until 1 pm or so.

We left home about 8:30 am,

parked the car at Terminal 2,

and took the Light Rail over to Terminal 1.

 

Everything went so smoothly!

Plenty of time to get through the airport to our gate.

We arrived into Orlando around 5:30,

picked up the rental van,

headed to Disney to get our passes,

and then drove to Cocoa Beach to our resort.

The day flew by,

and it was after 9:00 pm after we got all checked in.

We were so happy with our resort,

Ron Jon Cape Caribe,

right on the ocean!

Up next,

Day 1:

Sea World!

Wow....A Post After 6 + Months!

I thought I should do a post since it has been over 6 months since the last one!  

It has been so long that I was not sure of my login/password to get in to Blogger.  Goodness.  

Life is sure busy.  

I just uploaded my pics from the 4th of July and realized 

I took ZERO pics in the month of June.  

I guess we were busy - and the camera did not make it's way out of my bag.  

So, here are some pics from the 4th of July (for posterity).  

The girls are pretty hand getting on the internet. 

 They usually look at our blog and ask why I haven't put anything on for so long! 

We celebrated the 4th here in town.  

8K Freedom Fun Run for me in the am (yay!).

Parade.

Out to Lake Emily to Auntie Jan and Uncle Ike's.

Swimming.  Waterskiing (for Claire!).  Food.

Fireworks.

We were all exhausted.

 

A fun-filled 4th!

Quick December Review

Well... another month almost over.

2012 has gone by way too fast.

Here are a few pics of the last few weeks -

I wanted to get on the blog so we remember!

Claire & Sophie danced at halftime of a girls' basketball game.

 Claire, Ryenne, & Maya are all in the same group.

Here's Claire and Maya...

 Sophie's song, "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"

This has been by far the latest in the season I have gotten my Christmas cards ready.

Since I didn't have any good fall pics of all 3,

I decided to wait for some snow.

Here's some shots of our "session" in our backyard!

(Note: The OLD retaining wall is a great background!)

Sophie... 

Claire...

Paige...

Group shot attempt  :)

Mid-December came school Christmas programs for Claire and Sophie.

I didn't bring my camera for Claire's - it's always so hard to see in that gym.

Sophie's was on a Thursday afternoon.

Grandma Pettis came up and we pulled Claire out early to go watch.

They sang 6 or 7 songs!

And then we had yummy cookies and juice.

 

I finally started Christmas shopping on the afternoon of 12/19.  

Ugh.

Friday, December 21st Paige turned 10!

She had 4 girls over after school and for a sleepover.

They had a lot of fun.

(Note: Make the girls sleep downstairs next time so adults can sleep!)

 

Sunday, 12/23 was the Meyer Christmas celebration.

We headed down to Wells for some food, family, and fun!

Mitch and Ken 

Cousin Ryan came home from Hong Kong!

The girls (& us!) had a lot of fun visiting and playing with him.

He brought a TON of t-shirts and wrapped up each individually.

We had fun playing a left right left game and passing them around.

 

Claire had fun making paper hats.

And all the girls had fun playing with their cousin Rachel! 

Paige's godparents, Dan & Julie, gave her this AG horse!

She LOVES it! 

Sophie's godparents, Deb & Mike,

surprised her with a Lollaloopsy treehouse and of course,

a new Harley Davidson shirt! 

Christmas Eve afternoon, we packed up and headed to the farm!

We had so much stuff, that we had to put Paige in and then add more stuff! 

I snapped this pic of gifts under Grandma's tree - 

before David's, Darrell's, Lynn's, Meghan's, Barb's, and PeeWee's came!

Fun pics in Grandma's living room...

All the little 2nd cousins were there!

Back row: Joe, Alysen, Maya, Liam, Grace, Paige, Ryenne

Front: Gavin, Aiden, Brooke, Emmy, Amelia, Claire, & Sophie 

Grandma Pettis got a tablet and the INTERNET at the farm!

She was super excited to learn of all her new Facebook friends  :) 

Grandpa's new MSU sweatshirt!

(Just what he wanted!) 

Christmas Day we headed into Great Grandma's to celebrate with the Evesons!

Claire & Amelia - the twins! 

Uncle Gary & Grandpa helped Liam put together this Lego helicopter - 

it took pretty much the whole day! 

That's all the pics I really took.

There were so many people at every place, that it was so chaotic.

Christmas Day we had fun playing with Aleta and Lauren, and missed baby Madelyn!

This will probably be all my posts for 2012.

Every year I look back and keep telling myself to post more.

Here's to a "hopeful" 2013, filled with many memories!