Girl Scout Overnight at SeaWorld

Rosemary’s Girl Scout troop chose to spend the night at SeaWorld as the end of the year party. In early May, we headed down to Orlando for the overnight trip. It took four hours to get there, but we made it! It was a little bit overcast that day so very few people were actually in the park and the girls got to do so much.

At Wild Arctic

We literally all weighed a ton.

The girls.

Late that afternoon, we made our way over to the education area of the park. There the girls did a craft, played a game, and had dinner. Once the park closed, we unloaded all of our stuff into one of the Turtle Trek aquarium rooms. We were going to sleep with the manatees! After we were unloaded, we headed out to see a few of the animals after dark. The girls kept having to stop to go to the bathroom and it was rainy so we didn’t see too much before we headed back to get ready for bed.

Rosemary slept right in front of the glass and I was up with the other moms on the platform behind her. We both actually slept really well.

Enjoying our ice cream whale desserts.

In the morning, we got up, got dressed, packed up and headed to breakfast in the Seafire Inn. After that, we got to see some of the dolphins behind the scenes then the girls went to put the stingrays. By then, the park was about ready to open so we had to make our way back to the cars.

Having been to SeaWorld a lot, I wasn’t sure how much different this would be, but I have to say, actually spending the night with the manatees was pretty cool.

Week at the Condo 2013

To wrap up our summer, the kids and I met up with my parents for a week in Orlando at Grand Villas. Jonathan joined us for the last few days.

We intentionally planned a relaxing week, venturing out to IKEA and the outlets, but not many other places. We spent hours in the pool, visited with the Pates, and enjoyed some good food. When Jonathan joined us, we spent a day at SeaWorld.

This little boy is a fish. He’s not quite ready to pass the YMCA swim test (treading water for 30 seconds is tough!) but he’s swimming all over on his own.

Swimming with Grandpa and enjoying the ‘boat’ they made out of pool noodles and dive rings. Charlotte just went all over in that vest.

We were also able to watch Shark Week, which we wouldn’t have been able to do at home. They were fascinated.

Watching Shark Cam follow Large Marge.

The kids enjoyed seeing the sea lions. We also got our first ride on the new Antarctica attraction. So COLD!

Not sure why we had the stroller… :-)

These two kids were so excited to ride in the front of the train!

Charlotte tried so hard to pull the lever to ring the bell.

On our way back home, we headed over to Janey’s to celebrate Camille’s first birthday.

Spring Break 2013

At the end of March, the kids and I took a week off for spring break. I think we were all ready to take a step back from the routine of preschool, homeschool, and all of the other usual weekly commitments. We spent the first part of the week close to home then headed down to Eustis for a few days at the end of the week when Jonathan had some time off too.

One of the days we headed over to SeaWorld.

Ben and Rosemary were very excited about their whale flukes necklaces.

After SeaWorld, we stopped off to visit a bit with Janey and Becky (and finished delivering all of the Girl Scout cookies!) It was good to see each of them and catch up.

Before heading back to Gainesville, we met up with Jonathan’s side of the family for a picnic. It was perfect weather and so fun to see everyone.

Janice had an Easter egg hunt for the kids to enjoy.

Rosemary had a great time playing with her cousins. She said that playing with Breanna was the best part.

Charlotte desperately wanted a picture taken after she ate her cupcake.

Ben enjoyed the icing on his cupcake…not sure if he actually ate the cake part of it.

Jonathan and I walked with the kids down to the water. We played and visited a bit more before heading back to Gainesville.

We hadn’t dyed Easter eggs yet and Janice gave both Rosemary and Ben paint sticks to paint eggs with so when we got home, I headed to work and Jonathan boiled some eggs. The kids painted them that night.

A Week at the Condo

At the end of August, the kids and I headed down to Orlando to spend a week with my mom at a condo just off of 192. We had a few small activities planned during the week, but we also spent lots of time relaxing and swimming.

Monday

Our first full day there, we spent the morning at IKEA, enjoying their free Monday morning breakfast and 90 minutes of playtime for Rosemary and Ben. Charlotte spent the time snoozing in her stroller while Mom and I shopped. We came home with a trunkful.

Monday night I went to visit Janey and her new baby, Camille. I was pretty excited that it worked out timing-wise to visit them. I didn’t take pics, but she was a beautiful little baby.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we headed to International Drive to see visit The Titanic Experience. We’d gotten a coupon back in April for homeschool families and we were finally able to use it. As the little Titanic buffs that they are, Rosemary and Ben were both so excited about this. Ben kept asking how many days were left until we went to the Titanic exhibit. I was a little unsure as to what it would actually be like, but since we had a coupon, figured it was worth it to see.

It ended up being a really interesting exhibit. There were at least 100 actual artifacts from the Titanic itself including a deck chair, a still-corked Champaign bottle, and a fairly large piece of the hull. There were several reconstructed rooms to view or walk through. We were all given names of actual passengers and towards the end of the tour we found out whether we survived. All four of the girls survived, Ben’s passenger was the only one to perish in the disaster. And while having Charlotte on the tour made things somewhat more difficult, I think everyone really enjoyed our time there.

We couldn’t take photos once the tour started, but we snapped a few outside and in the lobby.

They really wanted this photo in front of the grand staircase. We couldn’t take pics in front of the reconstructed one inside.

She looks happy enough here, but once that tour started with the ship’s baker, not so much. :-)

There was a mock-up of a ship’s bow in front of a green wall. The kids went crazy with that.

She has not seen the 1997 Titanic movie.

Chillin’

Wednesday

The next day we visited some of the outlet malls for some shopping. Since we had the kids with us, Mom and I didn’t do too much shopping, but we hit the stores we wanted to before heading back to the condo.

Thursday

We spent Thursday at the condo and enjoyed the pools. We’d been swimming most every day, as long as it wasn’t raining.

There were two very fun slides for the kids.

Even though Ben didn’t technically meet the height requirement, he enjoyed the slides too.

The living room of our condo

Mom walking with Charlotte and Ben to the ice cream party

The ice cream party consisted of just us. :-) But it worked and the kids enjoyed looking through the pamphlets.

That night, Jonathan and my dad arrived to spend the long weekend with us.

Friday

We visited SeaWorld on Friday. It was a hot day, but we still hit our favorite shows before leaving in the mid-afternoon. And Ben got to ride Shamu the rollercoaster (as we call it) for the first time that day. He and I were seated in the second to the last row and he did not make a sound the entire ride. He talked about doing it again so he must have enjoyed it.

After our barbeque lunch, we got a few family photos.

This was supposed to be our silly pic.

The matching girls

Non-matching boys

We checked out the stingrays too.

I think both of the kids got to touch them this time. I did too. So slippery.

Saturday

On our last full day, mom and I went to Winter Garden Village to shop while the kids swam with my dad and Jonathan. That night, Jonathan and I went out on a date to Houlihan’s for dinner.

The next morning we loaded up and headed home. We had a few days to recover before heading out for another trip on Thursday. Even though we had started school, it still felt like summer and it was a great way to end the season.

SeaWorld 2012

We finally took our first trip to SeaWorld this year in early May. This was probably the first time that Charlotte really got into the shows.

She happily sat on Jonathan’s lap during the dolphin show.

And watched every moment of it.

It’s our favorite show there.

After that, we headed over to go through the new Turtle Trek. I think Rosemary will go again, not sure if Ben would though.

Our next stop was the Shamu show.

Charlotte spotted some birds in the bushes.

A quick pic with Grandma

Shamu!