Orlando Weekend

We had a pretty jam packed weekend last week.  On Saturday afternoon we made the last minute decision to accompany Big Red and his boys to Orlando for special trip to Bass Pro Shops then Seaworld on Sunday.  J had to leave for DC on Sunday evening so he had to pack his bags for a week.  It was a complete whirlwind of a trip but it was such fun.  I love being sponateous 🙂

Since my car is the only vehicle that could seat all seven of us, J got the honor of driving us all through the rain and lovebugs to O-town.

Big Red, who is never without snacks, brought a couple of teeny, tiny Slim Jims for himself and J.  I’m not much of a beef jerky girl so I passed on that little delight…

All of our luggage somehow fit in the itty bitty truck space I had behind the third row.

The little dudes and I kicked back to watch the movie, Avatar.  Before we knew it, we were at Bass Pro Shops!

T-bone has taken a real interest in fishing lately which pleases Big Red to no end.  T-bone wrote him a special note a while back requesting a trip to Bass Pro Shops to pick out his very own fishing pole.  Big Red was so excited to make T-bone’s wish come true.  It was really special to be along to watch their special moment.

All six of the men were in hog heaven at this store…  This kind of store isn’t really my thing so I spent my time laughing at all the silly fishing lure names displayed on all the packaging and taking pictures of the boys.  After every rod had been tested and every reel was inspected, we were finally able to leave the outdoor sportsman’s paradise.  Cutie Pie scored his first fishing rod along with T-bone.  They were over the moon!

We grabbed a yummy dinner at Carrabba’s then headed to the Hilton resort by Seaworld for the night.

We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning and headed out to Seaworld.  Our hotel gave us complimentary quick queue passes for the rides so we didn’t have to wait very long for the rides or pay for things like the Sky Tower.  Wildman wanted to do the Sky Tower first thing so up we went.

The view was pretty awesome at the top of the tower.  I spotted all of the roller coasters I wanted to try.  J gets motion sick so he is never able to ride them with me.  Lucky for me, Big Red is a huge roller coaster fan and happily joined me on Manta (which we rode 5 times) and Kraken ( which we rode twice).  It was so awesome!!!

Feeding the dolphins was a fun experience for the kids.  Cutie Pie didn’t like it so much when one of them spit a huge stream of water in his face though!

Shark Encounter is always a hit too 🙂

No trip to Seaworld would be complete without a Shamu bar to beat the heat.

We left the park around 5 pm in order to drop J by the airport in time to make his flight to DC.  We were all completely exhausted and happy from the fun that we had together.  I’m looking forward to returning to Seaworld again soon since we have Fun Cards and we never actually saw a single show while we were there.  This trip was all about rides, rides and more rides!

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Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend was super busy for us.  It started on Friday with preschool, a Halloween party for Wildman to go to, Zumba for me and a local fair at night.  Saturday found us at an early morning soccer game then two consecutive birthday parties.  J came home on Saturday from a week-long business trip to DC as well.  I passed him on the way to our first birthday party.  On Sunday, I attended and help teach a 3-hour Zumbathon at a local gym then rushed home to shower so I could attend services for a friend’s mother who passed away.

Whew!  Just typing all of that out makes me tired.

The only photos I have from the weekend are from the fair.  So, here we go.

We rode the sketchy Ferris Wheel first.  The operator stopped us at the top three times.  It was windy and dark.  I gripped the handle bar until my knuckles turned white…  This was not my favorite experience of the night.  The boys, of course, loved it and wanted to do it again…  We distracted them with promises of cotton candy and lemonade.

There were tons of kiddie-size rides for the boys.  We did all of the ones that were working.  The dragon spinning ride was out of operation which was probably for the best since we didn’t really need a bunch of dizzy kids hopped up on sugar.

Cutie Pie perfecting his homecoming wave…

Crazy Bus!

I didn’t really care for the light bulb eyes on this ride…  They freaked me out a little bit.

All in all it was a good night. We did as much as 4 sheets of tickets would let us.  Sure, some of the carnies were pretty strange but I expected that and ignored them accordingly.  The boys had a blast and cannot wait to go back next year.  That’s what it’s all about anyway.

And look who came home with a goldfish!  Cousin B was gifted this little guy by a friendly fair patron.  Steph was less than thrilled…

Cousin B was over the moon, naturally!