We topped off our vacation with a short visit with Grandpa Ken for his birthday. The girls loved playing with the cat, swimming at the pool and picking tomatoes with Grandpa.

Ok, I had planned to just go back and add pictures in to the previous post, but this is just easier. Coco Beach with Tristan.

Sea World

We had a really great day at Sea World. It started with a visit to the green sea turtles and sting rays. Then we went to feed the dolphins. Ginny LOVED it. She managed to feed them the fish, but was too afraid to touch them. It was so cool how they came right up to us. I was as fascinated as she was. I wish we had gotten a better picture. Ginny was very upset when we left the dolphin area, she would have stayed there all day. Later we went on the girls’ favorite thing… the carosel!!

After lunch we went straight to the Shamu show. Laney had a hard time waiting the half hour to see the show. During the show Steve noticed that Ginny focused on the video screens and not the HUGE whale right in front of her.. she is a true couch potato! Not much later, our camera died! We bought a waterproof camera, but have yet to get the film developed.

The girls got their bathing suits on and played in the splash pad for a little while. It was such a hot day that it was really busy. Laney had a hard time with the crowds and Ginny didn’t have much patience with it either.

Laney took a nap and the rest of us sat in the air conditioning and had a snack. Aterwards, we went to see the sharks… which Laney LOVED. She just kept squealing with delight! On our way to see the manatees, Ginny fell asleep. We hung out in the manatee house and took turns chasing Laney around.

After that with both girls having napped, we had dinner and played around. The girls each picked out a noisy stuffed animal to take home.

Swimming with Ginga and Pa.

We were very fortunate to be able to go swimming several times over at a friend of my parents’ house. The girls had a blast. They had little rings they used to swim around the pool. Laney had a lot of fun jumping into the pool to Ginga and Pa. Ginny pulled everyone around the pool in a little train.

Universal Studios and Downtown Disney

Crescent Beach with Ginga, Pa, and the Gang

I’ll post the other pictures once we get them developed.

On Tuesday, July 29, the Duncans set out on a three week journey to Florida and Ohio on a grandparent visiting trip. I wanted to give the girls an opportunity to spend some time with Ginga and Pa since they don’t get to see them very often.

We ended up staying in IN the first night since we got such a late start. However, we powered through the following day and made it to Earleton close to 3AM. The girls were super troopers in the van. They watched A LOT of Go, Diego Go. We packed the van in such a way that one of us could sit in the back with them to entertain, wait on, etc.

We arrived at my parents’ house and were able to visit for a day. The girls played in the playhouse for as long as I could stand being in the humidity! Notice Laney’s hair.. that’s SWEAT!!

before we ran off to Orlando to visit my brother, Patrick, and his family, Maribeth and Tristan. We spent a day playing in their pool and visiting. Saturday we went to Coco Beach. Sunday we went to Sea World. (PIcs and more details in SV, Part 2)

Monday we went to Universal Studios City Walk to go to Margaritaville.

Monday night we headed back to my parents’ house. The next few days we spent being lazy at a friends’ pool. (Pics also to follow)

We got together with an old friend on Friday night who has started a catering business in Gainesville that supplies authentic mexican cuisine. It was delicious!!

Saturday morning, Steve and I took off back to Orlando for an early 5 year anniversary get away. We stayed in Orlando overnight. We hung out at Margaritaville again just sitting at the bar and people watching… something we don’t get to do very often… more often than I’d like to admit I think we are the ones being watched.. the girls know how to put on a show!

Sunday we headed over to Downtown Disney for some walking and window shopping. We spent much of the day at the Irish Pub chatting with the bartender and waiting for the Adventurer’s Club to open at 8. Disney is closing Pleasure Island soon and with that all the night clubs will be shut down. Steve definitely wanted to get one more chance to go in the Adventurer’s Club. We found out later that you could not get in for the usual $10.95, but had to pay $20.00+, so we decided against it. In the time we spent waiting, we also saw Swing Vote… a movie we would not have otherwise seen and really enjoyed. And… decided that we could bring the girls down to meet Mickey!! Yay!….. pictures SOON!

We headed back to my parents house, ready to see the girls. We were happy to find them awake and waiting for us… well, at least for the five minutes they were happy to see us. Not long after we got home both had major meltdowns. We understood it as “we missed you, mom and dad.” At least that’s what we tell ourselves.

Monday we went out on the boat with my dad and Matthew. Yay! Picture time! The girls had a blast! Laney got to drive the boat and they both had to look through the binoculars. Ginny got tired and curled up with Pa. We thought she was going to be just like Mommy and Auntie Melissa and fall asleep on the boat.

Monday night we had a Ladies’ Night at the movies. Ginga, Melissa, Meghan, her friend, and I went to see Mama Mia! It was cute, but not as good as the musical, of course!

Tuesday, all of us headed out to St. Augustine to go to the beach. We had really lousy weather, including a pretty ugly rain storm. We didn’t let it stop our fun though.

Wednesday, we rested and relaxed and packed our bags for Disney. We headed down late that afternoon so that we could get to bed early and be well rested for Mickey the following day… What is it they say about the best laid plans?? The girls were hyper and hard to calm down. Laney didn’t want to sleep in the pack n play provided by the hotel and kept begging for Daddy’s bed! He’d have her come lay down with him, but then she’d just start jumping and screeching. Finally it took shutting off all the lights and laying her in the crib to cry for five minutes before she gave up and went to sleep. I don’t know if I was just too excited or nervous, but I only slept about 2.5 hours that night. I had planned to get up early and be the first ones at the park, but after the rough night we had, I turned off the alarm and figured we’d get there when we were ready.

We arrived the next morning at the ferry to Magic Kindgom at 9:30.. not too bad. While we waited the girls drew with sidewalk chalk. It was a very nice diversion.

When we arrived at the MK, Ginny immediately noticed Cinderella’s castle. I think she called it something else… “home”. She definitely felt that she belonged there. As you can see by the disappointment in her face. the castle was closed at the time and we could not go in.

Too funny!

We made our way over to the girls favorite ride.. the carousel. Followed by Dumbo, when it started to rain. We were able to jump on a couple times with pretty much no waiting.. bonus!

I ran over to get FastPasses for Pooh and got a “bonus fastpass” for Mickey’s Philharmagic. I grabbed a snack out of the rain while we waited a 30 minutes for our passes to work. Laney was scared during Pooh and didn’t like it very much. She definitely didn’t like the Philharmagic either. I think the 3-D concept freaked her out! Ginny on the other hand, was in HEAVEN. She was trying to grab the objects in front of her and jumped when anything popped out at her unexpectedly. She giggled through the whole thing. Then we headed over to Mickey’s Toon Town so that the girls could just run around a bit on the playground. Steve and Ginny rode the BarnStormer roller coaster too. We went through Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses.

The girls seemed a little tired, so we decided to go for a ride on the train. It was pretty boring, but the girls found enough to keep them awake. When we came back around to Toon Town we were greeted with a great surprise. Rafiki!! Ginny is a HUGE fan of the Lion King, so she was thrilled to see him.Laney on the other hand, took one look at him and bolted!! It was too funny! After seeing Ginny with Rafiki I thought it’d be fun to try to see some more characters, so we went into one of the buildings that said characters hang out. There was a line to see three of the princesses, but the sign said 60 minutes. I asked Ginny if she wanted to see them, and of course, she said yes. I told her it was going to be a very long time and asked her again. She replied, “well… are they real?” “Yes”, I answered. And off we were. Steve and Laney went off to try to find a nap.

I was pleasantly surprised that the line moved rapidly and we were in with the princesses in about 20 minutes. Each princess took Ginny by the hand and had a conversation with her. It was the sweetest thing! She told Cinderella about falling out of the bed and breaking her collar bone. She talked to Belle about her pretty clothes that Daddy bought her. WHAT?!?! and then she talked to Aurora about her favorite colors. She seemed to study each one of them very carefully and tried to pose for pictures perfectly for me and the Disney camera man. She was very soft spoken, but held her conversation well. She walked out of the tent with me very quietly afterwards, until she said, “I want to do that again.” I told her we couldn’t because it was other girls’ turns. Quiet, demure Ginny GONE! She was fine once we walked down the hall a few feet into the predictable gift shop. She proceeded to the nearest Cinderella section and proceeded to grab one of everything. Luckily, I hadn’t thought to grab my wallet out of the stroller before Steve and I separated.

We met back up with Steve and Laney who had not napped, but had gotten rained on. Poor guys. We went on a few rides in Adventureland… Aladdin, the Jungle Cruise and The Tiki Room. Then we headed back over to It’s A Small World just to be sure we didn’t forget it. And thank goodness we didn’t. Both the girls were enthralled with it. After the first time I heard Laney say… AGAIN! for the first time. So we did. After that we were all pretty worn out. We were able to get reservations for dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe, so we headed over there for a break in there lobby and a pretty relaxing dinner.

After dinner we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom for a glimpse of the parade, a ride on Stitch, and the fireworks.

After the fireworks we loaded the girls in the stroller, picked up their mouse ears, and headed for the car. Ginny was OUT by time we got to the ferry. It was a crazy last 15 minutes trying to manage the girls, the stroller, etc, but we made it. We survived. We had a blast!

My one regret… not nearly enough pictures!!

It’s 3:12 AM. I’m going to bed. Look for Part 2 and more pictures tomorrow.

Ginny, Laney and I went over to the Horstmeyer’s to watch fireworks. We ended up going to the local park about five blocks away because we couldn’t see very well. After settling in our spots, Ginny announces that she has to go potty. I thought she might just forget as she sometimes does. So when she said it again, Dawn suggested that she “go outside like a white tailed deer.” (her new obsession). She jumped at the chance! So we went behind a bush and Gin took care of business. Then happily announced to the whole park that she went potty like a white tailed dear.

Laney, on the other hand, was sitting in the stroller with her (ginny’s) pink bear, holding it up so that it wouldn’t miss anything, yelling “OOK, Mama! Oook!” (look) and pointing each time the fireworks went off. It was super cute!