Vacation Part 4

After four days of hanging out by the pool and traveling to Clearwater; we headed to the Magic Kingdom!

 Elliana and I had reservations at the castle for a lunch with the princess's.  I had a high school friend of mine make this adorable Cinderella necklace for Elliana.  I gave it to her right before our lunch.  She absolutely loved it.  Throughout the day I would catch glimpses of her kissing Cinderella.

 On our way to lunch :)

 On her way to lunch she was able to meet and greet with Cinderella.  She LOVED talking to her favorite princess.

 Our table in the castle.  All the servers kept calling her "princess", it was a really special time with my little princess.  They even gave her a wand :)

 While we ate the princess's came around to each table to talk to the little girls and take pictures with them.

 For dessert Elliana got to decorate her own cupcake.

 They had a make a wish ceremony.  Elliana is making a wish.  It is serious business.  You even had to say the magic words "bippity boppity boo".

 The stairwell in the castle...

 We hung out on Tom Sawyer's Island.

 And of course we rode on Dumbo!

Vacation Part 3

One morning during the week the kids and I rode the monorail.  

 Asher wanted to wear a turban.

 Dinner at T-Rex.  The room is filled to the brim with things to look and point at, which makes getting a good picture with a five year old a little difficult :)

 The gift shop attached to T-Rex had a spin off of build a bear- it was called build a dinosaur.

 The resort had a fun arcade.

 I had to ride the motorcycle. :)

 We took some pictures of the kids around Port Orleans...

One more post to go...

Vacation Part 2

I'm not sure where we were when I took this picture of Elliana, but it is so pretty I had to post it for you all to admire.

Outside the stores in Downtown Disney there are several things to take pictures with, the boys liked the pirates.

One day on our trip I drove the kids to Clearwater to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  If you have seen the movie Dolphin Tale you will be familiar with this aquarium.  Aaron always drives when we go on road trips.  When I drive over 50 mph I get pretty nervous.  So tackling this two hour road trip (through Oralndo and around Tampa!) alone was a labor of love for my kids.   Not to mention the very high bridges over the Gulf (I am scared of heights).  The kids were so excited to see Winter, which made the trip completely worth the stress.  When we arrived the kids were so excited to see that the building was the same one from the movie.  They even had Hazel's grandfather's houseboat.

 The Aquarium offers boat trips to the Gulf.  I reserved our seats before we left on our trip and it was well worth the extra expense.  They took us out into the Gulf and threw out a net to catch sea creatures.  They pulled them up and told us all about them.  We even saw a wild dolphin playing by our boat.

The kids waiting for our boat ride to start.

 A very tall bridge that I had to drive over..yikes

 The kids on the boat heading out into the Gulf.

 The workers in yellow life jackets are getting ready to throw out the net and catch creatures.

 Asher looking at the animals that came up in the net.

 They also took us to "One Tree Island" for some shelling.

 Elliana finding a good shell.

 We pulled up a sea urchin and we all got a chance to hold this amazing sea creature.

Showing us the brittle star.

 Visiting Winter...