Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Anna noticed she had a loose tooth about a week before we went to Florida.  As the first loose tooth in our house, it elicited a lot of attention from her siblings and us.  We all took turns wiggling it and watching the progression from slightly loose to barely hanging on.  It was hardly moving when we left for Florida.  Anna was afraid that it would fall out while we were on our trip and that the Tooth Fairy wouldn't be able to find her.  We assured Anna that it would be a while before her tooth fell out.  "It's just barely loose" we told her.  "It will be many weeks before it falls out."  Well, lo and behold, a few days into our trip it was all but ready to come out.  Fortunately, we made it through the trip and it ended up coming out our second day back home.

We took Anna to the library and read some fun books starring the Tooth Fairy.  It was like Christmas Eve in our house (at least for Anna).  She was so excited! About an hour after the kids went to bed, we noticed that Anna was still awake.  She told us that she was going to lay awake all night so that she could see the Tooth Fairy.  Thomas reminded her that, just like Santa, the Tooth Fairy won't visit children unless they are asleep.  Anna countered that she was going to pretend to be asleep and then pop up when the Tooth Fairy appears.  We kissed her goodnight and wished her luck staying awake while laying in her bed all night with her eyes closed (spoiler alert--she feel asleep within 5 minutes.)  Anna had it in her head that she would be left 3 coins.  Since she doesn't understand the concept of money, I was sure the Tooth Fairy was going to leave her 3 pennies, but she ended up with one gold coin (a Sacagawea dollar) and two silver coins (national park quarters).  Anna was thrilled.  It was like Christmas morning.  All the kids were up super early to see what the tooth fairy left her.  And of course, they all came running into our room to show Thomas and me.  It was so fun to experience their youthful excitement over this event.  Anna has another loose tooth, so we will be getting our second Tooth Fairy visit in the coming weeks.  Unfortunately, there isn't nearly the excitement about this tooth as there was for the first.  I imagine it will get better when Jack and Kara get their first visits.

I think I have already written this somewhere, but I was always frightened of the Tooth Fairy.  What could a grown woman possibly want with my baby teeth?  I pictured her adult size, not like a tiny fairy and she just made no sense to me.  So, I was glad that Anna thought of her as Tinker Bell sized.

Our little babies are growing up!

Anna showing off her new smile while Kara runs behind her and Jack (not pictured) makes silly faces.

Final Day & Drive Home

We had yet to get donuts during our vacation, and today was our last chance.  Since it was Mother's Day, I decided we were going to drive past Dunkin Donuts and find a Krispy Kreme.  There was one about 15 minutes away and when we got there the "hot and ready" sign was lit.  The kids got to experience their first, fresh from the oven Krispy Kreme donut.  Since my sister's family was coming up, and it was so hard to decide what to get, we bought 2 dozen (that's only like 2.5 donuts each...if you don't count the free one at the store).  Yes, it was a lot of donuts.  Why I am devoting an entire paragraph to Krispy Kreme, I can't say.  Well, except they are good and there isn't one near us in Maryland and I've missed them.

Okay, enough about the donuts.  My sister's family got to our house around 10:30 and we chatted for a while and decided to go out to lunch.  We went to TGI Fridays and it was good, I had a delicious summer salad (see, once in a while I do make a good choice, it even had lite dressing) then it was back to the rental house for swimming.  Kara perfected her dive, which was amazingly similar to a perfect belly flop. It was awesome!  My dad also came up to say goodbye.  It was nice to have another day with family and I was glad we had decided to stay the extra day.

Jack and Anna took off their puddle jumpers to practice swimming.  Jack was able to make it from one to the other by the end of our trip!

JD was very conscientious of his younger cousins and made more then one "rescue."

It's not easy to say goodbye.

Everyone left by dinner time and I started doing laundry and packing.  We had taco bell for dinner and just lazed around the house.  After the kids went to bed, Thomas packed up the car.  The plan was to leave at 0230, although I was pushing to just sleep in.  Thomas didn't fall asleep until midnight, so he changed the alarm to 4 and we were on the road by 0430.  It was a good time to leave, we were out of Florida before any traffic hit and the rest of the drive was pretty smooth sailing.  Well, there was a lane closure in Virginia that caused about a 20-30 minute delay, but nothing exceptional.

Something we hadn't noticed on the drive down, probably because it was dark, was all the beautiful wildflowers in North Carolina.  They were amazing and we loved seeing them.  Jack probably enjoyed the drive the most.  He spent from about 830 until we got home around 630pm on the iPad playing Angry Birds Star Wars.  I am not exaggerating.  He didn't even want to get out of the car to go to the bathroom.  It was insane!  We bought little treats for the drive (small toys, sticker books, candy, etc) and we'd periodically hand them out.  Jack wouldn't even look up.  I think I caught him briefly watching a movie at one point, but that was a short-lived distraction.  Under normal circumstances, we let him play in lieu of tv once or twice a week, so to him the constant play was amazing.  And, it kept him from fighting with Anna and Kara, so we went with it.

It was very nice to finally get home.  I didn't want the vacation to end, but after we walked into our house, I felt a sense of relief at being home.  I love our new house and I felt anxious to experience living here with Thomas.  It was wonderful to be on vacation without the threat of his deployment looming over us and it was even more wonderful to be home.

And, that my friends concludes our vacation posts.

Around the (Disney) World in 12 Hours

Saturday, we hit Animal Kingdom.  It is probably my least favorite park, but the kids had mentioned the River Rapids multiple times, so I knew we had to go.  And, although it is my least favorite park, it has one of my favorite rides (Expedition Everest) and one of Thomas' (Dinosaur).  So while it was not a highly anticipated day, there was still lots to look forward to.  Besides, being a "least favorite" park, does not mean it is not a great place to visit and experience.

Once again, we arrived right around opening (a true must for getting things done).  Marta and Elizabeth and Marta's son Matt and his fiance Christin joined us.  First stop--the Safari tour.  We saw lots of neat animals and it was fun.  My favorite thing on the tour is actually not an animal, but the baobab trees.  They are really impressive and can live to be thousands of years old. The animals were out and active and there was no wait.  We all enjoyed it.

A Baobab tree (photo 

From there, we did the River Rapids.  We knew we might get completely soaked, so I was prepared and made everyone change into flip flops.  Thank goodness, because we might as well have just jumped into a pool and who wants to walk around in sopping shoes and socks all day?  After that, we grabbed fast passes for Everest then headed to Dinoland.  Anna and Kara were (justifiably) scared to go on Dinosaur, so we got a kid swap pass and I waited with them while everyone else rode.  Then, Marta and her crew went on Primeval Whirl.  None of our kids made the height requirement so we bought cookies and waited.  After that, Marta watched the kids in the Dino play area while the rest of us went and rode Everest (so awesome!).  She continued watching them while Thomas and I went back and quickly did Dinosaur.  It was a definite kid trade-off kind of morning.  We had lunch and then decided to go to a different park.  Matt and Christin headed to Hollywood Studios.  The rest of us parked at Epcot and took the monorail to MK.

Magic Kingdom was packed!  There was a (comparatively) short wait for Magic Carpets of Aladdin so we got in line.  Then, it started to rain.  Then, it started to pour (and we had finally dried off from the River Rapids!).  We hung out in the Tiki room for a bit and then rode Pirates of the Caribbean.  Kara was again reluctant, but we forced convinced her to ride (she really does enjoy it once she is on).   Elizabeth wasn't feeling well, but she wanted to see the new Fantasyland, so we headed that way.  The wait times were ridiculous!  Small World was 60 minutes!!! Thunder Mountain was 80.  Haunted Mansion was 40.  We decided to just go back to Epcot.

Two hours after we'd first arrived and parked, we walked through the turnstile at Epcot.  Basically, it was a two-hour excursion to ride Pirates. My biggest complaint about the Magic Kingdom is how difficult it is to get to, it seems to take forever to get from the parking lot onto your first ride.  Elizabeth's stomach was still hurting, so they decided to head home.

Once in Epcot, we rode Spaceship Earth, which is another Thomas favorite (we all like it, but it's in his top 3).  Jack really wanted to take Thomas on Test Track, but it was over an hour wait. We grabbed some dinner, did the Figment ride and then showed Thomas the fairy garden.  Then, we headed into the World Showcase.  After our success at The Hall of Presidents, I wanted to see the show in America.  Unfortunately, it was not very good.  Those who know me know that I am a pretty patriotic person.  I expected to have the heartstrings tugged.  Didn't happen.  They haven't updated it in at least 10 years.  Although, one nice part was about 10 minutes in when Jack turned to me with a half-smile and loudly whispered, "Mommy, they're robots!" (Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin).  We should have seen Herman's Hermits (who were performing outside) instead.

After the show, we went to France and got some treats from the bakery.  By now it was close to closing and the kids were getting pretty cranky, so we opted out of the night show and headed to the rental house.  Originally, we were going to drive home on Sunday.  But, I wasn't ready to leave.  So, around 4 I had called the homeowner to see if we could add a night.  There was no one checking in on Sunday, so we added the night.  Otherwise, there is no way we could have stayed out so late with all the packing left to do, at least not if we wanted to leave at 3 in the morning.  The next time we go to Disney World, I want to spend more time at Epcot.  I enjoyed walking around the World Showcase and wish we had left more time.

Unfortunately, I did not take a single picture.  All day.

Three Little (and One Big) Padawans

Friday was our much-anticipated day at Hollywood Studios.  When we were there last year we didn't tell the kids about the Jedi Training Academy; you have to be 4 to participate and we didn't want to leave Kara out (plus, we opted to spend more of our time at Magic Kingdom last year).  But this time around they were well-prepped and super-excited.

Because I am an uber-planner (at least when it comes to fun things like Disney World), I had our whole vacation mapped out.  I used two different crowd calendar sites to map out which parks to go to on which days.  We had a slight snafu where our rest day and Epcot day got swapped, but otherwise we managed to stay on schedule.  Friday morning, Thomas was geared and ready to go.  We had bought a bandage for his ankle and the swelling had gone down considerably.  He was still limping, but not as badly.  So, off we all went.  In addition to planning where to go on what day, I had also planned out which attractions to see first (last time, I planned out entire days, this time I was a little more lax).  Our Hollywood Studios plan called on us to split upon entering the park, with one of us racing to get fast passes for Toy Story Mania (TSM) and the other taking the kids to register for the Training Academy.  Then, depending on wait time, we would head back to TSM.   I got the fast pass at 9:05 and our return time was 1130-1230.  Then, I raced back to meet Thomas and the kids.  They were in the middle of the line, and got registered for the 3pm show (we needed one with 3 available slots, or it could have been earlier).  We headed back to TSM, but the wait was 40 minutes, at 9:30!  That is by far the most bottle- necked ride in all of Disney World.  They say it is their most popular, but I don't think that's accurate, it just has a really low rider capacity so the wait is always extreme (and, they often run out of fast passes by late morning).

We decided to just wait until our fastpass time and did Star Tours instead.  Kara was too scared to ride (sensing a theme with Kara this trip???) so I waited outside with her.   After they came out, we bribed Kara into riding by saying we would get her a special surprise if she did.  So, we all went on.  There was no wait, so it was a good time to ride.  From there, we saw the Muppet Show and then went to do the Back Lot tour, but something was wrong and after waiting 20 minutes, we decided to go get lunch.  We had lunch at Pizza Planet, which had pretty good food.

Hanging out on a speeder bike, waiting for the others to ride Star Tours.

They were setting up for Star Wars weekend and had random stuff set up around the park.

At Pizza Planet

Next, we were off to TSM.  The posted wait was 70 minutes!  With the fastpasses, we waited less than 10.  When we got to the front of the line, they asked me how old the kids were.  I wanted to be able to play, so I lied and said Jack was 7 (he was calling out, "I'm 5 and my sister is 4,").  They told me he could ride alone, but not with Kara.  Jack and Kara had been planning on riding together and I felt some guilt at my lie (fortunately, none of the kids had heard), so I backtracked and said I would ride with the two of them.  That meant I got to sit in the middle and not have a gun (it's not really a gun, but I don't know what to call it).  I was glad we hadn't waited 70 minutes.

From there we went to see Disney Jr.  It was just okay.  We met our friends, Marta and Elizabeth there.  They were going to spend the night with us Friday and then go to Animal Kingdom with us on Saturday (another yay for a big rental house!).  After that we went on the Great Movie Ride and then Thomas and Elizabeth took off for Rockin' Roller Coaster and Marta and I took the kids to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playset.  We agreed to meet at the Jedi Training area at 2:30.

The kids LOVED the play area.  It was pretty cool, with giant ants and netted spider webs and slides made from giant blades of grass and a roll of film (whatever that is).

Unfortunately, Thomas realized he had the tickets for the Jedi Training and he didn't have a cell phone, so he didn't get to ride the roller coaster and was waiting for us when we got to the Jedi area.  They sat all prospective Jedis down and asked them questions about the movies (i.e. what color is Mace Windu's sword, what planet is Queen Amidala from, etc.).  Jack did great!  Anna did pretty well and Kara got a few right too.  Anything the kids couldn't answer (there weren't too many), they asked the parents.  Thomas got everything right (what was Anakin's mother's name, who uttered the famous line, "it's a trap", what species is Admiral Ackbar, etc.)?  Then, they asked the kids if any of their parents could do the Wookie call. Jack's was the only hand that shot up in the air, so Thomas did that for everyone.  He was in geek Heaven and I was sooooo proud (well, I was soooooo something).  :)  Truthfully, it was very fun and it was air conditioned and the whole experience was definitely the highlight of the day, if not the trip.

From there, they gave the kids their Padawan robes and presented Thomas with a special certificate.  Everyone went outside and the kids were taught their Jedi moves.  The trainer was very funny and it was entertaining for both the kids and the audience.  Then, Darth Vader came out!  One by one, the kids were brought to do a light-saber battle with him.  All our kids did fine and were very excited.  Since Darth Vader couldn't turn any of the Padawans to the dark side, he was forced to leave and the kids were all given certificates declaring them Padawans (Jack now thinks he is a Jedi).  It was great!

We took video during the show, so I don't have any pictures.  I am sure if I was the least bit technologically savy, I could freeze from the video, but this will have to be enough (plus, we have the pictures from photopass coming at some point).

Since we had seen everything we wanted to see (we couldn't talk the kids into the Tower of Terror), we decided to head out.  We went to Chevy's for dinner and then to Downtown Disney to walk around a bit.  We spent some time at the lego store and hit up Ghiradelli's for dessert.  We were still pretty full, so Thomas and I shared a lemon sorbet treat, which was pretty good, but couldn't compare to the desserts at Beaches and Cream.

The kids really liked these lego characters

Jack racing the car he built at the lego store.

Then, it was back to the rental house where we put the kids to bed and hung out with Marta and Elizabeth.

Epcot and the Kitchen Sink

We woke up optimistic on Thursday, but Thomas' ankle was still very swollen.  He was willing to tough it out and join us, but I was worried that he might make it worse and then he would be forced to sit out the rest of the trip.  The most important remaining day was Friday, when we were planning on going to Hollywood Studios and having the kids do The Jedi Training Academy.  I really didn't want him to miss that.  So, I decided to take the kids alone.  I figured we would just do the front of the park; the kids really wanted to try the new Test Track and have another early day.

It was sad leaving Thomas behind, but we hoped another day would help ensure the success of our remaining time in Orlando.  His ankle had improved over the last day and I didn't want to undo the progress.  So, the kids and I left on schedule and got there right around the park opening.  We raced to Test Track and walked right on.  It was a pretty neat ride, although somewhat confusing for the kids.  You get to design your own vehicle pre-ride and then during the ride, they tell you how the car you designed would fare in the various tests.  The kids expected to get in the car they designed.  They kept waiting to see it.  When the ride ends, you are let out into a showroom with some GM cars.  Jack wanted to know where the car he created was.  He thought that if they couldn't create the life-sized car, he should at least get a matchbox version.  Despite the car confusion, Jack and Anna enjoyed the ride.  Kara was not a fan.

From there, we went to Soarin'.  The line was only 20 minutes, so we got fast passes to come back later to ride again and got in line.  When we got to the point where they queue you up for the ride, they asked me how old the oldest child was.  When I told them 5, they said that kids under 7 needed to be next to an adult in their party.  After some polite back-and-forth, I made friends with another adult, declared her to be my new best friend and we were allowed to ride.  My new friend took her role seriously and helped me buckle and unbuckle the kids.  Since we had all been on the ride before, I wasn't worried--everyone knew what to expect.  Once again, Kara did not enjoy the ride, but the rest of us loved it.

Next it was Turtle Talk with Crush and the Nemo ride and then we headed back to use our fastpasses for Soarin'.  Kara was refusing to go, so we ended up giving them away (the wait was 70 minutes, so we made one party of 4 very happy).  We did the boat ride and then decided to try the cokes from around the world.  Me and the girls loved China's, it tasted like a watermelon drink.  Jack was the only one who could drink Italy's.  The rest were somewhere in the middle.  We sampled them all and had a good time.  It was Epcot's Flower Festival time and we went through a butterfly Fairy Garden that had fairy houses and topiary of the Tinkerbell characters.  They also gave the kids stickers.  It was very neat.  From there, we went on the Figment ride and then played in the attraction area.  By now it was a little after 12 and we decided to do Spaceship Earth and then go get Thomas for lunch.

Thomas came hobbling out and we went to Chick-Fil-A.  One of the things I really wanted to do on our Epcot day was walk to Disney's Beach Club resort to enjoy the Kitchen Sink dessert (thank you DIS Boards).  The Beach Club is one of the Epcot resorts, so we were going to use the back entrance to visit during our Epcot day.  We decided to still go, but to drive over instead (let me say again how nice it is to have a rental house that is just minutes from the parks).  Thomas' ankle was somewhat better, but still swollen and he was walking with a very noticeable limp.  We tried to limit his time on it, but he still did a fair amount of walking and I was worried about whether or not he would be able to make it on Friday.

The Kitchen Sink was amazing!  Because of Jack's peanut allergy, they sent a chef to our table to decide on substitutions (Disney is really good at assisting with allergies).  Because it is the signature item at Beaches and Cream, they dimmed the lights and made a big production out of bringing it to the table.  It was pretty impressive.  It consisted of 8 scoops of ice cream, every topping imaginable, including about 20 maraschino cherries, banana, brownies, oreos, and an entire can of whipped cream.  We didn't quite finish it, but we gave it a gallant effort and it was definitely good for a party of 5 to share.

After that, we went to Publix to get food for dinner (not that anyone could imagine eating at that point) and a Redbox movie.  The rental house had an awesome theater room that we took full advantage of on multiple nights.  It gave us some good ideas for creating our own theater room in our basement.

It was another good day in Florida!

Magic Kingdom and a Twisted Ankle.

Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day!  Our friend Basille met us there and spent the morning with us.  First stop:  the new Fantasyland.  We headed straight to Enchanted Tales with Belle.  At 9:15, the line was already 50 minutes long!  The sign said it was a 30 minute wait but the attendant said 50, we thought surely he was overestimating.  He was not.  We entertained ourselves by playing Simon Says and talking about all the fun things we were going to do during our time at Disney World.

Finally, it was our turn to go inside Belle's house.  The first room is the hearth room in the house she shared with her father.  Since Belle loves to read there were lots of books. From there, we were brought into another room where a castmember talks about the story and asks some questions.  The room has a few of Maurice's inventions around, along with their blueprints.  Then, she reveals the point of the attraction--to create a surprise play/story for Belle!  A magic mirror on the wall transforms into a door (it was pretty darn cool) and you walk into another room where parts are decided.  Due to his extreme enthusiasm, Jack was selected to be the Beast!  Thomas was donned with knighthood and Anna and Kara got to be enchanted silverware.  Then, it was off to the final room.  Belle came in and the kids marched around a bit and did other nonsense stuff that was very cute and fun.  Jack, the Beast, got to growl at Belle and ended up dancing with her.  Jack is now in love with Belle. The effects of Lumiere and the wardrobe were really impressive.  It was a great experience and was worth the wait.  Although, my theory that the line would only get longer did not hold true.  It was shorter when we left and the few times we walked by, was significantly shorter than what we waited in.  Unfortunately, there was no flash photography allowed.  I have some pictures coming from Photopass, that will hopefully be significantly better than these:

From there, we rode Kara's favorite ride--Dumbo.  We rode lots of other rides, including the new Little Mermaid (which was okay and would not have been worth the 60 minute wait posted with no fastpass).  We managed (almost) all our favorite rides.  Kara held firm to not riding on Splash Mountain and Anna was not interested in Big Thunder.  Kara was also scared to go on Pirates of the Caribbean because of "the drop."  Because I know that the drop she was frightened of is minuscule I made her ride and she was fine (in line, Thomas and I alternated holding her and demonstrating the difference between the Splash Mountain drop and the Pirates "bump" by pretending to drop her to the ground and do a gentle up and down motion respectively).  We had lunch at Thomas' favorite place, Pecos Bills.  I really wanted to go to Belle's Castle, but the line was already long at 1030 and after waiting for almost an hour for Enchanted Tales with Belle, it just didn't make sense to stand around for another hour waiting for lunch.  Maybe next time.  I think my favorite Magic Kingdom ride is the Haunted Mansion.  Every time I ride, I see something different and I am just so amazed at the enormity of that ride (it's a close call though, I also love Splash Mountain).

Around dinner time we were debating whether to leave or not.  We ended up getting some hotdogs and snacks at Casey's.  Someone gave us their fastpasses for Space Mountain, so we decided to stay.  We went to the Hall of Presidents, which Thomas really wanted to see.  We told the kids if they were good we'd get ice cream afterward.  The bribe was unnecessary, they really liked the show.  Jack was especially interested in seeing all the "talking robots" including his favorite George Washington.  But, we got the ice cream anyway and then Jack and Thomas headed for Space Mountain.  

Our last ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear.  Thomas was really impressed with himself, he somehow managed to max out the machine with 999,999 points!  His pat on the back was cut short when we noticed Kara had done the same thing!  (I got something like 150,000, we couldn't see what Jack and Anna had).

By now it was about 8:30 and everyone was tired.  Since we were planning on going to Epcot on Wednesday, we decided to skip the evening parade and head home.  As we exited the tram and began walking toward our car, Thomas noticed our stroller (a rental) was missing a wheel.  So, he took off running to catch the tram.  Unfortunately, while doing so, he stepped in a pothole and twisted his ankle.  It was really painful for him, he couldn't walk (but, he did manage to get the wheel back).  We got home, he hopped inside and iced it down and we decided to wait until morning to decide what to do (we feared it might be broken).

By Wednesday morning, it was no better.  It was swollen to twice it's normal size and very painful.  We started calling around for an urgent care, worried that it might be broken.  Fortunately, it took about an hour for our insurance to sort out where we could go (since he was so fresh off his IA, he wasn't registered with any doctor to get a referral for an out-of-town visit) and by then he decided that he could put a little bit of weight on it and that it was probably only sprained.  We decided to take the day off and give him a chance to rest and elevate it.  So, it was another relaxing day.  I took the kids to the neighborhood park, where they experienced their first real teeter totter.  We swam in the pool and went out to lunch and hoped that Thomas would be able to walk on Thursday.

Back to Florida! Trip Down and Sea World

With Thomas being home, we wanted to do something to celebrate.  After much deliberation, we decided to go back to Disney World.  It felt sort of like a full circle.  We went to create memories before he left and it seemed appropriate to celebrate his return home in the same place.

We left at 2:30 on Saturday morning.  We weren't planning on going quite so early, but I couldn't sleep so we just went with it.  The weather was terrible for most of the drive with lots of rain.  We were still able to make great time and arrived at the Florida Welcome Center around 1pm.  Because of the rain, we couldn't have our picnic, so we ate in the car and then walked around the welcome center and collected our orange juice samples.

After we left the Welcome Center, it really started pouring.  We passed multiple accidents.  In one instance, we got to an accident just minutes after it had happened.  There was a police officer on scene, but no ambulances or other emergency vehicles.  We got routed up on an on ramp and our delay was only about 15 minutes.  I read later that a car cut-off a semi carrying paint, the semi tried to avoid the collision and flipped into oncoming traffic. Interstate 95 was closed for over 4 hours!

With great relief, we pulled into the rental house around 4:30pm.  My sister's family was supposed to join us, but my nephew wasn't feeling well, so they decided to stay home.  We went grocery shopping at Publix--my favorite supermarket in the world and had a relaxing evening.

The next morning, my sister and her family came up.  The kids all swam in the pool.  My father, his friend Maggie, and my brother joined us for lunch.  We checked out the large community pool, but mostly just hung around the rental house.  Then, Thomas and I had a date night at our favorite spot--Colorado Fondue.  It was a lovely day and night.

The next day, our family and Kim's went to Sea World.  My kids had never been and they enjoyed it.  After reading Death at Sea World, I was anxious to view things with a more critical perspective.  We saw all of the animal shows.  The unanimous favorite was "Pets Ahoy" which stars animals saved from local shelters (i.e. mainly cats and dogs).  It was cute.  I also liked Clyde and Seamore (Sea Lion and Otter show).  The whale show was very anticlimatic.  The trainers are no longer allowed in the water with the killer whales, so there really wasn't much happening.  It seemed like half the show was the whales splashing the audience.  There was no education aspect and it wasn't entertaining.   I did get to see Tilikum, the "star" of the book and it  was interesting to see the whales with knowledge of their history and the history of killer whales in captivity in general.

In addition to the shows, Thomas, JD (our nephew), Jack and I rode Journey to Atlantis.  We got soaked!  Everyone rode Wild Arctic, which was pretty cool.  Well, except to Kara.  She did not like it at all!  We also saw the sharks, the sting rays, and dophin cove.  After Kim's family left, we let the kids play in Shamu's Happy Harbor for a while.  It was a full, fun day.  Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but here are the few I do have.

Yes, that is really it for pictures.  Where are the pictures of the kids with their cousins you might ask? Yes, that would have been a great idea, especially since we so rarely see them, but alas, I didn't take any.  How about the kids with whales or dolphins or sharks in the background?  Also nonexistant.  But, enjoy Jack in his sunglasses and a blurry shot from the Happy Harbor.

Thomas is Home!!!

Our 7-month separation ended on April 26.  Thomas' flight was originally scheduled to arrive in late afternoon, but he was able to change to a morning flight.  Because I wanted to make him a cake we were really scrambling that morning.  I was hoping they would let us go through security to meet him at the gate.  Unfortunately, I didn't leave a lot of time and went to the wrong check-in area.  Then, after we finally made it through security, Kara had to go to the bathroom.  All of that meant that Thomas was already on the ground and we almost walked right by him!  Not quite the homecoming I envisioned, but it was wonderful regardless.

After picking him up from the airport, we decided to have lunch at Don Pablos.  Although they aren't known for their tater tots, they really should be (they come with the kid's meals).  Seriously amazing.  The kids all fought over who got to sit next to Thomas and hold his hand.  It was very sweet.

I am so glad he is home.  I hated being apart for so many reasons.  Thomas is my husband and my best friend and our family was incomplete while he was gone.  Let's hope we never have to go through that again!

Although, there is one thing I will miss--this parking spot at the commissary  :)