Friday, April 30, 2010

Kenzie and Laura Invade Orlando - Day 1


So, the plan on Day 1 was to get the car, and head to Sea World. They have a great offer right now. You can buy your tickets online, save $10 per adult, and then you qualify to get a second day free, you just have to go to the ticket window inside the entrance and get your day 2 tickets.

We got to Sea World, having enjoyed some subway enroute, and headed for the first show. Here we are waiting. Laura doesn't do well off routine, so she was fighting a case of grumpiness. We had warned the girls ahead of time that if we sat in a certain area, we would be splashed by the whales, and would get VERY wet. They were all for it, until.............

Yep, that's right, they were all for it until it happened. Man was Kenzie MAD. From there we headed to Shamu's Happy Harbour. We each took a child on the Shamu coaster, which the girls loved, and mommy.... well..... let's just say that roller coasters are what Uncles and Grammy's are for. I don't do coasters. Then they went on a high ride with Grammy - the main reason I don't do coasters is height. I like fast, I like circles, but NOT height. A spin on the merry go round with mommy and supper ended our day at the park.

We checked in to the hotel, and of course, the girls saw the pool. So we had to go swimming. Turns out, the pool was heated, and a salt pool, not a chlorine pool, which was wonderful. It was warmer in the water than in the night breeze.

Stay tuned for Day 2, I took TONS of pictures since this was our Disney World day.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Kenzie and Laura Invade Orlando - the Pretrip

So, the almost two months flew from the time I booked the trip to the time we went on the trip. Part of what kept me busy was a horrible History of Western Civilization course. I had to get a test, and assignment, two discussions and a major essay done before I could leave, and when we got back, I would have a few days before the awful exam.

We headed to Toronto the Sunday afternoon, hung out with Uncle Ricky - the girls loved playing with all the stray golf balls in Ricky's yard. We had supper, then headed to a hotel to sleep until we had to head to the airport at 3:30.

Can you find my children sleeping in this massive King size bed?

The girls were amazing, they got up and grabbed their stuff to park the car and catch the shuttle (we had put them to bed in their travelling outfits). They went through security, and US customs with ease, then settled into a bagel and milk before getting on their very first big plane!

It was really nice, because the gate we were at gave us a view of our plane. And we met a pilot waiting to deadhead to Orlando. (Unfortunately I was not coherent enough nor organized enough to take a picture of their first big plane :(


And this is what they looked like on our way to Sea World and hour and a half after getting off the plane. We let them sleep for a bit while I grabbed some subway, and we scoped out the little groceteria for some of our favourite south of the border snacks and drinks - sadly I did not find any yoo hoo the entire day.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Close your eyes, bend your knees and jump in with both feet!

Near the end of February, I did my taxes. Then I decided something, and before I could reconsider, I jumped in with both feet and acted on it.

I booked a four day vacation with my girls (and mom) in Orlando.

One of my dreams has been to be the first to take my girls to Disney World. To see the look on their faces when they saw the castle for the first time, and met their favourite Disney character for the first time.

So, thanks to Revenue Canada my dream was realized.

Monday, April 26, 2010

March started to pick up a bit....

So, with all this new work happening, the kids and I haven't been getting a lot of quality time together. So on the first weekend in March, I was off, and kept the kids home with me. The weather was supposed to be quite nice, so we headed for the zoo to use our new membership for the first time! It was a nice sunny cool day. A few words of advice though if you go to the zoo in the off season: take your own lunch. The only foodservices open are the cafe at the entrance and the Africas outdoor restaurant. The line up here was over 30 minutes long, we were squished, squashed and otherwise mistreated by all the other squished squashed people in in line, and the staff were downright rude - who has to care about one sale, when you have 100 other people waiting. Then there was no where to sit with 2 children and a tray out of the wind, so we sat in the muddy, wet, goose infested picnic area trying to keep our lunch from being stolen, our napkins from blowing away, and getting cold in the wind. Not a fun time.

BUT with the sunny but cool weather, many animals who are normally snoozing when we see them were alert and active. The lions were romping around, the elephants actually outside and moving, it was great.

I think our latest favourite animal (formerly the giraffe) is the Orangutan. There are two places to watch the Orangs from, and the lookout is the best. A nursing mother brought her tiny baby to the window for all to admire, and juvenile played dress up with a blanket, making itself a nun, and the alpha male even treated us to a hello, right up to the glass separating us. It was a great day.

And even better, we arrived home to homemade sloppy joes that warmed in the slowcooker for our late night dinner.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

So, February at a glance.

Not much happened in February. The kids swam, did their gymnastics, went to their Dad's house. I cooked, cleaned, worked three jobs and did the stupid History course. Really, nothing much to say about the entire month of February. Heck, according to my camera, I didn't even take a single picture this month.

Sorry folks, this makes for really boring reading.

Whew, I'm glad that's over

Whew, I'm glad that's over, or at least for now.

I wrote my History of Western Civilization exam last Wednesday night. The course was a really bad course. Horrible textbook, LAZY instructor who didn't provide any feedback on assignments so you couldn't improve. I usually like to learn about history, but this was awful. But its done, at least for now, cause I'm not so sure I passed the final exam. Just putting that out there, I may have failed the final. I have never had a final like it though, so I don't know if it was me, or if it was poor exam structure.

So, I will need to blog about a lot in the coming few weeks, since we have been to the zoo twice, we have been on a family vacation to FLORIDA and DISNEY WORLD and SEAWORLD, and there have been many other developments as well.

So stay tuned, I took lots of pics, have lots to share.