Thinking Day

Natalia and Sienna are both still loving Girl Scouts.  They had thinking day this weekend and learned about several countries.  Natalia's troop taught everyone about Costa Rica; she got to help me make a Costa Rican cookie (they were awesome).  Sienna's troop did Denmark; she was really excited about learning about a new country.   

Clearwater, Florida

I think my kids were more excited to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium than they were Disney (and my kids love Disney).  All three girls are obsessed with the Dolphin Tale movies.  Ever since they saw the first movie, they have wanted to meet Winter the Dolphin.  They ask about it all the time.  We surprised them at Christmas and they were so excited to finally go.  We drove to Clearwater the day after we finished Disney.  The drive was fun (we had not seen that part of Florida before) and then we spent a few hours at the Aquarium.  We got to see Winter and Hope.  Hope did some tricks for use.  We meet lots of animals from the movie and learned a lot about Dolphins and animal rescue.  the girls loved it and I'm glad we got to make a little wish of their's come true.  

The girls made cards for Winter before we went and they gave the cards to one of the Dolphin trainers.  She promised she would show them to Winter.  

After the Aquarium, we spent a couple hours at the beach before making the long trek back home.  It was so nice to be on a beach in January!

Disney World

I can't believe I forgot to post this.  It has been sitting as a draft unpublished.  

Disney World was so much fun.  I had so much more fun planning this time around because I knew what to expect.  It was so much less daunting.  All three girls were at great ages to get the most out of the trip and really enjoy the week.  Grandma met us in Orlando and the girls could not have been more excited about having your join us again.  

We spent five days at the parks and we hit up most of the rides...some of them multiple times.  We went to Magic Kingdom the first day and I think we went on 6 or 7 rides in the first hour; we already felt like we had conquered the crowed beast.  

Sienna was a little sick the first couple of days; fortunately it was just a head cold, but she was tired and we felt bad for her, but I think she still had fun.  She stayed off a couple of rides, but she got to do the things loved most.  The car driving rides are still her favorite and we did them several times.  

Estelle loved the roller coasters; the barnstormer, seven dwarfs mine train, and big thunder mountain were her favorite.  She really did love everything though.  She loved the parades and shows and all the silly little rides too.  She did get scared a few times.  Several rides had a 40inch cutoff and our Estelle is 41 inches, so she was just big enough.  The Tower of Terror scared the begeebees out of her.  She liked the dropping part, but the back story about the ghosts in the elevator she hated.  Estelle was also obsessed with the Epcot ball.  She referred to it as "The Epcot" and was so excited to go on the ride inside.  I didn't think it was that great of a ride, but all the girls loved it, but Estelle kept saying, "I'm so glad we went in the Epcot, I loooved the Epcot."  

Natalia still loves the big coasters.  Rock'n Roller Coaster is her favorite; we did that one several times.  We did the Mount Everest Ride a bunch too.  She loves anything that goes fast or flips her around.  

We did  a couple new things this time that we didn't do two years ago.  We all loved Soar'n, we did that two times in a row because we thought it was so cool.  We were all excited for the Frozen ride; it is new since last time.  Natalia and Estelle really got into defeating the villains at Magic Kingdom with their sorcerer cards.  Natalia and Sienna really enjoyed the Jedi training.  They know very little about Star Wars, but Sienna was really looking forward to the training; a costume, a weapon and a bad guy to fight...Sienna's dream come true.  Estelle started the training but then dropped out when Darth Vader appeared; she wanted nothing to do with him.  

We also enjoyed some 4D shows we didn't do last time.  Estelle loved the 3D glasses.  We also enjoyed a few of the night time shows that we never stayed around for last time.  

We love the Safari at Animal Kingdom.  We saw a baby Hippo and baby giraffe.  All six of us named the safari as one of our favorite things.  

Hector and I went out one night to Disney Springs for dinner and exploring.  It was fun to explore something new.  

There were living statues at Epcot and they were so much fun.  They would move when you were not looking and do funny things.  The girls thought it was great.  One of the statues grabbed my purse and then froze and would not let go.