Road Trip

Oh, the lengths you will go to to entertain Critters on I-75.

Chris

Spring Break, Part 3 - A Day Out with Thomas

So Brother, finally got his day after waiting patiently through the princess luncheon. We loaded the car up and headed down to lovely Parrish, Florida (South of Tampa, I had no clue where it was either) to go see Thomas the Train. Brother is obsessed with trains, especially Thomas. We had heard good things about these tour stops, mostly from the stops in Camille, Georgia, and Mount Dora, Florida (near Orlando). Well, lets just say that Parrish, Florida had a little different vibe and clientele than what we were expecting from the stories of the other stops. Don't get me wrong we had a good time and Brother and CarCar were in heaven with the trains, but there could have been some improvements made to the venue. First of all the organizers could have chooses a location that had grass and was not just a dirt field. As you can imagine a dirt field and lots of children don't mix to well. Next the train cars that they hooked the Thomas engine up to looked to date from sometime close to the invention of rail service. Lets just say that 90 degree temps and an old school rail car that most of the windows didn't open equaled a stifling ride. We could have ridden in the converted circus animal car that was directly behind Thomas but we were not one of the 'lucky' 70 people on that one. Oh yea, those lucky 70 some how got wet from some sort of mysterious water on the roof of the car, it was very strange.

After our stops at the temporary tattoo station (and I mean 2 minutes temporary), the train table tent, the bubble pools (a brilliant idea, especially with the dirt that surrounded us), and the train, Rian, Reese and I headed over to meet Sir Topham Hatt. I was a little worried that Reese would freak out, but apparently we broke him in with meeting the bunny at Animal Kingdom. He absolutely loved meeting Sir Topham Hatt. After that little rendezvous we headed over to get a picture with Thomas and hit the souvenir tent. After that we rounded the Critters up and jumped back in the car for our trek back to Orlando. All in all the Critters had a great time, Brother especially. I can tell you that we have been playing trains everyday since.

Here are some shots from the day:

This nice old man let the Critters come behind the barricades for a better view of the train set.

Haddie and her temporary tattoo.

Close up.

CarCar got a Percy tattoo.

Reese in his element at the train table tent.

Thomas and the open box car.

Brother taking it all in.

Haddie with her certificate.

CarCar looking out the door, and blocking the aisle.

Brother, momma, and Sir Topham Hatt.

Brother flashing a smile.

Close-up of Thomas.

The Critters in front of Thomas.

Thomas pulling out of the station.

I think this picture is hilarious. CarCar looks like a little refuge child. I told you it was dirty there.

Chris

Spring Break 2012, Part 2 - Animal Kingdom

After all of the excitement on Sunday, we headed over to Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. We got to the park around 9:45 and proceeded to run, drag children to the Safari ride. For those who don't know, you need to get to this ride early, er first, in order to see all of the animals. For some reason the Orlando heat has all of the animals running for cover. Does anyone else find this a bit strange, I mean these animals are from Africa correct? According to the weather folks it does get a bit on the warm side over there. It not like I am expecting penguins running through the Orlando sun. Well anyway, we hit the line and waited, and waited, and waited, well beyond the estimated time. Well we found out that it wasn't an animal problem it was a person problem, someone fainted from the heat. And the strange thing was it wasn't really hot, the person must have been from somewhere up north, way up north. So after an extended wait with three eager Critters we hit the ride and were not disappointed. All of the animals were still out and had not melted yet. CarCar got to see her giraffes, and Haddie got to see her 'big kitties.' After this we were able to downshift and enjoy the rest of the park.

We hit up a few more attractions, specifically the otter tank for Carson, yes my daughter is obsessed with otters. After that it was lunchtime, so we hit up a counter-service restaurant for some BBQ. $71 bucks later we were partially full. We meandered through the rest of the park and finally tried to ride the train for Brother, but after we waited in line a bit we found out there was only one train running and it would be a while. We came up with the ingenious plan to drive to a hotel and ride the monorail. Its kind of like a choo-choo train, with out the choo-choo of course. After doing one big circle we headed over to meet Grandma Kate for dinner at Olivia's. Another great, but extremely tiring day at Disney.

Here are a few pics from the day:

Brother's urban-styled beanie hat. (Yes it has a spray paint graffiti design on it yo.)

A Rino, thank God it was a little further away than last time. The last trip we thought the thing was going to ram the safari jeep.

The Crocs.

The baby elephant.

Carson with her giraffe ears and Brother with his urban flava.

The Dino Diner, home of the frozen Coke, and the reason I missed the dinosaur version of Dumbo.

Brother interacting with a character, this was a big step.

Momma and CarCar.

Yes, I'm sure they are plotting something.

The parade.

The 'safari car,' yes that's right the safari car, don't dare call it a stroller.

The giraffe parking lot. For Carson.

Brother ran out of gas.

So did Carson.

Chris

Spring Break 2012

We packed up the car, grabbed the Critters and Abbey and hit the open road (congested of course) to Orlando. Let me tell you that 5 o'clock on a Friday is not the optimal time to try to head out of Tallahassee. While our traffic may pale in comparison to other cities it is a giant PIA to get from our house to I-10 at that time.

On Sunday, the crew (The Critters, me, Rian, Grandma B, Grandma Kate, and Adam) headed over to Epcot. The big event of the day was lunch with the Princesses in Norway. (don't remember the name of the restaurant. It started with an "A" I think.) As soon as we get to the park I suggest that I'll go get fast passes for Soarin', since that is the only ride @ Epcot that I haven't had a chance to ride. Weeeellllll, everyone decided to head off and start to see the park. One problem, I didn't have my cell phone. I felt like the lost child looking for their parents, except I had a few expletives running though my head. I thought surely they would come back to the spot that we parted ways. Well, they did after about 20 minutes of me fuming there. So the day got off to a little of a rocky start, but at least I had my fast passes.

Off to Norway we went for the Princess lunch. Let me tell you the girls were getting giddy. You step in to the restaurant and are ushered for a picture with Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The Critters were a little shy but Haddie soon warmed up. It takes Carson a little bit to warm up to 'strangers.' We got to our table and the princess party started. Haddie was in heaven, it was total princess overload. First Jasmine (Aladdin), then Ariel (the Little Mermaid), then Cinderella, and finally the one Haddie had been waiting for, Sleeping Beauty (Haddie informed me that her real name is Aurora). As you can tell from the pictures below Haddie took quickly to her. She even came back and got Haddie to lead the princess parade with her. Lunch was good and then we headed over to Mexico for a boat ride. Brother kept his sunglasses on and for the folks that have been on the Mexico boat ride know it is dark in there. Well we were walking to the actual ride and Brother walked face first into a pole, apparently he couldn't see it with his sunglasses. It apparently sounded worse than it was because the Disney cast member thought it knocked Reese out. He was fine and shook it off, but he will definitely not be wearing sunglasses at night.

After Mexico we headed off to ride Soarin'. It was fun but it could be sooo much better with a few tweaks. Then we grabbed to boat to head over to Japan. Anyone who knows CarCar knows she is obsessed with Hello Kitty (much to Rian's chagrin). Surprisingly she picked out a rather small Geisha Hello Kitty and we were off to France for a snack and some champagne (for only $12 bucks a glass, er plastic flute).

The kids were getting tired by this point, and to be truthful so was dad. We headed to the big silver golf ball for our final ride. Haddie didn't want to go on it so she hung out with the Grandmas, while Carsie, Reese, Rian, Adam and I went on the ride. We finally took off and headed home, completely exhausted, but the Critters had a great time.

Here are some pics from our day @ Epcot:

I don't think I mentioned it above but it was the Flower and Garden Festival.

The group (minus Uncle Adam who was behind the camera).

This is the crew after they left me.

Cinderella and Haddie.

The girls and Cinderella.

Ariel putting some moves on Brother. She really liked his 'strawberry' colored hair. I'm not sure but I think Brother may have gotten some digits.

Haddie and Sleeping Beauty.

As you can tell Haddie loves her some Sleeping Beauty.

Brother wasn't quite as into Jasmine as he was with Ariel.

Haddie helping to lead the princess parade.

Uncle Adam and Rian in Mexico. Ole!

Haddie taking everything in on the boat ride.

Carson, me, and Hello Kitty.

Brother taking a quick rest in France.

Carson and Tinkerbell in the Fairy Garden.

The Critters getting out their last little bit of energy.

Haddie exploring while we were in the giant silver golf ball.

Chris