Back to the Tundra

We don't actually live in the tundra but damn if a quick trip to Florida doesn't make it seem like it.
Ironically enough we go to Florida and the weather is a perfect balmy 75 degrees and what do we do the first day? Go to Sea World. Where the girls loved seeing penguins. Who can blame them? They were pretty darn cute.














My favorite was those sharks. I am a sucker for aquariums...could stare at those fish all day. The pass through glass tunnel with sharks swimming over and all around? Fabulous. Then we meandered ever to the stingray pond where you can buy food and feed them. Ava wanted to pitch a tent and spend the night. She was completely captured by those stingray or is it stangrays or stingrai? I don't get it...they were slimy and those wavy fins sort of creep me out. But not Ava...she leaned over that pond edge and personally gave each and every ray a soft loving stroke.

Here we are at Lego land. We got stuck at Lego land. How does that happen? Well, we ended up being held capture by a torrential rain pour and the only cover was the covered lego stand. Not the worst place in the world to get stuck in a rain storm, especially if you are an engineer by way of college degree.

We were there so long my dad got busy building a new 1/2 inch scale replica of the Hoover dam. Or was it Godzilla in his red phase?

Then Ava and Liv got in on the action with their own creations.














Does Liv look like she is seriously considering a career in architecture or what? My mom and I simply took the hour to plan our action plan running through rain drops to procure a Starbucks since us creative types can't be bothered with too many damn legos. The Muffin Man decided to stake out the birthday party happening next to us to see if he could score a birthday cupcake with this amazing green frosting. No luck...the birthday party people were not generous with the leftover cupcakes...sad. We had to run to House of Blues for burgers and fries as soon as the rain let up a bit for consolation.

Over all we had a wild blast down in the land of mouse. The kids were ridiculously fun to be with, I was mentally and emotionally prepared for at least one barfing session and one nuclear meltdown in public and was pleasantly surprised when neither were an issue. Although I did contemplate tossing Ava into the Shamu tank when she incessantly kept asking for carnival games and stuffed animals at Sea World only to be met with my constant parental warnings of "isn't being a Sea World enough to be thankful for".

The Magic Kingdom was a hoot. Ava rode her first real roller coaster and Livi owned the carosel. I waited a record 45 minutes for a 2 minute ride on Dumbo with my 2 children which surely solidifies my space in perpetual heavenly existence when my time here on earth is complete. I'm using that one in my back pocket after I lost 1/2 a notch when I simply refused to swim in the big pool at the hotel with Ava, instead opting for the hot tub ONLY due to the fact that it was not the normal 90 degrees I like when hitting the big pool. So much for mother of the year.

How many more months until the next Florida vacation?