Day 6 - Universal Studios

Disney Day 6

Today we hit Universal Studios for a nice relaxing day. We wandered around the pretty much empty park not waiting in any lines to ride. It was great. The first ride we went to was the one Shelby and I were super excited for, the Despicable Me ride. If you have not seen the Despicable Me movie, YOU MUST. Stop reading right now and go to the nearest RedBox or rental shop and get it! Such an adorable movie and one of my all time favorites. The ride was a 3D motion simulator thing that I really hate, but despite that I still loved it. When we exited the ride they had Minions there to take picture with! We saw mostly all we wanted to at Universal by lunch time so we decided to head out to City Walk and have lunch at Margaritaville and then head back to the hotel to relax and hit the pool some.

Day 5 - Sea World

Disney Day 5

After returning from our midnight trip to the ER we finally got some sleep and slept in just a little bit. We still managed to get up and going to be at Sea World close to opening. Colin was already feeling better and we headed straight to the dolphin area to participate in the dolphin feeding. I'm not sure who was more excited about feeding the dolphins, Colin or myself, but we were both stoked! We bought lots of fish trays and listened carefully to the instructions and then fed the dolphins. I got some great pictures, and Colin got to feed and pet the dolphins which was super exciting for him. Colin was thrilled to spend the day with Cousin Charlotte. We fed everything we were allowed to feed multiple times, since feeding the animals was pretty much the highlight of Colin's day. We took in some shows and Colin got a kick out of the whales and dolphins doing tricks. He saw one show and was convinced HE was a dolphin trainer and anytime he passed and underwater viewing area for whales or dolphins he would go nuts giving them made up hand signals to get them to do tricks. It was pretty funny to watch. Later that evening we did a "Dine with Shamu" dinner. Amazing! So worth the money and I'm so glad we did it! It was a buffet style dinner and every table was right up next to the glass in a killer whale tank. The trainers were out doing a laid back training session with the whales and giving lots of good information about them. The trainers walked around and talked to us and let us ask questions and shared some excellent information. Finally to end off the night we watched an ice skating show and fireworks finale. Colin was exhausted by the end of the night and he fell asleep in Shelby's arms during the ice skating show. We figured when the loud fireworks started that he would wake up. Wrong. The kid slept through it ALL and never moved a muscle. When the show was over we carried him, still sleeping all the way out of the park and back to the car, where he slept again. Being a dolphin trainer must be hard work!

Day 4 Magic Kingdom

Disney Day 4

Today we finished off our Disney park pass with a final day at Magic Kingdom. Shelby's family all had to head back home tonight, so it was the boys last day together for a while. Colin still wasn't feeling that well but was hanging in there and didn't seem to slow down any. About midnight he woke us up crying that he didn't feel well and was coughing and congested so I put him in a hot steam bath with the Vicks Vapor bath to calm him some. While in the bath he just sobbed to me "Mommy I don't want to be sick anymore, I don't like being sick." That was my clue that he was feeling really miserable and I started asking him what hurt and where and he told me his ears hurt. That was all I needed to know, my kid doesn't complain he hurts and he doesn't slow down until he's seriously hurting. I called the front desk of the hotel and got the number to the closest ER and off we went. How many kids get to say they visited the Disney hospital? LOL He turned out to have an upper respiratory infection and a double ear infection. Chest x-ray was clear though, so thankfully he didn't have the pneumonia they were concerned about. That was the fastest ER trip I think we've ever had too! We got his meds and went back home to rest. Of course in true Colin fashion he woke up the next morning ready to go.

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

Disney Day 3

First stop at Hollywood Studios was to get the boys signed up for Jedi training. It was kind of a surprise and the boys had to wait until the afternoon to get to put on their show. It was AWESOME! Highly recommend it for any Star Wars fan. Colin and Dawson were on cloud nine and talked the rest of the day about meeting Darth Vader, challenging him and learning to be a Jedi. It was pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen to a four year old! Jedi Training... Osbourne Lights...

Day 2 Animal Kingdom

We were up bright and early to open the Animal Kingdom park. Our fabulous bus driver from the day before had told us get there when the park opens and go straight to the safari trail ride because they put the food out along the trail just before opening. We did as instructed and scored! All the animals were out and we got great views of everything, including baby elephants and rhinos! We spent the day touring the park, Colin still sick but hanging in there, until the boys all got soaked on the river rapids ride and were freezing. We had to call it quits after that and head back to the hotel to dry out and change. Later that night we went over to Downtown Disney to meet up with my family that had arrived that day. We had a great dinner catching up and seeing my family that I haven't seen in years. Colin was super excited to see his cousin Charlotte now that he is old enough to remember her.

Day 2 Animal Kingdom

Day 1-Magic Kingdom

Disney Day 1

First day at Disney! The gang is all here, Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Shauna & Uncle Dave along with Dawson and Brennan all arrived and we set out for Magic Kingdom together. The boys were ready in their personalized Mickey shirts Shauna made. The park opened early for us since we were staying at a Disney resort hotel and we got to see the opening ceremonies, which I had never seen before. We went in and went straight to the new Fantasyland, which had just opened up that week! Since we were in Disney OF COURSE Colin got sick. It never fails, the kid cannot make a trip to Disney and stay healthy. He was very congested and stuffy with a cold. This is pretty much the first time he'd been truly sick since he had his tonsils taken out back in October of 2011. I guess we shouldn't complain when you look at it like that! We had a great day at Disney, playing the role of the Beast at Beauty and the Beast's show, going to pirate school with Captain Jack Sparrow and riding all the big kid rides. We ended the night at the T-Rex Cafe at Downtown Disney, the boys loved it! Video of Colin as The Beast Colin taking the pirate oath...

Gatorland Zoo

Gatorland Zoo

This morning we got up bright and early and set off for Orlando. First stop was Gatorland Zoo and Colin was very excited to see all the alligators. We wandered around and taught Colin the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. He got pretty good at being able to tell the difference all by himself. We sat for a picture with a big snake around our necks and holding a baby alligator, Colin didn't want the snake near him but he was all about holding the gator. We watched a couple animal shows and then went to see the gator wrestling show. At the end the kids could come up and pay to get their picture taken sitting on the back of a 6 footer and Colin could barely stand to wait in line. We figured he'd be scared once he got up there and it was his turn but that was definitely not the case, he hopped right on and knew just what to do! We had a great afternoon, snapped some beautiful pictures and then headed off to the hotel. It was so exciting to drive through the Disney property gates with Colin, such fun. We got checked into our room at Shades of Green, unpacked some and checked out the pool.

Visiting Mel & Alex

Visiting Mel & Alex

No rest for the weary! Monday morning we headed for south Florida to visit my BFF Melissa and her family. We spent two nights with them before traveling back up to Disney. We had a great time catching up, I hadn't seen Mel in far too long. Colin and Kaden had so much fun together. The kids went swimming together, we did a lot of eating, wine drinking and catching up. One day we visited a place called Gumbo Limbo that was awesome. It was free and had all kinds of great sea life to check out. They do sea turtle rehab and rescue, so we were able to see several sea turtles being nursed back to health before being set free. It was such a super neat place. I wish we'd have had more time to spend with Mel & Alex but they had a cruise to take and we had Disney to visit.

Jags Game

Jags Game

We took Colin to his first football game today. He had a ball, he was so excited to get his Jaguars gear and go watch the game. Gator football season was over so we had to settle for a Jags game. It worked out that they were playing the Jets that Sunday so we were at least able to show Colin who Tim Tebow is. We had great seats, which was very nice until Shelby ruined it for me and told me how much he paid for the tickets. I just assumed the tickets cost about $100 or so for the three of us, I mean it IS the Jags after all, what was their record last season?? Once I found out the tickets were almost $300 I had a hard time enjoying the game from that point on. For $300 I should have been sitting on Tebow's lap! Oh well...Colin had a great time and still talks about going to the game 2 months later(YES I KNOW it has taken me that long to finally get around to updating this blog!).

Travel to the US

Colin and I have not been back to the US since we left to move to Germany back in 2009. We were excited to take in a lot of sights and visit with family who we hadn't seen in a while. To get to Florida from this little island is a two day event. We left Terceira about 9 AM on a Friday and flew to the larger island of São Miguel. From there we had a long layover of several hours before our flight for the US left. Our next door neighbor, Rosanne, has a very close family friend that is Portuguese and lives on our island. Odilia and her family spent Thanksgiving with us if you remember. Odilia's daughter happens to live on the island of São Miguel and when Odilia heard we had a layover there she asked if we would mind carrying on some things to take to her. Of course we didn't mind, so Catarina met us at the airport to get her stuff and offered to drive us around and show us some of the island. So nice of her! The weather was not cooperating very much at all and it was typical island winter weather of rain and wind. We saw some of the downtown area, some of the port area and then spent a good deal of time in the mall that is there to stay dry. Later that afternoon it was time to board our long flight to Boston. We arrived in Boston and as we expected it was COLD! No snow, but pretty cold for us island dwellers. Since we were spending our whole vacation in Florida we didn't really have any cold weather clothes, so we just had to suck it up for the night there until we could board our plane for Jacksonville the next day. Colin was THRILLED to finally arrive at Grandma & Grandpa's house after two days of travel anticipation. He and his cousins were so cute and funny together. Colin and Dawson met when they were infants, and have Skyped now that they are older, but this was the first time they have met now that they are old enough to understand. It was our first time meeting Brennan too. The first night we were in Keystone we took the kids to the Keystone Christmas parade and grilled oysters out on the grill. Colin tried oysters for the first time and loved them! The kids had a blast and Colin was WIPED OUT by the end of the night, as were Shelby and I. The album has all our pictures from takeoff to the end of our first night in Keystone.

Travel to the States