Road Trip, July 6-13

Okay, so I've gotten a little behind. We have been having a lot of fun. So on Monday we took it easy. We got Jill all ready to go to EFY and Mark ran her over to the college. They stood in all sorts of lines and got her all set up and checked in. That is about the last we heard of Jill all week. Apparently EFY is much better than hanging out with the family. After taking her...we just hung out some more at the hotel. I went to the grocery store to get some lunch since we had a full kitchen. It rained on and off so we didn't want to go out to the beach. I took the kids swimming in the morning...but got rained on. That evening we went out to the beach and found more sand sculptures. The girls' turtle was still there as well.




On Tuesday we got up early and went to Busch Gardens. I made the kids wear shoes and socks and within an hour of arriving they were completely soaked. We had to go and buy some flipflops. The park wasn't very crowded so we got to ride several things without any lines. After a while we were starving so we went and ate lunch at the only sit down restaurant...which was very slow..but had good food. We go and ride more rides...and then want to do the Rhino Rally which we did earlier and had so much fun. It says 1/2 hour wait...so we decide to stand in line. An hour later we were just about to board and a lightning storm comes. After another hour we finally give up since Mellie has to go to the bathroom. We come out of the bathroom and the sun is shining and all the rides are going again...It figures. We want to go see the magic show so we ask for directions...we get sent on a wild goose chase...and the rain comes back. We walk in a huge loop around the park in the pouring rain...but finally get to the magic show just as it's starting. We really enjoyed the magic show. It was a singing magician, something we had never seen before. His magic wasn't great...but his singing was really funny.

The next day we hung around the hotel while Mark had a meeting and then back to Busch Gardens again. We got to ride stuff we missed...and of course more rain. This picture is from the little bird aviary where you could feed the birds. I was too cheap to buy the nectar so the kids didn't get to hold any birds. But we got to get really close to some.


These were the most active we ever saw turtles. They were huge, but determined to get to their napping spot.
These tigers were amazing. There were a bunch of them and they were playing. We watched them for quite a while.




On our drive from Tampa to Orlando we saw this rainbow. For all the rain we got it was nice we saw one rainbow.


On Thursday we went to EPCOT. I didn't take many pictures, but we had a great day. We got to eat at a Princess Lunch in the Norwegian Pavillion. So very yummy. It was funny though because Mellie says she doesn't like princesses anymore, but I think she liked taking pics with them. Then she got a card with all their signatures and she wouldn't let it go.

What is up with Mellie and her new goofy smile.




Ryan thought this phone booth was the coolest thing ever.

We saw a line in a store and went around back and saw these guys. Mellie doesn't like meeting the characters though so lucky for us we don't have to stand in line.
One of the last things we did at EPCOT was go see a Billy Joel tribute band in the rain. I love Billy Joel so I enjoyed it...even in the rain. The kids didn't enjoy it as much as I did though.

We were too wet and tired to stay for the fireworks. So we just decided to go back to the hotel to dry out and warm up. It was a really fun day though.

On Friday I had planned to go see an old friend of mine. So I got up and spent the day without the family. I had a wonderful time. Oops...I guess I'm not supposed to say that :-) But it's good to get a break from the family every once in a while. Mark and the kids got to go to Disney Interactive for the day. It was a little busy because of the rain...but I know at least Ryan loved it. They picked me up and off we went back to Tampa.

Saturday we picked up Jill from EFY. She had a great week. Then we were off to Atlanta to go see my Grandma and Grandpa. We had gotten word that Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer and was in the hospital so we wanted to go and visit him. We drove all day and got up to their house around 6:00. We got to spend time with Grandma that evening.

Sunday we got up, did laundry and went to the hospital to see Grandpa. He was in great spirits. They thought he would spend a month in the hospital, but instead he was getting out in a couple hours. He was so excited. I don't know his prognosis, but he is very happy and that is what matters. After we left the hospital we headed for home. I wanted to continue our trip, but Mark and Jill had had enough.

We drove all the way to Shreveport, LA and spent the night there. I got eaten alive by mosquitos just bringing the stuff in from the car. The next morning we got up...let the kids swim and headed home. We were home by around 2:00. Our air conditioning wasn't on so the house was 96 degrees when we walked into the house. It took all night to finally cool down. We had a great vacation. We didn't get to all the places we planned, but had fun regardless.