a little getaway...

Andy had  a week off when he got home from deployment, so we snuck off to Orlando for a few days!  We got in a lot of quality family time and had some fun while we were at it!

Day one we braved SeaWorld.  It was Olivia's first time to a big zoo type place and she loved it!  My friends all said "she will nap in the stroller in the afternoon" so we planned to enjoy the entire day there.  Well, their babies may do that, but ours does not ;)  We lasted from 9:30ish till almost 3pm and got to see just about all we wanted.  She wasn't interested in sleeping, but she wasn't acting out either, so we just went with it.  I laid down with her when we got back to the hotel and she slept for about 40 minutes, but she sat up 3 different times in that time period, looked at me, and shouted "wawa"!  Then she would lay back down and go to sleep! I guess she was so excited about the water and the animals that she was dreaming about it! ha. 

feeding the stingrays

watching the dolphins at feeding time

"this way, Dada!"

Her most favorite part was either the pet show (called Pets Ahoy!, where dogs and cats preformed) or the dolphin show.  She shrieked and hollered with excitement throughout both of them.  I would catch the people around us watching her rather than the shows because it was so heartwarming!  She was definitely enjoying herself!

We also saw the whale show with Shamu.  It was neat, but not nearly as exciting as the dolphin show.  Olivia mostly entertained herself with her kazoo during it.  However, you can't go to SeaWorld without seeing the killer whales!

watching the sea lions

That night we met Andy's cousin out for dinner.  It was great fun to introduce him to Olivia. We had also met his other cousin on the drive down in Jacksonville, but we neglected to get a picture with her. 

Wednesday we went to ESPN Wide World of Sports and caught a Braves spring training game.  Andy is a BIG Braves fan and is sad that we will no longer be within driving distance to Atlanta when we move.  So, we caught an early season game to help ease his pain ;)  I think the Braves lost.  To be honest, I didn't get to watch much of the game.  I was busy chasing a toddler around!

while she looks peaceful here, sitting on the blanket only
lasted about as long as the snack did...

how many Goldfish can I get in at one time?!

After the game we headed to Downtown Disney.  It is a place on the water with a lot of shops and restaurants (and its free to get in!).  It was our way of catching a little Mickey Mouse without going to the theme park.  However, being in Orlando made me very excited for the day we actually do take our family to Disney World!  I have never been and I know it has to be magical!  Olivia loves Mickey and Minnie and every time we saw a picture or statue of one of them she would shout "mimi" (her name for both of them) and point.   It was pretty adorable and made me wonder what she would do if she met them in-person?!

She liked the carousel, BUT...

her real love was for the train!  She shouted "choo choo" over and over while riding around in circles.  She even had to ride it twice because walking back past it without getting on was TOO much for her to handle...I'm sure any of you who are familiar with a near 2 year old can imagine what happened when we tried to scoot past without getting on!  Oh, the drama!

After a long day, we ended with dinner at Rainforest Cafe, which was really neat.  There were moving animals everywhere (we sat right next to the elephants!) and every 30 minutes or so it would thunderstorm!  No actual rain, but the lights would dim, the animals would start squawking, and thunder would sound.  Olivia enjoyed it, but the big hit was the macaroni and cheese.....

our girl doesn't mess around when it comes to food ;)

Also, here is a little fun from back at the hotel.  :)

brushing teeth with daddy from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.