We had a wonderful Christmas dinner and presents time with the family. James and Greta came down with David from Winston-Salem, Heather and the girls came over along with Brittany. The girls tore through packages this year faster than I could keep track or who was grabbing what. It was a really free for all.
After dinner everyone else went home and the girls stayed with us to start off our trip for the week. We headed out on Monday morning the 26th for Clearwater Aquarium to see Winter and Hope. The girls were thrilled to see them in person. We learned that Winter does not wear his prosthetic tail all the time … just periodically like exercise throughout the day. Without the tail Winter didn’t move around much but the team worked with Winter to display her talents and natural abilities in the wild. Weeded out tons of pictures of post only the better ones. There are couple where you can see the stub where Winter’s tail should be. There are also pictures of the girls with the prosthetic tail and sleeve that Winter wears.
On Tuesday afternoon we headed off to Orlando and arrived at our vacation villa. Was a great place to stay but you would really need to spend more time there to enjoy all the amenities it offered. It was great having the kitchen for snacks and breakfast. With two full days at Disney World we just weren’t in the rooms that much.
Wednesday we headed to a very crowded Magic Kingdom. We had three fast passes for our first three rides. Space Mountain was a disappointment even to me. They didn’t have any of the stars or galaxies lit up and the other cars didn’t have the lights on them. It made the ride very black. Hailey definitely didn’t like it but Sammy gave it a 5. Thunder Mountain came next and both girls came off saying it was scary and thrilling. They rated it a 10. Our fast pace for Splash Mountain got delayed due to a 4 hour closure and we went off to the haunted house which we all enjoyed. Sammy got sick to her stomach as we started through Pirates so Mike took her out and I rode with Hailey. Afterwards I took Sammy over to the infirmary, got her some pepto bismal and she laid down for about 90 minutes. She was then feeling much better and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the day. So we got back to Pirates and Splash Mountain, saw the castle light up and headed back to the condo. A full 12 hour day and we were exhausted and I didn’t realize it but with a lot of coughing I was coming down with bronchitis.
Thursday we attended our time share presentation and then went off to Animal Kingdom. The big hit there was the Mt. Everest Exploration. The roller coaster went up and up and gradually down, then stopped and started backwards. That one got to Mike and I but the girls wanted to ride it again. That was scary and thrilling. Problem is we didn’t have a fast pass and the wait was already two hours. We also took the river raft ride and got wet. Not drenched per sei but pretty wet.While it was my turn to head to the infirmary Mike took the girls on the Safari where they saw some of the animals that make up the Animal Kingdom.
Sammy was definitely the thrifty one. With more money than Hailey she spent a lot less. When she saw the price of Hailey’s MM ears for $20 she said no way. She wasn’t paying that kind of money for that. When I offered to by them sweatshirts, Sammy looked at the prices and said forget it. She could get just as good at Target.
Despite a few bumps in the way we had a fantastic time and the girls can’t wait to go again.