Sea World 2010

Look out, Sea World, here we come!!
We are all excited about the prospect of Shamu!
We weren't 100 yds in the gates and Ellie had already marred the beautiful flower beds.
Gabbi was "all systems 'GO'"!
How sweet is this? She is so excited to be finally walking and to have a little independence.
Todd: "Hey, Mel. Want to?"

Mel: "HELL, no!"
Aquarium pictures are so pretty.
I love this picture of two of my little birds (nest, get it?) looking up at all the undersea wonders.
Ellie and DeeDee get up close and personal.
And then I had to crawl through a TINNNNNY tunnel to get all three of us into this aquarium.
We fed the manta rays.
And MOST of the kids touched them. Not Ellie Sue. She was happy to look from a distance!
However, next time we could save a lot of money if we just went out in the backyard. We had to stop and chase and try to feed every squirrel we saw !
Gabbi has had the time of her life. She just likes the show.
Especially this one....
The Dolphin show!
A fish jumps... Gabbi claps. A man rides a couple of dolphins...
Gabbi Claps!

and so forth and so on!
And after the show, while Gabbi napped,

(is this a scream or what? A passerby actually tuned us into this... she must have fallen asleep in about 10 seconds! Don't worry, we fixed her!)

Ellie and Dad (and their personal photographer) toured the shark exhibit.
OMG. I do NOT want to come face to face with one of these suckers. Barracudas!

"U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi... you ugly. hey, hey. You ugly!"
Ok, so I may have to take back that whole aquarium pictures are so pretty quote.
Mostly, they are just blurry.
At times, my little Ellie looked like my little baby.
and then, WHAM. She was all "big girl" sitting alone on the bench for the Shamu show.
No matter. She is my sweet angel!
Once again... Shamu jumps...
Gabbi CLAPS! and claps and claps and claps!
We had a reallly good day at Sea World.
Got a few souvies for the very long trip home.
and until next year, Sea World.
Thanks for the memories.

Mo

Magic Kingdom 2010

And awwwaaaaaaay we go!
Our one and only family shot in front of Cinderella's castle. Which, by the way, Ellie has no concept of yet, (thank you,LORD!), so we didn't have to buy the dress, pay for the hairstyling, or attend the breakfast with the princesses! All in due time, I am sure, and you can bet, Todd the Bod is EXCITED about that!!
I bought a Christmas ornament with the castle on it, and it has a spot for a wallet sized photo. Even though the glaring sun was killing my girls' eyes, this is going to have to do for our Christmas tree next year!
And this is Todd and his parents. Oh, and any photog would tell you to watch for what's in your background. I have no idea what that is growing out of Todd's head!
Oh, and Lindsay and Melinda... see that Castle? I like to STROLL around it, not RUN through it. Count me out on any 1/2 marathon. Maybe I can get back as a cheerleader. I am good at that!

Remember, this is "the happiest place on earth." They are EVEN happier if you buy their overpriced balloons.
We went to the candy store where Ellie found a couple of suckers....
HERE they are!
Ahhh, grandparents. Know what I LOVE about this picture?
I am not toting a baby! THEY are in a line to ride Peter Pan and I am eating an ice cream cone, sitting on a bench with my hubby.
and like that... it was over. Now it's Todd's turn. This was a baby roller coaster. Turns out my little dare devil may be more like her mom than we even knew.
Not really her thing!

This is on a monorail between parks.
A sweet moment, and then, you KNOW how I am about Hand pictures!
I'd say all in all, Magic Kingdom lived up to our expectations.
Gabbi Girl got her a sucker too, so all was right with the world!
MO

EPCOT!~

Well, you guessed it. We drove our little butts alllllll the way down here to sunny Orlando. 14 "blissful" hours in the car! And already looking forward to the 14 hours on the way back! UGH!

I know most of you know this, but T Dawg's (had to, Mindy!) mom and dad live in Orlando. And, well, you can't exactly visit Orlando without skipping over to the parks!

Yesterday, we started at Magic Kingdom (pics to follow at later date), then because EPCOT is mom and dad's favorite!!, we headed there to shut 'er down!
and no big huge ball of metal in the sky would be complete without....

THE POSE!

All that vim and vigor didn't last too long. She was BEAT! Big Daddy took care of that though! We, naturally, chose the wrong stroller (again) that doesnt' allow both girls to lie down at the same time. THing is, they get tired at the same time!
Ellie seemed to be a weee bit more "into" it this year, but I think 3 may actually be the magic age for really appreciating the characters and such. At 3, I don't really think there will be any recollection of the trip when she gets older, but I think she will have more fun at that age. At 2, really, just a lot of looking around!
But, looking definitely includes at the fish in the tanks at the Nemo exhibit!
We had been to the Confectionary (CANDY!!!) shop at Magic Kingdom, because MOM KNOWS how to content my baby girl!
Ellie really digs aquariums, (Shelbi, can we come see the babies?!), so today we hit SEA WORLD! More on that later too.

Gabbi Girl seemed to think it was pretty cool too.
Seems some things never change. Same aquarium, a year prior. And a puritanic hair cut on Mom.?! But... NO HAIR on Gabbi!
I asked Dad to take a pic of my with the baby girls. This is the only pic of the three of us on the day. I am the camera girl!
Ok, this is blurry, but I LOVE the SPUNK! She was walking and just a swingin' those arms! It was a sight to see. She was free, free as a bird!
Does anyone else have the WonderPets saving Little Red Riding Hood video?! Well, Little Red skips along singing, "tralala la la. Tralala la la!" This reminds me of that!
Can anyone tell if she has or has not already eaten her multi colored sucker?
Ok, so let's observe Ellie loving the ducks, Epcot 2009! And Ellie still loving the ducks Epcot 2010.
And the reason we like Epcot.... well, Dad was A-OK once we got to Mexico!
Can you say, "margarit-ahhh"?

Some things never change (The Groves do Epcot, 2009!)

Gabbi found the ducks too.
This is such a change from last year when Gabbi was 5 months old and doing Disney!

She was old enough, this time, to notice all the goings on around her. She even rode some rides!

And like last year, Granddad is still official baby carrier. Let's hear it for Granddad! YAYYYYY! Mom's shoulders are SHOT! Want to see the difference?! This year.....
Last year....

Can you EVEN believe how much change there is in one year? ANd this is almost the year to the day! About a week off. As I said last year, AND AGREE WITH THIS YEAR, there is NO better time to be at Disney World than January. Great weather and NO lines!!

and it was a miracle... the energizer BUNNY gave out! Woooo Hooooo. A much needed nap.

Man, she looks angelic!
And in the same way we came in, we went out.
yep. It was "the night we shut ol' Epcot down"!
Will share Magic Kingdom tomorrow.

Mo