Round Robin and Mickey

We've been having round robin bouts of the flu in our family for the past few weeks (months?). We think it started with Ginny, worsened with Chardy before leaving for Disney World, peaked with Aaron throwing up in the pediatrician's office, and ending with Alli having to cancel her own birthday party so it wouldn't progress through the rest of her class...

But, the flu aside, we had an awesome time in Florida with Leo and Noel this past weekend!!! They were truly spectacular hosts (hint...hint...visit them!). On Saturday, we had dinner at a "glorified Chuck-e-Cheese's for adults" (Leo's words, not mine, but I can't remember the exact name, Dave and Basher's or something like that). Lots of games, Skeeball, etc. One cool thing they had was a photobooth that merges two faces to see what a resulting "kid" would look like. Alli wanted to merge hers with mine...anyone remember Punky Brewster?

Sunday, we drove to Orlando, where Noel and Leo had reserved a fantastic 3-BR condo.
Looks pretty cool huh? (Did I mention they were awesome hosts?! Really, you should visit them.)

We spent Sunday afternoon at Magic Kingdom trying to hit the rides they don't have at Disneyland in CA.




Alli and Chardy with their faces painted:



We spent all day on Monday at Animal Kingdom, which was really wonderful. The Living Tree was so cool and the safari was equally impressive. Despite Alli's flu, we stayed until closing (what a trooper!).

The girls with Leo and Noel:



On Tuesday our final day we went to SeaWorld and watched the dolphin show and of course, the Shamu show. Staying for Shamu cut it really close with our flight, but Leo assured us it would be worth it and it was. (Of course, he was the one that had to speed like a madman the 2 1/2 hours back to Jacksonville airport...but we made it with 50 minutes to spare before take-off.)

Other SeaWorld highlights included the Journey to Atlantis log ride...don't you agree that Leo looked the most scared of all??


But, no one wanted to join me on the Kraken rollercoaster (ok, Leo had a perfectly good excuse, but what about everyone else??) This rollercoaster is amazing and was worth the SeaWorld entrance price alone. I think it went upside down about 3-4 times, corkscrewed a few other times, and went underground twice...seriously fun. (I did feel lightheaded and a bit queasy afterwards, but I can admit that now since Leo and Noel are thousands of miles away and can't make fun of me.)

After a grueling mega-flight back across the country, we finally made it back. I don't know who was happier to see whom, but it was a happy reunion after almost a week away especially for Alli and I, who had been at Outdoor School earlier in the week (more on that in the next post...who knew camp could be so cool?!).