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Thursday, June 28, 2018

disney springs & aquatica

After our amazing day at Discovery Cove, we were excited to spend the following day with our friends in Orlando!
We went bowling and then walked downtown the cutest little square in Winter Garden
I think this was the summer rock craze!  This was the first we learned about it but we kept finding these cute rocks that people had painted and hidden around Winter Garden. 

So we hid them, and we kept a couple to bring back and hide in Iowa!
Meanwhile, back at home...
This was so cute- our neighbors and Kerigan's BFF took care of Belle while we were gone and my mom was at our house one day and so Avery came over and played.  She played games and hung out with my mom for about an hour!  I think since they both missed Kerigan it helped them feel closer to her!  Haha.  
And of course Belle missed us too, but was happy to have company!
That evening we cleaned up and headed to fulfill my Disney craving... Disney Springs!
Let me tell you how hard it was for me to be this close to Disneyworld and not go... Ha!  I was giddy inside!  I.LOVE.DISNEY.
Since we had just been to Disneyland the year before, and it would break our "Disney every other year" rule, we decided to do all the water things in Orlando this time (Sea World, Discovery Cove, etc).
So this somewhat satisfied Disney craving
We just took pictures by these and pretended they were real characters- haha!
I had serious nostalgia thinking of the first time we took this guy to Disney (he was 3) and he met Buzz. (Insert crying emoji here).
Kerigan had to take a picture with the Lego Friends girls!
And Winnie the "poop" as Andrew used to call him!
We ate at T-Rex Cafe, Andrew's favorite!

It was so fun to spend this evening with our Florida friends!

After dinner we walked around and the kids fought over who was going to push Emery in the stroller.
We saw this car that all of a sudden went splashing into the water!

The kids rode a couple of the little rides they have there

The only girls in the bunch... sweet little Tinkerbell!
Then the boys decided to beat the heat and play in the fountain!
Then warm up on the cement... doesn't that just scream typical childhood memories?  Ha!
A picture by his favorite character, Stitch!
Then we headed to Coca Cola world!  Carrie and I and our kids (minus Emery).  I love that after more than 30 years our friendship is still going strong!
And if you've read this blog for a while, you know Daddy always entertains us in the gift shops!  Ha!
Then we went to this famous cupcake place for dessert called Sprinkles!
You can order your cupcake from an ATM!  Ha!  We did it the old fashioned way though.  The kids got ice cream.  I loved Disney Springs!  Can't wait to go back!
The next day was our last full day and we spent it at Aquatica, which is Sea World's waterpark.
Back there where the dolphins are swimming is a waterslide that goes through the water so you can see the fish swimming!  So amazingly cool!
I hardly took any pictures this day.  I just wanted to enjoy the waterpark with my family!  I loved going on all the slides with them!
They had some fun in this kiddie area too

Then my little man and I braved Ray Rush!
Daddy stayed back with Kerigan because she didn't want to go.
We gave it 2 thumbs up!
We closed down the place!  There's the dolphin waterslide back there, see how it goes underwater?
I just snapped a few pictures on our way out.
This was the perfect end to a once in a lifetime vacation.  We made some memories we will never forget!
We had to carry on Kerigan's trophy so nothing happened to it!
We loved bringing home a National Champion!
Memories to last a lifetime...