Florida

Well this is an odd first picture to put on here, but everything is in order! This is the first day (Sunday) we were in Rockledge. Kim, Charles, and Aerie took us on a nature drive to look for Gators. This was the only one we saw. If you look closely he/she is under the water in the middle! It was actually pretty chilly out, though you can't tell by our clothes! When we got to Florida it was in the middle of record cold temperatures since the 1980's! Oh goody for us! Kim told us the front page of the paper had been warning about the "Dangerous Killing Frosts" that were coming. It did freeze a bit just a day or two before we arrived.

Savannah just loved playing with the rocks on the road.

Look at me!

Beautiful scenery



Savannah and Aerie playing with sticks.

Monday - Leu Gardens in Orlando (you can Google that to read more)

Lots and lots of pretty flowers

Famous for it's large Camellia collection

Click to enlarge and read all about it if you are interested.

Bulbine frutescens "Hallmark" - Cat Tail Lily

Savannah and Rick in front of a cactus that is almost as tall as Rick!

Almost ready to bloom. I think this is a cute cactus, wouldn't want to touch it though!

I couldn't believe it, Megan asked for a photo of the three of them!

Citrus maxima "Hirado" - Hirado Pummelo

There were quite a few citrus trees here. They had signs saying the fruit goes to local food banks.

Tuesday - Seaworld with Kim and Aerie

What's going on? This look familiar!

Look Mummy and Daddy! So excited!

It's Shamu!!!!!

Almost as tall as a penguin

Our friend Aerie

She must be two also! She is 5 months younger than Savannah, but very tall! I remember my sister, Jillian, smiling like this EVERY time a camera was pointed her way!

The Dolphin show

This squirrel came an found something right by our feet! That is our stroller wheel at the top of the photo.

White birds everywhere you looked - several varieties, here are a couple.

The end of the day, one tired little girl

Wenesday we went to Daytona Beach and drove on the beach for a bit. Also played outside for a very little while. It was cold. We were still in summer clothes, but we saw a few Floridians wearing parkas with only their eyes showing through the front of the hoods! It was funny.

Thursday - DisneyWorld for 6 days!

About day three it finally got warm and then kept getting warmer until it was too hot for me the first day at Universal Studios.

Character buffet. Savannah was elated to meet the characters from one of her favorite shows.

Piglet

Megan likes Eeyore, really. She asked me to take this photo.

So excited to see everyone!

Tigger practically mauled Denver and Megan!

Pooh bear

The planter as you come in to the restaurant

Cinderella's Castle and Fireworks

Ariel - Savannah's new favorite Princess

Mickey Mouse

Kissing Pluto on the nose. She HAD to kiss almost every character she met!

Looking at a piece of grass she found. I like the leaves in the cement.

Kissing Jimminy Cricket

He's one of my favorites

Daddy and Savannah sitting on a big claw waiting for the parade before lunch at the Yak and Yeti

Digging in to their favorite big brownie dessert

My favorite, mango, lemon, and raspberry sorbet.

Savannah and Lucky

Nemo got me!

Part of the Beauty and the Beast Musical

High school Musical 3

I actually watched the people on the left in blue more than the show. They were doing ASL for someone. They were at the Beauty and the Beast Musical as well. It was just as much of a show watching them, not just for the signs (which Savannah and I are learning), but for their actual acting and expressions.

Lightening McQueen

All of us and Mater too!

Riding an ant at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground

A big dog nose that "sniffed" periodically

Herbie, a favorite in my house as a child.

So proud of her Mickey ketchup. Apparently our server was the only one that does that.

Sitting in "our car" at the Sci-Fi "Drive-in" restaraunt

My favorite hat that Savannah tried on

Another of Savannah's favorites. Tinkerbell. Metting the Fairies was new this year. What a treat!

She just loves Minnie, Mickey and getting her photo taken most of the time.

The Mickey hat at Hollywood Studios themepark

Meeting Stitch

He combed Savannah's hair with his claws

Chip and Dale, another of my favorites

On some crates where we tried to do a family photo last year too.

More like last year, outside a store.

Outside of the park gates

Brer Rabbit

Another kiss!

Loved Timon, scared of Rafiki for some reason. He was the only character she was scared of this year.

Brer Bear. This was really special.



I remember commercials for Disney that showed children walking through the parks with Mickey or Minnie holding their hands. That NEVER happens, at least not from what we have seen. Then Savannah charmed Brer Bear so much with her kiss that he escorted us to the gate of the Animal Kingdom! Denver took the photos for us. Unfortunately Daddy and Megan weren't there to see this.

Universal Studios

Sitting in the car at the Curious George water playground

Riding on the Carosuessel

Stuff in the Cat in the Hat store. Savannah's favorite ride. I lost track of how many times we went on this one!

A little show we watched.


Alex and the penguins from Madagascar

Kissing Curious George!


Shaggy and Scooby-Doo

Daddy being eaten by "Jaws"

Megan's turn

I used to have a cat named Finnigan (this is one letter different)

King Daddy at the Medival dinner

Some of the show.

Two of the actors, Savannah had to pose with them.

The Cirque du Soliel store at Downtown Disney

Trying on a hat and trying to figure out the nose. She never did get it on properly.

Masks

Friday, Gator tour

We saw so many gators, it was unbelievable!

I love this little flower. We stopped on a bit of land for awhile in the middle of the ride. There were plenty of gators nearby. We also saw softshell turtles during the ride.

Our airboat from the tour

Denver came with Rick and I, Savannah is too small to go and Megan didn't want to.

After this we went and tried some gator meat at a school bus restaurant down the road. I only ate about 4 pieces. It had a weird, not quite rubbery texture that I couldn't get past. It didn't taste bad though.

Saturday - Miami

This was at breakfast at the nice hotel across the street from our not as nice one! We had a beachfront hotel though. The beach there is so nice! We couldn't stay long though, there were parking issues there, so we packed up and drove down to Key Largo.

From the upper deck of a glass bottomed boat we could see lots of Mangroves on the way out to Molasses Reef.

The rest of my Key Largo photos are not digital, so they won't be on here. We had lots of fun there! It was so nice to relax at the hotel pool. The beach was not nice like Miami, but we really enjoyed it there. Met several people at the pool and Savannah had lots of friends to play with and borrow toys from.

The glass bottomed boat took us over the reef to see lots of species of coral and fish. That was nice as we learned lots of names of ones that Rick, Denver and I saw the next day while snorkelling over the reef. That was much scarier for me than snorkelling in Mexico. In Mexico I didn't jump off a boat into the deep ocean, we swam in from the edge there!!! I still enjoyed it though. Denver didn't go in much, he wants to practice in the pool here first so he is comfortable with breathing with a snorkel before he tries again. We are hoping to go in Hawaii in December this year. Really hoping we can go!!!

Back to Universal Studios for their Mardi Gras celebration

Savannah testing out the seat for the Hulk roller coaster

Now you see her

Now you don't!!!!!

Rick with Megan and her abs shirt! And her cow named Ty. Rick says I have no idea how many bad ab jokes he had to listen to after she got that shirt.

Denver and some of the beads from the parade.

The next day we had to leave for home :( Bye for awhile Florida! Now Savannah asks on a regular basis to "Go see Princesses!" She asked the first time when we landed in Calgary at the end of all our plane rides! Someday she will understand how far away they really are.

We really had a great time with Kim, Charles and Aerie. I'm sorry there aren't more photos of us with them. I've realized the days when we were relaxing and not going, going, all day I didn't take many photos! There's not a single one of the house or even the animals there! Next time, right Kim! :D

THE END