Sunday, July 30, 2017

Day 47: SeaWorld–Sharks!

So we planned today as Johnny’s special day. He apparently loves sharks and rays more than cheetahs now. So we signed him up for a behind the scenes of the shark exhibits. Again James was down with back pain so he was unable to ride any of the rides with us. The boys and I all agreed the Manta ride was the most fantastic of the trip thus far and James cried a little.
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We went through a couple exhibits and then went for lunch at the aptly named Sharks restaurant. Johnny was almost incontrollable at this point he was so excited.
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Jude found penguins!
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lunch @ Sharks
And then Johnny and James went for the behind the scenes experience. James took the phone so you’ll just have to believe the rest of us had grand ole time and didn’t go through the shark exhibit thousands of times to hide from the rain.
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Thor made a great comeback today too but we were able to get all the rides in and saw the whale show before the heavens opened up completely. They are definitely making a true effort to fix their image.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Day 45–46: Universal

We went to Universal Studios Parks for Jimmy’s special trip thing. He is a super Harry Potter fan so we took him to the Harry Potter worlds in the parks. We also bought him a fancy wand that interacted with the environment. It was really fun!
Except for when the heavens opened up all their fury and dumped a torrent of rain on us, all the while accessing their inner Thor and stormed lightening and thunder all around us. We got to learn how many people can hide inside of a theme park shop at a time. Its approximately the amount of people I don’t want to be stuck in a shop with. It was also a test of the clothes I packed in how long it took for them to dry after an emergency trip to the restroom at the height of the storm.
Needless to say we were glad that we planned 2 days. The second day was not nearly as bad as the first.
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We got our blues on with the Blues Brothers
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Had to grab a picture for Grampa Ausmus
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Jimmy apparently was able to skip out on any pictures of him and his wand. But that was likely because he was gone the whole time while James and I sat out resting our toes.
James also was not able to ride any of the rides from the beginning of the Universal portion of the trip. We needed to find an emergency chiropractor and get him realigned after stress finally got to him.
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Great News! 
An update: James was useful and took a picture of Jimmy in Diagon Alley.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Day 40-44: Disneyworld!

So I’m going to cheat a little here, over the next several days we didn’t have much time to take pictures. Honestly there is no way that I’d bring my camera into the park any way. Disney took some nice ones though so we are going to share those.

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

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Splash Mountain
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Space Mountain – Who knows what I was thinking…
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Day 2: Epcot/Animal Kingdom

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Tower of Terror
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Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – I don’t even know what I was doing… Why is it always me?

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Day 3: Blizzard Beach/Typhoon Lagoon

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120’ drop 55 mph waterslide

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They all survived

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Day 4: Animal Kingdom

We had intended to go on the new ride for Pandora but the line was outrageous, we would have spent all of our time there. And this was James’ and my anniversary so that idea was not appealing for us. So we did all the other fun things instead!

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We were asked to growl with claws… Jimmy is not a very good lion…
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Expedition Everest
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Jude wanted to go another time
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Dinosaur – such a ridiculous one…

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Sunday, July 23, 2017

Day 39: NASA

First thing today we rushed to  get to the Kennedy Space Center for our lunch with an astronaut.  The astronaut we met was Frederick D Gregory. He was a test pilot, astronaut (both a pilot and commander), and a NASA Administrator. He flew both helicopters and jets. He was super inspirational!
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Jude asked him what it felt like to launch in to space on the shuttle. He said it is like the biggest, tallest, fastest, wooden rollercoaster. It pushes you into your seat and you just hold on.
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Gemini 9A
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The weather was horrible, there was a Phase 2 weather event. There was lightening and rain. Buckets of rain. What a way for Florida to welcome us!
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The rocket garden
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my little astronauts are not so little anymore
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The Curiosity Rover is much larger than I assumed
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Going in to check out the Atlantis Shuttle
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She was opened up so you could see in her bay
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He tiles weren’t replaced after he last flight
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They had so many activities for kids
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From here we left to go and camp in Disney!