Day 4 - Crabby Bill's and the park

I knew Ella loved looking out on the balcony, she did last year. I was happily surprised at how much Holly loved it and how well she behaved out there. We had a "no toys on the balcony" rule and Ella was good about enforcing it. She even had to yell at Steve once. lol

Ella still likes her lemons. Weirdo.

Not sure if this was her first one, but she definitely enjoyed the Oreo.

We took the girls to a couple of parks after their naps. Holly borrowed someone's ball for a minute.

SLIDE!

Peek-a-boo!

Love that she's old enough to have tons of fun at the park now.

I'm king of the playground!

We're pretty well-balanced on the teeter-totter. I should have given the camera to Daddy for a better shot though. Oh well.

Day 5 - Disney

There are so many photos from our trip to the Magic Kingdom, I made a slideshow instead of posting them all. For those who don't use blogger and don't know, you can only post 5 pics at a time. It would take me 1 year to do. So - if you like any of the photos I can email them to you, just send me a note.

After the tram and the ferry, Ella finally got a glimpse of Cinderella's castle. She was so happy. It wasn't only Ella's first time there (and obviously Holly's) but Uncle Steve's first visit too! I love the Goofy hat he picked out. I heard there were several hats he wanted, but with Goofy being my favorite character... I like it. lol


We got to the castle just in time for a parade and dance-in-the-street party. The girls really enjoyed that, they always love dancing with the characters at Great America - so they had lots of practice. Everyone rode Small World, then we split up. Our family headed off to meet Mickey and Minnie, I wanted Holly and Ella to see them before they got hot and tired. Holly was so excited while we were waiting - about 1/2 hour or so. I don't think she knew what was going on, but she knew it was something good. When we met them, Holly immediately went to chew on Minnie's nose... just like she does to her toys at home. She also gave her a kiss, so I don't think Minnie was mad.

Ella rode with me on Dumbo and Jason took Holly. After lunch and another ride on Small World we met back up with Vicki and Steve. Ella was a little scared of Pirates of the Caribbean and I was too... man, those new Captain Jacks are lifelike. Holy crap! Vicki and Steve stayed with Holly while the rest of us went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Nini and Papa thought once was enough, but the line was so short, Jay and I took Ella on a second time.

We went back to the castle to see a show with the princesses and you can see from the slideshow that the girls had two of the best seats in the house. Ella was a little concerned when the witch was out, but overall they enjoyed the show. You could tell they both were running out of steam. We stopped to get them some Mickey ears and even though Ella spelled her name 3 times, the guy messed up her embroidery. Eiia. Awesome.

I can't believe Holly was able to stay up the whole day. She refused to miss anything. They were so well-behaved too. There was only 1 small crying spat, but less than 2 weeks later and I can't really remember what it was about. Ella said her favorite ride was Dumbo, but she keeps singing "Small World". lol Our family left and Vicki, Steve, Nini and Papa stayed for a while - thanks to them for the pictures of the castle after dark.

Day 6 - Split up the kids

Holly enjoys some bubble time on the balcony Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon, Jason and I took Ella out to lunch without Holly for some alone-time with us. We planned to go on a speedboat tour afterwards hoping to see some dolphins, but due to the chilly weather, it was cancelled. Instead we took her to St. Petersburg to the aquarium on the pier. Quite a few pelicans hanging around on the pier, I fed them on our way out. Almost got attacked by a seagull - check it out.

The aquarium was small, but that didn't matter to Ella. She kept going back to the same tanks, but since she saw different fish in them each time, she must've thought the place was enormous!

Look Mommy! It's Nemo! The second picture is a tank of baby seahorses, you can't really see them in the pic. They look like seamonkeys. They're only 1cm big.

They had a see and touch tank for kids. Ella suprised me with how many disgusting things she was willing to touch. Is this the same girl who plugged her nose the entire time at the pumpkin farm?

This eel scared her every time she walked by it. He is pretty creepy. Even some of the staff didn't like walking by his tank.

When we got back we gave both girls a bath. Holly played with the naked baby again. The "other" baby is a lot bigger than last year. :o)

Day 7 - On your own day

The three groups separated on Thursday and everyone did their own thing. Nini and Papa drove to Fort Myers to meet Papa's sister for lunch. She lives in Miami, so they picked a halfway point to meet up. Vicki and Steve went to Epcot for the day then met Nini and Papa for dinner. It was such a long day for all of them - they didn't even see the girls until Friday morning. The rest of us spent the day bumming around town. First stop - Bubba Gump's for lunch. Ella got some neato blue Jell-o we brought back to the condo with us.

As I said, Vicki and Steve went to see the giant golf ball.

And they ran into someone pretty famous when they ate in 'France.'

We took the girls to the Seabird Sanctuary down the street from the condo. It's where volunteers rehabilitate injured pelicans and other birds. But, word gets around that the birds get free food and good care. There always are random healthy birds walking around.

Holly was very funny, she kept laughing and saying, "Duck? Duck? Duck?" Ella was upset about the stinky fish smell. "OH NO! I smell something stinky in my nose!" She's such a city girl. Her favorite part was chasing the seagulls on the beach near the sanctuary.

Random birds just walk around. They like people... people bring food!

Vicki, Steve, Nini and Papa missed a really great sunset. They also missed a feeding frenzy as this man fed the gulls.

Bubbles!

I think Holly was in the middle of saying, "bubble" right here.

Nice face, Ella.

Attack! Holly got the crap tickled out of her.

OK, time to chill and watch the sun go into the ocean.

Oh no... this (while really silly) is going to be bad when it's full of sand.