Day 8 - the bonus day!

Our flight doesn't leave until 8pm, so we have another day to hang out at the Kennedy Space center. Today was the only day it really rained much during the day, so we didn't mind being indoors again.
But to start our day out right, we had to have more ice cream.... for breakfast!! yum, I could get used to this! Hey, it is vacation after all.

Kennedy offered many opportunities for us to be become spacemen (or is that "spacepersons"??)

Alan got to repair the Hubble Telescope!

Hanging out with the moon man

Sydney is guiding the rocket safely into space (or maybe she's just talking to her friend, I can't tell)

Here we are hanging out on the moon!

Well, that wraps up our trip. Despite the hot hot weather, we had a great time!

Day 7 - Aquatica!!

To beat the heat of Florida we decided to spend another day at a water park. We picked Aquatica, the new waterpark owned by Sea World. This park was so beautiful! Note - I didn't actually take any of these pictures, because I left my camera in the car - but words just can't describe this park!

One of the most fun "rides" at the park was this river - Roa's Rapids - kinda like a lazy river, but it's not lazy - and it's rapids! You just float around in a life vest and the very strong current shoots you around. So much fun!

The park has these super cute dolphins that look like mini killer whales. They are Commerson dolphins - so cute, I could just take one home to live in my pool!

Aquatica also has two wave pools, which have some pretty good waves, but nothing like the huge wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon. We let the kids go out in the wave pool since they both had life jackets on, and when we finally went out to check on them they were bobbing around out in 6 foot water! yikes, better keep an eye on them next time :)

There was a body slide tube that went right through the dolphin pond. A bit hokey though, because I'm pretty sure none of the people on the slide actually saw anything as they went sliding through there!

This was a super huge splash zone set up for the kids. There was so much water pumping through that thing, it was incredible! It also had 2 huge buckets that fill up and dump down on everyone. It was hard to get the kids off of that thing!

Here are some Macaws enjoying their day...

This was a really fun ride that we got to ride down in pairs on a tube. I insisted that we tried all of the colors since I liked it so much. We also got to go on another ride with a huge tube that was really fast, it scared me! The same tubes were used for another ride in which we all got to ride together.

But I think the best ride by far was this Racer ride. You lay down on a rubber mat, head first, on your stomach, and race down this thing. After gaining a bit of speed in the tubes, you shoot down the 300 foot hill and race to the end!! I thought Zack might be scared of it, but he loved it. Sydney was hesitant to go on it at first, but we talked her into and she said it was fun too.

We would definitely go back here again :)

Day 6 - the day of REST

After our busy week, we needed a day to rest a little. It involved sleeping in really late (well, maybe it was 8am, but it felt "late"), shopping, swimming and dining.

After a late breakfast at iHop (oops, I was trying to forget that dining experience with the kids...) we went for a swim. The kids spent their time jumping in the pool, and running around looking for lizards.



Our pool was really nice and quiet.

While we were swimming Alan took a break to get his run in for the day since he is in marathon training. There he is in the yellow shirt behind the window on the right! :) I too brought my workout gear, but it remain packed in my suitcase all week. oh darn.

Here is a cool lizard that we were so close to catching (haha, good thing I have a zoom lense!). We did see a blue tailed skink though, that was definately something new.

After pool time came the moment the kids have been waiting for all week - time to spend that money!! Zack headed straight for the Lego store and picked out a set. He also bought some space crazy bands and a book over at Kennedy Space Center. Sydney decided on a Disney kitten. Because she REALLY needs more stuffed animals. uh huh.

When we walked around Downtown Disney after dinner (at the Rainforest Cafe) we ran into this cool lady who was all painted up like a statue.

The area was pretty busy (and oh so hot).

They have a hot air balloon ride which looked like a full moon when it was all lit up. I didn't see anyone riding in it, but I bet the view is pretty good from up there!

Day 5 - the Magic Kingdom

Disney World... aaahhhh, what a wonderful place to be! Well mostly, when it's not 95 degrees...


We started out our day with a visit to our new friend - iHop Joe, to get us some shady park tickets. Hey, when you save $20 a ticket, I don't complain much. And when he told us to go to the younger park employees at the turnstile, I didn't question it. Sounds legit to me. So after getting through security (phew!), we plotted our day at the park.

The kids kept begging us to look at the crazy bands. They sell them everywhere!


We got the kids to go on the Haunted Mansion ride first - not sure how we did that, that ride is pretty dark inside! Both kids said they liked it, but definately didn't want to go on it again :) Then it was off to the Pirate Ride. Once again, a dark ride, but it was a nice, cool INDOOR ride. I like those kind.

It was a bit crowded at the park, but not as bad as I expected. This was the first year we haven't taken a stroller to the park. Both kids did a great job walking around.

The kids couldn't wait to ride on the Buzz Lightyear ride. They were skipping through the line holding hands, since it was going to be kids vs parents. It was so cute! Then I think they went back to fighting with each other right after the ride ended. haha

We went on that ride several times, it was a hit with everyone!

After spending hours sweating in the heat, it was time for some yummy ice cream. Yummm, melty mess!

The Big Thunder Canyon Railroad and Splash Mountain were a couple of Zack's favorite rides. He was so excited to be big enough to be able to ride on the "big rides". Maybe next time we come he'll be ready for Space Mountain!!

Girls vs Boys on the speedway.

Zack has been talking about going on the Barn Stormer ride for the past 2 years. Sydney didn't go last time, so now it was time for Zack to show Sydney the ride. They got to go on it a whole bunch of times, and ride in the front because there wasn't a wait for the ride! At the beginning of the last time around the spectacular fireworks show started and we got to see fireworks on the ride.

Note, the show was much better than my sad little picture here! It was awesome!!

By 10:45, we decided we should try to "sneak out" of the park before the 11pm parade started. Good idea, but hundreds of other people had that idea too! By the time we got to the car it was about 11:30 and the kids zonked right out when we pulled out of the parking lot. What a long day!

Day 4 - Florida trip - Kennedy Space Center

Today we made our way over to the Kennedy Space Center. Zack is really interested in space, rockets and all things space right now so this was the perfect fit.



It was cool to see how big the rockets are - and how tiny the space capsules were! I could never be an astronaut - for many reasons :), but especially since I am claustrophobic!

For Zack it was exciting to see the rockets we learned about in his books up close.

We took the special tour: Discover KSC, Today & Tomorrow. The bus tour took us into some restricted areas where the other general tour would not go. We got to see this space shuttle building up close. Zack really got the best tour because he got to sit with Alan, who knows many many things about the space program. Sydney and I got to look at the birds and I would retell her stories that I hear from the tour guide!

We spent a large portion of our day at the Apollo building. This building was devoted to our trip to the moon. We saw a cool show and lots of stuff like moon rock (we got to touch one!), space suits and lunar rovers.

We even got an autograph from this Shuttle astronaut, John Blaha.

The kids even got to hold a space shuttle!

After our long day at the space center, we headed over to Ron Jon surf shop to spent some money. We got some t-shirts and a swim suit. Then, after a walk along Cocoa Beach we headed to Taco Bell and went back to the condo.