Soccer

The kids have just completed their soccer season, and they really enjoyed it.  Our local rec department began a soccer program this year, so we played with them.  The league was well-run and the teams were pretty evenly matched.  The games were always exciting.  Owen played for the black team in the 10u division.  He was the goalie and really enjoyed this position.

Olivia played for the white team in the 12u division and played both offensive and defensive positions at times.

The kids really enjoyed playing this fall, and are interested in playing again in the future.

Olivia is 11

 Olivia's birthday occurred while we were at SeaWorld, so we celebrated with family this weekend.  Olivia received many nice and much-needed dress clothes.  She chose a strawberry cheesecake as her birthday cake, and it was delicious.  I am so pleased with the sweet girl that Olivia is becoming.  Here are a few facts about my little princess at age 11:

• She loves to read and write.  These are her favorite subjects in school this year.  
• Some of her favorite book series are the "I Survived" and "Wimpy Kid" books.  She also reads a lot of non-fiction.
• She decides whether or not she will wear an article of clothing based on how it feels-  she still refuses to wear jeans.
• She will take a million baths a day (and use a different towel every time) if I don't watch her.  
• She likes to watch film theory videos on Youtube and has gotten into gaming and comics as well.  She prefers DC to Marvel.
• She likes to have her back scratched. (She asks me to scratch her back every single day).
• She is very loving.  We've given her the nickname "Eileen" (I lean) because she is always trying to snuggle in (lean) right up under us. 

We sure do love our girl.  She is so precious to us.

SeaWorld Day 2

We weren't able to see everything at SeaWorld in one day, so we returned to that park on our last day of vacation.  By spending two days at the park we were able to see all that we wanted to see and were also able to return to some of our favorite attractions for a second time.

Olivia's favorite animal in the world is the beluga whale, so we spent lots of time watching the two on hand in the Wild Arctic building.

We also signed up for the Behind the Scenes Tour, and it was fantastic.  We met near the manatee area, and our guide told us about the many challenges the manatees face and what SeaWorld does to help them.  We also visited the manatee intensive care area, and saw some patients.  Some of them had been struck by boats and were in grave condition.  I really felt bad for these animals and am glad that SeaWorld is capable of helping them.

We were then escorted through employee-only areas to see other rescue and rehabilitation facilities.  We also learned about the water quality and filtration systems at SeaWorld.  It was very interesting.

 We made a stop at one tank to touch a bamboo shark.






















One cool thing that we learned was that there are many animals at SeaWorld that the public never sees.  The dolphins that are rescued from the wild, for example, are housed in an entirely different building and are never mixed in with the SeaWorld dolphins because they have viruses and bacteria that the SeaWorld dolphins aren't accustomed to.  SeaWorld also has a bunch of magellanic penguins that do not appear in the regular penguin exhibit because they live in a warmer climate then other types of penguins.  The only way to see the magellanic penguins is to do the tour that we were on.  For the grand finale of the tour, we got to touch a penguin.  Owen loves penguins.  Penguins and pandas are his favorite animals.  I will never forget the expression on his face when the tour guide said that we would be touching a penguin.  He could barely contain himself. 

This day at SeaWorld wrapped up our Orlando vacation.  We had a great time.

Busch Gardens

On our fourth day in Orlando, we made a side trip to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens.  I haven't been to this park since Brian and I were first married, and it has changed a lot.  It is still as good as it always was, but many of the old rides have been replaced with new ones and several of the animal habitats have been updated.  We enjoyed all of the roller coasters, but our favorite was a diving coaster called Sheikra.   Another stand-out was the drop tower because it tilted you forward before the drop. Once again, we are glad to have visited in October- lovely weather and light crowds.

 The animal habitats at Busch Gardens are large and as nice if not nicer than many zoo's.  A lot of the animals were hanging out by the viewing window on the day that we visited so we got a close up view of lions...

 ...and tigers...

 ...and kangaroos.  They let you pet and feed the kangaroos, which I have never seen done before.  We were all over that.  Our overall impression of Busch Gardens is that it is a nice park.  It appears that they take good care of their animals, and that is always a big plus.

Aquatica

We went to Aquatica on Olivia's birthday.  My sister Hannah and her family visited this park last summer, and she raved about how great it was.  She was right- the park was nice, clean, and had plenty of shade and chairs.  They even had sprinklers come on and wet the sidewalk so that we didn't have to carry shoes or "hot-foot-it" to the different areas of the park.  Brian said that this was his favorite day of the vacation.  Yes:  Brian said that- about a waterpark.

  There were some really neat rides at Aquatica including a capsule-launch waterslide.  For this ride, you get into a "capsule" standing straight up and once you are shut in, the floor disappears from under you and you fall straight down the waterslide.  It was a bit nerve-racking.  Another waterslide  took us through the Commerson's dolphin tank.  The sides of the slide were clear so that you could see the dolphins as you went through.  There were two wave pools and two river rides- one slow and one not-so-slow.  We really liked the not-so-slow river. 

One take-away from our trip is that October is definitely the time to visit Orlando.  The weather was still hot enough to enjoy the waterparks, and the lines were virtually non-existent at all of the parks.  We had a great all-around experience.

SeaWorld Day 1

 A perk of going to Discovery Cove is that you get free admission to SeaWorld and Aquatica for 14 days.  We paid an extra $25 to get the "utlimate" package which added Busch Gardens and free parking at all parks.  So, our second full day in Orlando was spent at SeaWorld.  I love SeaWorld.  I feel that they do a lot of good work with conservation, and it's an all-around nice place to visit.  We arrived at rope-drop and spent our morning riding the rides and seeing shows.  We rode the re-themed "Kraken Unleashed", which was our first coaster using the VR headset.  I liked it better without the virtual reality.  We also tried the new Mako coaster, which we all loved and rode multiple times.  We had the Quick Que, but the lines weren't bad so we didn't use it all that much.

 We were able to knock out many of the animal exhibits on the first day.  The penguin building was a must-visit.  Owen is obsessed with these birds.

 The kids also liked the sea lion area.  I bought them a tray of sardines each so that they could feed the seals and sea lions.

 We also saw a lot of the shows on our first day at SeaWorld.  The Clyde and Seamore show was so funny and was a favorite.

Of course, we saw Shamu's show.  Before the show we were able to meet four pilot whales who had beached themselves in 2012 and been rescued by SeaWorld.  SeaWorld actually rescued several beached whales, but these four were deemed "non-releasable" by the state and now have a permanent home at SeaWorld.  I have never seen a pilot whale before, so it was really cool to see these.

 I know SeaWorld catches a lot of flack for keeping orcas, but they sure are beautiful.  It was a thrill to see these animals.

We were at SeaWorld during their Spooktacular Halloween event.  As part of the celebration, the kids were given a bag and were able to trick-or-treat at various places in the park.  We left with so. much. candy.  They were giving out the good stuff, too- lots of name brand chocolates and candies.  

There is so much to see and do at SeaWorld, that we couldn't do it all in one day.