In Pictures: Shamu

I'm getting lazy today in an effort to keep up with the vacation blogging. Here was Funday Sunday at SeaWorld. You will note the lack of pictures compared to previous days. There are two reasons:

First, it's SeaWorld. I have pictures of animal all over this blog. No need to dull you any more.

Second, I was busy with three other children as Michelle's childhood friend, Aunt Jaimie, was in town with family. There's nothing like rolling through a theme park with four kids and five adults and still not feeling like you have enough hands.

Here is our side of the SeaWorld crew. Aunt Mary, Michelle, Kaitlyn and Nana with Rosie O'Donnell.

This might have been while watching the manatees. It could have been eyeing up the crocs. No matter. It was fun.

See what I mean about animal pictures? They're just stagnant. Yeah, sure, they're cute. They're colorful. They're boring as sin. 

If you see this group heading your way, you are advised to run the other direction screaming at the top of your lungs. Otherwise, you'll end up running after them through a theme park screaming at the top of your lungs.

Kaitlyn got a hold of this penguin doll first thing Sunday morning and never let go. Kaitlyn loves penguins. Too bad for her she never saw a real one at SeaWorld -- she slept through the Penguin Encounter.

In Pictures: Disney Redemption

I'm running a day behind here in the hap-hap-happiest place on Earth, but that's to be expected. I'm on vacation, damnit.

After the typhoon landed in central Florida on Friday, we were able to make it to the pièce de résistance, the Magic Kingdom, on Saturday. While it might have put us behind a day, it all worked out. Especially since I didn't want to walk around sopping wet.

We did, however, walk around in 35-degree weather once you factored in the wind chill. Burr. Main Street U.S.A. was a wind tunnel, Walt and Co. were selling out of knit caps and there was a 45-minute wait to get coffee and hot chocolate.

The clouds parted toward midday, but it was still cold. Never got above 45 degrees all day. Sunday helped counter that and Monday is expected to get darn near 70 degrees (yea, golf day!), but Saturday was like sitting on an iceberg.

The highlights: Meeting the princesses in the morning, seeing the fireworks at night. And of course: Tinker Bell and her pixie friends.

Started the day at a character breakfast. While she appears somewhat interested, looks can be deceiving: Kaitlyn peed herself every time a character approached.

Off to the Magic Kingdom. Michelle sports a knit hat that Disney roped us into purchasing by turning the industrial air conditioners on inside the bubble that protects the resort. In the summer months, Disney pumps hot air into the bubble to justify $5 bottles of water.

While the characters with masks completely freaked out Kaitlyn, she was much more amenable to characters that are portrayed by actual people. This helps tremendously later, as you will see.

There are very few things Pop-Pop requests on his trips into the Magic Kingdom. One is the Country Bear Jamboree, much to my chagrin. I just don't get it. The other is the Jungle Cruise, which is a little more up my alley.

The line directly behind and ahead of us to see the Disney Fairies. We waited in this line for nearly 1.5 hours. And my daughter didn't whine, wince or create havoc once. She did, however, bust loose and darted into the character area ahead of 25 people.

Disney Fairy No. 1 was Rosetta, who seemed quite taken with Kaitlyn during the visit. Either that, or she was all up in Daddy's biz-niz, if you know what I mean. 

 

Disney Fairy No. 2 was Silvermist, who was very nice to Kaitlyn, but she was no Rosetta. To Kaitlyn or to Daddy. On a side note: This was one of the few pictures where Kaitlyn decided against the "Be Like Mike" tongue-sticking-out look during our entire stay in the hap-hap-happiest place on Earth.

Disney Fairy No. 3 was Tinker Bell herself. T-Bell (which is what the cool kids call her) was very sweet and bubbly, much how I would expect a fairy to be.

Valentine's Day Special: Disney Edition

So everyone's writing Valentine's Day posts about their significant others. Yada yada yada. Yeah, I love my wife, too. Enough to keep her out of a blog post once in a while.

Especially since we're here in the ha-hap-happiest place on Earth. After a day of mischief at Shamu's place, we're going to grab some grub with some real Valentines. You see, tonight's Nana and Pop-Pop's anniversary. How many, you ask? Enough to have six kids old enough to forget how many. That's a lot.

So we'll be back tomorrow with an update on the trip. For today, we here at Growing Up Kaitlyn wish you a Happy Valentine's Day with the ones you love. I'm off to celebrate two special days:

The happy couple, not looking too bad for 328 years married. Happy Anniversary, you crazy kids ...

... and Happy Valentine's Day, my two beautiful girls.