Florida Trip Day 9

On Friday (the 16th), we took a much needed break from going to parks. It was nice to have a relaxing day. We slept in and then Jason, Karen, + I went shopping in the afternoon. Jared doesn't really like shopping, unless he needs something, so he stayed at the condo and played pool at the clubhouse. We went to a HUGE indoor market and bought beach towels. Jason + Karen got really big ones

and I got regular-sized ones. Kiera's is on the left and mine is on the right. Aren't they cute?

We went to an outlet stores mall and I found another shirt for $6 at Aeropostale. They should really come to Canada!

Front

Back

In the evening, we went to Cracker Barrel for supper which has really good "home-cooked" meals for mostly around $7 or $8! After that, we went and got donuts at Krispy Kreme since Jared had never had one from there before! We watched them being made right in front of us, so they were wonderfully warm, fresh, + extremely tasty! We finished off the evening by sitting in the "sort of warm" hot tub and playing more Bohnanza.

Florida Trip Day 8

On Thursday, we went back to Universal Florida and spent most of the day at Islands of Adventure. We went on the Incredible Hulk, which was one of the more "relaxing" roller coasters.

We also went on a Spiderman ride which I think was a roller coaster in a building.

We went on Jurassic Park River Adventure which was another roller coaster where you go down a river, then up into a castle, then you come out of it with a steep drop down into the river with a big splash. We went on it several times since there was no line-up and we always sat in the 3rd row from the back so that we stayed fairly dry.

The Incredible Hulk and Doctor Doom's Fearfall (the 2 tall towers) from a distance

We went on the Dueling Dragons which is 2 roller coasters that start off side-by-side, then they split off and in the middle of it, you're heading straight for each other, but then turn at the last second. Apparently, I was too busy screaming and/or frozen in terror from all the twists, drops, and loops, because I didn't even notice when we were heading straight for the other roller coaster and we went on it twice! This was the outside of a ride which I thought looked cool.

Pretty flower

This was the outside of a gift shop in "Seuss Landing."

This is the 50's diner that we ate lunch at.

We went for supper at IHOP, which is one of my favorite restaurants. You get amazing, huge meals for a cheap price (mostly all under $10.) Jared got some sort of apple pancakes with eggs, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns with cheese.

I got nutella crepes with strawberries on top. Mmmmmm!

Kiera is 15 months old today and still not crawling or walking. She is "walking" with us holding her under the armpits and she's looking less and less like a drunk person when she "walks," so things are definitely headed in the right direction. She's also going up on her knees, which she started to do while we were in Florida. She says "dad" + "hi dad" on a regular basis. She also says "ball." Her 2 newest ones she learned yesterday: duck is "cuck or guck." She also says, "cek cek" for "quack quack." When I say, "Knock knock," she knocks twice. She is pointing at everything and going, "Heh?" which means she wants to know what it's called. She's definitely learning things at a faster pace now which is a lot of fun!

Florida Trip Day 7

On Wednesday the 14th, we went to Universal Orlando. There are 2 parks there: Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure. Last March, we ordered the tickets online and got 7 days for the price of one ($80)! We spent most of the day at Universal Studios. We saw Fear Factor live

and we also saw a live reenactment of Twister. We went and saw Shrek 4-D, and Terminator 2 3-D as well.

Beautiful 3-D glasses

One of my favorites was the Simpsons ride. I hate the Simpsons t.v. show, but this ride had nothing to do with the show. You were in this car and there's a screen in front of you and the car moves around and on the screen you're at an amusement park going on a very wild ride. It felt so real! I loved it!

I think this was Hollywood Blvd.

Then, we went over to the Islands of Adventure park. This is the entrance.

These are just inside the entrance

This is the most beautiful area of the park

We left the park at suppertime and went to TGI Friday's for supper. I had fried macaroni, which was GREAT! Sounds healthy, right? We liked to go in the hot tub at our condo in the evenings to relax after a busy day, but our hot tub wasn't working properly, so the water wasn't very hot. That was disappointing, especially since the evenings got really cold (+10 was quite cold for Orlando). Oh well, not the end of the world. The pool area was a little ways away from our condo building (there was a whole condo/house community that we were staying in: Windsor Hills Reserve), so it was quite a cold run there + especially back when we were all wet. All part of the adventure! Oh, and thanks for all the comments! I really appreciate them and it makes blogging a lot more enjoyable for me. :)

Florida Trip Day 6 + The Washing Machine

On Tuesday, we took a break from parks, since our feet + legs were aching from all the walking. It was our only rainy (slightly drizzling) day, so that worked out really well. We spent the day at the condo playing Bohnanza, watching t.v., and just hangin' out and relaxing. I FINALLY won Bohnanza twice as I had lost about 15 times in a row until that point. We went out to Cici's Pizza + Buffet for supper for $5.99/person! After that, we went to the world's largest McDonald's.

Inside the arcade area on the 2nd floor of McD's

Giving Ronald some nipple twists (yes, we're strange, I know)

The border on the wall close to where you order food...I thought it looked cool

In more current news, our washing machine broke down the day after we got home from Florida (last week Wednesday). I had a full load in there, it was full of water, and it wouldn't drain. I spent a couple of hours wringing out all the clothes, putting them in the dryer, and then scooping all the water out of there with a sandwich-sized tupperware container. During that time, the Lord wanted me to start praising Him. Right. That's exactly what I felt like doing...not! I did anyway, and suddenly it didn't seem so bad. We were actually kind of glad it broke because our washer + dryer were at least 20 years old and they sounded like a rocket ship was about to launch whenever we did laundry. We spent the following days looking on Kijiji online for a good used set.

On Sunday, Jared + my dad went to look at a set and then came back to my parents' place where Kiera + I were. He said they were good and was asking me if we should buy them. I said, "Yes, go for it, if you thought they were good." Then they started talking about who they should call to borrow a truck and they were kind of humming + hawing when suddenly Jared said, "Elleah, come look out the window." To my utter surprise, amazement, and shock, my cousin had pulled up in the driveway and in the back of the truck was a washer + dryer! They had called him on their way to the city and he just happened to already be in the city (totally a God-thing) and was available to come help them load it up and bring them to our place. Jared totally surprised me, which is hard to do! We didn't have the money set aside for it, but we have some in savings, so we got a 6-year-old Maytag washing machine and a GE dryer that's less than 2 years old for $350 altogether. Brand new, those things start at between $350-$400 each, so we were very happy with that deal! God totally provided! Oh, and they're as quiet as a church mouse! I can't even hear them running when I'm on the main floor (they're in the basement)! Yay!

Old set

New set

Florida Trip Day 5

On Monday, we went to Disney World! It was a dream come true for me, although it wasn't as magical as the advertisements make it out to be. For those of you who don't know, Disney World has 4 parks: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. We started off at Magic Kingdom.

The entrance

We saw the Cinderella Castle

which was neat, but I've seen the real Neuschwanstein castle in Germany that it was modeled after, which I liked better.

There weren't any very crazy rides, but I enjoyed the calm ones. We went on a river boat ride

and then walked through Asia.

This was the "old west" part of the park

and the European part.

We ate lunch in Magic Kingdom and then took a ferry to the transportation center and then hopped on a bus to Hollywood Studios.

The first thing you see when entering

We saw the "filming" of a scene from Indiana Jones and they did some stunts and used audience members as extras which was pretty cool. We went on the Aerosmith "Rock 'N Roller Coaster" which goes from 0-60 mph in less than 3 seconds...thought I was going to poop my pants! It's all in the dark, too, plus there's a loop or two, so that was pretty crazy!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I went on the scariest roller coaster of the whole trip at Sea World. It's called Kraken and it's very fast. I thought I was going to die, but God preserved my life.

Back at Hollywood Studios, we went to "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show" which was very cool. I'm not a car girl, but I really enjoyed seeing how they do different car stunts and car action scenes in movies. This was the movie set.

Here's a clip of it

Another crazy clip

It ended with a bang and we could feel the heat all the way at the top of the bleachers.

After the show, Jason, Karen, + Jared went on the Tower of Terror, but I don't do rides that drop straight down like that, so I sat that one out. Then, we headed over to Epcot for supper.

This is what you see when you first walk in

They have a huge lagoon that is surrounded by pavilions from 11 different countries and they have restaurants in each one. After walking halfway around (it was REALLY long), we were so exhausted that 3 of us just ate at the American restaurant. After we had eaten, we kept going and Jared ate at the Mexican restaurant.

This was Italy

After eating, we went on a ride called "Test Track." It's hard to describe, so I copied + pasted the description from the website.

"Step into the world of automotive testing as your 6-seat vehicle undergoes the safety and quality tests that General Motors performs on every prototype it manufactures. As you begin this 5-minute, nearly one-mile auto escapade, strap yourself in, ascend steep terrain that's 3 stories high, then let loose downhill, blasting across a bumpy road and roaring through 50-degree banked curves and hair-pin turns that test suspension and brakes at speeds up to 60 miles per hour! Finally, face the challenge of avoiding a crash barrier… in the nick of time!"

After walking at least 5 miles over the course of the day, we ended off the night by watching Epcot's incredible fireworks, laser, and water show.

Florida Trip Day 4

On Sunday, we spent the whole day at Seaworld, which was one of my favorites! We bought Seaworld tickets for almost half price: we paid $45/person and the regular price is $80/person!

Dolphins

This was the view as we walked to the Shamu show

Shamu making his entrance...makes me marvel at God's incredible creation

Short video clip

Another video clip

The end of the show

In the park

We saw penguins + sharks swam over us

Sting ray

Karen + I...it was about +25 outside

Have I mentioned how much I love all the palm trees?

They also had these beautiful pink plants everywhere

These guys were walking around the park all day...made me want to dance!

We went on this roller coaster ride called "Journey To Atlantis" and it's pretty calm but fun. You go through this castle and there's all sorts of things to see in there and then you come splashing out at the end and get totally soaked! We saw Jared's relatives here...what are the odds?!

We also saw the Clyde + Seamore show which are 2 sea lions + a huge walrus comes in at the end

Clip of the end of the show

We saw alligators or crocodiles (I don't know the difference)

and I was about half a foot away from this squirrel or chipmunk (again, I can't tell the difference)

We ended off the day by going to one of my favorite restaurants: The Cheesecake Factory! I ordered broccoli cheese soup, a tossed salad, and a chicken salad sandwich. I got full after eating just the soup + half my salad (the soup was very thick + filling), so I took the rest with me. Jared had some sort of chicken pasta dish.

We finished off our meal by sharing a piece of Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake...AMAZING!

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!