Florida Trip

We took advantage of a four day weekend and made our annual Florida pilgrimage to visit Grandma and Grandpa. As luck would have it, we were able to get in for a sneak peek of Legoland! Anyone who knows Jackson will understand what a monumental day this was for him. 

The kids posing with the giant Lego mini figures inside the main entrance of the park.What the picture does not show is the pushing and shoving that took place just before the final posing and smiles.

This Lego "baker" statue outside one of the restaurants was actually quite small compared to all the other amazing Lego statues throughout the park. When you stopped and really looked at them it's just amazing what they have created.

Dad and Catie were the only two brave enough to ride the  "Dragon" roller coaster! This was moments before it took off through the terrifying indoor/outdoor adventure. 

The menacing lion!

Now that's a smile!

Jackson was running around like a crazy man taking in all the sites. Over six hours, we probably only managed to see a quarter of the park.

It's a good thing we landed in the Imagination Zone at the Build and Test Center when we did because a big storm passed through and we were able to hide out here for most of it. This was a popular place with the kids because you can build race cars and test them against challengers on digitally timed tracks.

The girls enjoyed building Lego towers and then turning on the "earthquake" simulator that shook the building like a real earthquake to see if it would survive the natural disaster. You could even change the setting to represent different category quakes. This was a great time for the adults too as we all sat and rested! 

The verdict on Legoland was two thumbs up from all! We wish that we had more time at the park, but we had to head over to the Magic Kingdom for an evening of  Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween...

The Halloween parade was exceptional! The floats and characters were done up with the realism of a Hollywood movie production. The adults and children alike were entertained and amazed.

The mandatory family photo in front of the castle.

We meet up with the Wilsons for part of the evening and the kids had a great time running around in their costumes. Nothing like a dressed rehearsal for Halloween.

The Abster has become a real dancing queen! She loves to cut  loose whenever the music starts. Here she is dancing up a storm in downtown Disneyworld.

 

For some reason Jax and his shark costume were a big hit with all the people in the parade.  One after another, they stopped and gave him a high five with a big smile on their face. 

We have had great luck with the weather over the years, but this trip mother nature could not even offer one day without rain. We made the best of it and managed to have a great time in spite of the near tropical storms.

Heavy rains on Saturday caused us to cancel our Animal Kingdom plans. Grandma Sandye saved the day by finding the Orlando Science Center. This turned out to be a fantastic place for the kids with tons of interactive exhibits for them to explore. 

Abby loved playing in the water.

Catie building some kind of dam system.

Our three anthropologists

The kids loved digging for dinosaur bones and brushing away the dirt from their finds. Only a small amount of dirt was thrown at each other...

The highlight of the museum was the hurricane chamber that simulated winds of over 80 mph! The girls loved how their hair would blow wildly around their heads! Little did we know that we could experience the same thing at the beach the next day!