Orlando Trip 2

On day 3 of our trip, we used Aquatica tickets another adoptive mom had left over and very generously gave to our family. We had rain off and on every day, with the forecast each day being for heavy rain. So I was wondering if we'd even be able to use the tickets.

On Thursday I decided we'd head to the park and if it started pouring on the way, we'd head to the mall instead. (That's why we have clothes over our swimsuits in the above picture) But if the rain held off or it was only raining lightly with no lightning, we'd go and at least do the famous Dolphin plunge. That's a clear slide that takes you right through the dolphin pool.

The weather was much better than predicted. And everyone had a lot of fun there--except Jasmine. Jasmine has fear. It may be a genetic thing. Can the tendency to be fearful even when it makes no sense be genetic? Well, she did not want to go into the water. Didn't want to try any slides, not even the ones in the children's section. Didn't want to do the lazy river, but did go on it once with Tyler. And it makes no sense to me. She's not afraid of water. She's used to being in the bay. But even then she will only go on one of the tubes we pull behind the jet ski. And again, it makes no sense which tube she will go on, but she's consistent about it. I can tell when she's having fear issues because she becomes very relational with me. But that's my Jasmine and I love her like crazy. I just wish I understood the fear thing.

The others loved the park, and that helped with another situation I had. I needed to take Jasmine to Sea World and activate our passes. At this time only she and I have them because we will be in Orlando in less than two weeks to pick up Jessica and the twins from camp. So we are going to go to Disney and Sea World prior to picking them up. I got the Sea World passes to get a discount on Discovery Cove, but couldn't schedule it without activating them at the park. Unfortunately, you can't get the special passholder rate during the summer!! Would have been nice to know that.

Since Jasmine was not enjoying Aquatica and the others were loving it, they didn't mind that she and I left to go a mile away to Sea World. We only stayed about two hours. It started pouring about that time too. But at least we all had fun before the heavy rain hit.

The rain continued the rest of the day. The twins and I stayed at the hotel that evening and Tyler, Jessica and Jasmine went to Epcot for a few hours. The twins did really well this whole trip. Everyone did. We had amazingly few issues. But I could tell they needed some down time to keep things issue free. Kaleb fell asleep right after supper, and Kayla watched a movie on our portable DVD player that Tyler had rigged to the TV in their half of the room. I loved having a family room. It was almost like two separate rooms.

On Friday we were headed to Magic Kingdom, but Jessica's shortcut took us directly into Animal Kingdom so we thought we'd spend a couple of hours there and then go over to Magic Kingdom. We ended up spending several hours there though.

Tyler was eyeing the huge turkey legs hungrily so I got him one. He shared.

Later we did go over the  Magic Kingdom, but not for long. It started pouring rain again and everyone was pretty much Disney'd out, so we decided to call it quits and head out about 9:30 p.m. planning to drive for an hour or two, and then stop for the night. Unfortunately, almost all the hotels along the way were too disgusting to be considered or were booked due to sports training camps. So we ended up driving three hours before we stopped for the night. It was after 1:00 a.m. with all the stops to check hotels not to mention how long it actually takes to get back to the parking lot and then onto the expressway in Orlando.