Fall Vacation-- SeaWorld Day 2

SeaWorld Lighthouse

Katima and her new calf born Oct. 9

We all enjoyed the Killer Whale show.  We sat several rows up so we were out of the splash zone.

The girls loved the rides in the kid's area at SeaWorld.  There were no lines to ride, unlike the Magic Kingdom.

Abbie and Uncle Matt pose for a picture in front of a tropcial aquarium.

Ah! There is a stingray on my head.

We visited SeaWorld for a second day on Tuesday before we headed home.  There are so many shows and exhibits at SeaWorld that you really need two days.  Uncle Matt and Aunt Martha came with us to SeaWorld this time.  Phil decided to sleep in this time at the hotel, but he joined us in the afternoon at the park.  It was exciting to see a newborn killer whale during our visit.  The calf was about 10 days old during our visit.  The baby whale was nine feet long and 350 pounds at birth; it will be a while before we find out if she is a boy or a girl.  After seeing some shows, our family visited the kids' area: Shamu's Happy Harbor while the others in our group rode some thrill rides.  Abbie and Sophie had an awesome time riding the kiddie roller coaster, the carousel, and other rides over and over again.  There were no waits for any of the kids' rides, which was wonderful.  After 1.5 hours of nonstop fun, we headed over to meet Phil, Martha, and Matt on the other side of the park.  The girls enjoyed some cotton candy compliments of Uncle Matt.  We visited one last aquarium with stingrays and tropical fish before we headed back to the hotel.  The girls were tired from three days in a row at theme parks, and they were in bed by 7:30 PM.  Phil gave us a ride to the Orlando airport the next morning and we all headed home.

Family Fun Day

Abbie's got a bubble beard

Abbie had a wonderful time jump in the small bounce house!

Here's Sophie FINALLY getting her face painted. She waited in line for about 45 minutes! There was no talking her out of it!

Sophie has a funny look in this picture but she was really quite proud of the rainbow that she had painted on her cheek. This was the first time that she's ever had something painted on her face. In the past, she never wanted to do it!

It has been a quite rainy week here! This past Thursday, my friend Krista, had invited us to Family Fun Day in Franklin. They had a lot of bounce castles, face painting, different stations for the kids, a magic show, appearances from the Veggie Tales-Bob & Larry, etc. We decided to go and we met up with Krista and baby Dani there. The girls both enjoyed jumping in the bounce castles, Abbie enjoyed the bubbles, they met some characters (but were too shy to let me get their picture with Bob & Larry), won prizes, and Sophie (with some encouragement on my part at first) decided she HAD to get her face painted. It turned out that it took quite a while to get your face painted so I tried to talk Sophie out of it but I also didn't want her to have a major meltdown. I was hoping we could see the magic show but we missed it because Sophie was in line to get her face painted. At least, once she did get her face painted, she was really proud of it and seemed to love it! Krista was sweet to hang in there with us and take turns with me waiting in line with Sophie so that I could do some other activities with Abbie as well! We stayed a couple of hours and then left so that we could go eat lunch. It turned out that we left just in time because it started pouring outside. Most of the event was outside and it was actually a very pleasant morning!

Williamson County Fair

Mimi (Matt's mom), Sophie and Matt went to the Williamson County Fair on Monday. Sophie enjoyed going through the Little Ones Farm. She got to feed chickens, plant corn, and milk a cow.

Sophie rode the dragon ride and the little helicopter ride.

Matt and Mimi tried to convince Sophie to ride more rides, but once she saw the bluegrass concert that was going on at the end of the midway, she no longer wanted to ride the rides. We saw the Ward Family Bluegrass Band of Columbia, TN on the Bluegrass stage. Sophie sat, listened and clapped for 40 minutes. She didn't even want to go get treats from the midway. Who knew that a three-year-old would rather sit and listen to bluegrass than ride the carnival rides?

Mimi came down to visit us this week from Virginia. We've had a great time with her! Sophie got to go to a marionette puppet show (The Frog Prince) at the library, we ate at The Aquarium restaurant (but none of the pictures really turned out), we've gone shopping a couple of times, we've been swimming, and more. Sophie enjoyed going to The Aquarium restaurant and seeing the scuba diver feed all of the fish. Sophie & Mimi have been big buddies this week. She's had fun going and doing lots of stuff because our social lives slowed down a good bit after Abbie came along!

Kings Dominion

Here we are at the Eiffel Tower in Paris (not)...in Doswell, Va. at Kings Dominion. This was Sophie and Abbie's first trip to a theme park.

Sophie surprised us by wanting to see almost all of the "characters" up close (whether she knew who they were from TV or not). Here is Sophie, Aunt Leia, and a Rugrat.

Sophie was so excited to meet Dora and Diego. She gave them high fives.

Sophie rode several rides in the kiddie land. She loved being on every ride unlike the girl in the jeep behind her.
Abbie enjoyed people watching with Mimi.

Sophie rode her first roller coaster-the Taxi Jam- with a "responsible" adult since she was under 40 inches tall (OK, Matt's writing this post as I supervise from over his shoulder-who could be more responsible than her mama?). Sophie enjoyed the rides for about an hour, and then she kept asking for us to move on to the waterpark area of Kings Dominion, where we spent the whole afternoon. Overall, we had a great time!

Day at the State Fair

The flying dragon and elephant ride

Miss Sophie's Wild Ride. The boy in the back seat really wanted to get out while Sophie had the time of her life.

Nana and Paw-paw treated Sophie to a trip to the state fair. Sophie enjoyed seeing giant pumpkins and watermelons. The first place pumpkin was grown in Maryville, and weighed 1065 pounds. Sophie had been talking about what animals she wanted to see for weeks. We thought we might be able to take her to a farm so she could see cows and horses, but her list of animals grew to include tigers and giraffes. She had a tall order to fill. Well, we did see all of the animals at the fair except for giraffes. Sophie also got to ride a couple of rides (something she wasn't going to let us forget about). Then, we had some lunch and Paw-paw treated Sophie to some cotton candy as promised-it was her first time. All in all, we had a great time and the weather was nice. Sophie fell asleep on the way home.

More Beach Fun

Paula, Sophie & Matt on our balcony

view of the sunrise from our balcony

Sophie driving a boat

Sophie driving a car

One morning, Sophie & Paula got up early enough to go and watch the sunset. It was really pretty that day. At least we didn't have to get up too early to see it. A couple of the nights while we were staying at Myrtle Beach, we went over to the outdoor mall, Broadway at the Beach, where they have shopping, restaurants and lots of other things to do. They had little carnival rides there and Sophie got to ride a couple of the rides. She had a wonderful time and thought she was big stuff! The thing is, it was kind of neat for me to see because I've seen pictures of me (Paula) when I was little riding the same exact rides. I think Sophie would have ridden these rides over and over again if she could have. Both nights we were at the mall (one of the nights Matt's parents actually took her) Sophie rode the car and the boat.

On the night that Matt's parents and sister, Leia, babysat Matt & I played a game called MagiQuest. It's kind of hard to explain but you have this wand and you get to go on these different adventures, quests, etc to find things throughout the building. It kind of reminds you of Harry Potter or something but it's a game for all ages. They have all these computers that tell you what to do and you earn points, etc. Anyways, it was something different to do and it was fun.