We wait in anticipation every year for Adams parents to come visit,
and that day had finally come!
They came in through Jacksonville Fl so we thought it would be a good idea to spend some time in Florida before heading back to GA.
Our Trip to Fl started well..
It WAS a beautiful sunny day when we left...
but then its started pouring down rain! So much for our
"Sunny Florida Trip" I thought!
The rain finally calmed down after a bit. We stopped at one of our favorite things to do on our way to Florida and that is to get a nice cup of fresh squeezed orange juice at the first rest stop in FL.
We made it safely to our hotel, and checked in...the weather had calmed but came back around again a little while later.
I was reminded by a man in the hall that its "hurricane season" I'm used to it, living here in the south; this portion of the year, our summer, is full of crazy rain and lightning storms. But what I was thinking about was my mother in law Kathie who hates to fly to begin with let alone in a rain storm..that's pushing it!
We hung out for a bit hit up some of the local places to shop near our hotel...the wait felt so long because we were so excited to have family visit us! We hadn't seen them in over 8mos.
The time came when we needed to head to the airport, James was so excited he was kickin his feet in the back seat and saying "We are gonna see hamsome in two weeks!!" we had been counting down to their arrival and so trying to explain to him the time was here was very hard. LOL
Now we unlike most LOVE being at the airport.
..our experience is a little different then most.
We being a military family get to spend our time at the airport USO, they have one at every airport
we defiantly take advantage of that when traveling!
Thats james watching Wonder Pets with a popsicle!
And thats Adam in the fridge lookin at all the free stuff they give you, fridge is full of food..cabinets are full of Cliff bars, Pop Tarts you name it!Other areas are loaded with hygiene products and anything you can think of its there for you SO AWESOME!!
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ITS HAMSOME!!! (that's what James calls Adams mom)..
The moment we'd waited for finally came!
We headed back to the hotel and spent some time together
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We left the next morning and headed to Orlando to visit Sea World! The
drive was about 2 and a half hours but it flew by, we all hadnt seen eachother in so long there was plenty to catch up on!
We arrived at Sea World
..oh and BTW our tickets were FREE, must mention that!
Being a military family has its ups and downs, but when it comes to gettin into theme parks for free thats one up I was super excited about!!
Right off the bat we ran into SHAMU!
James was able to give him a big ol' hug and after we never saw Shamu for the rest of the day, so were really happy I was able to get this shot!
We got something to eat right off the water, "Hamsome" ordered James some yummy huge Strawberries in a cute Shamu bowl!
Oh and we wanted to get him a hat because he has a mohawk and can get sunburned on his head, he wanted nothing to do with any other hat we all tried to give him...he was all about the whale tale!
We then headed of over to see the Shamu show
and for those of you who were wondering, they are not allowing the trainers in the water anymore since the death of a trainer last November 2010. I guess its been the 3rd death in 5yrs at the Orlando location and they felt it was to risky to have them in the water. It was a little bit of a bummer because James will never see the show Ive always seen and loved. But he loved EVERY min of the show dispite that!!!
* HE LOVED THIS SHOW*
After the show we went and saw the penguin exibit..not my fav,
So I chose not to subject you to photos of those horrid creatures LOL
James wanted a penguin after we went to see them.
So Adam the sweet
...and very talented dad that he is, won him one in a game.
"You didnt see anything"..lol..so cute that they were the Penguins from the Madagascar movie.
After walking around for a bit we went and fed the dolphins!! james thought that was awesome
..but it was so gross giving them slimy dead fish!
all I had to take pics was Adams phone
(which I dont know how to use well)
I got a few cute ones of the dolphins, but I had to hold james and lean him over this wall to let him feed them so I dont have any of him feeding them...Sea World offered me one they took for $25bucks..sorry guys but I wasnt about to pay that for one picture!! So your just gonna have to trust me that he fed them!!
We also went and touched the Sting Rays..that was fun but they were scary to me LOL
We had such a blast at Sea World, it was our first major park we'd ever taken James to! Cant wait to go back!
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We headed back to Jacksonville that evening. On the drive we remembered that the Holyland Exsperience was near Jacksonville so we went and found it and checked it out.
We arrived as they were closing so we were only able to get passes to view the gift shop.
Walking though was really incredible, they did a great job of making you feel like you were in another world.
As we were leaving we saw the actors all performing the trial and crucifixion of Christ.
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This year it was awesome because for a couple weeks only they had a Dinosaur Exhibit!
The next morning we headed out to the Jacksonville Zoo, we have been to this Zoo many times but its our favorite thing to do there, never too busy and always lots of fun!!
I thought James would love this being he loves dinosaurs...not so much, he had to be carried away from it all. In James' defence they were really loud and very life like..guess I may have been scared if I was 4.
But thanks to "Hamsome "taking him out of the exhibit Adam and I were able to check it out on our own!
We road the Merry Go Round and the Train, fed the giraffes and overall had a great time at the ZOO!
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We decided that since we miss Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Birthdays that we would take Adams parents out for each of those events. Adam would take his parents out alone for Mothers and Fathers Day and we'd all go out for the birthday celebration!
For Kathies Birthday we went to the coolest cafe downtown called SoHo's
Resturaunt and Art gallery. It was so shabby chic meets hippie artist..pheobe from "Friends" would have loved it there!
We had a blast here so cute and fun and all the food was Organic! James was at therapy for the afternoon so it was nice to enjoy the company of Adams parents alone.
It was a very busy day there..they compt us our desert cause of the wait. I tried bread pudding for the first time,
the results...FABULOUS!
For Mothers Day she and Adam went out for Sushi!
WE then went Wine tastin in City Market, so fun that was a first for me!
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For Adams dads birthday we went to the Mighty 8 Airforce Museum.
It was also Flag Day so we had James place a flag in the ground to honor "Great Papa" WWII
Another neat area of the museum is an old church, inside are amazing stained glass windows.
James reading a 1876 Bible
We have wanted to take them to this museum for the past 3yrs so im glad we finally were able to, it was a great day!
On a seperate day we went to a famous burger place in Savannah called B&D Burgers, some of the best food ever..Jim needed to try the "Fried pickles" Kathie was not to thrilled
For Fathers Day Adam and Jim went to see:
Thor and The new X-MEN movie.
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During there stay Adam and I were able to have a night out together, it was so much fun to go downtown! We dont go downtown when he and I do go on dates (which is like 2 times a year!) because we pay our babysitters VERY good and the drive is so long that we would pay more for a babysitter then our whole night out!
Our plan was to go to some places that we have wanted to go for a long time, but mainly we wanted to go out for desert!
Some friends of ours went to a place called
"Lulu's Chocolate Bar"
After looking it up I was hooked! I thought it would be so awesome to go out for desert because by the time we are done with our meal at a resturaunt we are always to full for desert.
It was so cute and totally me! rockabilly waitress with leopard aprons I could totally work here!!
SO this is what we ordered!
The Rapture Sundae: Vanilla Ice Cream and Frozen Chocolate Mousse in a hand-made chocolate bowl, covered in fresh berries, and accompanied by pitchers of dark, white chocolate and caramel sauces. Served on the side are Chambord, Amarula and Meletti Cioccolato liqueur.
WOW
Adam couldnt help himself and had to take a bite out of the chocolate bowl..that bite turned into many...
After LuLu's we waled around downtown for a bit went to the Jinx a very famous punk bar formaly known as the Velvet Elvis.
We had our favorite drinks walked around in City Market for a bit then headed to our favorite local Scottish Pub near our house.
At Mollys we finished out the end of the Bruins Hockey game and relaxed, we enjoyed some Guiness glazed onion rings and each had one of our favortie beers
What a great night out together :)
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During the visit "Hamsome" and I went blackberry picking with James
I think more ended up in his mouth then in the bucket LOL
We also went to the Flea market where James got a new Spiderman hat from "Hamsome"
We the adults spent our evenings talking, watching movies and Jim introduced us to "Phineas and Ferb"
and we introduced them to "Invader Zim"
And what visit to the south would be complete without some warm peach cobbler and vanilla bean ice cream from our local Shell House
We wait so long for these days to come and then they are gone in a flash, I hope we are able to move closer so we can spend time with our family more offten. James loves them so much and it broke my heart when they left, I had a very sad boy on my hands.
We did many things and had alot of fun, but im happy to say that my favorite time was watching precious moments like this
Till next time......
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