Almost perfect day!

Jessica had the day off from school today. Every year the school board sets aside so many days for "bad weather" days. When we lived up North, it was "Snow Days". Here in Florida, it is usually hurricanes, or the threat of them, that close down the schools for a day or so. This school year has been closure free, so as a result, one of those unused days was given today.

It was a beautiful day.

Not a hurricane in sight....

We didn't have any snow either.

So......we couldn't spend our time making hundreds and hundreds of snowmen/snow women.
Instead, Jessica, Sam and I jumped into our car and drove to Orlando.

As we were driving along Interstate 4, we noticed a huge balloon going up and down. On the balloon were silhouettes of Mary Poppins, Dumbo and other Disney characters. From this we deduced that it was a ride at one of the Disney Parks.

We are pretty smart cookies!!!!

Our first port of call was "Fuddruckers".

Jessica wanted to eat here, I didn't have any better suggestions!

Samuel hasn't been eating all that much the past few weeks, he made up for lost time today!

In between kissing himself in the mirror by our booth, he wolfed down all his fries, hot dog and a sugar cookie with sprinkles.

Being a bit of a germaphobe, I disinfected the mirror repeatedly.

Sam wouldn't let me disinfect his lips.

We drove around the outlet malls for a little bit. There used to be a Phalztgraff outlet store there, but now there isn't.....drat.

Our church has a temple in Orlando, so we went and walked around the beautiful grounds. We talked about the temple and how it is Heavenly Father's house. I had Samuel touch the wall because I kept remembering a quote about letting children touch the walls of the temple so they can feel the temple in their hearts. I know that isn't quoted quite right, but I am to lazy to look it up right now!

THEN

for something completely different!

We went to..........

We had been there once, a long time ago, so thought we would check it out.

We discovered that the giant balloon we had spotted at the beginning of the day was at Downtown Disney.


The Lego store was fantastic. This sea serpent is made of legos and is in the lake in front of the store.


I also loved the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

I forgot to take my camera, these photos are not mine, they are images I borrowed from the internet. I hate it when I forget my camera. I also forgot Sam's hat, so had to buy another one. Also forgot to take a towel, so had to buy one of those as well. Samuel loves to splash in the water cool down zones they have for kids. With all the things I forgot, our cheap day started to "uncheap" in a hurry!

Anyway, I digress.

Samuel loved the Lego Store, they had things to build, things to climb and things to slide down. It took two of us to drag him away!

Sam soon forgot about the Lego Store when he rode on a train and a carousel. Checked out the Winnie the Pooh store and Goofy's Candy Store. We paused outside the Giraldi Chocolate Store and showed great self-restraint by walking on by.

While Samuel splashed in the water.......

Jessica designed and made her own Disney t-shirt. On her shirt she mentions chocolate.

Just sayin'.............


Every time we walked by this store I was hit in the head by great globs of water, at least I hoped it was great globs of water! I finally realized that Stitch was spitting water at people.


We finished the day by eating at "Rainforest Cafe".


Surprisingly, there was the shortest wait time at this restaurant, so that narrowed our choice of where to eat considerably. Great food however, and a fun atmosphere. Though, where we sat we had a monkey's butt just above our table. It wasn't so bad until it started to jump up and down. Samuel kept trying to scale the wall to get the monkey and wanted to visit with the people next to us......who couldn't speak English......were about 104......not very social.....had their own grandchildren to contend with.....Sam gave them some of his chocolate bar.......and then wanted it back......I nearly passed out when the bill came for the food.......told Jessica that next time we would bring Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.

Ahhhh, good times.



Jessica had a pleasant surprise as we browsed through the Christmas Shop on our way out. Her chemistry teacher was there. Jessica jumped about 20 feet into the air and let out a shriek. Not a good way to endear yourself to a teacher. I think he thought she should have been home studying.

I do have one photo of the kiddos courtesy of a photo booth!


It would have been a perfect day if Jim and Joshua had been with us.

Sally-Ann