The ‘Believe’ show was one of the highlights of the visit.  I’ve always held a special place in my heart for Orkas, and these animals were so amazing to watch.  Growing up, I wanted to train dolphins and whales, so watching this show made me want to pack up and move to Florida to train them!  We sat in the Soak Zone, in hopes of getting wet.  When Shamu came by and started the process, we watched as others got drenched.  Both Bethany and I thought we’d be safe, even when he slammed his giant tail down right in front of us.  We both thought, “Wow, those people in front of us are going to get….” and then we realized that the wall of water was going to reach us.

Well, we said we wanted to get wet….

There was so much to see there.  We saw dolphins, sea lions, tropical fish, manta rays, sharks, and eve penguins!  I made sure to take a billion pictures of them to appease my friend Drew.

After Sea World we had some time to relax at the hotel before going out to dinner.  We went to Cap’n Jacks in Downtown Disney, where the food was amazing.  They also had some pretty yummy drinks!

From there it was off to the hotel to pass out from another busy day.

You can see all of the photos from Sea World HERE.

Tomorrow will be the last installment of the Disney pictures.  It is full of fun in Epcot, and my Dad’s birthday!

We rode the Aerosmith Roller Coaster, and then went over to the Tower of Terror.  We got on that, and went up in the elevator.  We were pretty excited, and the lights came on and we expected to start dropping.  A voice came over the intercom and we were told that the ride was broken and we would be brought to the ground floor.  At first we weren’t certain if it was part of the ride, or if it was legitimate.  As it turns out, it was real deal.  They brought us down and it took only a few minutes for them to sort it out.  The ride was incredibly fun; I didn’t ride it the last time I was at Hollywood so it was a new experience.

We finished up at Hollywood and went back to the hotel for a little while.  Then we got dressed and went to Magic Kingdom for a special dinner at the Crystal Palace.  It was special because Winnie the Pooh and all his friends were there!

The food was very good there.  It was a buffet, so we got to make several trips for the yummy food in between being visited by the Pooh Corner Pals.  Just as dinner was ending, we heard the fireworks begin to go off over Cinderella’s Castle.  Bethany ran out to take photos while we finished paying our tip.

I got out there before it was over though!

It was so beautiful.  They had some fireworks that flew over the castle like shooting stars, and others that just exploded in a sea of colors.  It was amazing.

When the fireworks were over there was a mass crowd of people leaving the park.  Bethany and I hung around taking photos of the castle.  It changes colors at night, which is pretty cool.  As we were leaving we noticed people still sitting on Main Street.  We asked someone what they were waiting for, and we were told that there was another parade at 11 o’clock.  This was very exciting, because we had missed it when we first came in.  We decided to find a spot and wait for it, which turned out to be a wonderful decision.  I only got a couple photos of it before my camera battery died, but Bethany took some amazing shots.

We got home late and promptly passed out.  It was a productive day though, because we both got our Mickey Mouse ears.  I actually got to bring mine home, but Bethany’s had to be ordered and sent to the room due to the back up of ears.  It was a really wonderful day.

You can see all of the photos HERE.

Tomorrow you’ll hear all about Sea World, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

We were able to give the dolphins kisses and hugs.  This is me kissing Leeko.

This is me and mom with Jenny.

Then we were able to have Jenny tow us to shore.

After the dolphins it seemed like nothing would be cooler than that.  And nothing was, but some things came very close…

We swam with manta rays, which was so incredibly awesome.  They’re beautiful, graceful, and so kind.

We even met loads of beautiful birds.

It was the most amazing experience of my life.  You can see all of the pictures of our Discovery Cove adventure HERE.  The pictures that are in the album now are only the photos that I purchased from Discovery Cove.  All of the pictures were taken by their photographer.  My photos that I took were all on disposable waterproof cameras, and I will get them back from Wal*mart on Saturday.  There are more photos of me and Mom in that.

Tonight is the first night that I’ve felt like I’m getting back to where I want to be.  And that felt amazing.

The horse I ride, Missy, was never really trained to bring her head down or extend her stride.  We spend a lot of time working with her on that and it is incredibly hard.  She’s an older mare with a lot of spunk and a mind of her own on some things.  She tries hard though to give you what you’re asking for.  And tonight we finally communicated effectively.  There were several times during the lesson when my instructor, Elizabeth, was calling out things like, “YES!  That’s perfect!” There was one moment in particular when we came around the corner and I felt Missy drop her head, bend around the corner and just throw her legs out and extend.  I was sitting the trot and I just felt perfect.  Elizabeth yelled out, “Yes, that’s it!  Get right into it!!!” It was just amazing.

That’s exactly the kind of lesson I needed tonight.  I left feeling so good about myself.  I worked really hard and I know that I’ll feel it tomorrow.  But it’s worth it, because this is what it felt like

Amazing.

We saw lots of animals… tigers, elephants, lions, bats (giant ones!), and parrots just to name a few…

We even got to meet some great characters!

There were amazing rides, including Expedition Everest.  It was a GIANT roller coaster that was incredibly fun.  It went forwards and backwards, changed tracks… it was just way cool.

That mountain in the background?  Yeah, that’s Everest!

We ended the day by running to Hollywood Studios to catch Fantasmic.  It’s a good thing we did, because it wasn’t up and running the only other night we had the time to go see it.

Mickey is dreaming during the show, and the Evil Queen from Snow White invades his dreams and turns them into a nightmare.  He has to fight a dragon to win back his happy dreams…

It was an amazing day.  The food where we ate dinner was authentic African food, and it was absolutely out of this world.  We all agreed that it was cool to eat there because we’ll likely never have the opportunity to try it again.

There are hundreds and hundreds of pictures from this day, simply because of all the animals.  You can see all of the photos HERE.

Tune in tomorrow to hear all about…….. DISCOVERY COVE.

After the spinning fun was over, we went in to Toontown!  We saw Mickey and Minnie’s houses…

We met the princesses!

As we were walking down a path, Bethany suddenly squealed and took off running.  I had no idea what was going on, so I followed her through the crowd.  When I saw what she had been so excited about, I squealed too…

We found them!!!

It was very, very hot out again that day, so we went back to the hotel pretty early.  We had some pretty early dinner reservations at an Irish pub in Downtown Disney, Raglan Road.  The food was out of this world, our waiter was a cute boy from England, and there was a live band and Irish Dancer after we ate.

After that we played in Downtown Disney for awhile…

They had a lego replica of Merlin!!!

After looking around and enjoying things, we caught the boat home in time to see an amazing sunset…

You can see all of the pictures of day 2 HERE.  Tomorrow you will be transported to Animal Kingdom where you will hear all about the hundreds of animals we saw, the amazing rides we rode, and the very yummy food we had.

It was incredibly hot out.  According to the weathermen in Florida it was unseasonably hot.  The heat index that first day was close to 110 degrees.  Like most amusement parks, Magic Kingdom is not very well shaded.  It was unfortunate, because it created some serious issues related to the heat.  That first day Mom and Aunt Sis went back to the hotel fairly early.  Dad, Bethany, Sean and I remained and toured the whole park.  We did several rides, including Spash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Small World.  We were able to meet Goofy

We saw the parade at 3pm, which is amazing considering I was really starting to struggle with the hat at that point.  That’s what I get for cutting back on the water at the hottest point of the day!

Bethany and I ended the day at Planet Hollywood.  We had a fantastic dinner, complete with a fun waiter and yummy drinks.  Our glasses we got to keep.

It was a wonderful day, despite the heat.  You can see all of the pictures of this first day here.  Day two was another morning at Magic Kingdom and our mission was finding Chip and Dale!

Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder,
It’s the truth, it’s “actch’ll”
Everything is “satisfactch’ll.”

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!”

Bethany and I are off on our grand adventure to Disney.  It’s a 9 hour drive to our hotel.  There will be plenty of pictures and plenty of fun to share soon enough.  Mickey Mouse here we come!!!

• New tires for my car… at least for the back. I will need new front ones after I get back…
• Oil change.
• Buy a couple more pairs of shorts
• Buy a new beach towel
• Sync my iPod
• Clean the house
• Shop for road trip snacks
• Pack (BLAH)
• Find a t-shirt to go with my yellow shorts (yes, yellow… ask Bethany about them!)
• Find a cover up to wear to the pool
• Buy two waterproof disposable cameras for Discovery Cove
• Clean out the back end of the car.

We’ll be going shopping for road trip snacks this afternoon.  After that I will clean out the back of the car, and then sync my iPod.  All of the packing is done, minus my medicine, two small shower things, my camera, and my computer.  I will load most of it up tonight before I go to bed, so tomorrow I will just have to get up and toss food in the cooler and go.

The drive is just a little longer than I thought it was, so I’ll need to talk with Bethany about what time we need to leave.  I’d like to get there before evening.  I’ll understand though if she doesn’t want to be up early.  This is, after all, our summer vacation.

So much fun is coming my way, and I am incredibly excited.  I can’t wait to see my family, and to spend a week having a great time with them and such an amazing friend.