Alligators, Manatees, and Mickey Mouse ... Oh My!

Yes, that's an alligator! Yikes! We went to Blue Springs on Thursday & saw lots of manatees (below) and a couple alligators. Pretty cool! When the river cools down (the St. John River, that is), the manatees stay in Blue Springs, which stays a nice 72 degrees. Ahh, what a life!
Yesterday (Friday), we drove to Orlando at 7 AM or so & went to see Mickey, Minnie & the rest of the gang. What a cool day! Actually, it was pretty warm. :) But it was cool too. We spent nearly 15 hours walking around the park (and taking turns carrying the boys). Phew! We're pretty tired! We hit all our top picks for the rides and attractions and saw parts of the Disney parade three separate times! I think the majority of us loved Mickey's PhilharMagic the best. Dad & Derek missed out because Derek was sleeping. We also enjoyed Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's ride, and Thunder Mountain. Lots of others too, but those were the best. :) Jeremy & Dan stayed later than the rest of us & got to ride about as many rides in the last hour as we covered in the whole day! I need to credit Mimi & Gramps with "sponsoring" our trip ... what a treat! We are so grateful to them for doing that. (And I think Gramma & Pop helped too, indirectly, from across the continent. We love you both & are looking forward to seeing you in CA hopefully in a few months)

I was worried about how my tailbone would survive the roller coasters, and it did fine. Ironically, I hurt it a little on the third tamest ride in the park, Pirates of the Caribbean (the tamest are the Jungle Cruise Boat, which I will tell you about later because it's too funny not to tell you about, and It's a Small World ... of course). Near the end of Pirates, there was just a slight bump on which I bounced just a bit and landed at the wrong angle, thus feeling the pain in my backside. By the end of the day my feet were pretty sore & other parts of my back were aching, but my tailbone did fine. :) I know you were all concerned about it, so I thought I'd put your minds at ease. No worries! (Hakuna Matata, as we say here in the land of Disney)

I will post my highlights of the trip when we get back. Spending time with Mimi, Gramps, Aunt Loni, Uncle Trey, Nana, & Grandy is definitely top of the list. We are driving home tomorrow ... so sad! We will miss all our family. Hope you & yours had a great holiday & a nice break from school & work. See ya when we get back!

(**if you read my Mom's blog, these are the same pictures she took & posted of our trip to Blue Springs**)