What an adventure

We're trying to catch up on life after an awesome adventure to Disney World and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. I have so many stories to tell... But first, I'll try to summarize our adventure. The trip started differently than normal for us... We rode on a plane to Florida! We're drivers for almost all of our cross-country family trips. So this was the first time Jordan was on a plane since she was three. She loved it.By the time we got to Disney, it was after midnight. That didn't stop the kids from getting a chance to check out our hotel: the Wilderness Lodge. It's a really huge and beautiful hotel at the Disney Resorts. The Lodge is built to make it feel like you're staying at a national park. A water feature starts inside and runs outside, down a waterfall and into the pool. It was a huge thrill for all of us... so getting the kids to sleep that first night was really challenging!The next day we were up early and ready to open the Magic Kingdom. We took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours in the morning and evening each day... So we were able to ride our favorite rides twice or more during this trip. How fun is that?Our first day was a combination of fun at the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We discovered Jordan was tall enough for all of the roller coasters except for the Rock n' Roller Coaster. We had a ton of fun. So much fun that Jordan ended up falling asleep on me while we waited for the boys to ride their final ride. Our second day was even more exciting! We opened up the Animal Kingdom for Early Magic Hours and showed Jordan how much fun is it to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster. It was so funny. Each time we'd go in to ride it, Jordan would get all upset and scared. By the time we'd end the ride, she was cheering and asking to do it again. After our fun at the Everest ride, we had a lot of fun riding the safari ride where we saw a ton of animals. We also had a chance to experience the Lion King show... which is really awesome.We ran back to the hotel where we had a delicious lunch scheduled and hopped in the pool for a little bit. Then Jordan and I ran off to Downtown Disney where she had an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Miss Jordan decided to get a Diva Princess hair style. It's kind of punk rock and she loved it. We headed back to the Magic Kingdom to meet back up with her dad and Cameron AND we had a chance to hang out with some old friends who Jordan hadn't met before. Jordan made very fast friends with one of their daughters... it was really wonderful to watch them enjoy the park together.It's pretty cool how a quick mention about going to Disney on Facebook made it possible for us to meet up. I love that. We had so much fun. Thanks to those Extra Magic Hours, we had a chance to hit our favorite rides once again. Some of the kids and grown ups even did Splash Mountain Falls to close out the night. I decided to stay dry. I'm wimpy like that I guess.On our third day at Disney, we decided to go to the early hour at Epcot. We enjoyed the rides and went all the way around the countries. We have never done that before with the kids... They weren't as thrilled about it as Randy and I were. But you can't love every second of Disney, right? The grown ups enjoyed the chance to drink a good German beverage and the kids liked watching fun performances in Italy and Great Britain. We had a delicious meal at the Coral Reef and then headed back to our hotel to dress up! We got to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom!! There was trick or treating, dancing, having fun... And of course, riding our favorite rides with very few people in line! The parade and fireworks were awesome.The next day was really special. We had a chance to meet Winter the Dolphin at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. It deserves its own post... So I'll probably stop here and tell you more about our amazing experience very soon.