A visit from Grandma and Grandpa...

This week, we got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. They were very kind and drove my car from San Diego all the way over here to Orlando, FL. So besides getting a nice visit, I have my car! Yay!

This was also a big week because it was the first week of school. We took it slow, but I was very impressed with the amount of information that the girls retained from last year. Believe it or not, they actually had a great and productive week of school, even while Grandparents were here.

We took Grandma and Grandpa to Epcot on Tuesday. We visited several different pavilions that represented many different countries. Mulan greeted us in China and Mary Poppins stopped to smile with us in the United Kingdom.

This was a troll in Norway.

Wednesday the girls hit the books, but that night we joined Grandma and Grandpa in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a themed restaurant with animatronic gorillas, elephants and a thunder and lightening storm about every 30 minutes.

Mike took Friday off so that we could play all four days of Labor Day weekend. Friday morning, we got up bright and early and headed about an hour North-East to the St. John's River. We met Captain Gator Bruce at the boat ramp and he took us on an air boat ride to look at the gorgeous Florida wetlands and spot some gators. This was a highlight of our time here. The boat ride was fast and loud, while the scenery was beautiful. We saw many gators slinking around the murky water. We even glimpsed a bald eagle. It was wonderful.

 Here was the bald eagle that flew away moments later.  We were lucky to see him.

 Mackenzie and Grandpa on the airboat.

Sarah was supposed to be looking at the camera in this shot, but she turned away. So here I am, just to prove I'm really here.  :)

 This little guy is really difficult to see, but he was about three feet long.  Captian Bruce said he was probably about two years old.  We chased him around for a little bit in the shallow grass.

 At one point we pulled up to an area that we counted about 12 gators with thier heads and noses sticking up out of the water.  This was just one of the many shots I took.

Here is a nice close up.  We were just feet from him.

Captian Bruce took us back into some trees in a no-wake zone. It was so beautiful. The black water reflects the trees so that it's difficult to tell where the trees end and the water begins. Here are just a few amazing shots.























Isabelle was smiling like this the entire time we were on the water. I think she might be just like her daddy and love speed and adrenaline.                                                                

Saturday we headed to Fantasy of Flight which is an interactive airplane museum. It was Disneyland for Mike and his dad.
The girls tagged along for most of the day and I'm really glad we did. This place had very well done exhibits that you could climb in and walk through. The dark hallways lead you through the trenches of World War 1 to climbing through a bomber of World War 2. Then there were the hangers packed full of aircraft that Mike could tell you everything about. They even had a kids room where the girls built paper airplanes, played in a hot-air balloon simulator and a hang gliding simulator.







The day only got better for Mike (and his dad) as they both went for a fly in a SNJ3. The pilot in the back seat of the airplane handed the controls over on the taxi way out and didn't take back the controls until landing. Needless to say, Mike was grinning for the rest of the day. 




















We are taking it easy for the rest of the weekend as we are all "Labored" out.  We hope you have a great holiday weekend too.  Here are my random shots of the girls playing on their new toys in the pool.  Also, for those of you who were really concerned about Sarah's swimming ability (mom) here is a clip of her swimming.  Hasn't she gotten pretty good?