At the Zoo {Family Caribbean Day 2}

Over the years, Sam and I have had some pretty serendipitous travel. When we went to Cancun in 2013, we just happened to be there during the tail end of our friends Frank and Megan's trip and the beginning of my aunt, uncle, and cousin's vacation, so we managed to see them both while we were there. We joked that it was funny we had to go all the way to Mexico to see each other, since Frank and Megan lived in Beckley, WV at the time, and my aunt and her family lives in Northern Virginia.

When Dad and I were talking about getting together the week of Christmas, he mentioned that January would be tricky because they would be in Florida one weekend mid-month. I asked where he was going to be in Florida, and he said Donna had a work conference in Tampa. Really? We'll be in Tampa in mid-January. What days? Oh, just the exact same days that we will be there before our cruise! So, we decided that we'd meet up there to see each other.

 

Saturday ended up being the best day for Dad, so he got to join us and the girls for a beautiful day at the Tampa Lowry Park Zoo. We used our Tampa Trio tickets, and found parking (and Dad) easily, so we were inside the zoo within minutes.

The weather could not have been better for our day there. Sunny and warm with a breeze, never hot, never cold. Perfect. If you couldn't tell from our pictures from yesterday, I actually decided to bring my decent camera (not my nicest, but a DSLR) on the trip, since I finally have more willing subjects. If I try to take Sam's picture more than once a day, it's usually met with complaining. ha. But, I got excited, and uploaded pictures to my laptop and then forgot to put the SD card back in my camera, so I showed up at the zoo with a camera and no memory card. So, back to the grainy phone pictures it is! :) Sorry, guys.

We spent the day strolling around the park, taking in the monkeys and lorakeets, lions and elephants. The girls got a donut from Krispy Kreme donut in the morning, and a Dippin' Dots ice cream to share in the afternoon (seriously, they are going to need a sugar detox when we get back from vacation, but hey, it's vacation.)

 

 

After all the fun they had yesterday with the sting rays, they couldn't wait another second to go see their "besties" the sting rays. This time they even got to feed them! And boy, could you tell the difference. Those little Pavlov's dogs, errr stingrays, would swim right up to the edge because they clearly associated zoo-goers with food. Harper took total credit for that, and claimed it was because she knew how to pet them from yesterday. Of course. Willa was much more enthusiastic to touch them today. I was so proud of her! She got so excited after she touched the first one, and said, "I'm weally bwave!" They eagerly showed Papaw how to touch them with only two fingers and only on their wings.

 

 

 

Since the girls have liked the interactive exhibits the most over the two days, Papaw treated the girls (or should I say giraffes?) to a closeup view to the zoo's tallest animals. We waited in line for about 20 minutes, and right as we neared the front, the giraffe walked away from our little landing. A kind guide at the stingray pool had told us to go ahead and try to feed the giraffes if we were wanting to do it because after a certain point in the afternoon, they will go wait for their evening feeding, and there's really nothing you can do to coax them to come over. Great. We had hit that window. Our tall friend had gone over to his tree to check for some hay, but when he saw he still just had some sticks in there, he came on back to get his fill of lettuce from the girls. When I asked Harper what she thought of them, she said, "Mom. If you combined all the animals' tongues in the world, I don't think it would even be as long as his." Slight exaggeration, maybe, but it was pretty long.

 

Having had a great day yesterday at the aquarium, I think Harper thought she knew the Tampa animal scene at this point, so she was running from exhibit to exhibit, hating to wait for the rest of us. That girl's attitude struggles the most when she thinks she should be in charge (ack, it's going to be a rough, but rewarding 13 years). She was pretty contentious for a lot of the day, but luckily, Dad knows a few Type A folks (wink, wink) and takes Harper in stride. Plus, he got extra Willa Kate love since Harper wasn't monopolizing all of Papaw's attention.

We ate together at the Lodge restaurant and peeked at a few more animals before calling it a day. Dad needed to get back for dinner, and the girls were clearly tired. So, we loved on him and thanked him for meeting us. It really was sweet that he took the time to come see us.

We knew the girls were tired, but we didn't know just how tired they were. As we were pulling in to the hotel, it was about 4:30, so I figured we'd lay the girls down for an hour or so, and head to dinner around 6:30. Well, Willa slept for three hours, and Harper did not wake up until M I D N I G H T. What? A seven hour nap? That explained a lot about her lackluster performance at the zoo. Since the girls were zonked, we just ordered in pizza and watched the NFL playoff games in the hotel room. Harper woke up at 12, ate a few pieces of pizza, and went right back to sleep until 7 a.m. Sweet girls was exhausted. She basically went straight from school into travel, and I guess she never really caught up.

Thanks for being a good sport, Dad! It was worth the $19 for this cute picture. :)

And here's the rest of our vacation fun...

All Aboard the Young Family Thanksgiving-Mas

At our family get together over Labor Day, we all decided that it would be so much fun to take the kids on the Polar Express in Bryson City, NC.  And since we traditionally celebrate with Dad in November, whether it be for his birthday or Thanksgiving, it made a lot of sense to combine all the holidays of the upcoming month with a weekend away. 

 

Papaw Bud was able to join us for the weekend, and it was the funniest thing-- Harper would. not. leave. his. side.  She's only really ever been around him one other time (just a few months ago at Aunt Betsy's), but she was just in love with him.  I'm glad she got to bond with him.

Our families really have everything we could ever ask for.  Our Christmas last year consisted of each making Pinterest boards and buying from each accordingly.  We may have gotten what we wanted, but it was pretty boring.  And Leah got three pairs of the same running shoes.  Haha!  So, we decided to forego gifts with the adults and do a fun (but somewhat expensive) weekend away together.  Enter our Christmas/Thanksgiving/Dad's birthday celebration in the Smoky Mountains. 

As soon as we decided on that plan, I got online to buy the Polar Express tickets since they sell out so early!  Here it was September and all the tickets for the First Class cars were booked for the Friday night and Saturday of our desired weekend in November.  Craziness!  We decided maybe we aren't first class people anyway when our kids are in tow, so we picked the crown class and booked our tickets. 

Dad took on the job of finding us a place to stay, and he did a great job (even if we may have wondered if we were going to die when we were plowing up a giant mountain in the pitch black on the Friday night we arrived.  Eek!)  It had plenty of room and lots of mountain charm. 

On Saturday morning, Leah whipped up her famous "heart attack breakfast casserole" and the kids got to have Christmas morning with Nana and Papaw.  How sweet were they to literally pack an artificial Christmas tree so that it would feel like Christmas on this weekend before Thanksgiving? 

 

They loved their gifts!  And their parents loved them all except for the pop shotguns.  Haha.  We will be hearing those for the rest of the weekend and beyond.  After gifts, we all packed up and went over the Nantahala river for lunch and some exploring. 

After lunch, we went back to the cabin for some late naps to gear up for our big night on the Polar Express.  But, before we could leave for the train, Papaw took the grandkids on a hunt with their new "shotguns."  Nik went out and hid a bobcat, moose, and bear and then they went "hunting" for them.  So cute and thoughtful.  Since it was dusk, it was even enough to scare never-afraid Harper.  Willa had to offer to help Harper since she had already "shot" her bobcat and new that it was just pretend. 

 

As you would guess, the Polar Express was magical.  Before we boarded the train, the kids got pictures with Santa.  It was so magical they even smiled on the first try.

The train tries to follow the movie storyline pretty closely.  The chefs go through the cabin singing "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot Chocolate!" and read the Polar Express story.  We arrived at the North Pole and saw Santa sitting among the lights waving.  We kept going a little past it to where "he stores the toys," and then Marshmallow (one of our cabin chefs) told us that if we didn't see Santa when we went back through, it must mean he was ON THE TRAIN. 

The children didn't need much coaxing to go to bed... we were all worn out from a super fun day.  The next morning, we had to pack up our things to get ready to leave.  Waaahhh.  It was just too short of a weekend.  But, we decided to drive into Asheville to go to the Sierra Nevada brewery.  That place is gorgeous.  And we had a delicious lunch of tapas... with applebutter pizza, candied beets, and beer butter pretzels.  Delish.  It was a great way to send off a really fun weekend-- a great early Christmas gift to each other. 

Here's how else we celebrated Christmas with our families.