Our Orlando Trip!

Our trip was AMAZING! This is most definitely the absolute best trip we have ever taken. We all had so much fun and wish that we cold have stayed a few more days... Becca took over 2,500 pictures! No, that isn't a typo! She had purchased a new digital camera before we left and a 2 GB disc that would hold tons of pictures. Each day, she took over 500 pictures and would return to the hotel and download them to her laptop. The hard part is going to be sorting through them all to decide which ones to print! lol!

First of all a HUGE thank you to Make A Wish for making Becca's dream come true. Her wish was to swim with the dolphins. When she asked for this wish, we thought that we'd get one or two days at the ocean and she'd just swim along beside the dolphins. But MAW sent us first to Discovery Cove in Orlando. This place is amazing! We all 4 got to swim with and feed our own personal dolphin, Tyler, and do some tricks with him.


Here are some pictures of Discovery Cove where we went on our first day. Just click on each picture and it will open in a window full size so you can see the detail... some of them won't work for some reason, but most of them do.

This place is an all inclusive resort where you have a half hour personal swim with the dolphins, then the rest of the day is yours to snorkel with the stingrays and thousands of exotic fish in the coral reefs, or just take a relaxing float along their Tropical River that goes the whole way around the area. All food was included for the day, including snacks and beverages, and it was delicious!












The gorgeous pools.












This was another group having their personal swim. The dolphins were waving bye bye!













Here's Jilli with Tyler and a great one of our whole family!

The next day, we went to Sea World. We had the VIP tour, which meant for 7 hours, we had a personal tour guide, Sarah. We got to move to the head of the line at Kraken, Journey to Atlantis and Wild Arctic rides, and had reserved seats at the Shamu and dolphin shows. We got to feed dolphins, sea lions and stingrays and enjoyed an up-close encounter with a penguin!





















Our lunch was ring side seating behind the Shamu show where we got to be right beside the three whale pools while they were awaiting to go out and put on their show! The trainers came out while we were eating and had them do a couple tricks for us and brought them right up to the side of the pool for us to get pictures! We could have reached out and touched them! That's how close they were!!!





























Our tour guide Sarah was wonderful and gave us tons of interesting facts about all the animals. It was an unforgettable experience!

More Vacation!

Becca caught so many action shots of the whales and dolphins, it was unbelievable! She was snapping non stop through the show and just kept saying, "Oh wow! Oh wow! I got it!" Her pictures are fantastic.












The first picture shows 4 dolphins jumping at the same time. The second is one jumping high into the air! The last is one of the underwater shots Becca got.
























I love these Whale shots! They are just gorgeous! The middle one amazed me that she got it! He jumped straight up and right back down again so quickly that I thought for sure she missed it! But it turned out fantastic!

Our next day was at Disney's Animal Kingdom. After two full days of non stop fun from morning to night, we were a bit tired when we arrived at Animal Kingdom. We went on a Safari and saw tons of wild animals. Here are just two of the animals we saw.















I took these two shots of the Tree of Life in the middle of the park and a beautiful waterfall.

















Our last day was spent outside of Tampa visiting some of my relatives. My cousin Rob, who lives in Tallahassee, came down with his wife Lee Ann to stay with their daughter Lisa and grandchildren, Hannah and Matthew. Hannah is a very, very special 4 year old little girl. She was diagnosed a year ago with a rare, inoperable brain tumor. You can read about her struggle on her website at Help Hannah. We have been praying non stop for her since she was diagnosed and were thrilled to finally get to meet her.

We had a wonderful day with them at the beach, on the boardwalk and then had a picnic back at their house.



Here's Hannah collecting shells, and Matthew being just adorable! He's such a sweetie!





Here's Lee Ann and my cousin Rob standing, then their daughter Lisa, her nephew Dalton and Hannah. Matthew was sleeping in the stroller.


It was a perfect ending to a perfect vacation!

Leaving for vacation!

We're sitting in a Pittsburgh hotel room, ready to catch our flight to Orlando first thing tomorrow morning! We are so excited!!!

We'll arrive Thursday afternoon and probably check out downtown Disney in the evening then get a good night's sleep so that we're all ready for Discovery Cove on Friday! This is Becca's Make A Wish trip, and her wish was to swim with dolphins. To say the girls are a little excited is a bit of an understatement! lol!

On a sad note, we had planned to visit with my cousin Rob and his family on Monday with our free day, but that may change. We were to meet his granddaughter Hannah and her brother Matthew at the beach on Monday morning, but just found out that Hannah has a doctor's appointment Monday. She was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor one year ago, and they just received news that her tumor is growing.... so we may not get to see them, depending on the doctor's appointment. Please keep Hannah and her family in your prayers...

Also, please keep us in your prayers as we travel this week and see so many wonderful sights. Pray for Becca's health, her headaches and stomach problems, and for good weather... We've got her laptop with us and hope to make a few posts and share a few pictures. Check back often!

Vacation coming up!

It's hard to believe but our Florida trip is coming up very, very quickly! We're taking this trip for Becca's Make A Wish... she was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer in November 2006. Her wish was to swim with dolphins, so they are sending us to Discovery Cove in Orlando! The girls have never flown before, so they are very, very excited!

We got our final plans last week, and besides Discovery Cove, they are sending us to Sea World and Adventure Island! It's going to be an amazing trip and we can hardly wait! I'm sure I'll be posting lots of pictures when we come back! Until then, watch the ticker to see how many days until we leave!!!

Discovery Cove, Sea World and Animal Kingdom!

That's where we're going for Becca's Make A Wish!!! I just got off the phone with the coordinator and everything is almost all set up for the end of June...

We'll spend our first full day at Discovery Cove and all 4 of us get to swim with the dolphins!!! Becca is so excited about this! That's what her actual wish was... to swim with dolphins! At first they thought that just Becca and Jillian would swim with the dolphins and that was fine with us, but then they said that all four of us get to go in with them!!! Oh my gosh, I'm excited too! lol!

The next day, we go to Sea World and spend the day there. Is the one in Orlando similar to the one that used to be in Ohio? I LOVED the shows they put on in Ohio! The girls love the penguins the best!

Then we go to Animal Kingdom for a day. I went to their website and it looks like that's a bunch of shows all about animals... like Lion King and Finding Nemo.... that will be a blast!

Then our last day is a free day where we will be driving to see my dad's sister's family and we'll get to meet my little cousin Hannah for the first time!!! I can't wait to meet that precious sweetheart.... And I'll get to see my cousins who I haven't seen in over 10 years!

I'm still in awe that Becca has been given this trip and cannot even imagine what it will be like. We've never gone on a real family vacation before (except camping...) and the girls have never flown! So they are just a tad excited! And MAW has gone above and beyond what her original wish was!

My hope and prayers are that we can get things straightened out with Becca's health so that she isn't in pain while we are there.... But MAW keeps assuring us that if Becca is having a bad day, she will be able to go and rest....

Just had to share... it's starting to seem real now

Bev