A belated weekend update!

[kv0925]

Well, here we are almost to the next weekend, but I thought I shouldn't disappoint my audience by failing to post a recap of last weekend!


Friday evening the weather was decent so we thought we'd go take a quick hike at Lake Lotus. It turned out to be a pretty decent day to spot baby critters!


Mama moorhen and a baby--there was another mom and several more young nearby too.


Look at those huge feet!


Rather young gator, maybe 2' long.


Baby turtle, couldn't have been more than 3" long.

Saturday the plan was to meet up with some friends for a birthday get-together at Fun Spot, which is an amusement park in the Orlando tourist area we'd never been to. It's more or less a permanent carnival sort of place, with mostly midway-style rides, go-kart tracks, a few roller coasters, that sort of thing.

Before we left, I had to get a photo of Amy. She insisted on starting out in socks (though it was super hot so that didn't last long), and I thought it looked cute.



We got to the park and waited for a while at the main entrance, which was where the friends said they'd be. No sign of them, though. Heather has no cell phone, but after a while we thought we'd check her e-mail from mine and see if the friends had sent anything to cancel or what. Sure enough, they'd written to say they were already there and riding things! I thought that was a bit rude. Turned out they had no idea the new main entrance existed, and had instead come in through a side gate. Sheesh.


First thing, the older girls went on the bumper boats. These were nice and big, and equipped with water cannons, so it was a lot of fun and hopefully made up for the fiasco with the Tampa zoo's bumper boats a few weeks back!






Next up: bumper cars!




Over to the smaller kids' rides so Amy could go on some stuff. She liked the swings--they were small for everyone else, but big enough for her!


But oh man, did Amy ever love this little roller coaster. She rode it 3 or 4 times, with a huge smile on her face every time. At first we thought she was scared, but nope, she was loving every second. I may have found my coaster buddy!




We didn't know what this ride did, really, but that didn't stop Amy from wanting to try it anyway!




Teacup rides are always a hit.







There was a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant across the street, so we went there for lunch. That was a new place for us--I'd heard of it, but we'd never checked it out. I was impressed! Good selection of stuff on the salad bar, plus lots of soups to choose from, and a few pasta dishes. And soft-serve ice cream with toppings to finish it off! We'll definitely go back there.


I had my doubts about the Tilt-a-Whirl, especially so shortly after lunch! But Hermione seemed to really like it.


The blanket thing is because the seats were really hot from the sun!


A view from the Ferris wheel.





Sunday I thought it would be fun to take the kayaks out for a quick paddle before it got too hot--but it was already hot. We put in at Minnehaha Park in Maitland, and paddled over to Lake Nina.


We started out with Amy and me on the big kayak, and Hallie on the little one, while Heather and Hermione hung out at the playground.


A neat tunnel under the road.


When we got to Lake Nina, the kids traded places. But Amy can't paddle very well, so I towed her along for a while.

In the afternoon I took Hallie and Amy to a big plant nursery we like--I needed some more butterfly plants, and I wanted to see if they had that neat ground cover plant I saw at the park last week.



Tuesday I met Heather and the girls at the ice rink--Heather and Hallie wanted to get some practice, Hermione likes to join in when she can, and Amy wanted to try it for the first time as well.



I only had my phone, and the place is relatively dim, so I didn't get many good shots. Amy didn't do so well, though.









And that's the past 5 days or so! This weekend we're planning to head to Sebastian to visit Dad (since it's Father's Day weekend, after all), so that will take the whole day. Sunday I think I'm going to take the girls to a park to meet a friend, so I can give her back her laptop--it was full of all kinds of adware and browser hijackers, so I'm trying to clean it up and get rid of all the popups and crap. How people allow these things to get installed, I just don't know.

I hope everyone is having a good week.. almost Friday already!

Comments

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Glad your kids had lots of fun lately.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Just another week for them! ;)

[anfractuousity.livejournal.com]

Man, have your kids got it GOOD.

[cp.livejournal.com]

I hope they appreciate it, too!

[cinnamonbite.livejournal.com]

Hey, totally off topic but
thinking of your wife who liked to make clothes: http://www.edenfolwell.net/2010/08/princess-dress-rainbow-rescue.html

[cp.livejournal.com]

Ha, that is a clever idea that the girls would have a blast with. I'll pass that along, thanks!

[youaremydensity.livejournal.com]

Where is the place with the Sasquatch statue??

[cp.livejournal.com]

Heh heh, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a Sasquatch or a Skunk Ape, but it's awesome either way! That's at Lukas Nursery out towards Oviedo, a great place to stroll and browse the plants even if you don't care for gardening. :)

[mspeacockwi.livejournal.com]

Wonderful pictures, as always! All of the amusement park rides look so fun! I wish we had a place closer to us that has such a large selection! The kayaking looks super fun too. I'm jealous of all of your adventures!

[cp.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I must say, living in Orlando with kids certainly does have its perks! The tourist-y stuff on one hand, the nature-y stuff on the other, it's a good mix. I wish we had a bit more historical stuff, at least in terms of American history. There's a little, but not much when it comes to, say Colonial times or the Civil War. I can't complain too much, though!

[audamy.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Bumper boats for all :) It looks like the girls all had a good time at Fun Spot.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, it was an aptly-named place. :) I'm a bit surprised I'd never been there, aside from one time many years ago when I went there to interview for an interim job. I'm kinda glad the job didn't work out, but as a visitor it was a nice place!

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Fun weekend, as usual. I want to be your kid...

[cp.livejournal.com]

Ha, they do have it pretty good, even compared to my own childhood! :)

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Really, that's the way it should be! Each generation should have it better and better. :)