October 29, 2009
In the info packet we got yesterday, it said Disney characters would be outside the House of Hearts at 8:00. We got up in plenty of time, so we walked up to see who was there. To our surprise, we saw LOTS of characters!! First, Ally saw Goofy. He was soooo tall, she didn’t quite know what to do with him. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be too close, but she warmed up quickly. Belle was there too! Ally walked right up to her, and they had nice little conversation. It was cool! She ran right over to Pluto and stood right by him, waiting for his picture. It was so cute how she really got into seeing the characters. With Ally, it could go either way, you know. She was so happy! They told us Mickey and Minnie were inside the theater! Yes, the king of all mice in the flesh! She was so patient waiting her turn to go up on the stage to get her picture taken. She walked right up to them and stood there waiting for people to take her picture. It was too cute! Mickey was quite taken with Ally. He came over and gave me a kiss with his nose, put his hand over his heart, and then pointed to Ally. While Ally liked Mickey, she REALLY liked Minnie! - We were so thrilled she got into seeing the characters as much as she did.. After all that excitement (it wasn’t even 9a.m. yet), we ate breakfast and it was off to Sea World!We had a blast at Sea World. Ally did soooo well! Right when we got there, we had our pic taken with Shamu. Because Ally is a Wish child, she is given lots of “perks” at the park. One of them is to get free trays of fish to feed the animals. Our first stop was the sting ray pool. Ally enjoyed looked at them and watching Nana and Daddy feed them. We happened to round the corner and saw the dolphin feeding was happening within minutes, so we decided to get in line and wait. As we were standing there, a worker came and tapped me on the shoulder and said she saw we were with Make-A-Wish. She took us out of the line, and down the exit to a special entrance. She proceeded to give us four trays of fish (three more came later) to feed the dolphins. It was really cool! We were so close to them. Ally thought they were cute! Both Brad and I were able to touch them. — We found out that the Make-A-Wish pin allowed us to go in the exits of each ride and jump right on! We rode a couple of really cool roller coasters (we meaning Brad and I). Manta was so much fun. I usually don’t get scared on roller coasters, but that one freaked me out just a little. On this coaster, you hang so your body is parallel to the ground. Brad thought it was one of the best coasters he’d ever ridden! –Because of a great tip from Brad’s brother, Bert, we had lunch at “Dining with Shamu”. Actually, we were able to have a nice lunch while the Shamu show was going. We sat at a table on the waterfront at a pool behind Shamu stadium. As soon as the actual show was over, the trainers came back to where we were having lunch and gave us a behind the scenes look at the whales and how they train them. It was really cool! Shamu and two other whales were participating in our private show! (Well, semi-private show…there were other people at lunch too, but it was so up-close and personal. We got TONS of really cool pics. One of the most exciting parts of the day was the fact that Ally got on some of the rides!!! She loved them! There was a jelly fish ride (similar to the tea cups at Disney). She kept turning the wheel so the car would spin and spin and spin. The girl never gets dizzy. She had a smile on her face that was bigger than I’d seen in a while! Her laugh came from all the way down in her toes. She was cracking me up! –We came home and went to the brand new pool that just opened last week. Ally had a ball! – This evening was Christmas at Give Kids the World. Santa comes and is available for pics. We waiting in line to see him. Ally was not quite sure about him. She sat on his lap with the rest of us, but she didn’t really like it. Each child got to pick out a toy from a HUGE toy shelf full of brand new toys and games. She picked the game Chutes and Ladders.– Ally is having so much fun! It is beyond cool to see her having such a great time. — Benjamin is doing awesome at my sister’s. She said he asked for Ally today, but he’s been just great! He was asleep when I chatted with her.– Tomorrow we are off to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot for a bit!