~Hodo Happenings~: February 2006

On our last day in Florida we went to Downtown Disney. It's basically just a lot of shops & restaurants & fun things to see & do. Here's some pics of Lily just goofin' around...

LegoLand

This serpent & family with dogs is all made out of legos! It's fascinating what you can do with a few million legos...

Takin' a ride on the carousel

Lily in the Hundred Acre Woods?

We took Lily to the Rain Forest Cafe for the first time. She loved the elephants, but wasn't too sure about them when they blinked their eyes. She also didn't really like when the "thunderstorms" happened, but she got used to them & was starting to like them by the time we left.

Lily insisted on trying on every single hat she saw while we were in the Disney Store. Here are some of them...

Grammy took Lily & Mommy to SeaWorld in Orlando this winter. We had such a great time! We spent several days at the park, so we got to take our time & enjoy the park, rather than rushing all over to get it all done in one day. We saw all the shows at least twice, and, at Lily's request, we saw the dolphin show 4 or 5 times.

Unfortunately it wasn't ALL fun in Florida...The day after we got there, Lily woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath & it seemed like she wasn't able to breathe very well. She was hysterical & after a few minutes of this & nothing getting any better, we called 911. While we were waiting, the ever calm Grammy took Lily into the bathroom & turned on the hot shower to make the bathroom steamy. This seemed to h

elp quite a bit & when the paramedics FINALLY arrived they said it was a classic case of whooping cough! I know about whooping cough, but I had never heard of a child waking up not being able to breathe because of it. Well, now I know better. We took her to the hospital & they gave her a dose of steroids & had her use a breathing machine, which she did not like at all, even though it made her feel a lot better. Thank God it wasn't anything more serious. And we were so lucky to have Grammy there to save the day, who stayed calm & knew just what to do. When we got back to the hotel, there was a basket for Lily from the night staff at the hotel that included a dolphin stuffed animal, a balloon, cotton candy, M&M's & other treats. Lily thought it was the neatest thing & we couldn't believe how thoughtful the hotel staff was. It was such a nice thing to come back to after a night like the one we had. We were a little worried about how she would feel the rest of the trip, but the next day she was back to her old self & acting like nothing had ever happened!

Here are some pics of our happier memories from SeaWorld.

We got to see all kinds of animals. Penguins, polar bears, flamingos, beluga whales, manatees, seals, sea lions, sharks, stingrays, turtles, walruses, Clydesdale horses, dolphins (Lily's favorite) and, of course, killer whales.

Lily & Mommy at the Shamu show

We didn't get to see the whole Shamu show, because two of the whales (brothers) got into an argument. They had to postpone the show & move all the other whales into a different pool until the whales made up & could perform again.

Shamu family

Lily was thrilled when she found out she could feed the dolphins. We got a little plate of fish (yuck!) & just held the fish out. The dolphin would swim right over to us & Lily dropped the fish right in the dolphins mouth!

Lily's most favorite thing at SeaWorld was the dolphin show. She told anyone that would listen that "the girl takes off all her clothes". The dolphin trainer comes out at the beginning of the show wearing a dress. She does a skit & sings a song & then her dress is pulled off to reveal her diving suit. Then she dives into the water with the dolphins. I can't tell you how many times I heard Lily say that she wanted to "go see the girl take all her clothes off" & I can't imagine what people thought who were nearby us & heard her. When she told Daddy about it, Daddy said "WHAT!?!?" which made Lily laugh HYSTERICALLY! That was their little joke for a couple weeks & every time they would talk, Lily would make him say it over & over.

We took time to stop & smell the flowers...

ALL the flowers...

I don't think there were any flowers in SeaWorld that went "un-sniffed"

Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island

This show was hilarious! Lily laughed almost non-stop. Lily thought the funniest part was when the walrus came out at the end & danced. She said he was "shaking his booty". :o)