We're off to see the World! A Wish TR w/ pics from BigGive, Days 1-7, and PhotoPass!

[GoofyDoo]

Oh, I can only imagine.

1900 Park Fare is a GREAT experience. Especially if you get a reservation later in the evening. Thats when the girls REALLY act up. If you're lucky, they might perform a concert in the middle of the dining room!

I'll remember that! I would love (not really but kind of) to hear a concert!! You REALLY make me want to go even more!!

Amy: I hope you are getting back into the swing of things at school etc. Our schools don't go back until Sept 2, right after Labour Day.

I just wanted to say thank you for spending so much time putting together your TR to share with us. I know for sure that we just don't take enough pictures, but you are motivating me to take more on our trip. You have so many wonderful images that capture the magic of your trip.

The pix also help us to feel like we really know your family - I feel like if I was walking the streets in ??? Texas (what part of Texas do you live in?), if you and your gang were walking the other way, I'd be thinking, "Say, isn't that Amy and Lance? And look there's Ty giving Clay a fireman's lift; he must have gotten tired. And there's Madison - isn't she gorgeous? Is that a new hat? And there's Shae-Lynn, still twirling in that gorgeous DISBoutique outfit, keeping an eye on Clay to make sure Ty doesn't drop him. And wait, who's that running up behind Clay and Ty? Hey great...it's Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby Doo!!! Let's join them - the magic seems to follow them!"

I haven't been chiming in a lot during the report because I've been really busy with the boys this week, but I've been reading along, ever eager for the next instalment.

Hope you'll post another one soon!

Alison

Thank you Alison! We live in North-central Texas. I guess with these long trip reports we really do get to know each other's families. I have loved every minute of writing this, and it has been a great motivator for organizing my pictures (that takes the longest--much longer than the writing itself). I bet you'll take plenty of pics! I've never taken so many in my life on a vacation, but this was such an amazing opportunity that I didn't want to forget a second of it. You'll be the same way with your boys, I suspect. And the PhotoPass helps out SO much in getting the family all together for a pose now and then. I can't wait to hear more about your family and to see pics of all of you in the parks. I know you don't have a whole lot to write about right now, but your trip will be here before you know it! I hope your boys aren't dreading school too much! Or perhaps they are still young enough to be excited! My twins are, but my older kids aren't!

I've had a great time reading your trip report and looking at your pictures. I am glad that everyone had a great time! I wish I could go see GKTW!

Thank you so much for reading about all our adventures! I would love for you to get to see GKTW, but I betcha you have a great idea of what it's like just from reading the reports. I seriously cannot wait to go back!

 

[Mickey'sMainMami]

I just found your TR, and I am loving it! The part with Fred at US really made me cry. How nice it was for him to have done that for Clay! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Bill_Lin]

AMY!

All that I can say is WOW! You have created an AWESOME TR. Your sense of humor, pictures and stories are wonderful. You are even funny quite often without trying to be (that is a compliment). Your appreciation for the magic is charming.

Maybe I shouldn't say "I told you so," but I did tell you that unexpected magic would come your way in a big way out of the blue. I am so happy for you.

What a beautiful trip!

You were in my thoughts every day of your trip. I could picture you at all of the places you would be, wondering what exciting things would happen that day.

Bless You!


Bill

 

[bigdisgrandma]

AMY!

All that I can say is WOW! You have created an AWESOME TR. Your sense of humor, pictures and stories are wonderful. You are even funny quite often without trying to be (that is a compliment). Your appreciation for the magic is charming.

Maybe I shouldn't say "I told you so," but I did tell you that unexpected magic would come your way in a big way out of the blue. I am so happy for you.

What a beautiful trip!

You were in my thoughts every day of your trip. I could picture you at all of the places you would be, wondering what exciting things would happen that day.

Bless You!


Bill

I totally agree with you Bill. She is a natural at the trip report thing! I have just loved reading her TR and Heather's. We all can hardly wait for our trip because they make everything sound and look so wonderful.

Also, good to have you back again Bill! We have missed hearing from you. Hope your summer time adventures have been just wonderful for you and your family and that you have had some good visits with your son since he has come back.

Denise

 

[GoofyDoo]

I just found your TR, and I am loving it! The part with Fred at US really made me cry. How nice it was for him to have done that for Clay! Can't wait to read more!!

Fred is deserving of something huge for his gesture!! I can't get anyone at US to respond to my emails from their "Contact Us" link, but I just found an address in my GKTW stuff that I think might work well. I am definitely going to kudo Fred, and I'm going to provide several pics of him with Clay. But even if he doesn't get the recognition he deserves at work, I know something good will happen for him for taking a little time out of his day to give my child a memory that will last a lifetime.

AMY!

All that I can say is WOW! You have created an AWESOME TR. Your sense of humor, pictures and stories are wonderful. You are even funny quite often without trying to be (that is a compliment). Your appreciation for the magic is charming.

Maybe I shouldn't say "I told you so," but I did tell you that unexpected magic would come your way in a big way out of the blue. I am so happy for you.

What a beautiful trip!

You were in my thoughts every day of your trip. I could picture you at all of the places you would be, wondering what exciting things would happen that day.

Bless You!


Bill

Thank you so much. We had an amazing time, and as I've said before, I've had an absolute ball writing this TR. Our most magical moment was completely unexpected and more than we ever could have hoped for.

I totally agree with you Bill. She is a natural at the trip report thing! I have just loved reading her TR and Heather's. We all can hardly wait for our trip because they make everything sound and look so wonderful.

Denise

Thank you!! Writing a good TR is partly my thank you for all the kind gestures done for us! I also know how much reading everyone else's trip reports helped me (not to mention all the fun I had reading them), so I hope that future wishtrippers can be helped in some way by what I'm writing here. It's almost time for you to go!! I know you must be beside yourself!!!

 

[GoofyDoo]

We were in our final hours of Clay's wish trip. Since we had a late flight out that day, and since we hadn't made it to SeaWorld on Day 5 as planned, we decided to do as much there as we could before we had to be at the airport. I had wanted to spend our last hours at GKTW, but since we love SeaWorld, we decided to go for it. We had breakfast at the Ice Cream Palace, of course, and we took pics of our final ice creams. It was a sad time. Madison, Ty, and I all got huge ice creams, but Lance and the twins just got shakes. Wimps. But the ladies in there that morning gave them each a shake and a half (the "leftovers")! Shay Lynne had a hard time finishing it all, but Clay drank every drop from both cups!

A "feeling sick" picture of Shay Lynne. This is what too much ice cream will do to you! Don't worry, though. She was wishing for another ice cream as soon as we left GKTW!!

Lance went to the House of Hearts to check out, and the kids and I walked around one last time. We saw Goofy again! We were so glad to see him one more time!! He is so sweet. I'll spare you the vision of me trying to bite his cheek (he wanted a kiss, but the pic didn't turn out so well). I got some cute shots of the kids, though....

Then the kids wanted to go and drive the boats for the last time....

On the way back out, Madison and I said goodbye to our favorite yummy huge chocolate strawberry....

And then we went inside the House of Hearts where Lance was while he finished checking out. They were SO nice in there! I'm still amazed at how well GKTW treats everyone. It was so hard to say goodbye to that place. The only way I could stand it was to promise myself that we will go and spend a day there next time we are in Orlando. I really, truly miss everything about it, and so do the kids. But now we were off to SeaWorld!!

I don't remember where I took the pic of this weird bird, but here he is, anyway....

...which reminds me, BEWARE: many boring animal pics ahead (with a few "cute kid" pics sprinkled throughout)!!! We went right in, and we immediately saw the dolphin tank, so we stopped to look at them for awhile.

They didn't seem to be feeding them, so we moved on. The kids saw a jet writing in the sky, and I guess they had never seen this before. They were so amazed! So we watched while Lance had a smoke...

The kids just thought that was the coolest thing ever, and of course, we all loved the message written in the sky. That was fun, so then we moved on to see when the next Shamu show would occur. On the way, we saw the Wild Arctic Ride. We did that, and it was good.

 

[GoofyDoo]

Afterward the Wild Arctic Ride, I believe we saw the penguin exhibit. That was fun! The kids loved watching them and then seeing them swim in the water, too.

We checked to see when Shamu would be appearing next, and we found out that we'd just missed a show. We decided to come back later rather than go in late, so we went walking and stopped at several exhibits. I don't remember the order at all! But I do have more pics than you'll want to see, I'm sure.

The whales:

The weirdest sea creature I've ever seen: a sea dragon...

The frog exhibit (Shay Lynne ADORES frogs, so she was in heaven--there sure were some weird ones there!):

At some point, we walked through this long shark aquarium, where sharks could swim all around us. Clay loved looking straight up and seeing them swim right over our heads! Sharks are SO scary to me. I can't believe people get in the tank with them!!! NUTS, I say!!

And looking straight up, above our heads...

Somewhere in there, we finally made it to the huge rollercoaster the kids'd had their eye on. It was called Kraken. Since I had missed The Dueling Dragons coasters at IOA, Lance insisted that I ride this one with Ty and Madison (the twins weren't too happy they didn't get to ride). Kraken was AWESOME!!! I just love great rollercoasters. It was really, really fun!! It's one of those you hang from. Great ride!! I didn't have my camera so I couldn't take a "pic of our pic" on the screen, and you know all about how it is with Little-spender by now--so needless to say, I didn't buy the pic. It was a good one, though!

We returned to the big stadium and saw Shamu in the Believe show. It was a spectacular show, as always. I would never go to SeaWorld and not see this show--or not purposely, anyway. No pics could possibly do justice to the show, but here are a couple....

We moved on to some more exhibits. Clay (and all of us) LOVED the alligators! Scary!!

The dolphin tank...

A few random SeaWorld pics of the kids, and one in front of a cool topiary....

 

[GoofyDoo]

The puffins (they were the coolest little birds!)...

Manatees:

We saw a pic of the "Shamu" plane, so since we're Southwest people, I took a pic! The ones painted like this have always been Lance's fave. I don't think he's flown one himself...or if he has, he hasn't told me about it!

By this time, we were incredibly hot--probably the hottest of the entire trip. I had a headache, and we were just weak and worn out. We had wanted to feed the dolphins, but as it turned out, the dolphin tank we'd found when we first walked into the park was not the place to feed the dolphins. We were having a terrible time finding the correct place! The kids were whiny, I didn't feel well, and everyone was getting grumpy. But Lance pressed on, and we finally found it!

They let us in through the back way and gave the kids three fish to feed the dolphins, so Madison (being the great big sis she is) said she didn't mind just watching and agreed to let the younger three each have a fish. Later Clay talked about feeding the dolphins "sushi". This cracked me up because all my kids know that I can't stand the thought of eating anything raw and they know that one food I'll never try is sushi...so over time, I guess Clay has determined that all raw fish are termed "sushi"!! Funny kid.

A zillion pics of the kids feeding, watching, and petting the dolphins...

(Lance was so proud he got a pic of me petting the dolphin, and then I saw that it was just the back of my head!! Woohoo!!!!)

 

[GoofyDoo]

A few more pics with the dolphins (just a few, I promise!)...

By the way, please take notice of Madison's t-shirt from the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster at DHS! She LOVES guitars, and she has always loved The Sound of Music. On the back of her shirt, it says "These are a few of my favorite strings"! Cute!!

I am SO glad we persevered and made it to the dolphin feeding. It was definitely the highlight of our day!! It is always fun to see them and watch them for awhile because they are so cute, but feeding them and petting them truly takes the fun to a whole new level!! It was such a blast. We've always been too cheap to buy food before, so we had never experienced the dolphins to this extent. It also helped greatly that we had such a great spot (courtesy of Clay's magic button). It was really past time for us to head to the airport, so we really needed to scoot. We got one last pic of the kids on the way out...

Then we headed to the airport. We returned the rental and headed inside. We saw the Disney and Universal stores, and Lance let us look for just a minute, but then he prodded us along. I'm so glad he knows his way around that airport. He knew exactly what to do and where to go, and it really saved time. Onward to the plane, and we were off! We sat on the runway for awhile, but I dozed, so I don't know how long it was. I woke up when I felt the plane begin to take off, and I looked over to see Shay Lynne doing this:

It cracked me up! Remember when we took off the first time? She had her eyes covered up!!! I guess all the rides made her brave. I thought I would sleep the entire way home, but Ty and I got out the cameras and we looked at pics from the trip for the entire flight. We landed and went to baggage claim, then we realized my suitcase hadn't made it home. There were several other passengers in the same boat, so Lance had to stand in line for a long time in order to deal with it. Shay Lynne was truly over-tired, so she kind of got emotional (thought the others were picking on her, etc.)...

American Airlines promised they would be in touch and that my bag would be delivered ASAP, so we headed toward the lot where we'd parked. Here is Clay being silly on the bus ride to the parking lot...

And we were finally back to our vehicle. Clay was really delirious by now, I guess. He was so happy to see our Yukon that he kissed it!! Goofy kid.

We didn't have to pay a dime for parking, courtesy of MAW. The final pics of our trip are of the twins on the ride home.

As you can see, Clay's smiles reflect the kind of time he'd had that week. I would say his wish had absolutely been fulfilled.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through the retelling of our adventures! Stay tuned for my favorite PhotoPass pics!!

View all our favorite pics from the PhotoPass CD!

 

[jessica52877]

I am so sad your trip is coming to an end. I love sea world and you got some great pictures of the animals!

Every time I see your Friendly's Ice Cream it kills me! There not one ANYWHERE near here and I love it more then anything!

 

[bex271]

I enjoyed reading your report and i can't wait to wait to go and try the ice cream it looked so good in your pictures. It makes me even more excited for us to go. I can't wait to see the dolphins either

Becca

 

[LuvGoing2Disney7]

As you can see, Clay's smiles reflect the kind of time he'd had that week. I would say his wish had absolutely been fulfilled.

:*) What a wonderful trip. It's been wonderful to read you reports. I can't wait until it's our turn. Love the dolphin pictures. My kids have never been to SeaWorld, neither have I. My oldest did see Keiko (free willy) at the Oregon Aquarium but that's it.

Love Madison's t-shirt too. Can't wait to see the PhotoPass pics. Did you pre-buy it?

 

[Lambflock]

What a wonderful trip and trip report!!! I am sorry to see it end!!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

What a great trip!!!! Oh I love SeaWorld. I was debating again last night if we should go off property for a day and go. Maybe next year

 

[jham]

Loved your TR! Thank you so much. The pictures were great. You have gorgeous kids. I'm so glad you shared your trip with us. You put me to shame, I'm still working on my TR from last January

 

[GoofyDoo]

I am so sad your trip is coming to an end. I love sea world and you got some great pictures of the animals!

Every time I see your Friendly's Ice Cream it kills me! There not one ANYWHERE near here and I love it more then anything!

Oh how I miss that ice cream!!! The kids still talk about how they wish they had some right now. If I lived near a Friendly's, I guess I would be as big as a barn!!! I have no will power whatsoever when it comes to ice cream!!!

I enjoyed reading your report and i can't wait to wait to go and try the ice cream it looked so good in your pictures. It makes me even more excited for us to go. I can't wait to see the dolphins either

Becca

I'm getting so excited for you! Your trip will be here before you know it!

:*) What a wonderful trip. It's been wonderful to read you reports. I can't wait until it's our turn. Love the dolphin pictures. My kids have never been to SeaWorld, neither have I. My oldest did see Keiko (free willy) at the Oregon Aquarium but that's it.

Love Madison's t-shirt too. Can't wait to see the PhotoPass pics. Did you pre-buy it?

Yes! I did pre-buy the PhotoPass CD. It saved about $30!!! Totally worth doing if you know you're going to want it. I hope you get the chance to do SeaWorld some day!

What a wonderful trip and trip report!!! I am sorry to see it end!!

Thank you so much! I am, too.

What a great trip!!!! Oh I love SeaWorld. I was debating again last night if we should go off property for a day and go. Maybe next year

I think it's totally worth doing if you can spare the days, but then I guess you know that if you already love it! It's totally awesome to see what they do with those amazing animals!!!

Loved your TR! Thank you so much. The pictures were great. You have gorgeous kids. I'm so glad you shared your trip with us. You put me to shame, I'm still working on my TR from last January

Thank you, jham!!! Honestly, I neglected way too much when we first got back in order to finish so quickly because I knew how it would be once school started. It's pretty noticeable that I've slacked in the last couple of weeks. To be honest, I've been thinking I didn't have many readers left. Thank you so much for sticking with me through it all!

 

[LuvGoing2Disney7]

Yes! I did pre-buy the PhotoPass CD. It saved about $30!!! Totally worth doing if you know you're going to want it. I hope you get the chance to do SeaWorld some day!

Thanks I'll have to make sure to order the CD before we go. We have SeaWorld planned for day 3 of Drew's trip

 

[bigdisgrandma]

Oh Amy thank you for doing such a great job on your TR. I loved every minute of it. The pictures were perfect and the notes about what was going on each day are priceless. I hope I have half a chance at doing as well as you and Heather have done.

Mike has said that he would pay a hundred dollars for the chance for Karlyn to play with the Dolphins and get to feed them when we go to Sea World. I'll tell him that we can now save a little money 'cause it's practically free! I'm sure he will buy all the fish he can for the kids!

I know just how Clay felt when he kissed the car! There have been times when I have returned home that I cried when the plane flew into the Salt Lake Valley and I knew I was home! Because we live right along the flight path to the SLC Airport, I frequently can pick out the house when we fly over it and that makes me cry even more. I am sure the people around me think I have lost my mind. Dorothy was right. There's no place like HOME!

Thanks again for sharing your wonderful, cute family. They are great. That's probably because they have such a great MOM!

Denise

 

[HeatherSue]

I love the video with Minnie and Mickey. Most of all I loved your cute southern accent! "Y'all"

I'm such a sap. Your "then and now" pics got me all teary-eyed.

I can see why those are some of your favorite pictures. They're absolutely perfect!

You got some AWESOME castle pictures!

We saw the "Jesus Loves You" writing a few times while we were there, too!

I SO share your feelings about sharks! Although, I am really terrified of them. So, I may be a little more over-the-top than you!

I'm also with you on sushi. So funny that Clay called the little dead fish sushi!

Okay, now I'm crying again with the last picture of Clay and you saying his wish was fulfilled. *sigh*

What a wonderful trip report, Amy! I loved reading it and becoming friends with you along the way!

 

[HeatherN]

Amy , Thanks so much for finishing your trip report.I have loved taking this journey with you.It has been so much fun comparing notes! By the way, I just love your sea world pictures.You must have a rockin camera because my pengin pics look horrible next to yours! Loved the ending pics.I can so relate to the pictures, you are sad to leave GKTW but at the same time so happy to be home.I hope you stick around the boards, I will be looking for you!