When we look back over this vacation I think we will see day 3 as the turning point. Not that days 1 and 2 were awful but they did have their moments. Now today wasn’t completely incident free but what would a vacation be without a few little hiccups to keep things interesting.
First thing in the morning we had a feeling that Ella was getting back to her old self and feeling better. Sure enough as the day went on her appetite was back and she was in much better spirits. The down side is that Caile is now not feeling great and has the same cold Ella had. The good thing is that even when Caile is not feeling good she is more mature about it then Ella is and doesn’t go into crying fits.The bad thing is, as I mentioned yesterday, when she gets coughing she gets herself very worked up and can cause herself to throw up.
We started today by heading to the Bird Kingdomwhich is the largest indoor free flying bird aviary in the world. It was great timing as they were celebrating their 5th anniversary this weekend and because of that they had admission on for just $5/ person. Ella and Caile are free to a lot of these things, so be basically go to go check out all thetropical birds for under the price of a normal adult admission. We realized from yesterday that things would be much smoother with kids who are not overtired so we decided after we got something to eat we would come home for a nap. Lunch ended up being cut short for the same reason supper was the night before so naps came sooner than we expected.
While Jen was putting Caile and Ella down for a nap, Alex and I decided to go for just a little walk around the hotel. Just down the street they have a big store called Souvenir City. While we were in looking around Alex spotted a dolphin shaped mood ring. She liked this from seeing the dolphins the day before at Marine Land. When we got back and the girls we asleep Jen wanted to go for a walk too, so her and Alex went out again.
Alex was so excited about her mood ring that Caile just had to have one too. So we went back with everyone together this time. Ella picked out a necklace and a bracelet set, and Caile picked out a butterfly shaped mood ring because we were on our way to the Butterfly Conservatory. I got mixed up and thought the Conservatory was in one direction when really it was the other, so we ended up on a bit of a run around before getting directions. We were scared because we thought it closed at 6:00 pm and it was getting closer and closer to that time so we thought we might not make it in. But when we got there they told use they actually didn’t close until 7:00 pm so we had lots of time. We also took a quick trip through some of the botanical gardens which share the same property as the Butterflies.
After this we decided that we weren’t going to chance another incident at a restaurant so I picked up some Subway for everyone and we ate in the hotel room. Caile actually ate a little of her wrap and some cheese and crackers and kept it all down so that is a good sign. Ella’s appetite is back and she ate really good.
Two nights a week they put on a fireworks display over the falls so we decided to stay up for that tonight. Caile fell asleep in the car but the rest of us got to see them while sitting in a line up of traffic on the main road. When we got back to our room we realized that both door keys were inside the room so I had to run down and get an extra to get in. This while Caile was almost asleep in Jen’s arms and Ella was getting very tired herself. But we got back in and got everyone settled down for the night. Tomorrow we will head in to the African Lion Safari, and should get to see all sorts of cool animals.
Sandy McFadden 