Day 3...A whale of a time!

Don't forget to catch up on our previous days by scrolling down. Also, you can click on the slide show to see more detail




We had a T-riffic start to the day when we met Barney, Baby Bop, and BJ after breakfast at the resort. We even let the kids stay in their pajamas! The girls were so excited to meet these fun dinosaurs. They were however, a little upset that Barney and his friends could not talk. The girls just kept asking “What happened to their talking?” It was sort of funny because they did not question the lack of voice on any other characters…it must be too many Barney movies!
After getting our pictures taken with Barney, we loaded back into the van and were off to spend the day at Sea World. Jamahl was looking forward to the lack of princesses at Sea World and he is very fascinated by aquatic life so he was really looking forward to seeing all of the animals. If you have never been to Sea World, the main attractions are the different shows. Of course that means that everything is timed. We were hoping to have a more relaxed day than the one before but that is not how it turned out. After getting through security and ticketing, and getting our strollers, we went to see the sting-ray. Because we were with Make-a-Wish, we got 4 trays of smelly fish to feed to the rays. It was so funny to see Jamahl trying to feed them. He really wanted to but you had to hold the fish between your fingers, put your arm way under water, and let the rays swim over it. Sounds easy enough, but the whole time the rays are swimming over your arm they are sucking with quite a force and their fins are flapping up against your arm getting you all wet. It is quite the procedure. Well, Daddy had the camera, Grammie had Keyan, who was afraid of the whole thing, so that left me to grab the fish and show the kids how to do it!!!! It really was a neat experience. I think that most of our fish ended up just being thrown in, but at least they tried!
One of the other perks to being there with MAW is that you get to feed the dolphins and have a little one on one time with them. The problem again was that they only eat at certain times and we did not want to miss it. After talking with a staff member, we decided that we would catch the dolphin show and than come back to feed them in the cove. Off to the dolphin show!!!! Now, we get there about 20 minutes before the show started and there are NO seats. You also have to know that it was 90 degrees that day and if you know me at all, you know that I HATE the heat! We had to leave the strollers the entrance, push the wheelchair up this steep hill, while dragging the rest of the crew around trying to find a place to sit. We finally all squeeze into about 3 actual seats and settle in when what do I hear? McKenzy says, “Mommy, I have to go potty!” Everyone around me thinks it is funny, I do not! I take a deep breath, take her hand, lead her all the way back down the steep hill to find the nearest bathroom. We reach the bathroom and it is NOT air conditioned! I thought that I was going to die. At that point, if someone had offered to fly me back to Michigan where it was cold and rainy, I would have taken them up on the offer in a heartbeat! Anyhow, we made it back to the show, which was very fun to see. It is amazing what they can get the dolphins to do.
We stuck to our plan and headed over to feed the dolphins. We were taken right into the cove with a trainer and she brought a female dolphin right up on a ledge for us to feed and touch. Keyan was terrified and clawing at Grammie, so they stood back so that she would not be so scared. The poor little thing is even scared of a peaceful dolphin. We have long stopped trying to figure out her fears and just respect them. Poor Grammie practically had blood though! We had the best time interacting with the dolphins! They are a lot bigger than I expected and feel so smooth…the dolphin showed off for us by doing some tricks but was being pretty stubborn about most things. We told the trainer that we were very used to stubborn….maybe in another life I could become a dolphin trainer!
At this point in the afternoon, we had to get some lunch. We knew however, if we got lunch now, we would miss the Shamu show. Paul, Mom and I discussed it and knew that if we didn’t eat, we would all be miserable at the whale show anyways, so we sadly scrapped the show. We found a place to eat, waited in line for what seemed like forever, and renewed our energy with some chicken fingers! The kids were so much happier, I knew we had made the right decision. Mommy was finally cooled down and could function again and McKenzy was finally laughing again. We packed everything back up, got the map out, and were ready to come up with a new plan. We checked the time…and low and behold, we had time to get to the Shamu show!!! Not only did we get to the show, but we got great seats. I absolutely believe that God made time stand still. You have to realize that there is no way that we could have made it. I do not know how God did it, but I do know it was only with his help that we made it to see Shamu. Jamahl thought that he might want to sit in the splash zone so I found great seats right up front for he and Paul. You should have seen Jamahl's face after the show when he was pouring water out of his shoes. He was not amused!!! I thought it was kind of funny that Paul and Jamahl got totally drenched, but the two of them did not see the humor in it! What did they think the "splash zone" meant?
Next, we went to the shark exhibit and fed the smaller sharks which Jamahl thought was way cool! We hunted down the alligators, saw a few more creatures, bought great souvenirs for Jamahl, and than decided it was time to go so that we could get some dinner before the "Princess and Pirate Party"
Our girls had been planning for two weeks on going to the Princess and Pirate Party held at the resort. I had packed all of their fancy dresses, high heels for all four of them, we bought special hair spray for their princess 'dos, and sparkly make-up. We grabbed a quick dinner and than the transformation began. I got every ones dress on, Paul was in charge of the high heels, and Mom did their hair and make-up. Our resident pirate took care of himself and put his pirate shirt on. When the girls were finally ready, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella all clip-clopped down to the Avenue of Angels where the party was being held. Abby lifted her dress up at the corners and took off. As we were walking, Sidney said, "I just feel so pretty!" Abagayle announced, "We have been waiting our whole lives to go to the ball!" We all agreed that we do indeed have a bunch of princesses on our hands!
Jamahl got to pick a bag of loot, make a treasure map, and play a few pirate games. The girls heard the music and just started dancing. There was a pirate DJ who led some of the dances and than announced that it was time for the pirates to choose a princess to dance with. Keyan latched onto her pirate and slow danced the entire song just looking up at her pirate. It was so precious. Sidney danced with Jamahl, and Abby and McKenzy danced with Miss Merry (go figure). After the final dance it was time to corronate the princesses and pirates. The stage was set up like a castle, and each child's name was called as they walked thru the door to get their crown or eye patch and sword. It was so cute. There is nothing like a bunch of kids not sure what they are supposed to be doing to make a group of adults laugh. I am unable to accurately describe the feel of magic in the air. The girls felt like true royalty. It was amazing. When all was said and done, I got them each to pose with Daddy for a picture and than tried to get some group shots. The problem was with Keyan....you see, there was Disney Princess music still playing over the speakers, so that meant that she just had to dance and sing along. She was up on the stage by herself surrounded by volunteers who were taking the set down. She did not care, she stood with her feet planted shoulder width apart, arms out wide singing the final note. Her tired, breathy, quiet voice was just as cute as ever. I stopped to watch her and it was if the world stopped. Everything sort of blurred except for Keyan singing her heart out. I could almost see the pixie dust shimmering around her. She was like an angel. You didn't notice the trach, you didn't notice crossed little eyes, you couldn't tell her feet are as flat as pancakes. She was perfect in every way. All I know, is Gods angels are working over time at Give Kids The World and we felt their presence so intensely.
You would think that that would end our day but no, we had one more surprise. We went back to our villa and got the kids into their pajamas when there was a knock on the door. We opened it up to find Miss Merry the bunny coming to tuck the kids into bed! You should have seen the girls faces. They could not believe it. Jamahl decided just to give her a high five and snuggle into bed himself, but not the girls. Miss Merry got right into bed with them all. She started a pillow fight, got everybody to jump on the bed, had a tickling war and basically just got the kids extremely hyper. It was so fun for them. Finally Miss Merry got them all into their beds with a kiss and hugged them all goodnight. It was a great ending to a wonderful night.