More Discovery Cove

Spending the day at Discovery Cove in Orlando was so fun and relaxing!

Here we are as we enter the "park" (which didn't feel like a park at all--more like a resort).

It was an "all-inclusive" day, so we got to eat and drink all day long at no additional charge.
Here are the girls enjoying their breakfast...

They LOVED being able to go through the line and pick whatever they wanted, and Trav and I LOVED that we didn't have to say no to anything!  :)

After breakfast, it was time to hit the water.  The wetsuit tops, masks, snorkels, towels, sunscreen, etc were all provided for us.  We just had to show up ready to have fun!  (The snorkels were fresh and ours to keep--don't know how I would have felt if they were "recycled.")

We really enjoyed "snorkeling" in this area--it was like a pool, but with lots of fun things to look at underwater.  In addition to the large area, there was also a 'lazy river' type thing that took us around a beautiful area of the park.

LOVE this picture!  :)

Pretty girls on the bridge heading into the aviary (more on the birds in another post).

This is the Grand Reef, where we snorkeled in a beautiful coral reef with fish and sting rays.  The water was FREEZING COLD, so we didn't end up in there for too long, but seeing all the fish that close was really cool!  I was a bit freaked out by the sting rays, though...they were HUGE!

There were also sharks and eels (which scared me more than the sharks did), but they were on the other side of some pretty thick glass--still close enough, though, when it feels like you are actually in the water together.

Had to include the view from our hotel room of Sea World where we also got to spend some time (two weeks of admission were also included in our Discovery Cove tickets).

Such a FUN weekend as a family!

Dreams DO Come True!

Anyone who knows Abby knows how much she LOVES dolphins.  When she was about nine, she asked if we would ever be able to go and swim with dolphins.  We told her, "Maybe when you're thirteen," thinking that it would be a LONG way off.  Well, in April she turned thirteen...

With all that we have been through in the past couple of years, we really didn't know how it would be financially possible, but it is amazing how the Lord provides.  Remember our accident from last year?  Well, we received a small settlement just before Abby's birthday.  Out of a painful experience was able to come a most joyous one.  (I don't know why it always seems to work out that way, but it does.)

We headed down to Discovery Cove in Orlando over Mother's Day weekend (more on that in another post) and were able to make Abby's dream come true.

We had an amazing "visit" with a dolphin named Roxy.  She was so much fun (I think she's probably done this a time or two...or a thousand)!

Our family with Roxy

belly rub!

The one-on-one pictures with Roxy were fun!

Travis

Jenn

Shelby



Emily

and ABBY!!! 

(Look at that smile...I don't think it left her face the entire visit!)

Next, of course, we got to do the "dolphin kiss." 

(I left out the pictures of me and Travis kissing Roxy...since adults kissing dolphins aren't nearly as cute as kids kissing dolphins.)

Shelby

Abby

(I love how she's even smiling through the kiss!)

Emily

The last thing we got to do with Roxy was to have a dorsal fin ride.  We walked out in the water a ways and she swam us back to shore.

Since it is my blog, I have left my "ride" picture out.  Apparently I am not incredibly photogenic while riding a dolphin--I will file that away in the "good to know for future reference" part of my brain!  :)

Travis

(It's amazing that this is one of the BEST smiles I have seen on him--another thing to file away for future reference.)

Abby

Emily

Shelby

We had a big poster-sized pictures made for each of the girls with their favorite picture of themselves and Roxy.  The posters are hanging in their rooms reminding them (and me too) of our amazing weekend, and the fact that the Lord ALWAYS answers our prayers, just not always in the way we expect.