Day 5

Even with blackout curtains those tiny internal clocks the girls have stay very true. They were up and ready by 7am. Most everyone else was getting up just a bit later. Austin changed it up and slept with Elijah on the pullout couch because he wanted to make sure he was able to get up and get a work-out in the weight room before we were going to leave for the morn. As soon as the girls were up, I sent them in to give him his wake up call.  Be careful what you ask for.

Today I again beat Ted to the kitchen although not by much. So I had the pleasure of cooking breakfast. He made the coffee. Today's menu was Applesauce PAN Pancakes. Seriously these things were huge. One was enough to fill you up. We also had, and here is another shocker, sausage.

Breakfast mostly went off with out too many screams, which by now everyone else was getting a nice taste for. There may have been one time a wine glass almost shattered..

As soon as we were done, we started getting ready to leave for the Ripley Aquarium.

We arrive around 9:45, which is 45 mins later then I wanted, but pretty good none-the-less. It wasn't too crowded yet. So we get our tickets and head in.

First the usual take your picture scheme.

Then we start off, First thing we see is the dino exhibit.

The rare Aluminasaourus

Just before we got here, she was helping kids off the school bus..

Hi Austin.

Thank God he doesn't have sweet tooth.

Then we move onto the first section which has some cool tanks.

If it wasn't for his belly Pops would have almost been completely cut out.

Fishy Fishy where are you..

If I stand really still maybe they won't see me.

This is pretty much the norm for a family pic.

Then we move onto the really cool part, it is a moving walk way with the huge fish tank on almost every side, including above you.

Here fishy fishy

Daddy HELP a shark!!!

Then we move to another area which is more of a hands on section.

E holding a horseshoe crab.

Brook and Elijah best friends and very color coordinated.

Hello.. HELLO!??...

It was really not in this thing.

Molly loved the little fish eating something.

"You are now under my powers"

Almost a really good photo here.

Sometimes there are moments of peace.

But most times not.

Stella has been taking about mermaids and mean octopuses for a few weeks now. Mostly due to a Dora episode with both of them in it . Just as we are finishing up with all of the different rooms, there is a Mermaid whom you can get your picture taken with. Molly and Stella get theirs, but Elijah wasn't interested. The girls thought it was funny to keep tickling her flipper.

After this we head towards the cafe for lunch. We all have packed so it is pretty easy to find  a seat and eat.   Ted left his stuff in the car, so him and Austin go back to retrieve it, but end up just eating lunch in the car. Eventually they came back and bring poor Brook hers.  She is he last eat, but makes short work of it.

By this time it is just a bit after noon and the place is getting pretty busy. I already had a scare or two when I look away for 1 moment and Molly is out of sight. She is so quick!

We are forced through the gift shop to leave the aquarium. We get a few small things.  Stella and Molly got a Mermaid necklace and a octopus squeaker bathroom toy. Which they trade fight over. Big E got a rock crystal. I got a T-shirt and hat. Brook got a few things, including a zap pen. Which gives you a nice shock when you try to press the button to click the pen out. It was pretty funny, and didn't last long as she kept shocking Austin which eventually helped lead to its quick demise.

Anyway we walk around the area for a while and eventually find the Legos.

This place is fun but the people are really stiff.

Sadly the Lego ocean hadn't been built yet.

Stella loved the pink castle blocks. This kept her busy for a good 30 min.

They try to make some that are Molly proof

Ted making the cars we intend to explode. See vid.

3 min to build a lego tower. Elijah got to 55 blocks.

Three videos of blowing up and racing lego cars

By this time we are getting tired so we head back to the cars and make our way to the Villa. The girls are tired and take a cat nap on the way home. We are able to get them into bed and they rest for another hour or so.

While they are resting we talk about what else we want to do. I suggest the Wonder Works which is in the same plaza we just were. Ted is working on a fishing expedition and Grandma wants to hit the casino boat.

We take Elijah down to the basketball courts. We shoot some hoops for a bit, play HORSE. Then we play some billiards and Foosball.

So the girls wake up and it is about 3:00, we decided to goto the pool area. Elijah and the Tracy's goto the beach. Stella had been asking about the pool and I think she was a bit sick of the beach. So we split ways.

There are a bunch of different pools in the resort I think 4. We goto the Woody's Pool, which has a nice kid area.

So we splash around there. Again Stella is bit more timid but Molly is completely gung ho. There was a few times she got herself in over her head. Literally.

After a bit we head back to the villa, where we find Austin and Grandma making dinner. Tonight is Austins turn and he makes Pineapple Chicken with some bread sticks and salad. It turned out pretty good!

While waiting for dinner, the girls are playing around and Molly gets hurt. I have to give her a checkup.

Can't remember much of what we did after dinner.  But I do know later that night my lovely wife and I duck out after bedtime and hit "The Bar" again. This time we we got the Key West Crab Cakes. They weren't too bad at all.

We sneak in again and hit the hay. Another busy day coming up.