Houston we have a problem

We went to Kennedy Space Centre and saw real rockets that people have gone up to space in. We even saw Apollo 11 and the real Apollo control room.


This was in the Apollo centre:

This is the Assembly building where they put rockets together.


We also saw a 3D film all about the Hubble telescope and found out they are now working on a space project that would put men on mars in about 2030!

Manatee day

Sunday was manatees day.

Dad drove Mum and all us kids (except Alfie) to Crystal River and we went out in a boat to search for wild manatees.


We got into wet suits and the water and swam with some of them - we were allowed to touch if they came to us - but only very gently with one hand.

One baby took a particular shine to Mum with lots of snogs and cuddling.



The water was very cold but it was totally awesome.

When we got back Grandad was still here as his flights have been cancelled to New York because of Hurricane Sandy.he can't get home until Thursday!

Elliott and Elizabeth came round for dinner with their Mum and Dad and we went swimming. Then we played in the house and all aye pasta and ice cream. They also took away the giant cuddly manatee i bought as it would not fit in our luggage and they have space.

Early trick or treat - but no tennis thanks to Suzy.

Suzy is the hurricane sweeping parta of America and even though Saturday was our chilled day, we couldn't play tennis because it was so windy. Instead we went swimming and played around the pool - hand swing ball, table tennis, table football ... Grandad also arrived to see us from New York and we played giant chess.



In the evening we got dressed up and went trick or treating with te hotel.



We went round the pool and there were loads of sweets and zombies. Then we had dinner at the posh hotel restaurant - I ate raw tuna!
By the way we got to ride in a golf buggy from the dinner hotel to our hotel. It was so funny - incl the driver there were 9 of us - Alfie and Cosi were asleep and AJ had to stand ...


Mum said it was like a joke - how many people can you fit in a golf buggy ... Except that isn't a joke cos clearly the answer is 9.

Dinner, magic and comedy

We had a lazy morning of cake, swimming and chilling then we headed to WonderWorks - this really cool science museum.

The building looks like it is falling down and when you go in there are lots of experiments. One of them was a pretend hurricane (which is funny because there is one in Florida at the moment) ...




Another was giant bubbles ...


And another was this brilliant mind game - you have a thing strapped to your head and the more relaxed you are the more the ball goes towards the other person you are 'playing'. If it goes all the way to the other person you 'win' - I won but George was rubbish. Mum AKA Stressy Nessy was brilliant at it and beat Dad !!

We went on lots of other rides (simulators) and a tree top walk which was a bit like rock climbing which was very cool. We then had dinner (pizza, popcorn and fruit punch/coke) and watched a comedy and magic show.



It was very funny and Dad drive home in the hurricane (which isn't too bad yet).

We are now waiting to see if Grandad is going to show up as he is meant to be coming to see us!

Thursday - Universal

Day after my birthday and another early start - this time we jumped on a bus to Universal and headed to the other side (not the Islands of Adventure).




George didn't come because he was doing school work but we all met Shrek and Princess Fiona and then the Simpsons ... Next we headed to our first 'ride' - the Shrek 4D show.

It was awesome but not scary. Rocket was much more scary - this is hat it looks like from a distance ...


Cosi, Alfie and mum went to meet ScoobieDoo instead of coming on but the rest of us got went on it. You get to choose your own music and we saw Ed Mendola in the queue!

We also went on loads of other rides: despicable me (which is new apparently and a simulator ride); the Simpsons (another simulator ride which was awesome); Men in Black ...


Which was very cool (you had to shoot aliens) and ET.

Dad, Zilly and I also went on the Mummy which was brilliant and really scary and Twister which was cool but Zilly didn't like it much. The park shut early at 5 but we went to Islands of Adventure to have a go on the Seuss train ...



And drink butter beer ...



We had a swim when we got back with George and Dad made dinner. I also got to blow out my birthday cake candle (my cake was in the shape of Frankensteirn monster and we are going to eat it for breakfast)... A day late but week long birthdays are nothing new in my family!



Roll on tomorrow ...

The Hulk

This was my favourite ride - I am on the end next to George, Zilly and Elizabeth!

9 in Florida

We are here in Florida!

It is awesome and it is my birthday!

George and Zill made me breakfast of bagels and scrambled egg.


And I opened my presents - thank you everyone!

Then we headed to 'islands of Adventure' in Universal. The first rides we went on were in Harry Potter land.



I was tall enough to do them all - and Cosmic and Alf went on their first roller coaster - the Hippogriff ride.

After we finished in Harry Potter land We headed for the Hulk. we managed to get a fast pasa for this - thanks Allan who works in Universal. He rang ahead for us because he had to take the pushchair off mum in another queue for the wand demo! On our way to the Hulk we got soaked on the Popey ride - I blame mum!

Mum didn't come on the Hulk but the Martin-Drews did !

We then went in some more water rides while Cosi and Alf went to Seuss land - then we met up again to go on the Jurassic Park water ride - it was great.



We went to dinner with Elliott and Elizabeth at a shrimp restaurant - it was really cool . It was also really funny as Charlotte and Ed Mendola were sitting at the table next to us!



We came back to our place for a swim in the dark before bed.

Universal again tomorrow - but this time on the 'other side' !

Many happy returns to all fellow birthday celebraters out there!

Happy birthday Grandma

We love you Grandma and cannot wait to see you in Thursday for a belated celebration!

Trig and Bryan to stay

Had an awesome weekend.

Trig came to visit on Friday and then we had Bryan from New Zealand over! It was the first time we had met Bryan and he spoiled Zilly and us lots (he is Zill's special person :) ).



On Sunday I went to chess training with Dad. It was fun!