Mum and Dad's visit!

This year we couldn't wait to take Mum and Dad up to our new favorite place, Mount Dora!

 

The gorgeous Donnelly House...

 

 

There's always something random going on in this quirky little town...

 

There was a little health and wellness festival and they had two-day old baby goats. My God - they were so adorable - we all fell in love...

 

We took a walk down to the lake - looking for lost cameras :)

And had a great dinner to celebrate Mum's birthday...

 

In the evening we did the famous Mount Dora Ghost Walk which starts at the original Lakeside Inn (the oldest continually operating hotel in Florida). This is the room that president Coolidge stayed in for a month...

 

The guides dressed in Victorian clothing and stayed in character the whole time while telling spooky stories and old legends of the town...it was very bizarre :)

 Back in O-Town the next day we had lunch on the savanna at Animal Kingdom...

 

And went to the petting zoo at the park...

 

 

...to find some more goats :)

 

I was ever so brave and rode a new ride (Dinosaur!) after miserably failing my goal to ride all Disney attractions last year.

 

We ended up in the Jungle Jammin' Parade for a few minutes:)

 

And ended the day with the safari which was perfect as always :)

 

The next weekend we went to Hollywood Studios and then to the Blue Springs Manatee festival.

 

 

Maddy brushed up on her skills on the mechanical surfboard...

 

 

And Mike tried his hand at darts...

 

It wouldn't be a southern festival without crazy '80s frisbee dogs...

 

 

And then we went to see the beautiful springs - there were manatees everywhere!

 

 

It was so pretty - thank you Mum and Dad for such a lovely visit. See you next year :)

 

The Mystery is solved...

You may remember that we recovered a camera from Lake Dora recently (link here). We'd forgotten all about it until we found it the other day and were thrilled to find that their photos were still intact!! So here is the last photo taken of our lovely owners...And so it would seem that the camera was dropped by the person taking the photo...ruh roh. Would have loved to have seen that awkward moment :)

 

We thoroughly enjoyed their photos of snow in Boston and this lovely shot of strawberry picking in Florida...

 

And we did manage to get the number plate of their car. So I wrote the DMV and asked them to give my email address to them so that I can send them their photos. And they won't without my paying $10. Trust the DMV not to play along with the fun...ah well - worth a try:)

 

Skating into the New Year...

Happy New Year!!

Jen and Rich managed to snag a spot at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground for New Year's so we joined them for the night to bring in 2014 together as a family for the first time:). Rich did a great job of dinner...

 

We decided to camp outside in the tent for the night and it was a bit chilly so we wrapped up warm. I thought Mike was dressed like a belisha beacon. Nobody knew what one of those was so I showed them on my iphone...

 

See - you do need technology in the woods...

 

And I know all about style while you're camping...

Mike pitched the tent in record time...

 

...and we were all toasty in no time with our fire:)

 

We walked down to the beach at Bay Lake to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks at midnight. The campers are all still decorated from Christmas :)

 

They had a huge beach party which was really fun!

 

And the fireworks were just amazing. Here was the big Disney countdown...:)

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!