Sea World, Revisited . . .

Today we went back to Sea World. L decided to leave her baby in the hotel room, whew! But we couldn't get through the whole morning w/o drama. I gave them the choice of wearing costumes or not, L decided to wear hers (she'd brought her bride costume), A decided not to. I threw in a dress for L in case she changed her mind. As we were standing in line w/ millions of other people (more or less, probably quite abit less, I don't know that there was really THAT many people, but they were doing the fingerprint verification & it wasn't working well so the line moved VERY slowly . . . wiping off the fingerprint screen would have helped our line, I'm quite sure, I could SEE the fingerprint smudges on it, thinking that made it harder to read) she decided she was too hot & the dress itched and she needed it off NOW!! Mean mommy wasn't willing to get out of line to change her RIGHT then, nor was I ok w/ her changing in the midst of a moving line (sorry, I'm obviously in the minority (considering what many kids were wearing (or not wearing) in the splash park this afternoon) but IMO 4 yr olds are old enough to not remove their clothing in public (granted, we're still working on the fact that we don't answer the door in our uw at home, sigh . . .) SO, we stood in line w/ her screaming and me telling her repeatedly that as soon as we got thru the line she was welcome to change into her dress but if she continued to scream I would be taking her back to the car. Finally got through, and then she couldn't decide if she really wanted to change or not. Got to the point of dh handing me the car keys & me handing him the backpack (of snacks, etc) and dh & A starting to walk off before L *finally* decided she wanted her dress, and was done w/ the drama. After that, while the girls are both pretty tired, which always translates to being "touchier" the day went pretty well.

Gorgeous weather, sunny, breezy . . . GORGEOUS!!! Although I think we'll be stopping at Walmart on our way to Disney tomorrow to get a cap for dh & sun hats or caps for the girls (meant to bring the girls' sunhats and forgot, totally didn't think about a cap for dh) today was enough shows to not be TOO much sun exposure, but DW is more outside stuff . . .

More crowded at SW today than Monday (no shock there, considering the weather AND that today was Trick-or-treating) but really only noticeable at the gate, lines still weren't bad, and I don't think any show we went to was to the point of NO seating.

There was a Sesame Street (Count's Halloween Party or somesuch) show today that wasn't there Monday, the girls were very excited about that. The girls thought we needed to go back to EVERY show we'd seen Mon, but accepted it ok when I told them that they could each choose 2 shows (the 4 that made the cut were "the dog & cat show", Shamu, Oddeysse (sp? the circus/acrobatic show), and the Sesame St show). We STILL didn't get to see the live animals as much as I wanted to. Pretty much spent the morning doing the shows, though we did make it through the shark exhibit (VERY cool! The pictures do NOT do it justice! You walk through a tube like thing UNDER the shark tank, w/ sharks swimming along beside & above you!) and the horse barn (plus being lucky enough to be walking in the right place to have the horses pull the Budweiser wagon right by us! GORGEOUS animals!!!). Then we went to the car & ate a lunch we'd packed (very nice thing at Sea World, the season passes (at least the ones we have) include "priority" parking and unlike Sesame Place (where Priority Parking is as far away or farther than regular) Priority parking at SW is RIGHT OUTSIDE the gate!!!! Very convenient!!! NOT so convenient aspect of it, SW doesn't have a designated "re-entry" gate, so to get back in, despite having handstamps, we had to stand in line and wait for all the newly entering people to get their tickets/fingerprints checked! I was NOT amused, it cost us "close" seats at the Sesame St show!). After Sesame Street show, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the "kids" area. The girls had fun in the splash park, then we convinced them to try the shamu roller coaster by telling them it was like the "mine train" from DW, they LOVED it, we went 4 times in a row (little to no line) and the girls would've kept going if we'd let them (Mommy & Daddy had been jerked around enough. Separate lap bars are nice in that they're safer for the kids, but not so nice in that it means the end of the kid's lap bar was banging into my hip around each corner). Then we went to check out the "swirly fishies" which was a VERY low-key version of the teacups ride. And the girls could go on it w/o an adult, which they decided they wanted to do & were VERY proud of themselves. Again, no line, so they rode it twice, then L wasn't watching where she was going and bumped her head HARD on the gate or fence or something (I saw her do it, but couldn't tell what she hit), I gave her arnica and before I'd had time to even look for a bump she was ready to go ride again, so they went on it a 3rd time. THEN I got to look at it & she did have a good little bump there. But Daddy had agreed to take them on the flying fiddler (kiddie version of the gravity drop things that I won't touch w/ a 10 ft pole) so she wanted to do that too. While they were waiting in line for that she had to go potty, so I took her potty while dh & A went on the ride. Since the first aid station was right next to the bathroom, I convinced her to get ice to put on it while we were over there. She actually held the ice on it part of the time (first time either of them has ever let me put ice on a bump, I think). And between the ice & the arnica the swelling has gone down quite abit, there's still a little bump though. While she was going potty I did some quick "tests" to make sure her eyes were tracking & such, and she basically looked at me like I was nuts, "duh mommy, of COURSE I can do that/know that!" Then we went back & dh took both girls on the flying fiddler.

By then we were an hour from the special evening Shamu Show (Shamu Rocks, not one I'd recommend for my parents LOL) so we gave the girls the option of staying for it & they said they wanted to. A was complaining about being thirsty & we'd drunk all the water I'd brought in, so we decided to get the girls & I each a slushy (and water for dh) to eat while we waited for the shamu show. The girls, thankfully, chose to NOT sit in the splash zone this time (they were concerned as we carried our slushies to the stadium, that "Shamu might splash my slushy!" which helped them decide they wanted to sit up higher. Needless to say we didn't discourage that (we all got SOAKED at the mid-day Shamu show, I think they had "toned down" the splashing on Monday because of the rain, I'm quite sure they did more splashing today). So, we found seats, ate our slushies, and by then they'd started playing music to get people in the mood for the show, A alternated between dancing along & laying on the bench w/ her head on my lap, but L pretty much danced thru the whole show. I think in a certain sense, the girls (L anyway)could see the whales better from up high because they weren't focusing on "when will we get splashed". Anyway, like I said, not a show my parents would have enjoyed (VERY loud "our generation" music) but the girls seemed to really enjoy it despite being SO tired. . .

I thought they'd fall asleep on the ride back to the hotel (not very far, but w/ traffic & such . . .) but they didn't, and still insisted on their stories & such when we got back).

Tomorrow & Fri (we did get reservations for Fri night, same hotel, dh will talk to the front desk in the morning to find out if we can keep this room or will have to change rooms for Fri night) are both Disney. I'm hoping to convince the girls to choose 1 or 2 things, each to "repeat" and do all new things beyond that, we'll see how that goes . . .

Pictures are here.

Mickey World at Last!!!!

Despite still a 50% chance of rain today, and dh telling me repeatedly that the hurricane is coming our way, we decided that today was Mickey World Day! Only to get to the car and find that the battery was dead. I took kids and gear back to the room, dropped gear in the room then let the kids play in the "courtyard" of the hotel looking for lizards while dh called AAA. He came back and told me 90 min wait, we discussed me trying to take the kids to Disney via taxi or something but that sounded like a hassle and expensive and the kids were honestly having a blast playing in the courtyard so I told him we'd just wait, and then started praying hard for AAA to be quicker than anticipated. He called me from the parking lot maybe 10 minutes later to tell me they'd be here in a few minutes. So we might have waited 1/2 hour, if that. Got to Disney with L once again throwing a tantrum about her doll and everything else, again came very close to dropping dh & A off and me bringing L back to the hotel. And then once we got out of the car dh got tired of waiting for the tram and decided we weren't parked THAT far away, so we started walking, which resulted in another tantrum because L wanted to ride the tram. Despite the less than wonderful start, we had a great day. L got over herself once we were on the Ferry from parking to Magic Kingdom (let her choose between Ferry & Monorail). Didn't cover all of the Magic Kingdom, much less make it to any of the other parks, but we did alot.

Jungle Safari, where we were waiting in line inside during the first brief rain shower, Alladin's Carpet ride (essentially dumbo) TWICE because no wait & the girls loved it. Pirates of the Caribbean, the girls had a hard time (throughout) with the concept of the automated fake people. The fact that they were moving, "pretend", but not people dressed up was confusing to them, but they seemed to enjoy it. The short flume in PoC got A liking the idea of flumes (L liked that short one but once she saw the long one on splash mtn, she backed out), so dh took A on splash mtn while L & I watched (in the rain) for them to come down the long drop. Then abit of not total honesty, I asked if the girls wanted to go on the mine train & happened to not mention that it's a roller coaster of sorts. A saw it go by while we were in line & made some comment about "I don't know if L will like that, it's FAST" but not in L's hearing & she (A) was fine with it personally. We got up & got in & the announcer said something about it being the wildest ride in the west & "hold onto your children" so L took my arm & put it around her, when I asked what she was doing she said "he told you to hold onto me!" and then we were off, and she LOVED it!!! (both kids did). She wanted to go on it again, but I told her maybe another day since it was a 40 min wait & I suspected we wouldn't make it to everything they wanted to see. We also went on the Haunted Mansion, Dumbo, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Cinderella's Carousel & Goofy's Barnstormers (not long enough for the girls' tastes, thankyouverymuch!).

AND we went to Storytime with Belle & got to sit on the FRONT ROW and then go to go get pictures taken with her afterwards. As we were leaving Belle, L told her "you're my favorite creature" and Belle said "awwww, thank you" which apparently made L's day. When asked later, what her favorite part of the day was, L said "Belle telling me thank you!"

A was disappointed in Ariel's Grotto, it wasn't what she was expecting (nothing more than a photo op w/ Ariel) though I never got out of her exactly what she was expecting. But we did get pictures with Ariel. We were running out of time, so the last chance at photo ops we had to choose between "princesses" and "pals" and L chose pals "since we already saw Belle & Ariel", the pals were Goofy, Donald & Pluto and the girls were quite happy with that. A quick stop for postcards for their collections, a few minutes on a small playground, and then we rode the train back to mainstreet, the monorail (A's choice) back to the parking lots, and the tram back to our car. Whew! Busy day!!! DH & I are both very sore! The girls are, I think, exhausted.

Tomorrow is Trick-or-Treating at Sea World, which I think will also be good because it's a smaller, more laid back park, we saw MOST things last time, so we can pretty much let the girls decide what things they want to see, might go out of the park at lunchtime & catch a nap for the girls as well, we'll see . . .

And then Thurs & Friday (if we can get hotel reservations for the extra night) will be at Disney again, I'd like to at least see Animal Kingdom since I've never been there & the girls are crazy enough about animals that I think they'll enjoy it. If we get to it, i think there is at least an Ariel show at MGM, a place to have pictures w/ the Beast at Epcot . . . so plenty to keep us busy, but we might also end up spending another full day at Magic Kingdom we'll just have to see. I think I won't mention the Ariel show & such unless it looks like we'll for sure have time for it . . .

Pictures are here

Sea World in the Rain

By this morning the forecast for today was 60% chance of rain pretty much all day. So we decided to go w/ Sea World where it wouldn't feel like we were "wasting a day" if we got tired of being wet and came home early. Girls were fine with this adjustment to the plans (although L & I almost dropped A & dh off and came back to the hotel when she threw a total tantrum because she wanted to bring her doll in. Finally after I explained that "the people that work there" wouldn't let her bring the doll in with her to everything, so we would have to leave the doll in the stroller and someone might steal it (yes, I know, we could have hidden doll under stuff in the stroller & the odds of someone stealing it would have been next to nil. DH would probably also point out that this is a not very professionally doll that I made so even less chance of someone other than L thinking it was worth taking, but we are NOT going to start lugging dolls into amusement parks, zoos, etc.) we then had to discuss who (of the girls numerous invisible friends) was going to stay in the car with all the babies (because it's not safe to leave a baby alone in the car!) Gosha (L's husband) is home taking care of her house. Nui & Sosa are home taking care of A's animals (for which we are very thankful, I'm not sure I could have handled dealing w/ her numerous animals on top of the FIVE dolls A brought along). DH suggested that Crystal could stay in the cars with the babies, but the girls were horrified, "Daddy, Crystal is coming with us! And she's ONLY 2!!!" . . . finally we determined that A's husband, Luke was along on the trip and would watch L's baby along w/ all A's babies in the car while we went into Sea World, sigh . . . after that drama, the day went smoothly.

We got some rain showers but nothing too horrible. I think the hardest rain came while we were sitting waiting for the sea lion & otter show and we were under a roof so we could just watch that rain.

The girls were absolutely enthralled w/ the Killer Whales & Dolphins (2 separate shows). The Sea Lion/Otter show was a pirate theme that freaked L out a little (& A too, but L more), but once we got to the "sword fight" she kind of heaved a sigh of relief & said "those are paper swords!" and then she was fine.

We got some pictures, but the camera battery died partway through the day. I'm recharging it now, and will then download the pictures and see if there's one worth adding to this post LOL. (edited to add, pictures are here)

There's a small section of "kiddie rides" that are very similar to some of the rides at Sesame Place so the girls enjoyed them, didn't want to ride the Shamu (kiddie) roller coaster. A seriously considered the (very tall) log flume type ride (not a log, but that's how I always think of those types of rides). It had a 42" height limit, so I'd told the girls that they could probably be able to go next year, but not this year. But dh pointed out that w/ shoes on, A was probably 42" (when he measured them recently L was 39.5" and A was 40.5") and she thought about going on it, but then decided she'd wait till she's a "little older". L was quite adament that she didn't want to go on it, so we at least didn't have any concerns of her wanting to go & being too short.

I guess that's about it. Girls' only answer to "what's your favorite thing today" is "everything" so I guess that's good. Plan is to try Disney tomorrow. Still a 50% chance of rain, but it's "scattered showers" so hopefully no worse than today anyway. And there's more indoor stuff at Disney (small world & such).

Book Review: Plain Secrets

The library got one of my holds, in just in time for me to read it on the trip down. I'd reserved it a few weeks ago and kind of forgotten about it, then in preparation for the trip, I reserved a bunch of videos for the kids, so when the library called several times saying some of my reserved books were in, I assumed they were all the videos, and was pleasantly surprised to get there last week and find Plain Secrets there along with the videos.

In a nutshell, the book is the observations of a man who lives near some of the Swartzentruber Amish (the most conservative sect) and who has become friends with an Amish family.

I found it to be interesting reading. . . I'm not sure, if I had to "rate" it, what I would rate it. It is the observations of one man who observed one family. Obviously he "observed" the entire community, but it was only the one family that agreed to talk to him more openly than the Amish generally will talk to "the English" and welcomed him more fully into their home than is typical of at least this sect. The author never says (or at least I didn't notice) what, if any, religion he belongs to. Obviously not Amish, but I'm not sure, and couldn't tell from the reading, if he's Christian or not. While the author's family & the Amish family represented in the book are friends, I still detect a certain negativity on the author's part toward the Amish beliefs. Some of it, I agree with. At least based on this author's perceptions, and it would certainly seem to be the case at least for this family, there seems to be little focus on a relationship with God. This surprised me, I assumed that an aspect of the "plain living" was to keep the focus on God, not "the world" and while they might agree with me if I were ask if this is why they are "plain", in reality, it seems to be more about keeping everyone "dependent" on the community/religion. There seems to be no focus on developing a close, personal relationship with Christ. It appears that the church members are not encouraged to study for themselves, and aren't necessarily given any Biblical basis (or basis of any sort) for WHY they do/don't do things.

In some ways the Amish, even this extremely conservative sect, aren't as "old fashioned" as I would have expected. Even this sect allows the use of gasoline engines to run a washing machine, well pump, etc. (but only if it's connected with a belt? I'm not mechanical enough to know exactly what that means, shrug) they can ride in a car if they need to go for medical care, or for a funeral, or it seems some other reason. They apparently can also ride a bus to go visit family who lives farther away. . .

I was amused by the author's observation/perception, that the women are "oppressed" for the following reasons (I don't have the book in front of me, so going from memory):

• they're not allowed to wear bras (ummmm, I didn't know this was a privilege! In fact, I have to say I've been much more comfortable since reading this article and switching to almost exclusively wearing camisoles instead of bras)
• They're not allowed to use tampons, and generally use homemade cloth pads for their menstrual needs. (now, I'll admit, since I've found the mooncup I'd hate to give it up, and no doubt, it would be considered taboo by the Amish as well but prior to that, I had converted completely to cloth pads and I don't think you could pay me enough to go back to paper menstrual products).
• They cannot wear makeup (shrug, not a big deal to me, and especially since they live in relatively isolated communities where none of them wear makeup, definitely doesn't strike me as a big deal)
• They cannot shave (ok really, are there women who LIKE shaving? Considering that Amish women never show any of the skin that "English" women typically shave, if the husbands don't care, why WOULD they shave? (and on another note, if they DID, who would know except, again, their husband?)
• They are not allowed to smoke (apparently the men are allowed to smoke pipes or cigars but not cigarettes or chewing tobacco), not a big deal for me, who thinks nobody should smoke LOL.

So, while I don't dispute that the women are, at least in some instances, are abused, the majority of the reasons the author cites, strike me as not such a big deal.

While I'd heard of the practice of shunning, I guess I'd never really examined my feelings about it as thoroughly as this book made me, or perhaps, more accurately, since it was always presented in a work of fiction (book or tv), I'd subconciously refused to form an opinion based on potentially inaccurate portrayal (if I *had* thought that TV/books portray life accurately, the "Seventh-day Adventist" character on Gilmore Girls proved just how little TV writers bother to research something (the no eating meat is a big emphasis, but the only reason the mother gives for not allowing the daughter to go to a concert on Sat. afternoon is that it's "rock-n-roll" the Sabbath Keeping aspect is never brought up.). Anyway . . . again recognizing that this book is one man's observations, it really does appear that the Amish don't care about a person believing for the sake of believing, it's 100% about appearances. The Amish are decendants of the anabaptists, who were persecuted because they believed in adult baptism, and the Amish still follow this, however, a child, upon reaching adulthood, is basically given the choice of being baptized into the Amish church or being cut off 100% from all contact with their family, community, etc. This is something I can't quite fathom. I hope that my children grow up with a firm personal relationship with God. While I believe, that this will lead them to continue in the church they are being raised in, if they reach a point where they firmly believe that God is leading them in another direction, I will support that decision. What's more, if they reject God/religion, I will still love them and be there for them. It does absolutely NO good, IMO, to go through the motions of a religion without the relationship, this is what leads to legalism, a following of rules for the sake of following rules. I honestly never thought of the Amish as legalistic, prior to reading this book. I assumed them to be devout Christians who each developed a close relationship with God and, as a part of that relationship, they felt that God was asking them to remove themselves from the "evils" of modern life. After reading this book (and again, this may be a result of the author's perceptions) I got the feeling that very little emphasis is placed on any sort of relationship with God. It's all about rote rituals and doing what was done before them with no real understanding of any biblical basis for it.

We made it!

The girls did AWESOME!!!! We made both days' drives with NO stops except for gas!! Which meant we got to the hotel much earlier than planned each day, yesterday (we had no internet access at last night's hotel, btw. And let me go on the record that I would gladly drive to the next town (whatever it might be) before I would stay in the Florence, NC Comfort Inn again!!! We were in a separate building quite a ways from the lobby, there was no practical way to bring breakfast back to the room or even just for part of our family to go to breakfast and the rest of us to come later, yes we COULD have walked but seriously, w/ little kids and trying to hurry, and oh yeah, having to cross parking lots and . . . NOT convenient at all! we rushed around this morning to totally pack up & still make it to breakfast before it closed, which is another complaint EVERY other Choice Hotel I have EVER stayed in (& I'd venture to take that further to ANY hotel w/ free breakfast that I've ever stayed in on a weekend, or paid any attention to their weekend schedules) breakfast is open till 10am on weekends (9am is pretty standard during the week). Nope, this one closed at 9am on a Sunday morning!). But by far the biggest complaint, they advertised "free wireless internet" we wouldn't have stayed there otherwise, sad? perhaps, but we both do alot of our work stuff online & really, what else are we gonna do once they're asleep and we have to be quiet? So anyway, we get there, dh was taking a nap, so I started trying to get online. Now, my computer has Vista on it & I'm NOT a fan, so when I couldn't make it work, I blamed Vista. Once dh woke up, he played w/ it a little bit, also couldn't make it work, and then we left to go to McD for supper & to burn off kid energy. So, we got back to the room, and dh, also blaming Vista for me not being able to get online, tried with his computer, and couldn't get on. Called the front desk, come to find out, the wireless signal isn't strong enough to reach our room, we were welcome to bring our laptops to the lobby & be online there. Huh? I was SOOOO annoyed! Needless to say, going and sitting in the lobby isn't an option w/ kids. So, we just all had an early night last night.

So anyway, we'll be finding a different hotel to stay in on the return trip. Actually we probably would have anyway, since it seems apparent that we can go more than half way. Although obviously the girls might not be quite such good travelers on the return trip.

They did GREAT! I'd brought plenty of videos, and other things to keep them entertained (actually we didn't go through all the "suprise bags" either day, so we should have more than enough things to entertain them on the trip home). DH had been very skeptical of my suggestion that we bring sandwich stuff to eat in the car instead of taking time to stop & eat at lunch, but I figured it wasn't that big a deal to bring along some bread & egg salad and if we didn't eat it on the trip down we could have it for supper one night while we were down here. I also figured we might potentially eat lunch in the car & THEN stop at McD or BK and let the kids play (and get a little something for dh & I to snack on while they played), or just stop at a rest area and run them through a highly active version of Simon Says or something to burn off steam. As it was, no stopping was necessary. AND they didn't nap either day.

Now we're here, we actually gave the girls the option of going to Sea World this afternoon (since we have season passes for there, going for a few hours is an option, and we got here a little before 4:00, they're open to 8:00 so we could have been there for at least a couple hours) and they opted to swim here at the hotel instead. It IS a very nice outdoor pool, today is overcast, and cool enough that I'm enjoying sitting by the pool watching them, but not so cool that they'll freeze to death. And DH is happily catching up on the football he didn't get to listen to as much as he'd have liked on the way down (the DVD player in the car is set up with headphones so the girls could watch/listen on headphones while we listened to the radio or a CD, but they don't like the headphones long term, so after awhile they'd ask if they could "listen w/o the earphones" and poor daddy had to listen to Dora or Mary Poppins or whatever instead of the football game.

Oh, forecast was for rain the entire drive down, it was raining when we left home yesterday, but cleared off quickly and we had NO more rain yesterday and only a few scattered showers today. Forcast for the rest of the week has changed from thunderstorms to showers, so hopefully we'll have a good week and not get TOO wet LOL.

Rain

Just as I finished writing my earlier post, dh, who'd gone out on the front porch to make a phone call (better cell phone reception out there, I guess) stuck his head in the door & told me I needed to come out there. The girls had gone looking for him and found him, and I'm sure, got bored being on the porch while he was on the phone, so, when I went out there they were happily playing in the (VERY COLD) rain, in the dark. So, while they continued to play in the rain & puddles (they were already drenched, why spoil their fun?) I snapped a couple pictures, that can be seen here (at the bottom).

Needless to say, when they were done, we stripped them & took them straight up to a nice warm bath, then hot chocolate, and now they're theoretically going to sleep. Of course, this is VERY early for them to go to sleep, so chances are we'll be leaving for tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn, yawn . . . but an early start is at least theoretically a good thing (says the NOT morning person).

You look just the same . . .

I pulled out some old photo albums to show the girls pictures of when we went to Disney when I was a kid. The girls, loving to look at pictures, insisted on looking through the whole album, not just the couple pages of Disney pictures. Near the back was a picture of my friend, Angie & I walking down the aisle as 11th graders for graduation (not sure if this is just an SDA school thing, but the Juniors have to wear coordinating outfits and walk up and down the aisle all weekend as part of the graduation stuff, or at least they did 14 years ago, no idea what they do now). Anyway, since Angie & I go to the same church, have kids roughly the same age, and get together regularly, I pointed out the picture of "Miss Angie" to the girls. L's comment was "you guys look just the same" since we were wearing coordinating dresses, I assumed she was saying that A & I looked the same as each other, and made some comment to that affect, to which L said "no, you guys look the same as you do NOW!" Hmmm, pretty sure that's not an accurate statement (at least wrt me) but I guess I'll take it LOL.

And to make my kids' day, when DH & I went to Disneyland on our way home from our honeymoon, by some odd twist of fate, I took pictures during the parade & such of exactly 2 princesses, and they would be Ariel & Belle, the girls are very excited about this fact, I'm not sure I'll ever get my honeymoon picture album back from them LOL.

I think we're pretty much ready to go. As you can see, the "to do list" is about as done as it can be until the girls go to bed, then a couple quick things to do w/o them around, and then the last minute stuff in the morning & we're outta here!

Current forecast is for thunderstorms in FL next week, pray that they clear up, or at least are isolated enough to not keep us from going and having fun as planned. Conveniently I'm pretty sure the "must see" things for the girls are indoors (Ariel's grotto, where you get wet anyway, I think, and Storytime with Belle, so absolute worst case we only use one day of our Disney passes, and go do those two things and other indoor things (really, if you think about it, alot of the "classic" Disney is indoors, other than waiting in lines, which would hopefully be short in the rain, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House . . . and it's supposed to be in the 80's so it won't be bitterly cold if we get wet going from place to place) and then spend whatever non-raining time we can fit in at Sea World (where we have season passes so if we only go for an hour or two a day it doesn't matter) and if necessary, come home early. We shall see . . .