Lumpkin, Sumpkin. . . . .

"POOOOOF!"

Everybody knows that Amelia is the world's Number One Abby Cadabby Fan. And Sea World has the REAL Abby Cadabby and Elmo and Bert and Ernie and Rosita and Cookie Monster and Grover. That's right. They are ALL at Sea World during the summer when they are on vacation from Sesame Street. They all star in a show and you can meet them before and after the show, too.

The highlight of our most recent trip to Sea World was meeting Abby Cadabby herself. We were in the park for about 15 minutes when we almost ran right into that adorable fairy-in-training. Amelia was beyond thrilled - gasping, staring at her and generally enamored by the REAL ABBY. It was even more special because Amelia had an Abby tattoo on her arm that day AND was wearing her Abby ponytails, all of which she pointed out to Abby.

During the Sesame Street show, Amelia sat on Jason's lap and was very serious about the whole thing like she is when she is absorbing every moment of a new experience. And when we met Abby after the show, Amelia got to hold her wand and practice some fairy tricks. As Abby would say, the whole experience was "SO MAGICAL!"

Sea World!

This year, we decided Amelia was old enough to REALLY appreciate going to theme parks. And we are lucky to have plenty to choose from in Orlando. Several of our friends recommended we get passes to Sea World (Florida residents get a GREAT deal and Amelia still gets in free) and we have braved the spring and summer crowds several times.

As we expected, Amelia LOVES going. She is mesmerized by the underwater dolphin viewing, fascinated by the sting rays and enthralled with the Shamu show "Believe," during which she actually sits still and watches! (Yes, we do recognize the differing opinions around keeping wild animals captive - especially killer whales - and training them to perform. But that's a whole other story.) She's not too crazy about the sea lion exhibit because folks feed them fish and Amelia thinks that's "stinky."

We're lucky that our tickets allow us to go back as much as we want for a year so we don't have to cram everything into one day. I don't know how families do three, four or five parks in a week!

Sun, Sand and Surf

The wonderful thing about living in Florida - even though Orlando is smack dab in the middle of the state - is you're never very far from the beach. And after a cooler-than-normal winter, we were glad to welcome beach weather! We love going to Cape Canaveral National Seashore near Titusville because it's unspoiled and there's plenty of room to roam. Also, if there is a space shuttle about to launch, you can see it on a launchpad, which is always a spectacular site.

Last year when we went to the beach, Amelia loved the water but wasn't so sure about the sand. This year, she is all about the sand - scooping, shoveling, digging, burying her feet. With Jason's help, she built sandcastles (which were really more like mini sand dunes) and looked for shells. She's so good about wearing her sunscreen and was so patient while we slathered it on and even wore her hat for awhile. To quote Amelia's swimming teacher, it's never too early to start teaching little ones about sun safety!