Meeting a NASCAR driver

Brad Keselowski was coming to NASCAR Sports Grill in Hampton. Our friend Amy reserved a table for her family and mine and everyone was getting wristbands to meet Brad Keselowski. Since the kids don't go to the races with us when we go, unless it's the family trip to Charlotte for the week, this was a good opportunity to for them to get a picture with a celebrity! They already got a picture with Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne the year before.

When we got to NASCAR Sports Grill, our table was front and center!! Dennis Bickmeier (the president of Richmond International Raceway) was there and doing a Q&A with Keselowski. After the Q&A was done, it was time for everyone to get in line to get an autograph and a picture if they would like. We brought our Spring Bristol tickets (that Keselowski won at) and our Checkard flag that we have been collecting NASCAR drivers autographs on.

When it was our turn to get an autograph, Kevin asked if he would hold the kids for a picture. He didn't even hesitate to answer! Two of the three sat still on his lap and I had to hold the other one up. Kevin and I got into the picture with them!

Animal Kingdom

Thursday was our last day to visit one of the Disney parks. We really wanted to visit a Zoo while we were down in Florida since the kids love animals. Since we got a 2 day park pass, we decided to go to Animal Kingdom as our 2nd park. From reading advice from other people, we got there as soon as the parked opened and immediately went to the Safari. On the way to the Safari we stopped to see the pretty pink flamingos!!

The Safari was an open car ride around the animals. Kevin sat one end of the isle and I sat on the other while the kids were in between us. We saw Hippos, Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, Lions, Ostriches, and some other animals. The kids loved to see all of the animals up close! After the Safari was over, we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. During our walk, we saw Monkeys, Yellow-Backed Duiker, Frogs, Insects, Fish, Birds, and Gorillas.

Once we were done with the trail, we took a train ride over to Rafiki's Planet Watch.The kids got to meet the character Rafiki from the Lion King. After they met Rafiki, we went outside to the petting zoo. This was their first time being up close with no boundaries to animals other than dogs, so I was a little concerned on how they would react. They walked straight up to the animals with no hesitation. They pet them and used the brush to brush them. Of course they did not want to leave that area, but we had to go see the rest of the park. Once we got all cleaned up from the petting zoo area, we got back on the train to take up back to the Africa area. We stopped for lunch, then back to our adventure around the park!

We walked through another area in Asia to see more animals! We got to see Bats, Tigers and Peacocks. There wasn't many animals out in Asia, maybe because it was so hot!! After our trip through Asia, we made it back to the middle of the park for the Parade. After the parade was over, we took the kids over to Dino land and let them ride a few rides.

It was probably one of the hottest days that day, so we didn't stay all day at the park. After us big kids rode the roller coaster there, we took the kids to Camp Minnie and Mickey and let them see Mickey and Minnie before we left.

Kennedy Space Center

Wednesday morning we went to Kennedy Space Center. I have some friends that live in Titusville, FL and work at Kennedy so they were able to get all of us in for free. When we got there, they also told us that we were going to be eating lunch with an Astronaut! How cool right?! Since lunch wasn't until noon, we walked around a little bit and rode a simulator ride. The simulator was the stimulation of a space shuttle taking off. It was rough! It was like in a car with no shocks going over thousands of bumps! But it was an amazing experience to feel!

After the ride, we went into an area with a bunch of interesting facts about space and space shuttles, plus they had information on the Rover Curiosity that just landed on Mars. One cool thing about that, my father-in-law actually helped work on that, so he was excited to see it too! After we went through that exhibit, we headed off to lunch with an astronaut. There were about 150 people there. Astronaut John McBride came and spoke with us about his adventures and answered some questions from the audience.

Once we were done with lunch, we headed off to the bus tour. The bus tour took us around the complex to places that you wouldn't be able to just walk on to. This was my favorite part of that day. We were able to see all of the building that the shuttles were made in and got to see the launch pads (from a distance). After seeing the launch pads, we went to the Saturn V complex. What an awesome complex! First is started with a little movie, then another movie in the control room where there were stationed when the shuttle took off. When the different controls spoke, the desk where they were sitting at would light up so you would know where they were at.

When the movie was over we were sent into a big atrium with the Saturn V shuttle above us and different space objects and information. There was one last movie that we saw about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. Overall it was an amazing experience!!

After we left Kennedy Space Center, we went to Ron Jon Surf Shop at Cocoa Beach, then to Chilli's for dinner with friends that I haven't seen in years!!