BUMC Father Daughter Dance

The church held its annual Father Daughter Dance this past weekend and it was the perfect excuse for the girls to get dressed up in their pretty pink dresses one more time for a date with Daddy and Grandpa Jackson. We missed the event last year, but after this year, we won't miss another. The church fellowship hall was decorated beautifully...I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. There was pink and white tulle draped around all the doors and little white lights were glowing from underneath. There were candles and sprinkles on all the tables. There was a red carpet at the entrance and garden trellis at the end for picture taking before entering the fellowship hall. The lights were dim, the music was playing and there were lots of things for the girls to do...eating ice cream sundaes, making a bracelet, and taking a horse and buggy ride. At the end of the evening, each of the girls got a special "gift" from their date. It was a silver charm of a gift because the theme for the night was "Every Good and Perfect Gift is from Above." After the girls received their charms, Pastor Julie said a prayer over all of them and then the night started to wind down. The girls had a great time and I think the daddy's did too.

Orange and Blue Debut

A few weeks before spring break, Bo realized that the Orange and Blue game fell on the same weekend we'd be coming home from Sea World. We've been wanting to go for several years now but it always seemed to fall the weekend after spring break and traveling that much in a short time period never seemed to work out. We were fortunate this year and took advantage of our luck. We got in to Gainesville on Friday night. We had a Gainesville staple from our past...Gumby's pepperoni rolls...and got the kids to bed. We spent some time chatting with Grandma and Grandpa Jackson before heading off to bed ourselves. In the morning, we checked out and headed to campus bright and early. Parking in the garage at the Reitz Union was free because it was Saturday and we found a great spot to leave our car without fear of it being towed. We took the kids all over campus and showed them all the cool things we used to do and places we would go. They loved seeing the French Fries and the Bell Tower. After we got through campus, we headed up to the stadium to see what was going on on University Avenue. There were tons of blow-up events and family type things to do. After we walked through there we headed back to the car to drop off the stroller, meet Grandma and Grandpa and grab some lunch before the game. We ended up in the South end zone and just as the game was about to start Albert came in to our section to get on to the field. We got a great picture with the best mascot ever. In all of our years at the university and all the times we have been to a game, we have never gotten to see of meet Albert and take a picture. So this was a super special day. During the warm up and game, the Gators looked good. It was nice to see Brantley leading our group, but his back-up is no slouch. We should have a few good years ahead of us. After the game was over, we piled back in to the car for the long 6 hour trip home. We wanted to be in our own beds and our own house for at least one day before school started back up. And, after heavy traffic and close to 9 hours on the road, we finally made it.

As always, the pictures are posted on the share site, but here are a few to get you started.

http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com

Spring Break

For spring break, the whole family headed to Orlando, Florida for a week of fun in the sun at Sea World. This trip was our Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Jackson...and we had a blast. We left for Orlando on Easter morning and stopped about half-way in Valdosta for the evening. We got up early and headed to Orlando to check in and spend some time enjoying our hotel. Unfortunately, I had a terrible migraine and spent the first night in Orlando laid up in bed while Drew slept. Bo had taken the girls to the pool and by the time they had gotten back, they were exhausted and ready for bed as well. By Tuesday morning everyone was well and ready to hit the park. We got a late start on the morning and got to the park around lunch time. We saw lots of shows that day and took in all the things around us. Wednesday was a day to relax at our hotel. The place we stayed was more of a villages type resort that had 2 bedroom condos for rent with full kitchen, 2 bathrooms and laundry facilities. It was SUPER NICE!! The complex had several pools and this particular day we found the one that had a huge pirate ship with a water slide. The girls had a blast swimming in the freezing cold water. Drew and I hung out on the pool chairs and tried to keep warm in the sun. That night we headed back to Sea World for a special dinner show...the Makahiki Luau. Somehow we scored front row seats. The girls had chairs right next to the stage. We saw all kinds of fun dancing and drumming. The last act was a fire dancer that was amazing. Ally and Kelsey enjoyed him the best for sure. After dinner, we all went on the Sea World Sky Tower which the girls had been DYING to do. It was just turning to dusk, so everything was lit up and you could see the whole city of Orlando in lights. We could see the Shamu show going on and we saw Cinderella's castle off in the distance. After the sky tower, we headed around the big lake to the pavilion area for the nightly fireworks show. We made it about half-way around and then saw this cute little area beside the lake set-up with tables and chairs. So we sat there for the firework display. The wind was really blowing that night and one of the pieces of the firework landed right on Bo's head. Not a big piece, but it was a piece nonetheless. It even smelled of sulfur. Ally thought that was really neat and she took the piece in to her class to show them what had dropped on Bo's head. We got home late that night and headed right to bed. We had a full day at the park the next day for our last day at Sea World. We got up early, got the kids ready and headed to the park for everything we hadn't done yet. Grandma and Grandpa decided to sleep in that morning and meet us at the park later. When we got there it was very quiet and not a lot of people had shown up yet...we think they were worried about the weather because it was quite cloudy. First, we went to the Key West exhibit so the girls could feed and pet the dolphins. It was a huge success and I'm glad we did it. The girls were afraid at first, but then they warmed right up and enjoyed seeing these awesome animals so close up. Then, Kelsey and Bo rode Journey to Atlantis a few times while Ally, Drew and I headed to get seats for the Elmo and Abby show. Ally had ridden the Atlantis ride on Tuesday and had no desire to go again. After the Elmo and Abby beach show, we headed to lunch and then to the Sea Lion and Otter show. That is Bo's favorite show because of the mime who comes out and makes fun of the crowd as they file in to their seats. He really is quite funny. By the end of that show, Grandma and Grandpa had met us at the stroller and we headed to Shamu's Happy Harbor for the kids to play for a few hours while we waited for the dolphin show at 4:00. At this point, it became a free for all for the adults because it was time for Momma Jax, Bo and I to ride some of the big rides...particularly Kraken and Manta. We found a way to get on both rides immediately and then tried to go on Manta one more time. But, the lines had filled up quickly and we ended up missing the dolphin show because of it. The neat thing was that Manta is a roller coaster that you ride laying on your belly so at least the kids got to see us go up the first hill and they waved to us. After we got off the last roller coaster, we started to head towards dinner. We were SUPPOSED to be having dinner with Shamu that night. But, because of the trainer death just a few weeks ago, Dinner with Shamu had been cancelled indefinitely. So, we ended up with reservations at the Sharks Underwater Grill. Again, we had front row seats next to the shark tank and the kids had a blast looking at all the sharks while we ate dinner. For the last event of the night, we headed to the Shamu Rocks show at 8:00. It was a show filled with lights and great music, tons of jumping and flipping and plenty of getting wet!! Bo took the girls down to the splash zone and at the end of all of it, they were DRENCHED FROM HEAD TO TOE. I didn't get the chance to take any pictures of the show because I was video taping it. Hopefully the tape will do it justice. After a long day, we loaded the kids up for the long walk back to the car and headed to the hotel. After the kids got to sleep we all decided to go back the next morning for the dolphin show we had missed. And since the ticket we had were unlimited visits for 7 days, we took full advantage. And we were glad we had...the dolphin show did not disappoint. After the show was over, we loaded in to the car, headed for a quick bite and got up the road to Gainesville. We spent the night there so we could attend the Orange and Blue Game the next day...but again...that's another post entirely.
As always, we send lots of love and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Jackson for a great trip. Enjoy the few pictures below and visit the Shutterfly site for the full show. I took over 600 pictures, but I only posted about 150 on the site.
http://the realjacksonfive.shutterfly.com

Easter

Whew...I have really let the time get away since I lasted posted on our blog. It seems that life in the Jackson house has gotten super busy. January and February were nice and relaxing in the cold of the winter. But, this spring has hit like a whirlwind and there doesn't seem to be an end insight until school is over.
Easter was as busy as Christmas this year. We had egg hunts and spring parties all over the place. Ally's school and Kelsey's school both had parties that Grandma and Grandpa Jackson attended. We had a flashlight egg hunt here in our cul-de-sac with all of our neighbor friends. And then, there was a big egg hunt at our church the Saturday before Easter.
On Easter morning we met for the annual picture at the gazebo and then we were off to...Sea World. Yep, you read that right. But, that's another post entirely. Below are a few pictures from all of the Easter fun we had. Feel free to visit the Shutterfly site for a complete look at all the pictures.
http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com