Dolphin Tale!!!

WINTER IN APRIL

The Mrs. is obsessed with the movie Dolphin Tale! Eric enjoys it as well, but Sara has a special connection with the dolphin, Winter! At the end of April, we decided to take the kids to go meet Winter in person!

We tried explaining the best we could that this little girl was the actual dolphin they know from the movie. And the aquarium we were at was the same aquarium they always see on TV. They seemed to get it, but not totally. Didn't matter to them though, they still had a great time exploring!

Afterward we headed out for a bite to eat...

And decided to take a stroll along the beach since it was our first time in the area!

To all of our surprise, they had street performers...

and a HUGE slide for Eric to go down! And go down again! And again! And again! He had the BEST time!

There was a smaller one there for Sara, but she preferred to simply hang out and play in the sand! A girl my speed! :)

WINTER IN JULY

Since Sara's love for Winter only grew stronger over time, at the end of July we decided to take a drive and give Winter another visit!

After visiting the Aquarium the first time, we put the movie in and that's when it happened for them! "Hey! We were just there! We saw that! This is where the seals were! We saw Winter swimming! We got to meet Winter!" For some reason they didn't quite get it going from the movie to the aquarium, but from the aquarium to the movie, they totally got it! And had SO MUCH FUN going back to see it all again!!!

They loved to watch her swim and eat!

They even got to touch the "sock" that goes on first to help Winter's mechanical tail to stay on! As Sara always says, "Sock first, then the tail!"

In the movie, when Winter didn't like her tail the first time they put it on, Sara was literally crying hysterically for her. She was beyond sad, and we felt terrible! At first we panicked and wanted to shut the movie off, but it was important for her to see Winter was going to be OK.

What made her OK, was the fact that she needed the sock on first, then the tail! This made Sara feel SO much better to see her swimming happily! So it's now her favorite part of the movie and that's why she'll always say, "Sock first, then the tail!"

Beyond adorable to see her huge caring heart reach out to even a dolphin!

Eric enjoyed knowing he was standing in the same spot Hazel was when she found out Winter had to lose her tail in order to save her!

For the rest of the trip they enjoyed giving all the other sea creatures a visits, and getting completely wet during the dolphin show!

And what's a trip to the aquarium, without some green screen action!

We aren't really ones to purchase the photos afterward, but these had us laughing so hard we just had to get them!

As we were leaving, we had a difficult time getting Sara to come with us! Not because of the endless amount of toys she had to play with in the shop, but for the simple fact that they had the movie Dolphin Tale playing! Though she's seen it an endless amount of times, she just couldn't pull herself from it! Hahaha!

Sara and her little Winter friend...we love their friendship!!!