St. Paddy's Day...March 17th, 2012

Today really is the GRAND FINALE of our vacation, and what better way to spend it than by wearin' our green and immersing ourselves in the St.Pat's Day celebration taking place all around us. On the riverwalk, they dye the river green, hold a family day festival, and have a short parade of boats on the river! We were ready to go from the break of day, and dressed from head...

                                                                                                      to toe...

Kayli couldn't make up her mind between the fancy headband or the flashing tiara, so she just wore the fancy headband to breakfast, then switched to the tiara for the rest of the day! We also had "glow bracelets and necklaces" for the night!

Here comes Kevin, Karen, and Matt, down the river, on a boat ride!

you can really see the green river in this picture below...

we just "happened upon" this Radio Disney Dance Contest, where all the participants received prizes!

Kayli was rockin!

check it out, live...

always time to stop and pose with a leprechaun!

we started to watch the parade from our hotel window, but Kayli quickly realized that they were throwing prizes to the crowd and we had to get down there QUICK! We managed to get down there just in time for her to catch a "lucky gold coin!" Whew!

We were back and forth and all around the riverwalk and hotel throughout the day. We even managed to spend some time in the sun, at the pool today and there was Karen, wearin' her green to the pool...

 Kayli had Matt pretending they were in the SeaWorld show, and she was riding the dolphin...

as we sat in the beautiful lobby of the hotel, enjoying our last appetizers with complimentary drinks, Kayli began complaining that her throat REALLY hurt, and her head REALLY hurt, and her body REALLY hurt. So, I did what any good mom would do...I finished my drink (well, there's no sense wasting), gave my last "drink ticket" away, grabbed a plate of nachos, and took my daughter back to the room, where we relaxed and soaked up the view from our windows just one more time...

I took my sweet pea's temp and...

thanked our lucky stars that she waited until the last day of our vacation to spring this one on me! On the ride home, the next day, she was in good spirits with a little Ibuprofen in her system, and was a fine little traveler. The fever disappeared when we got home, but a week later, I got a call from the school nurse that Kayli had a fever, and the following day she was diagnosed with strep throat. Sooo, on the tail of a great vacation, I had a couple of unexpected "days off" to "regroup" and "recoup"!