Almost a teenager:
It's hard to shop for a kid who only has a few loves: Hannah Montana/
Miley Cyrus, snakes, bugs, bats, spiders and has not only a whole room, but pretty much an entire house filled with those items.
Kellisa did receive a few Hannah items and some drawing paper with pens.
Kellisa's big gift from mom and dad was a trip to the Tampa area. The plan was simple: play a Saturday morning baseball game and then take a quick flight down to Tampa for a birthday dinner. Followed by a Sunday morning visit to the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, FL to take a historic train ride through "old Florida", followed by lunch and a return flight to
Jax.
Kellisa has loved airplanes and trains for years now and she has passed that passion for travel and adventure to her sister. It seemed like the perfect gift.
Enjoying the train ride:
What's a trip without an "incident"? As the train cars were not made to ADA specifications, it was a challenge to get
Kellisa and her chair on and off the train. When the ride was over, Lisa exited the train with Egypt to be out of the way for
Kellisa to get off the train.
Kellisa was on the platform (
red circle-
picture below) just
outside the train shaking the conductor's hand when the train surged forward. In an instant, the wood deck was lifted (
blue circle- picture below) from the ground amidst cracking sounds. The deck was tilting and unsure of what was even happening, I ran while pushing
Kellisa and actually jumped an open section in the decking
(green circle- picture below). After the jump, we joined Lisa and Egypt on a safe portion of the decking.
It's hard to shop for a kid who only has a few loves: Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, snakes, bugs, bats, spiders and has not only a whole room, but pretty much an entire house filled with those items. Kellisa did receive a few Hannah items and some drawing paper with pens.
What's a trip without an "incident"? As the train cars were not made to ADA specifications, it was a challenge to get Kellisa and her chair on and off the train. When the ride was over, Lisa exited the train with Egypt to be out of the way for Kellisa to get off the train. Kellisa was on the platform (red circle- picture below) just outside the train shaking the conductor's hand when the train surged forward. In an instant, the wood deck was lifted (blue circle- picture below) from the ground amidst cracking sounds. The deck was tilting and unsure of what was even happening, I ran while pushing Kellisa and actually jumped an open section in the decking (green circle- picture below). After the jump, we joined Lisa and Egypt on a safe portion of the decking. 
Both girls excited to see a cottonmouth:
Egypt had to sleep with her baby and a toy snake (look in her hand):
