The night before we left was the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. Jacob is now a Boy Scout!! Everyone in his den also earned their Arrow of Light. Huge Achievement!! Camden is now a Bear. (in case you didn't know the ranks are tiger through webelos for cub scouts and then boy scout, then eagle scout. So, even though I say boy scout a lot, technically they both were cub scouts. But, now I have one of each.)
I have been planning this trip for a couple of months, checking deals and prices. We ended up flying down. Mike does a lot of driving for work and was not interested in spending one whole day of his time @ home driving. I had every intention of flying back, but I waited too long to buy the return tickets. I didn't buy round trip because the dates that we were leaving and returning kept changing and I couldn't finalize those until closer to the actual date. So, we flew down and rented a rental van to return. I also made the hotel reservations early and planned M-F. But, that actually became S-Thurs. I got a really good deal @ the Nick Hotel for $79 per night for a 2 bdrm suite. When I called to add Sun. night I was told that rate had sold out and it would be $289 for that one night. I couldn't bring myself to pay that amt for one night, that was almost the cost of the total stay. We ended up getting a room @ a Disney Resort-Pop Century. This worked out REALLY well. Now we had free transportation from the airport, scratch that from my list. AND, by staying @ a Disney resort we could take advantage of the extra magic hours. That is when the park stays open later just for guests of the resorts. The magic hours for Monday were 9pm-1am. Disney provides free shuttles to all parks and to and from airport. If we ever go back, I will stay @ a Disney Resort. It is so nice not to have to drive at all. The bus was waiting for us at the airport and they took all of our luggage to our room. So convenient. And, it's not like there are these hidden costs somewhere, the price for the hotel that night was $114. You don't have to pay for parking, gas, etc. I was so impressed with the ease of everything. I found out online that you can buy Disney tix from the hospital gift shops near Orlando. I believe Disney donated these to the hospitals. When you purchase from the hospital all proceeds go to the Children's Hospitals of Florida. So, $ goes to a great cause and $20 cheaper than the ticket price @ the gate. $20 per person for our family is a lot of $$$. We also got seaworld tix online for $10 cheaper than the gate price, AND 2nd day for free!!
We got up bright and early Sunday morning and my mom took us to the airport. The kids were sooooo excited, they had never flown before. Camden had asked me the day before what would happen if the plane crashed. I didn't answer him, I stalled. I didn't know what to say, how should I tell him that we would probably die? He didnt ask twice either, thank goodness. I have never really worried about a plane crashing. I am so claustrophobic, I just worry about having my own air and that the people around me won't start throwing up. We went through security just fine. Seating arrangements on the plane were O and Mike in the row in front of me, P and Rylee. Jacob and Camden behind us. I could hear the guys behind j and c talking to them and answering so many ???'s that the boys were asking. Flight couldn't have been better. I did hear Owen say once that he was scared and he wanted to get out of the air. When we landed I heard Camden say "is it over?" which made everyone around us laugh for some reason. The Disney bus was waiting for us and some other families. Nice bus, a charter bus decorated real pretty:) Played Disney movie clips the whole way to the hotel and showed theme park advertisements. We walked around the resort when we got there. It is decorated with themes throughout the past few decades. Pretty cute. All the kids wanted to do was swim, high 60's and cloudy. I sat out there wrapped in a blanket. But the pool was heated, so they weren't cold unless they got out of the pool. There was poolside entertainment-hula hoop contest, musical stars, cha-cha slide. Always something planned for the kids to do. We rode the shuttle to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. There was a thunderstorm in the restaurant every 20 min. Owen didn't like that too much. At first he was enjoying it, then put his fingers in his ears, then burst into terrified tears. There is an awesome display of Lego statues outside of the Lego store there. We spent a lot of time here and in the bakery/candy store. As we were heading over to catch the shuttle back to our room Owen spotted a fountain kinda like the one @ Birkdale. He took his shirt and shoes off and ran in, Camden followed. We sat there watching them play with other children for about 30 min. Back at the hotel the kids wanted to swim AGAIN. The pool didn't close 'til midnight.
We woke up Monday morning to cloudy skies and it was humid!! Supposed to rain all day. We headed to the Magic Kingdom. My mom and one of my brothers (Uncle Boppem) had drove/driven? down Sunday to join us. Owen was so excited, he had been asking for weeks (prob months) when we were gonna see Mickey Mouse. As soon as we got there the skies cleared and it was hot!! We stopped at the bathrooms near the entrance. There is a place near the front gate that gives out buttons for almost every occasion-birthdays, anniversary, first trip, etc. The boys all got birthday buttons. Then the parade came around the corner. It is called the celebration parade and it goes down Main Street a couple of times a day. Owen stood there waving at everyone, he saw his favs-Mickey and Woody, no Buzz :( We rode almost every ride in the park, I was crossing them off on the map as we did them. Everyone was able to ride almost every ride. If you ever go something you should use is the Fast Pass. Fast Pass gives you a scheduled time to come back and ride the ride and bypass the line. We got fast passes for the rides with the longest line then went and rode the surrounding rides and came back with no wait. The lines move fairly quickly. Also, with the boys wearing their birthday buttons everyone in the park was saying "Happy Birthday" to them. People in the parade called out to them, employees walking by, employees working the rides. The Disney employees are so friendly, all of them. One guy noticed that Rylee was surrounded by boys with the birthday buttons and he made her a button that said Happy Un-Birthday!! Of course she wouldn't wear it. There was an afternoon thunderstorm that blew in when we were on the boat coming back from Tom Sawyer's Island. It lasted about 20 minutes. The rain did cause the nightly electrical parade to be cancelled. I had looked forward to it all day. It is really awesome. That is something you should definitely try and see if you go also. Can't explain it, but I do have some pics on fb from the first time that we went 2 years ago. IMO one word to describe the food @ Disney is yuck!! They do let you bring your own coolers and snacks into the park, so that is def a good thing to know. After the parade was cancelled I think a lot of people must've headed out because we were able to ride ride after ride with no wait.
The kids all got to choose one souvenir. Jacob got a shark tooth necklace from the Rainforest Cafe, Rylee chose a dolphin figurine from Sea World, Camden (sooo hard for this guy to choose something) decided on a sword and telescope from the Pirates of the Carribean ride. Payton came home with 3 different Minnie Mouse dolls, a Pooh Bear and Owl from the Pooh ride and Owen got the cutest little hand knit Mickey Mouse. They all got to pick out some Mickey Mouse ears, which didn't count as their souvenir because I wanted them to have them so we could all get our pics made with them on @ some point (never happened). Another thing that is big @ Disney now is pin trading. It really is cool, I got into it too. All through the parks there are employees set up with pin boards. You can trade any pin that you have for any pin that they have that you like. You can also trade with anyone in the park that wants to trade too. You keep your pins on a lanyard around your neck. Fun, fun!! Something I have been doing for a few years now that I really enjoy doing is the penny machines. You know the ones where you put 50 cents in and you can carve a penny to have as a souvenir. My collection is getting big!! Almost everywhere I go now has them. I have them from every trip I have been on over the past 2-3 years. I just write the date on the back of the penny to remember when it was and the front of the penny tells the rest.
When we left we went over and checked into Nick Hotel for the rest of the vacation.
The next day was National Pancake Day. woohoo!! IHOP had free short stacks for everyone!! And, since we love pancakes, this was where we decided to have breakfast. Then we headed over to Animal Kingdom. But, they had changed their hours for the day and they were closing @ 5 instead of the original plan of 7 (hours subject to change without notice, boo). Soooo, with half the day wasted we headed over to Sea World. We saw One Ocean (whale show) and the Dolphin show, rode all the rides. Not much to say about Sea World, I liked it, but I really had my heart set on Animal Kingdom.
We had reservations @ TREX in Downtown Disney for dinner (recommend reservations for everything, the line was over an hour wait). We sat at this huge booth, surrounded by huge dinosaurs. Hard to explain how awesome this place is, didn't get but one pic here (I do have some on fb from our previous trip, this place rocks!!) Due to some unforeseen circumstances our dinner here was cut short:( Camden was complaining that he didn't feel well and he didn't eat dinner. Owen didn't have much to eat and immediately fell asleep in the booth between me and Mike. 20 minutes prob passed and Mike shot up out of the booth. Owen was throwing up everywhere!! Can I just say they got us out of there so fast, I thought someone musta had the plague. They weren't rude or anything, they just started moving stuff and cleaning. I went to the gift shop to get Owen a shirt and came back to the table and everyone was gone. I felt like maybe I was dreaming. EVERYONE was gone, the table was all cleaned up and set up for the next party like we had never been there. I headed outside and saw my brother and Rylee waiting outside the door for me. Rylee shows me where CAMDEN has thrown up right outside of the restaurant. OMGoodness, panic set in for me. What was going on? First of all, vomit is one of my biggest fears, but I was certain that this had to be a virus and it was only a matter of time before we would all be joining them. We made it back to the hotel, put everyone in the bed and I prayed that this would all go away.
Slept in Wednesday morning, not sure what the day would hold. The boys had made it all night without getting sick. They both wanted bfast. My mom and JB packed up and headed home. We went to the character bfast at the hotel. Owen was given a Nickelodeon birthday button also and he wore it every day. When we went into the restaurant we saw Blue, Spongebob, Dora, Boots and Squidward. The characters do some entertainment at bfast and they also sing and dance with the birthday children. Blue came over to the table and took Owen to dance while they sang Happy Birthday. All I could picture was Owen puking all over him. Thankfully, this did not happen. We had a great day, hung out at the waterpark all day. They had entertainment for the kids at the pool. Rylee was picked to play in one of the games, and she got slimed.
Sara, a really good friend of mine, brought her kids down to the pool and they hung out with us all afternoon.
Nick Hotel had some really fun shows that night that we went to. A Spongebob show and a game show that is kinda like Double Dare back from my childhood (remember anyone?). Rylee was chosen to play in that game too.
Thursday morning I went and picked up the rental car (van). We packed up and headed over to Disney's Polynesian Resort for one last fill of Mickey Mouse (fyi-had to have reservations for this too). Ohana was the name of the restaurant, it means family in hawaiian. We got to have bfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. They gave us all leis as we walked in and maracas. There was a parade of children at one point with the characters around the restaurant. The kids got to pick 2 more pins from the gift shop. I didn't want to leave:(
As soon as we got in the car Camden asked for his DS, and I realized I had left Rylee's backpack with all that stuff in the closet at the hotel. What is wrong with me? I usually do a quadruple check under every bed, behind every door, in every cabinet before we leave a hotel. Found the bag safe and sound still in the room.
We had to stop before we left FL and get Mike a big ole bag of tangerines and some other junk (gator jerky, pecan log rolls, who knows what else). We stopped at Crescent Beach and let the kids run in the ocean, you can drive on the beach here. While we were on the beach I noticed where the kids had left their shoes all in a pile in the sand. Something about it made me want to take a pic of it. Something about it was sentimental to me. I don't know what it is. Maybe because their shoes show their personality. Weird? Maybe. We had lunch at a really cute place right on the ocean called South Beach Grill. Then we headed north to St. Augustine. Beautiful town. It is the first permanent settlement in America. We visited the fort there on the coast called Fort San Marcos. We also visited the place where the first Thanksgiving in America was held. And, there was this really cute place called Luli's that had yummy cupcakes and ice cream!! Then, we were officially headed home, the kids were all asleep soon after and slept the whole way home!!
Something about this vacation made me really want a vacation after the vacation. How can people do Disney 5 days in a row? Or even 3? We were all exhausted. I am already planning the next one-cross country in an RV!! Not so sure 'bout the RV part, but I have all stops planned:) But, now I would like to do laundry and unpack and edit pics. I need at least one day to recoup. But, tonight we are having Jacob and Camden's classes over for their birthday. That being said, it truly was a blessing to be able to take this vacation with our family. I have always said that a healthy family with a roof over our head is more than enough for me. The rest is just icing on the cake.
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