The Vacation

Finally, after nearly a month has past, the vacation post. It took some time to sort through the nearly 900 photos that we took on our Florida vacation. I decided to upload almost 500 of them to Flickr and now I have figured out what to share with all of you. I hope you enjoy this small glimpse into our vacation fun!

The kids were so well behaved on the flight. Abby didn’t mind it a bit. I thought for certain she would fuss but she slept for most of the flight. Gavin never went to sleep and he got a bit impatient towards the end but he did great!

After we arrived it was pool time. This was Abby’s firs t time in a pool. She splashed her hands around and kicked her feet like crazy. Gavin was a little apprehensive but he had on swimmies and held a kick board. By the end of the week he was swimming back and forth in the pool to the deep end and back wearing his swimmies with no fear and no help from us. With a little confidence and the experience of swimming lessons he was all set!

The kids with Grandma Y at her place in Florida.

One day there was a chance of rain so we went to a brand new children’s museum that had opened the weekend before we arrived. Gavin had a great time. There were plenty of things for him to do. He loved this train that he could play with around the water play area.

I just love this picture of the little guy.

Abby sitting on a big pillow in the construction area. Gavin was very disappointed because the crane and the scoop did not work the way they were supposed to. Apparently some children had misbehaved over the weekend and the museum decided to just disable the whole set up. We were a bit annoyed that instead of just dealing with the kids in question the museum ruined it for everyone else.

There was a fire area that had a fire pole the kids could slide down. This action shot of Gavin is hilarious. He went down several times with no problem. The last time he went down he let his legs off the pole and when he got to the bottom he fell and hit his ear on the pole. It hurt a bit but he recovered quickly.

Gavin driving the fire truck!

In the restaurant area Gavin made burgers and pizza.

Abby got in on the cooking too!

Once Gavin got to shopping in the grocery store he didn’t want to leave. I think he would have stayed there all day if we’d let him.

He even picked up some bath wash for his sister!

Then it was time to check out and bag the groceries.

There were several other exhibits Gavin enjoyed but the last one I’ll share here is the sand play area. The “sand” is actually rubber. Quite nice how it brushes right off but still gives kids the feel of playing in the sand.

Papa and Uncle Dave got to meet Abby for the first time on this trip.

Abby met Deanna , Aunt Tammy, and Dan for the first time too!

It’s off to Disney we go! Here we are riding the shuttle to the monorail station to get to the Magic Kingdom.

We were able to visit Pluto, Mickey & Minnie, and Goofy!

Abby got her first set of Minnie ears.

Gavin was big enough this year to ride more rides. He was so thrilled to get to drive the race cars!

Abby riding the Snow White ride. I took this with my cell phone and the flash totally blew out the picture but the look on her face is priceless.

We went to the beach one day. Although Abby seems quite happy in this picture she did not like the beach. She was less than thrilled when we put her in the water and she hated the sand.

Gavin, on the other hand, had a blast!

We went to a place called Dinosaur World. Gavin was ecstatic! There were life sized replicas of dinos all over the place.

Dan was holding the kids up so Brandon could get a picture of T-Rex getting them. This was the moment Gavin caught sight of a ginormous spider in a huge web up in the trees.

The kids with Grandma Y and Dan.

Gavin got to do a little fossil dig and select three fossils to keep.

My little T-Rexes!

After our Dinosaur World adventure during the day we went to the T-Rex Café at Downtown Disney for dinner.

The dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals move. Every 20 minutes there is a “meteor shower” where all the animals move and make noise and lights in the ceiling flash like meteors flying through the sky.

The huge octopus moved it’s legs. It was a very cool experience.

Build-a-Bear has another store called Build-a-Dino. The T-Rex Café had one of these stores. Gavin was able to build himself a dinosaur and he loved it!

He chose a raptor and a baseball outfit for him.

The boxes were adorable with a hole on one side for the head and a hole in the back for the tail!

By the end of the week everyone was exhausted.

Gavin was so tired that he did sleep at the end of the flight home. A great trip was had by all!