Florida Vacation

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I’m back.  I present to you pictures from our vacation…in June.  There were over 800 and it took about four hours last night to get them all uploaded to Flickr.  I knew it would take quite some time hence the reason I kept putting it off.  Enjoy!

We drove to Florida for vacation.  The kids spent the majority of the drive with headphones on their heads and the glazed over stare of watching DVDs.  It was a brutal drive and by the time we arrived I don’t think any of us could have tolerated being in the car a minute more.

After we arrived at our destination we got settled in for the evening and had a brief stop at Papa and Uncle Dave’s house.

The next day we went to Fort De Soto Park.  There were pop up storms every day we were in Florida but they eventually cleared and didn’t interfere with our plans.  I was happy to take some storm cloud pictures.  When I spent the summer in California many years ago, my Aunt Debbie told me how cool storm cloud pictures turn out.  Ever since, I snap some pictures of particularly beautiful storms.

This isn't the only time the kids had their picture taken in lock up of some kind during the trip. 

Abby wasn’t complying with having her picture taken next to her brother.  She preferred to be at the other end of the cannon.

We ate a quick lunch waiting out the rain. 

The kids had a blast on the beach.  This is quite a change from Abby’s previous beach experiences where she was mad and/or crying most of the time. 

Gavin and Abby had so much fun at the beach and they were exhausted!

Ouch!

Next stop, Disney World!  Those pink cheeks aren’t just from fun in the sun.  Those are cheeks flushed with the oppressive heat we were dealing with already at 9am. 

Just after we entered the park the kids met Marie from The Aristocats.

The wait time to meet Mickey was short so we stopped there next.

The kids and I took a spin on the tea cups.  Brandon doesn’t do spinning rides.  Abby wasn’t real thrilled about the ride either.  Gavin had a great time.

For those who don’t know, or don’t remember, this is Space Mountain.  It is an awesome indoor roller coaster.  This also happened to be Gavin’s first real roller coaster ride, as in not a kiddie coaster.  We didn’t tell Gavin anything about the coaster except that it is super fun. 

A couple of things that I forgot about Space Mountain: It’s in the dark.  There are bright colored flashing lights around.  It goes fast and makes you feel like you are going even faster.  There are abrupt turns and drops.  It’s a single person per car train.

When Gavin and Daddy came off of Gavin’s first big kid roller coaster ride and Gavin refused to go on a second time with me, I shouldn’t have been surprised.  What crazy kid would want to go back onto a roller coaster that was their first big roller coaster ride, in the dark, darting around corners and up and down hills while riding single file with no parental security IN THE VERY FRONT SEAT!? Brandon kept reaching over the seat to make sure Gav hadn’t gone flying out.  Poor kid.  I felt so bad for him, especially after I went for a ride myself.  Although I love the ride, it is intense and it is certainly terrifying for a six year old.  Oops!

The one and only thing Abby wanted to do was see princesses.  We could have walked in the park, visited princesses, and left and she probably would have been content.  The line to meet princesses was a long one.  It didn’t get any shorter throughout the day either.  Finally after lunch we sucked it up and got in line.  At least we were in the a/c.  However, the line was significantly longer than the estimated wait time Disney posts outside their attractions. 

We waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  As we were in the home stretch, a foreign couple walked up, moved the ropes and got in line in front of us.  I’m betting at this point in my little story some of the readers just thought, “I’m sure that wasn’t pretty.”   The exchange went something like this:

Man: “Is this the line for the movie?”

Me: “No, this is the line to meet princesses.” 

Man: “Yes line for princess movie.”

Brandon tried to patiently explain to the man that it was not a movie that we’d all been waiting for but it was a meet the princess characters attraction.  The man and his wife kept nodding their heads yes.  I assume that anyone who knows me realizes that I had no patience for this fellow.  So, I continued with some version of the following:

Me: “This is not a line for a movie.  This is a line to meet princesses.  We’ve all been waiting in line quite some time so you need to go to the end of the line and wait just like the rest of us did.”

He finally received the message.  Unfortunately, he cut in front of people further back.  I’m not sure why but they let him get away with it.  A “cast member,” as employees are called, talked to them but they remained in line.  There was a lady in line who said, “Don’t get in the way of a mama taking her daughter to see the princesses!”  Darn right!

Let me just say that waiting in a line that felt like an eternity was so completely worth it.  Abby was thrilled! 

Rapunzel spent several minutes talking with Abby. 

Rapunzel asked Gavin to come over so he could be in the picture too.

Then Abby met Aurora, AKA Sleeping Beauty. 

Lastly, Abby spent a few minutes with Cinderella.

Gavin wasn’t interested in getting his picture taken with Aurora or Cinderella.  The photographer teased Gavin enough that he finally got into the picture with Cinderella.

By mid-afternoon, it was pouring rain.  It rained so much and so hard that if we didn’t plan on leaving the park we had to get ponchos.  Thankfully the rain cooled off the steamy hot conditions but we went from hot and sweaty to sweaty, somewhat warm, and wet. 

We hung out and rode a couple more indoor rides.  We decided to head for the front of the park to see the light parade.  The castle was lit up beautifully.

We didn’t stay for the fireworks this time because everyone was so exhausted.

Abby got into the house, climbed up on the couch and zonked back out.

So did the big guy!

The following day we spent the afternoon at the pool. 

Abby was a little fish with her swimmies on.

We cooked dinner for Papa and Uncle Dave.

 

We spent Sunday at the pool as well.  

Monday was Legoland day!!!

Everything was made of Legos!  Oh, wait…that makes sense being Legoland. 

We managed to convince Gav to try out the coasters at Legoland.  They were outdoors and much less terrifying than Space Mountain.  Abby was even able to ride some of them.

Remember way up at the top of the blog where I said it wouldn’t be the first time the kids were in lock up on this trip?  Here they are again! 

Abby was not thrilled about this ride. 

The kids loved driving the boats.

Legoland had some very cute shows.

The amusement park owner of Legoland bought Cypress Gardens in 2010.  They preserved the botanical portion of Cypress Gardens and built Southern Belles out of Legos.  Southern Belles were hostesses at the Gardens starting in the 1950s. 

There are so many beautiful sights at Cypress Gardens.  I wished I had brought my D90 on the trip but our point and shoot took great photos without the bulk.

This Banyan tree was quite unique looking.

Can you spot all of the creatures made out of Legos?

We spent time walking around Miniland USA.  There were tons of replicas of big cities, attractions, and Star Wars movie scenes.

Star Wars!

Gavin was so cute walking around with his park map out.

If we thought it was a hot day at Disney, Legoland was even hotter. 

Abby left Legoland with her loot.

Gav left Legoland with loot too.  Shortly after we got in the car he was out with some of his loot next to him.

 

On our last day of vacation we spent some more time relaxing at the pool.  We went out to dinner at Chili’s with Papa and Uncle Dave that night. 

The next morning we made our long trek back to Ohio.  It was a great vacation!

Since then we've finished up a season of t-ball, continued with dance every week, tutoring once a week, and potty training.  Abby is doing great with potty training!  She's definitely ready for preschool!  School starts back for Gavin on 8/14 and Abby starts in September.  

Have a wonderful week!