Florida Vacation: Day 4

Oh, I don't even know where to begin. This post is filled with pictures, but this is only a fraction of the ones I took that day. Our day began with a tram ride then a monorail ride to the entrance at Magic Kingdom. We got there in time to see the end of the morning welcome show.

Our first stop was to meet Daisy. The kids got her autograph and had their picture taken with her. Kelly was generous enough to buy the kids lanyards, pins to trade, autograph books and a pen. My kids would have done without all of these things if it weren't for their nice Aunt Kelly!

Of course, we had to take a picture of Cinderella's castle. Addie has been waiting to see it since we pulled out of our driveway! She was SO excited!

Our trip would not have been complete without a picture with Mr. Disney himself.

I am a long-time Disney fan, so I had to get my picture taken, too!

Then we were off to ride some rides! Our first ride stop was Space Mountain. Everyone rode except for Jarrett and Addison. It brought back great memories of when I rode it almost 20 years ago. Jonathan and Bryson weren't fans. They said they wouldn't get on it again!

After Space Mountain, we rode the BuzzLightyear ride, the Stitch ride (It was horrible. I should have heeded the warning from the book I borrowed from a friend.) We rode the race cars, also. The kids thought those were fun. I remember riding that ride when I was a kid and my grandmother brought my sister, Jamie, and I.

Riding the race cars!

Next we went to FantasyLand so Addison could ride the tea cups. She talked about this ride all morning, so she was thrilled when she finally got to ride! Drew and I rode with her and didn't spin too fast.

Who could resist a picture with the Beast? Not Addison!

Here she is waiting in line to ride Dumbo. My kids have never watched Dumbo, but she loved the ride. We waited over 30 minutes for 60 seconds in the air with Dumbo. Who is the Dumbo???

At some point, we ate lunch and went on some more rides. We rode Snow White's Scary Adventures. Addison said it was scary, but she really doesn't like the witch in Snow White and she showed up a lot in the ride.

I'm not sure what ride we were waiting for here.

Another group picture!

This is in line for It's a Small World. Addison really liked this ride. I liked the fact that it was air conditioned! It also brought back memories from years ago.

After a while the boys and girls parted ways. The boys had an appointment to become pirates and Addison had an appointment to be dressed up as Cinderella! Thanks, again, Aunt Kelly!

While we waited for Addison's appointment time we went on the carousel or as Addie called it the "spinner go round."

Of course, we went into some shops. Kelly bought Addison a light-up crown in this one. Can you just see the happiness on her face?

Then it was time for her appointment. They were running a little behind, so we got to sit and see many little girls get dressed up as their favorite princess. We got to enjoy some air conditioning, too!

Aunt Kelly and Addie waiting for her appointment. While we waited, Addison got to choose what hair style she wanted. I tried to talk her into the Pop Princess, but she wanted the one that looked like a little bun. I know she only wanted it because it came with a little tiara!

Here she is after getting her hair, nails and make-up done. The "Fairy Godmother in Training" did a great job with her. Addison even spoke to her a couple of times. Addison is pretty shy and doesn't speak to many people, especially people she doesn't know.

Here is the little princess all made up getting her picture taken. What you can't see in this picture is that she had her tennis shoes on! She reminded me of Runaway Bride! We had some great girl time thanks to Aunt Kelly!

Then it was time to meet the boys/pirates!

Here is Jackson aka Enrique Swordcutter. They were given a pirate name, a sword and pirate make-up. Doesn't he look awesome?!

Bryson aka Thomas Cannonshot! I could do without the bubba teeth, though! When Addison first saw him she said, "Uh, oh, you're going to have to go to the orthodontist!" She's so funny! Next we caught part of a parade (We were on our way back from the restroom, so I didn't have my camera!) and decided to ride Thunder Mountain. David, Drew, Bryson, Jackson and I rode. Nobody else want to. Again, brought back memories!

Here are the boys after the ride. Bryson and Jackson said they didn't like it, but they were having a bad attitude by this point. They were hot and tired. Our day was coming to an end and they weren't too happy when I said I wanted another picture! Again, they will thank me one day!

Me and Drew after Thunder Mountain. Our last stop for the day was the Hall of Presidents. Addie mistakenly thought I said Hall of Princesses, so she was pretty disappointed! She ended up falling asleep. I almost did, too.

We went back to the house and the kids swam while we got dinner ready. The pool was great entertainment as was the game room with pool table, fooseball, air hockey and video games. The house was a great place to spend the week!

My boys ended the day sleeping in the same bed. I just love it when they are sweet to each other.

That was our first day at Disney World. The next day we went to Epcot. More on that tomorrow!

Florida Vacation: Day 3

Day 3 found us at Daytona Beach. After the kids got over their fear of sharks they had a great time playing in the water. David had bought two boogie boards the night before, so the kids (and adults) got to try those out. That was so much fun! I caught some good waves several times and only had one "wardrobe malfunction!" After that, I handed the board off to the kids and went to work on a sand castle. It took me FOREVER (or a couple of hours) to build a smallish one. That's hard work! Of course, the tide came in shortly after I took pictures and washed all my hard work away. Such is the life of a beach bum!

The kids thought this was stupid, but they will thank me for all the pictures I took one day. Right now they are just tolerating me.

There's not a whole lot to say about our trip to the beach. We played in the water and sand, ate lunch and cleaned up to leave. Our next stop was the house we rented for the week. More to come tomorrow!

Florida Vacation: Days 1 and 2

I am a little overwhelmed with the number of pictures I have from our trip and with the desire to document everything we did and saw. I think the best way to do it is to take a day at a time and post pictures and events of each day. I may combine a couple of the less eventful days. I will also post most of my pictures on FaceBook.

We started our trip at 4:00 am. Our goal was to reach Mobile, AL by dinner time factoring in several stops along the way. I didn't know how my kids would do with such a long car trip. The longest they have ever been in a car is about 5 hours going to Houston and to Oklahoma. Needless to say, I was a little worried. They were so amped up to go that it took them over an hour to settle down and fall asleep. Shortly after that we stopped to go to the restroom and grab something for breakfast. That was just one of the MANY stops we made that day! I wanted to stop at each state line for a picture. We made everyone except for Alabama. The Alabama sign was right near a bridge and it wasn't safe to stop. I said I would get it on the way back, but we never did.

Here are the kids crossing into Louisiana. My kids are really into states and maps, so this was fun for them to stop. Bryson and Jonathan thought it was fun to stand in two states at the same time. I have a picture of that, but I am trying to limit the number of pictures I include in these posts. I have over 500! You're welcome! :0)

Here they are in Mississippi. We stopped at the visitor's center for a little while to let them walk around a little bit and use the restroom (again!) Do you know how hard it is to synchronize 9 bladders? Not an easy task!

Of course, they had to sit on the big cannon. Addie didn't like it and let us know all about it! Drew, David and I stopped at a casino right down the road. I have never gambled, so I wanted to give it a go. Kelly stayed in the car with the kids. Jarrett thought we were going in to vote! It took me all of three minutes to lose my $15 at the slot machine. (We had given ourselves a limit of $5, but that only lasted about 60 seconds. I pulled a $10 out of my wallet and that was gone real quick, too!) Drew and David were playing Black Jack when I found them. David quickly lost his $5 and an additional $20 shortly after. Drew walked away with $25. He knows when to stop. I don't. I guess that's why I don't gamble!

We stopped in Richland, MS to eat lunch. We had packed a lunch and found a city park to stop at. The kids had fun playing and running off some energy and we were glad to be out of the car for a little bit.

We finally made it to Mobile, AL in time to get cleaned up for dinner. We ate at the Mellow Mushroom. They have the BEST pizza crust I have ever eaten. I didn't know that there is one right down the road by TCU. I KNOW we will be visiting that one real soon! The next morning we got up and headed to Pensacola, FL. We had plans to stop at the Naval Aviation Museum before moving on.

This is at the Florida Visitors Center. Florida has the nicest visitors center and rest stops out of all the states we drove through. We stayed there for about an hour. The kids enjoyed looking at the brochures and drinking the fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice.

I know I posted this on FaceBook, but I want to document it for my blog. I was at a vending machine buying something to drink and Addie was with me. (She really didn't leave my side the entire trip.) Evidently she didn't see me put my money in and we don't really use vending machines very often. I asked her if she wanted something. She put her hands up to her mouth, leaned into the machine and said to the machine, "I want a Gatorade." It was the cutest most innocent thing I had seen in a while. After I laughed, of course, I showed her how to put the money in, make her selection and get her Gatorade out of the machine. She thought it was pretty cool!

Fresh squeezed orange juice from Florida! Notice that Cinderella is with us!

Here we are in Florida! Our next stop was the Naval Avaition Museum. If you are ever in Pensacola, I highly recommend it. It is HUGE and filled from floor to ceiling with all kinds of air crafts. We spent a couple of hours looking around and didn't see but a fraction of the place.

Here are Drew and David after taking a ride in the flight simulator. I wasn't "man" enough to try it. I don't like tight, dark, moving spaces. Jackson and Jarrett did it, too, but my picture of them turned out blurry. I am still learning how to use my new camera.

Some where along the way that day we decided to drive to Jacksonville and Neptune Beach. Our original plan was to drive into Orlando, spend Saturday night there, go to Cocoa Beach on Sunday and check into the house we rented Sunday after 4:00. We decided to go through Jacksonville and on to Daytona Beach instead. We spent Sunday at Daytona beach and drove to the house Sunday afternoon. I was so glad we did that! The kids had a blast at Daytona Beach!

Here we are at Neptune Beach. We got there right at sunset and only had time to walk in the sand and take some pictures. The boys got to see the church their dad pastored back in the early 80's, also.

Addie and me on Neptune Beach. I will have pictures of Daytona Beach and some more details of our trip on the next post. Stay tuned!