We had our big family vacation a couple of weeks ago and it went so amazing! It is hard to believe but really it all went so smoothly and was such a great trip. I was hoping that a ten day trip to Florida wouldn't ruin the thought of family vacations for me. And thankfully I can't wait to plan another trip!
We had two mini vacations within our big vacation. The first half of the trip we spent in Orlando and without much of a plan. We knew we wanted to go to a couple parks and finally settled with a two day pass to Disney. We went to Hollywood Studios the first day, then the Magic Kingdom the second. We wanted to save the best for last. We were so lucky to be able to stay in Larry's condo he has in Orlando which made it possible for us to give the boys such a special trip to Disney!
We had to get creative with bath time toys. A strainer was a hit and I might even have to get one for home!
Disney's Hollywood Studios! The only ride we really waited for was the Toy Story 4D ride and the wait was about 45 minutes. The boys did great and it was worth the wait! It was an arcade game, ride, 3d adventure. Of course Dave scored the highest in our car and rode with Asher so he wasn't even trying that hard as he made sure Asher was doing ok. Jaxson loved it and we were off to a great start! We met quite a few movie stars and played on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground that made you feel tiny! It was pretty much the coolest thing ever. :) We also celebrated Father's Day at Disney. I guess if he wasn't a dad he wouldn't have two awesome reasons to go to Disney, right?
Asher might have thought the aliens were real!
Next up, Magic Kingdom! We saved the best for last and it definitely delivered. We had a better idea how our fast passes worked and really used it the best we could. We rode so many rides and waited so little. We ate lunch in record speed given the thousands of people there and ended the day feeling like we really did as much as we could! Jaxson rode his first roller coaster and Asher got to see another 3D movie and loved it the second time as much as he did the first. We didn't meet any characters but saw all the princesses dancing in a show at the castle and Asher danced with the characters from the Jungle Book. Asher crashed at the end of the day and we let him snooze for a minute before getting on the Ferry to get back to our car. It was such a great day!
Jaxson spotted the Chinese goodbye sign! He loved when we went through China in "It's a Small World"
Tea Cups!
Can a kid get potty break or what!?!?
Jaxson's first roller coaster!
The most efficient lunch restaurant ever....
Even though the first half of our trip was over and it was a little sad we had a whole other second half to look forward to! We left for the beach and stayed with Jennie at her parents home in Venice Beach! Besides the monsoon that we drove in (couldn't see a thing and actually passed at least 4 gas stations simply because we couldn't see them) we arrived in good shape. The next day was my birthday and our family photo shoot day and the first day the boys saw the ocean. Oh, and it was my birthday... did I mention that? :)
We had such a perfect beach day besides that Jaxson was a little difficult for photos. We went to Gasparilla Island for the day, ate on the beach, saw mantatees, and had the best day ever. Asher was all about the sea shells and found tons of them. He would wash them in the waves and keep them in his bucket. Jaxson was a little nervous about the ocean but finally warmed up to it a bit and went in and enjoyed the waves! We came home to make dinner, play in the pool, and eat the most decadent cake ever made. It will be hard to top this birthday but everyone can try if they want. ;)
Next up was a pool day, shark tooth hunting, and eating dinner at Sharkie's. We actually found several shark teeth that I was keeping safely in a plastic baggy which then got washed away in a big wave. Luckily it washed up about 30 minutes later and we got to have something to show for all our hard work!Venice beach is the shark teeth capital of the world and we learned that most of the teeth we found were likely 12 million years old. It seems pretty unbelievable to me but everything I read told me it was true! For dinner at Sharkies I felt shark shirts were in order for the boys. It just seemed fitting!
We took a trip to Myakka State Park and took the airboat tour to see some gators. There are at least three thousand alligators in the lake but it was a windy day so they were hiding. We did see a couple swimming but none of them were sunning on the banks. The boys still thought it was fun to ride around on the boat and look for gators. After a pool day we headed down to the Venice beach for a sunset drum circle! People all brought their personal drums and played the drums together completely unrehearsed until the sun was gone. You would be surprised that they all were just improvising because it sounded really awesome. There were hoola-hoopers and people giving others blessings with giant leaves. It had a certain Washington feel to it....
On our last day of the trip we spent the day at Siesta Key beach and dinner at the Salty Dog right on the water. The beach was a little bit familiar since so many times on spring break I went with my aunts and cousins to Siesta Key beach! I wish I was able to cruise the strip we used to walk and go to the Beach Bizzarre where I would go to buy beachy gifts but with a bunch of kids it was a little more difficult than when I was 12. :( The beach was just as beautiful as I remember and the white powder sand was so awesome. It would never get old!
We went home and packed up and were on the road to the airport at 5a. We were home by 930a and to my shock and surprise I was unpacked by 3pm. I have never unpacked the same day, or even week, of a trip! It was such an amazing trip and we made so many great memories with our boys and with one of my best friends! Our boys became great friends more than they already were and it made me wish even more so that we didn't live so far apart. There are so many little things this post doesn't even describe but I just want to have a little bit of our trip documented to look back on. Especially look back on in January. I absolutely can't wait to plan another trip with our boys since so many memories happened in just ten short days. I feel like this trip would be incredibly hard to beat but I am willing to give it a try. :)
