Beach Trip, Part 2

We decided on Wednesday morning we wanted to do something a little different; we thought the girls might need a little break from the sun for a bit. Since there's not a lot to do in New Smyrna (it's a very residential area), and Daytona didn't sound too appealing, we decided to head to Orlando. The plan was to go to Downtown Disney for lunch at Rainforest Cafe then just play around there until nap time when the girls could fall asleep in the car for the ride back; it's about 1.5 hours away. That was the plan...

The girls were so excited to be at Rainforest Cafe! We had about a 20 minute wait, and they absolutely loved walking around the gift shop, playing with the toys, looking at the huge fish tanks with gorgeous fish and watching all the "animals" inside the Cafe. They couldn't wait to sit down and eat. Ryan and I both enjoyed our sandwiches while the girls each had a slider. Twice while we were eating, "the show" started up where the lights dim down, it starts to thunder and lightening and the animals all start talking to one another. At first, both girls were a little nervous and wanted to sit in Daddy's lap, but then they loved it. It's about all Lily could talk about, and Mia just kept pointing to all the animals. They were having such a great time! Well, Ryan and I are suckers for Disney, and we started wondering "would it be worth it to just go to one of the parks for the rest of day?" We decided, yes, it is worth it, so we stopped at a customer service area and bought tickets to Animal Kingdom.
Unfortunately, we didn't have our regular camera with us since we had planned on just lunch. We had our small camera with us but we didn't use it a whole lot. We got to Animal Kingdom, and rode the tram to the entrance. I told Ryan that next time we could save a bunch of money if we just paid to park and then rode the tram around; the girls loved it!

When we got in, the girls were immediately taken by the little pond with ducks in it. Seriously, we can see this down the street from our home! We managed to talk them away from it, and we realized Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade was about to start. We also realized it was blazing hot! We bought one of those little fans that also sprays water to help cool us off while we waited. We waited about 10 minutes, but then the parade started, and both girls really enjoyed it. It was pretty cute and lasted about 20 minutes; what a fun way to start our time at Animal Kingdom.

When the parade was over, Ryan and Lily headed to see the 3D bug movie while Mia and I headed back to the lockers to get a clean diaper on. When we caught up with each other a little bit later, Lily came running up to me while crying. She was not a fan of the bug show. Apparently about 5 minutes into the show, a very thick fog comes into the theatre and then a mean grasshopper comes out of the wall. This really scared Lily, so they headed out of the theatre. I heard about the fog and grasshopper for several days!

After this, we went and stood in line at Kilimanjaro Safari for about 40 minutes. The girls did pretty well while we waited, and then loved the ride. After that we went to meet some of the characters. Here are the pictures below, but they loaded in reverse order, so you'll see the characters first and then the safari.

Each of the major characters have a little hut where you can stand in line and meet them. We decided we would try it for Mickey because it was about a 15 minute line. We figured Lily would be shy and nervous, but we didn't know what Mia would think. Turns out, both girls did great! Mia led the way and gave Mickey a high five and then knuckles. When Lily saw how well Mia did with him, she broke into a big smile and also gave Mickey a high five. It was so great to see her break out of her shell! This was the cute picture Disney took for us. As we were walking away, both girls waved and said "bye-bye!"

Minnie Mouse was in the hut next to Mickey, and her line wasn't very long. Given how well the girls did with Mickey, we decided to see her too. I'm so glad we did! The girls were thrilled with meeting her too though Mia was a little concerned about Minnie's hat. Lily even gave Minnie a hug which I simply could not believe. I wish the Disney photographer had been paying better attention and taken a picture of that!
Well, Goofy was next and again the girls did great. I am loving how well they are doing with the characters!

Last but not least was Donald Duck. Again, the girls loved him and did great with him. It was awesome to see them get so excited to see the characters.

Before meeting the characters we went on Kilimanjaro Safari. The girls loved the "truck ride" because you get to see so many great animals. This is a pretty cool ride. Check out this huge hippo!

They have lots of elephants, and here are a couple of them.

A big ostrich.

Look at all the flamingos!

We also had time to grab a quick bite of dinner, but we stayed until the park closed. The girls did amazingly well given they only had a short nap on the way over to Orlando many hours earlier. As we left the park, we decided to stop back by Downtown Disney so I could run into their candy store. I know that sounds ridiculous, but they have the best peanut butter cups there. I couldn't be that close and not stop. I also picked up a Rice Krispie Square for Ryan and two cookies for the girls. We decided to save them for a surprise for the next day. The girls were thrilled when they saw them! See my cell phone pictures below...

Mia enjoying her Dori cookie.

Lily showing off her Nemo cookie.

Our lunch side trip turned out to be quite a day! We had such a great time, and I'm so glad we made the decision to go to Animal Kingdom!

Beach Trip, Part 1

WARNING: There are a ton of pictures in this post!

I look forward to our family's annual vacation to New Smyrna Beach each year. This is a long-standing tradition in our family, and everyone tries really hard to make it down, at least for a few days. We were missing a few people this year, but we think there were 59 of us. So much fun! Most of our days were just spend hanging out on the beach, wading in the ocean, cooling off in the pool, eating and napping. What a wonderful way to spend a week. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Our family.

Granna and Papa with their grandkids.
Meme with her three boys and their families.
The big group!
Lily talked for days about building her sandcastles. She couldn't wait! She had a blast digging in the sand, finding shells to use as windows and making sand accessories (turtle farms and whale farms for example) for the castles with her sand toys. She also liked making "muts" (aka: moats) around the castle. She would often tell me which Disney Princess she was making the castle for too; we would have one for Cinderella, and a few feet away, one for Ariel. It was lots of fun to watch her imagination coming out as she made these.

Taking a quick break to snap a picture with Meme.

My niece, Molly, enjoyed sitting in the surf.

Papa with my nephew, Zac.

Papa managed to get Mia to sit still long enough for this picture; that's quite a feat because she just wanted to run everywhere!

Lily with one of her shells. She was fascinated by shells this year and wanted to look for them everywhere.

Meme and Mia taking a break to watch the rest of the action.

Having fun in the sand!

Trying to hang out with Mia for a minute.

I love my Meme!

Zac showing off the jellyfish he had collected.

Isn't Karson precious?

Molly, McKayla, Averie Ann, Ella, Finn and Reed on the lifeguard stand.

Francie is adorable.

Reed was having a great time!

Mia was pretty sure she was ready to try a boogie board.

I gave her a little help.

Mia loved the ocean and beach! She wanted to be in the water pretty much the whole time. We had to be very mindful though because many times she wanted to chase the waves back out; she didn't understand they would come right back in! Our little fearless one was so happy to be in the ocean!

Mia giving Zac a big hug.

Daddy and Mia in the ocean. She loved it when one of us would help her jump the waves.

Ready to hit the pool!

Lily absolutely loved the pool! She stayed on the steps most of the time, but she had such a great time playing with various toys we and other family members brought. The biggest hit was Francie's swimming Ariel doll which Francie was very kind to share for a long time with Lily. She also enjoyed the little net and fish that you can see in this picture.

Mia's checking out everyone in the pool.

Having fun with a water ball.

Granna and Zac having a good time together.

Getting a lift from Daddy.

Mia had a great time when Ryan would toss her into the air!

Such sweet sisters!

"I wonder if I can slide down that pole?" If she could have reached it easier, I'm sure we would have gotten our answer!

Lily loved jumping into Ryan or my arms!

Look at how beautiful the water, sand and weather were!

A little afternoon family volleyball game.

Enjoying a watermelon break.

After-nap bedhead cracked me up. Both girls took great naps every afternoon. They were worn out from having so much fun in the sun during the day!

Watching a few cartoons together.

Such sweethearts!

I love this precious picture.

Meme and her three boys making breakfast for her family on Monday morning. This is such a special treat. They each have their own special tasks to get the meal ready, and it's a competition to see who can make their part the best; they have a lot of fun getting it together. They make biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and cantaloupe. Wow, it's delicious!

My favorite day of the year is Hot Dog Day. I look forward to this day all year, probably a little too much so! I honestly don't know why Meme's hot dogs are so much better than anyone else's, but they really and truly are! Meme makes enough hot dogs to feed everyone (as I said above, that's 59 people!), and she makes an awesome fruit salad that has fresh pineapples, peaches and cherries in it. We also have chips, dips, salsas, chili (that we may or may not eat on our dogs) and cookies. I eat way too much this day, but it is so worth it! Here's a picture of the first two trays of hot dogs; each row is two dogs high. Seriously, these are the best hot dogs you could ever eat!

Everyone enjoying their hot dogs.

Meme with Molly, Zac, Mia and Lily at the start of our hot dog lunch. I can tell this is the beginning of lunch because none of the kids' clothes have ketchup on them yet.

Averie Ann, Ella, McKayla, Sam, Bo and Russ enjoying their time together after finishing up their lunch.

On Tuesday night, my mom and I took Lily, McKayla and Molly out for the evening. We stopped at Aunt Catfish's restaurant so M&M could have their portrait drawn by the artist there. They turned out really well. While we waited, we enjoyed listening to the musician who was playing some Jimmy Buffett music. Lily also had a good time playing with this alligator. She kept putting rocks in his mouth "because he's hungry."

After the pictures were finished, we headed into Daytona for Bubba Gump's restaurant. I absolutely love their fried shrimp and strawberry lemonade and make this special trip (about a 45 minute drive) each year, so I can enjoy this restaurant. By the time we got there though, we had almost an hour wait. Since we were all starting to get hungry, we decided to have dessert first. Cold Stone Creamery is next door to Bubba Gump's, so we all split a vanilla ice cream with sprinkles mixed in. As we waited, we saw a lady with two parrots; she would let you hold them and take your picture. The girls really wanted to do this, so we let them. McKayla held a very colorful parrot on her arm while Molly held a beautiful all-white parrot on her arm; Lily stood between them both. It was a pretty cute picture, but I haven't scanned it in yet, so I can't post it here. The picture below is of the three girls waiting (very patiently I might add) for our name to be called. This dinner was wonderful, and I'm so glad we made the special trip! It was so fun to hear Lily interact with McKayla and Molly too; she absolutely adores them, and she just wanted to be a big kid like them. She is growing up so fast!

So that's the majority of our trip. I will put in a Part 2 to this entry later that tells about a special side trip we made on Wednesdsay. This week was wonderful. We didn't see a drop of rain the entire time; it was beautiful. It was great to catch up with lots of cousins too. We are so fortunate to have such a big family that actually enjoys going on vacation together!