Our Trip

We had an awesome trip, but glad to be going home...there truly is no place like home.

I will start off this post with a little blurb on how the kids did...

the drive down way exceeded our expectations...we only stopped three times and made it to our destination within 17 hours...Gavin, of course, did amazingly well...he was up for almost all of the ride and never made a peep...he watched movies from 10pm until 3am...Scott and I were shocked that he stayed up that late...Georgia on the other hand slept from 9pm until daylight...she fussed the most when we first started our trip...she did extremely well once we got her settled and used to the fact that she would be in her seat for awhile.  The drive through was pretty rough once we hit the 4am mark...we stopped at a rest area to sleep, but of course, Scott started snoring so I knew I was not going to be able to get any sleep...so I waited around until the sun started to come up and that is when I decided to get back on the road.

Once we got in to Florida, we stopped to eat and headed west to visit close friends of Scotts dad.  They are staying in an RV park which just so happened to be down a little ways from where I got my Scuba certification (devils den) and just outside of Tampa.  We sat outside and talked for a little while before heading back out to go see some manatees and see the ocean.

We relaxed the first two days of our trip while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive...which worked out because it poured the second day we were there...the weather was beautiful the rest of the time...definitely not too hot and not too cool...

We headed to Sea World on Monday and had a really great time...we saw a dolphin, sea otter, walrus and killer whale show...they were all pretty amazing except for the shamu show...we think that since that lady was just killed a few weeks ago that they have taken A LOT out of the show...there wasnt any in-the-water interaction with the whales and the show lasted maybe 15 minutes...it was kinda sad to think about the events that had just taken place there, but still really neat to see the animals in action.  Gavin really enjoyed the dolphin and sea otter shows...it makes everything worth it when you see your childs face light up at new experiences!!  I also had the opportunity to ride some rollercoasters at Sea World...I even convinced my husband, sister in laws and father in law to ride one of the rides (my husband and one sister in law are scared of heights).  The weather was great and the animals were beautiful.

Tuesday was spent at the pool...it was a GORGEOUS Florida day and we all went to bed with sun burns...Gavin played in the pool with his daddy while my mother in law so generously watched Georgia back at the room.  We later headed to a pirate show dinner theater...definetely interesting although we are not sure we would go to a pirate one again...

Wednesday was our Disney day...the park was packed and was just like I remembered.  Gavin LOVED seeing the characters even when we had the chance to meet the Winnie the Pooh characters during our lunch at the Crystal Palace.  One thing that made our visit 10 times better was the Fast Pass tickets we received because we already had tickets on hand from when I visited with my family back in the day...this pass was AMAZING and made our day flow so much better...we went on most of the popular rides for kids: its a small world, peter pans flight, dumbo, tea cups, haunted mansion (my favorite), the carousel and so much more.  When Gavin and Georgia fell asleep in their stroller, us adults decided to go on the "big kids" rides...my mother in law watched over them while we did this.  We went on space mountain, splash mountain and the railroad roller coaster...we had a blast and enjoyed using our fast passes to get right on the rides.  The shops are always fun...I purchased some Disney Christmas ornaments for the kids to document our vacation...we had a silhoutte of the kids done...they do this by taking small scissors and CUTTING our the kids profiles...it was really amazing to watch and definitely a nice keepsake.  As the day came to an end, all the visitors gathered around the castle to watch a "dreams come true" fireworks show...it was a great ending to a great day...especially when Gavin started ooing and awing over the fireworks...we even watching tinkerbell fly from the castle...it was a very happy moment.

Thursday was our beach day...we headed to Coco beach and saw the NASA launch area as we were driving in.  The weather was absolutely perfect again and I could not wait to get there to see how Gavin would react to the ocean...we got there and Gavin loved it right away...I took him down to the water and he jsut had a BALL...he kept running in and out of the water, splashing an purposefully falling so he could laugh and get wet...he wore out pretty quickly and that is when we headed to our towels to dry off...Gavin continued to play and truly loved playing in the sand (the pictures show it).

Friday was our downtown Disney day...we did some more shopping and just relaxed and enjoyed the scenary.  We went to a really nice outlet mall afterwards and then headed back to our place to cook spaghetti and watch the basketball games...it was a nice relaxing evening to end our very busy vacation.

I dont mention Georgia too much because she really did not do too much ;)  She was great every where we went and loved people watching ever where we went.  Gavin had some pretty cranky times and that was mainly due to not having naps during the day, staying up late and getting up early!  This is the only thing I look forward to getting back to normal with...Gavins naps and bed time!