Dan, Erin, Rylie, Reagan, & Rory: 2014

This may be my longest post ever...

Dan and I had actually planned on going on a trip just the two of us in October for our 5 year anniversary and when neither of us could get away from work we went to Door County for a long weekend. We would have preferred a beach vacation, but it wasn't in the cards at that time. Dan hadn't been to Door County since he was a kid and I had never been there (that I can remember) so since it's only 2 hours from our house that's what we went with.

Then in February I had an offer that I couldn't refuse...use of a friend's timeshare. We weren't really planning on a taking a Spring vacation, but it was a better time of year for both of us and we did still really want that beach vacation. While another getaway would have been nice, we decided the girls with us this time though as we've never really done a trip with them, aside from visiting TX for two of my cousin's weddings. So we looked into some different options- Arizona, Gulf Shores, Sanibel, something on the East Coast. We either wanted to go somewhere we had never been or somewhere warm! But with it being less than two months away there weren't a lot of options for condos available. So we ended up looking at the Orlando area because there were several resorts available and quite a few different date options. It would have been great to go the same week as Carpenters (Spring Break), but we couldn't find anything available that week and the airfares were crazy. The week after Easter was much more affordable so that's what we went with!

The last time I was in Florida, I was 6 years old and my Uncle was living down there. So my parents, my brother and I, along with my Grandparents, all went to stay with them. We visited the beach, Magic Kingdom (that may be all that was there was at the time), and Sea World. I thought as long as we were in Orlando that we might as well visit Disney again. I was sure a few things had changed since I'd been there :). With the girls being pretty young yet, we didn't plan on doing a lot of the parks...I figured they would really only be interested in the one with princesses! So we did somewhat of a repeat of the 1986 trip and my parents were able to join us.

We waited to tell the girls until the morning we were leaving. Rylie was so excited about the trip, but she may have been even more excited that we were going to have 11 "family days". She loves weekends when Dan and I are home and she calls them family days..."Mommy, is it a family day tomorrow?"...and she's always asking for more. We arrived on a Friday evening and my parents arrived later that night. We didn't tell the girls that they were coming either and it worked about perfectly that we were playing a game of hide and seek in the condo when they arrived. The girls were hiding behind a curtain in our bedroom and when Gamma pulled back the curtain, they were so surprised. Carpenters were leaving the next morning, but they were only staying about 10 min. from where we were so they were able to stop by the condo and visit for a bit...they gave us a lot of good tips on the parks they visited.

Aaaand vacation is official

Yes, we let her play on the floor of the plane, which is disgusting, but whatever got us through the flight

On Saturday Dan and I sat through one of those three hour time share meetings which I had planned on avoiding, but it was actually worthwhile with the discounts we got on tickets to various places including the mini golf at the resort and Sea World. Once we returned from that we headed to the pool for some swimming, relaxing, and the first of the fruity beverages.

Lounging on the patio

Pool side nap

The following day we went to Cocoa Beach. It was about an hour drive and I didn't realize, until my mom told me, that it was the same beach we had gone to when I was younger. It was the girls first time seeing the ocean. They both walked into the water up to their knees or so and didn't want to go any further because they weren't too sure about the waves. Reagan wasn't a fan of having the sand stuck to her feet. We spent most of the day there in and out of the water. Daddy spent most of the afternoon building them a throne. And Rylie came home with all kinds of shells that she collected.

This girl has a rough life...naps at pools and beaches.

This little fedora on her kills me.
Target dollar section...wish I would have bought one for Reagan too.

Sand angel..way better than snow angels

Their thrones

Dinner from Joe's crab shack

On Monday we spent the day at Disney. We arrived a little later than planned, at 10:30am, but we didn't leave there until about 12:30am so we did just about everything we had planned on. The only things we weren't able to do was see the Frozen princesses, which was about impossible (Elsa and Anna were only there until 5pm while the rest of the princesses stayed until 10pm and the wait time was three HOURS) or go on the jungle cruise. We had stood in a hot sweaty line (with very little air movement) for about 40 minutes and were about one boat away from our turn and they had to shut it down due to lightning in the area. The time spent waiting was disappointing and I also remember that ride from when I was a kid, so it would have been fun to see again. Other than that we had such a great day. We saw just about every area of the Magic Kingdom and the girls did awesome. There were only a few short little naps taken, it was hot, and there was a lot of line-waiting but they didn't complain or whine...they did so great.

Just as we walked in one of the parades was starting which was awesome because we got to see a lot of the characters right away.

We did a 3D Mickey show first, had some lunch, and then went to find some of the characters/princesses. We saw Minnie and Daisy...Reagan was afraid of them once we got up close.

We went to see Belle and the audience members got to play a part in a short little play. Rylie was the little tea cup. My dad was chosen to be one of the Knights. Reagan didn't play a part, but she still ran up and hugged Belle at the end.

While some of the lines were long, it was actually a nice air-conditioned break whiles waiting in them. It was pretty warm that day and it was nice to cool off every now and then. We also went to a Monster's Inc show, Buzz Light Year ride, Little Mermaid ride, carousel ride and walked through the Swiss Family Robinson house. Reagan LOVED the fairies and princesses.

The lines for Cinderella and Rapunzel were almost as long as the Frozen Princesses, but we kept checking for a Fast Pass and later in the day we were finally able to get one...our time was 9pm which was when the electric light parade was going to start. We decided that the girls really wanted to see them, so we went ahead with that time. My dad hung back to watch the parade and save us a spot for the fireworks that would follow. Dan, my mom, the girls and I all headed back into the park toward the princesses. On the way we were passing the "It's a Small World" ride, which I also remember from my first visit, and the wait time was only 5 minutes. So we decided to go since we had a little bit of time to kill. Absolutely NOTHING has changed on this ride. It smelled and looked like 1970 in there. But the girls liked the music and the little boat ride.

And at our designated time, we walked in to see Cinderella and Rapunzel. Reagan's face just lit up every time she saw a princess. And she just plopped right down next to them and would have stayed the rest of the night. Rylie loved talking with them and the little stories they told.

After that we went back out to find my dad and get our spot for the fireworks...which were amazing. The castle changed several different colors and displayed characters too.

We still wanted to hit up the gift shop before we left, so that's where we went after the fireworks and let the crowds clear out a little as many people leave right after the fireworks. By the time we had finished in there, it was almost 11 and time for the second electric light parade. Rylie took a little snooze for the first part of it, but woke up in time to see the rest. They were able to see some of the princesses they hadn't seen during the day like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In my opinion, staying for the later parade was the best way to do it rather than trying to leave right after the fireworks. We walked out of the park afterwards and hopped right on the fairy (we took the tram into the park and the ferry from the park) and got out to our car and drove out...no lines, no waiting. Yes, it was LATE- 12:30, but it was such a memorable day with my family. And we had nowhere to be except the pool the next day, so it worked out well!

We would definitely go back when they're a little older to do more of the parks. And now that we have some experience with it, we understand how the Fast Passes, apps on the phones, and all of the other new technology works.

We tried to plan the trip out where we weren't on the go the whole time...we wanted to spend some time at the resort and at the pool and not have too many back to back days where we were out and about, since the girls didn't get much more than a cat nap those days. We spent Saturday (our first full day there) to relax after traveling, Tuesday - the day after Disney, and Thursday- the day after SeaWorld (our last day there) at the pool.

At Sea World we saw the dolphin show and Shamu show, and Rylie and Dan were able to feed the dolphins. We didn't do any rides there, but walked around and saw some of the other animals as well. We were there from about 9-2 and then headed for Downtown Disney. That is where I would like to spend a little more time next time we go. We went to a few stores- a LEGO store and Disney store and an Irish pub, but it was storming so we weren't able to do much more than that. Something to save for next time!