Beach Vacation

So, this summer we took a family vacation to Navarre Beach, Fl with my husband's entire family! There were 14 of us, 8 adults and 6 kids! We stayed in a townhouse on the beach that was 2400 square feet 4 bedrooms 3.5 baths!

This is the view from my room!

We didn't eat out at all! My sister-in-law meal planned for us and cooked almost all of the meals!

Our room!

The kids loved the beach!

Looking for seashells!

Just what the doctor ordered for my husband!

The boys dug holes every single day!

Kite flying on the beach!

A visit to the Gulfarium near Destin!

We hired a photographer to take all of our pictures on the beach! So, I took a picture of him taking our pictures! :) Can't wait to get the pictures back from him they
turned out much better than mine!

The entire group waiting for our group shot!

Uncle Steve caught a shark off the shore where we were playing!

Simple sand castle!

Headed to the National Naval Aviation Museum! See the truck in the photo! Half of our group was in that truck! Notice the picture below. . .

. . . the entire group ended up in my car because my sister-in-law had her handgun in her truck. You can't take a handgun on a Naval base! So, we had to go park their truck down the street and then attempt to go on base to get to the museum! Never a dull moment with this crew!

Getting ready to watch the Blue Angels practice at Pensacola Beach!

To sum it all up! This was a great vacation! 7 days of doing pretty much nothing! It was one of our favorite trips ever and one of our cheapest ones ever! I think this should be a annual trip!

Orlando

The week before Easter this year, we decided to go to Orlando. We went 18 months ago and did the entire Disney thing. Stayed on the Disney property etc. This time the kids wanted to go to the Nickelodeon Hotel. Can I just say that this will be the last time they get a imput on where we stay. It was way over priced for what it is. Anyway, we all had a great time and I had to block out the fact that it was more like a La Quinta for the price we paid to stay on Disney property 18 months in a condo and the same price we payed to stay at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in January! Don't get me wrong I stay at La Quinta's but for La Quinta price not 5 star price!

One of the pool/water slide areas at The Nickelodeon. My kids loved it!

E.T. and Baby Girl just as happy as can be playing in water for 8 hours straight!

Character breakfast at the Nickelodeon with Spongebob and other characters.

We spent two days at Universal Studios and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.

I think for our kids age we still prefer Disney hands down. The lines were not so great at Universal and standing in line for 80 minutes with two five year olds was not an option so we were forced to buy what they call an "Express Pass" to be able to go in a shorter line and only have to wait more like 30 minutes or less, which is more age appropriate for all of us :)

We love us some Mr. Grinch. Maybe this should be our Christmas card. What do you think? I think I am just kidding :)

Here are my Thing 1 and Thing 2! They are true to the storybook characters in many ways! :)

So, after an entire day swimming at the Nickelodeon and two days at Universal parks, we realized we couldn't come to Orlando and not at least go to Magic Kingdom for a day.

The kids loved Disney World so much 18 months earlier and all they ever talk about it wanting to go back. Being five and not really having any map skills, they were clueless that the Universal parks and The Nickelodeon were in the same town as Mickey Mouse. So, on the last day we surprised them with going to Magic Kingdom! We spend 16 hours there! It was the best day of all! And you can get a "Fast Pass" at no extra charge to be able to go in a shorter line unlike at Universal where they charge you $50 more per person each day for an "Express Pass" Can you tell at all that I was frustrated by that?????

It was a wonderful trip for just the four of us since this summer we are going with the my spouses entire family (14 of us) to Florida to stay in a beach house. The kids loved every minute of it even though there were a few things us adults were not thrilled with. I am really glad we ended it with Magic Kingdom. Disney just seems to be able to put a magical spin on things for this age and it is fun to just sit back and watch the kids. One day they will be adults doing these things for their kids and singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" to their children and making magical moments like this for them.

North Pole Express & Gaylord Texan "ICE"

So, last Friday we took the kids to Grapevine, Texas to ride the North Pole Express. It was the cutest thing. They had all the train cars decorated for Christmas and played "Polar Express" music pretty much the entire time. They even had Santa show up on our train ride to the North Pole!

Our tickets were even punched by the conductor just like in the movie!

E.T. and Baby Girl loved every minute of our 30 minute North Pole Express ride!

After the North Pole Express we went on over to the Gaylord Texan Resort with some friends to see "ICE" .

Everything you see in this exhibit is made out of ice and the temperature in 9 degrees below zero. We had to wear parkas that they provided over our regular jackets. Baby Girl got lost from us for a few minutes and when we found her, she was crying and her tears were almost frozen :(