We're Off Again, This time to Florida

Chad has been working in Florida a lot lately, so we decided to make a family trip out of it. Kate, Brower and I flew to Tampa on Tuesday. Mimi and Gigi were there to meet us. Brower was thrilled to ride a "big airpane to Gigi's house". I was so proud of Kate and Brower- they did awesome on the plane ride and getting through the airport.

We spent our mornings at the beach in Clearwater. The kids loved playing at the beach and swimming in the pool with Gigi. Mimi and Gigi took great care of us and spoiled us with yummy dinners and ice cream. It was so much fun to bring the kids to spend time at Gigi's house!

Kate and Brower playing "King of the sandcastle"
Kate won while Brower hid in the moat. They wrestled and played this game for a good 45 minutes. I have no idea how they have so much energy! Kate later decided to wash Brower's hair with the sand. Needless to say, I was washing sand out of every crevice of both of them!
Queen of the sandcastle

Two peas in a pod. K & B were freezing after playing in the water. They cuddled together to get warm.
Brower watching the birds
Boat!!

Our sandcastle

Chad drove into Tampa on Thursday night. We went out to dinner and enjoyed a great evening with Mimi and Gigi. We went back to the beach on Friday morning and then headed to Orlando for lots of fun at Disney World!

We checked into our hotel, grabbed some dinner and headed over to Downtown Disney. It was a beautiful night, so we walked around there for a few hours. One of our favorite things to do there is to run through the dancing water fountain and try not to get wet. Brower thinks it is hilarious. He even ran through it by himself this time!

Our morning started bright and early. Hilton offered to give us free breakfast and $100 cash if we would listen to their time share sell for 1 hour....bad idea. After 45 minutes, we said we have to get out of here. We did enjoy a free breakfast, but we need to get to the Magic Kingdom. After a bus ride and a ferry ride, we made it to Main Street. I think Chad and I were just as excited as the kids were. We had such a great day. We rode all of our favorite rides and found a few new fun things. We did Mickey's Philharmonic 3-D show. The kids were hilarious in it. They jumped, screamed and tried to grab everything that was coming towards them. We actually went to the show twice. We also went to Aeriel's Grotto this time. It was a really hot day (90 degress!) so we let the kids cool off in the Grotto. They loved it.

Enjoying ice cream after playing in Aeriel's Grotto

Do you think he is having a good time?

We actually stayed at Disney all the way through the parade...a 14 hour day! Brower crashed at 8:00 before the parade started. The parade was the SpectroMagic parade. They turn off the lights on Main Street and all of the costumes and floats are lit up. Brower woke up during the middle of looking around trying to figure out what was going on. I can't imagaine being completely asleep and waking up to that!! It was pretty funny! So, after a long day at the park, Kate and Brower both crashed on the bus. Mean parents that we are, we made them get in the shower when we got home. Both of them just stood in the shower with their eyes closed crying to go to bed. Pure torture! We had such a fun family day. I love seeing Disney through the eyes of my kids. Everything is just so real and exciting to them. What a great (and exhausting) day!