Florida 2015

We decided to take a family vacation to Florida again this year. So, on Oct. 2nd, we packed up a newly purchased bike rack and basket hitch and hit the road right after school.

With Hurricane Joaquin causing havoc to some of the states along our path, the trip ended up being a slow and rainy one. By slow, I mean that it took us 22 hours to make the 15.5 hr drive with minimal stops. 

Among the stops were potty breaks and a Krispy Kreme breakfast.

The kids did an amazing job with traveling for so long. They are getting to be wonderful travelers. In the back, they watched a few Disney movies, played "Brain Quest: American History", colored, did homework, and slept quite a bit.

Orlando

The resort that we stayed at last year wasn't available so we looked around and chose the Marriot Grande Vista. I'm so glad that we did. We loved the resort and would stay there again. We had a two bedroom, two bathroom, full kitchen room which is perfect for us. The kids room had two beds so Little Bear and Pudge each picked a bed and Pequeño changed where he slept depending on the night.

Kids room

Our room (We offered to move this chaise into the kids room for Pequeño to sleep on but they wanted him to sleep with them.)

We were on the top floor in an end unit and had a beautiful view of part of the golf course and a pond.

There were a ton of things that were offered such as kayak or paddle boat rental, fire pits, tennis courts, sand volleyball, a golf course, etc. that we didn't have time to try out. We said that if we stayed there again, we would take more than just out one "resort day" to check everything out.

We did get to spend our time there enjoying different pools, riding our bikes, lizard spotting, getting ice cream, going on a nature hike, trying to teach the kids how to play pool. 

Papa took my phone for a swim on our second day there so I need to get the pictures from the rest of the trip from his phone.

We spent most of our week at Disney World! We spent one day at each park starting with Animal Kingdom (Pudge and Papa's favorite), then Magic Kingdom (Mama's favorite),  Hollywood Studios (Little Bear's favorite) and Epcot. (Pequeño loved them all). 

Animal Kingdom was a great start to the trip. The kids LOVE animals and participated in the junior adventurers activity (scavenger hunt with a book where the earn sticker badges for completing activities.) The safari ride was a favorite as were the monkeys. Pequeño didn't want to leave the monkeys and kept saying "They so cute!". Papa, Little Bear, and Pudge all rode Everest together. Little Bear wasn't a big fan of the roller coaster but Pudge wanted to go again. Before we left, Pudge bought  a realistic looking rubber King Cobra and had a fun time reassuring everyone that it wasn't a real snake. 

At Magic Kingdom, the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor were the two that the kids went on more than once. We also watched the same parade twice because they loved it so much. At the end of the parade, everyone got to dance in the street with the characters so the kids had fun showing off their moves. We also checked out the treehouse which was amazing. Pequeño really liked Genie from Aladdin and stuck pretty close to him.  

At Hollywood Studios, Indiana Jones, the Honey We Shrunk Ourselves playground,  and a car stunt show were the kids favorites. Little Bear chose an Indiana Jones hat as his trip souvenir.  I loved the Beauty and the Beast show although none of them did. Papa and Pudge also went on Tower of Terror which Pudge thought was awesome. 

The Food and Wine Festival was going on at Epcot so we spent the day tasting foods from all different places. I love that the kids are so willing to try different types of foods. 

Before going over to the side of the park where all of the food was, Papa, Little Bear, and Pudge did the Chevrolet Test Track where they got to design their own car. The kids were really excited to tell us that their car won for power and speed but lost for efficiency. However, their car had received the top score for the day so far.

The next day, we left for Daytona Beach.

We spent a few days at the beach swimming, searching for shells, walking on the board walk, riding our bikes on the sand, fishing from the pier, looking for baby turtles at night, and eating at different places.

We left around 4 am ( on Columbus Day) and had to make a few more stops than on the way down since the kids were awake most of the time. We got home around 9pm and were able to put three sleeping kids in their beds which was great because they all had school the following day.