Epcot for the Day

We still have two days on our Disney tickets, so we decided to do a day trip to Epcot with just the girls. Tucker got to spend his first night at Grammy’s house since we were leaving early the next morning.
We got to the park before it opened and I was a little shocked at the crowd that had already gathered. Once the gates opened, though, the crowd seemed to spread out and it ended up being a really good day. We didn’t have to wait hardly any time for any of the rides we did, and even the lines for the characters were really short.
Pluto was out front, so we had our picture made with him…
Then we went inside the infamous Epcot ball for the Spaceship Earth ride inside it. Surprisingly Mamie was scared. She’s taken on this whole new fear of everything lately. For the longest time, she wasn’t scare of anything, so I guess it was time. :) She enjoyed it though, as long as I held her hand.
We stopped in to see Mickey, Minnie, & Goofy at the Epcot Character spot…
On our way to our next stop, we saw Chip & Dale…
We had FastPasses for the Nemo ride, but really could have just walked right on it. The girls really enjoyed all of the aquariums after the ride. We spent almost an hour walking around and looking at all the fish, sea turtles and even manatees. (My girls are like their Grammy and they LOVE manatees).
We did the Living with the Land ride next and then had a snack in the café there, while we were waiting on our Fastpasses for Soarin. DW sat it out this time, since he went with AB last time and Mamie isn’t big enough to ride yet. (We could have done the parent switch, but we would have still had to wait in the fastpass line again, which is still about a 20 minute wait for that ride.) DW took Mamie to the Figment ride and she enjoyed that, while they were waiting on us.
We made our way through the World Showcase… the flowers for the Garden & Flower festival were all so beautiful. We loved the topiaries in Paris!
We got to see Belle in her village dress…
And we grabbed some snacks as we walked through the different countries.
It started to rain a little so we ducked under an overhang for about 5 minutes until it passed.
We stopped again in Mexico to see Donald in his sombrero and to ride the Gran Fiesta boat ride. This was Mamie’s favorite part. My Dad still travels some for work, but lately his trips are just to Mexico- so Mamie assumes that ALL airplanes are going to Mexico like Pop’s. Every time we see an airplane, that’s what she says, so she was super excited to be in “Mexico,” too. I’m pretty sure Donald Duck isn’t there throwing a fiesta every time Dad goes, though. :)
It was early afternoon and we decided to hit Mission Space before heading home. I have always loved learning about the solar system and space travel, so I wanted to ride this one, too. DW & AB went first and I was shocked when they got in the orange line. I had told them to go to the green side for the less intense ride, but AB chose orange and DW stuck with it. They came out and AB was laughing, but her eyes were as big as golf balls! DW said it was pretty intense, so when AB & I got back in line for me to ride with her, we took the green side. When we got inside she started to tear up and say she didn’t want to ride again, so we just left our spot in line. :)
It was hot and humid, especially after the little rain shower, so we decided to call it a day, but not before we let the girls pick out their charms for their bracelets. AB chose the orange bird this time because it looked like something from Mexico and reminded her of the Gran Fiesta ride and Mamie chose the Donald Duck for the same reason.
It was such a fun day! We still have one day to use up before June, so we’ll be headed back to Disney soon!
~amw~

Spring Break 2015

Spring Break was so much fun this year! I don’t know if it’s because the weather was warm and it actually felt like spring break or if we were just needing a break so badly that made it great! Probably a little of both. :)

Nie-Nie & Kels took the oldest grands to the beach on Monday. AB was excited to get to join them and had such a fun time. They ate candy and junk and went shopping for prizes, saw a movie, played in the ocean, swam in the pool and stayed up late both nights.

On Wednesday morning, Mamie, Tucker & I headed that way, too!

We enjoyed some pool time that afternoon, while waiting on AB’s buddy, Emma and her mom to get there.

We all had dinner together at Red Robin before Nie-Nie, Kels, Elliot, Tay & Warren all headed back home.

AB was so excited to be staying the rest of the week at the beach and even more excited to have Emma with us!

Thursday morning, we hit the beach as soon as everyone was up and suncreened. We beached all morning, had ice cream from the ice cream truck, enjoyed the pool in the afternoon and all got a nap in before dinner.

We had dinner at the Roadhouse that night and then went down to the boardwalk. I was hoping to let the kids ride the ferris wheel, but after paying our $10.00 to park, unloading everyone and waiting in line for tickets, we found out the ferris wheel wasn’t running that night. Nice. At least we ended the night with hot Krispy Kremes. Everything is better at the beach, ESPECIALLY hot doughnuts. It was the perfect beach day and the best part – we woke up Friday to do it all over again!

AB & Emma had the best time playing in the waves – they’d play for a while, then come up to where we were sitting and play in the sand for a while, then get back in the ocean.

Mames was scared of the ocean this trip. She stuck to playing in the sand!

Tucker loved everything! He watched the waves and birds and the girls playing. He ate half his body weight in sand and was the easiest baby the whole trip. He napped every day under the umbrella.

After another fun in the sun day, Crystal & Emma packed up and headed home. We had such a great time with them and were so glad they could come.

The rest of the weekend was family time! DW got there around 8:00 that night, bearing ice cream surprises. :)

Tucker enjoyed the view and ice cream with Daddy that night.

We followed our normal beach routine… beach, pool, naps.

That evening, we tried a different restaurant for dinner and really enjoyed it.

Sunday we walked down to the pier for breakfast. Tucker napped, while I packed us up and DW took the girls to the pool. We hated saying good-bye to the beach, but summer hasn’t even started yet, so I’m sure we’ll see plenty of it over the next few months.

Such a GREAT Spring Break! (& now we’re SERIOUSLY counting down the days until school is OUT!)

~amw~