Life's a Beach!

Last week, Julie and I drove down to spend a few nights with Jennifer for a little Girls trip. Jessica couldn't make it, but we were still trying to get her to go with us up to the last minute.

We left Wednesday night, after Andrew got home from work and arrived at Jennifer's around 9:30. She had some snacks and drinks ready for us and it was such a nice welcome. We talked and laughed, and stayed up way too late. We talked about what we wanted to do while we were there and made plans for the rest of the week. Thursday morning Julie pops her head in my room just after 9:00 am and tells me that she is leaving. Her MIL was watching her kids and she got sick. So Julie had to go pick up the kids and drive them home (a 3 hour drive). Her plan was to drive back to Jennifer's (another 3 hour drive) either that night, or the next morning. Well, by that afternoon, Julie had a fever and was feeling awful. So, she decided not to come back at all. And it's a good thing to, because she ended up having strep throat!

So it was just me and Jennifer. It was 1:30 before we pulled our butts off the couch and decided to head to the beach. 

We stayed till around 6, and it was wonderful! 

Thursday night, we stayed home and snacked and sat around. So relaxing! 

Friday we headed back to the beach. 

To just lay at the beach, read a good book and have great conversation with your best friend, is the best way to spend a day. 

Friday night jennifer and I went out for pizza. Then back to the house to lay around some more. 

Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market in downtown Charleston.  We got a giant fresh lemonade and some kettle corn. Jennifer also picked up some fresh veggies and some fresh ravioli. 

We brought our beach stuff with us, in case we decided to go back to the beach. Well, we did and it was so crowded. But still very relaxing, once we got parked and found a nice spot on the beach. 

We were at the beach for most of the day and decided to leave once a very dark cloud showed up. I guess everyone else decided to leave also, and it took us forever to actually get off the Isle of Palms. But as we were leaving, we saw the most beautiful rainbow. 

You can faintly see a double rainbow. 

I put together two pictures, so you could see the whole thing. It was incredible! 

Saturday night was a lot more laying around. 

Sunday we got up and headed over to the outlets. It was tax free weekend and Jennifer wanted to look for some clothes. After a quick lunch at Panera, it was time to drive to Columbia. Andrew and Michael were meeting us there, since my ride left me stranded. (Just kidding Julie) 

We had a great time, and it was so relaxing. It reminded us a lot of our trip to the Bahamas last year. We really wish Julie could have stayed and that Jessica could have come. We missed those girls so much. Hopefully we will be able to plan another girls trip, and more than just me and Jennifer will be able to be there! 

Thanks for a great trip Jennifer! I had such a fun relaxing time! 

Hot Dog Day at the Zoo

Every year, the Greenville Zoo has an event called Hot Dog Day.

They have hot dogs, drinks, chips, and ice cream all for 50 cents each. 

Since we have a zoo pass, I thought it would be fun to go to, and a really cheap activity for Michael. Becky and Leilani went with us, and we were all able to get in with my pass. 

It was a little rainy, but we still had a lot of fun.

4th of July in Charleston

Jessica, all the kids, and I drove down on Wednesday, July third, to spend some time with Jennifer. It just worked out that we would be there for the forth.

We arrived around lunch time on Wednesday and just hung around Jennifer's house that day. We made a trip to the grocery store with all of the kids in tow, to buy what we would need for the next 3 days. We decided to eat all of our meals at home. Trying to take three kids out, wouldn't be fun for anyone. 

Thursday, the forth, we packed up the van, and headed to Isle of palms for the day. 

We brought a picnic lunch, and were prepared to stay for several hours. We even brought a baby pool for the Abby. It was a bit of a hassle, but ended up being a great idea. 

The kids did great at the beach, and had so much fun running in the waves and we got to sit in the ocean supervising. It was actually pretty relaxing. As relaxing as a trip to the beach with a three, two, and one year old. 

We didn't do anything exciting for the forth. It actually started raining in the afternoon, and rained most of the night. We grilled out hot dogs and hamburgers and had a lovely night in.

We put the kids to bed and we played Mexican train! We actually played every night after the kids went to bed and it got very competitive! 

Friday, it looked like it would rain, but we decided to go to the pool anyway.  The kids had so much fun at the pool, even when it started pouring! 

Saturday morning, we went to the pool again and then came home, ate lunch, packed the van and headed home. We wanted the kids to sleep most of the way home, and that is exactly what happened. 

We had so much fun with Jennifer and hopefully we can do it again next year. 

Disney Vacation - Day 7

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Magic Kingdom was going to stay open for 24 hours, starting at 6:00 am on Friday until 6:00 am on Saturday. We knew that the park was going to be crazy busy, so we decided to just stay at the resort all day. Michael and Andrew rode a little boat for a couple of hours, and then we went to the pool. 

It was HOT that day, so I’m glad we were at the pool, and not walking around a park. After several hours at the pool, we went back to the room to nap.

Our dinner reservations were for the Plaza Restaurant in Magic Kingdom. It was still super crowded! We could hardly walk down Main Street. We went and ate dinner and had a great view from our table. Then we tried to go on some rides, but it really was so crowded, that every ride had a really long wait. So we grabbed some kettle corn and an icee, and people watched. I hate that our last night was so crowded, but we had been so lucky all week with really low crowds. We didn’t stay long, and headed back to the resort. We had a long drive home tomorrow.

This was such a wonderful vacation! Disney World is so much more fun with a child, and I can’t wait to go back! Good thing it’s only a couple of months before we can do that. October can’t come soon enough! 

Disney Vacation - Day 6

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thursday was our Anniversary! 9 Years!

We actually set our alarms this day, so we could get to Hollywood Studios as they were opening. We wanted to make sure we got fast passes for Toy Story Mania, and were hoping to get in line, and ride it first thing. Well, the ride was broken, but we were still able to get our fast passes and just hope that it would be working at our return time.  Since the line for the ride was closed, we were the first in line to meet Buzz and Woody! Michael is still a little unsure about these guys. Toy Story is one of Michael’s Favorite movies, so you would think he would love meeting them, but they are huge and I think that is what throws Michael off a little. While Woody was signing our book, he turned to “Andy’s” page and just hugged and hugged the book. It was so sweet. Also, when Buzz was going to sign our book, I tried to turn the page for him, so he would sign it on his page, and buzz “told me” to calm down that he knew what he was doing. It was pretty funny!

After saying hi to Buzz and Woody, we went to Disney Junior Live, Voyage of The Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, and went to meet some more characters. Frozone and Mr. Incredible were a lot of fun! And Michael was excited that Frozone was “brown like him.” We were going to say hi to Wreck it Ralph, and Vanelopi, but their line was really long, so we decided to pass.  Then it was time for our Toy Story Fastpass. That is such a great ride, I just wish the line wasn’t so long ALL THE TIME! We grabbed some lunch, and headed out of the park.

We went back to the resort to nap, and then we had reservations for our anniversary dinner at Animal Kingdom. We ate at Yak & Yeti. It was really good, but we would just stick to going to the quick service instead of the table service. The food is the same, just a lot cheaper at the quick service window.

 By the time we were done with dinner, Animal Kingdom was closed, so we headed back to our resort. We decided to just hang around the resort and swim instead of going to Magic Kingdom like we had done every night.

The pool was great, and Michael had a blast. After swimming, we went to the “Movie on the lawn.” They were playing Lilo and Stitch. During the movie, we got to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from where we were sitting.

After the movie, it was time for bed. We only had one more day of vacation left!

Disney Vacation - Day 5

Wednesday May 22, 2013

This morning, we went over to Animal Kingdom. We watched the Lion King, Nemo the Musical, and rode the Safari, and the flying dinosaurs. That’s it. 

We left there, and went to lunch at Port Orleans Resort. For dessert, we got some awesome beignets! Then it was back to our room for a nap.

After our nap, we decided to take a little boat ride around the lake. We were the only ones on the boat! We went over to the campground, and the wilderness lodge, and then on to the Magic Kingdom.

The Magic Kingdom was empty again! We ate pizza for dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus.

 Then we went over to Fantasy Land and were able to meet all of the Characters again with no wait! 

Then Andrew and Michael rode Goofy’s Barnstormer roller coaster and were able to just stay on it, and go again! They rode it three times in a row without having to get off. Then we went over to Dumbo and there was no wait for that ride either. In fact, we were able to stay on multiple times for that one too, and actually were riding it during the fireworks! That is the best place to see fireworks!

Then it was time to go back to the resort and go to bed. 

Disney Vacation - Day 4

 Tuesday May 21, 2013

On Tuesday, we spent a majority of the day at Blizzard Beach. We don’t have a single picture from the day! I was expecting there to be Photopass photographers around, but I didn’t see a single one. I was a little disappointed, because I would have brought my camera. Oh well, we had a great time, and Michael loved all of the water slides. It did start to rain, but it didn’t stop us from having a great time. We were already wet, so a little rain wasn’t going to bother us. Right around the time we were going to get lunch, it started to thunder, so they has to close all of the slides. We got a turkey leg for lunch, and some mini doughnuts. Both were so yummy! The rides were still closed after we finished eating, so we decided to call it a day, and head back to our resort. We all went back and took a nice long nap. 

For dinner, we went over to the newest resort, Art of Animation. They have a whole “Cars” themed part of the resort, and we knew Michael would love that. The resort is so neat, and we might have to stay there sometime. Michael loved seeing all of the characters!

After walking around “Radiator Springs” we grabbed a quick dinner, and then went to Magic Kingdom. It was so nice being in the park at night. There was no one there, it was way cooler than during the day, and we could ride a lot of rides in a short amount of time. 

Disney Vacation - Day 3

 Monday May 20, 2013

Monday morning, we got up and went over to Magic Kingdom. First thing we did was get some pictures with Pluto and Mickey Mouse! Michael was definitely warming up to the characters! 

We went over to Adventure Land and walked through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, watched The Enchanted Tiki Room, and rode the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin’s Carpet, Pirates of the Caribbean. By then it was time for lunch, and Michael was asleep in his stroller. We went to get hot dogs from Casey’s Corner. When we were just about done eating, Michael woke up, and Andrew offered him some Cracker Jacks. I think that was his first time having them, and he loved them. And yes, that is all he ate for lunch. It’s vacation, what can I say?

Then we headed back to the resort to go swimming and run to the grocery store for a few items.

We had dinner reservations at Hollywood Studios at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. While on our way over, a big storm came up, and it was pouring rain when we got there. We decided to just wait in the car for the rain to stop. We got to dinner late, but at least we were dry. Dinner was so yummy, and we got to sit in a car to eat. Very Neat!

After dinner we went back over to the Magic Kingdom. The crowds were so low in the evening, that we could ride a ton of rides without any wait at all. We were actually on Aladdin’s carpet ride during the fireworks! What a great way to see them! And Michael loved it! After that it was time to call it a night. 

Disney Vacation - Day 2

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Before we left the Gaylord Palms, we wanted to walk around a little and check it out. Like I said, their lobby is massive, so we walked around their for a while and took some pictures.

Then it was time to drive over to Bay Lake Tower, or Disney Resort. We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast first, and that was such a mistake. It took forever, and was more expensive then we would have liked for a “quick” breakfast. Oh well, live and learn. Then we got to Bay Lake Tower! We were so excited to be staying at this resort. The close proximity to the Magic Kingdom and being right on the monorail, were just two of the things we were excited about. When we pulled up, they greeted us by name, brought us to the desk, and it was such a nice experience. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we just parked the car, and walked up to the monorail to go over to EPCOT.

Today was the last day of the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT, so we wanted to make sure and do that first. Well, it was so HOT!! And we were all kind of miserable walking around. We didn’t stay very long, and as we were leaving, a huge storm came up, so we went into one of the buildings to wait it out. There was a fire truck in the building, and Michael loved looking at it, and climbing on it. We picked a good place to get stuck. It finally stopped raining, and we made our way back to the monorail. As we were leaving, Michael and Andrew stopped to take some pictures and Andrew got some great ones of him.

We went back to our resort, to see if our room was ready, and it was! We were on the ground floor, and in a great location! We loved it! We unpacked the car, and I unpacked, while Andrew and Michael went to walk around the resort. We were right by the boat dock, and Michael loved looking at all of the boats.

Soon it was time for our dinner. We had reservations at Tony’s Town Square at the Magic Kingdom. Being so close to the Magic Kingdom we could walk over, or we could go get on the monorail. We discovered that it was actually faster to walk over. Since the Monorail has to make the whole loop before it gets back to the Magic Kingdom.

Dinner was great! Very good Italian food, and it was a new place for us. After dinner we went on some rides and watched the fireworks. Michael hated the fireworks when we at Disney in December and January, so we were sure how he would react to them. We had planned for the first night to watch fireworks from our resort, since it wouldn’t be loud, and we could get him used to the idea. Well, we were still in the park and it was time for fireworks, so we just hoped and prayed he would be ok. We were right by the carousel when they started, which is right under the fireworks, and he did great! I couldn’t believe it! He loved them! This was such a huge relief, because the fireworks are my favorite thing at Disney, and now we would get to watch them every night!    After the fireworks, we called it a night. We rode the monorail back over to our resort, and went to bed. We had a full day of fun planned for tomorrow. 

Disney Vacation - Day 1

Saturday, May 18, 2013

We spent Friday night at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Palm Coast, FL. Nice, clean hotel, and I got a great deal on priceline. It was exactly what we needed for the short amount of time that we were there.

We woke up Saturday morning, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then hit the road. We were in a hurry to get to Orlando! It was a quick trip, only about 2 hours. We went straight to the Gaylord Palms to check in for the night. I also got a great deal on priceline for this room. Tomorrow, we would be checking into our Disney Resort for the rest of the week. We went up to check out the room, and it was huge! Two queen beds, plus lots of extra space. Too bad we were only there for one night.

We decided not to waste any time, and we drove right over to the Magic Kingdom. We parked at the Polynesian Resort, and took the monorail over the the Magic Kingdom. We were all hungry, so we decided to grab some lunch at Tortuga Tavern in Adventure Land. We all split some yummy nachos, and were ready to ride some rides. First off is always, Pirates of the Caribbean, Andrew’s Favorite!  We went over to say hello to Goofy, Donald, Daisy, and Minnie. Michael was a little shy, but by the end of the week, he loved meeting the characters! 

After a couple of hours, Michael fell asleep in his stroller, and we decided that it was time for a Dole Whip! The line to get a Dole Whip was ridiculous, so we took the monorail over to the Polynesian Resort, and got one there. It was so refreshing!

Then we headed back to the hotel. There was going to be an Alligator Feeding demonstration in the lobby, and we didn't want to miss that. We were hoping Michael might lay down a little bit in the room, but that didn't happen, so we went to the lobby and waited for the demonstration. The Gaylord Palms is a huge resort, and the lobby isn't really a lobby, it is more like a shopping mall. We watched the guy feed all of the alligators, and then it was time for us to eat some dinner.

We knew we had to eat at Sweet Tomatoes at least once, while we were in Florida, so Saturday night seemed like the perfect time. Andrew ate a Sweet Tomatoes over ten years ago, and since then, he has talked about it all the time. We don’t have any in SC, and the closest one is 3 hours away. Well, it did not disappoint. It was great, and we ALL ate a ton of food. Michael ate more during this meal, then any other meal the whole week. We will definitely be going back when we are in Orlando again. After dinner, it was time to go to bed. We had a long day, and the week was just getting started. Tomorrow we get to check into our Disney Resort, and we couldn't wait!