Disney World

We were so excited to be able to spend our last day in Florida at Disney World.  Andy and I woke up super early.  Well, 5am.  We got the car all packed up, changed the boys and got them in the car and left St. Pete's Beach.  We wanted to get to the Disney World right away so we would have the whole day there.  

Friday was supposed to be the nicest day of the entire week in terms of weather and it was!  Just ask my camera strap tan. 

We saw the Easter Bunny right away!  I'm not normally one for visiting the Easter Bunny, but he was right there!

I was very impressed with Disney World.  I know they call it The Happiest Place on Earth and it definitely was!  The people working were overly nice and friendly.  We got our picture taken with characters and in front of the big castle and they didn't even charge us, they just took it on my camera for us. 

We headed off to Adventureland first and this was a lot of fun!  We went on a jungle cruise first that was narrated by each of the boat's captains.  It was pun after pun.  But, very entertaining. 

The boys ran into the Chipmunks!  They got their picture taken with them and did a little dance too.

We stopped to watch the Easter Parade.

Alex and Andy went on this log ride type of ride and Aiden and I got to watch.  Adventureland had a lot of rides and I was so impressed that Alex could go on almost all of them.  Aiden could too. 

After Adventureland, Aiden took a little rest.  He slept for a little over an hour.  Aiden doesn't usually need much sleep to regain energy though, so it was perfect!  We kept moving along and Alex and I went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  It was a rollercoaster and he was a little scared, but he did great!  And he got ice cream after.

Aiden woke up and we headed over to It's A Small World.  They loved this ride and were in awe the entire time.  I remember this ride as a kid, it's a classic. 

The boys had a great time there.  They didn't argue all day, they were running in every direction and wanted to try everything.  They couldn't believe how big the castle was either!

We asked Alex what he for sure wanted to do before we left and he answered, "Meet Mickey Mouse".  Aiden wouldn't stop hugging Mickey.  He definitely warmed up to these characters by the end of our day.

 

The Dumbo ride was about a 3 hour wait while we were there, so we grabbed a FastPass and came back later to get on right away.  The boys loved flying in Dumbo.

The each got to pick out a souvenir hat.  Alex picked out a Buzz Lightyear hat and Aiden a Goofy hat. 

Our last ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride, which was so much fun and it was definitely both of the boys' favorite ride.  We also stayed for the electrical parade and fireworks, which were amazing and totally worth it.  It was a wonderful day!

We headed back to our van for the trip and got back to the hotel at 12:30 am, only to be woken up at 3:30 am to go to the airport for our flight back to MN!

We will definitely go back when the boys are older.  It was one of the best days of our trip!  Thanks, Disney, for the great memories!

Our Last Night

Nothing in my wildest dreams could have prepared me for the life I lead now.  Being a mom, a wife and a person are three incredibly different and heavy things to juggle. All that being said, I would never give up any one of those things.  They make me who I am and they make me a better person.  Andy and I both didn't want to be super busy on vacation, we wanted to be at the beach and appreciate the little things in life.  Our little people and their big personalities.  

The last night we were there we went to dinner and came back to the beach.  It was the nicest day at the beach.  We walked the beach looking for shells, taking silly pictures, racing each other, seeing how far we could dig our toes into the sand, watching the sun go down, and loving the fact that in this world we have each other.  

I am so proud of and love my little family! It's all I've ever dreamed of....

The Last of St. Pete's Beach

I wanted to add in some more pictures from our time at St. Pete's Beach.  

Alex saw this Simpson character on the wall at the donut shop and immediately had to have his picture taken in front of him for Uncle Pete.

We enjoyed exploring the city and all it had to offer including great food!

We had a lot of great, quality family time.

I am so grateful that we were able to go on such a great family vacation!

Welcome to St. Pete's Beach

Although it was colder than what we would have preferred our spring break to be, it was warmer than Minnesota, so it was great!

We didn't plan on it being as "cold" as it was, so we didn't plan that many activities.  We were planning on being at the beach the whole time.  Our plans changed.

We visited St. Petersburg Pier one day and that was fun.  I'm glad we got to see it. 

There were a lot of little shops inside the Pier, but we enjoyed watching the dolphins swimming and the birds trying to steal the fish away from the fishermen on the Pier.  

Upon recommendation, we headed to Tampa (not far) one evening and ate at Bahama Breeze.  It was fast, delicious and enjoyable. 

Our hotel seemed to be a bit out of our price range, but we did enjoy the ice cream shop they had.  Who cares if it was upper 50's/60's most of the time?  When you are at the beach, ice cream it is!

 

 

We enjoyed trying out some of the local restaurants.  We ate all sorts of different foods including alligator, craw fish, crab, and shrimp. We all loved most of the food, Andy however was the only one who loved the craw fish.  We found a local donut shop for breakfast one morning.  The boys loved sitting at the counter top and ordering their own donuts. 

We visited the local Sunken Gardens, which was really beautiful.  It was like walking through a beautiful forest.  We rarely ran into anyone else on our adventure.  It was gorgeous!

When arriving at the hotel, we knew our travel agent had booked us out of our price range when Andy and I received complimentary champagne while checking in and the boys were given coloring books, crayons and Easter eggs.  I guess it's okay to splurge once in a while.  Although a bit chilly, the pools were heated and nice.  They also had a full bar and complimentary smoothies on the beach. They had live music during the day, usually a male singing while playing a guitar.  Beautiful music. 

St. Pete had a lot to offer, but the beach was our reason for being there and we definitely spent a lot of time looking for sea shells, playing in the same, exploring the beach and occasionally going in the water.  Okay, just a few times.

The boys called our hotel, "The Castle".