6 posts tagged “florida”

In our lingering to get home, we had to stop at South of the Border!

The girls took after their mom, and fell in love with the big cast animals. I remember them from Williamsburg - at the Pottery - when I was a girl. Electronics have nothing on this kind of fun!
Sad to say, Becky got eaten by a gator. And Rachel fell into a shell. And HAD HAD HAD to get her picture on the jackelope.
Becky did a Mexican hat dance, and giggled the whole time. Once we were on the road again, we had to hit Sonic once again. Funny how much the girls love the cheap fast food, with their slushies and foot long hot dogs. I love the onion rings, so I didn't mind stopping again. Probably a good thing we don't have them around here!

I neglected to post this picture, taken by Mrs. Karen, on the Friday that I was actually doing business - attending the school supply trade show. Karen took the kids to this Pioneer Enrichment Center. It was a mile or so from our house, and so cool! The kids visited a one-room schoolhouse, saw pioneer Florida farm life, visited the orange grove, and got to pick their own oranges! They really had a great time, and it was a very educational experience for them, since in Maryland, it's all about visiting apple and peach groves, corn fields, and strawberry fields.

We began our trip home on Monday. We took our time, stopping in Daytona, which is not a kid's beach!

You can't see the cars parked ON the beach - very cool. We ignored the Spring Break music and party that was going on at the back porch of the hotel right by us.
We also visited St. Augustine's sightseeing/fishing pier, which was VERY cool. For whatever reason, Rachel had to pretend to be the masthead of a ship, doing her best mermaid pose. They were acting so goofy!
The girls loved playing in the little fountain area nearby, and assured me they would NOT get wet while playing. Wrong! They tried to show me how sorry they were, but Katie's smirk says otherwise!
We tried to point out the orange trees and different vegetation as we could. The girls thought this would be so cool... to have oranges right in your back yard! As the sun set over St. Augustine, we said goodbye to Florida.  

No longer is it MGM! It's Hollywood Studios! I took LOTS of pictures of memorabilia, but not many of people...

The kids enjoyed the slower rides, but really LOVED the thrill rides. Star Wars was a huge hit, especially for big fans Katie and Blair! The older kids loved the Rockin' Roller Coaster (as did the moms!!!)

Finally finishing the blogging for Florida, nearly two weeks later! My, how time flies. On Wednesday, we went to the Magic Kingdom... 

A fabulous and magical day, complete with our own Mickey. Blair was thrilled to dress as Mickey, and we heard lots of side comments about how cute he looked. The girls hung out together a good bit, sharing turns on rides. At one point, all the big kids were riding the big water roller coaster, and we saw Woody and Jessie! Katie begged Becky to go see them and get pictures, and we obliged.

We had a huge group of kids again - ten plus Abri. Pirates of the Caribbean was a huge hit, and we took time to get a shot of the Moms, although I was behind the camera. Once again, Amy LOVED the thrill rides!

So out of 17 people, 14 of us have had the 24-hour flu bug thing. Amazingly, we made it to Epcot yesterday, minus one mom and one boy. Not too bad. We had a few sour tummies here and there, but for as big a group as we had, it was miraculous. We rode everything. The crowds were nearly nothing. The kids had a blast, and we did too!

We arrived on Tuesday, and have had a great time since. We have quite a crew... a dozen kids, three moms, one mom who works for the store but whose kids are grown, and one dad (Chris!). Whew.

Here are part of us on our drive down:

Chris and Emilee drove down on their own, and the other woman flew down on Saturday evening. We've visited Downtown Disney (Rainforest Cafe), Universal's CityWalk (Bubba Gump's), and a few other sites around the town.

We also have a bunch of electronics in our rental house: Wii, Playstation 2, GameCube, a bunch of Nintendo DS units, several iPods, and a handful of DVD players. That's a lot of juice!

A highlight on Thursday was taking Rachel, Katie, and their friend Alyssa to the Emeril's restaurant at Universal's CityWalk. We loved it! It was fine dining... napkins placed in the laps, servers escorting them to the restroom hall, and an extra special description of what makes a souffle, and a lovely presentation. We had three different entrees, which we shared all around. They were all delicious!

Today we drove to Clearwater Beach, which was lovely. Smooth water, beautiful skies, fun-loving kids playing in the sand. Chris did some sand sculpting, but eventually we cut our trip short, as we had a couple of folks with sour tummies.

Here's what's happening tonight, unfortunately:

We're supposed to visit Epcot tomorrow, but we'll see how everyone fares through the night. The drive back from the beach was an adventure... 7 out of 12 kids tossing cookies. Not fun. We did pretty well, making several stops for more plastic bags and napkins. Yuck. Hopefully tomorrow brings healthy, happy kids.