More Florida

And the travelogue continues!

On the third day of our trip we took a two hour drive south to visit what has been dubbed, by someone somewhere at some point in time, the best beach in the USA. And it was a very fine beach, I do agree. The sun was shining and temps were pushing 80, so it was a perfect day to go. It was a little busy, but the sand was excellent.

Here we are, frolicking:

Or reading a little Manga on the beach:

Of course, the boys had to play a little frisbee:

This is my favorite frisbee pic

Jonas chose not to play frisbee and instead decided to bury himself in the sand. I tried to get a picture of him but my camera focused on the guy in the foreground instead. I figured it was a perfect representation of the particular brand of ambiance you find at a public beach in Florida during spring break.

Here he is close up, sans tattooed-manboob guy:

After spending the day at the beach we headed to our new hotel, a sweet condo complex run by Hilton Grand Vacation Club that we sold our souls to stay at for a bargain basement price. It was a fantastic hotel--two full bedrooms, kitchen, nice pools, etc.--but Forrest and I had to spend 2 1/2 hours of our Monday morning listening to a sales agent named Jack Hammer (no I am not kidding), a grizzled man with a distracting case of post nasal drip and very little patience with "customers" who supply non scripted answers to his scripted sales questions, drone on about how "excited" we should be ("You're excited, right? Right? Aren't you excited?") to become "owners" instead of "renters" because "owners" are "winners." We escaped, though. Barely. And thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our time in our fancy digs.  

Later that day we took off once again to explore another Disney property, this time Epcot. It was my first time at Epcot and I loved it. So much to look at! I kept wishing my mom was there so I would have someone with whom I could meander through all the specialty shops; alas, the kids weren't so much into souvenir looking-but-not-buying. The food was good, though, and the kids were happy about that. We had some nice BBQ, some tasty Italian pastries, crepes, teriyaki chicken. So much better than the chicken sandwich at Tomorrowland.

Wyatt, enjoying some caramel sauce. He ended up drinking it straight from the cup. No, this was not an international delicacy. Just caramel sauce.

Jonas, making the acquaintance of a terra cotta warrior.

Wyatt, celebrating our Scandinavian heritage.

Elise, mysterious, with a fan.

A bonsai tree, mostly because it's cool. 

The boys (and Forrest, can you see him?) watching a street performer in "Italy." Elise and I were off getting pizza and Italian pastries.

All of us at dusk. A nice Asian family asked us to take their picture, so I asked them to do the same. It's a little blurry, but it's still a nice shot of all of us.

Fireworks at the end of the night.

Our last full day we spent at Hollywood Studios. At least part of the day. We were a little Disney Park pooped and only lasted until the early afternoon, then we left to enjoy the pools and do a little outlet shopping. But no pictures of that. Actually, I mist have been a little picture pooped as well, because I only took two at Hollywood Studios. First, this cute one of Wyatt and the Disney Dogs (although Goofy's near-humaness contrasted so sharply with Pluto's very-doggishness that it confused me as a child--was Goofy a dog, and if so, why did he wear clothes and Pluto didn't?) Anyway, there were only two people in line for photos with the Dogs, so I made sure I got one of Wyatt. It's the rule of lines at Disney: see one that's uncommonly short? Hop on in!

And here's the picture I forced the kids to take after riding the Rockin Roller Coaster. Super fun ride (even Wyatt loved it) and even though the kids weren't altogether thrilled that I made them put on hats and take a picture, I think this is a keeper. Even if Wyatt's hat is completely covering his face, he makes up for it with his "rock on" hand signs.

We had a fabulous trip. It's hard to believe that we only have one more year of all of us together . . . but I'm not going to think about that right now. I'm just grateful we have the chance to have great experiences like this.

Now we're back in Minnesota with only our memories to keep us warm. (Seriously. High teens today. Ridiculous!) But spring, real spring, is just around the corner. I can feel it.

Florida 2013 Part 1

As I sit typing this at 7:18 a.m. on Monday morning, it's snowing steadily outside. Low temperatures will be in the single digits all this week. It's hard to believe that just a few days ago, we were doing this:

Today is also the first day back to school for all the kids--but before they can go Ethan is outside shoveling the driveway. At least we have our memories!

And we have a lot of great memories. The trip was just wonderful: the weather was perfect (except for one rainy morning) and everyone was happy and healthy. Here's a bit of a travelogue of our adventure.

Our first day was spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's a nice park to start with because, while there are a few fun rides, it's not as overwhelming as Magic Kingdom. My favorite ride was probably Expedition Everest--Disney World's take on the Matterhorn. We had to promise Wyatt that he could close his eyes when the Yeti appeared and he spent most of the ride with his head buried in my side, but he liked it once it was all over. 

But the best part of Animal Kingdom is the safari ride. So many cool animals, up close and personal in a natural environment. Here are a few shots:

Hippo under water. (This picture wasn't taken on the actual safari ride, to clarify.)

Hippo on land

Bovine with crazy big horns

Beautiful giraffes

Lion on a rock. We debated whether or not there would be actual lions, since we're just driving around in an open air jeep looking at these animals, but I trust that the moat separating the lion from the jeep was sufficient. You never know, though. Some of those lions are leapers.

Elephants at the water, and a very cool baobab tree.

 There were a lot of fun things to see, like bongo drums:

The 3D movie "It's Tough to Be a Bug." (No matter how many times I've seen it, I'm always surprised when the stinger stings me in the back.)

(Wyatt photo bomb.)

Happy kids on a dinosaur ride:

Wyatt's smiling face:

Wyatt measuring himself against a gorilla, a la Hogle Zoo:

And one more of Wyatt, on his brother's shoulders. If you look closely, you can tell that he dressed himself that morning:

Hopefully Wyatt won't even know this picture exists when he's 15.

The next day we headed to Magic Kingdom. For those of you who've only been to Disneyland, Disney World has many of the same rides, but some of them are at different parks (like "It's Tough to Be a Bug" at Animal Kingdom.) There's still plenty to do at Magic Kingdom, though--and there were plenty of people trying to do it all with us that day. Crowds notwithstanding, we still had a lot of fun. We even met Mickey! We thought we were going to see a show of some kind at the "theater," but turns out it was just a Mickey photo op. But the line was short, so we thought, what the heck! 

Ethan looks huge in this picture, mostly because Forrest is slouching. I, however, am not slouching, so he IS getting kind of huge.

Some of the highlights of the day were the Buzz Lightyear ride, a perennial favorite:

We also loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Forrest's favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, though, Splash Mountain was closed for renovation. Dang! The only other lowlight was choosing to have lunch at the big cafeteria in Tomorrowland. Super busy, super expensive, and super disappointing food. At least Wyatt had fun with the grapes:

The kids also got a little tired of me taking their picture. Bless them. Here's a couple of my favorite kids-who-don't-want-their-picture-taken pictures:

(This one is actually at Epcot, but it fits the theme.)

They're so kind for humoring me.  Pictorial evidence notwithstanding, we DID have a great time at Magic Kingdom and had enough stamina to stay until dark. (Although after the Tomorrowland lunch debacle, we did leave early enough to head to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner instead. Cost just as much as a Disney dinner, and so much better!)

That's enough traveloguing for one post. Stay tuned for part two!

Aren't they both cute?