Around here there are a few sure signs of when everyone has a good weekend:
- The kids sleep in on Sunday (and hopefully Monday some but only time will tell)
- They go to bed without any (or at least too many) typical bedtime avoidance tactics
- Steven and I fall asleep almost as soon as our own heads hit the pillow
- Everyone smells like sunblock... our ideas of a fun activity almost always seem to involve sunblock
This weekend was a blast for all of us. We knew it was going to be a big weekend but we have all been looking forward to it. We started on Saturday with getting up and Steven and I took turns going on a run. Then we all headed out to Publix to gather a few last minute picnic supplies for the evening. After lunch, we packed up the car and headed for Jungle Hut Beach. I'm sure we have talked about this beach before, but it is one of our favorites. It is in Palm Coast, not too far from Grandma and Grandaddy's house. That's how we found it originally, and I'm so glad we did.
We made it to Jungle Hut around 3pm and loaded up the wagon to head out onto the beach. There was a good number of people around, but we found a big area fairly easily and set up our tent. The kids barely hit the sand and were off into the water. One thing we have noticed with Will this year is that he has absolutely no fear of the ocean any longer. Last year he took a few trips to the beach (specifically ones with loud waves) before he would go to the water on his own. This year, he charges right out there. As a matter of a fact, this time...he beat Kenzie. Crazy. The only problem with our beach trip was that although we had looked up the tides and thought it would be low tide, something was wrong with our research and we actually hit the beach right as the tide was coming back in. So, we spent our entire trip watching the rocks we wanted to search for shells around disappear and we even had to move the tent back once as the water tried to overtake us. Haha!
The kids played around in the water and found a few shells on the shoreline. We decided to walk down the beach a bit. Steven and I each went out into the rocks to look for some of the bigger shells like we found last time, but with the tide coming in, it wasn't easy. At one point, I was hit by a wave, tripped over a rock, and fell face first into the water. I'm sure Steven would have liked to have seen it... or even better, have a camera out when it happened. Will saw it and thought it was funny. He was taken out by a wave, too. So we matched and were both fairly chilly as the water was quite cold. At least we can both laugh it off. Hopefully next time we will catch low tide. Doesn't matter too much to us though... we will take high tide at the beach just because we are at the beach. We had to head back after a bit because we looked back down the beach and realized our pails were about to become boats and head out to sea as the tide came in.
At some point Kenzie started digging a hole in the sand. Eventually Steven joined her and the hole ended up fairly deep. We then decided to plant a Kenzie. Steven filled in the sand around her legs and Will got some ocean water to water her. We figure with enough salt water and sunshine, she will grow. Both kids thought this was hilarious. It did take Kenzie a bit to get out of the hole, which was even funnier than her being in the hole to begin with.
By then it was time for dinner and we had our picnic under the tent. Kenzie ate an entire "sub" (it was a hoagie roll from Publix with salami and cheese) which surprised us both. We had some yummy watermelon and chips and just enjoyed listening to the soundtrack of the beach. We could easily spend all day out there. Steven and I have talked about one day buying a condo on the beach, preferably the gulf, to spend as much time as possible. Or maybe one day we will just pack it all up and move there.
We decided after lunch to pack it up and head out. We had plans to go to Grandma and Grandaddy's house for dessert before driving home. We got off the beach easily and didn't need to change the kids as we were planning to give them a bath once we got to Grandma and Grandaddy's. Then it all sort of went downhill. We tried to start the car... and had a dead batter. Uh oh. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandaddy came to the rescue, met us at the beach, and jumped us. We made it to Tire Kingdom where they changed the battery quickly and because my prior battery was still under warranty, they only charged us the labor. While we were waiting for the battery to be changed though, we had an issue when Will managed to pour an entire cup of just brewed coffee on himself. I have never heard a more blood curdling scream out of him. We ripped off his rash guard and wet it down with cool water that we held on his chest until the pain lessened. Poor guy was a mess. He ended up with some scald marks on his chest but they looked better by the next morning and once the pain ended, he never said another word about it. We think he may have a fairly high pain tolerance anyway but it wasn't too terrible overall. More scary than anything. We did finally make it to Grandma and Grandaddy's for dessert (and a bath for the kiddos). We had brownies and peanut butter cookies. We wish we could have stayed longer and spent more time with them, but we lost a lot of time with the battery so we couldn't stay too long. The kids played a bit while we all chatted and then we had to head out. We were barely on the interstate before both kids were OUT. Kenzie woke up part way home and chatted with us the rest of the way but went to bed easily once we were finally home and she was in her own bed. Will wasn't as easy. He transitioned fine, but we woke him up a bit too much in the transition and lately, that means a night terror. It has happened a lot so it doesn't surprise us. This was a long one though before he finally came out of it. He has no recollection of it, of course, but they are quite scary for us even though we know he is okay. I hope he grows out of it soon. Steven and I went to bed fairly quickly after taking showers knowing we had another big day on Sunday.
Sunday morning we were up fairly early but mainly because we knew we had to get ready for church. Will woke up first but he lounged in bed with us for a while before going to play in the playroom while we all got a bit more shut eye. Eventually we had to get up and get moving. Kenzie stayed in bed for a while though and we didn't have to rush her so that was nice. Unlike school mornings when I feel like I'm waking a teenager some days. Steven had to be there a bit earlier than us as he was running slides. I was in the nursery but didn't have to be there as early so we didn't have to rush the kids too much. Both kids had a great time in their respective classes. After church we went home to prep for Disney (including packing dinner and changing) before heading to lunch at Steak n Shake on the way down to Magic Kingdom.
Lunch was good and we were off. Will fell asleep fairly quickly on the road and napped the entire way down to Disney. When we got there we got everyone sunblocked up and caught the tram to Ticket and Transportation. We elected to not take the stroller on this trip and I'm glad we didn't. It lets us move around so much easier. This was Will's first trip with a magic band since we bought his ticket and he was so excited with it. He has been putting his naked wrist up to the FP kiosk things for at least a year now but it doesn't turn green since he had no band. We rode the monorail over to MK (always a highlight for the kiddos) and were in the park fairly quickly. We had a FastPass come up fairly quickly for Pirates so we headed to Adventureland once inside the park. Thankfully Pirates was running... I noticed later in the day it was closed temporarily which seems to happen a lot on Pirates. The kids loved it like always. They make us cover their faces when you go down the slight incline as it often gets water in their faces but otherwise think the ride is awesome. At this point, I think they just do it out of habit. We got to the see the change to the Redhead which was... interesting.
After a bit of sword fighting on our way out of the ride, we headed over towards Frontierland to catch the railroad. On the way there, we got stopped at the tail end of the parade route and caught Maleficent and the final floats with the characters on them. Then we were able to make it to the railroad station. We can't seem to do a trip without riding the train. It is one of Will's favorites. We only road it to Fantasyland as we had FP at Buzz shortly after that and it was the closest station to there. We were a bit early so we decided to head over to ride the carousel, which is always a hit.
We then went over to Buzz where Kenzie actually elected to ride with me. Craziness. The boys were much more serious about shooting Zurg and Steven did the best out of the four of us. Will just shot at the ceiling basically. But he tried. Kenzie and I weren't as great, but we gave it our all. Haha! It wasn't time to eat dinner yet so we rode the People Mover. Steven thinks this is one of the best rides. Mainly because you just get to chill for a bit and the ride is easy and quiet. We then wanted to stay in Tomorrowland as we knew we wanted to eat at Starlight Cafe so we decided to try out the Monsters, Inc Laugh Factory. We have never done this before, but it was actually really good. Quite funny. I would recommend trying it out if you haven't. By the time the show was over, it was time for dinner. We found a table and had our packed dinner. Both kids devoured dinner. Guess they worked up an appetite.
After dinner it was time for us to head over to Fantasyland as our last FP was for Peter Pan. We made it over there early and the kids requested to ride It's A Small World. We found that it was fairly light as far as crowds go so no waits were too long. So, we told them okay.
By the time we finished we decided we had just enough time to hit up Rapunzel's Tower's bathroom (as it is my favorite) before our FP.
This was my first time on Peter Pan. Kenzie and Daddy have ridden it before, but Will and I have not. It was actually really cute. Not worth the crazy long wait it always seems to have. For instance, today almost all the normal rides (not the Space and Splash Mountains... but the others) had 20 minute or less waits. This one had an hour. I have no idea why the wait is always so substantial. I rode with Kenzie and she obviously loved it. I think she may like watching the Peter Pan cartoon soon. I am going to try to dig it up somewhere for her. At that point, it was time to head out. We rode the boat back to the TTC. We left early enough that we didn't need to change the kids for bed and they stayed up on the way home. I'm somewhat surprised that neither kid fell asleep. Let's put it this way... when we left for Disney I had two lights on my Fitbit meaning I had between 2,000 and 4,000 steps on the day. When we left Disney, I had almost 14,000. So, for the sake of argument, let's say I had right under 4,000. That means we walked 10,000 steps at Disney. Well, I did. The kids probably did more.
It was such a fun weekend. These are some of my favorites. We already have our next beach and Disney trips planned. We will be back at the beach within the next few weeks and plan to do another Sunday afternoon at Disney, though Epcot this time, for Mother's Day (at my request). We can't wait! Beaches and Disney easily make up our favorite weekend plans.
- The kids sleep in on Sunday (and hopefully Monday some but only time will tell)
- They go to bed without any (or at least too many) typical bedtime avoidance tactics
- Steven and I fall asleep almost as soon as our own heads hit the pillow
- Everyone smells like sunblock... our ideas of a fun activity almost always seem to involve sunblock
This weekend was a blast for all of us. We knew it was going to be a big weekend but we have all been looking forward to it. We started on Saturday with getting up and Steven and I took turns going on a run. Then we all headed out to Publix to gather a few last minute picnic supplies for the evening. After lunch, we packed up the car and headed for Jungle Hut Beach. I'm sure we have talked about this beach before, but it is one of our favorites. It is in Palm Coast, not too far from Grandma and Grandaddy's house. That's how we found it originally, and I'm so glad we did.
We made it to Jungle Hut around 3pm and loaded up the wagon to head out onto the beach. There was a good number of people around, but we found a big area fairly easily and set up our tent. The kids barely hit the sand and were off into the water. One thing we have noticed with Will this year is that he has absolutely no fear of the ocean any longer. Last year he took a few trips to the beach (specifically ones with loud waves) before he would go to the water on his own. This year, he charges right out there. As a matter of a fact, this time...he beat Kenzie. Crazy. The only problem with our beach trip was that although we had looked up the tides and thought it would be low tide, something was wrong with our research and we actually hit the beach right as the tide was coming back in. So, we spent our entire trip watching the rocks we wanted to search for shells around disappear and we even had to move the tent back once as the water tried to overtake us. Haha!
The kids played around in the water and found a few shells on the shoreline. We decided to walk down the beach a bit. Steven and I each went out into the rocks to look for some of the bigger shells like we found last time, but with the tide coming in, it wasn't easy. At one point, I was hit by a wave, tripped over a rock, and fell face first into the water. I'm sure Steven would have liked to have seen it... or even better, have a camera out when it happened. Will saw it and thought it was funny. He was taken out by a wave, too. So we matched and were both fairly chilly as the water was quite cold. At least we can both laugh it off. Hopefully next time we will catch low tide. Doesn't matter too much to us though... we will take high tide at the beach just because we are at the beach. We had to head back after a bit because we looked back down the beach and realized our pails were about to become boats and head out to sea as the tide came in.
At some point Kenzie started digging a hole in the sand. Eventually Steven joined her and the hole ended up fairly deep. We then decided to plant a Kenzie. Steven filled in the sand around her legs and Will got some ocean water to water her. We figure with enough salt water and sunshine, she will grow. Both kids thought this was hilarious. It did take Kenzie a bit to get out of the hole, which was even funnier than her being in the hole to begin with.
By then it was time for dinner and we had our picnic under the tent. Kenzie ate an entire "sub" (it was a hoagie roll from Publix with salami and cheese) which surprised us both. We had some yummy watermelon and chips and just enjoyed listening to the soundtrack of the beach. We could easily spend all day out there. Steven and I have talked about one day buying a condo on the beach, preferably the gulf, to spend as much time as possible. Or maybe one day we will just pack it all up and move there.
We decided after lunch to pack it up and head out. We had plans to go to Grandma and Grandaddy's house for dessert before driving home. We got off the beach easily and didn't need to change the kids as we were planning to give them a bath once we got to Grandma and Grandaddy's. Then it all sort of went downhill. We tried to start the car... and had a dead batter. Uh oh. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandaddy came to the rescue, met us at the beach, and jumped us. We made it to Tire Kingdom where they changed the battery quickly and because my prior battery was still under warranty, they only charged us the labor. While we were waiting for the battery to be changed though, we had an issue when Will managed to pour an entire cup of just brewed coffee on himself. I have never heard a more blood curdling scream out of him. We ripped off his rash guard and wet it down with cool water that we held on his chest until the pain lessened. Poor guy was a mess. He ended up with some scald marks on his chest but they looked better by the next morning and once the pain ended, he never said another word about it. We think he may have a fairly high pain tolerance anyway but it wasn't too terrible overall. More scary than anything. We did finally make it to Grandma and Grandaddy's for dessert (and a bath for the kiddos). We had brownies and peanut butter cookies. We wish we could have stayed longer and spent more time with them, but we lost a lot of time with the battery so we couldn't stay too long. The kids played a bit while we all chatted and then we had to head out. We were barely on the interstate before both kids were OUT. Kenzie woke up part way home and chatted with us the rest of the way but went to bed easily once we were finally home and she was in her own bed. Will wasn't as easy. He transitioned fine, but we woke him up a bit too much in the transition and lately, that means a night terror. It has happened a lot so it doesn't surprise us. This was a long one though before he finally came out of it. He has no recollection of it, of course, but they are quite scary for us even though we know he is okay. I hope he grows out of it soon. Steven and I went to bed fairly quickly after taking showers knowing we had another big day on Sunday.
Sunday morning we were up fairly early but mainly because we knew we had to get ready for church. Will woke up first but he lounged in bed with us for a while before going to play in the playroom while we all got a bit more shut eye. Eventually we had to get up and get moving. Kenzie stayed in bed for a while though and we didn't have to rush her so that was nice. Unlike school mornings when I feel like I'm waking a teenager some days. Steven had to be there a bit earlier than us as he was running slides. I was in the nursery but didn't have to be there as early so we didn't have to rush the kids too much. Both kids had a great time in their respective classes. After church we went home to prep for Disney (including packing dinner and changing) before heading to lunch at Steak n Shake on the way down to Magic Kingdom.
Lunch was good and we were off. Will fell asleep fairly quickly on the road and napped the entire way down to Disney. When we got there we got everyone sunblocked up and caught the tram to Ticket and Transportation. We elected to not take the stroller on this trip and I'm glad we didn't. It lets us move around so much easier. This was Will's first trip with a magic band since we bought his ticket and he was so excited with it. He has been putting his naked wrist up to the FP kiosk things for at least a year now but it doesn't turn green since he had no band. We rode the monorail over to MK (always a highlight for the kiddos) and were in the park fairly quickly. We had a FastPass come up fairly quickly for Pirates so we headed to Adventureland once inside the park. Thankfully Pirates was running... I noticed later in the day it was closed temporarily which seems to happen a lot on Pirates. The kids loved it like always. They make us cover their faces when you go down the slight incline as it often gets water in their faces but otherwise think the ride is awesome. At this point, I think they just do it out of habit. We got to the see the change to the Redhead which was... interesting.
After a bit of sword fighting on our way out of the ride, we headed over towards Frontierland to catch the railroad. On the way there, we got stopped at the tail end of the parade route and caught Maleficent and the final floats with the characters on them. Then we were able to make it to the railroad station. We can't seem to do a trip without riding the train. It is one of Will's favorites. We only road it to Fantasyland as we had FP at Buzz shortly after that and it was the closest station to there. We were a bit early so we decided to head over to ride the carousel, which is always a hit.
We then went over to Buzz where Kenzie actually elected to ride with me. Craziness. The boys were much more serious about shooting Zurg and Steven did the best out of the four of us. Will just shot at the ceiling basically. But he tried. Kenzie and I weren't as great, but we gave it our all. Haha! It wasn't time to eat dinner yet so we rode the People Mover. Steven thinks this is one of the best rides. Mainly because you just get to chill for a bit and the ride is easy and quiet. We then wanted to stay in Tomorrowland as we knew we wanted to eat at Starlight Cafe so we decided to try out the Monsters, Inc Laugh Factory. We have never done this before, but it was actually really good. Quite funny. I would recommend trying it out if you haven't. By the time the show was over, it was time for dinner. We found a table and had our packed dinner. Both kids devoured dinner. Guess they worked up an appetite.
After dinner it was time for us to head over to Fantasyland as our last FP was for Peter Pan. We made it over there early and the kids requested to ride It's A Small World. We found that it was fairly light as far as crowds go so no waits were too long. So, we told them okay.
By the time we finished we decided we had just enough time to hit up Rapunzel's Tower's bathroom (as it is my favorite) before our FP.
This was my first time on Peter Pan. Kenzie and Daddy have ridden it before, but Will and I have not. It was actually really cute. Not worth the crazy long wait it always seems to have. For instance, today almost all the normal rides (not the Space and Splash Mountains... but the others) had 20 minute or less waits. This one had an hour. I have no idea why the wait is always so substantial. I rode with Kenzie and she obviously loved it. I think she may like watching the Peter Pan cartoon soon. I am going to try to dig it up somewhere for her. At that point, it was time to head out. We rode the boat back to the TTC. We left early enough that we didn't need to change the kids for bed and they stayed up on the way home. I'm somewhat surprised that neither kid fell asleep. Let's put it this way... when we left for Disney I had two lights on my Fitbit meaning I had between 2,000 and 4,000 steps on the day. When we left Disney, I had almost 14,000. So, for the sake of argument, let's say I had right under 4,000. That means we walked 10,000 steps at Disney. Well, I did. The kids probably did more.
It was such a fun weekend. These are some of my favorites. We already have our next beach and Disney trips planned. We will be back at the beach within the next few weeks and plan to do another Sunday afternoon at Disney, though Epcot this time, for Mother's Day (at my request). We can't wait! Beaches and Disney easily make up our favorite weekend plans.
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