Lighthouse

We spent the morning at the beach, and then this afternoon we had our last "outing" for this vacation, and it definitely could count as a "field trip." We visited the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Museum. Our tour started with a 20 minute video on the history of the lighthouse (dates back to the late 1800's). We then walked through several buildings on the property (homes the keepers' families lived in, etc.) and learned about how the lenses work. Then we started climbing the steps up the lighthouse. Ian only lasted until the first landing, and then he was begging to go back down. Paul went back with him, and Nadia and I continued on to the top - which included a total of 203 steps each way. Once we got back to the bottom, Paul wanted to go up, and Nadia said she'd go with him. That meant a grand total of 812 steps for her! The views from the top were amazing. After we finished the museums, we joined Paul's parents and Oliver in the adjacent playground. After some time on the playground, we headed to Applebee's for dinner. This lighthouse is the tallest in Florida and one of the few tallest in the country. It only cost $13 for the four of us to tour the museums and go up the lighthouse. I thought that was very reasonable considering how well done everything was. Tomorrow will be our last full day of the vacation as we will start our trek home on Friday.

Met an astronaut!

Yesterday morning we drove to the Kennedy Space Center and spent eight hours there, had dinner at Cracker Barrel, and then got back to our resort at the kids' bed time. Paul had been there in 1997, but I hadn't been there since I was a kid. The center has changed a lot since then! It's a lot more expensive to visit, but we used credit card points to get our tickets. We had a great time. I want to take the kids again when they are older (maybe in about 10 years?) when they know more about space exploration and can appreciate things like the tour of the rocket garden (which we skipped). Our first stop was to visit Space Shuttle Atlantis. They do a very nice job of unveiling her to visitors, and you can get very close to it. Nadia and Ian enjoyed a big slide in that  building, but Oliver was too short to go down it. Oliver was also too short to do the Shuttle Launch Experience ride so Paul's parents and Oliver did the observation deck of that experience while the other four of us rode the ride. Our next stop was a 3D IMAX movie about the Hubble. I had packed our lunches so we ate during the 43 minute movie.

Paul's parents ate lunch after the movie while the kids played in the play ground. Then we took the 12:30 bus tour which including our time at the Apollo/ Saturn V center lasted about 2 hours. I thought Oliver might take his nap on the bus tour, but actually he stayed awake and his siblings slept through part of the ride. A launch is scheduled for tomorrow, which we should be able to see from the beach at our resort. We visited more exhibits, spent more time at the playground, and took some pictures before meeting Barbara Morgan, a former astronaut. We attended a Q&A with her. Nadia asked a question (and told Barbara that she wants to go to the moon some day). Barbara (a teacher) was Christa McAuliffe's back-up for the Challenger mission, and after that tragedy she trained for another mission and did go to space later. Nadia said meeting her was the favorite part of her day at KSC. Our last stop of the day was to see a second IMAX movie about the projects NASA is working on right now to prepare for taking astronauts back to the moon and also to Mars for the first time. That IMAX movie was Paul's favorite part of the day, and I also really enjoyed that movie plus the launch experience ride.

Nadia touching a piece of a rock from the moon

New Smyrna Beach

We arrived at the resort a little before midnight on Friday night. The front desk closed at 10pm that night, but they had left our keys and other information in a lock box and told us the security code to access them. We finished the check-in process on Saturday morning. They provided a free breakfast (donuts from Dunkin Donuts, OJ, and coffee) on the pool deck at 9:30 on Saturday. The main building is on the beach. Our units are in the building across the street from the main building. We both have two bedroom units whereas in Orlando we had a two bedroom and Paul's parents had an efficiency. In Orlando one bedroom had a king size bed and the other had two queen size beds. In this resort one bedroom has a queen size bed and the other has two twin size beds. We could have opened up the sofa bed in the living room, but instead we opted to have Nadia sleep on one of the twin size bed in Grandma and Pop Pop's unit, and the boys are sleeping in the twin size beds in our unit. If my Aunt Tina comes down to visit us, we'll have Ian move over to the other twin size bed in their unit, and Tina could sleep in the bedroom with Oliver in our unit.

Our current units have most of the same amenities as the last one, but they don't include a washer or dryer. We did all our laundry on Thursday in Orlando so we should be okay this week. There is a dishwasher. This resort does allow us to exchange our bath and kitchen towels twice in the week, but this excludes the pool/beach towels. In contrast at our last resort we never were able to exchange the towels in our unit, but we could exchange our pool towels multiple times a day, if we wanted. They did give us 12 pool/beach towels since we have two units, and there are towel drying racks on the patio outside every unit.

After we ate our donuts on Saturday morning we thought we'd take a dip in the pool, but it turns out the swimming pool's water is very cold. Ian and I were not interested in getting in. Paul, Nadia, and Oliver swam in there a little bit although Oliver cried when he first went in because of the temperature. After lunch we headed out to the beach and were very relieved to find the water temperature was nice and warm. I went to Cocoa Beach a few years ago for a conference, but I don't think I've ever been to Daytona  or New Smyrna Beach. I was surprised to see cars driving on the beach! The speed limit is 10 MPH for the 23 miles cars can drive on hard packed sand.

Our resort provides lots of toys to play with in the sand and chairs to take out to the beach. We had brought an umbrella from home. There isn't a boardwalk, but there are some food trucks on the beach. We had plenty of time in the swimming pool in Orlando, and considering the difference in water temperature here between the ocean and pool (Paul and I guessed the ocean is about 15 degrees warmer than the pool), we'll be spending our time on the beach! All three kids had a blast playing in the sand and in the ocean on Saturday afternoon. Oliver has NO fear of the ocean, which is actually unhealthy so we have to keep a very close eye on him. We brought two kites. Paul had trouble getting Ian's to fly. We'll buy him another one, but Pop Pop got Nadia's up in the air. She loved flying it! I am embarrassed to admit this was the first time the kids had flown a kite. Oops! Better late than never.  We had pizza for dinner on Saturday and did grocery shopping at Publix. I made dinner on Sunday night.

The kids are really, really enjoying playing in the ocean and also playing in the sand. At one point on Sunday afternoon Oliver was playing in the sand with me and then said to me while pointing to the ocean, "Mommy, I want to go in that puddle." Ha ha! The Atlantic Ocean is just a puddle to my two year old. Ian fell asleep shortly before we left the beach to have dinner on Sunday. We are looking forward to a few more days at the beach plus a trip to Kennedy Space Center today and a lighthouse on Wednesday.

Let's go fly a kite!

Magic Kingdom take three

On Friday we took our kids to Magic Kingdom for the third time in the past 24 months. Our day went a lot better than last year because none of us had the stomach flu, and they didn't have to close the rides due to a thunderstorm. We went to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first, and the sign said the line was already 45 minutes long. Last year it was 75 minutes long when the park opened, but last year we were able to get fast passes for it, and this year the fast passes for this ride were already gone for the day before the park opened. So we decided to wait in line, and thankfully we only waited 33 minutes - which was the longest we waited for any ride the whole day. Most of the time we waited 5-10 minutes for each ride thanks to fast passes. While we were on that ride Paul's parents took Oliver on Winnie the Pooh's ride and Dumbo's ride. Nadia met Ariel, and then we all rode the Little Mermaid ride and participated in Story time with Belle before heading to lunch. Nadia was picked to be the Beast for the third time! She knows it's important to "roar" really loudly when they're assigning parts. This year we got a video of her dancing with Belle thanks to Paul's mom's iPhone! I'll get it uploaded some day. We also have videos of Nadia and Ian fighting Darth Vader at Hollywood Studios. Ian didn't want a part last year (he was the footstool two years ago), but this year he enjoyed being the teacup "Chip." Oliver was assigned to be a pepper shaker, but he didn't actually participate.

On our first trip to Magic Kingdom we tried to eat lunch at the Be Our Guest Restaurant that had recently opened, but the line was about two hours long. This year we actually ate in the restaurant although we had to make our reservation for 10:30. We had pre-ordered our food ahead of time the night before, and this drastically cut down how much time we spent in the restaurant because the line for ordering food was rather long. Nadia and Ian had grilled cheese, tomato soup, a drink, and a cookie. Neither of them ate their soup. Oliver ate Nadia's soup. Paul's mom and I had croque monsieur and fries. Paul's dad and Paul had turkey sandwiches (on baguettes) and fries. Oliver had many of my fries and part of my sandwich. The restaurant is very beautiful, but it isn't worth waiting in line for hours to eat there.

After lunch Paul's parents took the boys to see Philharmagic. Paul, Nadia, and I were supposed to ride Space Mountain together, but one of the fast passes was with Paul's parents so only Nadia and I rode it. it was her first time on the ride, and she loved it! When I was a child it was my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom. As an adult it wasn't nearly as exciting of a ride, but it was special riding it with Nadia for the first time! Paul retrieved the fast pass and very generously allowed Nadia to use it to ride it by herself while Paul's parents took the boys on the Barnstormer. It was Oliver's first time on that ride. Next we met at the Monters Inc Laugh in. Nadia was hoping to be picked as "Boo" again, but another girl was picked. Paul then took the kids on Buzz Lightyear's ride, which the last two years was Ian's favorite ride at Magic Kingdom, and it's still one of his top favorites. He rode it twice this year. After riding "It's a Small World" Paul and I took Nadia and Ian on Splash Mountain (Ian's first time) and Big Thunder Railroad (Ian's favorite ride this year). We also tried to get pictures with Woody and Jesse, but they had already closed the line.

We decided to skip the 3pm parade, as we remembered how badly we sweated during it in May 2013. We had never stayed for the 9pm electric parade before, and we said we'd attend that one instead (much cooler out at 9pm). Oliver thoroughly enjoyed the Country Bear Jamboree again, and then I took the three kids on Aladdin's Magic Carpets before Nadia and I waited in line to get pictures with Jasmine and Aladdin while the others rode the Pirates of the Caribbean. After the Tiki Room we went to the Pirate tutorial, but the kids were complaining that it was too hot to stand outside so we opted to have dinner instead. I think it would be nice if they had a sign-up process for the pirate tutorial like they do for the Jedi academy. After dinner I took the boys on Peter Pan's ride while the other four went through the Haunted Mansion. At this point I was very ready to be done for the day. Before we do another 14 hour day at an amusement park, I need to find a better pair of shoes. My legs weren't tired, but my feet were absolutely killing me. It was so painful to walk. Nadia got her picture with Merida while the boys rode Buzz Lightyear's ride again, and then I took all three kids on the tea cups, and Paul and I took all three kids on the Speedway for the firs time. Nadia and Ian did the steering, but Paul and I had our feet on the gas pedals. Nadia and Ian rode the Barnstormer while I took Oliver to meet Goofy, Donald, Daisy, and Minnie. He was scared at first with each character once we got close (even though he kept asking to go see them). 

Paul and Nadia made it to the very front of the line to ride Space Mountain, and then they temporarily closed the ride. I took the boys on a train to the front of the park before the electric parade. Oliver was on my shoulders for the parade. After the parade I took Oliver to meet Mickey, and then we finally got on the ferry to go back to the parking lot. We watched the fireworks from the ferry boat and then Paul drove us to New Smyrna Beach. We arrived at our resort at 11:50pm. Ian and Oliver fell asleep in the parking lot, but Nadia didn't fall asleep until 11:00pm. Even though Nadia didn't get pictures with Anna and Elsa like she did last year (because we had fast passes last year for it but I couldn't get them this year), I think we all had a good day. Since we had reservations for lunch I didn't bring any water bottles or pack any food. We splurged and bought both meals and some bottles of water in the park. The two days at Disney represent more than 50% of the cost of our fourteen day vacation. To me personally it's not worth it. I'd rather spend the day at Knoebels or Sesame Place for a small fraction of the price, but Disney World is a special place for the kids.

Hollywood Studios take two

Last July we made our first trip to Hollywood Studios.Six of us had never been there before. I had been there about 30 years ago when it was called MGM. We made our second trip three days ago on Wednesday, which also was the day of Paul's parents' 48th anniversary. I am sure that not many celebrate their 48th anniversary at Hollywood Studios. They love their grandchildren very much! We are very thankful that both sets of grandparents have been married for 40+ years. We left our resort about 8:25 to make sure we were there before the park opened at 9 am to make sure we got Nadia and Ian a spot in Jedi Training Academy. It was a very close call because those staying in a Disney resort were allowed to enter the park at 8:00 that day, and they claimed almost all of the 240 spots for the day. We got two of the last six spots. and this meant their "show" wasn't until 8pm. Paul said this was the highlight of the day for him, and Nadia and Ian both said it was one of their two most favorite parts of the day. I was surprised that both picked the same two things as their favorites - the Star Wars ride (Star Tours) and the Jedi Training Academy. They rode Star Tours three times that day - twice with Paul and I and once with Paul and Pop Pop.

Although it was hotter than it usually is here in May (it's been averaging 12 degrees higher than normal over the past week), I was very thankful that it didn't rain like it did last year. We skipped a couple of things that we did last year (Great Movie Ride and the show about Walt Disney), and one attraction isn't there any more that we did last year (the Pirate one). Nadia and Ian both rode the Tower of Terror last year with Paul and I, but this year only Nadia and Paul did it because Ian thought it was too scary. Thanks to fast passes we didn't really have any waits longer than 5 minutes the whole day. If we had gotten a picture of the kids with Buzz and Woody we would have had to wait for that. We did a few things this year that we didn't do last year: the "Honey I shrunk the kids" playground, the Indiana Jones stunt show, and the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show. Paul and I also rode the roller coaster for the first time. We loved it! It's indoors like Space Mountain, but it's definitely more "intense" than Space Mountain. Quite a few rides and shows we did both years: Disney Jr show, Beauty and the Beast show, Toy Story Mania ride, Little Mermaid show, Frozen singalong, Muppet 3D movie, the Star Tours ride, and the Fantasmic show at 9pm. We left after that show. Oliver was asleep in the stroller on the way back to the parking lot, and he slept through the transfer in and out of the van and into his bed.

This year we didn't spend as much effort or time trying to get pictures with characters as we did last year, but Nadia and Ian did meet several characters. Nadia did Sophia and Jake like last year, and Ian met Jake and the Incredibles again like last year. They both met Mike and Sulley for the first time. Oliver and Ian posed with Mater and Lightning McQueen again. When they saw Baymax and Hiro (from Big Hero 6) were there, they asked to get their pictures taken with them, but the line was one hour long, and we weren't interested in waiting that long for a picture. Nadia also had her picture taken in front of Cinderella's carriage while holding a glass slipper. She enjoyed learning a little Spanish from the girl from Argentina who was standing next to us in that line. We brought some water bottles and our lunches into the park, and we bought our dinner. Ian's kid's meal was very reasonably priced for how much food they gave him, but in general the food prices at Disney are very high. All in all we had a great day at Hollywood Studios!

Thankful Wednesday

1. Paul's parents, Nadia, and Ian had a safe trip to Florida last Wednesday. They enjoyed spending two days with Aunt Diane, Uncle Jim, and their grandson, Cash.

2. Paul, Oliver, and I had a safe trip to Maryland on Thursday night and enjoyed spending a few hours with my parents on Friday morning. We also had a safe flight to Orlando on Friday evening.

3. We have been enjoying the amenities at the resort here in Orlando - splash pad, water slides, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, miniature golf, etc.

4. We enjoyed our Mother's Day dinner at TGIF on Sunday evening.

5. We had a fabulous time at SeaWorld on Monday.

6. It was fun watching our baby robins grow a little before we left. A neighbor sent me a picture by Facebook to show us how much they have grown since we left.

7. It didn't rain at all on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, and on Tuesday the thunderstorm didn't start until we were getting the kids ready for bed. Hoping that we'll have a dry day at Hollywood Studios today because last year it rained most of the day we were there.

8. Oliver hasn't wet the bed, which would be much more of a problem on vacation than it is at home. One time he almost went #2 in his swim suit while we were in the pool, but I saw the look on his face and scooped him up and got him to the bathroom in time. Another time he was up in the pirate ship and I saw him pushing. I ran up and carried him to the bathroom. He finished going on the toilet, and I was able to clean his swimming trunks with soap and water in the bathroom. Thankfully he wasn't in the water when this happened. Whew. I would really hate for them to have to clear out the pool on his account.

9. I'm so grateful our unit was stocked with things like dishwasher detergent, paper towels, dishes, utensils, etc. We've been making use of the microwave, oven, stove top, refrigerator, toaster, dishwasher, washer, and dryer. Although most of the time we've stayed at resorts, prior to having kids we did stay at a few hotels as well (such as in London, Paris, and Rome). It's hard to imagine NOT staying at a resort as a family of five considering we pay as little as $199 for a two bedroom, two bathroom unit for seven nights, and the unit includes far more than the typical hotel room does.

10. It's wonderful to be able to make precious memories with Paul's parents.

11. Paul's mom made chicken pot pie last night (PA Dutch style with noodles not a crust).

12. I'm enjoying my camera and lenses!

SeaWorld take three

In August 2011 I took Nadia and Ian to SeaWorld. In May 2013 Paul's parents, Paul, and Oliver joined us. This resort is only five minutes from SeaWorld, but if I had to do it over again we would have left the resort about 30 minutes earlier than we did. Our first stop was Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. This attraction opened several days after our last trip to the park. Oliver and Paul's parents opted for the mild ride, and the rest of us took the wild ride. It was very well done. At the end of the day Nadia and Ian both said it was their favorite part of the day. In fact Nadia asked if we could ride it again later, but when we returned in the afternoon the line was MUCH longer. It said there was a 30 minute wait. It looked like the line was actually longer than that, but we weren't interested in waiting 30 minutes. Paul's parents and Oliver waited while the other four of us rode the flume. The flume was Paul's favorite part of the day. We had NO wait whatsoever. It was Ian's first time on the ride as you have to be at least 42 inches tall. It's definitely more intense than the flume at Knoebels. Paul and I then rode Kraken (a rollercoaster that includes many loops). It was his first time on the ride. My first time was in 2013. I had hoped to also ride Manta (the other big roller coaster), but we didn't have time. Hopefully the next time we go I will ride it. Nadia can't wait until she's tall enough to ride both of them, but she has to be at least 54 inches tall, so it's going to be a few years I think. Paul's parents took the kids in an aquarium while Paul and I rode Kraken.

Our first show of the day was Pet's Ahoy. I will never forget how much Ian loved that show in 2011. Next we went to Wild Arctic which includes beluga whales, walruses, and seals. Paul's parents and Oliver took the walking tour. Ian was tall enough to join us on the ride portion (helicopter simulator) for the first time. We took the kids on two kiddie rides before heading to see the killer whale show. As a child I remember really loving that show. Now that the trainers don't go in the water with them (not since 2010) the show isn't nearly as impressive. The whales do a few jumps and splash people, and that's about it. My favorite show is the dolphin show, which was the fourth show we saw yesterday. Oliver put his hands on his head when the parrots flew over our head. Our third show was the sea lion, otter, and walrus show. That show had changed the most from our last two trips. It had a school theme instead of a pirate theme. In between the last two shows we walked through the shark aquarium. After the last show we went on the Sky Tower for the first time. They used to charge for that attraction, but now it's included in the admission price to the park. Ian said "I can see the whole earth". That cracked me up! We went up 400 feet and were able to see the whole park plus some of the surrounding area. We ended the day with Nadia doing the net climb while the boys rode the Flying Fiddler and went down some slides. We skipped the splash pad because we had planned to go swimming at our resort (and use our much bigger splash pad) after dinner.

We were at the park for eight hours. The park was open for ten hours, but staying any longer would have required buying dinner. Paul's parents had purchased their lunch, but I had packed food for the rest of us. All of us were also very hot as it was 93 degrees out. We couldn't wait to get in air conditioning or the pool! We came back to our resort and had tuna noodle for dinner. Usually on vacation we eat out once a day, but since we've been in Orlando we've only eaten out once thus far (and used gift cards for that meal). Our SeaWorld tickets were free, and Paul's parents paid for the parking so our special day at the park didn't cost us any money. Today we're just staying at the resort as tomorrow we plan to be at Hollywood Studios!

I had bought VeggieTales t-shirts for everyone as Christmas gifts, and we wore them for the first time yesterday. I had gotten Nadia a "Bob" shirt to match me, but hers was WAY too big. Ian had a 3T Bob shirt years ago so Nadia wore Ian's 5T shirt, and Ian wore Oliver's 3T shirt. We got lots of comments. :) I took tons of pictures. I'll share more later this week!