March 2014: Spring Break Florida Trip

The most exciting thing that happened in March was our Spring Break trip to Florida, but first, here are five other things that happened in March:

1. Soccer

This was Elizabeth’s second season of soccer, and she still loves it. She played just as aggressively, and wasn’t afraid to get in there and tackle girls left and right.                                                        

Rachel, on the other hand, plays a little more passively, staying true to her kind and gentle nature.  Oh, hey there, ball.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.  I will just approach slowly and then let somebody else kick you.  

2.  Baseball.  Lots and lots of baseball.                                                    

3.  Cousins!  My sister Rebekah visited from Oklahoma with her 3 girls.  There were lots of crafts, princess dresses, stories being read, and underdogs at the park. 

4.  Henry and Cindy at play.  I love watching these two together.  They tell each other what to say, and it’s so funny. 

Cindy: “Now you say, ‘What in the world is going on here? This lego guy seems to be missing his hand!’”                      

Henry: (repeats line)

Cindy: Now say, “. . . . .”

Henry: (repeats line, then tells Cindy what to say).  Now you say, “But I just had to do that, because I wanted to go to the party!”

They tell each other to say the funniest things, and I’ve never heard either of them question or refuse to say what the other person told them to. 

5.  Cindy eating peppers.  This girl loves peppers, which makes me happy, because I didn’t learn to like them until just recently.

Okay, now that the regular March pictures are out of the way, I can post about our trip.  For Spring Break this year we decided to do a Disney World/Universal Studios/Beach type vacation in Orlando, Florida.  Our kids have never done Disneyland or Disney World, so we decided maybe it was time.  Also, we thought it might seem fun to actually stay in one spot for a whole vacation, rather than gallivanting around the country like we do for our regular summer road trips.  The kids couldn’t believe that after we got to Florida we’d be staying in the same hotel for six nights. 

On the way there we stopped in New Orleans for a walk along the Mississippi River and some beignets at Café du Monde.

We stayed that night at a hotel in Mississippi that had a perfect little cubby for Henry to sleep in:

Cindy enjoying breakfast at the hotel the next morning.  This is always the favorite part of staying in a hotel for my kids. 

We continued our drive to Orlando, stopping in Tallahassee to see the capitol and eat lunch.  We ate at a funny little hot dog place with all kinds of crazy hot dogs on the menu.  The kids wanted to act out some of the funny artwork on the walls. 

We got to our hotel in Orlando later that night and decided it might be a good time to go swimming (the hotel had a really fun pool, and we knew we might not have many chances to swim since we were going to be out and about so much during the week).                                                                                                       

Tristan and Oliver decided they’d rather play basketball.                                                                          

Day One in Orlando – baseball and the beach

The next day was a baseball and beach day.  A lot of teams do their spring training in Florida, so we stopped at one of the training facilities and got a few autographs and watched the players practice. 

Then it was on to Cocoa Beach.  My kids haven’t been to the beach for a really long time (I think this was Cindy’s first time ever).  They loved it.  

I love pictures of all my kids lined up on the beach.                      

I think it’s because we always took them like that when I was younger.  This is all of us when I was about 10, before my two youngest brothers were born (I’m the one in the middle.  With glasses.  You’re welcome). 

All the kids heading out to jump over waves:

Henry was in heaven.  Tristan got started right away on a sandcastle, and spent the rest of the time working on it.

Oliver crashing, and Cindy doing a tiny little jump over a wave.                        

Me and the kids:                                               

The beach:                  

Tristan still hard at work on his sandcastle.  He recruited Henry to help him out.

The girls getting buried, and Daniel out exploring with some of the kids.  He noticed this big pipe going out into the water, and went over to investigate.  They found tons of huge shells that had washed up and settled against the pipe.

After the beach we went and got a gigantic pizza for lunch. 

Then we went to watch the Washington Nationals play a spring training game at Space Coast Stadium.

Oliver was rarely sitting by us, because he was all over the place trying to meet players, catch a home-run ball, or get someone to throw him a ball.  You can see him with the Y shirt on the other side of the fence, with Tristan next to him.  Also, we got to see Bryce Harper play, which was fun.                                                       

 

When we were trying to figure out how to plan our trip and where to spend our time, we decided that even though Disney World would be a neat experience for the kids to have, Universal Studios might be more fun for them, since they don’t really care that much about the Disney stuff.  We ended up buying 3-day passes to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (we could go back and forth between the two theme parks), and a 1-day pass to Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  It ended up being just perfect.           

We don’t have pictures from a lot of the rides we did during the week, because we didn’t take our normal camera in with us, but we did take some with Daniel’s phone.

Day Two in Orlando – Universal Studios Islands of Adventure                                                    

We started out in the Dr. Suess area, which was great for the little kids. 

Posing with Thing 1 and Thing 2 after the Cat in the Hat ride.  Notice Cindy’s sparkly platform sandals – those were bought specifically for this trip to help make her tall enough for most of the rides.  She was still a tiny bit under for the 40” rides;  sometimes they let her on, and sometimes they didn’t, but she did get to go on pretty much every ride she wanted to, so it worked out great.                                                        

One Fish, Two Fish.  We got soaking wet. 

Pirate show.  The three older kids wanted to sit in the Splash Zone.  I gave Tristan and Rachel ponchos, but Oliver refused to wear one (he has his image to protect).  Tristan doesn’t care much about his image (see fuzzy-footed pajamas story.  Plus that face he is making in this picture). 

Hogwarts castle.  The Harry Potter ride was one of my favorites.  Henry and Cindy were too short to go on it, but they have a great child-swap system at Universal Studios – our whole family went through the line together, and then Daniel took a few of the kids while I sat in a little waiting room.  As soon as they got off the ride, Daniel switched with me, and I got to go on it right away without waiting in line anymore, along with Rachel, who had waited with me.  Actually, what really happened is as soon as they got off the ride, Daniel walked over to the garbage can and threw up, and then I went on the ride.  Poor guy.  We had both gone on the Dragon rides before this one, and they were really twisty and turny, and I don’t think he had recovered yet.  So he probably doesn’t remember the Harry Potter ride as fondly as I do.  But it really was awesome.  If you have ever wished you could fly crazily through the air on a broomstick, just like in the Harry Potter movies, you should go on this ride.

After that we got some pumpkin juice and butterbeer to help us recover, and then we went on to do some Jurassic Park rides, but I don’t have pictures of anything else this day.

Day Three in Orlando: Universal Studios Islands of Adventure:

The next day we went back to the Islands of Adventure and picked up where we left off.  We tried once to get Cindy on the Spiderman ride, and they said she was too short, but we tried again later and she made it on.  She loved it, and so did everyone else.  The 3D rides are pretty crazy – everything seems pretty real.                                                                   

Here is Henry in front of one of his favorite rides.  I was glad we had ponchos for this one, but some of us still got wet.  It was a pretty big drop down that last waterfall.                        

Probably the thing Cindy was most excited about was to go on the Despicable Me ride and meet a minion.  Dreams coming true right here.                    

Day Four in Orlando:  Disney World Magic Kingdom

The next day we headed over to Disney World.  It was really windy and cold at first, but warmed up a little later on in the day. 

It’s a Small World.  I kind of like this ride because it reminds me of when I went to Disneyland as a kid.  Cindy also loved it (you can see her pointing at something exciting). 

Tristan’s face – ha!  That’s how he and Daniel felt about this ride. 

Meeting Belle.  This was kind of funny.  We decided to get in line, even though none of my kids think the Disney princesses are real, or cared that much about meeting them.  But we did think Cindy might like it.  We ended up waiting in line for over an hour!  To meet Belle!  It was crazy.  But what was even crazier, was that after we all finally got into the room to meet her, they asked all the kids to raise their hands so they could pick volunteers to help participate in a little play, and our kids were almost the only kids in the room.  So basically, we had been waiting in line that long because there were so many adults who wanted to meet Belle.  But it was lucky for us, because our five younger kids all got to be in the play.  Henry was the Beast.  He was so funny and bashful and embarrassed.                          

Especially when he had to dance with her.  I think he thought she was really pretty.  I’m sure he’ll treasure this video when he’s older, right?:

We didn’t love Magic Kingdom as much as Universal Studios.  It was still fun, but one day was enough.  We did love the Thunder Mountain ride, though.  Cindy wasn’t really tall enough for that ride, but they didn’t measure her, so we just all walked in and got in line together.  I was so glad she was able to go with us.  We went at the end of the day when it was already dark, which made it way cooler, because we were going all wild and crazy through the tunnels, and then we’d come out and see the night sky and all the stars.  Cindy was sitting next to me and holding on for dear life.  I looked at her face and it was really serious, so I told her sometimes on rides people like to yell happy yells.  After that, she kept letting out little “woo-hoos” for the rest of the ride.  When it was over she said, “phew – that was even more fun than I wanted!” 

Space Mountain was another good one.  Henry was tall enough for that one, but not Cindy, which was for the best.  I don’t think she would have liked that one. 

Day Five in Orlando: Universal Studios

Our last day in Orlando we went to Universal Studios (not Islands of Adventure).  We started out by going on the Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster.  I was so nervous about this.  My worst part of roller coasters is the big hill going up, and this one was straight up.  In the picture below of Tristan and Oliver, you can see people on their way up – you are lying on your back looking straight up at the sky, and it feels like you might fall out of your seat. 

Daniel and Lizza went together (my seven-year old did this ride!), Tristan and Oliver went together, and then it was my turn to go with Rachel.  The whole time we were waiting in line I was getting more nervous.  I am embarrassed about this. I was watching all the people go in front of us, and counting how many seconds it took them to go from the very start till they got down the first drop, and I was trying to figure out how to get through that many seconds.  I was thinking I should probably close my eyes and count until that part was over.  Then right before it was our turn to go, I decided I was being ridiculous, and that the only way to enjoy it would be to just pretend that I was really excited and not scared at all, and to say things to myself like, “wow, this is actually really amazing that we’re going straight up into the sky!”.  (the silly thing is, I have made this discovery before about how to not be nervous about giant roller coasters, and it really works, but I have to remind myself every once in awhile).

Anyway, the ride was awesome.  One of the coolest things was that there were personal speakers on each seat, and before the ride started you could pick a song to play during your ride.  Rachel and both picked “I will Survive”.  Going on such an intense roller coaster with music playing was really great, though. We were both sad when it was over, and if the ride wasn’t so long, we would have gone on it again.   

We went on lots more great rides, but don’t have pictures.  Here is Henry in front of one of his favorites – the Transformers 3D ride.                                                                                

Saying goodbye to Universal Studios.

The Way Home:  Pensacola, Florida

We left Orlando on Saturday morning and started the drive home.  That night we stayed in Pensacola.  We got there early enough to go play at the beach.  I was imagining that it was going to be like Pensacola always looks in movies (white sand, sparkling blue water and blue skies), but it was actually kind of chilly and stormy that day.  The sky was gray, and the water looked almost green.  It was really pretty. 

It seemed much too cold to swim, so we decided it would be more of a wading/play in the sand beach day.  I put Henry in his suit just in case, which ended up being a good decision. 

Daniel and Ollie trying to touch the waves without getting wet.

Jumping down a hill of sand; running back up to escape the waves:              

Henry trying the same thing.  This was his first attempt.                              

And his second attempt:                                                          

Definitely a good thing I had put him in his swimming suit.  Although if I had been thinking, I would have realized that of course Oliver should be in his suit, too.  He started out like this:  

And ended up like this.  Soaking wet, in his shorts.                  

Henry was running all over the place trying to chase seagulls and find jellyfish or other weird sea creatures:

The next morning while we were eating breakfast at the hotel, we saw on the news that a tornado was about to come through Pensacola, so we quickly packed up and headed for home.  We drove through some pretty crazy weather on our way out of there.  For some reason Cindy calls tornados “tomatoes”, and she still talks about the tomato in Florida that almost got us.  She thinks it’s still there, so if she ever hears anyone mention Florida, she says, “ooh, you do not want to go there – there is a really bad tomato.”  It always makes me laugh to picture a wild and dangerous killer tomato lying in wait to pounce on unsuspecting tourists. 

Anyway, this is all of the kids sound asleep on the drive home to Texas.  

The end.