Spring Training

We enjoyed an Orioles spring training game in Sarasota to cap off our great spring break week in Florida.

This was our third year attending a spring training game and it was definitely our best game yet. The weather was perfect (sunny but not too hot = no complaints form the kids!), our seats were amazing (thanks for the royal treatment, mom and dad!), and both Amelia and John were so into the action that we stayed for the entire game.

Before the game we visited with grandma and grandpop in the ticket office. Below grandma is explaining to John how they feed the blank tickets into the machine for printing. 

The view form our seats before the game. We were so close to the action!

Grandpop played hooky from work and sat with us for half of the seventh inning. John is frowning below because he hates taking pictures, but he was thrilled that his grandfather came to sit with us as he could ask him a million questions about the game.

Amelia and John with the Orioles mascot!

John even participated in "Kids Run the Bases" after the game. This was fun to watch!

Below John is wearing the black t-shirt and black shorts after rounding second base.

I had a great time on this beautiful day at the ballpark. A big part of my fun came from watching Amelia and John enjoy the game experience. John adopted Matt Wieters, one of the catchers for the Orioles, as his favorite player to watch that day because grandpop told him he was one of the best players on the team. So John selected a Wieters t-shirt as his trip souvenir from the Orioles shop and wore it proudly during the game. So how fitting that Wieters scored a home run during the game! John continues to wear his Wieters jersey faithfully here in Dallas.

RV park and the beach

This year was the third year that the kids and I visited grandma and grandpop in Sarasota during spring break. By now Amelia and John know exactly what to expect - and all the fun things to look forward to  - during our time in Sarasota. We enjoyed all of the same activities as in prior years and they were just as much fun as always.

The large inflatable slide was open on the first RV Park pool day we had in Sarasota. Amelia and John love this slide!

On a different day, we all enjoyed a game of miniature golf at the RV park's course (unfortunately I did not take photos of our game). Amelia and John are much more patient with the game compared to when we first played three years ago, and John even had two hole-in-one shots this year.

New to the RV park this year were tetherball gaming areas set up next to the jumping pillow. Amelia and John hit the ball a few times around, but nothing could keep them off of their beloved jumping pillow (below).

This year the theme of their play on the jumping pillow seemed to involve tackling each other, and thankfully no one got hurt in the process. Amelia was relentless on the jumping pillow, going after John like a mad-woman. John loved it.

It is a requirement for me to try and get my feet in the sand at least once during our trips to the Florida coast. When I was a young adult living and working in Miami long ago I lived just blocks from the beach (heaven!). I would regularly walk down to the beach area on weeknights and I spent a lot of time outdoors on the weekends, just soaking up the sights and sounds. That feeling still comes back to me when I see the open water and I miss it. And since no one ever wants to go to the beach with me in Miami when we are there I have to try and take advantage every chance I can. I am not much of a beach swimmer, but I enjoy walking and lounging on the warm sand.

Our visit to Siesta Key satisfied the craving, for sure. While the temperatures were cooler than normal, Amelia and John still enjoyed building a sandcastle with grandma and grand pop (kudos to grandma especially for sitting on the cold sand to play with the kids!).

Amelia and John were so proud of their sandcastle!

Fun around the Disney Resorts

After hearing about Laura's family's adventures and reading reports of other family experiences at Disney, I knew the resorts would be high-class vacation destinations on their own. From our experience last week, I can attest to the fact that Disney is top-notch when it comes to creating an atmosphere perfect for family fun. 

From the wildlife viewing from our villa balcony (thanks Laura and John for this treat!)...

...to the kids activities planned at the lodge throughout the day and night. After dinner the Saturday evening that we arrived at Disney the boys enjoyed an animal sound matching game put on at the fire pit by one of the Disney "cast members"...

...while Amelia (helped by grandma and grandpop) enjoyed roasting marshmallows in the fire pit. Funny thing - Amelia doesn't care for marshmallows, but she sure enjoyed sharing her creations with the adults that were interested in enjoying the gooey treats!

And of course a mandatory photo of all four grandkids with their grandparents. So hard to pull off...but so worth it!

As expected though, the biggest draw for our family were the pools. Even though the Florida weather was unusually chilly last week, we all enjoyed spending time at the two pools at Animal Kingdom Lodge and at another pool at the Grand Floridian Resort. 

Below is a cool action shot of John at the large Animal Kingdom Lodge pool, participating in his aunt Laura's game of "who can do the best belly flop into the water with the biggest splash?" Kudos for aunt Laura for her creativity with this game.

And kudos for Scott for exercising his shoulder muscles to throw the three big kids in the pool over and over again. Scott is with Jack in the photo below. The kids all loved this!

On our day of departure (Tuesday), Scott and John and Henry had all left (Scott to return to work in Texas, John to work in Gainesville, with Henry in tow), so Laura and I were left with the three big kids. None of us were ready to leave Disney property yet so we tried to do something fun with our remaining time. Unfortunately the day was a bit dreary with cooler than normal temperatures and drizzly skies. But we made the most of it. We traveled via bus and monorail to the Magic Kingdom area, where we spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the Grand Floridian Resort, one of the most picturesque (not in this weather though) of the Disney resorts.

Needless to say, the kids had the pool to themselves! They were thrilled!

The Pool Children's Activities Director had the three cousins as her captive audience for a game of "Catch the Critters" (there were no other children swimming at the time). She threw small plastic animals into the beach-entry section of the pool, and John, Amelia, and Jack were charged with capturing the most animals they could in a race against time.

On your mark, get set, GO!

The kids loved playing this game (probably highlighted by the fact that they are competing against each other with no outsiders present), and enjoyed having fun with each other over and over again.

We loved the amenities that the Walt Disney World Resort provided and are glad that we had the chance to share them with Laura and her family.

More photos from the rest of our Disney experience as well as Sarasota to come.

Magic Kingdom

Having both grown up in Florida, Scott and I have been to Disney World dozens of times. We know that Disney is a fun and exciting family vacation destination. We hear about it all the time - all of our siblings live in Florida and they have taken their children (Amelia and John's cousins) to Disney World a lot, largely because traveling there for a family vacation is so easy when you are in local. So after many years of contemplating the idea of a Disney vacation, we decided that this year would be the year to do it. Laura and John generously invited us to share a long weekend at Disney with their family (they are members of the Disney Vacation Club and have special privileges for vacations at the resort), and we both agreed that sharing this memory with family would be the best experience we could have.

So the Wilsons traveled from Texas to Florida the Friday night at the start of Spring Break, and we all spent Saturday getting acquainted with the beautiful facilities available at Animal Kingdom Lodge (more on that later). Sunday would be our first day to visit the parks, and of course we chose to visit the Magic Kingdom. Laura and John rightly recommended that we get an early start on the day by arriving at the Magic Kingdom in time for the grand opening celebration at 8:00 a.m. Since Sunday was the first day of spring forward for daylight savings time, this meant leaving the resort before sunrise. Below are the kids at the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stop waiting for our ride to the Magic Kingdom. The time was about 7:05 a.m. (really 6:05 if you forget about the daylight savings time adjustment). Their faces may not show it because of the early hour, but they were all very excited about the day ahead!

After the 15 minute bus ride and short walk to the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, we arrived in time for the grand opening festivities. Luckily the sun was up at this point so we all felt somewhat awake. Mickey Mouse and a dozen other Disney characters rode to the entrance on the train that circles the park to put on a show for the guests waiting to enter. There was singing and dancing and fireworks - so much fun! As the sign shows below - "Let the Memories Begin!".

Awesome photo of the four kids below - John, Amelia, Jack and Henry. I particularly love Jack and Henry's festive t-shirts that they often wear on their visits to Disney World!

This is our walk down Main Street together as we made our way to the first destination - Thunder Mountain Railroad. It has been nearly 20 years since I was in the Magic Kingdom, so walking down Main Street was definitely nostalgic. 

We enjoyed an extremely productive morning riding the rides and visiting many of the park's attractions. Laura and John definitely know "how to do Disney"! They were completely awesome in helping us plan which rides to go on first (before the crowds were unbearable) so that we were most comfortable in enjoying our visit. Within the first two hours we had ridden the Thunder Mountain Railroad (roller coaster) twice, gone on Pirates of the Caribbean, enjoyed the the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion, and then headed to Tomorrowland.

In Tomorrowland we rode the cars (photos below),

...the Peoplemover, the Astro Rockets, and Scott and Laura enjoyed Space Mountain. After lunch together we visited more attractions. We enjoyed the classic Small World ride...

...took a ride around the park on the train, saw the shows at the Carousel of Progress, the Disney Magic (3-D movie), and the Country Bear Jamboree, and then rode the Thunder Mountain Railroad once last time.

By 3:30 p.m. the lines for the better attractions were crazy-long, so we decided to call it a day and return to the resort for some pool time and family relaxation. A few more shots before leaving the Magic Kingdom.

What a super fun day! Thanks so much to Laura and John for inviting us and for serving as gracious hosts for our first Disney experience!

Spring Break was a blast

Our family enjoyed a fun and relaxing Spring Break in Florida this past week. For as stressed-out and tired as I was before the break, I sure do feel more relaxed and at ease now than I did before we left. I'll offer a few photo highlights here and expand on the fun we had in Florida in upcoming posts. 

Life with my sister's family at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World was wonderful! This was the amazing view from the balcony of our villa at the lodge!

We got so spoiled by seeing views like this from the balcony day and night...

Cousins at the entrance to the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park! From left to right...John, Amelia, Jack, and Mickey.

Family walking down Main Street of the Magic Kingdom together, just moments after opening.

Hours and hours of fun swimming time in the beautiful Disney Resort pools. John, Amelia, and Jack are below.

Scott throwing Amelia into the main pool at Jamba House of Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

The gorgeous beach at Siesta Key outside of Sarasota!

And what vacation would not be complete without a trip to the Fun N' Sun RV Park in Sarasota? Super slide for the kids (that's John below)...

...plus lots of fun on the jumping pillow at the RV park for the children.