We had planned on driving to Disney World, until Rich found an amazing deal on airline tickets from Dallas for 150 round trip. So about a month and a half before our trip we changed our plans. This allowed Rich to sign up for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, and Ashley decided decided she wanted to do the fun run- so she and I did the fun run that morning. It was FREEZING! But we had a good time and a it was a good start to our vacation. After the turkey trot we came back home and rested, finished packing, and we had an early dinner of leftover Thanksgiving dinner (I made our big dinner the day before). Then cleaned the kitchen up, loaded into the car and drove down to Dallas. At the hotel in Dallas we had a snack of leftover rolls and turkey and cheese... the kids remembered how much they loved sandwiches on rolls, and then we tucked everyone into bed to try and get some sleep since our flight was for 8:30 in the morning.
The next morning we hopped out of bed at a very early hour... were up and dressed and ready for breakfast right as the breakfast room opened up, and then headed to the airport.
We got on our flight, and were settling in, when there was some rearranging of seats ahead of us by the flight attendents. A family had been seated around the plane in different area's and they were shuffling people around to try and get them seated together and near each other. Mom, Dad, little toddler and two girls. They wound up being seated in the two rows in front of Rich, Alex and Alyssa. I was across the aisle from Rich. After the flight got started I realized the dad still had his hat and sunglasses on, and since the mom was wearing a designer sweat suit I started wondering if there was a reason for that.
Then they pulled out a laptop for the little toddler to watch a movie on, and it just happened to be pointed in my direction and I saw the background was a picture of the Dad in a Texas Ranger's uniform, holding this little toddler...
It turns out it was Josh Hamilton- this years AL MVP and his family. So that's our little celebrity sighting on this trip! lol!
We got to Orlando, got off of the plane and found the Disney's Magical Express line. Got on the bus and enjoyed the quick drive to Disney World. We got to our hotel the Beach Club which is on the Boardwalk, and our room wasn't ready yet, so we took the kids on a walk around the Boardwalk.. We told the kids they had to practice and get used to walking for this next week. By the time we had walked all around the boardwalk and were back at the hotel, the room was ready. We went and checked out the room, the kids claimed their beds for the night and then we all changed into swimsuits to go and jump in the pool. The Beach Club has a sandy bottom pool and a great water slide, and as we were walking around the boardwalk we were hot and sweaty and it was 80 degree's and the kids were compaining about the heat.
Just as we were all changed and getting ready to go swimming we looked out the window and it was raining! It was pouring down rain. It had just been sunny and 80 degree's minutes before. We told the kids to just chill and watch tv for a while, and then when it looked like it had calmed down we decided to go ahead and go swimming despite the rain. So we went to the pool and went swimming during the rainstorm. I mean we were going to get wet anyway right? The only downside was that it was pretty cold anytime you were up out of the water, and I couldn't see any lifejackets I could put onto Angela, so I had to hold her most of the time because she couldn't stand up in most of the pool. The kids LOVED the slide. Alyssa is loving this year as she has learned to swim and can now go on slides at pools and have fun. I wish I had pictures of her going on the slide because it was great to see her shooting out of the slide into the pool. Angela and I wound up sitting up in the hot tub after a while, becuase we were just cold. The others stayed warm running up to the slide, sliding down and then jumping out of the pool and running across the pool again to slide down again. After they had tired of the slide and were were all sufficiently cold, we headed back to our room and changed.
The next morning we hopped out of bed at a very early hour... were up and dressed and ready for breakfast right as the breakfast room opened up, and then headed to the airport.
We got on our flight, and were settling in, when there was some rearranging of seats ahead of us by the flight attendents. A family had been seated around the plane in different area's and they were shuffling people around to try and get them seated together and near each other. Mom, Dad, little toddler and two girls. They wound up being seated in the two rows in front of Rich, Alex and Alyssa. I was across the aisle from Rich. After the flight got started I realized the dad still had his hat and sunglasses on, and since the mom was wearing a designer sweat suit I started wondering if there was a reason for that.
Then they pulled out a laptop for the little toddler to watch a movie on, and it just happened to be pointed in my direction and I saw the background was a picture of the Dad in a Texas Ranger's uniform, holding this little toddler...
It turns out it was Josh Hamilton- this years AL MVP and his family. So that's our little celebrity sighting on this trip! lol!
We got to Orlando, got off of the plane and found the Disney's Magical Express line. Got on the bus and enjoyed the quick drive to Disney World. We got to our hotel the Beach Club which is on the Boardwalk, and our room wasn't ready yet, so we took the kids on a walk around the Boardwalk.. We told the kids they had to practice and get used to walking for this next week. By the time we had walked all around the boardwalk and were back at the hotel, the room was ready. We went and checked out the room, the kids claimed their beds for the night and then we all changed into swimsuits to go and jump in the pool. The Beach Club has a sandy bottom pool and a great water slide, and as we were walking around the boardwalk we were hot and sweaty and it was 80 degree's and the kids were compaining about the heat.
Just as we were all changed and getting ready to go swimming we looked out the window and it was raining! It was pouring down rain. It had just been sunny and 80 degree's minutes before. We told the kids to just chill and watch tv for a while, and then when it looked like it had calmed down we decided to go ahead and go swimming despite the rain. So we went to the pool and went swimming during the rainstorm. I mean we were going to get wet anyway right? The only downside was that it was pretty cold anytime you were up out of the water, and I couldn't see any lifejackets I could put onto Angela, so I had to hold her most of the time because she couldn't stand up in most of the pool. The kids LOVED the slide. Alyssa is loving this year as she has learned to swim and can now go on slides at pools and have fun. I wish I had pictures of her going on the slide because it was great to see her shooting out of the slide into the pool. Angela and I wound up sitting up in the hot tub after a while, becuase we were just cold. The others stayed warm running up to the slide, sliding down and then jumping out of the pool and running across the pool again to slide down again. After they had tired of the slide and were were all sufficiently cold, we headed back to our room and changed.
For dinner that night we went to one of our favorite places- Beaches and Cream. It is right there at the Beach club where we were staying. It is set up like a 50's diner. It has all the classic diner foods, and then the ice cream desserts are amazing. We took another walk around the boardwalk after dinner and enjoyed the street performers and other sights along the boardwalk. Then went back to our Villa and enjoyed spreading out in the three rooms. It was so nice to be on vacation and have space to spread out in our rooms between having fun in the parks instead of feeling like we are on top of each other. I could also toss all our wet clothes from the rain and swimming into the washer and dryer and we wouldn't have to pack up wet clothes the next morning to sit and get sour all day long till we unpacked them at the next hotel. LOVED having the washer and dryer in our room!
I LOVED the gingerbread displays at each of the hotel's. Here's the one at the Beach Club. It was a Gingerbread Carousel. Look at the ingredients list they had. :)
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