Disney Dream Vacay Part II

After our cruise was over and we were back on dry land, it just didn't make sense to leave Orlando without giving Disney some more of our money.  We decided to hit up Disneyworld but first things first.  A trip to Hogwarts!  Or Universal Studios, but really I only had eyes for all things Harry Potter.  For those of you who know how near and dear Harry is to me, know how exciting this was.  I love all seven books and have read them more than once or twice...actually I've lost count.  There was a serious pang in my chest when I finished the seventh book for the first time.  I was pretty much ready to pack up, get myself a wand, and fly my broomstick to hang out with Harry and the gang.  There are a few other family members who share this love of mine so to Hogwarts we went!

The whole gang entering Hogsmeade and I was feeling the rush.  Delaney is asleep I think, obviously not as impressed.

In front of the Hogwarts Express.  See how thrilled I was?  Excited enough to get all chummy with a random stranger.

There it is!  Hogwarts Castle...take a moment.

I will say all things in Harry Potter land were really well done.  From the castle (the pictures talk to you!), to butterbeer, to Hogsmeade's shops, to the bathroom where Moaning Myrtle talks to you (really she does!)

Again, Delaney not feeling the excitement.  I think it's safe to say a certain Disney cruise wore the poor girl out.

Okay and truth be told, all the waiting in lines wore my feet out.  But not my spirit!

Heather's hubby, Todd, ended up not being able to go on the cruise because of some interviews that couldn't be rescheduled.  Lucky for us, he flew into Orlando to go theme parking with us.

Seeing as how they haven't read the books yet, the kids were kind of ambivalent about the whole Hogwarts thing.  Fast forward to a few hours later, when we were touring the Marvel comics, aka all things superhero, section of Universal.  They were beside themselves, especially when they got the chance to meet/take pictures with/talk to/high five Spiderman.  For those of you who have daughters, it's akin to meeting a princess.  My boys could not believe their luck and I think had we done nothing else but meet Spiderman, they could have called it a day and gone home.

Day two and we headed over to Disneyworld.  By this point, I think all of us were running on fumes but we bucked up and squeezed in a day at the happiest place on earth.

On the Haunted Mansion ride.  Ash and I have some good memories on this ride as kids.  Funny how 20 years later, things didn't seem quite as scary as I remember.

Cade, excited to see us on the ride.  Promise that's not him shrieking in terror.

Maximizing the stroller's potential.

With Gavin's legs nice and rested, he was nice enough to give Cade a lift.  Truth be told, I was so tired at this point, I might or might not have taken my own ride in the stroller.

Headed home but not before a pic in front of the famous castle.  I think Evan's eyes are closed but this is the best we got and who can blame him for getting some rest when he can. 

I think this pic of Gavin when he got home to Texas about summed up how we all felt after making the two day drive home.  We laughed, ate and played ourselves to exhaustion.  Well worth it if you ask me for such an epic family vacation.

Disney Dream Vacay Part I

A few years back some of the ladies in the family started toying around with the idea of a family reunion aboard a Disney cruise.  Most of the family loves themselves a cruise, not to mention I'd heard rave reviews about how family friendly the Disney ones were.  And expensive, but that's another story.  So after a lot of hours researching, pricing out (THANK YOU ASHLEY! Girlfriend had one amazing spreadsheet) and working out everyone's schedule we settled on the far away date of May, 2013.  Then finally the day was upon us and we all left our various states and trekked it down to Florida to meet up.  Let the fun begin!

Our first dinner on the cruise.  A cruise/vacation made possible in HUGE part thanks to these folks.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

The kids enjoying their dessert of Mickey Mouse ice cream bars.  The first of many sugar highs to come.

Waiting for the nightly show to begin.  I will say that I loved how family friendly everything was.  So awesome!

Our first port of the Bahamas.  And I hate to say it, but I didn't love the Bahamas.  It just felt like some shops set up all selling the same thing and if you wanted to do something better and/or water related you had to dish out some dough.  Which a few of the group ended up doing, Evan included.  I ended up hanging out on the ship with Delaney, Cade and a couple of ladies from my fam while Evan took a boat out into the middle of the ocean to do some snorkeling.  Not so appealing to me but absolutely right up his alley.  After some hemming and hawing on my part, he ended up taking Colton as well.  Who loved it.  Who's first comment to me when he got back was, "MOM! I saw an EEL!"  Okay there tiger, glad it was you and not me.  Colton also proceeded to ask me if for his birthday, he could go snorkeling.  Well buddy, your birthday is in December and we live in Chicago so I'm going to have to go with no.

My mom soaking up some time on the balcony to their room.  If you look close, you can see little miss Delaney Anne checking out the view with her.

Okay, so I wasn't such a fan of the Bahamas, but hello Castaway Cay, Disney's private island.  I absolutely loved the day spent there.  Only Disney docks there, so you avoid the crowds of other cruise ships and can you say gorgeous?  Makes a person like me almost want to get in the water.

We spent our time playing in the sand, hanging out in the water, snorkeling (I even did it!), biking around the island, going down the water slide, eating the yummy barbecue, and trying not to get burned.  It was the absolute best kind of day.

One of the nights on the ship was pirate night and apparently, my family really digs the whole pirate thing.  Thanks to Nana, the boys were all dressed up and ready to go.

 

And they weren't the only ones.  Remember when I said my fam was into the pirate thing?  Yeah, that would be a parrot on Val's shoulder.  I'm telling y'all, they meant business.

Logan was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday on the ship and what's even better, have his birthday dinner on pirate night.  The best part about this all?  Ashley's face in the pic.  Looks like she's falling in love with her hubby all over again.

Here we are at the last dinner on the ship and the ending to a great four days cruising.  If you're going to be cruising with kiddos, I highly recommend taking the Disney route.  Other fun things not pictured are the kids (and adults) loving the huge see through tube slide around the ship.  There's even a part that takes you over the ship so when you look down, all you see is ocean.  Who wouldn't love that??  We played games, ate enough ice cream cones to last us a lifetime, watched the fireworks out on the top deck, danced ourselves silly with the kids, watched Iron Man 3 sans kids in the theater, and overall made some awesome family memories. 

Cinco!

Cade turned five and true to form, nixed the typical superhero birthday and requested all things snake (sound like his dad at all?)  His actual birthday fell on a Saturday and we had some of his friends over to help us celebrate snake style.  Evan was in his element planning for a reptile birthday while I tried to tackle the cake (ugh).  

 

So my snake cake looked like...well...a worm.  But I get mom points for trying right?  RIGHT??  In keeping things real, I did search high and low for a store that made snake cakes (that didn't cost a million dollars) and no luck.  Lucky for me, Cade didn't seem to care and hopefully when he looks back at his worm (ahem...snake) he feels all warm and fuzzy knowing his mama tried. 

Evan started out the party with an educational video he had prepared on snakes.  Before we saw the African black mamba eat anything and scar the children for life, I announced educational time over and onto games!  

Birthday boy was nice enough to share some pinata time with his little sister.

All in all a successful snake party!

That night Evan was the lucky recipient of date night with Cade.  Red Robin was the dinner place of choice (apparently the only place we eat for birthdays around here) and the boys had a good time.  Here's Cade having a bit of a birthday brain freeze while eating his sundae.  Oh he cracks me up and I love him to pieces.  Happy birthday to our cute, feisty, funny little man!