Spring Break-Part 2

Let's get this done already!

Wednesday morning we woke up early,  hopped in the van and drove to Port Canaveral for a day of charter boat fishing on the Atlantic.

I'm not exactly sure what I expected. I was a bit nervous because I got a great deal through groupon, and I really didn't know what we were in store for. It was cheaper for our family to charter boat on the Atlantic, than on Lake Michigan, so I had my reservations.

But my nervousness was for naught! We had a great time! Tim's favorite day of the week.

It was amusing, most of the people that boarded the boat were couples, a few families with one child, and a lot of older men fishing alone.

And then there was us.

We turned alot of heads, got a lot of smiles and nods, and caused a lot of people to stop and chat with us as we sat there with our 5 kids lined up in a row.

Upon departure, it was a 2 hour boat ride out to a reef somewhere in the Atlantic. All was going well. The kids were enjoying the boats unlimited pop supply, we spotted a few dolphins swimming about, and were enjoying the open air without so many people. 

We got to our destination, the boat anchored, and the nausea from the constant rolling of the waves kicked in....and the fact that most people around us were wretching over the side didn't help.

Poor Austin was down for the count. 

Never picked up a pole.  

Poor kid had just sat down with his highly anticipated hamburger, and he couldn't do it. It caught up with Sydney later on too.  Tim and I both fought off sea-sickness, but we faired ok.  It was a mental game. The excitement really helped to distract.  Funny, I was so excited about my 2 compliementary beers before we left, but was so nauseated  I couldn't even think about eating or drinking once we were there.

 

Within 5 minutes of dropping our poles, Dylan had something big.

Really big.

A member of the crew came to help him reel and hold onto the pole.

It turns out he hooked a giant sea turtle.  It was SO cool. It would surface and then go back under.

Unfortunately it got away in the end, so this is the only picture I was able to get. Really hard to tell it's size...

 

We caught a lot of red snappers.

I caught this ramora.

Apparantly it sticks to your arm. 

 

And before I knew what was happening, it was on me.

Ask Tim to do his impersination of my shrieking sometime.

There's a reason everyone in this picture is looking at me.

I was fisherwoman legend by the end of the day :)

Later on in the adventure, Tim and I both caught a shark!
So.much.fun.

 

 

This one was in his glory....

 

All in all, it was a great day, and we will definately try to do this again! 

And next time we will take the dramamine out of our suitcase.

 

Thursday we were up bright and early, trying to beat the rain at Animal Kingdom.

 

 

I didn't really take a lot of pictures, because rain was looming all morning.

We hopped around and rode eveything we had hoped to, and the rain held off.

We rode Mt. Everest until we were all on the verge of ill. 1x for Tim and Dylan, 2 for Sydney and me and 3 for Austin  was all it took :)

And at about 2 in the afternoon it began to downpour.

We left fulfilled, and spent some down time at our condo for the afternoon.

In the evening the sun came out, we went out for dinner, and then headed to Downtown Disney.

It was crazy busy.

 

On Friday we were once again up at the crack and headed to MGM Hollywood Studios.
We never visited this park on our last trip, so everthing was new.
The kids really enjoyed the stunt shows the best!

 

Autograph from Toy Story soldier...

A pic of Tim doing what he did best all week...

On Saturday we packed up and enjoyed the pool for a while before we hit the road for home in the afternoon...

 

 

It was a nerveracking drive trying to get out of the state.
We fought traffic through Atlanta, and after that it was smooth sailing.

We pulled over for a couple of hours in Kentucky to sleep, had breakfast in Ohio, and kept trucking north until we were home.  That drive is so much harder on the way home!

 

Spring Break Part 1

Before the details begin to fade, it's high time I chonicle the highlights of Spring Break 2013.
Join me, will you?

The van was loaded, cartop carrier carefully squeezed shut, crisp new library books just waiting to be read, electronic devices charged, spray tan perfection achieved.  It was Friday night, Tim made it home in a timely fashion, and we hit the road....destination Orlando. We weren't sure how far we would make it, as it had been a long, late night/early morning, "get it all done", kind of week.

The ride went surprisingly well!  The kids did great, and Tim and I were able trade off driving through the night, and actually sleep a little bit (which is usually not the case).  Typically Tim drives, and I sit there and talk to him for hours, intermittently punching him when I see his head nod.
. 
We stopped for breakfast in Georgia, and then continued steering south until we hit the much anticipated Florida Welcome Center.  There we got out to stretch our legs, enjoy our free cup of orange juice, and let the kids excitedly gather pamphlets to their hearts content.

And after many rounds of "Would you Rather", fraction worksheets, heavy traffic, reading aloud, and scads of Starburst jelly beans and "the mix", we arrived at our resort at 4pm,  just in time to check in.

We settled in, looked for lizards, checked out the pools, went out for dinner, tried out the jaccuzi, and called it a night. Tim and I were exhausted.

The next morning we were up at the crack, headed out to the happiest place on earth.

 

And apparantly everybody else on Spring Break did too.

The Magic Kingdom was crazy busy...as we knew it would be.

 

However, we had a plan, and made it on every single ride that we wanted...some twice.  I think our longest wait was 20 minutes.  We're the plan it out, competitive type, so it was kind of fun.

 

We pushed our double stroller through the masses, ate our backpack toted sub sandwiches and gatoraids in the shade,  and switched Ellery into her "baby heels" whenever we needed her to be 40 inches. Worked like a charm.

 

A few pics from the day....

 

A quick photo upon entering the park, getting situated, and hustling off to our first ride, Space Mountain!

 

 Ha.. The boys were less than thrilled to have their picture taken with Ariel.
 

 

Buzz Lightyear,  still a hit! Dylan could have rode it all. day. long.

Dylan was chosen to go onstage during the Captain Jack Sparrow Pirate show.
 (Actually Stella was, but she wouldn't budge, so we sent Dylan ).
 

 

These 2 made it until about 9:00pm, and then there was no waking them. We watched the fireworks display, and took turns sitting out with them.

 

 

We went to leave shortly after 10:00pm, but the wait to get out of the park was ridiculous.

And after a really long day, I just didn't have it in me to wait in line to leave.

 

So, we headed back in the park and got front row seats to the 11pm electrical parade right by the exit. It was brilliant. As soon as we saw the line cleared, and we caught the better part of the parade, we booked it on out.

 

It was a long magical busy day, so on Monday we slept in :)

We were exhausted, having not caught up from the drive down, and the 16 hours at disney.

In the afternoon, we headed to Coco Beach.

 

 

 

Tuesday, we were once again up at the crack, waiting for the gates to open at EPCOT.

 

 

 It was once again crazy busy, but we were able ride everything we wanted...our favorites several times.

The kids favorite was once again "Spaceship Earth" inside the ball.

 

We spent a bit of time in the aquarium this time around. 

 

 

We spent the afternoon touring the worlds, looking for princesses.

Tho Ellery wasn't overly fond of the characters, she enjoyed meeting the princesses :) Stella really enjoyed it.

 

 Taking a break for lunch, looking for lizards, while Tim collected someFastPasses.

 

 

 Getting TinkerBell's autograph...

 

Drinking free coke from "Club Cool" to our hearts content.

Coke from Israel was our families favorite!  

 

It got hot in the afternoon, so the kids enjoyed cooling off at the fountains.

 

We closed the park down, and left halfway through the fireworks display!

 

More pics soon...