A Beautiful Beach Day

I woke up this morning and headed out to the beach. I don't know that I've ever seen the sun coming up over the Atlantic. It was a site.

 

The boys got up and headed down to beach.

 

We got our breakfast, got suits on and headed right to the beach. 

 

It was a glorious day.  A little cool in the morning and then warm and sunny in the afternoon. We really lucked out with weather on this trip.

 

 

The sand is so different here. It's like white powder. It's amazing. I haven't ever felt sand like that. 

 

We played some Frisbee and built sand castles and just laid around. 

 

David raced the boys down the beach. 

 

David and Noah found some sea creatures.  

 

More racing... 

 

Noah has perfected the relaxing, but then he buried himself in the sand. 

 

Then, Ben helped out.  :)

 

And the beach was packed!  It's spring break week and it's biker week and this place is hustling and bustling. The parking on the beach thing is cool.  But, I prefer no cars on the beach. It convenient, but it just distracts from the beach beauty.  I'm glad California has never adapted this east coast way of things.

 

 

David's friend, Michele, came to spend some time with us on the beach and we went to a nice restaurant that's in a tree house.  It was super cool.

 

It was a wonderful day.  And, I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow! 

A Beach Day (Thank God)

I wish I could say that we all slept in today, but really, only Emily did. The rest of us were up way too early.

 

We  had breakfast sand went to a gift shop. Emily tried on 10 sweatshirts but couldn't find one she liked.  She looked cute in all of them, but you can't tell that to a 13 year old girl.

 

Then, we headed to Gwynne and Enrique's.  Here's Grampie and Noah. 

 

We got some lunch and went to a few stores and came back to say goodbye. 

 

We drove to the beach.  Ah, the beach. We are at New Smyrna which is a cool little beach town. The kids couldn't wait to get to the beach.

 

Here's our hotel. It's right on the beach.  It's so weird that people park on the beach.  We've never been to a beach where you can do that. It's totally cool, but it's a little scary since Ben usually runs around oblivious on the beach.  Now we have to watch him and tell him to be careful of the cars.  He learned pretty quickly today.  He just stayed behind where the cars are. He's actually behind Emily's shoulder in the red trunks.

 

Then, we found the gym and Ben was reunited with his gym ball. 

 

David's friend Michele showed up at the beach too.  She's David's friend from back at University. Then, we headed out to dinner.

 

Michele took a pic of us which is rare we are all 5 in a pic.

 

Goofy faces.  :)

 

Noah took this picture, but his finger is in it.  He tried. 

 

And here's the three of us.

 

It was a great dinner and we had a lovely time.

 

Tomorrow we get to spend the whole day at the beach.  Sounds perfect to me! 

Epcot

We woke up bright and early to get a jump start on our last full day at Disney World. We were headed to Epcot today. There are some rides there, but no roller coasters and it's just a different kind of Disney park.

 

The kids posed for a pic before we went in.

 

I had Em take a picture of David and I in front of Epcot ball, Earth or whatever it is. We had a picture here from our wedding 15 years ago.  That was the last time we had been. 

 

Also, take note in the photo, that I'm wearing a belt bag.  That's what the tag called it, not a fanny pack.  I refuse to call it that.  They had a huge wall of them at Walmart in all sorts of cute colors and I thought that would be so convenient.  So, I got one, to which Emily is mortified.  But, it came in so handy. And you know what I say to Emily... I didn't lose my phone since I have a belt bag.  I'll be getting her one for our next vacation. 

 

We headed straight to Soarin', which was great. Then we did The Land. David said as a kid he hated that ride.  And now as we are going through, him and I thought it was fascinating.  Our kids...not so much.  It was super cool though to hear all about their greenhouses.  They produce almost all their produce and fish here at Epcot for Disney World. It's really amazing.  (I just realized produce and produce are spelled the same, sound different and mean different things.) 

 

Anyway, they grow many things vertical as it helps with space and pests.  It was awesome.

 

We rode a few more things like Journey Through the Imagination with Figment, which the kids were completely underwhelmed with.  Ben didn't even find it amusing and he's the imagination kid.

 

So, we headed for the Frozen ride before the line got long. Ben's face is similar to when he was outside It's a Small World.  It gets better later. You'll see.

 

I LOVED the Frozen ride.  It was super cute and even had a few drops. 

 

The kids with a troll. 

 

Then, we road Spaceship Earth and the kids got to do some interactive exhibits after.  They were doing surgery with robot hands. It was scary.  Noah was dropping the spleen at the knee caps and the femur near the heart. I hope he's not a surgeon.

 

Then, this cool thing magnified everything. They had some cool things to put it on, but David went for his hair and it looks pretty....um, white!

 

Then, we headed for Mission: Space.  The kids posed in front with Buzz. 

 

It looks like a harmless ride.  But, when we got to the entrance it had two sides.  Green for a mild ride or orange for more intense. The kids voted orange, so off we went. 

 

They handed everyone a warning card when we got in.  I read it right away and realized it was a simulator ride. David doesn't like those. He gets sick. But, he had on sea bands and a motion sickness patch. He'd be fine, right?  I avoided telling him. But, right before we got in, they started in with the warnings, and he was on to me.  I'm not even kidding, I think they said about 10 times not to get on if you get motion sickness. He went anyway.

 

We get in our chambers and there are barf bags. No joke. I've never been on a ride that provided barf bags. I'm thinking what have I done. He's going to lose his lunch.  Hell, I might lose my lunch.  We basically did a launch into space with a landing on Mars.  Real astronauts pull 3G's when they do this. This ride simulated it to 2.5G's. Needless to say, only Noah may be an astronaut. The rest of us were a little pale when we got off.  But, David did fine,

 

He looked it up later and 2 people have died on this ride and several more have gotten injured.  Yeah, did that ride once, won't be doing it again. 

 

Now, we are off to Test Track.  And look at Ben's smile. Take away the dolls and Frozen girls and add some cars and he perks up!

 

It was super cool and you got to design your own car.

 

This was David and Noah's. 

 

This was Ben and Emily's (and mine).

 

It was a super cool ride and the kids LOVED it.  I think it was their favorite of the day. Ben wanted to keep on e of the cars when we got off the ride.

 

We knew we wanted to stay for nighttime fireworks, so we left for a few hours to rest and eat. We headed to Sweet Tomatoes again.  All my kids want is salad. We get dinner and dessert with drinks for all five of us for $30. Seriously, a great deal.  Here's Noah with his dessert. 

 

Then, we headed back to Epcot and did the World Showcase. It's all the countries around the park.  We saw a cool Circle Vision show of Canada. My kids had never seen a circle vision, so they liked it. And we love Canada!

 

Here's Vancouver, which we visit every summer. 

 

Then, we hit the United Kingdom and the kids had to get in a phone booth. Ben was doing his Superman impression.

 

The Eiffel Tower...

 

Japan!

 

China! They had another Circle Vision show there.

 

Mexico!

 

Then, it was time for the show and fireworks.

 

I can't get firework pics on my phone. 

 

Then, we got home and the boys took off my shoes for me.

 

We are wiped out!  Four days is my max. I don't think I'd survive another day.  I'm so glad I can wear flip flops tomorrow and we'll be headed to the beach.

 

We all really loved our time here at Disney World. I know we may never come here again with our kids.  Emily will be an adult in 4 years and it took us 15 years to come here a second time. So, who knows what will happen in the years to come. I'm just grateful that I had this time with my family.