We spent an amazing week in Florida over Thanksgiving with the whole Smith family and the trip was AMAZING! Seriously, it could not have gone better. Our itinerary was diverse and awesome and so kid friendly and we all had such a wonderful time. I had a hard time even choosing which pictures to post, because there are SO MANY. This is really a short version of this wonderful trip!
We spent our first day at Kennedy Space Center. My dad was so excited to take the boys here, and they were so excited to go. It did not disappoint! I hadn't been here in 20 years and I was pleasantly surprised by how informative, entertaining, and vast it was! We spent five hours there and could have stayed longer if the baby was in a better mood.
Chase wanted to read everything, learn everything and explore everything. Hudson had some pretending going on in his mind, and especially in interactive displays was pretending to "hack into the network" and "stop viruses". He had Aunt Heidi join in his imagination, it was darling!
We did three days at Disney parks- all of which were so fun and unique! We did Magic Kingdom our first day, and despite the crowds still had a great time! Davis got to ride a few kiddie rides with Nana and Papa (Winnie the Pooh and the carousel) while the rest of us went on Splash Mountain. We got lucky with fastpasses and got to go twice, which was great since it was Chase and Hudson's very favorite ride!
Heidi was a real life saver. She's amazing with all the kids, but Hudson especially feels very bonded to her and spent 90% of the trip holding her hand. It was great to know he was happy and having one less kid to keep track of.
Hudson rode almost all of splash mountain with his hands in the air! He loves the drop- which is surprising for a kid who doesn't generally like slides!
We hit up Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Buzz Lightyeard, Little Mermaid, Monsters Inc Laugh floor, and saw the parade. It was a long day, but so much fun! The kids were real troopers, I knew they'd be, and weren't scared of anything and were game for everything!
Our next day was Animal Kingdom, and I was actually blown away by how cool it was. I didn't have super high expectations for it and is was awesome. We started out by riding Everest, which is a fairly intense ride. We all got so sick, except Hudson who thought it was the best thing ever! And then we rode Kali Rapids and got completely soaked. It was nice that while we rode things Davis couldn't do, Papa would take him to go see animals and everyone was happy!
Davis did get to ride this little ride in Dinoland twice while his brothers went on the big Dinosaur ride twice (so cool!). We figured out the rider swap thing and used it to our advantage so the boys could ride really cool rides twice, which made the longer wait times much easier to manage.
Davis and the girls got to meet Donald Duck. Davis is so into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and I wasn't sure how he'd react to seeing the characters up close. Sometimes those big characters throw kids off. Not Davis, he was so thrilled he could hardly contain himself. He wouldn't even look at the camera for pictures because he couldn't take his eyes off Donald.
I left him with Papa for a few minutes and this is what happened. It's chocolate ice cream.
The Safari was awesome. The Lion King show was awesome. Davis went nuts for it. Pandora world is so so cool. We did the river cruise and we all loved it. Overall, the atmosphere at animal kingdom was so unique and so cool. It might have been everyone's favorite day of the trip!
Also, our hotel was just amazing. We had two condos next door to each other. They were comfortable, beautiful and spacious. It was the perfect place to congregate and relax, eat and play games. So much fun family bonding going on there! The resort had beautiful grounds and so much to do. There were little parks to play on, mini golf, basketball, shuffle board, and life size chess set, a fun game room and arcade, pools and hot tubs, a ferry boat to ride. We could have just stayed there all week and never left and been happy! Also, the sun was shining and the weather couldn't have been more pleasant. It was so nice to see the sun!
These little cousins had so much fun together. Hudson and Nora would get one of their imaginary games going and be immersed in it for hours.
This was Thanksgiving Day, right before dinner. We bought it mostly at Costco and just warmed and assembled- it was delicious. My heart felt so full, especially in the spirit of the holiday, to be enjoying such a wonderful trip with all my favorite people that I love so much.
Our last day we went with Heidi and my mom to Hollywood studios. Atmosphere there isn't quite so cool, but they did have Toy Story Land which was darling and the boys loved it! The slinky dog coaster (which they got to ride twice, thanks to rider swap) was a major highlight for them. Hollywood Studios also has the Star Wars attractions, and since Hudson is majorly obsessed with Star Wars that alone made it worth it to go! He met Chewbacca, BB8 and Kylo Ren (who asked him to join the Dark Side and Hudson agreed, but later told me he didn't really mean it).
The highlight of the whole day, possibly the whole trip, was when Davis got to meet Mickey Mouse. This was the best place to do it. The line was short and he got to meet Minnie as well (also darling). Mickey is Davis's favorite person ever and Davis kept exclaiming "Dat's MICKEY!" and pointing to him. All his dreams came true and it was the most darling thing I've ever seen.
Davis loved these glasses that we used for Toy Story Mania (such a cool ride)- and he threw a huge fit when we had to give them back!
Davis was a huge fan of vacation, even with all the naps on the go and trouble sleeping at night (which was probably harder on me and Ben) he was a happy camper. He just loved being out and about and being part of everything.
Our flight home was a little exhausting- this photo is during the very short nap Davis took. But we made it! The big kids are big fans of flying and they were perfect on the flights.
Traveling with kids (mostly with the littlest one) is definitely exhausting, but also so rewarding and so worth it. I'm so glad we got to go with the whole big family, it was so fun to share the experience together and form all those new memories. I love seeing my kids bond more with their aunts and uncles and cousins. I loved having a whole week to just focus on my people, and leave the rest of the stresses of life and home and work behind. I loved having Ben with us for the whole week. I loved how often Davis napped in my (very tired) arms. I loved seeing my boys faces light up on the cool rides or when they met a character they love. I loved seeing them learn new things and explore a new state. It was all just so wonderful and filled my heart with so much peace, happiness, contentment and love for all these people (and mostly for my parents for making it all happen!).
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