Florida February: January 28, 2020

(click here for today's pictures)


Hotel sleeping is good, but so is rental house sleeping in Floriday. It was well after midnight when Robby and I laid down. The kids were also in bed pretty late so not surprisingly it was tough waking everyone up. 

Once the kids were awake, it didn't take too long for them to find their breakfasts. Most everyone had their breakfasts but then still had to finish it in the car ride to Magic Kingdom. We are fairly close to Animal Kingdom, but do have to go a little bit longer for Magic Kingdom.

It is probably the most difficult park to get to. First parking, security, then the tram to the Transportation Center, and boat to Magic Kingdom. Even though it is not easy to get to, it is still worth it. Just magical!...and pretty chilly this morning. Most of us had jackets on but some did not. Even with my coat on it was a bit windy. Soon the sun was out, and things were warming up.

We made it right after the park opened and hurried on to Space Mountain. The line was still waiting outside so while they waited, I ran to the bathroom really quick. Thankfully, they were still outside so I caught up with them. 

Space Mountain is always really fun. The kids love it-Whitman especially. It kind of gives me the creeps thinking that it is a rickety old roller coaster. We survived the coaster and went to meet the Crafts. 

Most everyone rode on the Tea Cups followed by the People Mover. There wasn't really a line for it, so that does show me that the crowds are a bit less than last time. Even though it still really seems crowded here. 

We then walked back across the park to ride the Jungle Cruise. It is a classic, but after riding it a few times lately, I don't have to do it again this trip...or next. The kids still enjoy it-or at least Whitman does. He still ducks when the lady says to "duck." 

From there, our plan was the to do the Pirates scavenger hunt, but they didn't open until noon. Instead, we opted to go to Tom Sawyer Island. None of the Dennies or Crafts had been on the island before. It was a real treat. First, we crossed the river (not really sure if it should be called a river) on a raft. Then we headed off to explore.

There was a windmill to climb up, two different caves to explore, a little playground, a rope bridge and a fort with secret passageways. Before we knew it, the kids were off playing hide and seek. They had a blast. Reagan played with Gabriel the entire time instead of joining the others. Everyone came back hot, tired and even a bit sweaty from the explorations. It was such a quiet, peaceful setting. You could have even forgotten that you were in Disney.

After we left the island, we headed to eat lunch while the Crafts went towards their next fast pass. We had one for Pirates, but even the fast pass line was too long for us. So we went to Pecos Bill for our lunch. I took a picture of our food-we bought 3 sides of chicken ($12) and brought 2 packages of tortillas. That along with all of the sides off of the taco bar, we made ourselves a pretty great meal. Anytime 8 people can dine at Disney for 12 bucks, it is a win!

We left there and met back up wtih the Crafts at Buzz Lightyear. Anderson was the big winner on that ride with over 300,000 points. Then it was time to head back to the car. We opted for the monorail this time on our way back.

Soon we were at the cars and heading to the house. Once back in the house, everyone did 3 things for school. I, of course, picked the hardest to do. That did take a little bit of time, but still less than an hour. As soon as people were done, they grabbed a snack.

And it didn't take too long at all, for Campbell, Keaton, Graham and Whitman to find their way into the pool. I do believe that it was super freezing, but they swam away anyway. I am sure that they will be swimming again tomorrow!

While they were swimming, I worked on some laundry and even swept the floor. It is just like home-always work to be done! Once the laundry was folded, we zoomed on out of the house. We could have made spaghetti but we didn't have noodles, we could have made chicken quesadillas but we didn't have chicken, we could have made chicken spaghetti but we didn't have noodies, get the idea? There were quite a few meals that we had planned for but they were all missing something-we knew that was the case.

We talked about just making cheese quesadillas for supper, but we decided that we since we had tortillas for lunch we would just grab something on the way. We ended up at Taco Bell eating tortillas and Mexican food...just like at lunch. That was fine though because it sure was good.

Then we hurried to meet the Crafts at Animal Kingdom. Casey and Abigail rode the first ride with us-Dinosaur. That is always a fun ride-it is like you are being tossed around like a rag doll. Then we did some walking around killing time. 

The park closed at 8 tonight so the plan was to get into the line for the Avatar ride before the park officially closed. Traci had not ridden it, so I took her littles (all 4) around with me while they were in the line. 

We went to a line that said 35 minutes, but only waited about 15 to ride our ride. Then we mosied around the park spending most of our time looking for Gabriel's lost shoe. Yep, I had the baby when we discovered that he had lost a shoe. Since we didn't have anything else to do while waiting on the others, we asked cast members about it, looked for it and even went to guest services to ask. No luck. It was fine though and actually gave us something to do.

The others ride line said 120 minutes. They only waited 45 and soon were finding us. They were all on cloud 9 because the Avatar ride is really the best one these days. Whitman was disappointed this morning when we said that we were going to Magic Kingdom because he wanted to go to Animal Kingdom to ride Avatar. 

After meeting back up with the others, we headed to the car and to Walmart. We had already been warned that this Walmart is a bit crazy. And even at 10:30 at night, every checker was working and the lines were 3-4 deep. We had quite a bit of food to buy-250 dollars worth. We did it as fast as we could but 8 people shopping is never fast!

Soon we were back at the house unloading groceries as fast as we could. Some had short showers, but soon everyone was in their beds! Tomorrow will be a bit slower...or at least we think it will be.

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