Castles, Starfish, & Fried Green Tomatoes

What do all of these things have in common you may ask? Well, they are all things that we saw and ate (well we didn't eat any castles and I certainly would never attempt to taste a starfish), on our mini vacation to Disney World and Folly Beach, SC. But before I get to the fried green tomatoes with a side of grits, here's a recap of the fun we had while we were in Florida and Disney.

Back from the warm days in Florida with Scot's parents, and still dreaming of the tastiest meals I have ever eaten over the past few days, I think it's safe to say that I am officially in a food coma. Good thing tomorrow is Monday and I can kick start the week in high gear by getting my butt to the gym! Before I go all picture crazy on ya'll, and elaborate on all of the fun we had, I hope that you had a great weekend too. We were welcomed back to North Carolina with those familiar baby blue skies, but the temps had dropped into the 50's, and we had to get out our winter coats and jeans in the attic, from the morning we left wearing shorts and t shirts because it was so warm. How did that all happen in just a few days?

 Just getting over the stomach flu here, we were more than ready to leave the sickies behind, and make our way to sunny Florida for some fun and relaxation! Scot and I agreed awhile ago now, that in order to make the best of our trips with his parents (and our sanity), that we would stay in a hotel when we visit them. Ryder spent the night with them, and so it was just Scot and I and Brynley. It gave us time with just her to bond, but I wouldn't recommend it for babies her age because she got stir crazy quickly, and it was all I could do to keep her off the hotel floor for hours on end!

 We played at my inlaws during the day, which made it all the better for us, but we were mostly looking forward to the days at Disney World that we had planned to celebrate my Mother in Law's 60th birthday. Grampa just loved having both of his grandbabies in their pool and playing on the fire boat. Although we wish that they had taken both kids overnight as we awaited our trip to Disney, we were glad that they at least had some time with Ryder to bond since they don't get to see him often, living out of state. I really don't mean to sound so negative, but there is no way around the elephant in the room, and it is always a difficult task at hand when arranging trips to see them.

Brynley absolutely adored the luggage cart, and she made sure to get rides both arriving and departing the hotel! We loaded our things and got ready to head to the Walt Disney resort for the next few days, and I was so excited to see my family together at the park, as a family of four!

 We had previously stayed at the Polynesian Resort on property, back in 2010. To read more about that trip, you can go here and here. And oh yes, here.(the one that started the "fight" of all fights) I thought that was a great trip, but as it turns out, because I voiced an opinion that the Magic Kingdom can be stressful, I got myself in hot water big time. Not to make the same mistake twice, and to avoid any bad memories from then, we opted to stay at the Contemporary Resort. This was cool because it was the same hotel that Scot went to as a child, with fond memories with his parents and I was happy to start new ones with my family too. One of the coolest things about this hotel, obviously (other than the fact that it was on Disney property), was the monorail that went right through the hotel! Ryder truly was in heaven and requested many a ride on the monorail and made sure to scout the different trams!

I think it was safe to say that Miss B LOVED the resort! The minute we let her down, she took off and wanted to get right in the pool. We met up with Scot's parents while they checked us in. We are so fortunate they paid for our rooms and the tickets to the park, and we were so grateful to them. My MIL rented a cabana for the day which was great to help shade my fair skinned babies. I am a lover of the sun, but I know it's best to keep my little light skin and haired babes from the sun! We enjoyed lunch, swimming, water slides, and more and our vacation was just getting started. I missed Ryder and was happy to get some time with him in the pool. He even went down the waterslide with me!

A day relaxing at the pool was JUST what this family needed after a few days traveling and hanging in our hotel room. Ryder was my little fish, not afraid of the water at all, and wanted to make many a trip to the hot pools and play with his Grampa and Daddy in the "park" (as he referred to the splash pad). We even met a few kids while we splashed around at the two different pools and I was so proud of my normally shy little guy for meeting new friends. Brynley was just as much of a fan as Ryder!

 Here are some of the pictures I took with my iPhone, which ended up turning out ok! I loved the view from the pools. These were all fom our first day at the resort, on Sunday when we arrived. It looked right over Bay Lake and we could see Magic Kingdom and Cinderella's Castle, as well as the Epcot ball from where we were. It doesn't get much better than this, and I am so thankful to my inlaws for this trip. Just seeing the smiles on my kids faces made everything worth it and more, and I vowed to do many a trip here just to see those smiles.

 Enjoying my grilled chicken sandwich and a skinny coconut mojito. YUM!
 Hello. vacation is now in effect!

And a view of the pool from our cabana, and the main hotel we stayed in. Our room was the 11th floor on the left (well really the right). It was awesome and Brynley actually even napped pretty well in her hideaway crib. We brought her pack n play along with us, but she hadn't slept well in it the few nights before and I swear she was up every 3 hours to eat! Regardless, I knew that Brynley would be so tired at the end of each night that she would sleep good because of the busy day we'd be having each day and into the night. Sure enough, she was conked out by the end of each night!

Turning 60 was a big deal for my MIL and we wanted to make it a special night for her, so we treated her to a nice dinner at Citricos, at the Grand Floridian Hotel. It was so cool to just hop from our resort to the monorail and hop on the next stop which was the Grand Floridian. The food was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better waitress. She made us all feel welcome and tended to my kids when they started to get antsy and somewhat fussy while waiting on our meals.

I am not even kidding when I say that I could cut into my filet with a butter knife! And no I definitely was not counting calories on this trip, which probably explains the fried green tomatoes in the title of this post. This picture doesn't even do this meal justice on how good it was!

And of course a video of my sweet girl with her Grampa, and Ryder 'breakin' it down too!

 Along with a nice birthday dinner, I made a birthday banner with a Mickey Mouse theme, complete with Mickey Mouse ears and the Disney font and the water bottle labels I found. I think my MIL had an idea bc my FIL had mentioned we were needing to get in her hotel room. But she was shocked at how much effort I put into decorating and making tshirts for us to wear as a group, along with the toughtful gifts I made. I really wanted to make this birthday special for her, and I hope that she realizes this effort that was made. I know it's sometimes better to go unnoticed, but it can also be frustrating when such thought is put into someone or something, with no gratitude shown.

 We completed the night watching fireworks from their bedroom balcony of the Magic Kingdom across the sky which was amazeballs! Brynley hadn't really ever seen fireworks before because she'd fallen asleep too early on 4th of July, so she was very into them to say the least.

And what's a post without these cuties in their Mickey Mouse jammies? I was kinda bummed not to have the kids both in our room at this point, since Ryder had been sleeping in my inlaws room. He was happy to spend time with us and was a very sweet little guy and I couldn't get enough snuggles.

It was a fun day and a fun night, and we all went to bed with a little more color than when we arrived which was a sign of all the excitement we had that day. And if you made it to the end of this post I commend you ha!