Cocoa Beach; November 6

COCOA BEACH

Our day at the beach was one of my favorite days. I love the ocean. I love the ocean so much that I often dream of living by it. It's not in my cards to live by the ocean, but I can always dream... When I go to the ocean; however, it is like a dream coming true. A dream of ocean waves hitting against me, and hours of exploring for amazing sea shells. I love the ocean...

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom

We left Hollywood Studios with the intent of going to dinner and going to bed; however, when we were done eating, Hailey and Amber wanted to see Fantasmic. We had purchased park hopper tickets with the intent of finishing our evenings at the Magic Kingdom; however, Bryan and I had been awake for 36 hours. The kids had gotten some sleep on the airplane, but they weren't much better for sleep either. We were exhausted. I think the excitement of being in Florida, and most importantly--Disney World, kept the kids too enthralled for sleep; therefore, to Fantasmic we went. The show was amazing...a perfect and to a perfect day...or at least, that is what I would have thought. Yet again, my family wanted to explore, and so we ended the night with a few rides, a few pictures, and one last light show at the castle. We crawled into bed just after 1:00 a.m. I thought I was exhausted before Fantasmic, but this time--I needed another vocabulary word to describe my exhaustion; I needed something bigger than "exhausted". It was a magical first day.

At some point during the show, I couldn't help myself and I cried out, "Mickey No! Mickey No!" Apparently, I needed more sleep...

We joke that this is what Jake looks like when we allow him to drink caffeine. 

Saturday, Hollywood Studios

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

And so our dream vacation begins... Bryan and I had planned for weeks without telling the kids a thing. They all thought we were going to Pinner's Conference in Salt Lake City; however, what we were actually planning was a trip to Orlando, Florida to visit Disney World & Universal Studios Florida. It took weeks of planning and weeks of secrecy. On the day of the trip, we spent all day packing and preparing. Just before school let out, we prepared a scavenger hunt with the big reveal. Watching it even now makes me tear up. All of our hard work paid off immensely. This was definitely a Christmas present to remember. 

Here we are waiting at the Salt Lake Airport...

When we arrived in Florida, we were too early to check-in to our hotel. We had come to Florida on a red-eye flight. All the kids had been able to sleep some, but Bryan and I were so tired. Still, we felt our only choice was to go to Disney until we could go to the hotel... Hollywood Studios was our first stop.