Mini Golf, Swimming & Downtown Disney

To get to Florida as a group of 17, we did a marketing package. Which basically means you have to sit through a time share conference in order for your hotel and entertainment to be paid for. The Sales people all said "oh no, don't do the marketing package" because we were promised a lot and didn't get what was promised. The 1 1/2 hour tour was long and boring and we kindly said "no, we aren't interested" more then one can count.

We spent a couple hours at the park in the complex. The kids spend most of the time playing in the sand, the slides were already a little hot and begging to go to the swimming pool.


We went mini-golfing and to the go-carts. It was Lexi's first experience, she did pretty well placing her ball directly in the hole and helping the rest of us get our ball there also.




Jack loved golfing. I missed a picture of Maddy golfing. Oh well, you get the idea. After we had lunch and then went to more souvenir shops searching for a birthday present for Lexi and anything else we might want/need from Florida. The kids all got a Disney beach towel and Lexi got a couple birthday presents to be presented at a later date.


After lunch and mini golf, we went to the pool and spent the rest of the day here. The weather was warm, the water was warm according to the kids ( I preferred the hot tub it was more my temperature) and the kids had a blast. No videos of swimming, the last time we went swimming Mike took the flip for a swim and it stopped working. The new flip stayed back in the hotel. Here are the little fishes.

Maddy



Aunt Emma

Jack sporting his new Mickey water wings!

Uncle Taylor
Mom & Lexi

So glad we got this life jacket for Lexi, she just swam and swam and swam and I didn't have to be right next to her trying to keep her afloat.
And the group attempting to get Uncle Josh in the water.
Lexi swam a good two hours. She loves, loves, loves the water. She will just sit and float for hours. She found Dora the fish somewhere in the pool and was her friend the rest of the day.
We went to dinner at Rio Mexican Grille. I bought a gift certificate from restaurants.com and the food was so yummy. After dinner, they brought a piece of chocolate cake and sang to our little 2 year old. She loves singing "Happy Day" She was so quick blowing out the candle I didn't even get a picture of it.
Trying out the cherry on top...she didn't like it and put it back.

After dinner we headed to Downtown Disney to meet up with my family. When they arrived the wait for a table was 90 minutes, they decided to head somewhere else to eat. We did a little window shopping, A LOT of walking, and had a great time (without them).

Captain Jack Sparrow and his ship mate Maddy sailing away.
Some other Ducks hanging around Downtown Disney that we snagged a picture with.
The Lego store was amazing. We didn't get a picture of the lock-ness monster in the water but it was huge and amazing and all built out of Lego's. Here's Woody and each kid had to have their own picture with him.
Lexi checking out Woody or "story" as she calls him.
Jack doesn't know that Lexi secretly is in his picture.
A favorite spot at Downtown Disney was this store where Mr Potato Head was outside. We spent at least an hour in the HUGE store wandering and remembering everything Disney.

Here are some pictures of some of our favorite spots in the store.

Lexi was so happy to see "story" aka Buzz. I managed a group picture instead of individual pictures here.
Inside the Disney store was a table where you could build and play with potato heads. We spent a lot of time constructing potato heads.
Even Mike was in potato head heaven making the latest and greatest combination he could come up with.
Jack's finished potato head.

I was busy chasing Lexi from one attraction to the next and didn't get any more pictures in the store. Her favorite were the lite sabers from Star Wars. She was so upset that Mom wouldn't let her take it out of the store (she was hitting random people with it in the store I could only see it in the near future at home).

On the way back to the car we saw this street vendor. He was great all dressed in red. Jack asked if he liked the color red. Apparently:) He doesn't move unless you stand by him and then he copy cats you. We enjoyed watching him mimic another girl. He was very entertaining and remarkably not asking for tips, I would have given him one if he had a tip jar -he was great!

And that concludes our night at Downtown Disney. He were supposed to meet up with my family but the crowds were everywhere, so they went somewhere else and we stayed the night anyway. It was a blast, we almost stayed at home and we are all so glad that we didn't.

One night, Mike joined most of the baseball fans in the family and headed to Spring Training baseball (the reason my dad and brother came to Florida--not for Disney but Spring Training). This was a HOT game, the Yanks and the Sox's. Here is Mike's take on the night. Me and the munchkins hit BK for an exciting night.