Animal Kingdom

We got to Fort Wilderness on Saturday and the sun was shining which we were all so happy for after several days of rain and travel!

 The campgrounds were awesome with two pools, and playgrounds and lots of fun to be had. All of the Christmas decorations were still up and lots of people had their own Christmas decorations and blow up inflatable decorations.

 We got settled and took the kids swimming.

Our passes began the next day. Our first day was at animal kingdom. We took a bus to get there. Benjamin's reflection in the glass shows just the beginning of the Disney magic for the day. He was impressed just by the trucks and things he saw out the bus window on the way.
 

Our first fast pass was for the Kilimanjaro Safari. We saw so many animals out in their different habitats.

 After the safari we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration.

Benjamin loved watching the meerkats. He stayed for a long time watching them go in and out of their burrows and running all around.

Gorilla!

We took the Wildlife express train where we got to see some of back scenes, including the vet clinic. There was also a petting zoo, and Isabella got to earn some more badges in her animal kingdom adventures book.

Benjamin was brave to pet this snake, and then he and Michael headed back for Benjamin to take a nap. 

We went on to find the tree of life and Isabella got her first Mickey ice cream sandwich.

Playing in the boneyard

Meeting Pocahontas!

We also had fast passes for the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows, which were both great!

And we rode the Safari a second time because there was no line and it was fun to see a few different animals that time.

Favorite ride of the day- The triceratops spin! We rode it a few times earlier in the day and then at night there were no lines and we rode it again and again!
We ate dinner and walked around some. I loved seeing the tree of life all lit up at night. We got rained on on and off that day, but still had a great day. We headed back to the RV just before the park was closing.

We changed in to warm pajamas and ended our great first day with S'mores!

South Padre 2015

We left Friday morning for South Texas for our annual trip.

Isabella doing a little dancing at a pit stop for gas.

One highlight for her was stopping at Buc ee's to check everything out and pick a treat for the road. She chose that huge lollipop in her hand. We ate dinner at chickfila and got to our hotel in San Antonio. 

 Riding on the cart is soooo fun to them...

We checked in to our room and went swimming for a while before bed.

Benjamin was awake for almost THREE hours in the night. He was so crazy. And it was so frustrating. Then he was sleeping peacefully away when it was time for us to leave in the morning.

We drove on Saturday and made it to the beach house that afternoon.

 Beach time with cousins!

Our beach house had a wrap around porch with picnic tables on one side. The kids spent a lot of time out there.

Blue dip n dots tongue at schlitterbahn! 

My mom took us all there for the day for George's birthday.  There was a huge area for little ones, and then they had double tubes where the front part of the tube didn't have a hole in it so a little child could sit in the front. So the kids rode on several rides with us. Michael and Benjamin left after lunch time so Ben could take a nap and then they came back and joined us til closing time. It was a fun day!

At the turtle rescue center.

Butterfly wings from Aunt Flower.

Daily morning reading time with Mimi.

Benjamin worked intently with the dot markers several days. Serious business.

Love the milky way lattes at Yummies! 

He poured water and sand in and out of buckets the whole time.

And one day he played in uncle david's sand castle bucket for a long time!

At pirates landing

 Flying kites with Papa our last night at the beach.           Benjamin loved collecting seashells. 

Til next year beach! I'm grateful for the time my kids get with my parents and experiencing a church family in another part of the country that knows them and is excited to see them. And Isabella LOVED the cousin time! Thanks, Mom and Dad for taking us on this trip and making it possible to all be together!