We flew in to the Orlando airport around 5:30 on Thursday night, got our rental minivan, and drove about 2 hours to east Bradenton. We got to the Goodyear's house just after 9:00 PM. The girls went up to the door and surprised Cheyenne and Indy by ringing the doorbell and asking if they could play. They had been planning that for several weeks. It was pretty cute, and very exciting. We let them play for a couple hours before bed and they fell right back into their old paces.
The next day we drove to Anna Maria Island to go on a private dolphin tour. We were on the boat a solid hour before we saw any dolphins, but we did see a few and it was a perfect, beautiful day. It felt so good to be out in the sunshine with the sea air in our faces, hanging out with friends. After the boat we went to lunch at the Ugly Grouper and I tried grouper for the first time. I wish I had taken a picture of the tacos because they were amazing. Then it was soft serve and back to the Goodyear's to swim in the pool and play at the park.
On Sunday we packed up again and drove back to Anna Maria Island for a beach day. They had an area all scouted out that wasn't crowded. It was a warm day and the water was warm and it really was just the best day ever. I could sit out on the beach and play in the water all day. Everyone got solidly sun burned, though. That night we had a BBQ and just relaxed. We got everyone to bed early because we had get up early the next day to go back to Orlando, and Brett and Suzie's kids had school.
It was so nice seeing Bri back with her friend. They got right to work on being weird and making annoying sounds together. It was like they'd never taken a break. And everyone had fun. I was worried Mason would hate it because he didn't have a friend, but he had a great time. Next time we go to Florida I think we'll just visit a lot of different beaches each day.
Bright and early on Monday we headed to Disney World. Everyone had to wear masks the whole time, which we were dreading, and it was as crappy as I thought it would be, but it didn't ruin the fun. We spent the first day in Magic Kingdom. Naturally we rode Space Mountain first. Ava pulled out her very stubborn tooth while we were on the ride! We rode nearly all the rides we wanted to, but it was hot standing in line in the sun and everyone was feeling the effects of their sunburns, so we called it a day before we hit everything.
On Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. This was the best one. The rides were all fun, everyone was well rested, and the lines weren't as long. We got off to kind of a rough start because Bus wasn't tall enough for the Rockin' Roller Coaster so Mason and Bri went with Tim and he and Ava and I did a Cars thing instead. He was appalled that we split up like that and could not get over it for way too long. But a couple more fun rides and he was back to happy Buster. At lunch we managed to get on the standby for Guardians of the Galaxy, and we were happy that we waited to get on. It was very cool. But everyone liked Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror the best.
Wednesday we woke up to pouring rain and were a little worried that our day at Animal Kingdom would be a wet one, but it cleared up and stayed sunny all day. The Avatar ride was my favorite of all of them. There wasn't as much to do at this park, and our feet were getting pretty sore, so we rode all the big rides and headed back to the hotel to swim right after lunch time.
After swimming we went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory (it has become our Disney tradition) and then headed to the airport super early on Thursday morning.
It was so nice spending a whole week with my kids without needing to nag them to do stuff or spend all my time cleaning up after them. We just got to play together. Everyone got along and had a good time. Mason showed a lot of maturity. He looked out for his siblings, he was conscientious of not complaining. He was happy and grateful the whole. It is so fun watching him grow up. He's a cool young man. Our last couple of big trips have not turned out the way I was hoping, but this one completely exceeded my expectations. I'm so grateful we got to go.
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