Sorry for the radio silence, but the Heat’s took a trip. We saw this guy:
Taken by Scorch- the expression cracks me right up!
Then we stumbled upon this other animal:
Scorch fought this scary guy:
He totally kicked Darth Maul’s butt, too.
We visited with a mouse or two:
And we even chased a few of these around the beach:
Ah, Florida, how I do love visiting you! We hopped in the car a week ago Thursday and started the 1100+ mile trip down the coast to some warmer weather and relaxation. The weather wasn’t quite as hot as we would have liked it, but we managed just fine! It was just to nice to see the sun every single day- you don’t realize how much you miss it until you see it again. We spent 3 days at Disney- a half day at Hollywood Studios, a half day at Animal Kingdom, a day at the Magic Kingdom and a day at Epcot. Then we got back in the car and drove to the west coast for some beach time with my parents. That made my soul very, very happy! Honestly, I could skip Disney all together and spend a week at the beach- but the kids and the Hubs love the parks so much that that wasn’t going to happen.
Going to Disney World with a 4 year old vs a 3 year was much, much, much easier. Beaner could fit on a lot more of the rides now that she’s finally over 40 inches tall, but most importantly, she’s lost most of her fear. Rides that scared her silly last year were a joke and she asked to go on the Star Wars ride 3 times. Scorch is at the sweet spot of an age where he still loves all the main Disney characters- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc- but he’s ready to try some of the scarier things too like the roller coasters. All in all, we could not have asked for a better couple of days!
And now it’s back to reality. I’m scared to check my inbox at work tomorrow and I dread having to get the kids ready for school- but all that is more than worth it for the trip we had!
Wickedly Crazy Awesome Life 
Yay for you!! I genuinely love hearing about people having a wonderful time on vacation, especially when it involves kids. I’m actually really kind of bummed we didn’t get our act together to go on a theme park trip with the kiddos before baby will come along (at this point I don’t have it in me to plan a vacation that requires me to be on my feet all day). They are at the perfect ages and it’ll be a year or two before I want to attempt it, unless I can bring a grandma along to help with baby care.
The beach looks absolutely sublime…
Really, this is the first year that the Bean was old enough (both height-wise and maturity-wise) to handle the rides- before she was scared spitless. In a perfect world, in my opinion, 8 and 6 would be the ideal ages for Disney! And I’m all about bringing the grandparents along- my parent came with us and it helped us immensely. We always enjoy their company, but it was doubly nice as we could split up or leave the kids with them (or vice versa) so we could go on some adult rides.