Family Vacation in Florida {Part 1}

Most of you already know that a couple weeks ago my family and I spent ten glorious days on a Family Vacation in Florida!  I cannot tell you how much fun we had or how much we enjoyed the weather.  Don’t get me wrong, Minnesota is beautiful, but the winters can get rough!  Taking a trip down south, was exactly what we needed!  I thought it would be fun to share some of our photos and details for the trip with you but we did a lot so this is going to take a few posts. 

First, let me remind everyone about my love of flying.  Airplanes and I have a special kind of relationship, the kind where we tolerate each other but only because we have to.  I don’t like airplanes and they don’t like me.  I’m not sure which one of us started this crazy madness, but I am quite sure that it makes us both miserable.  When I am on a plane, I am at the mercy of that huge machine, and those of us control freaks, DO NOT LIKE THAT!  The wonderful thing about flying though, is how fast you get to the place you are going.  So, alas, I will continue to fly and pray that our relationship gets better. 

We flew out of Minneapolis when it was snowing.  Later, snow!  I couldn’t wait to get to Florida and after an hour delay, we were on our way.  Getting into Florida at 1 a.m., yep, that’s right, we managed to drag ourselves to the hotel and crash, as well as sleep in the next morning.  It’s vacation, why not?!

The first place we hit was Downtown Disney, I had to get my Disney fix and my boys were beyond excited to spend some time at the Lego store. 

The creations at the Lego stores amaze me!  I cannot believe the amount of time that is put into these Lego sculptures. 

My boys spent an hour building cars to race while my hubby and I sat in the sun and enjoyed the warm weather!  It was fabulous!  We had to drag them away so that we could have lunch, after they had created and raced many different Lego cars.   

We had a delicious lunch at Wolfgang Puck Café in Downtown Disney.  I had never eaten here before so it was a treat for me. One thing on vacation that I love, is trying new restaurants and foods.  This was such a great selection and I was not disappointed.

I had an amazing Bruschetta as an appetizer, it was my very favorite part of the meal!  I would highly recommend it, if you ever get a chance! 

Our first night of vacation we went to Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament show.  My boys LOVED it!  They still say it was one of their favorite parts of vacation, getting to see the jousting, horses and knights.

You get to really experience Medieval Times dining with your meal, by eating with your hands!  And, you don’t get pizza or a burger, it’s soup and half of a chicken! It is so much fun and you can tell from the photos how much my boys enjoyed it.

That was all day one!!  We pack a lot into our vacations, to the point of needing a vacation after our vacation. But, there is so much to do and such little time!

The next day we drove to Kennedy Space Center, which was about an hour drive from Orlando.  The boys were excited to learn about rockets!  It almost made up for them missing a week of school.  Almost.  We spent a good part of the day enjoying learning about NASA and the space program. 

Now, let me back up a little and share the amazing hotel that we stayed at with you.  The actual hotel and the staff blew me away with how fabulous they were. 

We stayed at the Hilton Orlando with the convention center.  It was beautiful inside and out.  The food was fabulous too.  My hubby and I were able to enjoy an appetizer at the pool side bar while our kids enjoyed the water. 

Every single staff member that we had encounters with, were extremely friendly and helpful with everything.  I could not have asked for a better experience. 

For my boys the best part was the water slide and lazy river, that they had all to themselves!  Yes, we crazy Minnesota people still swim on vacation when it is 60 and 70 degrees!  It really doesn’t seem so cold after you have had -30 degree weather.

They even provided life jackets for my little guy to use so that I didn’t have to worry about him on the slide! 

The first weekend of our trip was awesome!  We pack in a lot of activities on our trips but we still try to allow ourselves a little down time so that we can nap and lounge at the pool. 

I know that I added quite a few photos in this post, but it is not even a scratch in the amount that I took!  I love taking lots of photographs so that we can remember the memories of our trips.  The kids grow up so fast and vacations are an important time for us to really enjoy each other and spend quality time together. 

Watch for upcoming posts on the rest of the vacation!  I can’t wait to share Universal Studios photos with you!  It is an amazing place!!

I was not compensated in any way for this post, I just wanted to share some amazing places with you and the memories from our vacation!