Disney World in December

Last June, I booked plane tickets and our hotel at Disney's Pop Century in Orlando. We wanted to take our kids to Disney World and I got a great price on Southwest to fly there. The kids had a blast! We decided to go in December since it tends to be less crowded than the summer, the weather is great, and it's beautifully decorated for Christmas. All was true, except it rained one day while we were there. We planned ahead and brought ponchos and braved the rain at Magic Kingdom with our three kids in tow. We were so glad we went in December and hope to go again in the future. 

We bought 3-day park tickets and spent two days at Magic Kingdom and one day at Epcot. Magic Kingdom is really the best park if you have toddlers and preschoolers. There is so much to do there. Epcot has a nice diaper changing area with some couches and plugs to plug in your cell phone. So pack your charger in your bag if you go and need to rest.

My husband and I went to Disney World on our honeymoon almost 13 years ago. It was a different experience with kids but a lot of fun. We ate at some fancy restaurants and had a great time. We did not purchase the dining plan but were still able to make some reservations for nice restaurants while there. One great thing about going when we did was that our younger two are under 3. So they were FREE to go to Disney. Also, at the all you can eat restaurants, they ate free as well. We saved a lot of money going before Princess turns 3, which is next month.

The weather in December in Orlando is great. Blue Rock and I even swam the first night we were there. We took the Disney Express from the airport which made things so easy! We got off our plane and went straight to the bus that took us to our hotel. Disney picked up our luggage and brought it to our hotel later that day. Next time we go, we're going to pack our swimsuits in our carry-on bags. The weather was perfect when we arrived to swim. Our room was already ready but we had to wait until later for our luggage to arrive at our room to get our swimsuits.

We did one big character meet and greet with Mickey Mouse. Princess LOVED meeting him! He was friendly, asked our names and told us a joke. We were super impressed. Princess wants to go back to Disney World and live there. Blue Rock's favorite ride was Fast Track and Space Mountain. Princess's favorite ride was Aladdin and Peter Pan, even though she was a little scared flying on Peter Pan, but it was really cool. Blue Knight's favorite ride was probably Winnie the Pooh. He fell asleep riding It's A Small world.

Like I mentioned, we stayed at a Disney Hotel, Pop Century. It was a value resort, which was fine. We had a crib and ended up also getting a Pack n Play since the kids played musical beds. It allowed us to put Blue Knight in the crib but if he woke up he could sleep next to me without another kid in the bed. I think it was worth saving the money and staying there. Especially since we were mostly there just to sleep. Although we might stay at a moderate hotel next time if we plan to do more at the hotel. We stayed 4 nights. We also purchased the Magic Moments picture package. Some photographers were better than others. We did get a few nice pictures and used some on our Christmas card. 

Here are some pictures from our time there.

This was Blue Knight's 1st plane ride

Nothing is better than playing in the rain

It started pouring on us when we were on this car ride. Princess was a great driver!

The boys were behind us.

Blue Rock's first time on Space Mountain

Winnie the Pooh ride

Jungle Cruise ride

Aladdin Ride

There were games to play in line for Space Mountain

Meeting Mickey!

Yummy German Restaurant in Epcot

German Biergarten Restaurant

Our room

Camping at Fort Griffin

Truth be told, I am really not a camper. I might be a glamper but even that may be pushing it. Frankly, I'm more of a B&B girl. I like clean bathrooms, nice beds, and climate control. However, I LOVE the outdoors! I just don't like bugs or trying to use the restroom outside! However, I married a man who loves to camp and so on occasion, we will camp or glamp as a family.

Last Fall we went camping for the first time as a family. My husband and I went camping around 11 years ago when we were first married and got rained on. Blue Rock is in Trail Life which is kind of like boy scouts but a Christian scouting group. They had a family camp out last Fall at Fort Griffin. It was fun. We more or less glamped and stayed in the climate controlled shelter rather than in a tent in the 40 degree weather. A good friend of mine glamps there every year and she gave me the heads up and I felt it was fine to try with the two little kids. Blue Rock would love to stay in a tent next time and probably will have lots of fun tent camping experiences with his dad in the future. 

The stars were pretty at night. The night sky brings a lot of people to this area. There is also a nice museum and lots of rich history. We had a great time.

I stayed in the shelter most of the time with Blue Knight and some with Princess while Blue Knight napped. That's the one hard thing about traveling with little kids and babies is how much they need to nap and rest. The car ride was not the most enjoyable experience as Blue Knight does not like the car but we made it and he didn't cry too, too bad. We just stopped more than if he loved the car. 

Blue Rock's favorite part of the camping trip was the campfire and smores. He also enjoyed hiking with the guys. My husband and Princess went hiking with them while I stayed with the baby. Friday night we had smores and let Blue Rock hang out with his troop while we tried to put the little kids to bed. We only stayed one night, instead of two. When we were almost done packing up it started raining. I was really glad we decided to go ahead and head home. We had a packed day on Sunday. 

Blue Rock had an encounter with a barbed wire fence. He's okay, thankfully! His troop also did some community service while they were there. They picked up the trash all around the camp ground. 

I recommend Fort Griffin. It's a smaller campground, you could probably walk around the tent/rv/covered shelter area in about 30 minutes. There are two bathroom facilities with showers and they are clean. There is only one covered shelter. There's a big playground in the middle of the campground. There is also lots of nice hiking around the campground and outside the camping area. That's where most of the hiking took place. We saw some Indian ruins and they have golf carts you can borrow for free to drive around if you have a little kid or are unable to walk it.

It was really nice to get away from the city and unplug from cell service and the internet. I see more camping or family glamping trips in our future. I recommend Fort Griffin and thought it was a nice place to camp in Texas.

His poor nose!

He loved exploring

Our climber!

 

The shelter

We set up two queen air mattresses

 

There was even a picnic table inside

At night

Car ride home. The first and probably only time all three kids will nap at the same time!

Sweet baby!

Texas Spring Vacation!

Just just got home from a wonderful vacation. This was Princess's first vacation. We've taken her on a plane and long car trip to visit my husband's parents but we've never taken her on a family vacation. We took Blue Rock everywhere! I think living in Germany made it easy to travel. We decided to go on vacation now while I'm still in my 2nd trimester and before it gets too hot. We were gone for 7 days/nights. Our main attraction was taking the kids to the beach and Sea World. We also planned to see some friends along the way and that really added to our trip! The kids did great and seemed to both enjoy our vacation. We bought a new van two days before we left and our van did great! It's a Honda Odyssey and I think it's both of ours favorite vehicle we've ever had.

Our first night we spent the night in New Braunfels, TX. We ate dinner at the Gristmill and met up with our friend, Naomi and her daughter. Her husband and other kids were unable to make it due to soccer practice. Before that we stopped in San Marcos and showed our kids our college campus and where Collin proposed to me. Texas State has continued to really grow!

The next morning we headed to the coast. We spent the next two nights in Corpus Christi. The day we arrived it was raining hard. Thankfully our hotel, the Omni, had an indoor pool, racket ball courts, and a great view of the ocean. We stopped by the beach briefly before dinner but didn't swim the first day.

The next day after breakfast we went to the beach. We were going to visit a little nature park but the mosquitoes were swarming our van so we decided not to get the kids in that and went and bought some bug spray for the beach, just in case. We drove to Padre Island and got a parking pass to park on the beach. The beach was surprisingly really nice, especially for a Texas beach. The sand was nice, we didn't see a lot of jelly fish. Blue Rock loved collecting sea shells. The kids played in the sand some, build a little sand castle, Blue Rock and I got in the chilly water a little. We got Princess's feet week. Hubby enjoyed sitting in the back of our new van tailgating out of the sun with Princess and feeding the seagulls with her. We had a great morning. We ate lunch at a cute German bakery and then Blue Rock wanted to go back to the beach. So we went to another beach for a little bit that afternoon. For dinner we ate at a restaurant on a Pier and met up with our friends, Elizabeth and Kevin. Elizabeth was in our wedding.

Friday morning we headed to San Antonio. We were debating visiting Sea World Friday or Saturday but it started raining a little on us so we went to the River Walk, ate lunch, took a boat tour, and then went to the Alamo. There was a big party called Fiesta, going on around downtown San Antonio. It had the longest parade I've ever seen. It seemed like the 5 hours we were there it was going on the whole time! We were going to meet up with my friends for dinner but by the time we got to the hotel and looked at the traffic we were going to be stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and our kids were done for the day. 

Saturday we went to Sea World. It was really fun. The shows were great, Blue Rock and Princess both got to ride a ride, Blue Rock and husband road a lot more rides. It was perfect for kids. I got Blue Rock a free pass and was able to get all day dining for husband and I for the price of our tickets. Princess was free. 

After spending 6 hours at Sea World, we went to visit with my friend, Lauren, whom I've known for many years, and her husband and two girls. Then we went to meet our friends, the Springers, for dinner. They have two boys, one is a year older than Blue Rock and one is a year older than Princess. They were good friends of ours in college. 

Sunday morning we went to church in San Marcos, where we used to attend in college. We got to see some friends there. Then we drove up to Austin and met up with David and Jessica. David was in our wedding and is a really good friend of Collin's. We like his wife and 3 kids as well. We went to their house and then took the kids to a really cool indoor playground. We ate dinner there and hung out with them the rest of the day. The next morning we went to their house and watched their kids so David could go to a doctor's appointment for some poison ivy he got in. Blue Rock loved playing with their kids. They have twin 5 year olds and a 3 year old. 

Around lunchtime we headed to IKEA in Austin and got some things and let Blue Rock play in the playground. Then around 3pm, we headed home. We had a wonderful vacation. There were so many more friends we would have loved to see. There is so much to see and do in all of these areas that hopefully we will add this to our list of fun family Texas trips. The driving was great, only about 2-3 hours per day. Here are some of our favorite pictures. 

Where I was proposed many years ago!

Checking out the college campus