Friday morning we drove over to Clearwater to visit Grammy Grammy (Great Grammy Day), Grampy Grampy (Great Grampy Day), Grammy Civiello and Kara. The kids had an absolute blast driving tractors, building their new Lego cars and playing ball with everyone. It was really nice to be able to visit, even if it was a short time! Friday afternoon we made it back to the resort and decided to eat out... at Sizzler... I will spare the details here, but Sizzler (at least this one in particular) was gross... as a child I LOVED getting to eat out at the Sizzler in Bangor before it closed... was it just as gross then... am I remembering wrong? Anyhow, it was at this meal when Gabe & I realized (read: finally accepted) that, 1- All you can eat buffets, although fast, are not as efficient as we thought... by the time we sat down to eat the kids were already done & ready to leave, and 2- Ben's unpleasantness on planes extends to mealtime and he is no longer fun to take out to eat in public... maybe we will try again when he is 2:)
We had to leave before Noah got the ice cream we had promised him if he did a great job eating supper... he didn't forget... there are a surprising lack to ice cream shops away from the beach in Florida... James only wanted cheese and Ben was still crying. Well, we found an Edy's ice cream shop... in a strip mall... at least that is what it claimed to be.... As Noah and I walked in on the left sat a large man behind a huge desk (think security) with several computers, phones and file cabinets. On the opposite side were 2 ice cream coolers... it looked clean, so we ordered our ice creams, served by a 20 something white boy who had clearly had a "hard life", and after scooping our ice cream called to "mamma" to come out and ring us up because he had to "go do something".... "Mamma" was equally as sketchy, but very pleasant as she took our money.... we tipped well and left quickly.... there were definitely no tables and chairs at this ice cream shop;) AND at only 5:30 James and Ben fell asleep on the way home... maybe everyone was just tired... :)
Saturday was scheduled to be a relaxing/no riding in the car/enjoying the resort day... the weather didn't really agree. In the morning we (finally) rented the Surry bike to take the kids for a ride.... they were so excited. Noah and James rang the bell non-stop and Ben, like a beauty queen, waved and smiled to everyone who passed. Later in the morning we finally gave in and let the kids go to the waterpark... it was cold so neither of us wanted to actually get in the water if we didn't have to. We were very thankful that the park allowed the kids to wear their lifejackets which allowed Gabe to sit at the edge of the pool and watch. I settled for splashing with Ben in the kiddie pool that must be kept at a balmy 90 degrees.... yes he does have his life jacket on in the 10 inches of water... yes he was the only one, but he kept falling over and no less than 10 times did he fall face first into the water... I was very thankful to only have to grab the handle on the jacket to get him to standing again.
After lunch Gabe took Noah to play mini golf and for another paddle boat ride while James and Ben napped. By the time nap was over it was way too cold to get back in the water, so we made a last minute decision to check out Downtown Disney. It was unbelievably busy, but we were very glad we went. There is so much to see and do there. Eating at the Rainforest Cafe kept the kids very entertained and it was so loud and chaotic in there already it made things much more tolerable with Ben... and he LOVED watching the fish and elephants. James somehow managed to drink no less than 4 full adult sized glasses of water while we were there... I guess we weren't paying attention to the waiter who kept refilling his glass.... needless to say there was a mess to clean up at the end of the meal... pull ups can only hold so much... we are really just hoping he is potty trained before kindergarten at this point;) The boys were able to spend the rest of their money on a few trinkets (cars) to bring back on the plane with them. We finished the night off with cake pops from Goofy's bakery.
Sunday we flew home... things were delayed a bit... another hour wait in the plane.... No one complained to the stewardess this time.... maybe these passengers were more tolerant... miraculously Ben fell asleep for the final 15 minutes of the flight.... then woke up screaming and didn't stop until we got back to the terminal.... Gabe couldn't pretend he didn't know us this time;) In all serious though, besides the flights we had an absolutely wonderful family vacation and were so thrilled to be able to spend a whole week together without work distractions before the next member of our family arrives in just about 6 weeks!
