Traveling to Anna Maria Island

We recently took a mini vacation to Florida. We stayed in Bradenton, about 7 miles from Anna Maria Island, at the house that I inherited from my mother when she died.  We took all 3 kids, my 18 year old cousin and her boyfriend. It was a full car, but we managed the 12 hour drive with little excitement.

The gang at Downtown Disney

Since traffic was backed up around Disney, we decided to stop at Downtown Disney to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat before the final 2 hours of our drive. It was insanely busy, but we enjoyed watching the street performers and walking through the gift shops and, of course, the giant Lego store.

Once in Bradenton we had to do some upkeep on the house my mother left to me and my brother, but we spent most of our free time at Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island. The weather was gorgeous and the water was warm enough to hang out in, unlike the beaches here in North Carolina. The kids built sand castles and kicked the soccer ball on the sand. It was so great!

Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island

If you've never been to Anna Maria Island, it is a small island (about 7 miles long) on the Gulf Coast of Florida, south of Tampa Bay. It's full of vacation rentals, restaurants and small tourist shops. The beach extends the entire western coast of the island. It is a beautiful sandy beach which is kept very clean. At Coquina Beach there is ample parking (except on Easter, which we found out the hard way), grills and picnic tables, life guards and public restrooms. It's a perfect place to spend the day with the family.

If you like to explore, you can rent scooters for an hour or more. We rent from Island Scooter Rentals on Gulf Dr. It's in a great spot and their rates are reasonable. My cousin and her boyfriend rented a scooter for half a day to check out the island. They had to show their driver's licenses and give a credit card for the refundable deposit, but they didn't need any parental permission since they're 18. They opted for helmets, but in Florida it's only required if you're under 16. After a brief training and several practice laps, they were off for 4 hours!

While they scooted, we ate ice cream at Joe's Eats and Sweets. They have a large variety of sundaes that they make with their homemade ice cream. It is a little bit pricey, but so worth it! They have great homemade waffle cones too!

One of my favorite things to do is watch the sunset on Anna Maria Island. Sometimes, as the sun sets below the horizon a flash of green light can be seen...or so I'm told. We held my mother's memorial at sunset on Coquina Beach and it was gorgeous. This may have been our last family trip to Bradenton, but it will always hold a special place in my heart!

Coquina Beach on Dwellable

Anna Maria on Dwellable

We're Going To Disney World Again!

We just booked our 5th trip as a family to Walt Disney World. I am so excited! This time we'll be going with a friend of mine (who I've known since 7th grade) and her family. Together we will be a party of 10, which makes us a "Grand Gathering" in Disney speak. We'll have 4 adults and the 6 kids will range in age from 2.5 to 14 - 5 boys, one girl (the oldest). We're staying at Port Orleans Riverside for 6 nights in mid-October. We bought the dining plan (as we always do) and saved 30% on our rooms. Because my husband is our unofficial Disney Planner, we will be booking our restaurant reservations exactly 190 days before we arrive - the earliest you can make reservations if you have purchased a vacation package (10 days before the general public). We plan to eat at some of our favorites like Chef Mickey's (the kids' favorite) and The Garden Grill (one of my favorites). We'll be there for my birthday again this year, and the plan is to go to Fulton's Crab House without the kids on my actual birthday. It will be our first time going there, and I have high expectations!  I know we won't be disappointed!

What do you like to do when you go to Disney? Do you stay on property? Do you have a timeshare? Do you visit other theme parks while you're in Florida or do you keep the focus on Disney?

I thought this would be a good time to look back at the first 4 Disney trips we took. Please feel free to share your experiences in the comment section! (WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES AHEAD)

Our First Night in Disney World 2007

September 2007: The first time we went to Disney World the boys were 4 and 6 years old (the baby wasn't born yet). We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort on property and loved our entire stay...minus the rain. We went during the last week of September and it rained. every.single.day. Fortunately, the rain was short lived each day, so we would just put on our rain ponchos and keep going! It was such a magical trip, especially for our 4 year old who still thought the characters were real!

The boys got to be guest conductors on the Disney World Railroad 

They participated in the Jr. Chef class at the Land Pavilion in Epcot

Our youngest was invited to join the Main St. band performance!

We got lots of autographs and met LOTS of characters

In addition to all of the magic that Disney normally has to offer, we experienced Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for the first time, and it was a blast! We've made it part of our trip every time we've been in October since.

Our little Harry Potter

Remy (Ratatouille) wasn't ready to wake up from his nap yet!

All in all, the trip was more than we could have hoped for. We fell in love with Walt Disney World, and couldn't wait to go back!

December 2008/January 2009: Our second trip to Disney World was for the week of New Year's. We went with my husband's brother and his family, and we also brought my teenage cousin with us. The boys were 4 months, 5 and 7. Their cousins were 1, 5, 7, 15 and 16. We got there a day or two before New Year's Eve and we stayed a few days past New Year's Day. We stayed in the suites at the All Star Music Hotel - one of the value level resorts. It was so nice to have a separate bedroom and 2 full bathrooms! We also had a small kitchenette which came in handy to wash bottles and store food for the kids!

The parks were insanely crowded that week and we will probably never go that time of year again, but I am happy that we had the chance to see the fireworks on New Year's Eve over Cinderella's castle at least once.

The Hubby and our youngest son watching the fireworks 12-31-08

The best part of going to Disney for New Years was being able to see the parks all decorated for Christmas. They have special parades and every inch of the parks is Christmas-y! The Osborne Family of Lights is one of my favorite Christmas things in Disney World. It's at Hollywood Studios and they play loud Christmas music and have fake snow flying. It's great!

 The Osborne Family Street of Lights in Hollywood Studios

I also really enjoy Cinderella's castle all decked out in lights! The colors change and it is such a beautiful sight!

The castle draped in color changing lights

On New Year's Eve my cousin turned 15, and it was really cool to see her treated like a princess everywhere we went. She wore her birthday button everywhere, and got a lot of attention from cast members. Even Santa wished her Happy Birthday during the parade!

My cousin being "punished" at 50's Prime Time Diner for putting her elbows on the table.
We had so much fun! 

My 7 yr. old niece - the only little girl in our group- after getting the full treatment at the Bibbidi  Bobbidi Boutique

My cousin having a birthday meal at Cinderella's Castle

The oldest cousins 

Our youngest was kissed by Snow White :)

October 2010:  We went to Sea World in May 2010 and felt really weird going to Orlando without visiting Disney World. I ended up making our reservations for our 3rd trip to Disney on the way home from our long weekend at Sea World. We weren't even an hour outside of Orlando when I made the phone reservations on my cell phone! 

We went by ourselves this time, and the boys were 2, 7 and 9. It was the last time we would go when we wouldn't have to pay for our youngest, and our oldest would still be considered a child. We stayed at the All Star Sports Resort. We had such a good experience with our last value level hotel, we decided to try it again. We requested a "preferred" room so we were closer to the main building and the buses, and I'm glad we did. We were close to the pool and didn't have to walk far when we got back to the hotel at night (usually carrying a sleeping 2 year old).

Every day (morning and night) the boys had to play in the x's and o's outside our building

All 5 of us

Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party. Yes, my oldest went  as Harry Potter  again.
The youngest went as Mickey Mouse, but he didn't keep his ears on!

Our first time seeing Daisy in the park.
The baby was afraid of the characters the entire trip, but loved waving to them from afar.

He kept asking for "more candy" and they ALWAYS gave him more!

This was a great trip. We were a little disappointed that the youngest was afraid to meet the characters until the last day when we went to Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. We thought he was going to be more like his brother was at 4 years old. Since he wasn't, we decided to plan our next family trip for when he turns 4. That trip will be this October!

May 2011:  We were supposed to go to Paris for our 10 year anniversary, but it didn't pan out, so we decided to go to Disney without the kids! It was such a good idea, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We went during the Flower and Garden Expo, so there was so much to see around the parks, especially in Epcot. We were also there for the Pixar weekend, which would have been awesome for the boys to experience. I wrote about that trip in  2011 Year in Review: Our Anniversary.  Here are just a few of the pictures from that trip. Everything was so beautiful!!!

May 2011

So with all that we've done, and all that we have planned, I am super stoked about our next trip! It will be nice to have our friends there with us, and the baby will be 4 by the time we go, which will make it easier than last time! Maybe I'll tweet while I'm there this time...updates in real time! :)

Anybody else going to Disney World this year?

2011: The Year in Review - Our Anniversary

OK folks, I'm not gonna lie. 2011 sucked! I could bore you with the details, but I have already written about the big things, like my job and getting through the holidays without my parents (I'm not ready to blog about my mom's death in August). Instead, I'd like to focus on the positive, which is one of my goals for 2012. So I'm kicking off a new mini-series of posts called 2011: A Year in Review. I'm starting with a big milestone that we hit this year.

In May of 2011 my husband and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. 10 years!!! We were supposed to go to Paris, but after having to pay taxes, instead of the getting a return, and waiting to buy our airfare until the prices were sky high, we had to go with Plan B. Went went to Walt Disney World in Orlando without the kids, and had a fantastic time! 

At Epcot

At Hollywood Studios

At Magic Kingdom

Our Anniversary dinner at Chip and Dales Harvest Feast in the Land Pavilion in Epcot

Our Anniversary card from the gang

Our gift from the House keepers! 

It wasn't Paris, but it was as close to a perfect second honeymoon trip as it could be! My husband and I are huge Disney dorks, so it was great to do all of the things that we never get around to with the kids! We tried to eat at restaurants we hadn't been to before (and found a lot of great ones too!), and see attractions that we hadn't seen before. Some of our favorites were the Lights, Motor, Action! Speedway and the Backlot tour in Hollywood Studios, and the Jungle Tour and Carousel of Progress in Magic Kingdom. Of course we did all of our forever favorites to like the Tower of Terror (which is so much better at night), Soarin', Thunder Mountain Railroad and Expedition Everest. 

We rode the Safari ride in Animal Kingdom with a celebrity:  

David Annable (Justin Walker on Brothers and Sisters) and his wife

and we were treated like celebrities:

In the Directors' chairs at Lights Motor Action!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. It gave us some time to reconnect, and it gave my children 6 days of quality time with their grandmother before she passed away. It was a win-win! 

Our next trip is planned for October 2012 when we'll be going with one of my best friends from Vermont and her family. The 6 kids will range in age from 2 to 14, so it should be interesting! I am really looking forward to it though! We need our annual trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!