IloveJack
06-12-2014, 02:20 AM
*We've taken each of our kids to the World for their first birthday. This trip was for our DS' first, but we celebrated 4 birthdays during the week; June 1-8.*
Cast of Characters
Me, Susan, 33, 9th trip
DH, David, turning 29, 7th trip
ODD, Sammie, 5, 5th trip
YDD, Lily, turning 3, 3rd trip
DS, Joey, turning 1, 2nd trip
My Mom, Connie, turning 63, 3rd trip
My Dad, Sam, 66, 3rd trip
*The rest of our trip is not very Disney related, so I'll make it quick.*
Day 5: St. Augustine
I woke up at 8am, having slept off and on since sun up, and noticing that DH wasn't in the bed any of that time. He came in and told me that he'd woken up at 6am, and ran to the beach, hoping to see the sunrise. He'd been about 10 minutes late, so I told him that we'd go together tomorrow. He did gather quite a few nice shells while out, which made him quite happy.
We slowly got ready for the beach (slow is not my thing, so I was having to try really hard to stay patient... we'd exhausted my parents, and my mother is used to a couple of active days a week, not all active days), not making it there until 10:30. When we got there, it took my parents 30 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the water, as my mom couldn't navigate the sand well. We learned after this that there were special sand wheelchairs available for use, but it put a real damper on her morning.
To top that off, DS was incredibly cranky. I was partially weaning him, and he wasn't anywhere near in his routine as far as sleep. I think those two together caused a major issue, that put a damper on much of the rest of our trip. Not to say he ruined it, he just caused a few (multiple) scenes. So his first act on the beach was to take a nap.
Dad and Mom also napped under the umbrella, and the rest of us played in the water and built a sand castle. However, we weren't even out there more than an hour when it was time to head back for lunch.
We made sandwiches and I took the kids for showers. DH soon came to my rescue, as he could hear DS screaming from the comfort station. He hates showers, but I had to get the sand off him somehow. However, with having to give 4 showers at once, I was taking forever, and eating into DH's fishing time. Before we were done, he showed back up with DS, dropping him off so that he and Dad could get going.
They headed to St. John's pier, and Mom and I took the kids shopping. I wanted to visit the Character Premiere outlet, plus I needed a gift for YDD to open on her actual birthday (Sunday). I was pleasantly surprised at the selection and prices, and wished I'd saved more money to spend here rather than at DTD. After walking around the store multiple times, we settled on a plush Minnie Mouse holding a birthday balloon (and it plays "Happy Birthday") for YDD's birthday gift; a plush Ariel and Cinderella for the DDs, a plush baby Tigger for DS; an NBC 2oth anniversary pin for DH, a WDW pin, the plastic miniature of the Mickey ghost popcorn bucket (which I'd REALLY wanted on our trip 3 years ago, and found out after the fact that they were only available in one location... so I was more than happy to pay $6.99 for one here); 3 coloring books, and a Minnie Mouse/WDW sweatshirt for each of the girls. All in all, it was $92. Mom got a gift for my niece, a bag for herself, an ornament, and a few other little things.
I'd promised the DDs ice cream afterwards, so we headed to the food court and all had a double scoop. Yum! DH continually texted pics to me of their catches. I was happy that they were doing well, as he'd been dreaming of this for months.
Then we headed back to Walmart to get groceries for the next day's meals. Dinner that night was chicken hobo meals (foil packet/fireside meals), and breakfast was more of the same.
The guys returned from the pier, having caught around 15 fish together, just as we returned from the store. We were going to go back to the beach for a couple of hours, but the camp store was closed, so no wheelchairs were available, and my parents decided to sit this one out. The rest of us went on, walking around and taking more pictures.
We didn't get dinner started until we returned, though, making for a very late meal. We didn't get into bed until after 11pm, and I set the alarm for 6am to catch the sunrise.
Day 6: St. Augustine
Just DH, DS, and I headed to the beach. We drove, and made it there about 10 minutes before sunrise. We walked for 2 hours, seeing lots of jellies, and two large crabs. DH had fun chasing one of them, laughing at how they run sideways. Of course, we filled his pockets with shells, also.
We returned to breakfast just being started. Afterwards, everyone was slow to get ready again, and as we had decided to go to the public beach, we had to pack our lunch, as well. But this way, we could stay at the beach while the guys went fishing.
We got there and had to send Mom and Dad back for the wheelchair, as they are kept at the main building, but we were set up shortly after 11. We chose a place very close to the pier, so that we wouldn't be far from the guys if we needed them.
We all 7 got in the waves this time, even though Mom was just sitting in her chair at the water's edge. I couldn't believe my "scared of having their hair washed" DDs were lying down in the sand and letting the waves wash over them. They were having a blast! Even DS would crawl out to them by himself, enjoying splashing in the surf.
I built a big turtle out of the sand, and then DH and ODD helped me decorate its "shell" with shells. We just finished it when the tide came in and began to wash it away.
We were all coated in sunscreen, but we stayed on the beach for 6-7 hours, and DH and I got really burned (at least the parts of us that are normally covered by clothing), and the DDs got a little red. You could probably say that my lower back and hips were purple. I'm Irish to the core.
We left at 5:30, and again, it was me showering with all the kids. Man, I can't wait to get home to my own bathroom!
We all dressed up (I'd call it nice casual), and headed to Barnacle Bill's for DH's birthday dinner. He'd asked around on the pier for a good local place to eat that wasn't "touristy," and he'd been told to come here. It was good! But none of us could finish our meal, the portions were so large. Plus, we were sick from the sun. DS chose here to cause a scene, to the point that other parents were telling me "we've all been there," but once he got some food and drink, he calmed down... mostly.
On the way back to the campground, we saw that Weezer was in town for a concert, and for the night, the women's side of the comfort station became party central. Teen girls were everywhere, dying their hair, taking up all the room to just stand and talk, being up late and loud. It wasn't what I was used to at campsites, but it was over as quickly as it began.
We were in bed by 11pm, but we weren't even asleep before DH heard an animal poking around outside our tent. We'd been warned about raccoons stealing from coolers, and in our sleepy, sunburned state, we forgot to "lock them down" before going to bed... but we wouldn't realize that until the next morning.
Day 7: St. Augustine and travel
The animal poking around was in fact a coon, and it got in the cooler, went for a swim, and proceeded to eat all the leftover bait that DH was intending to take home with him. That meant DH's first act of the day was to clean out the cooler, and to clean up the mess.
I should have set an alarm, because I was the first one awake at 8:15, and we had to be off site by 11am. And of course, we still had to cook breakfast. So while I packed up all the gear, DH unloaded all the accumulated junk from our car, so that we could repack and hope it would all fit back in.
It was this day that the bad moods decided to rear their heads. They started with the fact that my parents were exhausted and didn't want to be rushed to pack up. My dad didn't feel like doing it all by himself, yet my mom wasn't doing much to help out. And DH and I were trying our best to get our gear and the mutual gear loaded so they would only have to do their own, but people are particular about their camping gear, so there were some things we just couldn't do. We finally pulled off the site at 11:30, but no one seemed to care that we were late leaving.
I'd wanted to see the lighthouse, but again, hadn't done my research. No one under the height of 44" was allowed up, so that ruled out all of our kids, and therefore us, too. No lighthouse on this trip.
(continued below)
Cast of Characters
Me, Susan, 33, 9th trip
DH, David, turning 29, 7th trip
ODD, Sammie, 5, 5th trip
YDD, Lily, turning 3, 3rd trip
DS, Joey, turning 1, 2nd trip
My Mom, Connie, turning 63, 3rd trip
My Dad, Sam, 66, 3rd trip
*The rest of our trip is not very Disney related, so I'll make it quick.*
Day 5: St. Augustine
I woke up at 8am, having slept off and on since sun up, and noticing that DH wasn't in the bed any of that time. He came in and told me that he'd woken up at 6am, and ran to the beach, hoping to see the sunrise. He'd been about 10 minutes late, so I told him that we'd go together tomorrow. He did gather quite a few nice shells while out, which made him quite happy.
We slowly got ready for the beach (slow is not my thing, so I was having to try really hard to stay patient... we'd exhausted my parents, and my mother is used to a couple of active days a week, not all active days), not making it there until 10:30. When we got there, it took my parents 30 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the water, as my mom couldn't navigate the sand well. We learned after this that there were special sand wheelchairs available for use, but it put a real damper on her morning.
To top that off, DS was incredibly cranky. I was partially weaning him, and he wasn't anywhere near in his routine as far as sleep. I think those two together caused a major issue, that put a damper on much of the rest of our trip. Not to say he ruined it, he just caused a few (multiple) scenes. So his first act on the beach was to take a nap.
Dad and Mom also napped under the umbrella, and the rest of us played in the water and built a sand castle. However, we weren't even out there more than an hour when it was time to head back for lunch.
We made sandwiches and I took the kids for showers. DH soon came to my rescue, as he could hear DS screaming from the comfort station. He hates showers, but I had to get the sand off him somehow. However, with having to give 4 showers at once, I was taking forever, and eating into DH's fishing time. Before we were done, he showed back up with DS, dropping him off so that he and Dad could get going.
They headed to St. John's pier, and Mom and I took the kids shopping. I wanted to visit the Character Premiere outlet, plus I needed a gift for YDD to open on her actual birthday (Sunday). I was pleasantly surprised at the selection and prices, and wished I'd saved more money to spend here rather than at DTD. After walking around the store multiple times, we settled on a plush Minnie Mouse holding a birthday balloon (and it plays "Happy Birthday") for YDD's birthday gift; a plush Ariel and Cinderella for the DDs, a plush baby Tigger for DS; an NBC 2oth anniversary pin for DH, a WDW pin, the plastic miniature of the Mickey ghost popcorn bucket (which I'd REALLY wanted on our trip 3 years ago, and found out after the fact that they were only available in one location... so I was more than happy to pay $6.99 for one here); 3 coloring books, and a Minnie Mouse/WDW sweatshirt for each of the girls. All in all, it was $92. Mom got a gift for my niece, a bag for herself, an ornament, and a few other little things.
I'd promised the DDs ice cream afterwards, so we headed to the food court and all had a double scoop. Yum! DH continually texted pics to me of their catches. I was happy that they were doing well, as he'd been dreaming of this for months.
Then we headed back to Walmart to get groceries for the next day's meals. Dinner that night was chicken hobo meals (foil packet/fireside meals), and breakfast was more of the same.
The guys returned from the pier, having caught around 15 fish together, just as we returned from the store. We were going to go back to the beach for a couple of hours, but the camp store was closed, so no wheelchairs were available, and my parents decided to sit this one out. The rest of us went on, walking around and taking more pictures.
We didn't get dinner started until we returned, though, making for a very late meal. We didn't get into bed until after 11pm, and I set the alarm for 6am to catch the sunrise.
Day 6: St. Augustine
Just DH, DS, and I headed to the beach. We drove, and made it there about 10 minutes before sunrise. We walked for 2 hours, seeing lots of jellies, and two large crabs. DH had fun chasing one of them, laughing at how they run sideways. Of course, we filled his pockets with shells, also.
We returned to breakfast just being started. Afterwards, everyone was slow to get ready again, and as we had decided to go to the public beach, we had to pack our lunch, as well. But this way, we could stay at the beach while the guys went fishing.
We got there and had to send Mom and Dad back for the wheelchair, as they are kept at the main building, but we were set up shortly after 11. We chose a place very close to the pier, so that we wouldn't be far from the guys if we needed them.
We all 7 got in the waves this time, even though Mom was just sitting in her chair at the water's edge. I couldn't believe my "scared of having their hair washed" DDs were lying down in the sand and letting the waves wash over them. They were having a blast! Even DS would crawl out to them by himself, enjoying splashing in the surf.
I built a big turtle out of the sand, and then DH and ODD helped me decorate its "shell" with shells. We just finished it when the tide came in and began to wash it away.
We were all coated in sunscreen, but we stayed on the beach for 6-7 hours, and DH and I got really burned (at least the parts of us that are normally covered by clothing), and the DDs got a little red. You could probably say that my lower back and hips were purple. I'm Irish to the core.
We left at 5:30, and again, it was me showering with all the kids. Man, I can't wait to get home to my own bathroom!
We all dressed up (I'd call it nice casual), and headed to Barnacle Bill's for DH's birthday dinner. He'd asked around on the pier for a good local place to eat that wasn't "touristy," and he'd been told to come here. It was good! But none of us could finish our meal, the portions were so large. Plus, we were sick from the sun. DS chose here to cause a scene, to the point that other parents were telling me "we've all been there," but once he got some food and drink, he calmed down... mostly.
On the way back to the campground, we saw that Weezer was in town for a concert, and for the night, the women's side of the comfort station became party central. Teen girls were everywhere, dying their hair, taking up all the room to just stand and talk, being up late and loud. It wasn't what I was used to at campsites, but it was over as quickly as it began.
We were in bed by 11pm, but we weren't even asleep before DH heard an animal poking around outside our tent. We'd been warned about raccoons stealing from coolers, and in our sleepy, sunburned state, we forgot to "lock them down" before going to bed... but we wouldn't realize that until the next morning.
Day 7: St. Augustine and travel
The animal poking around was in fact a coon, and it got in the cooler, went for a swim, and proceeded to eat all the leftover bait that DH was intending to take home with him. That meant DH's first act of the day was to clean out the cooler, and to clean up the mess.
I should have set an alarm, because I was the first one awake at 8:15, and we had to be off site by 11am. And of course, we still had to cook breakfast. So while I packed up all the gear, DH unloaded all the accumulated junk from our car, so that we could repack and hope it would all fit back in.
It was this day that the bad moods decided to rear their heads. They started with the fact that my parents were exhausted and didn't want to be rushed to pack up. My dad didn't feel like doing it all by himself, yet my mom wasn't doing much to help out. And DH and I were trying our best to get our gear and the mutual gear loaded so they would only have to do their own, but people are particular about their camping gear, so there were some things we just couldn't do. We finally pulled off the site at 11:30, but no one seemed to care that we were late leaving.
I'd wanted to see the lighthouse, but again, hadn't done my research. No one under the height of 44" was allowed up, so that ruled out all of our kids, and therefore us, too. No lighthouse on this trip.
(continued below)