THURSDAY COCOA BEACH

Thursday we took a day off from the parks and drove to Cocoa Beach. The weather was great. It was one of the hottest days we were in Florida, so it was perfect to spend it in the ocean with a breeze.

The kids couldn't get down the deck fast enough. They had been waiting all week to play in the sand and swim in the ocean.

One quick picture before they run into the water.

At first Jimmy didn't want anything to do with the water. He was just fine with sticking his feet in and that was it. It took almost an hour or so for him to go in waist high and actually play in it.

We had been waiting to stick our fat feet into the sand - and it felt just as good as we thought it would.

Pat and Heather had hooked us up with a beach umbrella, cooler and some sand toys. Again we have amazing friends. The kids and Jim built a sand castle before we left. And the kids had one last chance to jump the waves.

Because we weren't totally exhausted from the beach all day, we headed to Downtown Disney for the rest of the night. We had eaten lunch there one day and I'm glad we made it back in the evening, because it's a whole different experience at night. The kids had a blast watching all of the different bands and going in and out of all the shops. We had to take a picture next to Woody made out of Lego's.

And this is a huge dragon in the water made out of Lego's also.

Earlier in the week we had seen the T-Rex restaurant and right away Jimmy had wanted to go inside. We surprised the kids with dinner there and it was awesome. I would recommend it to any one who is planning a trip to Disney.

The restaurant is owned by the same people as the Rainforest Cafe, only this one is much better inside. Each section has it's own theme and the animals go off every 20 minutes. My husband loved it more then the kids I think.

I don't remember what this face was all about, but I had to add it in. Just Jimmy being Jimmy I guess.

We made a visit to the Harley store, and of course get a picture on a bike.

Jimmy was in his glory.

We had to visit the Cirque Du Soleil store and just dream about going to the show one day. We were very close to getting tickets, but I couldn't do it. It would have been almost $400.00 for the four of us. One day , but not that day.

With Halloween right around the corner, everything was decorated over the top. We all really enjoyed Downtown Disney. There was a ton to do and we stayed there until all of the stores were closing.

FRIDAY AT THE CONDO

So due to a very long story about a very large bug, we moved into a two different condos on Friday. Once we finally settled into a new condo, it was too late to go to Universal as planed, so we decided to stay around and take advantage of some of the amenities we hadn't used.

The first day we had checked in, Jimmy had spotted the Thomas train that goes around the property. He had been begging to go on it, but we hadn't seen it again until Friday.

He was thrilled to take a ride and it gave us a chance to see everything they had to do.

The kids and I went on the swan paddle boats for a very short ride. Everything started out great until we were in the middle of the pond and Jen decided she was too tired to paddle anymore. So, I had to paddle myself, two kids and a swan boat back to the deck. I wouldn't have been too bad except I kept catching Jen "resting" her feet on the peddles which added more resistance. Fun- next time Jim will take them.

Jim joined us for a game of cheater put put. Somehow the kids kept getting holes in one. Amazing!!! The course was dinosaur theme so Jimmy liked it a lot. Later that night we ended up getting take out from a restaurant and spending the rest of our last night in the pool.

SATURDAY OUR LAST DAY

I had made our flight a late one so we could stay as long as possible. We met up with all of our friends at the Magic Kingdom for lunch and a few last rides. Poor Luke couldn't hang. All of the kids got along so well and were sad to leave each other.

One last picture before we leave. Our flight was at 6:15 and we didn't leave the park until 4:00. By leaving the park, I mean we still had to take the monorail to the parking lot and take a tram to our spot. Luckily the airport was only 20 minutes a away and the car rental return was very fast. Overall I wouldn't change a thing. At the end of the trip we were totally exhausted and still are a little - almost 2 weeks later, but we weren't sure if we will be able to go back again so we made the best of our time.

The flight home was a whole other story. If I were a flight attendant I would refuse to work any flight going out of Orlando. There were kids screaming the entire flight home. They were screaming because, they wanted a window seat, because they had to go to the bathroom, because the were bored, and they were screaming just because they could. But that was still nothing compared to the awful parents that were there. The dad that was sitting next to Jim kept kicking his daughter and another one put his kid in a head lock and was yelling at her. It was completely nuts. I just looked at Jim and said " I guess the Disney experience is now over".