Last Weekend in Florida

The plan for Saturday was to go and visit my grandmother in West Palm Beach.  After Doug got ready, he had the Car Care Center shuttle pick him up and bring him to get our rental car.  I got all the kids (and myself) ready and the timing worked out perfectly - he got back just as we finished up buying our breakfast snacks.  We had a boatload of snack credits left over as well as a table service and a quick service meal each, and we had to use them by the end of the day.  The rental car was awesome - a Town and Country minivan.  I loved the camera on the back of the car to help you when you're backing up.  Doug said that the shuttle driver and the staff at the Car Care Center were all very nice and friendly.  So we loaded up the car with kids and breakfast and drove across the state.

Visiting with my grandmother (we call her Amma, which is the Icelandic word for grandmother) was lovely.  The kids enjoyed having some downtime and playing with her vintage Little People - the ones I played with when I was a kid.  Amma adored the children.  Doug and I enjoyed listening to her stories, as always.  The only bad part was leaving - we were only able to stay for a few hours, but we were just grateful to be able to spend any amount of time with her.  

When we got back, we ate dinner at Boatwright's, our resort's sit-down restaurant.  I'd head wonderful things about it and the food didn't disappoint.  After dinner, the kids and I spent most of the rest of our snack credits on things we could bring home, while Doug bought some food from the food court with our quick service credits and the remaining snack credits, so we wouldn't have to pay out of pocket for our food on Sunday.  (We were originally going to check out on Saturday but extended our stay until Sunday, so our dining plan credits expired 'early'.)

The next morning was a weird mixture of rushed and relaxed.  Our flight wasn't until late that afternoon, but we still had to pack everything up.  We took our time getting ready, though, and had our luggage checked in to the airline (love that Disney offers that service!) plenty early.  We took the kids to the playground, which was way cooler than I had expected.  They had a great time playing, there weren't many people around, and the weather was perfect.  After playing for a while, we decided to try fishing at the fishing hole.  It was actually pretty cheap, so we paid for a half hour use of their cane fishing poles.  At first the kids were very excited, but they got bored pretty quickly.  As we were getting ready to finish up, Colwyn caught a fish!  None of the kids had ever caught a fish before, so he was thrilled.

Of course, it wasn't really good-bye, because we still had to eat lunch in the food court and do some last minute shopping in the gift shop.  The CM there was awesome and loaded us up with Mardi Gras beads and stickers.  Before we knew it, it was time to board Magical Express and head home.  We loved our vacation, and Port Orleans in particular.  Unfortunately, we'll probably be stuck in the Values from here on out, since Niall will be at least 3 years old on our next trip, but we still dream that we'll be able to afford two rooms at Port Orleans.