Hester /Grant Family Vacation – November 2019

This post is long overdue, but not because we didn’t have a blast on our trip. I’m just so far behind on so many things, and this blog is one of them. Jeff and Melissa reached out to us in April 2019 to see if we’d be interested in going on a vacation with them over Thanksgiving break. I was immediately so excited and couldn’t wait to say “yes!” We love the Hester family so much; they are some of the best people we know, and our girls especially love their girls, Mikayla and Rachel. Jeff and Melissa planned the whole trip and made the months leading up to it especially fun by giving us clues about the fun things we’d be doing on the trip. Trying to figure out the clues just made us even more excited about what was to come…

Travis had two back-to-back weeks of travel for work in early November, and then I was dealing with some pretty bad neck pain the week before our trip, but thankfully I was feeling a bit better by the time we left. Abigail tried to “help” me out by unpacking the suitcase that I’d just packed ;)

We left home pretty early on Thursday, November 21st and started the drive to Florida. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch, and Brooklyn and Savannah enjoyed sitting with the Hester kids. We were all so excited that the trip was finally here after looking forward to it for so many months.

I think the Hesters figured out after that meal that when we stop to eat, we don’t get back in the car for quite a while…haha. Savannah isn’t usually in a hurry to do too much of anything, so our lunch break was nice and long ;)

The drive went pretty smoothly, and all the girls took a nap at some point–even Brooklyn. We stopped in Lake City, FL to spend the night. It was the girls’ first time to sleep in a hotel :)

Brooklyn slept on the pull-out sofa, Savannah slept in one of the queen beds, and Abigail slept in a pack-n-play that we brought with us. I think everyone slept pretty good except for me…I never sleep very good on the first night or two of a trip. The next morning, the girls were excited to watch some cartoons on TV before we went down to eat breakfast.

Abigail surprised me by being able to climb up and down off the bed all by herself!

Travis took all the girls down for breakfast by himself while I took a shower and got ready. Pro dad right there ;)

Abigail discovered that morning that she loves Fruit Loops!

After breakfast and getting everyone loaded up, we made a quick pit stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy Brooklyn a new pair of tennis shoes (her old pair had gotten a hole in one of the toes right before our trip, of course). Then, we drove a few more hours to get to Orlando for an exciting night ahead at Magic Kingdom. We had tickets to the Very Merry Christmas Party, and it would be the girls’ first time to go to Disney…

Magic Kingdom, here we come!!

We rode the parking tram over to the ticket area and then hopped on the monorail to get to the park.

Brooklyn couldn’t wait to get there!

Cast members were handing out gigantic sugar cookies as we were walking in. Abigail was content just sitting in the stroller and eating hers.

One of the first things we did was get some pictures taken in front of the castle. I loved our matching shirts that I ordered from Etsy. They turned out really cute and festive!

Our first family photos in the front of the castle :)

Jeff had gotten us FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so that was our first ride of the day. It was also Brooklyn and Savannah’s first time to ride a real rollercoaster.

I’m pretty sure the only reason Savannah wanted to ride it was because she had no idea what to expect…haha

Travis snapped a couple of pictures of her while we were riding…you can tell how much she was enjoying it! ;) She was wrapped around the bar holding on for dear life!!

Needless to say, that was her first and only rollercoaster of the day! Haha!

Melissa had offered to wait outside with Abigail, so while Melissa rode with Noah and Brady, the rest of us took a quick picture. Savannah survived, and Brooklyn absolutely loved it!

Next, we hopped in line to ride Dumbo!

This was Abigail’s first ride of the day!

I was surprised to find out that Abigail didn’t like going up high in the air. She’s such a wild thing that I figured she would love it, but not that night. The other girls thought it was great though! We also rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which is similar to Dumbo, later in the evening.

The Journey of the Little Mermaid was fun for all the girls!

Abigail especially loved it. I think it was probably her favorite ride of the night.

Once Brooklyn figured out that she likes rollercoasters, she wanted to do all the thrill rides! :) So, Splash Mountain was next. Rachel and Melissa waited with Savannah and Abigail outside, while the rest of us rode. There was barely a line at all, so we were almost able to walk right on.

Jeff laughed at Travis and me for wearing our rain jackets with our hoods up…haha. I figured if I got really wet, I didn’t want to be cold and miserable for the rest of the night :)

Brooklyn loved it!! And yes, she wanted to sit with Mikayla on almost every ride that night :)

One of the highlights of the night for me was watching Abigail during the parade. She LOVED it.

She kept pointing and waving at all the characters, and it was so cute. Seeing your kids having a blast definitely takes the Disney magic to a whole new level :)

Mikayla and Rachel sat with Brooklyn and Savannah on the ground where they could see. Savannah loved the parade just like Abigail did. Brooklyn, on the other hand, pouted almost the whole time because she wanted to be riding rollercoasters instead ;)

However, even Brooklyn cheered up at the end of the parade when she saw Santa Claus coming! :)

After the parade, we rode the Jingle Cruise, although we didn’t get any pictures of it. Next up was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! I was really excited about this ride because it wasn’t there the last time Travis and I were at Disney. Jeff volunteered to stay with Savannah (who didn’t want to do any more rollercoasters) and Abigail while the rest of us rode.

We all loved it! The queue was really neat…Brooklyn loved all the gemstones. And I loved how smooth the ride was and the scene with Snow White at the end. Hopefully we can convince Savannah to try it on another trip.

Savannah had been saying all night that she wanted to ride the carousel, so we told her we would ride it after we did the Haunted Mansion. Melissa hates Haunted Mansion, so she and Rachel stayed with Savannah and Abigail outside while the rest of us rode. Brooklyn was spooked at the beginning, but she wasn’t too scared after a minute or two. She did request to actually sit with me on this ride though ;) When we got out of Haunted Mansion, the fireworks were about to start, so we hurried over to where we could see them…

We weren’t able to meet up with Melissa, Rachel, and the girls because there were so many people, so we watched the fireworks (which were awesome!) and then met up with them afterward.

…and Savannah and Abigail had fallen asleep around 9:45 PM while we were inside Haunted Mansion! They completely missed the fireworks and slept the whole rest of the time we were at the park. My only regret from the night is not letting Savannah ride the carousel before she fell asleep. (I’d told myself that it was okay because we were going to be back over spring break, and then COVID-19 killed that plan). Oh well! We will absolutely make sure we ride the carousel the next time we are there :)

The last thing we rode was Space Mountain! It was a little different than normal for the Christmas party—there were lots of flashing lights inside so you could actually see the track, and they were playing Christmas music the whole time. It was less scary than being completely in the dark like normal. I’d forgotten how rough of a ride it was though! Brooklyn said she liked it, but I don’t think she was as big of a fan as she was of the other rollercoasters earlier in the evening :)

Other notes from the night: The weather was perfect!! It never got very chilly even after dark. We ate so many cookies, and they were also passing out hot chocolate and apple cidar. Brooklyn walked most of the night, and Savannah even walked a good bit too before she fell asleep. It was a lot of walking, but they were troopers! I couldn’t believe Brooklyn stayed up the whole night and didn’t fall asleep until we got back to the car after midnight. Savannah woke up when we got to the car and asked, “Are we NEVER going to do the carousel??” We will make it a priority on our next trip!! We had SO much fun overall, and it was a great start to our time in Florida!

The next day was Saturday, November 23rd. Since it was REALLY late (after 1 AM, I’m pretty sure) when we got back to the hotel and got everyone to bed, we had a lazy start to the next morning. This hotel had a really awesome breakfast, so we really enjoyed that. And the girls looked so cute snuggling in their pull-out bed watching cartoons.

The first thing we did after leaving the hotel was head to Disney Springs to walk around and check out some of the sights and stores there.

It didn’t take Abigail very long on our trip to warm up to being held by any and all of the Hesters :)

It was another gorgeous day with perfect weather!

The LEGO sculptures outside of the LEGO store are always amazing. The girls loved this Cinderella.

This isn’t a great picture, but this dragon was also made out of LEGOs.

I wanted to get a picture of the girls on this bench, but Abigail was upset that I kept asking her to turn around and look at me instead of the LEGO girls…haha

We spent a LONG time inside the Disney store…I think that’s the biggest store I’ve ever been in. I kept losing track of where the girls were, but thankfully there were enough adults and big kids to keep up with everyone. Brooklyn, Savannah, and Abigail all had a Disney gift card, and it was burning a hole in their pockets (especially Brooklyn’s!).

Abigail picked out a plastic Mickey and Minnie and still had some money leftover ;) Brooklyn, on the other hand, spent every penny of her gift card plus a bit extra. She ended up buying a plush Lightning McQueen and a huge lollipop :)

Savannah looked around for forever trying to decide on something. She had picked out a Moana Christmas ornament, but I was glad when she decided to put it back. It was way overpriced ;) She loved all the stuffed animals, but eventually decided to save most of her gift card to spend another time. She bought a big lollipop like Brooklyn, but that was it :)

We ate a late lunch at Blaze Pizza, and Abigail fell asleep in the stroller before our food came :) She woke up and ate some leftover pizza as we were heading out…

We snapped a quick picture with the Frozen 2 picture. I think the movie was coming out the same week of our trip.

Next, we hopped on a bus to head to the Wilderness Lodge and check out their Christmas decorations. Brooklyn made friends with a lady on the bus and was telling her all sorts of stories. I wish I’d been sitting close enough to hear what they discussed :)

This Christmas tree was in the middle of the lobby, and it was huge! Pictures don’t do it justice.

Savannah enjoyed looking at all the ornaments…at least the ones at her eye level ;)

They also had a big gingerbread house on display in the lobby…

The whole thing was made of real ingredients…isn’t that crazy?

100 pounds of flour and 150 pounds of sugar! I can’t imagine how long it took to build.

After we walked around the Wilderness Lodge for a bit, we took a water taxi over to Magic Kingdom and then hopped on a different one to take us to the Grand Floridian. But first–a snack of Fruit Loops :)

The girls enjoyed the boat ride…

…and the sunset was beautiful that night!

The Grand Floridian also had an enormous Christmas Tree in their lobby…so pretty!

The gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian was even bigger than the one at the Wilderness Lodge, which is really saying something.

We enjoyed walking around the lobby and seeing everything. They even had someone playing the piano in the lobby. It was a totally different atmosphere than at the Wilderness Lodge, but it was really neat to see both.

We had a great day together and were definitely tired by the time we got back to the hotel that night.

The next day was Sunday, November 24th. We ate another delicious breakfast, got our stuffed packed up, and checked out of the hotel before driving to worship with a local church a few minutes down the road.

There wasn’t enough room for us to all sit together, but Brooklyn ended up sitting on the row with the Hesters. She wrote this note and showed it to us afterward :)

“Thank you, Jesus! I am thankful for God. God is special. I am thankful for Jesus.” :)

Jeff told Brooklyn to pick where we ate lunch after we left the church building, and no surprise, she picked Firehouse Subs! :) After everyone was finished eating, we loaded back up and headed for our next destination, Cocoa Beach, where we would spend the rest of the week.

Our family and the Hesters had separate condos on the same floor. It was very convenient to be just a few doors down from each other. Travis and I took a little while to get some things unpacked once we got inside, and the Hesters went down to the water to put their toes in the sand ;)

Brooklyn and Savannah were dying to swim, and the condo had a heated pool…so we headed down there later that afternoon (it was almost getting dark at that point). It was pretty breezy, and Melissa and I were cold just sitting out there. Mikayla saved the day by holding Abigail in the water and entertaining her so I didn’t have to get in. They were all freezing when they got out, but they had a blast!

Our first full day at the beach was Monday, November 25th!

The girls got busy right away digging and playing in the sand :)

Savannah was happy to find a lot of shells to add to her collection :)

Love those little sandy feet :)

The weather was perfect! Abigail took her afternoon nap in my lap, and I never broke a sweat. There’s definitely something to be said for fall beach trips :)

We also enjoyed eating some leftover cookies from our evening at Magic Kingdom :)

Monday was also our big fishing day! Jeff had brought along several salt water fishing rods and reels, which Travis was especially excited about since he rarely gets an opportunity to go fishing these days.

The guys weren’t having a lot of luck fishing from the shore, so they decided to wade out into the freezing water and try from there. We joked that they were “deep sea fishing” :) Not sure it was their best idea because the only thing they caught out there was a face full of salt water ;)

All in all, Brady caught two fish…

Noah caught one fish…

…and Travis and Jeff caught zero fish…haha. That just means we need a re-do on another vacation, I guess! :) They still had a great time!

Tuesday (November 26th) was very similar to Monday. Another fun day at the beach :) It was great…we took our time each morning getting down to the beach, so it was usually late morning before we walked down. It was nice not to rush!

One of the girls’ favorite things to do was digging “pools” down near the edge of the water and letting the waves fill them up. That kept them busy for a while each day :)

Brooklyn also had fun being a “big kid” and trying to ride a boogie board with Brady, Noah, and Mikayla :)

Daddy tried to get Abigail to sit on the boogie board and “ride” a wave…haha!

She was not a very big fan!!

“Get me out of here, Daddy!”

It was fun to see how Brady enjoying spending time with “Mr. Travis” over the course of the week. Brady requested to sit by him on several of the rides at Magic Kingdom, and then they had fun throwing a ball on the beach together too.

I loved this picture of Abigail and Rachel :)

Abigail was content to just sit and fill up a bucket with sand…

She also loved asking all week “Where’s Mr. Jeff? Where’s Mikayla? Where’s Noah?” She always wanted to know where everyone was at all times.

Mikayla made a big alligator in the sand and decorated it with shells. She had some little helpers for part of the time!

The boys did a little more fishing on Tuesday…I think Brady may have caught his second fish that day, but I can’t remember for sure.

It was another great day!!

On Wednesday (November 27th), we switched things up and started out at the pool :)

Rachel was so sweet to stay with Abigail on the steps and collect all the toys that she was throwing into the pool :)

She had no shortage of attention over the week, for sure!

The kids all had fun playing, and I watched from my pool chair :) The water was still pretty chilly, and I was content to just supervise from the side.

Around lunchtime, we headed down to the beach..

Brooklyn and Savannah had a blast just digging in the sand. I love this picture :)

I love how they are really getting to be such good friends and playmates. In a couple more years, hopefully Abigail will be right there with them.

Mikayla helped the girls dig another big “pool” that afternoon. She was so sweet to entertain them…they love her and look up to her so much!

There’s nothing like being soothed to sleep by the sound of the waves crashing on the shore :) We headed in a little earlier that afternoon so we could get ready to take some family pictures before going out to eat for dinner that night.

I’m SO glad we took these pictures!! We hardly ever get pictures with all 5 of us in them, so these are priceless. Especially to get everyone looking and smiling at the same time :)

The Hesters are always so photogenic :) Maybe when our kids are older, family pictures will get a little easier too.

I love this one of all the kids. We had to bribe Abigail to stand there by letting her hold Mickey and Minnie ;)

Had to get a picture of all 11 of us together!

I liked Abigail’s little smirk in this picture ;)

So thankful we took the time to get all these pictures!

We ate dinner at a place called Pita Paradise (after Travis had attempted to grab dinner from a gyro place in Orlando earlier in the trip and it ended up being a grocery store instead of a restaurant, I think Jeff felt obligated to find us some gyros…haha). Anyway, Pita Paradise was NOT what we were expecting. It looked like a little hole in the wall from the outside, but it was actually pretty fancy on the inside. I guess I was expecting something like Taziki’s, but this was like authentic Lebanese/Mediterranean food. I didn’t know how to pronounce a lot of the stuff on the menu…haha. But it was good! I was proud of the girls for trying new foods, and I think we all branched out that evening :)

After our adventurous dinner, we topped it off with some yummy ice cream at the Fat Donkey. It was a little place where you walk up and order and then sit outside. We had a really fun evening!!

Thursday, November 28th was Thanksgiving Day, and we had big plans for lunch ;) We were going out to eat at Cracker Barrel! Or, “Barrel Crackers” as Brooklyn was calling it all week…haha. This was our first time ever to go out to eat on Thanksgiving, and it was interesting to see how many people eat at Cracker Barrel for their Thanksgiving meal. It was packed! The girls enjoyed looking around the store while we were waiting for a table. We had a delicious lunch! The girls all got pancakes again…not surprising at all. After our food came, I looked over and Abigail picked up the huge glob of butter off her pancakes and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth at one time. Haha! She was surprised…I don’t think she realized what it was. I think Jeff and I were the only ones who ordered a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was definitely a non-traditional Thanksgiving, but it was such a great day spending it with one of our very favorite families.

That afternoon, some of us headed down to the beach for one last time. Travis stayed with Abigail in our condo while she was napping, and I must say…it is much easier to take a 6 and 4 year old to the beach without the 2 year old…haha. Jeff and Rachel also stayed in their condo and got some packing done. The rest of us played for a few more minutes!

Brooklyn’s joy is just contagious. I love watching her have fun.

The girls enjoyed going out and jumping waves with Brady one last time.

We also found this massive hole that someone else had dug!

Before heading inside to pack, we had to stop by the pool for one last swim. It’s always sad on the last day, and you feel like you have to do everything and soak it all in. We had such a great week!

On Friday, November 29th, we loaded up the vans and headed home. Our goal was to make it all the way home that day if possible, so we got an early start. I took this picture at 7:08 AM…and we were already on our last load to the car at that point. I loved how Travis had his little ducklings following behind and each carrying something :)

We had a pretty uneventful drive home, thankfully. No bad traffic or slowdowns…it was just a long day.

The girls really did great in the car both on the way there and the way home. We had plenty of books and activities to keep them busy, and of course, they loved getting to watch movies on the DVD player that we only use on long trips ;)

We stopped for dinner at the Peach Park in Clanton, and by that point, we knew we could make it the rest of the way home without stopping.

I always get sad at the end of a fun vacation, and this one was no different. We were just so thankful for Jeff and Melissa and their kids and the special week we had together.

Interview with Brooklyn and Savannah:

What was your favorite part about sleeping in a hotel?

“It was new to me” – Brooklyn

“Watching cartoons in my bed and going in the elevator” – Savannah

What was your favorite part about the Christmas party at Magic Kingdom?

“We got to ride rollercoasters and eat cookies and spend time with the Hesters.” – Brooklyn

“Eating lots of cookies” – Savannah

What was your favorite food that we ate on the trip?

“Cookies and pancakes” – Brooklyn

“Cookies at Disney” – Savannah

What was the best thing about being at the beach?

“Playing with the Hesters in the sand and in the water” – Brooklyn

“Playing in the sand and going in the water” – Savannah

What was your favorite ride at Disney World?

“Seven Dwarves Mine Train” – Brooklyn

“Dumbo and the Magic Carpet ride” – Savannah

Would it be fun to go on another vacation with the Hesters?

“Yes!” – Brooklyn and Savannah

Where should we go next time?

“New York City or visit Disney World again” – Brooklyn

“Maybe to a lake that you can swim in” – Savannah

We had the best time on our trip and are already talking about planning another vacation together with the Hesters in the future. I’m already looking forward to it!