Spring Break Trip to Florida

For Spring Break this year, my parents were nice enough to let us join them in a condo in Naples, Florida. We also drove up to Orlando to go to Disney for two days, too. It was a fun trip with filled with lots of memories...so, as usual with my posts, be prepared for a million pictures! (Sorry it's such a long post. I just don't want to forget everything that happened!)

Tessa's first plane ride! She did pretty well. I had a lot of anxiety about this ride since Tessa doesn't sit still very long, but she did a lot better than I expected.

This is the condo we stayed in. Kyri called it the "Fish House" and was so excited that Nemo lived there!

My dad kept telling Kyri that we might see alligators, but this was the only one we saw in Naples. We walked around Tin City the first night we were there (Sunday).

On Monday, the boys golfed in the morning while my mom and I took the girls to the pool. They LOVED the pool.

Then we went on a boat tour to look for dolphins. We ended up seeing tons of pelicans up close and personal. I didn't realize how big these birds are!

Kyri and me

Kyri and Kyle

We did end up seeing a dolphin, and he came up to see us quite a few times. At one point he was jumping right next to the boat. That was pretty cool!

The tour was beautiful, but our Tessa had a hard time getting comfortable in the life jacket she had to wear. She fussed off and on for the first half of the trip, but then finally passed out. After that, the trip became a lot more peaceful for all of us. I loved sitting in the sunshine watching the pretty scenery all around us.

During our trip, Tessa decided to go through the worst teething experience she's had in her whole year of life. The poor thing had her four top teeth all start coming in at once. She had her fingers in her mouth the whole time and kept rubbing her face in pain. When she would rub her face, she would smear sunblock in her eyes. So, poor Tess was pretty miserable for a lot of our trip. This picture below pretty much sums her up for most of the week. : (

Despite being in pain, Tessa was a trooper and put up with a lot of shuffling around.

On Tuesday morning, Kyle and I took the girls for a walk to go get coffee. It was nice and relaxing, and we saw lots of lizards on the way. Then we stopped at the pool, again, before lunch.

After lunch, we were invited to go to my mom and dad's friends' condo on Marco Island. Their beach was awesome, filled with millions of seashells! Both girls had a blast collecting them.

My little model

Once Kyri got acquainted with the salt water and waves, we couldn't get her out of the water. She loved bouncing in the ocean with her little floaty on.

Tessa spent awhile on the blanket with Kyle (eating snacks of course)

But then she got in on the water fun, too!

My little beach baby!

Look at that beautiful water...loved this day with my family!

She got used to the laid back lifestyle of Marco really quickly.

The next day, we got in the minivan and drove 3.5 hours up to Disney World. The kids did well during the long drive but were tired and hungry when we got there. Luckily, my mom and dad had an amazing Princess Luncheon planned for us to attend. We quickly went on "It's a Small World" to keep the girls busy while we waited for our reservation. Kyri described it as "amazing" and "wonderful" just like she did when we were on it a year and a half ago, and Tessa just laid back in awe with her eyes WIDE open!

Then we headed over to Cinderella's castle to meet all of the princesses for lunch.

Outside the castle we found The Fairy Godmother!

Tess was curious about her, but...

decided she didn't really trust her!

She brightened up once we got into the castle.

We got to meet Cinderella before we even sat down at our table.

Once we got into the Royal Ballroom, it was a fairy tale come true! We were treated like royalty and the whole thing was heaven on earth for a three year old.

Our attempt at a sister picture after the lunch...

Both girls passed out in their strollers afterwards, so we walked around The Magic Kingdom for a while. Tessa woke up first, so she got to do a few rides by herself.

Here she is on her first Carousal ride. She cried until it started moving. Then she loved it.

Once both girls were awake again, we waited in the long line to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Kyri was pretty serious during the ride.

But Tess was a wild woman! She grabbed the "shooter" right away and started firing away!

Later that night, Kyri had the honor of going into the fairy gardens.

She was in complete awe of Terrence, Tink's friend.

And she was so excited to pose with Tinkerbell, too. (Kyle and I were cracking up, because Kyri kept doing this same closed mouth, head tilted smile with every character she posed with. It was like her bashful/movie star smile. She definitely thought she was pretty cool.)

At the end of the night, we got to see the amazing light parade. Kyri had a great seat to watch.

T.B. didn't quite make it.

And we stayed to watch the awesome fireworks show... a wonderful ending to our night.

Thursday morning we woke up early to go have breakfast with the characters.

Here's Minnie waiting.

But when we got in there, Tessa wasn't too sure of all those giant animals.

This was her face the first time she saw Goofy...

She tolerated him for this pic.

But was not happy about posing with Minnie. (Poor Minnie)

Kyri was thrilled to have Minnie sign her autograph book.

And Donald!

Showing off her Mickey waffles

After breakfast, we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom for the day. This turned out to be a perfect idea. This park was nice and shady and had lots of opportunities to see characters. We also got to go to a few air conditioned shows, which were great!

Thumper and "Thumper's Mom" (So Kyri says...)

All six of us with Mickey!

Burritt family shot

Tessa didn't get any more comfortable with the characters,

but she did want to touch Minnie's nose.

We ended up keeping Tess in the stroller so that she could still be in some of the pictures without crying.

Family ride on the Flying Triceratops

While the others went into a 3-D show, I stayed out with Tessa B. We decided to play with all of the crazy headwear they have on sale and do a fun photo shoot. Love this one with the leopard ears on, while her leopard blankie is hanging out of her mouth.

After dinner, we loaded back into the car and drove back to Naples. Both girls fell asleep and had a good ride. Good thing Grandpa Mike was able to stay awake to get us all back safely.

Friday morning, my dad and Kyle went golfing again. My mom and I did some packing and then took the girls back down to the pool for one last time.

The flowers from one of the trees at the pool were falling, so Kyri spent her time collecting all of them. It made for an even more beautiful atmosphere.

Can't wait for warmer weather in Chicago, because I know Kyri will love being in the pool all summer.

Both girls loved the water!

Our flight back home went pretty well, also. Tessa was restless at times, but she held it together and didn't get us kicked off! : ) Kyri was excellent on both flights and for most of the trip. I was really proud of her, especially considering that she didn't nap and we were up WAY past her bedtime every night.

Although we had some stressful times with a teething one-year-old and a three-year-old who had an occasional teenage attitude, we had a blast on our trip to Florida. We did so many fun things, and we are so blessed that our girls were able to enjoy a trip of a lifetime with their grandparents at such a young age. Can't wait to go back!