Life with the Wallis Family: Fall in Florida

Auntie Kate sent the kiddos some Disney watches to count down our fall break trip to Florida! Ready...set...go!

First stop was Nana and Papa's house - added bonus, we got to play with cousin Sophie!

You can tell by her expression she's not quite sure how to handle Maverick.

Warming up to him just a bit while making cookies!

We got back on the road the next day and stopped at Florida's welcome center for some free orange juice.

As soon as we arrived at the rental property, Phoebe was busy trying to catch lizards!

Can you tell they were excited to be OUT of the van!?

After a quick run to the store to stock up on some essentials, there was only ONE thing the kids wanted to do!

Our first stop in Florida was Animal Kingdom. Ryan and I had never been before so it was a new experience for all of us.

I truly believe the kids could have spent hours digging for fossils here.

But we had characters to meet! So excited to see friends from Up!

We took a train out to the petting zoo and ran into Chip & Dale.

And Rafiki!

Waiting for the train to take us back so we could catch our safari!

The tree was pretty spectacular! However, the Bug's Life 4D movie inside was NOT. Maverick enjoyed the Finding Nemo musical but it pretty much went downhill after the Dinosaur ride. Too dark and scary for our little one - he was pretty gun shy about anything else the rest of the day!

After a full day we headed to Disney Springs (aka Downtown Disney) and while we waited for our table, we had fun at the Lego store racing cars.

And digging for more fossils at our dinner destination - T. Rex!

Maverick wasn't quite sure what to think about all the moving dinosaurs, bugs or meteor shower that hit every 15 minutes but we survived our first day with full bellies!

Monday we hit Hollywood Studios.

After the Indiana Jones Spectacular, we headed to the Disney Junior section and got to meet a few favorite characters.

Maverick's poor hand placement made Jake a bit uncomfortable.

Undoubtedly, it's happened before and he knew just what to do!

We didn't do a very good job taking pictures at any of the things we saw or rode on but did see quite a few friendly faces. Sully wasn't able to stick around for a picture but luckily, Mike came back.

If the kids could have stayed all day at the dig site at Animal Kingdom, they could have stayed at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! playground at Hollywood Studios. To me, it was pretty much a parent's worst nightmare since they ran around like crazy and there were tunnels, slides, etc. everywhere.

So...I climbed with them!

As we were heading towards dinner, we stopped to say hi to Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Ryan was pretty bummed to miss the Star Wars ride but we took a picture as we passed by.

Family selfie waiting for Fantasmic to start.

Lots of villains and bad guys before we got to the happy part but the kids enjoyed the show and made it back to the house before passing out!

Tuesday we headed to Cocoa Beach to see the ocean. With a red flag blowing, we didn't venture too far out but the kids LOVED playing in the waves!

Lots of waves meant LOTS of sand in all kinds of tiny crevices!

Stopped at Ron Jon for a souvenir!

We attempted a stop at the Kennedy Space Center but didn't feel like spending $200 to see a bunch of space ships with tired kiddos!

They only had one thing on their mind anyhow!

Wednesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. First stop was the classic It's a Small World - and go figure, the kids loved it!

Maverick could have spent a lot of time at the splash pad!

Riding Dumbo!

Phoebe loved the junior roller coaster Barnstormer so much she rode it twice!

It got a bit cloudy and gray so to avoid the brief shower, we hopped on the People Mover since the train was being renovated.

Once the skies cleared, we headed to ride the cars. Maverick needed an extra bit of "fuel" and has been asking for a sip daily ever since!

We got to ride the Jungle Cruise.

On our way back, we got to see a performance at Cinderella's Castle.

Maverick was still not a big fan of going inside dark places but he didn't mind visiting Ariel's Grotto.

Towards the end of the day, the kids decided they wanted to be brave and ride with the dwarfs - however the wait was over 90 minutes so we took a picture instead.

On our way to dinner we stopped to visit Goofy and Donald.

And then we waited...

They were celebrating Halloween at Disney while we were in town and we got to enjoy a decorated Main Street.

Maverick bought a bubble gun to pass the time before the Electrical Parade began.

Tinker Bell.

The ONLY princess we saw "up close" on our entire visit!

Captain Hook.

In between the parade and the fireworks, we used one last FastPass to see Tinker Bell. We got sprinkled with pixie dust to shrink down to Tink-size.

Our last full day in Florida was spent in Clearwater on the Gulf.

The water was much calmer so we were able to get lots of shells! One even had a crab inside (that we discovered while boiling the shells at Nana's house!)