The night before we left for Florida, Nathan and I brought our camera’s into the kitchen and charged all the extra batteries. We were ready! We had two cameras, count them two and we could take a million pictures. We had to leave very early in the morning and had packed suitcases and all of the packing things the day before. I even put my purse beside the camera bag so that I wouldn’t forget it.
We got up extra early and gave ourselves a full thirty minutes before we had to leave so that we would have plenty of time. Then Nathan couldn’t find his camera. Where could he have put it? We searched in every room, went out to the car and searched it. No camera. It also was supposed to get cold while we were gone and so Glenn sent me out to drip water in the apartment, just in case.
We headed out to the airport and about 3/4’s of the way there – I realized I didn’t have my camera. No camera – going to Disneyworld and Cocoa Beach and no camera. We didn’t have a camera for the first four days. There is a program at DSW Photo pass. They put professional photographers at all of the places that you want to take pictures. That way the whole family can be in the shot and let’s face it a professional gets better shots. (I haven’t pulled up Photo pass yet but will get some other pictures and post them)
I did find that taking the camera out of the equation let’s me be in the action rather than recording it. We took one backpack to DSW. I decided that one was sufficient and I didn’t want to end up carrying three backpacks. Each day I emptied it and the next morning added water, snacks, etc. On Wednesday morning, I reached into the bottom and pulled out what? NATHAN’S CAMERA! So, we have lots of photos of the last part of our vacation. Oh, my camera was fine and found on the kitchen table when we returned. Here are some of the pictures that Nathan took. We enjoyed the week of Disney (although for me it was too long) and my favorite part was sitting in the sand making a sand castle with Nathan and Mandy on Cocoa Beach.
Daddy and Donald Duck, quack-quack.
Having dinner with Tigger and pals.
Cinderella’s castle at night. They shine lights on it and it reminds me of the scene where the good fairies in Sleeping beauty keep changing her dress from pink to blue and back.
Nathan’s purchase from the Hollywood Studios – Indiana Jones performance. Big sigh.
We stayed at Saratoga Springs Resort in the Grandstand area. They were nice rooms with a living room and a kitchen but only 
one bath. We have found we are a little spoiled about having more than one bathroom especially when everyone needed to go to the bathroom at one time! The Magic Kingdom have wonderful fireworks and if you can stay until 8 pm they are worth seeing. Nathan took videos and they will be on his blog. One last picture of us and Donald in Frontierland. Everyone was different but I liked Epcot Center the best.
Next onto Cocoa Beach. We spent Friday morning and afternoon at the Magic Kindgom and then headed to Cocoa Beach. Florida reminds me a lot of Houston – same trees, bushes, etc. but it has more water standing everywhere. Here are Daddy and Nathan walking on the beach on Friday. We were still fairly cold and didn’t venture into the water that day.
I was trying to get Mandy’s sandman. She was trying to build a snowman with sand. The attempt is in the front on the left.
The next day
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Not the best picture but there were cactus in bloom right beside the beach.
Finally, we made it to the beach and played in the water and the sand. We also made a beach fort and decorated it with bird feathers and shells.
I look a little windblown but we had fun.
Our sandcastle almost finished.
We had a great time but are very glad to be home. Yesterday, we went to China Town for Chinese New Years and I will blog about that later.
