Part 4? This is becoming quite an epic! Yesterday was Ben’s 8th birthday. What a big guy he’s getting to be. He had a great time, well, because he got to spend it in the Magic Kingdom! The weather did us fairly well as it was overcast and a bit showery which was just dandy. The rain felt good in the midst of the 90 degree heat and crowds of people. We rode the ferryboat over and Abi just beamed excitement when she saw Cinderella’s castle across the lake. After getting onto Main Street USA, we tried on the various hats in the hat shoppe before going down the street for a photo op in front of the castle. We then pretty much went through the entire east side of the park which included Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair. We rode lots of rides like the Mad Tea Party (probably our favorite), Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer (which was Nick’s first rollercoaster), and the Speedway.

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We went back to the beach at Veteran’s Memorial Park on Wednesday. The kids really enjoyed swimming & splashing in the ocean as well as searching the sand for shells and coral again. On Thursday, we went about and looked through some shops for some souvenirs. Mandy did spy a wind chime made of a tea pot, cups, and utensils. My penguin radar was still in full effect even while on vacation as I spotted a cute penguin bath/travel pillow in the same store.

On Friday we got the kids some ice cream at Tropical Freeze before heading back to the house to dip in the pool. Steve & Holly joined us in a while as did Alesha’s kids. The kids had a great time splashing around in the pool with their cousins as expected. I did manage to snap a few pictures before the camera started to freak out on me. After getting cleaned up, we went out to dinner at Boondocks. It’s a bar & grill type of restaurant with its own miniature golf course. Dinner was excellent and even though golfing was a bit late for the kids, they managed all 18 holes. There was some adjusting of golf balls in order to sink their putts but that’s okay. Kids be kids, you know.

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