It's been a while since I posted, but I wanted to wrap up our Disney/Florida trip. I've been feeling the post Disney blues lately, especially since I've had a few friends lately who have been at Disney posting pictures and I want to cry!!
So, just to recap... we had just left MK at around 7:30 on Thursday night and I had my magical moment of seeing Cinderella's castle lit right before we headed out of the gates.
We met up with the rest of our crew to go catch the bus for CBR. We are all completely wiped out at this point! It feels like such a long bus ride after 12+ straight hours of park touring but I was definitely still on a Disney high.
We arrived at CBR and most of us got off at Jamaica, but my husband stayed on to ride to the main house so he could drop off our rental stroller. I loaded the kids in the car and gave each of them a delicious Mickey cake pop from the bakery! Yummmmm! Then I drove over, followed by my parents, to pick hubby up. We all said good-bye to CBR!
The kids almost immediately fell asleep, even my oldest who is insistent that he doesn't nap in the car.
It was about an hour drive (slightly more since we took the highway to avoid toll roads) to get to Melbourne. My grandparents live in a senior living community there and were nice enough (ahem crazy enough) to let us stay with them for an entire week! We would arrive late Thursday night and leave the following Thursday morning.
When we arrived, the kids were completely passed out. We started loading stuff into the house and getting their beds ready and they were still just out. It was around 10 pm by this point and I was really concerned that they would get all wound up being at a new house and being excited and not go back to sleep, but that was not the case! We woke them up, had them go to the bathroom, and put them to bed and they were all immediately asleep again.
We chatted with my parents and grandparents for a while and then hit the hay too!
The next morning we went grocery shopping and did 8 million loads of laundry. Then we hit the beach! That was Friday. We also spent time at the pool in the senior living community.
My brother and his wife and 2 daughters live in Melbourne too so we got to spend lots of time with them. It was so great for my kids to spend time with their cousins! Here's a picture of them all hanging out one evening. They were so cute, just chilling and chatting.
One of my favorite parts of spending Christmas in Florida, is being able to go to the beach on Christmas Eve day. That's our tradition any time we are there! So we spent Saturday at the beach. <3
Then we had a big Christmas Eve dinner that night and left milk and cookies out for Santa.
Christmas morning, the kids were up ridiculously early, like before 6.
They woke up the whole house, except my 4 year old! So we couldn't even open presents until he woke up! Finally I woke him up somewhere around 7 because the kids were all getting antsy.
Our Christmas morning picture. <3
That afternoon, we had relatives over for lunch. My aunt and uncle live nearby, and my great aunt and uncle, my brother and his family, and my second cousin and his daughter. So we had a pretty big crew! I was so impressed with the kids. They all played together amazingly well together all day. The food was delicious, I ate a ton of cookies, and it was just a great day.
I won't go into details about all of our Melbourne days, since it was pretty much the same every day!! Lots of beach, pool, and cruising around the senior living community in a golf cart. After our crazy few days at Disney, it was a perfect way to round out our vacation.
Thursday morning, after 12 days in Florida, we were packed up and ready to make the trek back to MN. I thought maybe the ride back would be worse than the way there, but it wasn't. I think everyone actually did better. My 4YO didn't ask nearly as often if we were there yet. Everyone napped and slept well in the car, including my husband. And we rolled back into MN by 7 am central time, so we made great time again.
So that's it! All in all, it ended up being 2 full weeks of vacation. I didn't think about work at ALL, lol, so that was amazing.
There were lots of ups and downs at Disney, but the vacation was really everything I wanted. I loved CBR. I'm soooo glad we did so many character meals because the kids had a blast. There were many magical moments that will stick with me forever.
Thanks for following along on my trip report! I had a blast writing it and I hope people enjoyed reading it!
Thanks for reading! 
