The End of Our Trip

Our last day in Florida we had one last swim at our resort pool, went out in the afternoon, did laundry, tried to finish the last of our groceries and packed up. There was a loop in front of the resort clubhouse and this was the fountain in the middle. This is what we saw whenever we were exiting our resort. I thought it was neat that this hotel was made to look like a ship. The world's largest McDonald's We took the long way to the Florida Park Mall to avoid the toll road and got stuck in bad traffic. When we finally got there, we had forgotten that it was only a few weeks until Christmas and it was a Saturday, so the mall was insane!! We didn't end up buying anything but we let the kids play and we looked around a bit. This was in the kids play area This was inside the Crayola store, which was pretty neat! We all enjoyed it.

The Orlando Eye

We passed this restaurant which was close to the mall. A restaurant with a big fish head sticking out of it doesn't make me want to eat there! We ended up eating supper at TGI Friday's where I had a $10 steak dinner with sweet potato fries and broccoli! The whole time we were in Florida, I kept eyeing up the Twistee Treats that were close to our resorts. We finally went there on our last night and it was yummy!

We were planning to catch the Epcot fireworks at Disney Boardwalk since we couldn't the night before due to Kiera's fever, so after the kids had showered and bathed and we were all ready to go, we stepped outside and it was pouring rain! So, we put the kids to bed instead and watched some HGTV, which Jared and I enjoyed throughout our trip, since we don't have any regular t.v. service at home (just Netflix).

At lunchtime on Sunday, November 22, it was back on the plane to head home.

When we connected in Chicago on our way to Orlando, the ground was green/brown. On our way back, it had turned white! The interesting thing was that Minneapolis didn't have snow but Chicago did. I liked seeing the tall buildings next to Lake Michigan! Christmas had arrived at the airport! This was inside the airport which I thought was cool. The kids discovered this play area when we landed at the Minneapolis airport.

After being held up at the airport for 2 hours due to Haley's lost luggage, we finally left with a check and a travel voucher and started driving. It was suppertime, but we didn't want to stop because we knew we had 8 hours of driving ahead of us, so I just gave the kids some snacks and then they fell asleep. We stopped at 11 p.m. in Fargo for supper and the kids ate a bit but were too tired to care, so I was the only one who finished my meal (a skillet at Denny's). We drove the rest of the way home with just one stop for gas and got home at 3:30 a.m. I let the kids sleep in until they woke up around 9:30 and then I brought them to school halfway through the morning. It was a tiring end to our trip but I was REALLY glad I had already done all of our laundry, so I didn't have that to do in addition to all of the unpacking! 17 days felt a bit long by the end, but we were really glad that we had a 2nd week there as Jared spent most of the first week sick. I wasn't ready to leave the heat but I was ready to get back to normal life and to have the kids back in a regular routine. The kids are already asking when we can go back, ha ha! Next up: Christmas pictures!