In the sport of cheer there are scheduled competitions you know you are going to. At those competitions you are hoping to do well enough(sometimes parents are hoping not THAT well) to earn a bid to one of the national competitions. As the competition season went on this year, we did not expect to earn a bid. Although the girls worked very hard and had lots of talent and potential, they had a lot of turn over on their team. There were injuries and dropped teammates, and unfortunately they just struggled to overcome that in their performances. Lo and behold, they got it together in late March to earn a bid to Summit in Orlando. I’m not going to lie all hell broke loose, it caused some distress in our house as our finances and time weren’t super excited about planning a trip to Disney in 6 weeks. However, I teamed up with another mom who happens to be a master trip planner and we moved past panic to excitement!
We flew out on a Thursday.
The girls had to practice that night, and we were cutting it close, so we went straight to the Contemporary where they were meeting.
The moms enjoyed a couple kid free hours at the bar while they practiced:) After practice we had to pick up all our credentials and get checked into our condo. It ended up being pretty late by the time we did all that!
Everyone woke up excited and ready to rock this performance!
Once we got there and the enormity of the venue sunk in, there were a few nerves(for the moms!).
At the end of the day we didn’t place high enough to move on in the competition, but that didn’t bother us one bit! It was an awesome experience, and now we had 3 free days to fill with pool and Disney!
We had been on a whirlwind since we got there, so after competing we dropped the kids at the pool and ran to Publix to get some groceries. It isn’t a trip to Florida if you don’t have a sandwich on Publix bread. If I’m on death row that might be my last request. I couldn’t resist teasing Mark with a pic!
Sof wasted no time getting in the pool!
That night we had dinner with the team at Benihanna. God bless those people. We had 20 kids sitting separate from parents.
We all had so much fun though!
You would think everyone would be tired by this point, but not Sof! She begged to swim before bed!
Lexi agreed to join us just for a dip in the hot tub!
The next morning we were off to Animal Kingdom!
Citizen level 1 team hit 0 deductions at Animal Kingdom!
We spent some blissful rainy afternoon hours back at the condo doing some reading and napping. Then we headed to Magic Kingdom to hit a couple rides before close!
I could tell that Sof needed some down time. Or maybe I needed some, LOL. Either way, I made the best decision of my life and sent Lexi off with Andrea and Grace the next morning to Hollywood Studios. Sof slept in until 10:30 and then we spent the afternoon at the pool.
Lexi and Grace joined us in the pool when they got back while Andrea and I sat at the bar.
We decided on Epcot for the evening. We hit some rides and then agreed on Chinese for dinner!
Sof dun lost her mind when her dinner came on a Mickey plate!
We love the nightly show at Epcot! We just made it out of dinner in time to see it!
The next morning the girls were insistent that we go back to Hollywood Studios so I could ride the Tower of Terror and The Rockin’ Rollercoaster. Here’s my stance on rides…I can do them. It’s literally less than 60 seconds of your life, so whatever G force you’re feeling will be over soon enough and you can go back to your regularly scheduled programming. However, I won’t lose any sleep if I don’t do them. We didn’t think Sof would do well on Tower of Terror(more because of the scary parts before the ride, than the actual ride) so Andrea took her off to explore other things while I stayed with Grace and Lexi.
I lived through the ride, and whatever about it. Truth be told though, I would rather have seen Sof meeting her favorite character, Minnie Mouse! She was SO excited! They decided they had the same shoes!
We all met up after that to use our fast passes on the Rockin’ Rollercaster! We actually ended up riding it twice! Sof loved it! I did it, but whatever about it.
This ride is cray-cray people. It shoots you out of the gate like bullet. I was NOT prepared for that! Apparently my 8 year old handled better than I did.
We wrapped it up at Hollywood Studios with that, and headed back for some afternoon pool time.
Sof had been wanting cornrows since she saw the booth at the pool the first day. I dragged my feet on it, but let her do it. They ended up super cute on her!
We decided to go back to Epcot for the evening, basically because we wanted to eat our way through the lands!
We happened to walk in at the same time as our buddies! They were headed for the rides though, so we split. We explored all the lands, ate some overpriced food, and did some kid crafts.
After we had spent $6,000 on one snack each, we realized we weren’t remotely full and wanted real dinner. We tossed around some options and then remembered that it was movie and s'mores night back at the condo. We made the very best decision of the trip and headed back. We loved every one of our Disney experiences, but we were ready to chill out with a few hundred thousand less people.
I cannot adequately describe what a stroke of genius this was. OMG, top last night. Sof was totally happy to hang out in the pool watching Moanna, the big girls got burgers and played on their phones, and Andrea and I got junk food appetizers and drinks from the bar. Awe-some.
Pretty sure Sof ate s'mores for dinner, and who am I to judge(see above for menu of my dinner)? It really was the best end to a fantastic trip.
The next morning it was off to the airport. Our flight was delayed an hour, so we had a little wait, but Sof got a window seat that she desperately wanted so we called it win!
Talk about having the summer bug. It was brutal to go back to school and work when your brain is already at the pool. Lucky for us, it was a short 4 weeks until we really could be on vacation!
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