Taylor Swift!

In September,

we were so lucky to score tickets for the Taylor Swift concert!

 

The Friday night before the concert weekend,

Aunt Debbie had texted me that a Facebook acquaintance

had extra tickets for sale for Sunday evening.

I didn't see her text until mid-morning on Saturday!

I thought for sure they would be gone.

But after a few Facebook tags and emails,

we were able to secure the 4 tickets!

 

And they were going to the concert Saturday evening -

leaving from Mankato and driving right through St. Peter!

So, I decided to keep it a secret from the girls.

We met at Kwik Trip on Saturday evening for the exchange.

Sunday was fun, keeping the surprise and teasing them.

We left around 4:30 pm,

and stopped at McDonald's in Burnsville for a to-go dinner.

In the parking lot, I finally shared where we were going!

 It was so fun to see their reactions.

Sophie was like, "I totally knew we were going to see Taylor Swift!"

Ha!

We arrived to the Xcel Center in plenty of time.

We were able to walk around outside,

and scope out our seats inside.

The seats were great - they were in the club deck.

We kind of had our own private souvenir area,

which was great because the main floor was CRAZY!

Paige and Claire got t-shirts,

and Sophie chose mini donuts.

It took us forever to find them!

There were 2 opening acts.

I can't remember the first one, and Ed Sheran was the second one.

He was great!

But that meant T. Swift did not start until after 8:30!

 

The girls got a little impatient,

but really enjoyed her when she was on.

She is a great performer and had a good message for the girls.

And Sophie fell asleep with about 30 minutes left in the show!

It was so loud in there - I don't know how she slept.

We got home around midnight.

The next day was Monday and I had to teach at 8:00 am.

So, off to school and work we went!

The girls got up pretty well.

They were tired, but troopers!

What an amazing memory!

Day 7: Flying back to MN

Sadly, our week came to an end

and we had to pack up and head back to cold MN!

Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 4:00 pm,

but we had to check out of our resort by 10:00 am.

So, we ate our final breakfast,

packed up our final things,

and checked out.

We drove back to the manatee cove,

hoping to see a glimpse of a manatee.

As you can tell,

it was cloudy and cool.

No manatees sunning themselves this day either...

 

We had thought about getting up early,

and driving in to Orlando to visit one more theme park.

But we put the kabosh on that idea because we didn't want to be super rushed.

So, we ended up checking out the Ron Jon Surf Shop

further in Cocoa Beach and getting everyone one last final souvenir!

Then, we headed in to Orlando.

By the time we dropped off the rental,

checked in, ate lunch, etc.,

it was time to head to our gate and wait for our plane.

The girls were tired,

so they didn't mind sitting around the airport.

We did find one last statue of Snow White! 

And, of course we had to get one last souvenir here.

Paige actually offered to use her $50 and bought each of them a Disney pin.

All in all, 

a fabulous family vacation to Orlando / Cocoa Beach.

We had such a nice time,

even thought the weather wasn't the warmest.

At least it did not rain while we were there!

It was raining when we landed,

and was supposed to rain all the next day after we left.

We definitely would go back!

Day 6: Cocoa Beach

Our last full day,

we hung out around our resort

and ventured down into Cocoa Beach a little further.

We read about a manatee cove

where you were able to see manatees come soak themselves in the sun.

Well....

there really wasn't much sun (or warmth) when we were there.

So, we didn't see an actual manatee.

But we found some neat sculptures of them!

 

And the girls had fun playing and dancing in the gazebo.

 

We drove down into Cocoa Beach a little further,

and found the Cocoa Beach Pier.

It was interesting, to say the least.

There were some bars / restaurants / shops on the pier.

It seemed a little skanky, or run down.

But we enjoyed trekking down the pier.

 

We came back and played a mean game of mini golf at the resort!

 

Claire figuring out the scores...

 

Mom wins!  :)

 

The girls wanted to do one more last dip in the pool.

Again - not the warmest,

but they lasted about 45 minutes! 

We were down by the pool

when poolside Bingo started!

I got each of the girls a card for $3 each.

 

The first game was regular Bingo - and no one won.

Paige was whining and practically crying how unfair that was.

The next game was blackout.

And the jackpot was $50 - what was left of everyone's entry fees.

Guess who won?!

Seriously.

This girl was so happy.

 

After that, we showered up

and took the girls back down Cocoa Beach to a bar and grill restaurant for dinner.

One of the previous nights,

there had been a magician at the resort.

He was pretty good!

He got Claire up there first...

 

And then Sophie....

 

Sophie was a hit!  

She was on fire - so witty!

I didn't think she would answer him,

but oh was I wrong!

Between her and some guy from New York (or New Jersey?),

they were both a hit.

A fun last day in Cocoa Beach!

We were sad to be packing up that night.

I did most of the laundry

so we had all clean clothes when we got back to MN.

That worked out so well!

Day 5: Magic Kingdom

On Tuesday, 

we decided to head back in to Orlando

and visit Magic Kingdom!

The high temp for the day was 41 degrees.

Brrrrrr.....

But we were prepared,

and dressed warm for this day.

Layers of sweatshirts

and leggings under our sweatpants!

 

We parked,

and then prepared for our journey across the water

to get into the park.

The line for the monorail was a 45 minute wait.

So, we braved the cold ferry, 

and rode that across.

We all huddled together to keep warm on the water.

Once we got in to the park,

we were a little overwhelmed and were not sure really what to do first.

So, I had the great idea that we should do Space Mountain!

The girls said they would do one roller coaster with me.

 Never again will they trust me.

Sophie screamed bloody murdered throughout the whole ride.

Paige and Claire and were not too enthused either.

After Space Mountain,

we started our trek around the rest of the park.

We found the Dumbo ride.

This was more the girls speed.

 

We caught a street show,

and that was fun to listen to.

 

We also took the train around the whole park.

We enjoyed seeing sites from the railway.

 

We didn't do any meet and greets at Magic Kingdom.

The girls were fine with just seeing the characters off in the distance.

Here is Jessie from Toy Story,

who we saw from our train ride.

 

After the train ride,

we headed to the Little Mermaid ride.

The girls loved it!

 

Then we headed to It's A Small World.

 We started down the "river",

and Sophie said, "All these dolls are creepy!" 

We also rode the Peter Pan ride,

and the girls had a lot of fun on that.

I wanted to do another roller coaster,

but the wait was almost 2 hours by the time we got around 

to that side of the park.

So, we just kept walking around and came to the 

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

 The girls had fun walking through that too.

 

We ended in the gift shops,

picking out our souvenirs for the day.

Sophie: Minnie ears & scarf

Claire: Mickey Mouse backpack & scarf

Paige: a book

As you can see,

the car ride home was quiet!

 

All in all,

a fun day at Magic Kingdom!

Even though it was cold,

we all still had fun.

We did a backpack lunch again,

and splurged on hot chocolates for our treat at the park.

Next up: Day 6 - our last full day around Cocoa Beach

Day 4: The Beach

Monday we just hung out around the resort again.

We had about a 5 minute walk and then we were on the beach.

 

The temp was ok.  Probably in the 60s and sunny.

But it was windy!  The waves were whipping in.

 

 But that didn't stop the girls

from playing in the ocean for their very first time!

They had fun getting their feet wet, even though the water was cold!

We did a little photo op in front of our sand etching

(I can't get this pic to flip upright, so it will have to stay this way!)

Claire and Sophie had the most fun jumping waves.

Paige joined in a little, but the other two did it a long time!

I was a little nervous with Sophie.
(I think Mitch was A LOT nervous).

She is so petite and the undercurrents were pretty strong.

A few times she got knocked down.

I thought the waves might pull her right out!

But she hung on, and had fun. 

After the girls had enough jumping,

we walked down to the end of the beach where there was a pier.

We hung out for a little while and then made the trek back to the resort. 

All in all, it was a nice and relaxing day.

The girls had a blast playing on the edges of the ocean

and didn't let the cool weather dampen their spirits!

Next up: Day 5 - Magic Kingdom!