August 2013 Vacation - Ocoee, Cruise, and Cocoa

Last August Tim and I wanted to get away on a cruise, but we weren't quite ready to take the boys on one with us...  Luckily, we had some very willing babysitters in Florida, not far from the port!  We drove down to my parents with the boys and spent a few days in Ocoee, our first time staying at their new house, which they moved into Mother's Day weekend 2013.

Since Mom and Dad have an alligator in the pond behind their house, which Timmy promptly named Chompy, we decided to go to Gator Land.  It has been open since 1949 and we don't think it's changed too much since opening!  We went straight in to see some alligator wrestling, then wandered around and fed hot dogs to some alligators!

Timmy and Tyler were very excited to go in and feed the birds, but they got nervous really quickly, so I ended up doing most of the feeding.  It was really fun!

We went to Cocoa beach the next day with Mom and Grandma.  It ended up being a scorching hot day so we didn't stay as long as we had hoped to.  Timmy jumped right into the ocean and started trying to body surf.  We rented a boogey board and he got the hang of it pretty quickly.  He definitely fell in love with the ocean all over again.

 Tyler still preferred the sand to the waves.

We spent a lot of time in the pool at Mom and Dad's too, and Timmy finally let Tim throw him and decided he loved that too!

On the 12th Mom and the boys drove us to the port and Tim and I headed off on our cruise.  The boys spent the next five days swimming, going to Lego Land and even went to Blizzard Beach for a day with Baba and Grandpa.  Tim and I relaxed, ate, and enjoyed the beaches, on repeat!

Our first stop was Freeport Harbour, which wasn't overly exciting, but we did take a bus over to a little shopping area and had some delicious conch fritters and Tim had a Pina Colada out of a coconut.

Our favorite island of this cruise was the Bahamas.  Tim had done lots of research, as always, and got us a day pass to the Sheraton there.  We practically had the place to ourselves, it was fantastic!

Our last stop was Little Stirrup Cay, which is an island owned privately by Carnival.  It was a drizzly day, but we found a good spot and did some snorkeling.

We had decided the boys needed another day at the beach, so when we got back Mom, Dad, Timmy and Tyler all came to Cocoa again.  We spent the day at the beach, the hotel pool, and then all went out to dinner before Mom and Dad headed home and we stayed the night at a hotel.

 

It was a great vacation for everyone!