Life with the Leibrocks: Leibrocks take on Florida!

So we ventured on our first family "vacation" just the four of us. I put "vacation" in quotes as it's more like a trip when you go with two young kids. But we adjusted expectations, overcame obstacles and made sweet memories with our girls.

Yes, it took me a week to pack, yes, we had some hiccups along the way, but these are the moments that life is made of. Already, we look back on moments from that trip and smile.

We are so grateful for our two beautiful girls and both Matt and I want to commit to spending our time and resources making memories with them vs. accumulating stuff.

I think this is just the beginning of trips as the four of us! Here are a few of our top memories:

1. Both girls finally falling asleep on the plane during initial dissent into Florida
2. Gate checked stroller and car seat. End of story. What a nightmare!!!
3. Brinley and Becca “talking” on the way to cocoa beach. So sweet!
4. HUGE puddle after long doggers
5. B brushing my hair, Becca nursing, listening to the greatest showman songs :)
6. 7 flights of stairs with an infant seat because the power is out, lol!
7. Becca clapping at the restaurant and entertaining everyone.
8. Her toes smell like the love of God! (Brinley about Becca)
9. Brinley’s face when we walked into the Grand Floridian hotel. Wow!
10. Becca and Anastasia touching noses during 1900 Park Fare.
11. Brinley blushing when Prince Charming came over and choosing her own food at the buffet. There are so many great things I don’t know what to choose!
12. Becca gobbling up all of her food at 1900 Park Fare.
13. Brinley’s favorite memory was getting advice from Anastasia on how to get Becca to do her chores.
14. Daddy’s massive, take forever poop when we checked into the hotel.
15. Brinley loving star tours and showing up as a part of the rebellious and the picture of her picking her nose as the revel hideaway
16. Brinley loving your of terror and going 4 times!
17. Becca getting scared by the water spurt and peeing herself at philharmagic
18. Brinley shouting “yes!” While peeing because her whoo whoo didn’t sting
19. Brinley and Becca crawling towards each other in the hallway laughing
20. Brinley holding my hand on dinosaur so I would be brave and being disappointed in me when I still shut my eyes, lol!
21. Brinley and I riding in the front row on expedition Everest :)
22. Getting up super early and racing to animal kingdom to ride flight of passage before the park opened, and Brinley declaring it the best ride ever!
23. Becca clapping enthusiastically at the bird show (with her hand and feet). Even though the rest of us agreed that it wasn’t Disney’s best, Becca was a huge fan :)
24. It’s raining nuts and crackers out here! (After returning the rental car and heading into the airport)
25. Finally getting our stroller and car seat back as we checked out of our hotel. Way to go sun country!
26. Snuggling and holding a sleeping Becca on the airplane and thanking God for our beautiful family. Yes this was crazy, yes it was stressful at times. We laughed, we cried, we fought but we enjoyed one another and be sweet moments together and that’s what it’s all about!

We were at urgent care the night before we left with Becca as she was running a fever. I spent the first day with her hanging out in the hotel room and got to enjoy some sweet snuggles. She rarely falls asleep while we are holding her so this was a treasured moment with my baby.

Super big hot dogs at long doggers during a rainstorm. It was our first meal "out" on the trip. Daddy picked the restaurant and we all loved it. Huge Florida rainstorm pinging on the tin roof. Lots of fun!

Daddy's reuben dog and you can also see the amazing buffalo potato chips in the middle. Yum!

He was still a bit stressed from the nightmare with the stroller and carseat the night before. We waited at the airport for more than 4 hours and then didn't get to our hotel until after midnight. No fun indeed!

Sweet Becca Becks, just hanging out!

Family walk down to the ocean

That tongue!

This girl had a blast running everywhere, looking for sea shells and chasing the waves

Ms. Brinley has arrived!

Family selfie

Love this one as Becca is doing her signature hair grab on sister!

Was that you, Daddy?!

Matt's happy place, Kennedy space center

Very cool to see the Atlantis space shuttle

Commander Brinley

Brinley's pic of mama in the control seat

There's a baby in space! It was so cute they had tunnels simulating the international space station that you could crawl through and one was clear, overlooking the auditorium area with Atlantis and Becca even crawled through. There were people watching and even taking pics of her! I wish I would have gotten it on video.

Waiting for mission space

My girl :)

She's excited! She got to go on the ride with both mommy and daddy. After her and daddy were done she raced out calling to me "you have to go on that mom, it was awesome!" then she proceeded to tell me all about it. Such a brave girl!

The girls :)

Because getting a "nice pic" with two littles always works out, lol

Super daddy!

Overall we had an awesome day at Kennedy

Dinner that night was fun, Becca made friends with the couple behind us and was entertaining them with smiles and lots of clapping. It was a nice, relaxing, low key meal after a long day.

After Cocoa Beach we checked into our Orlando hotel and LOVED having all of the space. We had signed up to do a timeshare tour so had a two-bedroom condo all to ourselves. After spending the first three nights all crammed into one hotel room the space was awesome. BUT it is nice being in close quarters too. A one bedroom probably would have been perfect. Just a separate area for Matt and I to hang out once the kiddos are asleep.

We started our Orlando/Disney days with dinner at 501 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian hotel. It was pricey but did not disappoint! I dressed the girls in matching flower dresses, the buffet was awesome and the characters were super fun. This is a really under-rated character meal but honestly was amazing! We also spent some time afterwards exploring the ground (and taking pictures!) as well.

This was the first "real meal" that Becca ate as well. We put her in the high chair to entertain her so we could enjoy the buffet but she ate a TON of food including salmon, green beans and black olives. Our girl likes to eat!

Cinderella was so sweet

Brinley loved meeting the prince and was blushing, it was so cute!

The step mother teasing Becca with her ring. "You want that? Well you can't have it! You can't always get what you want!" Love how "in character they all are.

Here, wear your bow on your head like this!

Teaching Brinley how to get her sister to do all of her chores :)

Anastasia was definitely the favorite for both girls

She just loved Becca! They played this game where Becca would lean back and she would touch her nose. We got it on video. Becca just loved it!

Our little eating machine!

Yummy, strawberry soup!

Wait, Matt, don't take the picture yet! This is real life, people!

That's a bit better :)

Princess dinner with my little princesses

Love these two girls to the moon and back!

Sweet Becca snuggles are the absolute best!

Posing! The light was just perfect after dinner to get some pics outside the beautiful Grand Floridian hotel. How cool would it be to stay there some day? What wouldn't be cool though would be the $500 per night price tag. Ouch!

Sweet Becca :)

The girls!

Here I am!

Piggy back rides from Daddy are the best!

Picking out some Disney swag at the Walmart ;)

Our first official "activity" at a Disney park on this trip. The Disney Junior stage show. Girls had fun but sitting on the ground was a little tough.

Hot and sweaty selfies!

Eating at one of our favorite restaurants, the drive in theater. Brinley and Daddy sat in front, I sat in back and Becca sat on the "side car"

Love Becca peaking out :)

So Brinley absolutely LOVES rides. She went on Tower of Terror 4 times! The story in Matt's family is that Grace went on this ride at age 6 or 7 and was absolutely terrified. She wouldn't go on elevators for awhile after that! As you can tell by this pic, Brinley certainly doesn't have that problem. LOL.

We arrived at magic kingdom before rope drop! Yea! And got to ride a bunch of fantasy land stuff without any lines.

Not sure why she looks so glum in this pic but the carousel is actually one of her favorite rides! (And Walt Disney's too!)

It's a small world selfie!

So mama's getting up early and arriving at the park before rope drop plan might have been a bit too ambitious for everyone. Matt and Brinley crashed mid-afternoon at our favorite hide-out-spot Pecos Bill's tavern. It was crazy busy but gave us a good resting place out of the heat so we could switch off on big thunder mountain railroad and our family favorite, Splash Mountain.

Becca sleeping in the shade. She was such a trooper!

We were waiting for the 3 p.m. parade in the blazing heat and mama made a snap decision to take Becca into the country bear jamboree. We didn't watch much of the show but Becca sure loves standing up and scooting all over the place!

Fire breathing dragon at the parade. Ironically this actually started on fire just a couple of days after we were there!

Little mama :)

Tired at the end of a fun-filled today. It killed Matt and I to leave before the fireworks/light show but we needed to get everyone home and to bed. And of course, Becca's once again trying to grab Brinley's hair, lol!

Love our family :) :) :)

The lollipop!

The next day we woke up even earlier and got to animal kingdom park an hour before it opened to get in line to ride flight of passage. It was hard to get going so early but it was so worth it as the ride was amazing and we hardly had any wait! Here's our first view of the floating mountains. Super cool!

All of us enjoyed the safari ride. I thought Becca would be more into looking at the animals but she kept wanting to crawl around. Stinker!

Brinley was way more into it though!

We took the train over to Rafiki's station and enjoyed a low key walk around there. They had a lot of cool exhibits and a petting zoo. It was a nice break from the crowds.

Brinley loved Expedition Everest, despite what this photo shows!

The joke here is that I kept wanting to get a family pic in front of the floating mountains. We stopped at the wrong line spot and Matt said we'd come back but of course we ran out of time. At least one of us got a picture though!