Journal Entry: Visitors, Palm Coast, and Disney World:

My dad, step mom, and baby brother all came to visit me last week. We had an awesome time. Of course, after I've been telling them how beautiful the weather has been, they happened to visit on some of the only cold days that we've had this entire winter. That was a bummer, but we still managed to have fun.

After I picked them up at the airport, we stopped at Julie's Waterfront, a quaint little restaurant on Lake Jennie Jewel in Orlando. As some of the reviews say, the place has seen better days, but the food was delicious, the view was pretty, and they had lots of veggie options. The temperature was rapidly dropping, but we decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunset anyway. They did have heaters outside, which they kindly turned on for us.

After dinner, we decided to make a trip to Mall at Millenia, on the more touristy side of Orlando, right near Universal. I picked up some nice stuff: cheap jewelry, another cute America shirt, and a nice dress for my Barrister's Ball (aka "Law School Prom").

After we had done a little shopping, though I didn't understand how my family could still be hungry,  they decided that they needed to get ice cream at the food court. After all, they were on vacation. I was tempted to order the always delicious raspberry sorbet, but my dad suggested another place with fresh fruit smoothies. I elected to take that route, and ordered a strawberry, banana, and raspberry smoothie. It filled me up even more, but I was very happy with my choice.

On Sunday, we decided to weather the cold, and visited my cousin Val and her family, who have a beautiful beach house in Palm Coast. For lunch, we enjoyed wine while overlooking the ocean, and later, we gobbled up some barbecue on the inter-coastal for dinner. It was nice to have some family time. I really miss that down here.

The next day, we decided to go to Disney. They just added a new section to Magic Kingdom: Fantasyland, which has 2 new sections so far: The Enchanted Forest, which was modeled after scenes and characters from Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, and Storybook Circus, which was inspired by Dumbo. The detail of the entire place is incredible. It always makes me want to travel. It reminds me of all of the quaint, little villages that I've seen around the world, and that magic really does exist.

It was my little brother's first time that he was old enough to really remember being at Disney, and because there weren't any other big kids there, we got to do a lot of fun little kid stuff for him. Being the youngest, he's usually dragged to all of the stuff that everyone else wants to do, and though he loves it, I feel like he doesn't get to be a kid enough. (Throughout the years, we've dragged him on Jaws, Jurassic Park, and lots of other rides that we forget are still scary for little kids).

I was reminded of how little he is when he squeezed my hand at the beginning of the Lilo & Stitch ride, scared and not knowing what was coming next, and again when he laughed when he realized that the "Level 3 Criminal" was only Stitch.  But, as always, he's growing up too quickly. I really miss squeezing his chubby baby cheeks, but I'm glad that he's still a kid. He needed a day to really be one.

...So that's just what we did, we got to be kids for the day, and I'm so thankful to Ashton for giving me the opportunity to be a kid with him and to remember that he's still little, even if just for a day.

Once it was warm enough for lizards to come out, Ashton and I did some lizard-catching. Other than that, we hung out, ate lots of fruit and Publix bread (my dad loves Publix bread), and chilled out. It was really nice. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to see my family more often next year. ❤