I have sat down to blog about 5 times this week, but each time I lose my motivation about three sentences in. I have so much catching up to do. I promised myself I would do at least one post tonight, and our Florida trip seems like the perfect topic for a couple reasons. For starters, I don't want to forget the memorable and magnificent time we had. Also, I am finally coming out of my post-vacation-letdown-depression-malaise and feel that I can blog about it now without getting too misty eyed (just kidding...kinda...)
We took a wonderful, week long trip to Orlando with my parents and sisters. It is honestly one of the best vacations I have ever taken. My parents' have a time share that we used for our accommodations. It was an awesome two bedroom, two bathroom condo. It had two pools and was very family friendly. My family generously gave Matt, Lily and I the master bedroom. We all bunked in the king size bed. The bed was enormous and plenty of room, but I am convinced that no matter how much room she has, Lily still insists on sleeping right up against me. Even though I don't get the best night's sleep with Lily pushing me out of bed, I secretly love having her snuggled up against me, with her sweet little face turned toward me.
Lily took her first plane ride and was thrilled with it. I was pretty nervous about how the flight would be, but everything was fine. I am not really a nervous flyer, per se; it is more that I just think it is a pain. However, our flight was easy both coming and going (well, every thing went smoothly...there was some turbulence!) It is funny because the last time I flew I was pregnant with Lily. I don't get out much!
When we arrived in Florida, we got our rental car, complete with rented pink carseat. Lily thought it was so neat. We checked into the condo and then half of us went to the grocery store and the other half hit the pool. We made a plan for the rest of the week and just hung out. It was very relaxed...no real time tables or anything. On Monday we just hung out at the pool. The pool had a pirate ship in it that sprayed water and had a couple smaller slides. Lily isn't really a fan of water spraying, and didn't initially like the slides, but she loved her pool noodle and just jumping around in water that came up to her chest. She would sing "I'm a little fish. I'm a little fish. I'm a little little little little little fish." She just had so much fun!
Tuesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. It was hot! The first thing we did was get in line to meet the princesses. Lily was in awe! She talked to each princess and was just so excited, though we weren't really able to get any pictures of her smiling with them. Next we went to meet Mickey and Minnie. She turned to Matt and told him she didn't know they were so big. We headed over to It's a Small World for our first ride. I think Lily was a little overwhelmed but she enjoyed it. Then we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. She wasn't all that thrilled with the ride. As soon as it started she buried her head in my side and started saying "get me out of here!" I pointed out the funny animotronic dog and she decided the dog wasn't scary and started to like the ride a little better. After the ride it was time for lunch. The only real line that was long and hot was the jungle cruise ride we went on after lunch. I think we waited only a little over half an hour, which is really pretty good considering it is Disney World! We saw a couple shows - The Country Bear Jamboree and Mickey's Philharmagic - which were welcome reliefs to our tired legs and sweaty bodies! We used the fast pass for the Winnie the Pooh ride. I thought the ride was a little trippy, but Lily really liked it. Lily also saw the Dumbo ride and insisted on going on it. She and I waited in line for about 30 minutes for the 30 second ride while the rest of the group found some air conditioning. Lily loved the ride though, so it was worth it. We ended our day with another show, where Lily promptly fell asleep. As we left the park, we discovered the monorail was not working so we had to take the ferry. Luckily we left when we did and only had to wait for two ferries because the line was really long behind us. This was by far the worst part of the day. Luckily Lily was asleep in her stroller. My feet were killing me and I was done! One would think a day at the Magic Kingdom would have Lily down for the count, but once we got back to the condo we had a little dinner and she was ready for the pool! I don't know where she gets her energy!
Wednesday we headed to Cocoa Beach, which is about an hour east of Orlando. I love, love, love the ocean and was excited to introduce Lily to it. I think we went on the perfect day. There were some nice waves and the water was so warm. We went to Cocoa Beach Pier, which allowed us to rent an umbrella and a couple chairs. We took Lily into the waves, but she wasn't really sure about them. We were holding her and had to be sure to lift her everytime a wave came. She told us the ocean doesn't care about us because it kept hitting us with waves! We decided to play in the sand and she had a blast. It was nice to have six adults because there was always someone to stay and play in the sand with Lily while the rest of us played in the waves. My mom was eventually able to convince Lily to play in the surf, which she really enjoyed. We had some lunch at a little restaruant on the pier and then walked to the end of the pier. We played in the ocean some more, but eventually decided to call it a day. The sun was hot and all of us, except Lily, we starting to get a little burnt, despite our rigorous application of sun screen. I have to give a shout out to California Baby Sunscreen. I bought some for Lily before we left but was shocked at how expensive the stuff was. I used some of the stick on my face, but really only used the lotion on Lily as to not use it all up. Lily came home from Florida with little tan lines, but never once was even a little pink! And she was in the sun just as much as everyone else! Lily was cracking us up the entire hour drive home. Again, I was totally thinking she would crash but I should know better. She was hyper and talking the entire way. At one point I was in tears I was laughing so hard. We ordered pizza for dinner and just chilled when we got home. I spent the evening trying to get the sand our of our suits.
Thursday was another pool day. We relaxed and just really enjoyed swimming and hanging out with each other. Every day at 3 pm they resort had an ice cream social. For this preggo lady, it was awesome! We went out to a fancy restaruant for dinner. It was quite the ordeal. First they brought out the wrong appetizer, which actually worked out in our benefit because we got to eat the mistake along with the one we ordered. The food was really good, but they forgot Steph's meal, and then when it came out her steak wasn't cook correctly. Luckily Lily's kids meal of fried shrimp was a huge portion and she barely ate it, so Steph just ate it. Also adding to the excitement of the meal was Lily insisting on having to go to the bathroom every two minutes. Not the best resturant experience ever, but my crab cakes rocked!
Friday we went to the Animal Kingdom. The first ride we went on was the Kilamanjaro Safari. I should say the first ride everyone else went on was the safari. Since I am pregnany, I wasn't able to go on it. Instead, I got an iced coffee and found a shady spot under a fan and just played on my phone. It was actually very nice. I am a little bummed I couldn't go on the ride because it looked so neat, but now we will just have to go back! Then we walked through the jungle area and took the train to Rafiki's Island. Lily wanted to meet the characters that were there - Pochahontas (Lily called her the Hawaiian princess), Rafiki, and Jimney Cricket. We went out to the petting zoo area and then took the train back. We decided to see a show called It's Tough to Be a Bug. Major fail! It was a 3-D movie that started out with a giant spider. Lily was NOT having it and I ended up taking my crying child out of the theater. Matt told me we left just in time. It was only like 8 minutes long, but he said when the lights came on half the kids were crying. In all fairness to Disney, there are signs saying it is loud and may be scary to kids. They weren't kidding. Lily kept asking me why I took her to the bug movie. "Why did you take me to the bug movie Mommy?" is seriously something I still here her ask over two weeks later! We had some lunch and then went to the Lion King show, which Lily loved! We snagged some fast passes for the Mount Everest ride and went to the Nemo show while we waited for our return time (well, actually Matt, my dad, Jackie and Steph - Lily and I couldn't go on it and my mom didn't want to). Lily loved the Nemo show as well. After the show there was still a little time so we went to the Dinoland area. Lily wanted to go on the dinosaur ride which is exactly the same thing as the Dumbo ride except you ride in dinosaurs. We waited about two minutes to go on the ride. Next time we hit Disney, I think we will skip the Dumbo ride at the Magic Kingdom and just go on the dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. It was starting to rain at that point, which actually felt really nice. We headed over to the Mount Everest ride, but just as we got up to it, they had to shut down the ride because of the weather. We tried to do a couple other things, but they all had to shut down because of lightning. We did a little shopping and decided to head out. Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept straight through until 7:30 the next morning. The first thing she asked me upon waking up the next morning was "Mommy, why did you take me to the bug show?"
Saturday was our last full day in Florida. The weather was a little iffy at first but it turned out to be another great day in the pool. We went out for a nice dinner - much more successful than our previous dinner - and started packing. We ran into a family in the elevator that was just beginning their vacation and gave them Lily's much loved pool noodle since we couldn't take it with us. Sunday we went out to breakfast and then headed to airport to head home. There was a bit of weather, but after a couple false starts boarding we were able to get on the plane and get home. The flight home wasn't as good as the flight there and I decided if I ever fly 6 months pregnant again, I need to fly first class! I was so sore after the flight. I think it was just my body reacting to the eventful week, but still.
We had such a wonderful trip. Lily loved having breakfast on the porch with Grandma Mari and Grandpa Tom. She loved having six adults doting on her. I loved that this vacation felt like a vacation because I got to rest and wasn't just doing the same thing I do every day but in a different place. I am not sure about Matt because he had to jump right back into work, but Lily and I both had a bit of a hard time readjusting to being home. It was actually kind of hard for me because I was so used to being surrounded by my family. A huge thank you to my parents for treating us to the wonderful vacation. If it wasn't for their generosity we never would have been able to go! Just a day or two into the trip we were already planning our next vacation!
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