Vacation 2013

It has been 2 years since our last real out-of-town vacation, and now I know why we waited so long.  Traveling with a 4 1/2 year-old and a 1 year-old is bad news.  Even when you are at the happiest place on earth, that doesn’t guarantee that the kids will be happy.  More on that later.

We woke up Sunday morning with the intention to drive over half-way to Disney World, stay the night at a hotel, and finish the drive the next day.  This was to be Olivia’s first time staying in a hotel (and Jake’s too I might add.)  The drive Sunday was pretty miserable.  Jake cried pretty much the whole way, with little bits of nap in between.  We made it to Jacksonville and found a hotel to stay in.  Nothing fancy, just a room so we could rest and head to the Disney resort the next day.  We were staying on the Disney premises to make life easier for us, and also allow us to go back after a half day and let the kids nap before round 2.

Finding the actual hotel was a real pain, mainly because we relied solely on GPS, which didn’t bring us anywhere near where we needed to be.  After looking it up on our phones, we followed the directions and it go us right to the hotel.  We got unloaded and unpacked (after about 10 trips to the car with all the luggage we had) and headed down to the pool with Mima and Botow, who met us at the Resort and stayed in the adjoining room.

After the pool, we ate some dinner and headed to the room for bedtime.  The room was small and it was difficult to get both kids situated in a location that would work for sleep.  We put Jake behind the curtain that divided the bathroom area from the rest of the room, and put Livi on the floor between our beds.  She loved it, she was on a little cot.

The next morning was Disney day.  We got up and dressed and out the door in good time.  The hotel had a shuttle that brought is right to the front of Magic Kingdom.  We only had to wait about 5 minutes for the shuttle.

We got to the Magic Kingdom in good time and got inside just a little after the park opened.  The first thing we saw was Pluto, which Livi wasn’t too impressed with, then we saw all the characters lined up getting their picture taken.  This really freaked Livi out, to the point of her shaking while holding Brooke’s hand.  She wanted nothing to do with them, even at a good distance.

We finally got to a character more her speed.  “Allison Wonderland” as Livi calls her.  She LOVED her.  Lee gave Alice a lot of hugs and talked to her for a while.  This was her first “princess.”

We then proceeded to Ariel’s under the sea ride, which she also loved.  Second came a carousel.

After some rides and lunch, we headed back to the room for a quick nap.  We knew that the kids wouldn’t survive with out one.  After nap Lee got her special new Cinderella dress that she got to wear back to Disney for the second half.

Livi got to ride her first roller-coaster which she loved, as well as the Dumbo ride.

That afternoon there was a parade that Livi loved (except for Chip trying to come over and give her a hug, that traumatized her for a few minutes.)

 

After the parade and a few more rides, we stayed and closed the place down with the castle light show and fireworks which Jake loved just as much as Olivia.

After Disney, the next day we headed over to Cape Canaveral to stay at Ron Jon’s resort for another day.  This was the last stop.  Livi was also excited because she knew that Grandma and Grandpa were going to meet us over there Thursday afternoon to spend some time with her and Jake.  The resort was nice, and we got to have some beach time (first trip to the beach for Jake.)

Grandma and Grandpa got there that afternoon after the kids took their naps and had a nice but short visit.

It was a long week, but we had a great time.  Lee had a good nap on the way home.  We made it back in one day.  We decided to not stop and stay somewhere half way, and are glad we got to sleep in our own beds Friday night.