Florida part 1

Last year, Marc's youngest brother, Nicholas became engaged to a girl named Robin. At first, they thought they might have the wedding in December of last year, but it was changed to October of 2010. So we've known we were going to Florida for an entire year, and through the generosity of Marc's parents, it became a family trip that all 3 brothers' and their families were all going to be able to attend. Nick & Robin live on Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, which is 40 minutes outside of Orlando. My first thought when we heard we were that close to Orlando, was that we were going to Disney World!! There really wasn't any question about it, the boys are getting to be a great age for Disney, we had plenty of time to save up some money to go, and when was the next time we were really going to get to Florida? We never told the boys about our plans, we thought we'd surprise them when we got there. As time went on, it was apparent, that we were the only ones who wanted to go to Disney. It didn't sound as much fun without cousins or grandparents....and then we started feeling guilty about blowing $400+ just for one day. After some difficult conversations between Marc & I, we came to the conclusion that it would be in our best interest to skip Disney World for now, spend the day with grandparents and cousins, and start saving for Disney Land in California instead where we can spend more time, go to the different parks and really have the TIME to enjoy it. Not an easy decision by any means, but one that we felt good about.

So anyway, we flew out to Orlando on Wednesday, October 13th on Southwest Airlines. It was a very pleasant experience, considering we didn't have to worry about how much luggage we were going to have to check, we were able to sit together as a family without having to worry about seat assignments, and as a bonus, Lexi got her own chair because we scared everyone else off (nobody wanted to sit by an active 19 month old, and two 4 year olds), it was glorious! We only had to make one connection in Denver, it was on time, and we even got in a little early.The boys had been looking forward to riding TWO airplanes for at least 6 months. They loved it! They loved being in the airport, riding on the plane, eating snacks, and juice, and the whole she-bang. Lexi slept on the second flight for about an hour and a half. The only bad thing was that she was sleeping on me and I couldn't move or do anything! But I'll take that over crying and fussing and jumping all over the place any day.

We arrived in Orlando at 10:30 at night. It took quite awhile to get all our bags, get down to the car rental company, and get out to the hotel. By the time we got into our room, it was 1:00 in the morning, and we walked into this:We knew about the bunkbeds, but were quite shocked to find a slide in their hotel room. We stayed in a "suite" of types. Essentially, we had our own room, with our own king bed, and the room adjoining ours was the kids room, with bunk beds, a sleeper sofa, a table and chairs and another bathroom. It was fantastic!! We loved that the kids had their own area, we could put them down and hang out in our room without worrying about tip toeing around and not being able to do anything. This was Lexi's first time sleeping in a bed that wasn't a crib....Not the most ideal circumstances, but we were able to get her to sleep and stay asleep, eventually!

Tyler was the first one to wake up in the morning, go figure. We were able to call Marc's parents and sent him over to their room to play until Bryce & Lexi woke up. After breakfast, we explored the area around the hotel and waited for Marc's brother Joe, and his family to arrive. Bryce is showing off the snail shell he found:

Family picture in front of the spanish moss trees:
Exploring with Grandpa:
We went to a couple of local parks in the afternoon. Our kids were rapidly melting down as the day progressed, so we grabbed food to take back to the hotel and fed the kids. I tried to put Lexi down for a nap, while the boys watched a movie in the other room for quiet time. Lex finally fell asleep, and Marc took the boys out to the swimming pool.

The kids LOVED the pool. They had a blast jumping off the edge into the water, being thrown by their daddy, and the independence of being able to "swim" by themselves. I used our cell phones to act as a baby monitor.....and totally forgot that Lexi could hear me when I was talking on my phone. We found her wandering around the hotel room with the cell phone saying "momma". So she got to come out and play too.

Bryce jumping over daddy's head:
Tyler showing how awesome he's doing at floating on his back:
Superman Tyler:
Not a big fan of the water:
Boys trying to jump off at the same time:
Mommy & Lexi's favorite place to be in a swimming pool, just enough to get our feet wet:
Somehow they got us into that cold water!
Grandma brought out M&M's. She looks like a little vampire in this picture!
We had such a good time playing together in the pool. The only reason we got out was to eat dinner! And Tyler was getting so tired, he was having a harder and harder time "bobbing" around in the water and needed some help getting back to the side of the pool.

That night we ate dinner at the Arabian Nights Dinner Theater in Orlando. I've never been to a dinner theater before and it was a lot of fun. This one was a horse show that had a story line. Family friendly cheesy, but the kids loved it. Lexi and her cousin Kayte especially. They loved the music and watching the horses perform. Kept their attention the whole time, which was pretty impressive. The food was ok. Not terrible but not fabulous. I don't have any pictures of it yet, so if I get some soon, I'll post them then. :)