Florida Trip part 5

After our Disney adventure, we went back to stay with Joel's parents. Most of the rest of the trip, we took it pretty easy. We did a lot of shopping (but not really much buying : )), and hanging with his family.

Saturday we slept in after all the exercise we'd been getting at the parks. It was raining quite a bit that day, so we just went out to lunch at Panera, went to the other outlets in town, and I did my sister-in-law Jody's hair.

Sunday we went to church, but only sacrament, as Christopher's been having a hard time adjusting to Primary at all, and we didn't want to confuse him further. (We moved just when he was getting used to Primary instead of Nursery, and he's still "not finding new friends, mom!" : )) Joel's Grandfather came to visit from about an hour and a half away for dinner, and then we went to the condo my parents were staying at, as I wanted to spend a little time with my Dad on his birthday. Christopher swam in their pool and we watched the Magic in the NBA Finals.

This pic is from one of those chillin' with Grandma and Grandpa days. Grandma got a book about Prairie Dogs (an animal Christopher is pretty familiar with. Has anyone seen Buckley road in the summer?? It's like a Prairie Dog Graveyard!) He made her read it several times, I believe... Monday we went to a place called Monkey Joe's, where they have a bunch of inflatables for kids to play on, plus some arcade games. Christopher had lots of fun there for a couple of hours. Joel and I went to the local mall just to hang out together a little bit. I liked walking to get excercise as long as it was in air conditioning!!

Tuesday we went to Sea World with Joel's family. His parents and sister Jody and brother Jacob. My friend Melissa and her daughter Angelina also met us there for the morning. This is the day my camera was dead until I found a place to plug it in, so hopefully Mel will be sending me the pics from the kids feeding the dolphins! It was so fun to meet up with them. This also made me want to move back. C loves hanging out with all these girls, and baby Max too.

I have to say, Sea World was probably the hardest day for me. I love it, but being pregnant it was hard! Not as many places with air conditioning, and to get in some shade in the stadiums you watch shows in is a bit of a hike! Joel had fun because his siblings could go on the thrill rides with him. They got to try to new Manta coaster which I really want to go on!

This first pic is from a new little aquarium right next to the Manta ride. It took us forever to get Christopher to go in there, and looking at the picture just now he said "I didn't want to go in there, mom!" and when I told him he didn't have to again, he said "Okaaaaay, next time we go to Sea World, I'll go in there. Let's go now!" so accomadating, my son!

The Shamu picture.....

His favorite thing was feeding the dolphins, but later in the day he also got to feed the Sea Lions, this is from that. Jacob is holding him and Jody is just to the right. I'm glad they did both with him, because those fish are stinky!!

Joel's family all left a little early, and then we went to the kids area. Christopher had ridden the Goofy kiddie coaster at Magic Kingdom, and liked it, after being terrified. He said he would ride the Shamu one, but got cold feet. Another thing he's been telling me we have to go back to do! Right before we left, we tried to go to the Dolphin Nursery, but it was closed because they'd had a baby dolphin ONE HOUR earlier! So cool... you could kind of see the baby swimming with it's mom, or at least, I'm told tall people like Joel could : P.

Tuesday night we also went back down to the Disney area to hang out with my Dad, because he was all alone after Mom and Jaime had already left. Another Magic game was on that night, so Joel's family was watching that. We played miniature golf at the "Pirate Place" (C's words) and ate one last meal at Ale House.

Wednesday we had to leave. We met up with Joel's Dad at his work to have lunch with him one last time. Then it was off to the airport and back home!

Florida Trip part 4

Our last day at Disney we did Disney's Hollywood Studios (still getting used to that name change) and the Magic Kingdom. This was really the only day we saw any characters. It was pretty crowded, so we didn't want to wait in character lines, and Christopher certainly wasn't asking to see anyone. He's seen 'em before and he'll see 'em again. Mostly we only saw characters at all because we went to Playhouse Disney Character Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine at the Studios. Christopher loves the Mickey waffle, and I knew they had that, and thought it would be fun to do the Playhouse Disney thing. He loves the show at the Studios, and Cast Members from the actual show come out every little while and dance and sing with the kids. Most of these pics are from that...

First to stop by our table was Goliath from JoJo's Circus (I haven't even seen this show on for a while. Maybe really early in the morning....)
Then JoJo herself. Christopher would only take the pictures if one of us was holding him. He was a little tentative around characters this trip. Another reason we didn't try to see many of them.Then came Leo and June from Little Einsteins.....We had lunch on the dining plan at Mama Melrose at the Studios. It's kind of italian themed and was really nice. C even liked it. Here are my boys coloring and doing the activities in the kids' menu. They like to do those together. When we left the restaurant it was pouring rain! It rained almost everyday we were there. But usually just enough to make it even more muggy!And here they are with Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars.

The ONLY thing Christopher really wanted to do at Magic Kingdom was "drive the car." So, here they are after finishing up that ride. He loved it and even got a fake license.

We met up with my cousin Becky, her daughter Audrey, and our friend Robin and her daughter Ella at the Studios, and briefly with my friend Melissa and her friends later that day at Magic Kingdom. It was especially helpful at the Studios, because Joel got to go on a couple of the thrill rides with Becky and Robin while I watched the kids for them. I really don't mind at all, our whole attitude is that we'll be back, so what we get to do or not do is all fine. We just love the parks and the ambiance and everything. Christopher was kind of low-key about everything, but ever since, he's been asking to go back and go on the Toy Story and Figment rides, to the Monsters Inc. show, and lots of other stuff. I keep having to explain to him that we'd have to get back on a plane and it takes a long time to get there. He's not quite getting it yet!

Florida Trip part 3

Our first Park Day was Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Joel's Dad came with us, and they did the roller coaster I couldn't go on. Sad day. We also made sure to do the Kilimanjaro Safari. Here are Joel and Christopher on the ride:They had a baby elephant. Cute, huh? At Epcot, Joel and I had a nice lunch at the Coral Reef (Christopher really wanted to see the Nemo musical at AK, so Mike, Joel's Dad, stayed with him and then they met us at Epcot. Here is the required picture of Christopher being eaten by Bruce the Shark:This is at our resort and I just had to include it. Inside this bucket o' soldiers are the stairs to our floor. At first, Christopher was all about the "elegator," but then he would say "mom, can we go up the bucket?" Kind of funny...

Florida Trip part 2

On the 3rd, we checked into Disney's All-Star Movies Resort for a couple of nights, explored the area and did some fun stuff around Disney property....


At All-Star Movies, we got to stay in one of the Toy Story buildings, which is exactly what we wanted. Here are the boys walking into that area of the resort. The door says "Andy's Room" and when you get inside the area, there are giant replicas of lots of the toys from the movie. Way cute. We were actually in the Woody Building, on the 3rd floor.

Here is Christopher in the little car from the movie that always sits on the "road" to the Toy Story area (Joel knows the name of this car, I can never remember it):

And here is our little fishie swimming, which he just LOVES. This was a big reason for staying at the resort at all. He never really gets to swim when we go down there, so I thought it would be fun for him to play at a fun pool. This was the Fantasia pool and had a big Sorcerer Mickey that sprays water all over. Mission accomplished, because Christopher loved it, even though before the trip every time I showed him pictures, he just said "Mom, I just want to go back on the Mickey boat." Crazy kid!

Christopher and Kitty jumping on the bed. I only condone this until you're about 6 or 7......Shauna!! Notice the towel mickey head on the bed.

We also played miniature golf at the Winter Summerland Course next to Blizzard Beach (one of Disney's water parks). Christopher really likes miniature golf, we actually ended up doing it teice on this trip. Here he is concentrating on setting up his shot. Ok, not really, but doesn't it look like that?? So cute!

Mom and I had to send Shauna a picture of us having fun at a Disney Property without her. She does it to us too. It's just one of the many ways our family shows our love. It's also one of the very few pictures I'm in, so I thought I should include one in all my pregnant glory! I was almost 7 months at this point. We met up with my parents that evening at Downtown Disney. They had arrived in town the night before. Jaime would get in late that night.

Next time we think we'll stay on property more. It's really fun to just be guests! They were also running a great deal on the resorts (I assume because of the economy), and we discovered we really like the dining plan as well. Over the next couple of days we did the parks....

Florida Trip part 1

So, Day 1 (June 1st) was mostly just flying to Orlando and having dinner. We flew direct on Southwest, and here's Christopher (not really sure why he looks so tired) on the plane. He was pretty good. We brought coloring and reading books to entertain him. Please notice his Kitty smashed behind him. Kitty has mad quite a few trips now. I believe she's been to Florida 2 or 3 times, and on a road trip to Utah and California. Well-traveled Kitty! We got settled at Joel's parents' and waited for his Dad to get off of work, then went to dinner at Ale House (have to have my zingers when we go down there!)
Day 2- We went to some of the outlets down by Disney property, then met up with my cousins Becky and Lori at the Millenia Mall (I think it's actually called Mall at Millenia, but whatever). The following pics are Audrey (Becky's daughter) and Christopher "looking through the fishies" on the 2nd floor of the mall while we waited for Becky to shop in Ann Taylor.

They then also proceeded to chase each other around. I was all for however they could entertain themselves! Doing normal stuff with my cousins and just hanging out made me want to move back even more. The heat and humidity in the summer months did NOT! lol Which is fine, because it's not really possible quite yet anyway.

Florida Trip June 2009

Well, I finally got around to downloading my pictures, and had a lot more of them than I thought! I kept forgetting my camera, and it actually was dead part of the trip as well, so I thought I wouldn't have many pics, but there are a few, so this will be multiple posts, unless by some miracle I can figure out how to include more than 5 in each. Probably easier to break it down anyway.

Everything else is going pretty well. We've decided to name the baby Cameron Wyatt. One of the things that I don't have a picture of is that we got infant mickey ears with the name, if that's not decided, I don't know what is : ) ! It was kind of sketchy for a moment, because trying to get the ears made, they had to use 3 hats and 3 different machines (and yet, not problem getting "christopher" on C's new youth-sized ones...)! I was starting to doubt our decision for a few moments, but we finally got them. Christopher (I realize now that with naming both boys "C" names, I'm going to have to write our Christopher now) keeps saying Cameron can't have his own ears, but other than that, no sibling rivalry yet! OK, on to trip report.