We are back in the frozen tundra after a week in Orlando and I'm only a little bit sad that we had to come home to a dusting of snow yesterday (it's all melted now anyway...). We had a marvelous time in Florida exploring Disney World with our friends. It was quite an adventure. Here are the highlights...Before we left we spent the weekend with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Scott and got to celebrate Aunt Hannah's 18th birthday (and go to her birthday extravaganza at Chuck E. Cheese's).
We also got to meet the new puppies. I'm not sure what their names were before we got there, but they are now Skully and Cinderella thanks to Abby's superior puppy naming skills. Abby is pretty much in love with Skully (the all white male puppy) and wanted to spend every possible minute holding him. The next time we visit he's going to be a running, barking puppy, so I'm not sure what she will think of him then. And by then Olivia won't pose a mortal threat to the puppies by picking them up by their little heads or hugging them in a rather crushing fashion.
But... back to that trip to Florida...Being completely rational and sane people, we somehow decided that it would be fun to take 6 kids ages 3 and under to Disney World (it was going to be 7, but kid number 7 is 11 months and has had ear infections all winter, so we did what any rational adult would do and found him a grandma to love him so his poor ears wouldn't ache from the plane trip - we are planning to photoshop him into the pictures so he'll never know he got left behind). For being a large number of very small children they did remarkably well. Our Abby (just for added confusion we brought along another Abby) had a minor tantrum about putting her seatbelt on before the plane left the gate in Grand Rapids, we had a couple kids and adults looking a little green before the plane landed (thanks turbulence...), and my children may have possibly destroyed their clothing by devouring oreos in an attempt to keep them quiet, but hey... we got there and no one seemed to angry about having to ride with all our children. We arrived to glorious weather - sunny and near 90 if I recall correctly. Of course, we had all packed our swimwear in our checked luggage, which thanks to Disney's Magical Express was to be delivered directly to our rooms after we arrived.
This, friends, was critical error number one. We could have enjoyed the evening at the pool, and had we known about the weather we were going to get we would have, but instead we took the kids to Downtown Disney to feed them and let them stretch their legs. If you are ever at Downtown Disney try Earl of Sandwhich - the food was great and it got all the kids fed fast and for a very reasonable price. And thus ended day one of our vacation.We woke up Monday hoping to enjoy the various water activities the hotel had to offer. Instead we enjoyed the water activity known as day-long, torrential downpour. Luckily kids under the age of 3 seem quite content to sit in a hotel room if it involves watching movies, having snacks, and possibly using a whirlpool tub. All of which we had available to us. And we did manage to take them for a painfully long lunch at the Rainforest Cafe - we had funny, but super slow service and a very slow kitchen too. Thankfully we were dealing with the bad weather and crazy children with some great friends and we shared lots of laughs about how crazy the situation was.
And then, on Tuesday, it was time to go to the Magic Kingdom, rain or shine. Luckily we had mostly shine or very overcast and humid, but no rain. We got to ride almost all the rides (no one would ride the spinning tea cups with me), enjoyed the parade, and even got the kids into the hotel's pool before they went to bed and Steve and I watched them while the other two couples went back to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the attractions for big kids. It was a great day and totally worth the other 3 days of icky weather. Abby even got over her fear of characters and gave Mickey a kiss on his mouse nose. It was adorable, but I was meeting Mickey too and the girl holding my camera didn't get that picture. Oh well...Wednesday morning was lovely and we got the kids into the pool again (when I say we I mean everyone but me and Olivia who wanted to nap all morning long). After afternoon naps we took the kids to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and let them check out the African animals. This adventure, while fun, was critical error number two. While checking out the animals, the sky kept getting darker and darker. By the time we were at the bus stop trying to get back to Downtown Disney (since you can't get a bus from one hotel to another we had to go somewhere to make the connection) it had become a major storm - the trees were blowing almost straight sideways, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the kids were starving. The bus ride to Downtown Disney, which probably should have taken about 20 minutes, took about 45 minutes. We had lots of hungry and impatient little people by the time the bus ride was done.
Thursday was another day-long torrential downpour, and was our last day at the hotel. The pool was closed all day because of severe weather and I believe there may have been a tornado west of us somewhere. We still managed to have a guys lunch out and a ladies dinner out, although the kids never left the hotel room. And the weather turned perfect just in time for us to leave. That wasn't the end of our adventure, but Olivia is demanding my attention, so it is the end of this chapter.
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