Orlando...Part One

Well, since our kids are so close in age, we thought it would be fun, and cost effective, to fly one time before we'll have to pay for a ticket for CCR. Since my older sister was already planning to take her family to Orlando to see my parents and sister, we thought we'd schedule our trip to coincide with hers for a few days. So fast forward to current day, and we're all hanging out in Orlando. It was both CCR's and TMR's first plane ride, and our first time to fly with kiddos, so needless to say, it's been an adventure so far. We did got on a road trip with CCR when he was almost a year to Big Bend National Park in West Texas, but this has been completely different. Let me start by letting you know that our household has been sick, in one form or fashion for the past 3 1/2 months. We've had viral infections upon viral infections (all four of us), severe bronchiolitis (TMR), strep throat (thankfully only me), and to top things off a ruptured ear drum (CCR). So we knew the plan ride would be challenging already because we had to make sure CCR's ears were taken care of. We made arrangements to have a successful plane ride - related to ears - and hoped for the best. Well, it wasn't half bad. CCR was oblivious at the Austin airport, and had a few meltdowns on the plane, but all in all, he did great! TMR had two little fussy episodes, but was also wonderful! We planned for us to take the kids to the zoo and CCR to Disney World while we were here. We stacked those trips early so we could spend the rest of the time relaxing with family.

The zoo was a lot of fun. We took the kids to the Central Florida Zoo which is a smaller zoo (closer to my parents' house) and great for little kids. They have just enough animals to keep a child's interest but not too many that you can't get to them all before the kids lose interest. We wanted CCR to have a chance to see some of the animals he's learned from books. We were able to snag some great photos, and the kids were champs! We dipped the kiddos in the pool when we got home which helped to cool them off quickly. They both enjoyed that!

The next day we took CCR to Disney World. We started at Magic Kingdom which was a complete madhouse. It was blazin' hot by the time we got there, and everyone decided to go on the same day as us (I think everyone feels this way when they go in the summer). We took CCR to ride the Aladdin Magic Carpets which he enjoyed, ate some much needed lunch and rode It's a Small World. I would've preferred to take him on Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan, but the lines were approx. an hour, and in case you've forgotten, CCR is not even two...not a good combination. And since our reasoning for taking him to DW was really about exposure to facilitate hands on learning, it wasn't worth it. So we took the monorail over to Epcot. We took him on Spaceship Earth, Nemo and the Imageworks Figment ride. We also took him to meet the main Disney characters that we watches on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the mornings. He met, most importantly, Mickey Mouse (Miee Mouw), Pluto (Pwuto), Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck (Donal - Cack Cack), and Goofy (Goocky). He even got so excited to meet Goofy that he went running to hug him and ended up in another family's pictures...oops! The highlight of the entire trip, and the primary reason for going to Epcot was to go to the Aquarium at The Seas. CCR loved it! He was running around saying Hi to all of the fish and the two dolphins. It was precious to see him be assertive in finding a front row seat at the window and running back and forth across the walkway to look into the two different tanks. It's been a lot of fun watching him come out of his shell and grow his vocabulary.

Please know that taking a two year old to DW is challenging, and a lot of people told us we were crazy and that he was too young, but he really had a great time seeing a ton of new things, observing a ton of people (young and old) and thoroughly enjoyed meeting his Disney friends, and most of all checking out the aquarium. If you have the right focus when taking little, little kids, you can have a successful trip and not waste your money. Our trip was worth every penny. Will we be taking TMR when she's two? Probably not, but that has more to do with the logistics of coming back to Orlando than regretting our decision. Gaga (my mom) is already making arrangements for us to come back next summer, but that'd be too early for TMR. Maybe we'll come back in two years when TMR is 2 1/2. We'll have to see what's in the plan for us then...

Please enjoy the pictures:



CCR at the airport - checking out all of the "big trucks"


The glazed looks once we landed in Orlando


Checking out the frogs, spiders and other critters


Playing around with the theater at the Discovery Center


Using the magnifying "glass"


Checking out the monkeys...can you see him lounging on the branch?


It's not easy being a "big kitty cat"


Gotta love the elephants


CCR and Gaga posing with the porcupines


Checking out the bald eagles


A llama was the first sound that really stuck with CCR - from an early age when Jen was teaching her kids animal sounds. Here we got to make the sounds and see what the animal actually looks like.


CCR in his Handy Manny mechanic's shirt leaving Gaga and Pop's house for DW. With sweat and spilled water, the shirt didn't last long, but I got it on clearance online so it was great for the photo op.


The Aladdin Magic Carpets


Riding the monorail to Epcot


Meeting Mickey Mouse was a really big deal!! With all five characters, he would go up to them, hug them and walk away as if that was the only reason he was there. We had to remind him to go back and pose for photos. It was very cute!


Hangin' with Goofy...


Following the fish at The Seas aquarium


Running around making noises from different instruments by stepping on the squares with the pictures.


Zonked out after 7 1/2 hours at DW. As many times as I told him he could rest his head while we were moving around or waiting in line, he was completely engaged in everything we were doing until he knew we rode the last ride. We told him we were going to ride one last ride and then go home to see TMR. He and Doug shared a frozen, chocolate covered banana, he had some water, handed the bottle back to Doug and was out! He slept the entire way home, woke up long enough to eat a little dinner, take a bath and head to bed. He slept 13 hours and woke up a new boy! We had a blast!! We are so thankful for this experience and have thoroughly enjoyed being in Orlando with family. Tuesday is a German restaurant, Wednesday possible the Atlantic Ocean and a hibachi style dinner, Thursday we're bbq'ing at home and Friday we're flying home.