Days 6 & 7 in Orlando: More Magic and the long journey home!

So on Monday we decided to take it easy and sleep in, go to the pool and then later in the day go back to Magic Kingdom for Fireworks and parades. So since the boys thought the girls were party-poopers, they left at 1 pm so that we could meet them later.

My mom, Whitney and I decided to go for a walk to find food and we passed this little pond with this sign. Seriously?
Later that evening we met the boys at the Magic Kingdom and scoped out a perfect seat for the Mickey and Friends show that happens right in from of the Castle.
This is me in front of the Walt and Mickey statue. Self portrait, in case you were wondering.
My little animals in front of the castle.

This was pretty much Braiden's demeanor anytime we were doing anything that had to do with Princesses or Pooh or Mickey. If it was Pirates or Roller Coasters, then he is his other personality. What a boy.

This was a very cool show and I highly recommend you don't miss it if you go to The Magic Kingdom. All the favorite Disney characters and Princesses as well as Peter Pan were there.

The group watching the show.

So the next day, we packed up, made one more stop at the pool and headed off to the airport for the long flights home. Again everyone did alright but Paige was not feeling very well. She was running a fever and it turns out she has an ear infection. Surprise, surprise! Thank goodness it was the last day of the vacation.

Home at last. We love Salt Lake and its DRY climate. We all had a great trip but we are so glad to be home and in our own beds. Cameron was so happy to see us. I swear he got longer and smarter while we were gone. He started doing this little army crawl over the last seven days. He is no longer stationary. YIKES!!

Welcome Home kids!

Day 5 in Orlando: Sea Worldliness

Its been a couple of days since my last post and the truth is that I am now happily home in my dry climate recovering from the long flights home. I have a couple days of catching up to do so I figured I better do it while all my memories are still somewhat fresh.

Day 5 was begun at 3am with a loud "konk" and scream of "ou-ee" from Paige when she fell out of the hotel bed and hit her face on the hotel nightstand. At the time I didn't realize she had hurt herself because it was dark and I could not see her eye swelling up. I got her calmed down and put her back in bed and in the morning Eric awoke to the huge shiner on her left eye. Poor thing. She was happy nonetheless but I could tell it was sore for her. You know when people see your kid looking like they got beat up that's exactly what they are thinking, right? That you beat up your kid. Not the case people. Not this time anyway. Ha ha, just kidding.

So this day was for the World of Sea. Also known as Sea World. It has been years since I have been to Sea World so I thought that for sure this was something that could not be missed. Well I guess my Orlando Travel tip of the day for you is this: Your kids really can't tell the diff between Sea World and the fish section at Wal-Mart. So seriously, save yourself the $60 per person.

Honestly though, my kids had a blast but for me it was really just a reminder that everything seems cooler and cheaper when you are little.

The first stop was of course, the Shamu show. I didn't want to tell my kids though that Shamu is dead and this is his Great-Great-Grandson. Don't crush the illusion mom.

The show was neat and was I ever glad that I was not sitting in the lower section. It was hot but in Florida weather, if you get wet, you stay wet. All day. The air is so full of moisture that you can't dry off and you get chafed. Braiden learned that the hard way.

We learned that the only place to find real snow in Florida is in the Arctic Exhibit. It was like 50 degrees in there for the animals but remember what I said about Braiden being wet? He was shivering after hugging that ice wall.

In case you were wondering, these whales are not real.

This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Its called a Leafy Sea Dragon. Google it. Very cool. Its in the Seahorse family and I thought it was amazing. This was the coolest thing I saw at Sea World.

This was the coolest thing Paige did at Sea World. Oh, to be a little one again and run around in nothing but a diaper and pigtails. She was so hot that I let her undress an play in this little water park for like an hour. She was so happy. I had to drag her out.

Aren't my kids cute? Like the black eye?

Um, those whales aren't real either. But don't tell Paige.

By the end of the day we were all a little tired. We took a cab right from Sea World to Downtown Disney where we ate at Hollywood Planet (the loudest restaurant in the world) and walked some more fighting through more crowds and then took the bus back tot hotel.

This did us in as you can see. That explains why I did not post that night.


Good night.

Day 4: Magic in the Magic Kingdom

Its a little late so today I will mostly just let the pictures speak for themselves. We spent the day in the Magic Kingdom which is like the Disneyland we know and love but a little different. We started the day with a character breakfast with Pooh and Friends. We did the Jungle Cruise, The Enchanted Tiki Room, The Haunted Mansion, Its a small World, Peter Pan, Snow White, Dumbo, etc.




The little cafe we ate lunch at was right overlooking the launching area for Its a Small World. Paige was staning there waving to people and it was so hilarious that people were totally waving back at her and getting a huge kick out of it. Some people even took pictures of her which I was not too crazy about but what do you do? She is quite a ham.

Tomorrow? Sea World, here we come.

Day 3 in Orlando: Epcot Adventures!

Today was day number 3 which was dedicated to our journey to Epcot. We had mixed feelings about going there in the first place because alot of people told me that it was not that great and that the kids would hate it. Well I am glad that we decided to develop our own opinions because it was actually pretty fun. There were alot of fun, interactive, educational exhibits for the kids to enjoy and there were some great attractions as well. Braiden saved up his allowance money before the trip and he bought his first souvenir today. Can you guess what it was? No its not the striped shirt.

What is that giant golf ball thing anyway? I have always wondered so we were sure to check that out. Its a ride called Spaceship: Earth and it was pretty cool. It takes you through a bunch of eras of time and in to the future showing you the evolution of inventions and technology.

Also its just the Icon of Epcot.

Paige was looking especially cute today with her coordination headband and dress. She also was being a super stinker today. Her favorite game to play is take-off-my-shoes-and-drop-them-wherever-making-mom-and-dad-mad. That was just the beginning. This is what happens when we go non-stop for 3 days with little sleep and don't get Paige a nappy.

One of my favorite rides today was the Finding Nemo Adventure. It is VERY similar to the underwater adventure at Disneyland but you don't sit in a submarine. Then when you get off there is a huge aquarium that you can wander through and see all kinds of cool fish.
In the dolphon tank the Dolphin would come up to the window and do fun tricks for the people with the help of the trainer. There was also a shark tank. That was separate from the dolphin tank, don't worry. That would not be a fun show for the kids.

All in all, critique of Epcot was everyone needs to go to check it out and make up your own mind. My kids enjoyed it and I thought it was pretty interesting. There are also a couple fast roller coaster type rides there similar to Space Mountain.

Tomorrow is Magic Kingdom day and that's the one we have all been waiting for. We have an appointment at 10am to have breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. Braiden is probably the most excited about that. Not! Really he has been a pretty good sport about all the Princess and Pooh Bear stuff but don't let him fool you. He likes Playhouse Disney as much as Paige when nobody is looking.

Until tomorrow!

We are on the other side of the USA!! Day 1 Adventures!!

I am writing this post from the Internet office of the Embassy Suites in Orlando, Florida. I brought my laptop and fully intended to post everyday the we are here so that I would not have to do a huge catch up post when I get back with pics and all but I found out that to have wireless in the rooms is $10 a day!! WHAT? Can you say rip-off? I am a total believer that Internet should be free to all. So anyway, here I am in the public business office trying to post and check email really fast.

Lowdown on the trip so far:

The travel day here was good. Long but uneventful an in the world of flying, uneventful is very good. We left SLC at 1pm. Arrived in Denver @ 2:30. Left Denver @ 4:50pm. Arrived in Orlando @ 10:30pm. Got to hotel and checked-in by 11:30pm. Got Paige and Braiden settled down by 12:30am. Barely fell asleep at 2am to be awakened by seriously loud, screeching, high-pitched, nightmarish noise @ 2:15am. Looked out of room to see entire hotel evacuating to parking lot. Got out to parking lot with half-asleep kids by 2:30am. Sat in parking lot for 15 minutes with lots of angry people while the fire dept checked things out. Got the OK that all was clear and stood in line for 15 mins to get back up elevator to the 6th floor and get riled up kids BACK in bed by 3am. Whew.

We got up at 9:30 this morning and went to the pool and swam for a little while. That was very fun. It's a good thing they have a free soda fountain or I would have been really ticked about last night.

Guess what!? Florida is very humid and hot. I can truly appreciate the dry weather in Utah now after having been here for 24 hours. Anything for a little Disney, right? I am sooooo glad that we left little Cameron at home with his Aunt. He would have had a terrible day today in the heat.

We did make it to Disney's Hollywood Studios today and saw Playhouse Disney and some other fun stuff. Whitney and I went to Downtown Disney. Guess what else we learned? Nothing is close by or easy to get to around here. This place is huge. I thought I was the expert but this plaec has humbled me.

Now I am very tired and ready to rest my weary feet so we can get up and do it again tomorrow.

Let's pray for no fire alarms tonight!! Maybe tomorrow you will get some pics if I break down and decide to pay for Internet in my room. Hasta manana!