I’m breaking these posts up because it would be 2 miles long if I didn’t! This year, we had the awesome experience to go to Orlando, Florida for a vacation. We had been hoping to make it Disneyland this year, but between the busy summer and the baby (I really didn’t feel like driving to Cali being pregnant) we decided it wasn’t in the cards this year. Then out of nowhere, Jeremy’s parents invited us to go on their trip with them to Disney World and all the other adventures Orlando offers. I think at first we were both thinking no, with the added expense of the plane tickets with everything else, it just seemed like too much money and another thing I wasn’t sure I wanted to tackle while pregnant. Then they mentioned that they were staying at a family members house (who only there a few times a month) for free and it sounded a little better, I mean no hotels, that would help the bill. Then after talking again for a bit they said if we would come, they would buy our plane tickets!! Jer and I both kind of looked at each other, knowing we would probably never get this opportunity again and said, “ok, let’s do it!” So the planning began! We found out after that this is probably one of the worst times to go, it tends to be a lot busier in the summer and the Florida is extremely hot and humid during July and August. I even had a friends who lives there tell me, “You know, this the time of year when Florida residents leave to get away from the heat!” I was pretty nervous about that part because not only do I not do well when I’m pregnant and hot, but McKinley really doesn’t like it! So I made sure we were stocked with shorts and thin shirts and tried to be positive! We got a book from the library called “The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World” that was huge, but packed full of good information. It even had a section just for pregnant woman, listing what rides you can ride and what you should avoid! I was happy to see that at least at Disney World, I wasn’t going to be banned from too many rides. It also had plans that told you step by step what rides to go one and what to hit first, when to get fast passes, and where decent places to eat where. Knowing that the parks were huge, it was nice to have this when we only had a short time there.
Knowing this was my kids first time on and airplane, I was a little nervous!! Luckily it was a non stop flight, but I was worried about what they would do for 4 hours. I jammed each of the backpacks full of fun stuff to do and got all packed up and ready to go! My parents were going to keep Bogee at their house for us and my mom was nice enough to come up and and take us all to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave a car there. She was planning on staying here a few days to study for a test that she was taking up in Salt Lake, but came up early to bring me some suitcases and take us up….so nice of her, she’s the best mom!! We got the kids up early Thursday morning and get them ready to go. We checked our carseats curbside, each grabbed our carry-on’s (I managed to get all our stuff in 3 carry-on bags, then we each had a personal bag to go under our seats!) and got ready to board! The kids were excited!! Ok, I was really excited, too, I had never been further east than Ohio and I love the ocean and couldn’t wait to see it! Here we are at the airport, waiting for the plane!
They actually did really good during take-off, we had warned them that we will go really fast and the go up in the air. They weren’t scared at all and thought it was so fun! McKinley had one short meltdown on the plane, but I think just cause she was bored, so we moved seats around and got out different toys and she was fine. She was pretty nervous as we were coming closer to landing because she could just see all the water around us and kept saying “Don’t land in the water!!” over and over until we had to move her away from the window and shut it for a minute. They did great during the landing too! I was so proud of them!
This was during her landing in the water panic mode
We had rented a mini van for a vehicle there and we were waiting a really long time to get it, so they upgraded us to an SUV for free!! It was a lot more money for the SUV and we figured that would give us even more space…until we saw it and realized it wasn’t an extended SUV and suddenly we had a lot less room than we would have in the van! With all the luggage and the stroller, we were pretty jammed in there, so luckily the house was only a few miles from the airport! We unloaded everything at the house, looked around, and then headed off to the store to get some food for the week! There was a pool at the house, but we didn’t really want our kids swimming with no floaties or anything to keep them up so we made them wait until we got home…then it was so late by the time we got back from the store, cooked and ate dinner that I just said, sorry, no swimming tonight, we have a super early morning and we all went to bed instead to get ready for the next days adventures!!
It was a very long day, but so much fun!
