Orlando Weekend

My goodness did we have a fun weekend.  My parents had this extra hotel room that they bought for some rewards points.  They needed to book two rooms but only needed one so offered the second to us.  We were going to visit the Orlando Temple but they were closed for cleaning.  So instead we decided to use some Typhoon Lagoon tickets they gave us as part of our Christmas present from two years ago.  So, pretty much my parents are entirely to thank for our spectacular weekend.  Thanks Ma and Pa!!!

On Friday night we went to Downtown Disney and ate at the T-Rex Restaurant.  The venue was incredible.  There were life size dinosaurs, a woolly mammoth, gigantic octopus, and much more.  I really loved it!!  The kids, on the other hand, did not.  Well, Jax liked it and Sadie liked it at first.  But every fifteen minutes there is a meteor shower where the animals come alive and roar and move.  That's the part they didn't like.  It really scared them, especially Sadie.  She calmed down but kept her ears covered the whole hour we were in there.

That's the woolly mammoth and part of the octopus in the background.

The ceiling changed colors.  Hence every picture is a little different.

Afterwards we went to the Disney Store.  Always fun.  My mom bought a super cute Cinderella Figurine kit for Sadie and bought Jax a Pluto stuffed animal.  They are so generous.  The kids were so delighted.

Sadie's Cinderella present from Mimi

While we were in the Disney Store Sadie started doing her antsy dance and said she needed to use the potty.  So we quickly found one and as we were in the stall I said to her, "Does that feel so much better?" and she replied, "Yes!  Thanks Mom, I couldn't have done it without you!!"  


So, after that we visited the Ghiaradelli's shop for some rich and creamy Ice Cream Sundaes.  They were so good!  They had an outdoors dance show going on and Jax kept us entertained with his dance moves.

That night was a hard one.  McKay refused to sleep in that hotel room.  He cried and nursed and cried and rocked and cried and fussed for two hours.  He finally gave up around 11.  Then he woke up at 6:30 to nurse and never went back to sleep.  Ben was kind enough to take him for a walk so we could sleep a little longer.  Mike and Sarah were also there because they did this reward point deal, too.  We visited with them for a while in the morning and then headed our separate ways.  I think they did Lego Land, my parents did a scenic park, and we went to the All-Star Movies Hotel.  I found the hotel online.  It has gigantic replicas of Disney characters.  Jax is pretty obsessed with giants and giant sized objects right now so I knew he would love it.  And he did!

Do you see the boys at the bottom?

After that we headed to Typhoon Lagoon.  It's a Disney water park.  We were a little nervous to take three small, non-swimming children into a crowded water park but they did wonderful.  Jax and Sadie held our hands perfectly and followed directions the first time asked - so all went well.  We had planned to stay for just a few hours thinking that they would melt down.  Well, I think we ended up staying for 7+ hours and even then it was hard to go.

Our kids are usually a little cautious but they were great about trying new things.  They did stuff that Ben and I never thought they'd try.  And they had the time of their lives! Here are everyone's favorites from the park:

Ben's favorite thing was definitely the lazy river.....

I mostly liked watching the kids, but the one adult attraction I wanted to do was snorkeling on the 'Shark Reef'.  It was fun although the water was a chilly 72 degrees and I shivered the whole time........

Doesn't the water look spooky?

Sadie's favorite things were the wave pool and slides....

Jax's favorite things were the hoses and raft flume ride......

McKay enjoyed.........I don't know what he enjoyed.  He was good and happy all day, though.  Here are a few pics of him....

He's starting to do this now and he even stood up from a sitting position tonight and balanced for a while.

He's also figured out how to point.  I LOVE when kids learn to point.  He feels so proud when he does it.

After we changed and left the park we went back to Downtown Disney for a sub from Earl of Sandwich.  It was right across the street from the park so we why not?  Sadie found some birds that she enjoyed feeding.

We lucked out when we were leaving because the firework display at Magic Kingdom had just started.  So, the kids enjoyed watching the display out the car window.  Happy were they :)

Well, that's all folks!