Summer Vacation - Ocoee and Orlando

The boys and I had another 48 hours or so at my parents before Tim arrived.  We spent a lot of time in the pool.  Around lunch time we went with Mom, Dad, and M&M to have lunch (the pizza was bigger then the boys' heads!) and see Planes Fire and Rescue.  That evening Mom and the boys and I went to Downtown Disney to wander around and have dinner at Rainforest Cafe.  (Dad was only about a month removed from knee replacement surgery, so he skipped our time in the parks this trip, but was doing really well and joined us for a lot of activities.)

The next morning Mom and I got up and took the boys to Universal, specifically for them to run around in the Curious George water park.  We walked through just in time to meet Optimus Prime and see the tail end of a Minion street party.  We let them get as wet as they wanted and they had hours to play before we went to pick up Tim from the airport.  They both had a blast!  We got them dry and changed in time to rescue ET and take a picture with him before heading out of the park.

The next day was Baba's birthday!  Tim, the boys, and I went with Mom to the Children's Museum, where they had a Curious George exhibit.  The kids really enjoyed the whole thing, but the orange grove and the water table was everyone's favorite part!  We also got to touch a baby alligator and learned that gator's grow about a foot a year, so we can always estimate how old Chompy is.  We went home to change and pick up Grandpa and M&M and we all headed out to the Disney Coronado Hotel for dinner at the Maya Grill, then went to the Grand Floridian Resort to watch the electric water parade and have dessert at Citrico's.  The dessert was especially amazing!

Tyler begged for this Stitch car; his face was even happier when Tim first said yes, and he was so excited to buy it all by himself! 

The next day we had a slow start and relaxed around the house before heading to Universal with Mom in the evening.  We did everything on the Dr Seuss side, then Tim convinced Timmy to go on the White Water Rapids ride, Bilge-Rat Barges.  Tyler and I waited, and waited, and waited; Timmy loved it and it was empty, so they rode it multiple times without even getting off!

The next morning we spent some time in the pool.  Then Tim looked around for something new to do, and found a Monster Bus ride through an Orange Orchard.  It advertises as being the biggest monster truck in the States and the tour was a nice long trip around the orchard.  We didn't have much luck with seeing wildlife, but the boys and mom each had a turn driving the bus!  Timmy was offered the chance first and was very reluctant, we had to really push him to go drive.  When the tour guide offered Tyler a turn, he was barely able to finish his sentence before Tyler was half way up the aisle towards the seat!

The next day the boys were back in the pool, I did a little shopping with Mom and Grandma, and we made another evening run to Universal!  This time, right when we were parking at Universal, a huge storm popped up!  As we were walking through City Walk, it started to down pour and there was a huge bolt of lightening!  We ended up stopping in Bubba Gump's for dinner and then having a short time at the park.  We did the minion ride in the stationary seats, because Tyler's still too short, Timmy was still too scared, and the line was too long anyways! Then we rode the brand new Hogwart's Express and checked out Diagon Alley.  It was just the four of us this trip, so we took advantage of the Single Rider lines and Child Swapping to avoid long waits on any of the rides.  

Timmy took most of the pictures this morning, and was particularly proud of the top right one here, where he made Tyler look like Superman!

On our last day in Ocoee we went to Universal for most of the day.  We walked straight to Spider Man, not giving Timmy much chance to argue or be worried about it, we really wanted him to get over his fear and go on the rides.  We used the Single Rider and Child Swap again.  While I was riding Spider Man, Tim finally convinced Timmy.  When I got on the ride Timmy was in tears and a nervous wreck, when I got off the ride he stood up and walked into the ride on his own free will.  I still don't know what Tim said to him.  I do know we spent a while in the arcade immediately after!  After that Timmy willing tried the little Harry Potter coaster Gryfendor, which Tyler had already ridden and loves, we actually rode it twice in a row since they now both love it.  We rode Men in Black again as well, there, with Child Swap Timmy gets to ride twice, once with each of us!  The whole trip was a lot more fun for everyone once Timmy got brave!  Except of course for poor Tyler, who really needs a growth spurt so he can join in the fun too!

Summer Vacation - Visiting

For our summer vacation we planned to go back to my parents house and get some more use out of our Universal passes, but we also wanted to get the boys to the beach.  We were planning to split our time about in half, starting at my parents and then going to Ormond Beach.  Then I found out that my cousin Erin and her family were going to be in Orlando the week before us, and were even trying to fit in a visit with my parents and grandma.  I was going to miss her by just two days!  I whined about it all evening and Tim suggested that I take the boys down early so that we could see Erin, because he could not take any additional days off of work.  I loved this idea, but there was no way I could make that drive straight through by myself!  Tim booked us a hotel a little over half way down and then I came up with another great idea: the boys and I made a long overdue trip to Richmond to see my friends Anne Marie and Natalie, and each of their new babies, on the first part of our drive.

Natalie and Anne Marie (we're all college friends and they are now sisters-in-law!) each make their way to Northern Virginia every once in a while, so I see them when they are up, but I had not met either of Anne Marie's girls or met Natalie's youngest yet and had never been to Anne Marie's house.  The timing of their babies being born within days of each other and some health concerns for Anne Marie had me desperate to go visit them, and this trip, driving right past Richmond anyways, was perfect timing.  So my and the boys vacation turned into a full two week trip!

Sunday morning we got on the road and drove to Anne Marie's.  We arrived around 10:30 and I was so excited!  I got to visit with Anne Marie, hold baby Audrey and watch Lydia play while the boys made themselves at home checking out all of the cool toys.  Lydia is an absolute doll and every time she came into the room she had on a different pair of shoes, usually someone else's, and had a different purse on her arm!  Audrey was as sweet as can be!  About an hour later Natalie, Steve, and their three arrived!  Teagan is a perfect little sweetie too, I loved all the baby time!

Lydia cracked us all up by wiggling in between her sister and cousin when we attempted to take pictures of the babies!

When we left Anne Marie's we stopped almost immediately for lunch.  The boys needed to get their wiggles out after being on their best behavior around the babies!  The rest of our days drive went smoothly and we checked into the hotel around 8.  We were all asleep within half an hour!  The rest of our drive on Monday was easy too.

Tuesday morning we got up early because Erin, Chris, Jayce, and Hannah arrived about 9 am so that we could squeeze in as long a visit as possible!  Timmy was playing with legos when they arrived and Jayce joined right in.  Hannah and Tyler did not take much longer to warm up to playing.  The Keith's had just wrapped up a trip to Disney World and Hannah particularly enjoyed seeing all of Dad's Disney cells and toys.  We had fun hearing about their trip and comparing our favorite parts of the parks, catching up in general, and watching the kids play so easily together.

After lunch the rainy morning cleared up long enough for us to get the kids in the pool and they all had a blast!

The Keith's stayed for 4-5 hours and that was such a treat!  Since staying with Chris and Erin in Scotland (pre-kids) all of our visits have been crammed between other family commitments while we both happened to be in Ohio, usually around Christmas time which is frantic enough!

Both of these visits were fantastic and would have had me giddy on their own, having them just a day apart left my heart bursting!  It was so awesome to spend time with some of my favorite, hardest to get together with, people!  And an awesome start to a great vacation!