Back in March, we were very fortunate to take our first true vacation as a family of four! During Mat's spring break from Loras, we flew to FL and spent a week in Kissimmee. Our goal was to have a belated 4th birthday celebration for MJ by taking him to Disney. We'd been hyping it up for quite some time, and our little guy was quite excited for his trip to FL! Of course Charlotte didn't really know what was going on, but she proved to be such a good little traveler. For the most part, the trip could not have gone any better! The kids were very well behaved, traveled well, and slept great. Each of those makes for a great trip for mommy and daddy, too!
We flew out of Moline into Sanford on Allegiant Air. They have direct flights for great rates, and when we saw the special they posted right after Christmas, we jumped on it. We'd been teetering with the idea of a spring trip to FL, and all we needed was a great airfare to seal the deal. Unfortunately, our flight on the way down was filled with some major delays and an unexpected detour to TN to fuel up. It was rather weird, and frustrating, since we were already a little on-edge about our first time flying with two kids, but they handled that trip like little champs. Keep the snacks coming, and they were good to go! No tears whatsoever. It was quite late by the time we finally made it into FL. We were so excited to see Uncle Jeff there to greet us and pick us up at the airport. Poor guy had been hanging around the area for hours waiting for us. Once we had our bags loaded and the kids buckled in the car, I think they were both asleep within minutes. Our kiddos are not known for sleeping in the car, especially at night, so we knew they must be really tired!
We'd found a townhouse through vrbo.com in Kissimme and rented it for the week. I didn't think to take pictures, but it was a really cute place! The rate was unbelievable. It was a fraction of the cost of any resorts we looked into, and included all the amenities of home like a full kitchen, laundry, etc. It was equipped with a pack and play and high chair, which made it really convenient for us. There was one bedroom and bath on the main floor along with the kitchen and living room. Then upstairs were two more bedrooms and two bathrooms along with a laundry area. The kiddos slept great in one room upstairs together. I think they were always so tired by the end of the day, that they just crashed! Charlotte even napped really well the entire trip, too. Jeff stayed with us a few nights and had his own room and bathroom to himself on the lower level, so it worked out perfectly!
Go Cards! Besides going to Disney, of course one of our other main reasons for vising Florida in the spring is Cardinals Spring Training. Their home base is in Jupier actually, but they were playing in Orlando the day after we arrived, so it worked out perfectly. MJ was really excited to attend the game, but once he spotted the big bounce house on the way into the stadium, all enthusiasm about the actual game itself was gone. He sat through about 2 innings I think, but was begging to go play. So, I spent most of the game with him and Charlotte over in the play area. It was perfect though. I had a good view of the outfield in case there were any big plays, and could let the kids play happily.
The next morning, on Saturday, we had purchased advanced dining arrangements for a character breakfast at Disney's Beach Resort. This was the best money spent on our entire trip. I'd highly recommend it to anyone visiting Disney, and if we go back it will certainly be top on the list again! Uncle Jeff was able to go with us and was nice enough to take our picture as we were all dressed and ready to go see some characters!
Mat with his little Disney babies, waiting for our breakfast table at the character breakfast.
As soon as we were seated, MJ was prepared with his autograph book! He even got a little anxious and immediately handed it to the waiter thinking he was a Disney celebrity. :) He was so stinking adorable as the characters made their appearance. He'd been seated on the inside of the booth and was quick to climb right over Daddy declaring he needed to switch seats. Smart man! Disney really does it up well! There were 3 characters at our breakfast, and they take turns coming to each and every table. They hug and greet each child, provide autographs, and pose for pictures. It's a great way to guarantee some character time without waiting in long lines at the parks!
Charlotte on the other hand was not so fond of the characters! She was fine from a distance, or in my arms, but dare they touch her!
Thanks for a wonderful breakfast Minnie, Donald, and Goofy!
After our breakfast, we took a nice long walk around the Disney Boardwalk. MJ was too busy watching the birds and ducks in the water to pose. We were so thankful to get such great quality time with Jeff. He loves on our kids in such a special way, and they just adore him! He was our chauffeur, tour guide, and "manny" for a few days. :)
Our pretty little Minnie Mouse fan! Thanks, Mema for the cute Minnie dress!
The next day we ventured over to Gatorland. Gatorland was kind of a last minute decision when we were deciding on ticket purchases before leaving for our trip (we purchased all our tickets online in advance). We were debating between two days of Disney parks or just one day at Disney with a second day at Legoland or Sea World. Both options were just so expensive though, and then I came across Gatorland. I honestly had completely forgotten about it, and can't believe I didn't immediately think of it as a great spot for our kids! I'd taken a field trip here with my second graders when I was pregnant with MJ, and know Tim Williams, who works as the PR Director (or some similar title there). He is married to my former principal, Lisa. Long story, but the gist is, I knew we had a connection there where we'd probably be treated well, not to mention it's a small fraction of the cost of other Orlando attractions, and very appropriate for little ones! It was a no brainer, and I'm so glad we went. MJ and Charlotte both had a blast!
It was very lucky for me that we did know Tim, because as we pulled into the parking lot, I realized I'd left the tickets back at the townhouse. Tim was nice enough to let us in anyhow (and was mad that I'd even purchased tickets in the first place) and set us up with some nice free passes for special attractions to things like the train ride, feeding the gators, and picture ops, that normally cost.
MJ absolutely loved our ride on the train! He talked about this as his favorite thing on our trip for quite some time.
I think Mat and Jeff were pretty stoked, too!
That's Tim holding a gator letting MJ have an up close encounter. MJ was hesitantly petting the gator. I have a special picture of MJ at just 8 weeks old sitting in my lap with one of Tim's gators at a school function. I'll have to compare the two pics in a frame for MJ! He now loves alligators.
The gators were hungry!!
One of the best things about Gatorland was the great splash pad they have for kids. Unfortunately it was a little chilly the day we went, so they didn't last too long in the water, but it was a great play area and they practically had the entire place to themselves. Gatorland was quite the hit with these two!
The next day was spent at Old Town. Old Town is an area that has a carnival atmosphere, and while it's near Disney, it's not affiliated in any way. Old Town ended up being a great idea (thanks to Mat) because MJ was able to run a ton of rides for a pretty good price. Little did we know that our next day at Disney would be so crowded there would be very little ride riding, so we were extra glad that he had this opportunity to ride all the rides over and over and over again!
MJ's first go kart experience! I'll admit, I was rather nervous. For some reason, go karts still scare me. He seemed to do just fine though and even rode them again a second time later in the day.
It's no surprise that MJ loved this car ride, right?!
Such a cute Big Bro...
And a sweet Little Sister watching her brother take it all in.
Most of the rides were a huge hit. He did them over and over. Two things were a big strike out though: a roller coaster (ended up being scarier than it looked) and bumper cars (yep, he ran into that worker more than once and totally couldn't figure out the concept). After a morning or riding rides, we had a yummy lunch at a pizza restaurant. Then, Mat took Charlotte and I back to the townhouse so she could nap, and he and MJ ventured back to Old Town for more rides. They had a great afternoon spent together that day! Unfortunately, not long after Mat dropped us off I started getting very nauseous. Traveling to FL in the first trimester of pregnancy wasn't ideal, but luckily this was my first time feeling quite this sick. I had some Zofran on hand and took it right away, but even it didn't do the trick. I was sick for hours, and it was miserable. It lasted all afternoon and well into the night. I assumed it was pregnancy related, but by late evening I was starting to wonder if maybe it was food poisoning. Just when I was starting to debate a trip to the ER because I just couldn't keep anything down, I got some relief and was finally able to fall asleep.
The next morning we were planning to rise nice and early and get to Disney's Magic Kingdom right when it opened. I was so tired and wiped out from being so sick though, that it just wasn't happening. I thought I was up to going, but I knew there was no way I could get on the road that early. So instead of our well prepped and organized venture to Magic Kingdom, it turned into more like a throw-it-all together and try to get there by noon kind of day. It wasn't ideal, but given that our kids are 4 and 1, it was probably fine. They didn't really know the difference. I was so excited to take them to Magic Kingdom that I tried really hard not to let my tiredness from the previous day get in the way, and so we made the best of it and enjoyed our day at Disney.
Our first stop once entering the park was to see Mickey Mouse. The line was nice and short, surprisingly, and MJ was quite in awe of the big mouse.
Two little fans eagerly awaiting their turn with Mickey
We look like an official Disney family now, right?
Funny side story: when I was a little girl and my parents took me to Disney, I spotted a huge stuffed Minnie Mouse that was bigger than I was! Of course the story goes like this: I begged for the stuffed Minnie and my mom was against me getting it because it cost $50! That would be alot for a stuffed animal now, but back in the mid 80's that was REALLY a lot of money to spend on something like that! Being the daddy's girl that I am though, I knew who to beg to, and sure enough my Daddy bought it for me. :) We spotted this similar Minnie Mouse in the gift shop, after our meet and greet with Mickey, and were sure to send this picture to my mom and dad. Luckily, Charlotte wasn't begging me for it though and I could put it back on the shelf and save my $$.
Wow, once we rounded the corner and saw the glimpse of Magic Kingdom, can you just say CROWDED?!?!
Honestly, it was unreal. I'd read that going during Spring Break is one of the busier times of the year, and it certainly makes sense, but NOTHING prepared me for this crowd. Words don't do it justice. I'm just glad our kids are so little and didn't really realize all they missed out on like many rides, the parades, meeting other characters, etc. We were there 5-6 hours and rode only 4 rides/attractions...two of which I wouldn't hardly count as "rides". Eating at any of the restaurants wasn't even an option as the waits were multiple hours. Even standing in line for hot dogs was over a half and hour. I'd planned to be more prepped with packing all our food and drinks, but due to our late start/me getting sick, it just didn't work out that way. Lesson learned for next time, for sure! We were able to ride two rides I really wanted MJ to experience:
I had such fond memories of riding "It's a Small World" when I was a little girl, and I was excited to ride it with my own children. It didn't seem quite as awe inspiring as it did through my childlike eyes many years ago, but it was still really enjoyable, and a nice rest from walking and standing in lines.
We also rode Dumbo, another of my faves! MJ was so excited, in case you couldn't tell by this big grin!
I love that babies are able to ride nearly all the family friendly rides at Disney, and Charlotte showed no fear whatsoever riding on Dumbo with Daddy!
Getting a great view of a Chipmunks show atop Daddy's shoulders
Me with my babies, and one little tiny one in my tummy, in front of Magic Kingdom
To wrap up our trip to Magic Kingdom, we went by a big gift shop where MJ was eagerly awaiting the chance to spend some of his birthday money. He'd received money from both sets of grandparents, and was looking forward to buying some souvenirs. He picked out a set of Disney character bath toys, a set of Disney cars, and a Lightning McQueen/Mickey Mouse hat. Such a happy little tourist!
It was then getting quite chilly (Mat and I were way under dressed), and we were all getting hungry and tired of the crowd, so we began to hightail it to the front of the park to make it out in time before the end of parade rush hit. Let's just say it was quite an adventure that included with a broken monorail, a boat ride to some random Disney resort, and a cab ride to the Disney parking lot, and then a shuttle bus to our car. Oh my gosh, I'm tired just thinking about it. It was seriously like we were in a National Lampoon's movie, and by the time we got in the car both kids crashed! We hit a Chick Fila drive through, woke the kids up long enough to eat, and then all went to bed!
All in all, I'm glad we experienced Magic Kingdom but honestly we could have never even stepped foot in the park, saved our selves hundreds of dollars, and MJ and Charlotte would've never known the difference. He was in love with the character breakfast, all the attractions at Downtown Disney we did (free), Gatorland, and Old Town, and was plenty impressed with all that offered minus all the lines and crowds. By the next time we go back, I know he'll be even more able to enjoy it all, and Charlotte will too by then, but we were definitely glad we'd only purchased tickets for one day at a park. It was enough for this family!
Our last day was spent reminiscing a bit. We drove MJ by the hospital that he was born at, Florida Hospital Celebration, which was less than 5 minutes from our townhouse. It's a bittersweet place for me, and it was special to have MJ see it, even if it doesn't mean all that much to him right now. We then drove over to Lakeland and drove by our old house. Again, very bittersweet for me. Then, it was on to my best friend Kelley's house where we spent the day playing and eating. We were hoping for warm weather so all the kids could swim, but like much of our trip, the temps were rather chilly and there was no swimming. The kids didn't seem to mind though and had a grand time just playing together. MJ was in heaven with all his "big kid" friends! It made me a bit sad thinking of the friendships we could have with the Walmsley's if we still lived in Lakeland. Kelley and her family hold such a special place in my heart, and I'm glad we were able to spend this final day of our vacation with them.
Our whole crew, and they're even all looking at the camera!! Abbey, Charlotte, Aubrey, MJ, and Robby
Such a special friend!
That next day, Jeff took us to the airport and we headed back to good ol Iowa! Our flight went much better this time as far as no delays or unexpected stops, but I think the kids were just more tired and antsy. Overall, they still did good, but there was lots of walking the aisles with Charlotte and trying to distract them with every little trick possible. By the time we landed, I was exhausted and read for the ride from Moline back home. The kids and I both konked out, while Daddy safely got us home!
We were so blessed with this trip and made some wonderful memories with our kids. When we planned the trip we certainly didn't know I'd be pregnant, but knowing another baby was on the way, made us even more glad we had this opportunity. It will be awhile before we're ready for another big trip, and our kids were at a perfect age for this one. Florida still feels like home in a way, and I think we were just really comfortable and relaxed, and everyone had a great time!
