Orlando 2013 - Part 1

We went to Florida last week!  It was 80 degrees!  Now we are home, and it is single digits.  Ouch.  It was a fun trip and now I shall relive it in much more detail than you will care to read, but feel free to skim or just look at the pictures.

We left EARLY on Saturday morning (our awesome friend came to pick us up at 5:45 A.M.!  We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and this was our first time through security without our stroller since Cora refuses to sit in one.  It was kind of nice not having to fold that baby up and put it through the metal detectors, but I did miss being able to pile my crap on it.  My parents, my two sisters and BIL and my little brother all met us at the airport.  We had a layover in Atlanta, but the kids did pretty good on the 4-hour and 1.5-hour flights, and eventually we made it to Orlando. 

We picked up our rental car, but had to fold down the back seat to fit our luggage.  Consequently, the kids had to all sit right next to each other and they nearly killed each other (and us) during the 30-minute drive to the house we were renting.  I guess they were tired of sitting and no longer had us sitting between them or what, but it was a LONG drive. 

We met my brother and his family there.  They live in Missouri, so we hardly ever get to see them.  My kids have heard of their long lost "Haun cousins," but couldn't really remember playing with them the last time they were here, so it was fun to reintroduce them all.  There were a total of 17 of us in the house, but it was just about big enough.  We all got settled in and divided up the rooms, and then headed out to dinner at the exotic Orlando restaurant known as TGI Fridays.  (sad, I know, but we were hungry and it was close by!)  After that we put the kids to bed, and then I headed out for a run.  There was SO MUCH oxygen!  And SO MUCH humidity.  They kind of cancelled each other out.

The next day was our first day at Disney World!  We went to Hollywood Studios!  Here we are on our very first ride, the parking tram!

We started out at Star Tours (run, Beej!  There is one of those big walking robot things behind you!),

Arden and Dax LOVED it since we had recently had our New Years Eve Star Wars marathon.  Unfortunately Cora was too short for the ride, so me and her took a ride on the flying things through the forest.

Arden and Dax took a ride too.

We rode on the studio backlot tour, but the kids were kind of bored except for this part:

We rode the Toy Story ride (I am pretty good, but my dad still kicked my TRASH!), and saw the Indiana Jones stunt show, which Arden LOVED.  I am not sure why, but I think it was one of her most favorite things we did.  She hasn't actually seen any Indiana Jones movies, but she kept asking over and over (and over) to go back and see that show.  We had reservations for lunch at a restaurant there which was set up to look like a house from the 50s.  The waitresses and waiters acted like your aunt or your dad and told us to eat our vegetables and keep our elbows off the table and that if we didn't clean our plates we couldn't have dessert.  The food was all meat loaf and pot pie and fried chicken and stuff like that.  It was funny (and yummy).

After that we headed to Preston's favorite show, where cars race and spin and there are explosions and people catch on fire.  It is a fun show!

After that we headed over to the "big kid rides" that we had accumulated fast passes for while Grandma and Grandpa offered to watch the kids for us.  We rode Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror (love it!) while my awesome parents took the kids to "Disney Jr. Live on Stage!"  My dad sent me a text that said something like..."I am trapped in here!  Help.....me.....please."   He survived and then we went and saw a little Pirates of the Caribbean show that was kind of fun.  We had been waiting all day to see the Christmas lights (lucky for us we caught the last night) and they were amazing!  They danced to the music and if I wasn't so lazy I would post you a video.  (I am sure you can find one on You Tube if you try hard.)

 

After a while we tore ourselves away from the lights (and the official end of Christmas) and headed home with some tired kids and adults.  Day one down...day two to come...later when I am not so tired!