Florida 2012

We flew to Florida late Sunday night. We spent Monday recuperating and getting ready for Orlando. Nate and Dad took the kids to the "juice store" which Caleb specifically requested. It's a store that sells citrus and gives out free samples. After that they went to Lakes Park to play. I think Isaac was pretending to be a bear in this picture.

Tuesday afternoon we made the 3 hour drive to Orlando. The drive took longer than that because of a bad accident. Two semis hit, one was a cow trailer. The cows escaped and there was one dead cow in the trailer, gross. We stayed at a Wyndam resort, Bonnet Creek. We were on the 12th floor and it made us a little nervous when the kids went on the balcony.



Having fun in the hotel pool/lazy river


The pool was warm, but there were alot of crazy kids around


Wednesday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom! We left our hotel at 9:15 am and didn't get thru the park gates til after 11 am. We were not prepared for that. We took a shuttle from our hotel, stood in line to get our will call tickets, stood in line to get on the ferry, and then stood in line for security. It was spring break for most of Florida so there were alot of people. Once we entered the park though we saw our first characters! There was a dance party in the street and we saw Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Daisy and Pluto. We got a Fastpass for the Buzz Lightyear ride and then ate our packed lunches.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was Isaac's favorite. As you can see from Julia's face it was not her favorite.

The boys in jail with Zurg, the villian from the Buzz Lightyear ride.

We then hit the Tomorrowland Speedway to drive some racecars. Look out, she's driving already! We then got a Fastpass to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride and headed to the Mad Tea Party ride.

No one got sick in the teacups
We went to see Mickey's Philarmagic 3D show. It is basically a 3D movie, but Caleb hated it. He kept his glasses off and still didn't like it.
We had to get the Mickey ice cream bar.
Julia loved it.

Next it was the afternoon parade. We had a good view and the kids enjoyed seeing all the characters. Our kids have not seen all of the Disney movies so they often asked me, "who is that?" For example; Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Alice in Wonderland, etc. After the parade we went on the Magic Carpet Aladdin ride and walked thru the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. We ate supper at the Columbia Fish House and then took the raft across to Tom Sawyer Island. Next it was the "It's a Small World" ride, and yes that song is stuck in my head. But, the ride is still great. We finally could go on the Winnie the Pooh ride and the kids loved it.

There was a street dance party at night, it was one of my highlights. All of us were dancing and having a great time. The best song was "Everybody is Kung-Fu fighting." The kids would do a karate chop pose. Caleb thinks "Ice, Ice Baby" is the coolest song, as long as he doesn't hear the lyrics in the verses! We hit the Buzz Lightyear ride again because someone gave us their Fastpasses as they had to leave, very nice of them. Nate and Dad took the kids on the Aladdin ride again while Mom and I held a spot for the electric parade.

The lights on the castle kept changing colors, very neat.
The electrical parade was amazing and hasn't changed much since I was there last! Isaac was exhausted and slept thru the parade. Julia's favorite characters were Cinderella and Tinkerbell. When the parade was over we were herded along with the masses of people towards the fireworks show. We opted to leave and watch the fireworks as we were exiting. This strategy worked well. Julia promptly fell asleep and Isaac woke up to see the fireworks. He tells everyone, "I meant to sleep thru the parade so I could see the fireworks." I think we were all in bed by 11 pm.

Thursday morning rolled around and we said, "get up we're doing it again!" Actually we slept in and arrived at Hollywood Studios late morning. We started our day by getting a Fastpass for the Toy Story ride. We then met Winnie the Pooh! He was the only character the kids were willing to get a picture with. Julia liked seeing Pooh, but did NOT want to stand next to him.

We then went to see the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show. It's a show that highlights TV shows from the Disney channel like; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. My kids know all of these shows and they thought this was fun! We were all singing along with the theme songs.
Caleb's favorite show from the Disney channel is Phineas and Ferb. See the little green platypus above the characters heads? That is secret agent Perry the Platypus. For his souvenirs, Caleb picked a Perry action figure and a Perry t-shirt. I'm sure you'll see them sometime soon. We ate our packed lunches and waited about 40 minutes for the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. The kids thought the show was a little loud, but liked it overall. The best part was the real Lightning McQueen drove around!


Posing with Lightning McQueen, ka-chow! Nate and I took the boys on a Star Wars ride, that was a mistake. We all sat in a "plane" and wore 3D glasses. The plane shakes and moves around while things are flying towards you from the movie. Not our best parenting moment. While we were doing Star Wars, Mom and Dad took Julia to the Little Mermaid show. The only thing Julia kept saying is, "I don't like Ursula, it was scary." Oops. We watched the afternoon parade and saw more characters. During the parade it started pouring rain! Thankfully it didn't last long. Next we watched the Indiana Jones stunt show. It was a little scary, but it was just kind of violent. Lots of people getting shot, etc. Again, not our best parenting decision.

After the show we split up. Dad and Nate went to ride the Star Wars ride, Mom and Julia went to the Muppets show and I took the boys to get their picture with Lightning McQueen. Mom said the Muppets show was horrible and was glad we didn't all go. We ate dinner at Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) and played some arcade games. We finally rode the Toy Story ride and it was awesome! Isaac wanted to ride again, unfortunately the wait was 80 minutes. We had planned on going to the Fantasmic night show. We saw signs for the show and decided against it. It looked like it might be scary and didn't want to scare our kids again. Nate and Dad rode the Tower of Terror ride while Mom and I waited with the kids. We headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 10 pm. Somehow Julia survived two days with no naps and late nights.
Not the best family picture, but we take what we can get!

On Friday morning the kids swam in the hotel pool with Grandpa and Grandma. We ate lunch then drove back to Ft. Myers. We went to the neighborhood pool after supper. Saturday morning we went to Sanibel Island. A beautiful beach and beautiful weather, we all had a great time.

We got up early Sunday morning to fly home. We pull up to the airport and there is a sign on the door saying our airline, Direct Air, went bankrupt and was not flying. What?! We were stunned. We then drove to the next closest airport to find a flight home. The first lady quoted us $3,000 to fly our family home- what?! We drove back to Mom and Dad's to regroup. We found an airline that picked up some of Direct Air's flights for a much more reasonable price. We were able to attend church with Mom and Dad and spend another day in Florida. That afternoon I rescued a little girl who was drowning in the pool. Her parents were not watching at all and didn't even notice when I pulled her out of the water. Infuriating.

So Monday morning we flew from Ft. Myers to Rockford, IL. We rented a car and drove it to the Kalamazoo airport where our van was parked. Our traveling was much more involved than we anticipated, but we were just thankful to be home! We love visiting Mom and Dad and we have some great memories from our first family trip to Disney!