The Happiest Place on Earth

February 1st?!? Sorry for the long hiatus last month. Between the Haiti earthquake (and my subsequent blogger apathy) and our trip to Florida, I was seemingly MIA.

We spent last week basking in the sunny skies Orlando (and running ourselves ragged). Mark had a conference, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and create a family vacation. My sister in law, Heidi, kindly came too and lent her much needed hands to our crazy days. Over the course of the week we played several days at the hotel pools, which included a giant pirate ship with slides. I think the boys would say that swimming was the highlight of their week. Both of them could walk throughout most of the pool since it was only about 3' deep in most places. They also loved the "hot bath" (hottub) when things got too cool.


They enjoyed lazy afternoons on the balcony, looking off into the distance at a blimp and licking icicles (popcicles made with water--hehe).


We spent two days at Seaworld, which was fairly nostalgic for me since it was the highlight of my California roadtrip family vacation in 1987. Favorites were petting the manta rays, going through the shark tunnel and the dolphin and Shamu show. Though he's only three, Ashen is quite tall--tall enough to ride his first rollercoaster. Though I regretted taking him the moment we hit the first crest and I saw his terrified face, it was over in 30 seconds and he later declared that he "loved rollercoasters" and begged to go on one the next day at DisneyWorld. We were pretty awed by the size of this beautiful creature.


The adventure continued with a tour de Disney with a day at the Magic Kingdom and a day at the Animal Kingdom. We started off with Pirates of the Caribbean, which was very tame and the boys liked it. Then headed over to Thunder Mountain railroad where the boys and I waited to see Heidi and Mark pop out of the tunnel on "the train."



The highlight for the boys at DisneyWorld was the racetrack where they drove their own cars. We did it at least 3 times, maybe 4. Their faces say it all. Funny enough, this was my sister's favorite ride when she was a kid!
We also did a couple rounds at Buzz Lightyear, though my kids have never seen Toy Story (I think the only Disney movie they've watched is Finding Nemo, which came in very handy at the Animal Kingdom). We weren't quite sure how we were going to handle napping since the boys still take afternoon naps DAILY, and aren't normally keen on falling asleep in loud public places. But after walking from the distant parking lot to the tram, to the monorail to the park, we decided that our original idea of heading back to the hotel for naps would take most of the day. So, we winged it and Torin fell asleep both days without a problem, and Ashen fell asleep with irresistable bribes of ice cream--and slept through the entire Disney Parade which was LOUD and 10' from him. The bribes didn't work on the second day and he was crazy by the end of the day.


The Animal Kingdom had a few live shows, one being Finding Nemo, which the boys had watched several times during the trip (I brought two DVD's, that being one of them) and was really well done.


Highlights included a rafting ride in which we got soaked (notice the other two people in our raft are in ponchos).... . .An *African safari* (I have to say this lightly because I'm sure if you've never been on an African safari this might have felt like the real deal, but since I've been blessed with opportunities to go on several real safaris, this was like a ride through an open zoo). . .

And last but not least, meeting Mickey Mouse himself.


I don't really like writing these documentary(ish) posts, but I do so for the family record, and for our mamas and aunties who love them.