Orlando 2011

Last week we took our annual trip to Orlando for vacation. This year Katherine was significantly more aware of the things around her and of what we were doing. In fact, a phrase of the week was “what are we going to do next?!”

The week before was a bustle of activity led primarily by S. I was away on a business trip through Wednesday so he was tasked to pack all of the non-clothing related items. That entails 3 rubbermaids full of “stuff” ranging from kitchen things to sun-protection to blankets for the sofa for TV time. He’s a rockstar and had it all done by the time I got home on Wednesday so the only thing I had to do was pack the clothes for us. ;)

We left on Friday and as we’ve done with our last couple of drives we stopped half way. We usually do this because we don’t leave until later in the day and that gives us a night of rest so that the next day we don’t arrive, to start the trip off, exhausted from the drive. We stay at a hotel just off of I95 and this time we arrived in time for Daddy to have some cocktails. They were free. And he’d driven the whole 5 hours so he was ready for a beverage… or two… or three or… you get the point. We decided to walk to dinner. Needless to say I had two individuals to watch that they didn’t wander into the middle of the street. ;)

Saturday we arrived at the resort just in time for check-in. We were on track for arriving a little early but then in typical FL fashion the last 15 miles of the trip took us well over an hour to get through. A little dinner (thanks to Yelp for the recommendation) and some grocery shopping concluded the night for us.

Sunday it was miserable raining. Oh, did I forget to mention that Saturday it was that way too? We were drenched after unloading the car. Quite a scene we made too. K yelling “don’t leave me!!!” as S and I are 10 feet away at the car to getting the next suitcase, Rubbermaid, etc. in an effort to get everything under the shelter so that we could take it up the elevator. Scene. Quite a scene.

Sunday we had plans to go to Sea World for their Halloween event but given the rain we’d decided that was going to be a no-go so we hung out in the room till around lunch time and then decided maybe we’d go to the mall. As we walked outside the sun broke through… IDEA: Go get the Sea World passes and seeeee if we can go trick or treating… oh yeah, and get K’s costume too. I did… we did… we went. It turned out to be a lot of fun. They’d moved the festivities into a ballroom and called it Penelope’s Party, complete with trick or treating, music, hula hooping, candy apple making and tons of other fun things. The candy apple making was a treat for the whole family. Oooeeey gooooey caramel… slurp. I’m not sure K got much past the container full of “decorations” (AKA: licorice, marshmallows, m&ms, sprinkles, etc). After we finished at the party I looked at K’s trick or treat bag and noticed that it seemed to have less than the other kids bags… Little did I know we had a Halloween goblin in the family sneaking candy on the side. Two in fact!!! Silly me!! We managed to sneak in the Shamu show and Sesame Street show before the park closed at 6.

Monday we did go shopping at the mall. There is an M&M World and they had a Build-a-Bear that we visited. KK had a blast at both… this is one instance where “what are we going to do next” was heard repeatedly.

Tuesday we made a “pool day”. We’d visited the kiddie pirate ship pool on Monday after we’d gotten back from shopping and the water was frigid… at best! K’s lips were purple within about 5 minutes but she was swearing (through teeth chattering) that she was having a GREAT time. Mmmm. I think not. So, Tuesday we went to one of the other pools that got a little more sunlight than the dear old pirate ship did. Muuuuch better. That afternoon Tootsie & Pop drove over to meet us for a couple of days of fun. We hung out at the pool for the rest of the day and headed out to dinner at one of our favorite tapas restaurants. Sangria & tapas… need I say more? K out ate me with hummus and half a pizza. When she saw that there was only one slice of pizza left she inhaled it because she wanted to finish her slice before I did so she could have the last one… Smart kid. ;)

Wednesday we went to Downtown Disney for the day. KK had picked out a Rapunzel dress that she wanted to wear, before we went on the trip. I’d gotten it and put it away waiting for her to wear it that day. She looked quite the princess, complete with the little freckles on her nose, just like Rapunzel. She loooved it. They do a dress-up thing in Downtown Disney where the little girls get their hair, makeup and get dressed up like the princess of their choice… One day that will be our girl, but for now she’s happy with us dressing her up! ;) One of the highlights of vacation included a trip to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain for sundaes. S asked, foolishly, if the three of us could share one sundae. I’m lucky I got a spoon in there for the shoveling KK was doing. Glad he got his own else he’d have been very unfortunate given his ladies were in quite the deadlock over getting the next scoop.



Thursday we went back to Sea World for some more shamu. The show isn’t the same now that the trainers can’t go into the water. As with anything involving animals it’s all about what they want to do. Sunday, they were doing everything just the way it seemed like they were supposed to. Thursday…. Not as much so. All in all though still a good show. LOTS of splashing to make up for the lack of trainers in the water. The Dolphin show is still great and KK loved it. She told me after the show she “is going to be the pink girl when I grow up!”. The “pink girl” is the “little girl” in the show that plays with the dolphins throughout. She also loved the “yellow guy” and the “black guy” – two colors of the “birds” in the show. They were guys dressed in different color wet suits. The “yellow guy” gave her high fives so she immediately hearted him. Thursday night we had some pizza for dinner and fondue for dessert to celebrate Poppy’s up-coming birthday. K clearly knew something better was coming along after pizza because she saved room for the strawberries, pound cake, bananas and other dipping goodies! Poppy and Tootsie said goodbye and headed back home after dessert.

pink girl:


Friday we took K to Aquatic@ for the day. S thought it would be a 3 hour or so event… hehehehe. Not so much so. We were there from about 11 until 4:30. K had a BLAST. She’s SUCH a dare devil!! I was totally surprised by how much she loved the big slides. The faster the better. There was one that required her to be with a grown up and between S and I we must have taken her on it at least 20 times. It was fast for me… she thought it was BLISS!!! She’d yell WATERRRRRRRRRRRRRR (as we were sliding down) and as soon as we hit the water she’d yell FALLLLLL!!!!!! She made us laugh all day.



Saturday was the epic trip home. It took less time than anticipated, which was nice. We ended up getting home by 6pm and that left a good part of the night to unpack and settle back in.

Another great week together and much needed break for us all. As you might have seen on FB I started a new job mid-September and I’ve been traveling the last few weeks. This is my first week home since September 24th. The hope is that the travel will drop off in the next couple of weeks and we can get back to the “normal” routine. S is looking forward to home cooked meals each night (as I work from home) and me waiting for him at the door with a beverage in hand… He’s cute. And dreaming. ;) But I’ll let him have his dream – for now.

Much love to all… Happy Fall!! xo

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