Friday, July 29, 2011

Florida

Just arrived at the resort...the boys are chillin'


Kitchen/Living area


Our room...if you look closely you'll see Delon relaxing in the corner...already


Emilee's and Gracie's room


We went straight to eat when we got there...we were starving!


This restaurant was just downstairs


Gracie loves to sit by mom


Mr. Cool...apparently


Out on the balcony, waiting to go down to the pool


We had a great view from the balcony


At the pool


Couldn't get them out of the water!





Jakey....


Nice, Riley


Oh, the lines!


Another line...


The Hulk


Dr. Suess ride


While he was still happy...





Waiting in line, again


Emilee liked taking pictures...ALL the time


Water ride


Little did we know...


we'd get soaked...literally.


My sentiments EXACTLY :)


Jake was always happy


Harry Potter


The detail in these buildings and this attraction was incredible!


After the roller coaster ride


So cool, we saw Eddie Murphy with his daughters here too :)


Just arrived...already sweating to death.


Pirates of the Caribbean ...their favorite.


Splash Mountain line. Luckily dad got suckers for everyone.


Waiting...


Jake didn't mind anything, he was sooo happy!


You can tell how Emilee felt about standing in line. Thunder Mountain was the worst.


There were tons of tour groups there from South America this day...it was crazy!


When you wish upon a star...ah, who am I kidding?


Buzz Lightyear


Tree of Life


Animal Kingdom


Feeling a little worn out


Giraffes


One of the coolest trees I've seen. Looks like it's upside down...the tree stores extra water like a camel, that's why it's so large.


Family of elephants


Cooling off


Beauty and the Beast


The kids loved this show


Chip, the costumes were pretty amazing


The Beast and Belle...


Happily Ever After


Star Tours


Gracie


Waiting for the stunt show


This was the best show I've ever gone to


My favorite movies are the ones with great car chase scenes...


This was definitely worth sitting in the hot sun


I'm sure he was extra hot...


So cool to find out all the tricks they use to do these chase scenes, the drivers were incredible


Little Mermaid


Indiana Jones


Don't know if you can see, but while I waited with a few of the kids while Delon and Emilee did Tower of Terror, it was POURING!! Within two minutes there were miniature rivers everywhere...no one stayed dry.


Drying out after the downpour


Our last morning before we leave for the airport


This is where we stayed...Parc Soleil


We got a phone call from Hilton early this year, and they offered a 2 bedroom suite to us at their new resort in Orlando FL...3 nights for the price of less then one.We added an extra night and booked it. We stay at the hilton a lot, so we decided to go since we were planning on doing Disneyworld anyway. The resort was amazing, I almost think the kids enjoyed being there more than walking around the parks! The weather, of course, has no mercy. We looked soaked most of the time, so decided to do mostly water rides anyway. The humidity there is ridiculous this time of year. But the people were very friendly, and Orlando was beautiful.

We spent our first day at Universal, we HAD to do Harry Potter...it was awesome! It's insane the money they spend on these attractions! Gracie and Jake's favorite ride was the roller coaster at the Harry Potter attraction. They are finally tall enough to go on all the rides, so they did...every single one. Jake had no fear. The best part is watching how much fun all the kids were having.

The following two days we spent at Disneyworld. Our favorite park there was Hollywood Studios. It's probably where we spent most of our time. The second day at Disney, there were probably two or three times where it just poured rain for about 20-30 min straight. It was a great way to cool down, but it was not fun to slosh around in wet clothes all day. We of course had a few melt downs and I occasionally thought..."why did we do this again?" But after it's all said and done, these are some of those times where we make our best memories. I think the kids realize too, you don't always have to be far from home to enjoy each other's company :)

I'm very grateful we had this experience and I think the kids really enjoyed being together....who'da thought?