Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 2 | Airplane and Boardwalk

 Saturday morning we got up early so we could .... go swimming again!!  The kids loved the pool so much that Mark promised them that we would go in the morning before we left the hotel.  We swam for about 45 minutes - who ever thought I'd enjoy a hotel pool from 7-745am?  Then we packed up everything (but Mark's toothbrush!!) and took the hotel shuttle to the airport.

We made it in plenty of time and our flight was on schedule -- we just missed the snow storms that were coming the next few days.  We made it through security with just a little hiccup -- no juiceboxes allowed!  I had chatted ahead of time to the airline asking if we could have a juicebox for each boy on the flight and they said yes, but the security guys didn't agree.  They said the kids had to be toddlers and neither child was considered a toddler - oh well.  (funny thing is we saw a little boy who was at least 3 1/2 fly in with a BOTTLE full of milk - maybe I should have gotten the bottles out and filled them up! :)
The boys were so excited to see the airplanes land.  We waited long enough to see one land, unload and take off again!  Isaiah really wanted it to be our plane since it was blue.
We were a bit worried about our seating arrangements since I opted to NOT pay for our seats (it was like $25/per person), but thankfully after all those who did pay for their seating assignments were borded they let the families with small children on.  We were able to sit 2 in one row and 2 right behind them.  Perfect!  Levi insisted on buckiling his own seat!
We had a direct flight from Des Moines to Orlando.  We were glad it was a direct flight, but it got awfully long!  The man sitting in front of Levi was less than kid friendly so we also had to try hard not to bother him.  Levi was playing cars on the tray and the man DEMANDED that we shut the tray and not get it out again.  So we switched seats and let the boys play in our back row while we watched them from the front.  Notice Levi's rosie cheeks!  He was getting over a cold. 
We landed safely in Orlando right on time.  Mark's mom, Grandma Michele, was there to great us!  We quickly got our luggage with no problems and loaded Grandma's car full and were off!


We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to get a few snacks and diapers (yes, diapers - I decided to hold off on the potty training so we didn't have to take a newly potty trained boy to Disney) for our trip.  We were all too packed in to get out so the boys and I waited in the car.  Luckily Levi fell asleep and got a little nap in! And then we made it to our hotel!
We stayed at the Shades of Green resort on Disney property right next to the Magic Kingdom.  This resort is for military personnel only.  It is considered a deluxe resort on Disney property and it was beautiful!  Our room was on the ground level and the boys were so excited to run and play in the grass!
The resort used to be Disney's Golf resort so it is surrounded by beautiful golf courses.  Here was the view from our room.
And here is a view of our hotel.  Our room was the one with the sliding door open.  Room number 1136.
After getting everything in our room we went to the hotel buffet for dinner and then off to Disney's Boardwalk.  Here is Mark and Levi in the grand lobby of the hotel.  Isn't it beautiful?
They had a little TV set up playing Disney movies with huge bears for the kids to lay on.  Isaiah had to check it out!  One night (I can't remember if it was this one - we sat here for about 2 minutes this night and about 5 minutes another) they were playing Cinderella - and guess who wanted to sit and watch it...Isaiah!  Have I shared with you on here that Isaiah has absolutely refused to watch this movie or read this book? :)
Both Shades of Green and Disney have all kinds of buses for transportation - that way you don't have to figure out how to drive everywhere - and it avoids all kinds of traffic.  We had a short wait at the bus stop.
We made it on the bus!  We were all excited! 
The bus took us to Hollywood Studios and then we took a ferry boat to the boardwalk. 
 A few minutes on the boat and we saw it.  Isn't it so pretty?  All the lights are the boardwalk and you can see the Epcot ball in the back.
The Boardwalk is exactly that - a boardwalk on the water with all kinds of shops and entertainment.  We stopped for two different shows.  Both Isaiah and Levi were amazed.  You'll see Isaiah up in front in the picture below.
The second show we found Levi went running straight up to the entertainer.  It caught him off guard and the entire audience laughed.  Levi continued to try to get up close the the act, but we never let him get all the way there.
We had to stop for ice cream - Mark picked the most delicious shake I have ever tasted - it was a cookies 'n cream.  The boys each picked a vanilla cone and Grandma Michele got a sundae.   I was too full (but ended up eating at least 1/3 of Mark's!). 
When it was time to go home, we had no idea how to get there.  It ended up being crazy mess.  There are no direct buses from the Boardwalk to our resort or the Disney resort near Shades of Green.  We were all the way through the boardwalk so it would have been a huge walk back to the ferry and we weren't sure if it was still running since Hollywood Studios was now closed.  So we ended up taking a bus to Downtown Disney and then were going to catch the bus back to our hotel.  Isaiah was starting to seem really tired which was expected.  But then it came...he PUKED all over himself, his bus seat, Grandma Michele and me.  We weren't really sure what to do as we had about 3 babywipes.  We got it somewhat cleaned up and then told the bus driver when we stopped.  He acted like he didn't know what to do and spread something over it (which Isaiah asked, "why is he putting birdseed all over my puke?" )

We waited for about 10 minutes for our bus to come and Grandma couldn't take it anymore and paid a cab to drive us back to our hotel (thanks Grandma!!!!)
Isaiah said he was going to puke again so I held him up vertically so he could puke on the ground and not himself or the stroller.  He ended up puking all over the front entry to the hotel.  We were so tired and frazzled at this point that we just ran off to our room -- (sorry hotel people who had to deal with this mess!!)  He ended up puking several more times in the night and went through 3 sets of sheets!
A few hours after Isaiah got sick, I got sick.  I was puking too.  yuck.  Then Levi got up and was trying to puke but just ended up spitting several times.  poor baby.  Mark was an amazing dad throughout the whole night and held and cleaned up after both boys -- thank you honey!
So we had a rough first night - I think we all ended up with about 3 hours of sleep.  Thankfully Mark and Michele both made it through healthy! 

but don't worry, we have better news to share for the rest of the trip.

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