Vacation Post #6: At Grandpa's House

After leaving Disney World, we drove to my dad’s house in Venice, FL. Audrey has never spent more than a few hours with my Dad and his wife Chris, so it has been nice to watch her interact with them and get to know them better.

It is pretty fun to have a “Gam-paw” who can make things out of balloons. So far, Audrey has a balloon hat, a balloon penguin, a balloon elephant and a balloon ball (which is a balloon inside of a balloon). And I’m sure she will end up with more balloons before we leave next week!

Grandpa’s house also has fun gadgets, which is more exciting for Daniel than Audrey. Here they are checking out Grandpa’s 3D TV!

Other fun “Grandpa” things that Audrey enjoys: he can take off his thumb and he makes funny noises. I have always called his noises “siren” noises. My sister calls them “gazooka” noises. I don’t know how to describe it, and none of us can do it. But Audrey LOVES it. She tries to imitate, and it is just hilarious. I'm going to try to videotape it before we leave.

Vacation Post #5: Disney World!!

I was nervous about our day at Disney World. We had been talking about it for SO long. What if Audrey didn't want to wait in lines or ride any rides? What if she had major meltdowns/tantrums? She is a two year old, which means she is unpredictable and often emotionally unstable! =) I really wanted the day to live up to all the excitement that we have been building for the last few weeks, and I wanted us all to have FUN!

The weather could not have been more perfect for our day at Disney. It was sunny with a high around 75...not too hot, not too cold...just perfect!

As soon as we got there, we headed straight for the Dumbo ride. It was the only ride that Audrey really knew about it, so we wanted to make sure that she got to ride it before the lines were TOO long. Daniel and Audrey still had to wait in line for about 40 minutes, which is a long wait for a two year old to ride a very short ride. But she did a good job in line, and she seemed to like the ride...so ride #1 was a success!While in line for Dumbo, she saw the carousel and wanted to do that next. "One elephant, then one horsey" she kept saying. So I took her over to the carousel. On the way there, she asked what turned out to be her favorite question of the day, "Will this be fun, Mommy? This be fun?" Of course, the answer was always--"Yes! This will be lots of fun!"

After the carousel, we went to It's a Small World...which may have been Audrey's favorite ride. She liked riding a boat and looking around at everything. She kept saying, "Wow! Look at that!" (another favorite expression on this trip).

We started walking to lunch after It's a Small World, and Audrey crashed in her stroller. She slept all the way through lunch, probably about an hour. So we got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had her eat it while we waited in line for our next ride. That was a marvelous idea, because it gave her something to do during our 45 minute wait!

We were in line for Peter Pan's flight, which was probably Audrey's least favorite ride. It was dark and a little scary for her I think. And it was super short, which made it lame for us adults too.

After Peter Pan, it was about time for the parade...a huge hit with Audrey. She got to see every Disney character that she knows, and a lot that she doesn't know. She wanted to know who everyone was, and she got really excited when they came up to her to pat her head or give her a high five!

After the parade, we headed to Tomorrowland where we stopped for some ice cream. Then we rode on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I thought Audrey was going to be kind of scared during that one, as it seemed a little intense in parts, but she acted as if she liked the whole ride. We wanted to ride the People Mover, but it was not working.

We stopped for a few pictures in front of the castle. I don't remember telling Audrey much about the castle, but we must have described it to her. Every time we saw it, she would say, "Wella's (cinderella) castle. Princess go there."

Next up was a train ride around the park.

Then we saw Pluto and posed for a few pictures.

After that, we headed to the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland.
After the Jungle Cruise, Audrey finally started to get the idea that after going on one ride, we would then go on another ride. She kept saying, "New ride. Do it again!" We were planning to just walk past the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride because it looked just the same as the Dumbo ride. But Audrey saw it and was very insistent that she "Ride that one!" So she and Daniel took a little ride on a Magic Carpet.

Then we went to the Country Bear Jamboree. I thought it was kind of boring, but Audrey liked it and she clapped along with the beat (sort of ) when everyone else started clapping.

By this point it was about 6:00 and we were all getting very tired. Except for Audrey who was as excited and hyper as can be. "More rides! Do it again!" she kept saying. So we took her for one last ride on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Then it was time for dinner, followed by a little shopping. Grandpa bought Audrey a stuffed Pluto and Donald to add to her collection (she already has two Minnies, but she calls one of them Mickey). While we were shopping, the fireworks started, but Audrey was not a fan of the fireworks. They are "TOO loud" according to Audrey. We left the park just at the end of the fireworks show, and we managed to beat most of the crowd.

In summary, Disney World was a ton of fun! Audrey behaved so well, probably because we were so busy she didn't have time to misbehave! This was such the perfect age to take her, because everything is so exciting to her. And it helps that she is completely obsessed with all the Mickey Mouse characters. It was a very enjoyable day. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we're thinking about going back to Orlando a day early next week to go to another park!

Vacation Post #4: Character Breakfast

All Audrey wanted to do in Florida was see Mickey Mouse. And Goofy. And Donald. And every other character that she knows! I figured one way that we would be guaranteed to see at least a few of those characters was to go to a character meal. I tried two months in advance to get a reservation at Chef Mickey's, but I didn't have any luck. So I made a reservation for breakfast at the Cape May Cafe instead...where Goofy, Donald and Minnie were scheduled to appear.

The Cape May Cafe was a great way to start our Disney day. They had a big buffet with lots of options for both kids and adults (including Mickey Mouse waffles). And of course, the highlight for Audrey was seeing all the characters! They made sure that all three characters stopped by every table for every person that was there. It was impressive.

Minnie stopped by our table first. All of the characters were wearing beach clothes, so Minnie wasn't wearing her traditional polka dot dress and bow. Audrey thought this was actually Mickey Mouse...so we just keep letting her think that!

Next up was Donald Duck...he got right down on Audrey's level, making for the best photo opp of the day!
Goofy was the last one to appear. And I think Goofy is Audrey's favorite. She was very concerned that he was not wearing his hat (in the cartoon he usually wears a hat). Goofy sat down at the table with her. He picked up her fork, put a grape on it, flew it around like an airplane and fed it to her. This might possibly have been the highlight of Audrey's whole trip. She keeps talking about Goofy and the grape!
She gave Goofy a big kiss on his nose. This picture cracks us up...arms thrown back, head tilted up, eyes closed...she was all about this kiss!

Vacation Post #3: Downtown Disney

On Monday night we met my aunt, uncle and cousins at Downtown Disney for dinner. We don't see them very often at all, so it was nice to catch up.

I think Audrey would have been perfectly content to spend her whole time in Florida at Downtown Disney. There were pictures/statues of Disney characters everywhere! And she spotted all of them. This is a picture with Audrey and my cousin Rachel outside the Disney store...which was like paradise for Audrey. She just ran around the whole store, pointing to every shirt and stuffed animal saying, "Wow! Look at that!"Audrey has never seen Toy Story, but she still loves to see all the characters...especially Buzz and Woody.
Audrey really loved all the Mickey characters, but she also really loved the Rainforest Cafe. We didn't eat there, just looked around at all the animals in and around the cafe. Audrey was in awe of all of them...especially this giraffe that Uncle Todd helped her to reach up and touch.

Vacation Post #2: The Hotel

We were only spending one night in a hotel on this trip, so I wanted it to be a nice one! But I didn’t want to pay much money for it. My goal was to find a nice room in Orlando for $50. I searched Hotwire and Priceline, but I was nervous that I was going to end up with something junky. And then I tried Travelocity's Top Secret Hotel Deal, where I found a 4 star hotel for just $50.

I spent $57.38 after tax, and we got a room at the Rosen Shingle Creek. This was by far the best hotel deal that I have ever found. According to the hotel’s website, rooms here are generally $300 per night! It is a HUGE place, and everything is so nice.

When we got to the hotel, we asked if we could get a crib in the room for Audrey. Our reserved room had two queen beds, but she’s never slept in such a big bed before, and I thought a crib would be a safer bet for a good night’s sleep. The nice lady who checked us in said that if we wanted a crib, she could upgrade us to a suite, so that we would have more room…at no additional charge! So we paid only $50, and we ended up with a really nice suite-style room.

This was the dining area in our room. The bed actually pulled out from the wood paneled wall (so it wasn't like we had our own private bedroom). But still, it was a HUGE room.

This was the living room area of the room.

And this was the kitchen. We put Audrey's crib back behind the counter, so it was like she had her own little room.To give you an idea of how big the room was, this was posted in our room. Now, I don't think you could fit 53 people in there to sleep. But I suppose if we wanted to have a big party, we could have invited 50 people to join us!

The worst thing about this hotel was that we didn't have a lot of time to enjoy it. We only spent one night there, and we were out for most of the night with my aunt, uncle and cousins. But in the short amount of time we had there, Audrey and Daddy got to go for a quick swim in one of the hotel's four heated swimming pools!

Vacation Post #1: The Airplane Ride

OK, we're only on Day 3 of our vacation and already I have so many pictures and stories to tell. And I really enjoy documenting every little thing that we did, not because I think you all want to read about it, but just because I enjoy it! Rather than doing a daily post, I'm going to break my posts down by category for a few days, so I won't end up with ridiculously long posts that completely bore you to death.

For fun, let’s start with a picture of Audrey’s very first airplane ride, almost two years ago, when she was just four months old. We were very worried back then about taking a baby on the airplane (what if she screams the whole time and everyone hates us?!), but she did great on both of those flights.

Two years later, it was quite a bit different to travel with Audrey through the airport and on the plane...but still a pleasant experience. The whole airport experience/airplane ride went very smoothly.

Here are a few pictures at the airport before we left. I really wanted a picture of her sitting by herself in a chair, but she did not want to sit still. I figured we'd better let her run around as much as possible before we got on the plane, so she was jumping and dancing all over the waiting area. And she also really liked the moving walkways that she could "ride".

Audrey liked going down the big ramp to get on the airplane, and then walking through the airplane to find her own seat. And since we were in the 2^nd to the last row, she got to walk through pretty much the whole plane! On the plane, she sat in her own seat for pretty much the whole time. It helped that we had 1) snacks and 2) a portable DVD player with a brand new Mickey Mouse DVD. That kept her pretty happy!

Poor little girl…our flight was right during her naptime and she was SO sleepy. She kept trying to lay her head down and get comfortable, but she just couldn’t quite fall asleep. Until about 5 minutes before we landed, when she completely crashed! Our flight was about 25 minutes early, so we had to sit on the runway for a while. And then we were on the back of the plane, so we had to sit a little longer before we could get off. So she ended up squeezing in about a 30 minute nap!

Once off the plane, Audrey was still in a bit of a sleepy/grumpy daze. Until she spotted a little girl carrying Pluto through the airport. And then she perked right up and got so excited. And then she saw Mickey Mouse on another shirt. And then a Minnie Mouse backpack. And then we walked past a store full of Mickey merchandise. And then we saw a Mickey picture on a bus. And then another bus with Mickey on it! You get the idea…the Orlando airport was full of Mickey characters, and I think Audrey spotted every single one as we made our way out.

In the airport, she kept pointing to things and asking, “Is that Florida? Is this Florida?” We had to keep explaining to her that Florida was really big, and that all of this was Florida! We’ve been talking about Florida for so long, I kind of wonder what she thought it would be like. =)

February 13

No picture today. We are in Indianapolis. Tomorrow we fly to Florida. Tuesday we are going to Disney World. I don't think we will have internet access until we get to my dad's house on Wednesday. But I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to post then!!!