Orlando or Bust!

We spent all of last week in Orlando, Florida on vacation. We drove down on Sunday and Hayden got a little car sick right before we got to Leesburg to our good friends' house. Once we got there, he livened right up and got down to playing with Bradford (his playmate from Birmingham who has moved to Florida).

On Monday, we spent the day at Magic Kingdom. When I say the day, I mean 12 hours. It was long and we were tired, but we didn't have the first meltdown! Both boys had a great time and we got to ride everything with no wait!!! We even rode several things twice. We met Mickey and Minnie, and Buzz Lightyear (which was probably the highlight). Hayden didn't have a nap, so he fell asleep during the fireworks that night.

On Tuesday, we just hung out around Leesburg to have a day of rest. We grilled steaks and let the boys have good naps and play outside.

On Wednesday, just the 3 of us went to SeaWorld. Hayden must have still been tired from Monday b/c he did not enjoy it that much. The poor child fell asleep in my lap during Shamu's show. We were on the 3rd row, so he pretty well jumped out of his skin when we were splashed. By then it had started raining hard, and I didn't cover our dry clothes in the wagon that we had borrowed to use, so they were wet too. At that point, we left b/c all of the kiddie rides were closed anyway and we were just done. Maybe we will try it again in several years when Hayden can change gears a little better.

On Thursday, we headed into Orlando to the McDonald's with the World's Largest Playplace. It had a "bistro" in it that was overpriced for what it was (except for the chocolate cake, so yummy!), so next time we will be just getting regular McDonald's food. The arcade was neat and they had a lot of old Happy Meal toys displayed. The playplace itself was huge and had a 60 foot slide. We had a lot of fun and then headed over to Dave's sister's house where we were staying for the rest of the week.

On Friday, we drove to Cocoa Beach with my sister-in-law (Gina) and her husband (Heath). We were out there a couple of hours. Dave took Hayden in the ocean quite a bit and I got in there too. It was pretty hot down in Florida and apparently we are sunscreen stupid b/c Dave and I burned our shoulders and backs. Hayden luckily had on a swim shirt, so only his cheeks and nose got a little burned. We don't know what happened b/c we did have on SPF 30. Whatever.

On Saturday, we met up with our friends from Leesburg again, at Universal Studios. We started out the day in Universal Studios and ended it out in Islands of Adventure. We rode quite a bit and had fun, but will probably pass on this next time unless Hayden is tall enough to meet all of the height requirements. It's just disappointing for little kids b/c there is not that much for them to do. I think he rode 3 or 4 rides all day. Disney is much better for young children in my opinion. Anyways, we still enjoyed it and were glad to experience it for the first time together.

On Sunday we headed back to Georgia, but not before I gave Hayden some Dramamin first. No more puking in the car for us on this trip! For a last minute vacation, we really had a great time. We had comp tickets for Disney and SeaWorld, and staying with friends and family really cut down on our spending. We never could have done it without them! We definitely plan on doing it again in the future!

Special thanks to the Van Dyken's and the Crocker's for letting us crash at their homes so we didn't have to pay for hotels!!!