The Starretts Invaded Orlando

We had a great vacation to Orlando.  I thought I'd summarize each day's events and include cute quotes by Ian and Ruby.  I hope I can remember everything...

Day 1: WE ARRIVED IN ORLANDO
We had an early morning flight.  Meg was so sweet to take us to the airport very early.  Ian was really excited about going to the airport and riding in an airplane.  We made it through security after they thoroughly scanned each carseat, the stroller, and tested the milk in Ruby's sippie cup.  Geesh!  Ian and Ruby stood at the window at the airport screaming when each plan took off and Ruby kept saying, "More airplane!".  JetBlue was wonderful and was able to give Ruby and empty seat so she was able to ride in her carseat instead of my lap as planned.  Ian was great!  He had his headphones on and watched cartoons the whole flight.  Ruby didn't do as well.  She was sleepy and all the books and songs were not making her happy.  Unfortunately, she pulled a lot of her hair and Chris and I were getting frustrated with that.  She fell asleep as we were landing.  Although it was frustrating that she finally fell asleep while landing, it was nice to have her sleep through the majority of the wait for our rental minivan.  We loved the direct flight from Richmond.  Very quick!

We were on our way in our silver minivan around noon so we had the whole rest of the day to play.  When leaving the airport, Ruby spotted a pond and said "More wata (water)" and that became her phrase for the week.  Everywhere we went, she spotted "more wata".  At first she sounded like she was from Boston.  Then as the week went on, she sounded like she was from Japan.  There is a lot of "wata" around Orlando in form of lakes, ponds, waterfalls, creeks, puddles and sprinkers! 

We got to the resort and our room wasn't ready so while we waited, we had lunch by the pool and then changed into our bathing suits.  Ian was so excited to get on the pirate ship in the pool!  We had fun and then got into our room to get settled.  We then jumped in the minivan to go pick up Mom Mom from the airport.  Ruby spotted "more wata" going and coming.  Mom Mom had a good flight and we got back to the resort for her to get settled.  Then we went back to the pool and had dinner at poolside and enjoyed the Karoke night.  I think we heard one of Taylor Swift's songs at least 3 times.  Later, Mom Mom and I went to the grocery store to stock up for the week.  I'm glad we got that out of the way.

DAY 2:  DOWNTOWN DISNEY & MIKEY

We met my sorority sister, Vicky Mederos-Rodgers, and her son, Michael "Mikey", at Downtown Disney to eat at the TREX Cafe.  We went a little early and explored Legoland.  Ian enjoyed making a race car out of legos and racing it down a ramp.  We spent some time dealing with Ruby's sock that she had removed and thrown over the fence near the "wata".  Chris really wanted to jump the fence and climb down for it but obeyed the rules and waited for the slow staff people to try to help.  In the end, we gave up and said goodbye to the sock.  Vicky and Mikey showed up and we went to the TREX Cafe.  Luckily, they have a fossil digging area that the children enjoyed until it was time to be seated.  We enjoyed the restaurant.  It was really neat with all the dinosaurs.  Ian was a little hesitant with the moving dinosaurs but Ruby LOVED them.  I appreciated the signs telling me the name of the different types of dinosaurs.  It was great to meet Mikey and hang out with Vicky.  I had not seen her since 1998.  We left the cafe and went to ride the train.  Ian and Mikey rode together and Chris rode w/ Ruby.  They loved it.  Then we went to the merry-go-round.  All of the kids enjoyed it but Ruby seemed to really like riding her horse.  We then went to Ghiridelli for the yummiest ice cream.  Ruby ate the majority of my mint chocolate chip waffle cone w/ milk chocolate drizzled on top.  Geesh, I was struggling with sharing!   Then we all left Downtown Disney and Vicky and Mikey came with us to the resort.  Mikey and Ian enjoyed playing in the pool together.  Vicky and Mikey then went home to Melbourne, FL and Chris, Mom Mom, Ruby, Ian and I enjoyed the Polynesian show at the resort.  We had great fun dancing to the music and Chris and Ian learned how to dance the hula.

DAY 3: THE POOL AND THE BOARDWALK

Ian and Chris started the day with a round of putt-putt.  Then we went to a Disney outlet to look for souvenirs.  Mom Mom found some t-shirts and Ian found a Nabisco race car that Chris bought him.  Then we went back to the resort to wait for Vicky, Mikey, and Robin (Vicky's husband) to meet us at the resort.  They had so much fun, they came back again to play at the pool with us.  Then we all went to the Disney Boardwalk Resort to the ESPN Sports Bar.  It was the end of the Masters so we got to see Phil win it all!  Then we yanked the kids (including Chris) away from the arcade and said goodbye to Vicky, Mikey, and Robin.  Then Mom Mom, Chris, Ian, Ruby, and I walked around the pond at the Boardwalk.  The weather was beautiful.  The kids enjoyed chasing a few bunny rabbits and we took some nice photos.  We watched a magician perform and then had some yummy ice cream. 

DAY 4: RUBY'S EAR INFECTION & DOWNTOWN DISNEY

Chris and I were so fortunate that Mom Mom shared the bedroom with the children.  We had a vacation from being the first responders.  She dealt with Ian's falls out of the bed and Ruby's thumb-sucking.  But apparently Ruby was up every hour during the night.  She was putting her finger in her ear and saying "owwww".  So, Chris and I took her to the urgent care clinic and Mom Mom stayed with Ian.  We got to the clinic and she was buck wild!  She was running around the waiting room and acting like she felt great!  We kept thinking, this is a waste of time!  Ugh!  Finally, after about 1hr 30min wait, Ruby was seen by the doctor.  She had a bilateral ear infection and was prescribed Amoxicillan and we were on our way.  We went back to the resort.  We had planned to go to Magic Kingdom today but we didn't want to go for just 1/2 a day.  So, we decided to go to Downtown Disney again.  We went back to Legoland but this time we went to a race car store and it was awesome!  The kids had a blast!  They had all of these signs that said, "touch this" and "try this" so they encouraged the children to touch the cars and play with them.  It was refreshing.  Ian had a great time playing with the remote control cars.  Then we went and had a wonderful lunch at Fulton's Crab House.  It was really good!  We then walked around some and went back to the resort for my fun in the pool.  Ruby seemed to feel okay and slept better that night.  As we were driving back to the resort, we were taking an exit and the ramp went in a circle.  Ruby said "round and round and round and round" and twirled her finger in a circle.  That became the next cute phrase.  So everytime we took an exit, we all said "round and round and round".  Later that night, Mom Mom stayed w/ the kids and Chris and I got to go to the hot tub alone.  Thanks Mom Mom!

DAY 5:  MAGIC KINGDOM!!! 

We got up early and headed over to Disney.  There was a Dunkin' Donuts near our resort and the DD coffee became a morning staple (and a Boston Cream Donut :), so we had our morning coffee and donuts.  Magic Kingdom was amazing and overwhelming all at the same time!  Ian loved the tram and the monorail just getting into the park.  We went and rode rides and saw the shows.  We rode the train to the cartoon land and Ian and Chris went to drive the race cars.  Ruby, Mom Mom and I watched the tea cup ride and Ruby just explored around the area.  When we were leaving the race cars, Ruby said "Mommmmmmy" in her whiny voice.  I realized that she'd had a poop explosion in her diaper and it was all over her outfit (remember the Amoxicillan).  Oops, I didn't bring another outfit.  :(  None of us even thought about an extra outfit for her.  So, Mom Mom and I tried to get Ruby and her outfit cleaned off.  Mom Mom surprised another lady at the sinks when a little poop fell in to the sink when she was cleaning off the outfit.  They laughed about "never knowing what you'll see."  So, we were off to buy Ruby a new dress/outfit.  We found a little dress that was $35 that had Mickey Mouse all over it.  She loved saying "Mickey" so it seemed like a good choice.  It was too big for her but it covered her up for the rest of the day.  Ian rode a big boy roller coaster with Chris and me (Thunder Mountain, I think).  And Ian and I rode Splash Mountain and got very wet!  Mom Mom loved the Small World ride.  It was really cute!  We had a great time but we were exhausted!  Mom took us all to dinner at a steakhouse and we all enjoyed it!

DAY 6:  ANIMAL KINGDOM! 

We headed to Animal Kingdom for the day.  All of us were tired and the kids (and I) were a little cranky but that improved.  We got there and headed straight to the Lion King show.  That was a lot of fun and the music was stuck in our heads for the day!  Then we went to see the animals.  We loved the safari jeep tour.  It was really neat and the animals were beautiful!  We went to the Nemo show and Ruby got a good nap.  Then we rode rides in Dino Land.    But everyone eventually had a great time!  Ian got his face painted like a tiger and he was hilarious!  He loved having a tiger face and he kept calling himself "brother tiger".   We brought an extra outfit but Ruby didn't need it. 

DAY 7: VISIT WITH FAMILY:

Aunt Dot, Cousin Doreen, and her son, Anthony, visited for the day.  They made a 3 hour trip to visit us in Orlando.  Aunt Dot is Mom Mom's sister and Doreen is Aunt Dot's daughter.  We had a great time together!  The kids enjoyed the pool.  We had a nice lunch with some yummy cocktails and got to catch up.  It was the first time I'd met Doreen and Anthony.  It was great to meet them and it was wonderful to see Aunt Dot again.  Aunt Dot really enjoyed Miss Ruby and all of her 22-month-old words/behaviors.  After they left, Mom Mom graciously agreed to take care of the kids and Chris and I went out on a date!  We went to a Japanese restaurant and had a nice meal.  We then went to Universal Studios to City Walk.  We went to a dance club that was having 80's Night.  We had a great time listening to the music and watching people.  We played Pac-Man and UNO in one of the backrooms.  It was fun for a while but then we decided to just walk around.  It was fun and great to be alone. 

DAY 8:  DEPARTURE  DAY :(
Mom Mom had an early afternoon flight and we had a 6pm flight.  We packed up and then played some putt-putt.  We then took Mom Mom to the airport and said our goodbyes.  Then we headed off to Downtown Disney, again, to hang out until it was time to drive back to the airport.  The kids had another train ride and we enjoyed Ghiradelli ice cream, again.  It was a good day but we were tired and so we headed on to the airport to return our rental minivan and go to the gate.  As usual, things didn't go well at security but we made it through.  JetBlue didn't have an extra seat for Ruby so she sat on my lap and actually did pretty well.  She even napped for a little while.  Unfortunately, a college aged boy guy sat next to us and I was worried about Ruby bugging him.  He ended up being very patient and kind about Ruby's wiggles, kicks, and occasional cries.  And then Meg came to pick us up a the airport.  We were exhausted and happy to be home. 

We hope to return to Orlando in the next couple of years.  I'm sure that it will be a totally different experience with older kids.  We LOVED our resort and the pirate swimming pool.  That was definitely a hit!