A Second Chance At Summer.

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted. Most of you probably thought I had started a semi-hibernation, hunkering down with the girls and my new baby.
Wrong.
In fact, we went from this (a few days after Cohen was born):


To this (11 days after Cohen was born):


Hello, Orlando!
Nick's Grandpa Bob and Oma Helga had been planning a family get-together for Bob's 80th birthday for over a year now. We had the trip booked before I was even pregnant with Cohen. While I was pregnant I changed my mind every-other day, about whether I was going on this trip.
In the end, I decided that if Cohen and I were both healthy; we'd go. My main drive behind my desire to go was because I was very excited to meet Nick's Aunt. Her name is Kristin (pronounced: Kristine), and she is a year older than I am. We bonded via email correspondence, and I was DYING to meet her in person!
Boy! Was I glad that I made the trip, and was able to hang out with Kris for a week. She is the most charming world-traveller you will ever meet. Also, she lives in New Zealand with her witty husband, Shane; and cute daughter, Sara. So, it isn't like I'd have a chance to meet up with her again in the near future.

I did come down with world's nastiest cold three days after I had Cohen. My temperature was 102 degrees; and my blood pressure was through the roof. But the Doctor gave me some awesome drugs, and I felt better.

Day 1: We had to take our truck to the airport. My little brother dropped us off and picked us up. The truck was the only vehicle that had enough seatbelts for everyone, and enough cargo space for all of our luggage. Nick joked that "we needed to speak with a drawl once we got to the airport, since our vehicle was pretty red neck".
The flight was uneventful-ish. We paid extra to get direct flights, to and from, Orlando; and to get Elsa her own seat on the plane. It was well worth the cost.

Nick's Grandparents spared no expense in treating us to a great Disneyworld experience. For the first 3 nights of our trip they put all of us up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We were able to see all sorts of different safari animals from out balcony. It was unreal!


Day 2: Nick and the girls started the day off with a Safari experience (arranged by Helga). I joined up with everyone later in the morning at the Animal Kingdom park.

Introducing: Sara! My adorable (in my mind, at least) niece. She and Reagan had a great time, all week. Sara also was amazing with Elsa.
Here they are at the Animal Kingdom Park.


Cohen slept. A lot.


We did a late-morning Character breakfast.


We were on the Disney dining plan. Our first evening in the Disneyworld resort we ate at Sanaa. The second night we ate at Boma. Everywhere we ate, while on the plan had decent food. But the dining plan was enough to make even the most organized person crazy! I put countless hours in to planning an itinerary for this trip (another reason I wanted to go. To see my hard work pay off :) and I never did master the dining plan. But I don't think there is an individual on the planet that has the Disney dining plan down-pat. Even the Disney employees didn't know how the dining plan really worked. But I can't complain. Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, right?

Day 3: We all met at the Whispering Canyon Cafe, in the Wilderness Lodge; and had a celebratory lunch, in honor of Grandpa Bob's 80th Birthday.
I forgot to take my camera to this event. So yes, Kris, I used the ones you put on Facebook.


After lunch I took the kids back to the hotel and Nick went off with his brothers to ride "grown-up" rides for a few hours. We met up with him at Epcot after the children had finished their naps. We had dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant. It was pretty cool to eat dinner in an aquarium.
Nick and I took Elsa, and Cohen back to the hotel after dinner. Reagan stayed with Kay to see the fireworks. By the time she rejoined us she was exhausted. She climbed in to the top bunk (did I mention that our room had bunk beds? :) with her sippy cup, and my iPhone (I think she was intending to play with it?) and she face-planted in to her pillow, falling asleep instantaneously.


Day 4: We said goodbye to Grandpa Bob and Oma Helga. Words cannot express how grateful we were for their kindness.

We checked out of the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and checked in to our new "digs" at a Marriott Time-Share resort. Our room was amazing. We had a 2 bedroom villa. Complete with full-kitchen and a washer and dryer. It was nice.

The picture doesn't really do it justice.
On this day Cohen and I chilled in our Villa. I unpacked/organized/did laundry. And my little boy slept.
Nick took the girls to the Magic Kingdom.


Day 5: The best day of weather we had. Not that any of the other days were that shabby. I think the lowest temperature we saw was 78 degrees. And we never had any rain. So, on this day of 85+ degrees, we all decided to head to the beach. We went to Lori Wilson Park, at Cocoa Beach. It was like a little piece of heaven.

Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect location. My most favorite day of the trip.
We ate lunch on the beach, and stayed until dusk.

Day 5: We went to Seaworld with Kris, Shane, and Sara. They were so gracious about helping us out with our kids. For an outside observer it would be impossible to tell that the O'Driscoll family were new acquaintances to us. We all fit together seamlessly. To our kids they were "Auntie Kris, Uncle Shane, and Cousin Sara". It was great!


I think this was Elsa's favorite day. She squealed with delight during the show with the Orca's and she loved watching the dolphins in the dolphin nursery. I took Reagan on the Polar Express ride. At the end she and Sara got to meet Santa. When he asked what she wanted for Christmas she told him, "a barbie jeep". For crying out loud! I think she might have misunderstood him, and just told him what she got from Santa last year? Because heaven knows she hasn't shown much interest in the barbie jeep that has been sitting in our basement for an entire year.

After Seaworld we went to McCormick and Schmick for dinner. I would have eaten there for every meal of our trip, if it had been possible! It was scrumptious!

Day 6: This day turned out to be our "stayed too long at the fair day". Don't get me wrong, this vacation was amazing. And I loved the FL weather so much, I could have stayed forever. But the kids (and parents) were ready to sleep in their own beds at that point.
Nick and I wrangled all three children by ourselves for the entire day. We went back to the Magic Kingdom. I took Elsa, and Cohen shopping; while Nick took Reagan to ride Splash Mountain. How's that for fearless?! The girl loved Splash Mountain. I wasn't with them, so I didn't get a picture. Too bad.

Elsa and I watched a parade, while Nick took Reagan to see some princesses.


We rode the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, and we rode the Ferry on our return.

I'm not sure why Reagan is plugging her ears?

Day 7: We packed up. It was a miracle that all of us AND our luggage fit in the small SUV we had rented. We took the girls to the indoor play place at the Marriott Resort to kill time and get some energy out before we went to the airport.

Reagan was so sad to see Sara go. It was bittersweet all around. It had been great to spend time with Sara's family for a week, and it came to end all too quickly. A trip to New Zealand is definitely in order for our family!

OBSERVATIONS:
We flew with Delta. For the first time in a long time, it seemed like getting through security and getting on the plane was a lot easier than it has been in the past. They didn't make the kids take off their shoes, etc... But getting us all on the same plane was a nightmare. Nick, Reagan, and I were all on the same itinerary. After I found out I was pregnant we bought Elsa her own ticket; so she was on a different itinerary. Delta made a lot of changes to our flight before we actually flew. At one point they put Nick, me, and Reagan on an earlier flight; and they put Elsa on a completely separate flight/plane. I called Delta, and my conversation with the agent was ridiculous. She wanted to charge me an extra $150 to put Elsa back on the flight with us! You have to input birthday's when you buy a ticket, so I knew she could see that my 1 year old was on a flight by herself. Eventually, we worked things out.

I've already mentioned how messed-up the dining plan is. But one thing that is nice is that they allow strollers in their restaurant. I guess it's not that surprising that everything Disney is kid-friendly. But it sure helped me a great deal to be able to leave the kids in the stroller everywhere we went. The only place they didn't allow the stroller was in Mickey's Theater, where Reagan went to get pictures taken with the Princesses.

If I had a dollar for everyone that made a comment about Cohen, and what a new baby he was, I'd be a millionaire!
Most people were respectful and kept their distance from my infant.
But at the Magic Kingdom, I parked my stroller, at one point; and was letting Elsa enjoy a Pinapple Juice Bar. Out of the blue, an Asian guy (that spoke very little English) walked right up to my stroller and put his camera in Cohen's face. Before he could take a picture (without my permission!) I touched his arm, and asked him not to.
He nodded toward Cohen, and asked if he could take a picture. I adamantly replied, "no!". Then, he pointed at Elsa and asked if he could take a picture. Again, "no!". It was really odd.

We made it home in once piece. As did all of our luggage. We came back to more snow.
Our last day in Orlando, I spent a lot of time doing laundry in our Villa, so that I wouldn't have to do it when we got home.
Upon arrival, at our house I put everything away; and was feeling good about not having housework to do the next day.
Nothing ever goes the way you think it will.
The next morning Reagan woke up with (what else?!)... the throw-ups.
So much for not having laundry to do.

It was a good vacation. We loved being with family. On the way home, Reagan told me that, "we need to buy a house in Florida". I didn't argue with her.