Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Last month we packed up the family and headed to Orlando. My parents were nice enough to invite us along on their trip.
We left on Sunday the 12th and arrived about 11:30 that night. We were a little discouraged when we stepped out of the plane and FROZE!! It was forty degrees when we got there. What!!?? After a quick stop at Wendy's and a room change we finally settled in for the night.
Monday we decided we didn't want to hit any theme parks because we knew we were probably going to sleep in. When we finally woke up, we found a local citrus farm and went and picked our own oranges and grapefruit. The kids loved pulling the oranges off the trees and putting them in the bags. They also had the yummiest fresh squeezed frozen orange juice!! I wish I could grow my own oranges and grapefruits! They tasted so much better there! The weather had warmed up and it felt so good. It was nice to just hang out and relax all day.






Tuesday was Valentines Day and MAGIC KINGDOM! So much fun!! I just love that place. It was so much fun to watch my kids experience the magic for the first time. Even with the millions of people everywhere we never had to wait in line for longer then fifteen minutes. Sawyer did so great and just hung out in his carseat all day. Coop loved Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. Ryker loved Winnie the Pooh. I can't pick a favorite because I think they are all great. One of the highlights of the day was our Pineapple float. Those things are so yummy!! We didn't wait in line to see too many characters because we wanted to ride all the rides, but we saw Mickey and Minnie right before leaving and Ryker was beyond thrilled. Brad said it was the cutest thing he's ever seen. I was out waiting with Sawyer and missed it but at least I have a picture!











Wednesday it was going to be around 80 degrees so we decided to hit Blizzard Beach. It was a bit of a bust. I thought it was really fun but the boys weren't really that into swimming and it was pretty crowded so the lines were kind of long. I think it was hard also because Sawyer wasn't feeling very well and was pretty fussy. The slides we were able to hit were great. Brad and my dad even braved the biggest slide there that gets you going 60 mph. There was no way I was going to do that one!!






Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom. I LOVED Animal Kingdom. This was my first time there and it was so neat. There were so many neat animals to see and we loved the Finding Nemo show. The Lion King show was really neat too. The Everest rollarcoaster was for sure one of our favorites also. One of the neatest rides was the Safari. You get so close to the animals. You really felt like you were in Africa. The landscape was beautiful and so were the animals.









Everest Rollercoaster in the background




Kimodo Dragon above Coop's head



Biggest, nastiest, bats ever. You can see it hanging upside down in between two of the poles.




Why does Ryker have his shirt off? Well, he got it wet and was freaking out that it was wet. Why does Ryker have my nursing cover on in the next picture? Well, we had been waiting in the line for the Safari and had passed about ten workers in the line, but right at the end one of them said that Ryker couldn't ride without a shirt. Well, his shirt was back at the stroller so we had to made due with what we had. Well, at least he got on but I'm sure he's going to hate seeing this picture someday. :)














Friday was another relaxing day. We slept in and my mom and I hit some outlets while the boys Mini-golfed. Then were headed over to Downtown Disney. The Lego store was a huge hit with the boys. They could have stayed there for quite a while. It was fun to see some of the other stores there. Brad found a water taxi that he wanted to ride so since we had some time to kill we hopped on and rode around for a bit. It was raining a bit and so it was nice to be covered and go on a little boat ride. It was really nice to have days to relax on this trip!






Saturday we got up early because we had an appointment at Deseret Ranch to go on a tour. Deseret Ranch is the largest cattle ranch in the United States and it's owned by the church. It was so interesting to go learn more about it. We took a little tour in a bus where we saw some crocodiles and a turtle. It's so crazy to me that crocodiles are just hanging out in the wild. I guess you would get used to it, but if freaks me out! They also told us about how they used crushed shells to pave the roads and they took us to there shell piles where we were able to get some really neat shells. After the Ranch we went to the beach for a bit. I didn't get any pictures, but the boys loved running around and even found some friends to build a sandcastle with. That night we ate at a restaurant called The Dockside in Kissimmee. It was so yummy we would totally recommend it to anyone headed to Orlando!!



Sunday we woke up EARLY and caught our seven AM flight back to Salt Lake. The boys actually did pretty good on the planes for the most party. I think the hardest one was Ryker and I was most worried about Sawyer. It's so crazy how fast these trips fly by. I am so grateful for the memories we made on this trip and thankful to my parents for inviting us!

1 comment:

Tim and Stacey Cardon said...

Looks like it was totally worth it! Your kids are sooo stinkin cute!! Sawyer's a little chunker!! I just want to squeeze him! I was going to tell you we at at Francisco's and it was fabulous! Every had fish tacos and said they were the best they ever had. I got the burrito & we shared the scones! So good!