Orlando - Part 1

Back in February Jon's boss told him he'd been selected for a three-week training program.  Normally I hate it when he has to go out of town for training, but I was super excited about this one because the 2nd week was going to be in ORLANDO!  I'd never been to Orlando or Disney World.  We decided we should take advantage of Jon's flight and hotel being paid for and take the whole family!  We also decided to take our friend, Sarah, along as well so I could have some extra hands while Jon was in training the first part of the trip.  Which, by the way, was the best idea, because most of the first five days, Jon was gone before we woke up and wasn't home until after the girls were in bed.

We stayed at the Hyatt Grand Cypress which was absolutely beautiful.  It has the best pool I've ever seen.  We were so thankful for that since that's just about all we did the first part of our trip.

We were a little worried about how our trip started off.  We were supposed to take off that Sunday morning at 6:30am.  We got a call at 3:30 telling us our flight had been canceled.  We quickly found a new flight, and were on our way, later than normal, but still the same day.

On one leg, we got put in Economy Comfort and Jon was so excited.  He's never had that much legroom before.  Another plus was that Annabel got her own seat!

Our view from our hotel room..

 

Our hotel also had a talking parrot on this perch every day in the lobby.  It was great entertainment for the girls.

When we arrived we quickly dressed for a dinner Jon's conference hosted for everyone and their families.  Annabel really enjoyed the dessert.

The next few days were spent outside at the pool and all the other fun activities the hotel had to offer.

Paddle-boating is harder than it looks!

Adeline decided marinara is the perfect salad dressing.

The girls loved this splash pad in the pool area.

And the rock climbing wall.  Adeline was scared to do it at first, and Annabel was screaming, "Climb! Climb!" so they let her do it, even though you were supposed to be 30 pounds or more.  Then Adeline decided she wasn't scared, after all.

Part of Jon's training involved them splitting up into groups and building a boat out of cardboard and trying to race it across the pool.  It was quite entertaining for us spectators!

One day it was pretty cloudy, so we visited a nearby outlet mall and dined in their food court.

We had a two-bedroom suite with a living room separating the two bedrooms.  The living room also had a bathroom in it so it was the perfect set-up for hanging out after the girls were in bed, or for Jon to shower in the mornings.  I think hotel cribs look like little torture chambers, but Annabel slept perfectly the entire time.  She napped at least 3 hours every day and never woke up before 8am which is better than she does at home!  I guess it was all the swimming that wore her out!

They also liked to get in the big bed together and watch TV in the mornings.  I love that they love each other so much.  One night when the girls were playing and Adeline thought they were alone I heard her say, "I love you, Annabel."  Melt.my.heart!

We went to Downtown Disney a couple nights during the week.  It's just a big area with shops and restaurants and some live entertainment.

One night we went to Rainforest Cafe.

The girls were in awe, but Jon had had an exceptionally stressful and long day, so he was less than impressed.

We also rode a carousel.

Another night we went to an Irish restaurant there that had live dancers performing throughout our meal.

That was on Friday and Jon finished his training early. He gave Sarah and me the afternoon off to get massages, and treated us to this yummy dessert after dinner.  What a good man I have!

We visited a lego store there and I got Jon to pose with this Hulk made out of legos.  He's such a good sport!

We also bought the girls these Disney dolls.  They each chose their favorite princess - Cinderella & Belle.

The next part of our trip was Disney World overload.  I'll blog about that later when I get my CD from Disney with all our photos on it.  We had a blast and are already talking about our next trip!