Bon Voyage!

This morning started out with 9 people getting up and ready, packing two rental cars with all of our luggage, cleaning the condo, heading to the airport to return the cars, taking a taxi 15 passenger van to the ship and finally loading onto the boat- all before lunch!! Once on the boat, we headed straight for a buffet, of course! After a scrumptious lunch, we went back the room for naps before heading to the safety drill. Then came the fun send off party on the deck. The kids had fun seeing the characters, dancing to the music and Hadley and Joel thought the streamers were a blast! We all ate dinner together at Triton's that night on the boat. The kids did pretty well for sitting through an almost two hour dinner. After dinner, we all hit the Mickey pool, where we spent most of the time in the ears (because they had the warmest water). Before we called it a night, we headed over to the hot tub to warm up and watched Cinderella on the big screen over the pool. When we got back to our room, our bed displayed the first of nightly towel animals- a stingray.

Family Vacation- Day 4

Attempt at a family photo shoot-oops!
Good job, Drake for being the only one actually looking at the camera!

Today we decided to stick around the condo most of the day, except for a little venture out to play a round of miniature golf. Drake had been wanting to go back to the same place we had played the year before because he wanted to try the course we didn't play last spring break. (The kid's memory is unbelievable!) It was a very warm day with some intense sun so I was glad we went about 10:00 am, I can't imagine what it would have felt like in the afternoon! After having lunch back at the condo, we spent more time in the pool- ahhh! The combination of Hadley's floaty suit and water wings was awesome- she got to be independent and I didn't have to worry that she was drinking gallons of pool water. After doing some laundry and re-packing we were about ready to head out to the big boat the next morning!

Family Vacation- Day3

Today we headed to Animal Kingdom. The morning was a little rough with a cranky almost 2 year old girl, but she pulled it together after lunch. We saw a really cute live Nemo musical that the kids LOVED and also saw the Lion King show. We all went on the Jungle Cruise as well and got to see lots of cool animals. The kids got to hit a couple of rides as well. We managed to avoid most of the rain showers throughout the day by timing our shows pretty well! We headed out around 3 and the kids were zonked when we got in the car. Hadley continued to sleep for a few hours and Drake and I headed to the pool when we got back to the condo. He is doing such a great job swimming and could swim the whole length of the pool by himself. After dinner, we all headed back to the pool and had a great time with the kids.

Family Vacation-Day 2

This morning we were off to an early start with some early waking toddlers, which did result in being ready early and having time to grab some Dunkin Donuts before heading to the airport. Once there, we got checked in super quickly and spent the next couple of hours keeping the toddlers entertained via moving walkways and the fabulous technology of video ipods showing this fabulous cartoon- Hadley's absolute favorite! Once on the plane, Hadley promptly fell asleep and made for a very relaxing trip for us. Once in sunny Florida, we picked up the car and headed to the condo. After some pizza for dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney to peruse the sights. The kids loved playing in the water squirters and got soaked. However, just as we were about to leave we all got soaked in the downpour as we went to the cars.

Family Vacation- Day One

Drake headed off to Florida with Papa and Nana. He got to fly down a day early and help Nana and Papa get a few things done at the condo before the rest of us arrived.

Gabe and I spent the rest of the morning in Bloomington with Hadley. We went to the zoo and park and enjoyed a leisurely morning to start off our vacation week. After lunch, we headed up to Chicago to stay with Josh, Jacki and Joel before flying out of Midway the next morning. Joel and Hads took a bath together to get squeaky clean before heading out.

We've got a swimmer on our hands

Drake finished up another round of swim lessons today. Which happens to be perfect timing for our vacation to Florida- Drake flies out tomorrow with Nana and Papa and we follow on Thursday. While we did have a few tears of fear throughout the process, he is doing a great job and will be jumping off the diving board in no time! It will be great to see how much he can progress over the summer. Hadley on the other hand, scares me to death in the pool! She has NO FEAR of the water and just walks into the water until it is over her head- no matter how many times she comes up sputtering. She is going to be quite a challenge at the pool this summer needing constant attention so she doesn't swallow up the pool.

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!

We welcome it with open arms! We have loved the warmer temperatures and the food that comes along with it.