Orlando Vacay! Day 1a

Orlando Florida, October 10-17th

October 10th

We left Connecticut, Sunday morning, at 3:30 a.m. and took turns driving along the east coast to Orlando.

Danny decided to take the reins first, then switch with me when the kids took their nap.  Apparently he doesn't get any sleep unless they are sleeping too....go figure. 

In preparation for the trip, all I could think about were two things: Why are we driving 20+ hours with two small children!?!  AND  Why are we driving 20+ hours after having just run a marathon!?! 

Luckily all went well, thanks to stopping every few hours for stretching sore muscles AND Thomas the Train/Elmo's World.

Movies and Pajamas!  The vacation has just begun.

It was fun staying in pajamas ALL DAY!  I think that is my favorite part about traveling: you can look like you just woke up and nobody even cares.  

 

The plan was to drive as far as we could.  If we needed to pull over, we would; if we could drive the whole way, we would. We ended up driving through the night, making it to our destination at 3:34 Monday morning.   By the time we got checked into our room and finally got everything, meaning the kids, settled down to sleep it was nearly 5:00 am.  We were all exhausted!   Unfortunately the kids didn't sleep long and were up at 7:30 that same morning. Surprisingly enough, even though I was painfully tired and would do anything to get some proper sleep, I was still in good spirits and excited to be on vacation.  Danny too!  It's probably because we we woke up to this:

75 degrees, with a hint of an absolutely beautiful sunrise!  Now that is my idea of vacation. 

(we are on the balcony, but the picture is fuzzy due to the meshing protecting us from the golf course right below us)

First Things First: THE POOL!!!  We decided since we were all up for the day we should relax by the pool. 

So we got into our adorable swim suits....

...played some games that were the least bit quiet

...and headed to the pool.

This was Jakob's first time swimming all "summer" long.  Isn't that sad!?!  I mean, we played in the kiddie pool and went to the beach, but we didn't even make it to our local pool.  Next year, NO EXCUSES!

Jakob wasn't so sure about the gigantic bath tub we call a pool. He liked it though.  He gradually became more comfortable with the idea of water splashing in his face and coming up to his neck.  Eventually he felt brave enough to wade through the water without holding my hand.  He even started jumping and splashing and walking towards the deep end, all by himself!  He went under a few times, but it didn't seem to bother him too much.  Of course it scared ME to see him swallow water, but I knew that if I freaked out then he would too, and I really didn't want him to be afraid of water.

When we gave him the idea to jump in from the edge he had no problem with it; not even a second thought.  Sometimes he didn't give me fair warning and jumped in when I least expected it.  He's so timid and yet so incredibly trusting.