January 17, 2012

  • Let's Get This Vacation Started!

    What a fun time we had during our week in Florida.  I could definitely get used to the year round sunshine, leaving the house without a coat and daily swimming. 

    Traveling always seems to bring out some extra funny quotes from the kids, and we tried to write them down as they said them, but I know we didn't get them all recorded.  One of the funnier ones happened on the bus ride from the airport parking lot to the St. Louis airport.  Blake, who has always been thrilled with flying, says to us, "How many different ways can a plane catch on fire?"  And pretty quickly Alexandria followed that up with, "Well, it could crash."  Always a good way to start a vacation. :)

    As the kids get older, it is MUCH easier to travel with them.  They can carry their own carry-ons, sit still on the plane and get along (better) in the airport.  For that we are thankful!  This was probably our last "easy" vacation for a few years as the new baby will add some extra chaos and equipment.  For the first time in six years, we went on vacation without a stroller!  It was a freeing moment!  I was hesitant to do this, but Matt said it would be fine, so I went with it.  And he was right--everyone did great without it and it was nice that we didn't have to mess with it.

    Airplane entertainment for Alexandria.

    The window seat is about all the entertainment Blake needs. 

    Here's the bonus of flying into the Orlando airport--the tram.  We've flown into this airport a few times, and the kids always love this part.  In fact, they love all of the "riding" they get to do on trips--buses, airplanes, elevators, escalators, trams.

    We spent the first night of our trip in Winter Haven, FL, home to LegoLand Florida.

    Blake was the first one up so the DVD player kept him quiet while Dad and Alexandria slept in and I got ready for the day.

    Watching a pirate show.

    Our first roller coaster of the day.


    Alexandria and I rode on the boats while the boys went on a big roller coaster.

    While we were separated, Blake also went to driving school and got his license.  Matt did a nice job of taking pictures with his phone for me.

    We spent quite a bit of time checking out all of the elaborate Lego city designs in the park. 

    Such a neat place!  And this LegoLand seemed to have way more designs than the San Diego LegoLand we visited last May.

    Matt won by a long shot on this ride/game!

    The boys were going to go to Coastersaurs while we were on Safari Trek, but Blake thought the 45 minute wait was too long for him, so they went elsewhere.  Alexandria and I later went on this coaster, and she proved herself to be very brave!

    This is the coaster where the boys were, I think.

    They went up there too--Island in the Sky.

    And this was their view from WAY up there.

    And Matt said that Blake also went on the fire truck ride about four times.

    Matt went on an ice cream run while we were on the giant carousel.

    The park closed at 6, so we took our weary legs south to our Florida home for the week.

    It should also be noted that experiencing LegoLand while pregnant is far more tiresome when pregnant, in case you didn't think it would be. :)   I am in decent shape, but the LegoLand workout nearly took me down.  I was glad to sit in the car for a couple of hours after that day.