Ryan, Lily and I have been on vacation since last Friday, July 11. We started out the vacation with the wonderful news that we are expecting another sweet baby girl in November; yea! We headed to Savannah from there, and we spent the night in the Riverfront Marriott. Lily loved being in a hotel (I wonder where she gets that from...). We arrived just before bedtime so there wasn't too much time to play but on Saturday morning, we went to the famous Forsyth Park where we walked around and found a neat playground to play on. Lily had a good time walking around a new city and playing on the playground.
After playing in Savannah for awhile on Saturday morning, we headed on to New Smyrna Beach, FL where we met up with a lot of my dad's family. This trip has been a family tradition for many years now. Even though we all (except for one family of four) live in a tri-county area of metro Atlanta, we drive all the way to New Smyrna every year to hang out together for a week; I love this week! It is so nice to relax and spend time with another. We have been having a good time thus far, but I really want to tell you about our trip to Orlando.
Tuesday afternoon (after Meme's famous hot dog lunch), Ryan, Lily and I drove over to Orlando. We were planning on visiting Downtown Disney that evening and then spending the night at the All-Star Movies resort. Well it was POURING down rain when we got to Orlando so we went on to our hotel and checked in. After about an hour or so, it had let up so we went on over to Downtown Disney where we decided to do a little shopping and dining. First, we went to the Christmas store. For those of you who don't know, Ryan and I collect Christmas ornaments from our vacations; it's always fun to pull them out each year and relive some wonderful trips. We decided to go ahead and get a "Baby's First Christmas" with Minnie Mouse on it just like we bought for Lily a couple of years ago; we had them personalize it to say "Amelia 2008" just as Lily's says "Lily 2006." The nice lady who helped us, in wonderful Disney fashion, actually bumped our ornament to the front of the personalization line so it would be ready in 30 minutes instead of the next day; this saved us having to ship it home which we really appreciated. How nice is that?!
After that we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Every 22 minutes, the "animals" in the rainforest come to life in a thunderstorm; the lights flash, thunder claps and the animals make lots of noise. At first, Lily looked terrified and wanted to climb into my lap from her high chair, but after a minute, she really enjoyed it. When it ended, she asked for "more? more?" As for dinner itself, we thought it was funny that Lily ate one whole dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget and then proceeded to eat the heads and tails off the other 7. I guess those were the easiest areas to dip in her ketchup She also enjoyed the applesauce that came with it. I thought they gave great choices of fries, chips, carrot sticks, banana or applesauce. Most restaurants only give fries as an option for kids. Overall, our meal was pretty good.
After eating we continued shopping. We went to the HUGE toystore. We found Lily a Minnie Mouse doll to match the Mickey Mouse one Bama gave her. She was so excited. For most of the rest of the evening in our room, she wanted to hold or play with both of them which was so cute to watch. She slept with both of them in her pack and play that night. When I peeked in at her in bed when I heard her stirring this morning, she had picked up Minnie and was holding her tight. When I got her up a few minutes later, I said "Good morning Lily" to which she replied "Mi?" as she was asking me to hand her Mickey; adorable.
Anyway, after purchasing Minnie last night, we visited a few more stores (including the yummy candy shop) before heading back to the All-Star. Unfortunately, it had started raining again so we weren't able to go swimming as we wanted to. However, Lily enjoyed eating her oatmeal-raisin cookie (what a treat!) and playing peek-a-boo in the curtains. She was so excited to be there! She went to sleep on the promise that we would meet Mickey and his friends the next morning.
The next morning we all got up, got dressed, put our things in the car and then visited the food court in the All-Star resort. Lily was quite excited to see Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playing on the overhead TV. We all enjoyed a good breakfast and then headed on the bus to the Magic Kingdom. I think Lily would have been great to just ride the bus the whole day; she loved looking out the window and pointing out everything she saw. We had the threat of another downpour over us all day so we had a plan on what we really wanted to see and do before the rain, if possible.
We walked into the Magic Kingdom and had our picture made on Main Street, and then we headed back to Fantasyland. Ryan and Lily had so much fun riding Dumbo while I stayed on the side and took pictures. Ryan's mom took him to Disney for his 2nd birthday and there are some adorable pictures of the two of them riding Dumbo together; we really wanted to get a picture of Ryan and Lily on the same ride. I think we got some great ones. Lily seemed pretty nervous before the ride began but then she LOVED it once it started. She gave Ryan some of the biggest smiles we have ever seen on her once they were flying. It was precious. Of course, after this (and every other ride for that matter) she asked for "more? more?" She had a blast on the rides.
After Dumbo we walked over to Toontown to meet some of our favorite characters. First up...Mickey and Minnie! We walked into their little area, and Lily was excited to see them. She pointed, smiled and waved to them. Things were going great...until we walked up to them. She didn't want to get within a couple feet of them. I think their big heads scared her. She clung to me and didn't want to get down near them. We took a picture of them with the three of us but they weren't great as she was pretty nervous. However, I told her it was time to go and took a step away from them. She smiled, waved and said "bye-bye!" to them and as we walked away, she kept exclaiming "Mi! Mi!" After meeting the stars, we decided to try our luck with Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto; three characters Lily loves. The same thing happened. All smiles until we got right next to them, unhappiness and then a cheerful wave and "bye-bye!" Oh well. She didn't melt down crying but she wasn't too happy about it...a memorable first encounter for us!
After meeting the characters we walked back to Fantasyland where we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride. Again, Lily loved the ride especially since it was about characters she knows. She really liked the big "hunny pots" that we ride in. After this we rode the carousel which Lily enjoyed. I rode with her on a big horse and Ryan rode next to us. She had fun when the horse went up and down. As we were walking to our next destination, we walked right into some of our friends from Sunday School; what a fun surprise! The Barbatos were in Orlando visiting some family and had decided to make a day at Disney too..."What a small world!" remarked Cullen. Speaking of, that was the next ride for us. Lily danced a little to the music as we waited in line (though we walked right up which was nice); she seemed to enjoy seeing all the "kids" perform their song and dance routines. She kept looking all around with big eyes. After this was over, we walked over to the Peter Pan ride. Lily loved being able to "fly" again. Another great ride where "more?" was requested.
After all the rides, we walked back down Main Street (stopping to enjoy a small portion of the show at the Castle) to get Lily's haircut at the Main Street Barber Shop. This was the first time she had her hair cut, and we didn't have any idea how she would react. Luckily, they know how to work with kids at Disney! The barber, a nice older lady named Penny, was so sweet to Lily. She blew bubbles for her and then gave her a couple of toys to play with. Lily really liked the cell phone that princesses called in on. She flipped it open and said "Papa" as if that's who she was going to call. She played with that the whole time while Penny wet and trimmed her hair. Lily didn't even seem to care that Penny was nearby and doing this! Her haircut looks adorable by the way; it looks so thick and curly now. After the haircut, Penny gave her a set of Mickey ears with "First Haircut" embroidered on the back, a certificate for bravely letting her hair get cut at the Barber Shop and some Mickey stickers. It was really cute, and I'm so glad we decided to do this.
After the haircut we enjoyed a lovely lunch at a Main Street Bakery. Ryan and I had sandwiches and fruit while Lily very much enjoyed the apple slices and caramel dip. We did a little bit more walking around and shopping but the lines were getting longer, Lily was starting to show signs of being tired (she was rubbing her eyes as it was over an hour past naptime) and we started to feel a little rain fall. We decided to head on back to our car and drive back to New Smyrna. Lily of course fell asleep as we were walking out because she was exhausted, but it was so cute to see her in the stroller asleep. She slept a little more on the way home but we weren't even a couple miles from the park when a huge thunderstorm hit; I think we made the right call to head on out.
We're back at the beach now. We are heading to Lakeland tomorrow to visit some of Ryan's family which will be a nice treat. I am going to post some pictures from Savannah and Disney in a little bit so be sure to look at those. I will post another blog and more pictures about our time at the beach and Lakeland after we return home. Until then...wish you were here with us!
