the dew baby: Florida: The Highlights (Part 1)

I really did intend to blog more during the trip, but I failed miserably. I did, however, manage to get lots of great pictures, many of which I loaded into the Dropbox, so YAY! We had a wonderful time. The weather was very warm -- in the 80's all but Thursday, when it was "only" in the 70's -- and sunny, sunny, sunny. Definitely no snow. So here's what we got:

Sunday

• The boys woke up ridiculously early, especially for having been up so late the night before.

• We spent the majority of the day hanging out at the house. In the pool & hot tub, mostly. The boys LOVED the water. Loved it! Begged to swim pretty much from the minute we woke up until it was bedtime.

• After Evan's nap, we went to Downtown Disney. It was insanely crowded. We walked around for a little bit, took the kids to see Santa, then went home.

Monday

• The boys woke up ridiculously early. Again.

• Dan & I took the kids to Legoland. Sean begged to go on a roller coaster, but once we were going up the first hill, he changed his mind. It was too late. Poor kid:

• He did have an awesome time aside from that though. As did Dan, Evan, and myself! (I rode one of the roller coasters by myself twice -- walked right on!).

• There were no crowds, which was super nice!

• We did wait for about 45 minutes so Sean could do the Lego driving school where he got to drive a little car around a miniature city. It was a adorable! They actually have two of them: one for 3-5 year olds and one for 6-12 year olds. Evan did the 3-5 year old one which was just as cute!

• We were there from open till close (9:30am - 5:00pm). Then we stopped at a really awesome citrus candy/jelly factory called Davidsons of Dundee. Yum!

Tuesday

• The boys woke up ridiculously early.

• Dan & I took the boys to Hollywood Studios. Mom & Cathy met us there that afternoon.

• I was all prepared to sign Sean up for the Jedi Training Academy -- he'd said he wanted to do it -- then he changed his mind while we were in line. I wasn't going to make him do anything, so we left the line. Dan said he later said he wanted to do it, but Sean never said anything to me about it. He didn't seem to have any regrets about not signing up.

• Sean rode the Star Tours ride 8 times that day. EIGHT times! Three times with Dan, twice with me, once with Mom & Cathy, and two more times with Dan & I together (Dan & I couldn't go together at the beginning of the day because Evan was too small to ride, so one of us stayed with him).

• I got to ride the Aerosmith roller coaster for the first time. IT. WAS. FUN! I so wanted to go again, but we didn't have time.

• It was a lot more crowded than I anticipated. It wasn't horrible, but it was still pretty busy.

• Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights = WOW!! That's about all I got: WOW! I didn't see it last year when we were there, so I'm very glad I got a chance to see it this year!

• I took almost 18,000 steps according to my Fitbit. I was feeling it by that evening. We were there from open till close (9:00am - 8:00pm).

• I'm feeling that Disney is better done as a vacation in and of itself. We had an awesome time at Hollywood Studios, for sure, but it felt like we were trying to every single thing in one day, which is totally not possible. One day is just not enough because (1) I wanted more and (2) it's not enough time to really experience it. Oh well. I guess I'll just *have* to go back sometime in the hopefully-not-too-distant-future. Bummer ;-).

(I'll write more tomorrow -- it's almost 10pm right now and I have to do that work thing tomorrow. Here are a few pics for the time being though)