Farrell Family: VACATION!! (Part One!)- Orlando- the hotel pool and Magic Kingdom

Ah... yes... vacation. Because we ended up not taking a vacation in 2008, we were extra excited for our big '09 vacation. We planned a short trip to Disney World for a couple of days the first of the week- and then followed that up with a relaxing time at Ormond beach for the end of the week. The planning was fun, and at times a bit overwhelming, but we had a lot of fun counting down the days before we left for the long drive to Orlando!

Here's our countdown calendar!

Because I took a TON of pictures, I'll going to put them in a few different posts- starting with the time at Orlando at the hotel and Magic Kingdom, then I'll do a separate one of Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, then I'll do a third one with pictures from the beach!

So- to start with, here are some pictures from the resort and hotel in Orlando- it was Huge and very very nice- but in all honesty, I'd prefer something smaller. The resort was made up of I think 10 big hotels, two clubhouses, a water park (which the kids loved!), and even had a dance club. I know it had a ton of stuff to do- but again- It was just a bit too much for my taste. It was different though and I felt privileged to be in such a fancy schmancy place though. =)

Here are a couple of our room

The tiki hut place by the pool to get drinks:

There were little lizards everywhere!

And, here's a turtle we saw sunbathing on the shores!

My little Diva heading to the pool.

The kid pool area had these cool water shooter things. I liked them because once they were turned in the opposite direction of the pool, they wouldn't work. It was funny when the boys kept trying to spray me with them, but couldn't figure out why the water kept stopping! haha!

Check out the water slides in the background. The boys LOVED these! Lylah went down once- Zach was waiting at the bottom. She wanted to do it SO bad and was elated when Zach and I finally agreed to let her try. On the way down she flipped over somehow to her stomach and ended up bumping her head in the process. She's tough though (even more so than the boys) and just rubbed her head a couple of times. But- she sure didn't want to go down again!

My monkeys!

Hey- who ever said I can't have fun too?!

Magic Kingdom day!!

You wouldn't believe how much anticipation builds in between seeing the Walt Disney World sign...

...then the Magic Kingdom sign...

...then the long wait in between parking, getting on the tram to go to the ticket gates, the line at the will-call windows, then the excitement of being able to see the castle...

... and fun hedge carvings of Mickey...

... before you get in the line to the ferry...

...which takes about 10 minutes...

...until you finally get to the park!

It is a beautiful first view!

Of course, Nathan was in a mood for some reason, so would not cooperate for our picture! But, that's okay!

He wasn't the only thing that didn't cooperate! We brought a sit-n-stand stroller with us that I got for free from a fellow IndyMom. However, it had a loose piece to where it wouldn't lock in place when it was open. So, it took from the walk off the ferry to the stroller rental before we decided to ditch it and just rent a double stroller. We were much happier with the ease of it compared to the other- and it was well worth the $62 for two days of rental! (it's only money right!)

We stopped to watch a bit of a show...

...only for a couple minutes though because the kids were ready to head to Adventureland for some rides!!

It was hot! There was this huge water-spitting camel thing next to Aladdin's Carpet ride, so I set Nathan and Lylah up for a cool-down. However... Lylah was not happy about that. She did not want her princess dress wet! She was over it soon enough though when we got on the ride!

Then it was on to some water safarri boat ride. (Sorry- I'm not good with remembering the actual names of the rides- I figure "water safarri ride" is good enough!) The kids really liked the pretend animals... until we went into this dark tunnel...

Lylah was terrified when she saw this:

But, then it got happy again! Aren't these cute?!

Pirates of the Carribean came next!

Stopped to watch more of the next show!

Nathan really liked the Peter Pan part of the show!

Both he and Carter were captivated! (yes... finally a male in the house will want to go to musicals with me!)

(I had to include this picture just to show the progress Nathan has made in not picking his nose anymore!) ;)

Lylah had fun on the Tea-Cups! She rode with Zach (he doesn't like to spin... at all!) The boys and I rode together and spun like crazy! I was worried how my stomach would do because for some reason since after the development of children, I get motion sickness very easily. But- I took a Dramamine and did fine.

I had to put both of these following pictures on here because I like the way the boys look in one, and the way Lylah looks in the other! That just goes to show I can never have all three tamed at once! (But fortunately, it's rare they're all wild at once too!)

Isn't this cool! I love elephants! This was by the looong line to ride Dumbo.

When we got in line for the ride, it didn't look that long. However... it moved like a snail! We were in line for about 20 minutes, then got to a sign that said "From this point the wait is... 40 minutes". Uh! So, here we are getting ready to start. Zach and Lylah are 3 elephants back.

6 times around later, the kids were disappointed it was so short a ride!

Meeting Pooh and Tigger! (Lylah is not in the picture- she is Terrified of characters!)