Florida Part I

I have so much to say about our vacation to Florida. This post is going to be divided into several separate blogs. They might not be written in order but they be chalked full of great information. Or at the very least, maybe they will make you smile, dream of your own beach vacation and/or just make you turn off your computer and go to bed.

So here it goes....

First of all I have to say that it was a very bold move to take a week long vacation right after the last day of school. my Type A, Make a List for Everything, Get Things Done in Order personality had to adjust to the Leave It Behind, It Will Still Be There When You Get Back land. It seemed to work out just fine as all the work that I left on my desk two Friday's ago was still there when I got back 8 days later. Darn. The Little Work Fairy didn't come and complete all of my work for me.

Anyhoo, I case you haven't heard, we surprised the boys with a trip to Disney World AND Sanibel Island. You see, we have two boys that never agree on anything. What do you want for dinner...one says pot roast and the other says nachos. What should we do today....one says the zoo the other says swimming. Steve and I have discovered that it is best to just make the decision ourselves. So at the risk of not disappointing anyone with our already over the top surprise, we fit in everyone's hopes and dreams on our family vacation; Disney World and the beach. Well, technically Cam wanted to go to Hawaii but he seemed to do just fine with the lesser alternative of a beach that we picked out for him.

So Saturday morning rolled around and we waiting a little impatiently for the boys to roll out of bed. Seriously, I think that is a first for us. We never wait for them to get out of bed. We are usually telling them to try to sleep longer or asking them why they got up so early. But on Saturday we had planned on leaving around 7:30am. Cam didn't get up until 7:00am.

Once they were both awake, we sat them down on the couch and told them that they needed to get dressed (in their special Disney issued t-shirts) and eat breakfast because we had a trip planned....to Disney World and the beach and we needed to catch a plane in about 2 hours. You might suspect that our kids jumped up and down, hooped and hollered and showed general excitement. Nope. Nada. Colin said "Really?" Cam said. "Today?" That's it. That's all. No over excitement whatsoever. Months of planning. Days of secret packing. Nada. Don't get me wrong, they were happy. But I won't even bother to post the short video that was have of our surprise. It's a total let down to what you see on tv. Those parents must be way cooler than us. 

So, off to the airport we went. With 8 bags and two booster seats. Yes folks, that was the Silva family hitting you in the head as we walked by you with our massive carry on bags. Sorry.

Colin brought his favorite stuffie, Yellow Dog, along for the trip. Yellow Dog and I go way back. He was my stuffie from the age of 6. That dog has been around! Despite telling the boys they could bring 2 stuffies each, we ended up with 7 each.

The flight to Florida was very uneventful. Thank you God. I hate flying. Every time I get on a plane I remember how much I hate flying.

So, we arrived at the Orlando airport without a hitch. Boarded the Magical Express to the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort without a hitch. Checked in without a hitch. I attribute all of this to my mad planning skills but really we were just lucky. Any number of things could have gone wrong but didn't. Magical indeed.

To be continued with our Disney experience and the suggested "do's and dont's of Disney with a 6 and 8 year old.