Orlando Bound

At the beginning of September, the Slominski Four jetted off to sunny Orlando, Florida!  It was our first time flying with both Owen and Cole and the flight went pretty much as expected.  Owen kept himself entertained watching TV and Cole kept us on our feet as he screamed throughout the majority of the flight.  Cole has never been able to sleep while being held and wouldn't you know it, nap time hit while flying high in the sky.  With no bed to lay him in, he proceeded to cry and scream and eventually fell asleep just in time to land.

After a tiring flight, we were happy to see that all our bags had followed us to Florida.  With two kids and many suitcases in tow, we found our rental car, eventually figured out how to install the boys' cheap, flimsy car seats (never will I rent car seats again!), and we were on our way to Mariott's Harbour Lake Resort!

Watching Elmo is SO much better on a big screen!

Our room was perfect!  Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a ginormous TV!  Everything we could possibly need.  We loaded up on groceries for the week and got ourselves settled in.

Yeah! Snack time!

  


The resort had two great pools for kids (one with a giant pirate ship!)  Both pools were zero entry so the boys' could walk around in the shallow area, which they loved!

The boys playing in the Pirate Pool

The first couple days, Shane and Owen liked hanging out in the Pirate ship pool with its slides and squirting water.  But Cole and I spent most of our pool time in the much quieter kiddie pool.  Although it wasn't long before Owen thought the kiddie pool was pretty fun too with its squirting turtle.  He had a great time sitting on the turtle and making it splash water everywhere!

Look at the water go!

The resort was fairly quite during the day, so we had our favorite kiddie pool to ourselves most of the time.  It was wonderful to cool off from the hot Florida sun and both boys had a wonderful time playing in the water.

Fun in the kiddie pool!

"Ha, ha! I splashed Mom in the face!"

Although we could have stayed at our resort all week long, we decided to take the boys to a few of the sights.  Our first venture was to the Animal Kingdom.  It was everyone's first time to this theme park, but I had a feeling it was going to be Owen's favorite.  Not only were there animals galore, but there was a train AND dinosaurs!!  What could be better?  Our first item on the agenda was the African Kilimanjaro Safari.  We saw elephants, lions, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and much more!  Owen got a kick out of the triceratops...or, I mean, the rhinoceros!

Sitting on top of a Pachycephalosaurus!

After a quick ride on the train, we were off to Dinoland.  We saw a Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Brachiosaurus and T-Rex.  Owen was in Heaven!  And he did not want to leave!  It took some persuasion, but we finally convinced him to leave as we went in search of a cool place to sit. 

"I'm as big as a Brachiosaurus!!"

To beat the heat, we thought we'd take in a show and found a seat in a very crowded theater to watch "Finding Nemo - The Musical".  Big mistake!  None of us had ever seen the movie before, so we weren't prepared for the rather scary shark scene.  Oh boy!  It didn't take long and both kiddos were quickly screaming at the top of their lungs!  I'm sure we got many looks as we tried to gather our belongings and exit the dark theater. 

Once outside, the kids were happy once again and we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek.  We had remarkable views of some native Asian wildlife as we walked along the trail, including a Komodo Dragon, several tigers, and many, many bats!  I got up really close to take a photo of the bats when I realized, there was no window and nothing separating me from a rudely awoken bat flying right at my face!!

"I had a blast!"

We ended our visit of the Asian Section just in time to catch the parade.  And wouldn't you know it.  Just as the parade was making its way towards us, the rain drops began falling!  By the end of the parade, we were caught in the middle of a downpour!  We were all soaked
(with the exception of Cole who hid out in the stroller).  As we made a bee line towards the exit, the clouds parted and the rain stopped.  But we decided to call it a day anyway, and said adios to the Animal Kingdom as we loaded up on the trolley to take us back to our car.

Our next venture was a supposedly relaxing trip to the beach.  Neither of the boys had seen the ocean before so we loaded up the car and headed to Daytona Beach.  It was about an 1 1/2 drive and the kids were upset, fighting, crying and screaming for the first half of the drive.  We almost turned around!  Thank goodness we didn't!  
It was a piping hot and sunny Florida day in Daytona!  Owen had a wonderful time and even Cole enjoyed the beach (that is once he was finally able to get some ZZZs!)   Cole enjoyed sitting under our huge umbrella, but Owen was on the go.  He loved walking in the water, digging in the sand, and chasing the birds.


After a day at the beach, we loaded up and took off for the resort.  Unfortunately we weren't able to leave the beach behind as the sand followed us back to Orlando!  Our car's seats and floor were covered in sand (and so were we!)

Our third and final excursion was the Magic Kingdom!  How can you visit Orlando without stopping by to say 'hi' to Mickey?  Of course, when we arrived there was some sort of theatrical performance with some rather scary characters happening right in front of Cinderella's castle.  There was no avoiding it!  Owen was pretty spooked as we quickly scurried around and AWAY from the action.  Needless to say, this quickly put a damper on Owen's first impression of the Magic Kingdom.

We jetted off to the first stop on our list...It's a Small World...the one of the few rides that both boys would like.  To our disappointment, it was closed for renovations!!  Things continued down this trail of bad luck as we waited in line to see the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Owen started screaming (he must have had visions of Nemo in his head!)  So we decided to take a break and grab some lunch.  It wasn't until Owen's belly was full of french fries that things turned around and we were able to enjoy some of the park.

"Look! All gone!"

"I feel great!"

After lunch, we rode on the carousel, Dumbo, the train, and  Aladdin's Magic Carpet.  Shane and Owen even raced around on the Tomorrowland Speedway.  And we all explored Donald Duck's Boat, the Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse and Tom Sawyer's Island.  We even got to see Mickey Mouse in the parade!

Taking a break in the shade

Crossing the Bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island

Riding on the train

Mickey looking right at Owen!!

Owen snoozing as he clings onto his lemonade

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted.  Especially Owen!  He crashed in the stroller while sipping on a frozen lemonade.

There was so much to see and do that we barely put a dent into it.  But we decided to leave the rest of the park for another time and headed back to the resort for some rest and relaxation!

We spent our last couple days at the resort splashing around in the pool and relaxing in the sun.  We had a fabulous fun-filled week in Florida and look forward to returning again sometime soon!