Day Eight: All Good Things Must Come to an End

We had a 1:45 flight back home today. Overall, the trip was wonderful with lots of great memories.

The portable DVD player was a lifesaver:

Day Seven: Visiting Great Grandma Hamman in Fort Myers Beach

No rest for the weary! After Nolan got up and we got him fed, we drove down to Ft. Myers Beach to visit Great Grandma Hamman for the day. It's a 200 mile drive from Orlando and all highway except for the last 15 miles so it was a pretty easy drive. We made it there by lunch and Grandma knows that her goulash is my favorite and she had it there waiting for us! Aunt Donna and Ron were there as well so it was nice getting to visit with them too. Nolan had fun feeding the birds out on the canal in the back of Grandma's house. We also took advantage of the 85 degree sunny weather by heading down to the clubhouse pool for a little bit. We hit the road by 7:30 that night and Nolan was asleep before we even started the car! It made for a peaceful drive back given that he slept the entire ride.

Day Six: Magic Kingdom

Another beautiful day in Orlando...high 70's and sunny. We decided that late February was a really good time to be going to the parks...not too hot, not too crowded, and the lines were manageable. Dave and I remember going to Magic Kingdom as kids and it was cool to experience it through Nolan's eyes. We quickly realized that we're in a new phase of our lives when Disney/Orlando is a vacation spot for us.

There were a lot of great toddler rides at Magic Kingdom. Here's a list of everything we went on:

- It's a Small World
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Peter Pan's Flight
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Jungle Cruise
- Walt Disney World Railroad
- Pooh's Playful Spot (playground)

We knew we wanted to go to the 7:15pm lights parade so we knew Nolan had to get a nap in if he was going to last. We grabbed lunch at the park, then made our way back to the condo. Nolan slept during the monorail and tram rides back to the parking lot, then slept during the car ride back to the condo. By the time we got back to the condo, he had been sleeping for 30 minutes...he woke up as we were getting him out of the car and decided he was reenergized! A nap at the condo failed miserably, but at least he got some down time talking and singing in his crib. We made our way back to the park after a couple hours and stood in line for about 45 minutes for the Jungle Cruise. It was cute (fake animals), but definitely nowhere close to as good as the Kilimanjaro Safari Cruise at Animal Kingdom.

The lights parade was fun for the kids. We got seats in the front row along the parade route and Nolan got a kick out of seeing "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck" who he had been talking about all week. He also was excited to see Pluto and Goofy or "the two dogs" as he calls them. The fireworks afterwards were really good...it was pretty having the Disney castle as the backdrop. We also got to see Tinkerbell fly out of the castle at the start of the fireworks.

All in all a good day...we felt like we hit everything there that a 2 year old would like. I look forward to coming back when the kids are older (and I'm not pregnant) and we can go on all the great roller coasters (Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, etc).

Slideshow of all the pictures from the day:

Day Five: A Little R&R

Today was a much needed low-key day. We basically hung out at the condo all day and did a whole lot of nothing. Nolan got in a three hour nap. Since it was cloudy and a little bit cool we decided to skip the pool. Nolan was all about having us read him books and watch videos for most of the day. It was good for all of us to rest up before our big day at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow.

Dave and Kevin's fraternity brother Mike Mueller lives in Orlando with his wife Renee and six year old daughter Emily. They invited us over to their house for dinner. We had a fun night of catching up and making homemade pizza. Emily was so good with the boys.



Just in case you're wondering, we didn't purposely dress the kids alike! It was just a completely random coincidence.


Nolan, Andrew, and Emily at the kids' table:

Day Four: SeaWorld

Day Three: Animal Kingdom

What a great day! Nolan was such a happy little guy and absolutely loved seeing all the animals. I wasn't sure how long he would last, but believe it or not we were at the park from 10:00 - 5:00 and he was full of energy the entire day and in a great mood. We initially were thinking we would go back to the condo for lunch/naptime, but since it was only open until 6:00 and there was so much to see, we decided to just keep chugging along. I don't think Nolan has ever gone a day without having some sort of nap, but he did great today. He was asleep for the night by 7:00. Dave and I had so much fun seeing his reactions to the animals. The highlight of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride. It was another beautiful day today...low to mid 70's, sunny with blue skies. The plan for tomorrow is SeaWorld! Here's a slideshow of the Animal Kingdom pictures:

Day Two: Off to a rough start...

We all decided that we should stick by the condo today and not hit the parks right away. That way the boys were able to get a good night's sleep last night and got a good nap in today. That turned out to be a really good decision because Nolan ended up spiking a fever last night and was pretty out of it and lethargic today...just not himself at all. He seemed to be doing a little better after naptime so we went to the pool and playground for a little bit. We went to downtown Disney for dinner and he ended up just falling asleep in the stroller and skipped dinner altogether. Once again...not like Nolan at all. By the time we got back to the condo, he had a 103 fever and his breaths were really shallow...yikes!! So after yet another dose of Ibuprofen and some puffs on his inhaler, we put him to bed and hoped for the best. He slept great through the night and was like a new man in the morning! Happy, cheery...and ready to see "lots of animals" at Animal Kingdom he told us! So we decided to give Animal Kingdom a go.


Nolan was definitely out of sorts today:

We're going to Disney World!

DAY ONE: ORLANDO OR BUST!!

After hearing that Chicago was supposed to get six inches of snow today, we were nervous about our flight getting out. We woke up to three inches of snow on the ground and it was supposed to keep snowing all day. Our 12:10 flight was still supposedly on-time so we took a cab to Midway and hoped for the best. You have to give it to Southwest. They manage to fly rain or shine and our flight ended up only being delayed by 45 minutes. Dave is convinced that if we had been flying out of O'Hare we would have had a several hour delay. Nolan did great on the flight except he only managed to nap for 30 minutes all day. He was pretty animated during the takeoff and landing and thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Needless to say he crashed hard tonight! And on top of that he has a pretty bad cold which started yesterday so I'm hoping he's going to be up for everything this week. Go figure he would get sick the day before we left. His poor little nose is like a faucet.

When we got to Orlando, it was sunny and 70 degrees here...much better than back home! The condo we're staying at is gorgeous! It's the Wyndham Bonnet Creek - http://www.wyndhambonnetcreek.com/photo-gallery.php - and is practially right across the street from the Disney property. Dave's Aunt Linda and Uncle Lou were so generous and let us use a week of their time share as a wedding gift. It's 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom which is fabulous...it's great that Nolan can have his own room. Our friends Kevin, Susan, and their son Andrew were also wanting to take a family trip, so they booked at the same place and our condos are on the same floor right next to each other, so we're definitely looking forward to a fun week with them. The plan is to go to three parks over the course of the week - Animal Kingdom, SeaWorld, and Magic Kingdom.




Here is a slideshow of pictures of our condo:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nolan and I had fun making Valentine's cupcakes. He loves being my little helper in the kitchen these days. Helping stir the batter:

Helping with the frosting:

Final product....they were yummy!

Nolan had fun making a homemade card for Dada. He insisted that he use every single crayon and marker!


Dave and I enjoyed a kid-free night for Valentine's Day. Nolan stayed overnight at my parents' house. He loved it and we loved getting to sleep in!

Bring on the PB&J sandwich!

We got Nolan's allergy test results back. Of the six nuts they tested for (peanut, walnut, almond, cashew, pecan, & Brazil nut), the only one that he had a reaction to was cashews. And even that, they're calling a "low-level sensitivity" whatever that means. So the doctor gave the go-ahead for the five other nuts. I gave Nolan his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich today and he really liked it. It's been five hours and no signs of a reaction so I think we're definitely in the clear with peanuts.

One last birthday celebration!

Pada George and Mana Becky (as Nolan call thems) came for a visit this past weekend and we had a belated birthday celebration for George's 70th and Nolan's 2nd birthdays. We went to Rainforst Cafe for a fun lunch since Nolan had loved it so much when we went a couple months ago. It didn't go so well this time. The thunder and rain noises freaked him out and the tiger that was right above our table would roar ever 5-10 minutes or so and that really freaked him out! Then combine that with a dessert with sparks flying out of it and ten or so servers singing to him, he didn't know what to make of the chaos! Oh well...we tried. George, Becky, Dave, and I enjoyed a delicious brownie dessert that they brought out. Surprisingly, Nolan doesn't really get into sweets and wanted no part of the brownie or ice cream. He prefers chicken (or any type of meat) over sweets any day...we call him our little carnivore.