Our Fabulous Florida Vacation (Part 2)

On Day Five in the afternoon, we headed back on the road for the Liki Tiki Village near Orlando, a few miles from Disney World. I highly recommend this hotel. It's actually a timeshare but they merely invite you to the timeshare selling breakfast and we just don't go to it and they don't pressure you. The rooms are like apartments, and we rented a two bedroom this time. (This is our second stay there.) The price was awesome as well, $89 a night for this time of year (off season maybe?).

Anyways, we went swimming that evening and the next day Chris' mom, step-dad and brother got in. We spent the day swimming, paddle boating, and alligator show watching. Chris' sister, brother-in-law and niece arrived that evening in time for the alligator show at the hotel. We have a beautiful two year old niece and Leah and she became fast friends and were so cute together all week.

Anna and Grandma Linda.

Swimming at the hotel water park.

Anna chilling in her stroller.

Paddle boating at the hotel.

The boys at the alligator show in the hotel later that evening.

Cousin Caroline meeting Anna for the first time.

We went to our first day at Disney's Magic Kingdom on Day Six. It was magical. The kids loved it, as did Chris and I. We got there at 9 AM and went strong all day and ended the wonderful day with the night parade and finally went home at 10 PM. It was a long and fun day and the kids did so great. They were such troopers and all passed out as soon as they got in their carseats.

Caroline on the carosel.

Christopher on the "It's a Small World" ride.

Christopher with his leaf that he named "Leafy".

Leah in Minnie Mouse's kitchen.

We stayed late for the parade and the kids loved it.

We spent Day Seven at Animal Kingdom and since they close at 5 PM, we got to spend the evening with Chris' grandpa and grandma who drove up from south Florida and of course our little fishy kids swam some more.

The two older boys thought they were too old to take a picture with Pooh Bear, so they were being silly about having to get next to him and almost knocked him over.

You can't go to Disney World without getting Micky Mouse ice cream bars!

We all got pretty wet on the river rapids ride.

Spending time with family back at the hotel.

Day Eight took us to Epcot, not a hit with our kids. It was HOT and it was CROWDED. Not a good combination. The lines were super long, even with fast passes, there were not many rides and by the time we went back to the World Showcase part of Epcot at lunchtime, the kids were done. I was excited about seeing all of the countries in the World Showcase because of all that we had learned about them this school year, but it just wasn't going to happen.

Waiting for the "Test Track" ride.

We ended up getting on the monorail to cool down and took a round trip to Magic Kingdom and back, without getting off at the Magic Kingdom. No line and it wasn't crowded. And our kids love the monorail.

 We ended up getting back to the hotel in the early afternoon and swimming some more. My dad came over to visit us again and we swam and grilled by the pool and then he babysat the four older kids while Chris, Anna and I went to Downtown Disney for some window shopping. I didn't bring my camera, but if I had, you would see a picture of my peanut butter chocolate sundae from the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop. So yummy. It was so good and worth the twenty minute wait for it.

Day Nine took us back to Magic Kingdom for a wonderful relaxing round two at the happiest place on earth. It closed early that evening and I think because of that, everyone chose to go to other parks that day. Magic Kingdom was not crowded and not hot and it was a great, fun day.

She's not really a hat girl.

But she's crazy about shoes.

And she likes her some purses too.

And all of the stuffed Minnies?  She was in heaven.

Leah and Caroline were having a conversation about their pacis.  So cute!

We were sitting in this bakery on Main Street and a woman who worked there came over and gave Leah this giant cookie!

The rain waited until we drove home before it started pouring down and once we said our farewells to Chris' family, we headed back to Downtown Disney with some fun stuff planned for the kids. When Chris and I had gone the night before, we saw two places that our kids would think were heaven. The Lego Store and the T-Rex Restaurant. They loved both.

This dragon was made out of Legos!

Leah with the Lego dogs and family.

Part three coming soon.