Orlando

Back in October when we were at the beach, we went on one of those timeshare tours and ended up purchasing a small Discovery plan with Wyndham hotels. Although we regret spending that money, we might as well enjoy what we've payed for so once we realized that our points expire in March of 2010 we decided we had better use them. We have 308,000 points total just to give you an idea and we only used 108,000 on this trip. We narrowed down a few choices and finally decided a couple of weeks ago on a last minute trip to Orlando. We stayed 5 nights (the first in Tallahassee to break up the drive) at the Bonnet Creek Resort on Disney property. We left last Sunday and drove for about 7 hours before calling it a night and settling in. The hotel we were booked with had just lost cable and internet due to a storm but we decided to stay anyway. We basically unloaded, put Callan down to sleep and then went to bed ourselves.

We got up the next morning, ate a nice continental breakfast and headed towards Orlando. We arrived around 2:00, grabbed some lunch and waited to check in. Our room was very nice and we had a great view of the fireworks at Disney and the pool.

Callan riding the cart

That night we headed out to our favorite restaurant at Disney, Ohana, at the Polynesian Resort. When we arrived they said it was a 3 hour wait but that they would possibly have some cancellations within the next hour and a half. We decided to wait long enough to use Will's blackberry to decide on option #2 and literally within 5 minutes they called us in. We were so excited! They have the most unbelievable food and tons of it. You pay one price and then they bring you all kinds of food and as much of it as you can eat. Salad, dumplings, noodles, chicken wings, vegetables, skewers of pork, turkey, steak and shrimp and last but not least the most unbelievable bread pudding. I didn't even know I liked bread pudding but clearly I do. We stopped at the grocery on the way home and called it a night.

Will and Callan at Ohana

Family pic outside of Ohana

Tuesday morning we got up and met Paige Stevenson at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and chatted for a while and then headed over to the Animal Kingdom. It is ridiculously crowded in the summer months and I wouldn't recommend it, at least not 33 weeks pregnant with a 15 month old. We stayed for about 3 hours and all we did was watch Nemo, the muscial. Not the greatest but we wanted to try it. Will did get to ride Everest the new roller coaster twice in 20 minutes. We left to take Callan home for a nap and then that night headed out to Epcot for dinner and a few rides. We walked around the entire circle at Epcot and ended up only riding the ride in Mexico and the Nemo ride and didn't get to eat at all because everything was so crowded. Scott, Amy, Reagan and Carley were coming over to spend a couple of nights with us and so we met them at PF Changs for a late dinner and then headed back to the room. Taylor and Tyler were at camp and missed out on the trip.

Carley at PF Changs

Wednesday we lounged around in the room while it rained and then after lunch headed to the pool for an hour or so.

Will and Callan at the pool

We came back and took showers and put the girls down while the boys played putt putt. Then we went to Wolfgang Pucks at Downtown Disney for dinner.

The girls and their "shocked" faces

Reagan and Carley

Pretty good food and then a ridiculously long walk to the other end for a cookie. Guess it was worth it though. We called it a night and headed back for a rousing rendition of Nertz for the adults.

Scott, Amy, me and Will

Thursday morning they left to head back home and we went down to all 3 of the pools and took turns swimming in each one and floating in the lazy rivers. After lunch, showers, and a nap, we went to 2 different outlet malls where we had much success! Sidenote: Callan has major constipation issues and has for a long time but now we have her on glorified Karo medicine called Lactulose. She gets a teaspoon in each morning bottle along with some prune juice throughout the day to help her issues. Well, that morning Will fixed her bottle and I told him not to worry about measuring, just eyeball it. Hmmmm. Not good. She managed 3 unbelievable diapers that day (usually we are happy with 1) and 2 of them were complete blowouts. The first blowout occurred at the first outlet mall when we were getting her out of the car in her cute little turtle bubble and realized she needed new clothes. All I had was a onesie so we put that on her for the duration of the night. Then when we got back to the hotel, she had another awful one. Worst she has ever had. Will had to clean her brand new (used it for only 2 weeks) carseat out while I took her upstairs and stripped her down for bath #2 of the night. The onesie made it to the trash can since it was completely ruined. That is the last time we don't measure the medicine. Although I'm not sure that it was all the medicine's fault since she did have prunes and prune juice that day. Hope that doesn't happen again soon.

Friday morning we left around 8:45 Florida time for home and had a really good relaxing (somewhat uncomfortable-pregnant belly + long car ride=uncomfortableness) drive home. When we were in Atlanta Will mentioned that the car was jerking a little like the van did on the beach trip drive home. We kept driving and I didn't think another thing about it until we got to Birmingham to stop for dinner. After we ate and got back in the car, the check engine light came on. Will thinks it is probably the transmission since he had just driven the van about a month ago with transmission problems and remembers the feeling. We were able to get back on the interstate and head towards home but for the next 2 hours he had to make sure that he didn't accelerate too fast so that it wouldn't have trouble shifting gears. We decided to go home through Athens so that we would be a little closer to home before we had to get off the interstate (normally we would go through Cullman). He was afraid that once we slowed down (getting on the exit ramp) that the car would stall and not be able to make it any further. We didn't want to get stopped by any lights so he managed to drive in crazy ways and turn right at lights and then u-turn around to avoid getting stopped. By the grace of God, we made it home and parked Lemon (that's her new name) in the garage until Monday when we can have it checked out. Let's just hope it doesn't cost too much.

Family photo

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. We realized this was the longest trip we've ever taken that didn't involve stopping in Tampa for part of the time. It was really nice to get away and relax since I've been having lots of contractions and nice for us to go just the 3 of us but also nice to spend it with Scott, Amy and the kids since we have never really been on a trip with them. Lizzie will be here in a maximum of 7 weeks so after her arrival we'll have to take another trip or 2 to use up all of our points. We still have many points left. Happy 4th of July and Happy Birthday to my fabulous mother-in-law, Jo Anne!

Lizzie at 33 weeks