It was Makena's first time on an airplane, and I was MORE than a little nervous. We took all sorts of games/coloring fun/books/babies and suckers. She did REALLY well. By the end of the flight down there, she was pretty sick of sitting in her seat (but for a 3 hour flight, I don't blame her!). She never cried or got loud. She just wanted to stand when she wasn't technically supposed to. ;)
When we got to the hotel room, Makena's excitement set in. It was a new place to experience, and she was bouncing off the walls and jumping on all the furniture. It reminded me of being a kid and going on vacation with my family and becoming extremely excited when we FINALLY got to our destination. She LOVED checking out every nook and cranny of the hotel room, and she especially loved the shower because she could go in and out of it (as seen in this silly picture).
The lobby of our hotel had a couple of parrots. Makena LOVED going down to talk to the birds. The bird's name was Merlot and he would say "Hello Merlot" and "Here Kitty Kitty" and meow back at us. We only got him to talk to us one time, but it was towards the beginning of the trip and Makena never forgot about it. I LOVED hearing her trying to talk to the bird. It was soooo stinkin' cute!
We ate most meals by ourself, but Kena didn't care, she had my phone to entertain her. Me? I was just thankful to have "cooking duty" off for almost a week. I would sit and enjoy people watching. I also heard many interesting conversations with my superb eaves dropping skills. And, awkwardly talked to the manager each day we were there, (I always felt my booty clench when he'd come walking over to me, regretting that we'd been spotted. He HAD to have been bored because EVERY day he had something new to talk about. I'm not a big fan of trying to carry on a conversation with someone I don't know while stuffing my face in front of them. But, anyone with a toddler knows that stuffing your face you pretty much HAVE to do because you never know when you'll need to leave!)
We had a beautiful view and a LOT of places to play during the day.
On Makena's ACTUAL Birthday day I promised her I'd take her swimming (out of ignorance). :) I was HOPING it would be a little warmer in Florida. Not so. Luckily, one of the pools was "heated"...it claimed to be 76 degrees. Makena loved it, but I was freezing. I found us a loan hot tub that wasn't being used by anyone else (and even out of the sun), and seriously enjoyed every SECOND of it. It was relaxing to me, and Makena got to swim around in her own little mini-pool.
After we went swimming, we ate at the restuarant with the awkward manager...but this time, it paid off! Makena got her meal for free, and they brought her out a cupcake with a candle and 2 balloons. She didn't eat a BIT of her meal because her cupcake was brought out at the same time, but, I figured she could splurge on her birthday.
One day we went to Universal Studios with the cast stone group to tour the "making of the haunted houses". That part wasn't as cool to me...what WAS cool was that afterwards we were set on our own and the Ragsdales got to experience Dr. Seuss Land at the park.
Then, the Saturday that Luke had off, we went to Animal Kingdom, paid entirely too much, but made memories that will last a lifetime. We first went on a "safari". It was so much fun! The animals were all very close, and to my surprise we weren't crammed in a row in the car with anyone but our family. The park was nice and clean, and the weather was PERFECT. Makena LOVED pointing out all the different animals.
They even had a petting zoo full of sheep, goats and a cow. I was AMAZED at how quickly they cleaned up after the animals poo'd. It was one of the cleanest petting zoos I've ever seen!
In "Africa", Makena played the drums with Daddy.
We saw LOTS of tigers.
And plain wore this girl OUT! I can probably count on one hand, the number of times she's fallen asleep in a stroller. It NEVER happens. She had to have been EXHAUSTED.
We took a chance however, and decided to go see the "Lion King" show, having to wake her up in the process. We were running low on the amount of show times left and happened to hit this one PERFECTLY. (Makena is VERY in to The Lion King right now). We had NO wait time, and because we were literally the last to be admitted, we got to sit in the very front row (reserved until the end for handicapped people). Makena was a little unsure of it at first, but then fell in LOVE with all of the dancing, and pointed out Simba and Timon and Pumba. And most of all, she loved clapping after every song/dance number.
After lunch, we also hit up "Finding Nemo" (which was not NEARLY as cool as the Lion King). But, Makena was so tired, she was dosing in Luke's arms. She would wake up like she'd never been asleep when she heard clapping after a scene, and join in clapping right along, and screaming "YAY!" and then, no lie, go RIGHT back to sleep. We KNEW she was out when she finally didn't wake any more to join in on the clapping.
Makena also got to experience her very first "big girl bed". At home, Makena still sleeps in her crib. She LOVES it. She doesn't try climbing out, and seriously LOVES her bed, so I figure, why change a good thing right now!? We requested a crib at the hotel. They brought a metal rickety crib the size of a pack and play. Seriously, a pack and play would've been better than this--she had no where to roll without touching hard/cold metal bars. So, I experimented one nap time, and it worked perfectly. Our couch in the room folded out into a bed. After her nap, or waking for the day, I'd fold the couch back up so she wouldn't think of the bed as a place to "play" (only to sleep) and my trickery seemed to work well. :) I had to take a picture of her plain EXHAUSTED from our day at Animal Kingdom. I love this sleepy girl.
All-in-all we had a GREAT time in Orlando. And, one of the best parts....the whole reason we were there was because Luke was attending the Cast Stone Institute's convention. The night of Makena's birthday, we had no plan to attend the awards banquet with him because we weren't sure how kids would be received. It worked out that there had been 2 cancellations, and that kids were welcome to attend. I'm SO glad. First of all, Makena was an ANGEL--and I discovered on this trip that Netflix now streams to the iphone, so Makena stayed entertained watching Barney and Dora the Explorerer while awards were given out.
My Lukey won 3 of the 11 CSI 2010 Design & Manufacturing Excellence awards given that night (For Residential, Commercial, and Manufacturing). You can go here: http://www.caststone.org/AwardWinners/2010awardwinners.pdf to see pictures of the award winning buildings. Luke's company is Dallas Cast Stone Co.
I was such a proud wife. He works hard at what he does, and I'm soooo happy it's paying off. (Architects voted on 2 of the awards he received, and the institute voted on the other one, so to me, it was being commended all around!). I'm proud of my man. Unfortunately, I didn't take a camera with me that night--Luke would've been embarrassed.
No comments:
Post a Comment