Orlando with the Kolumbus/Albert Families

Our week in Orlando (last week) was filled with lots of activity. The highlight of the week was definitely FINALLY getting to meet little Kelson Albert, my niece! She is one of the prettiest little girls I've ever seen! She's so petite and just SO incredibly adorable! It's funny that she's over a week older than Corgan, but she feels so light and looks so tiny compared to him! I am so excited that Annabelle, Corgan, and Kelson are so close in age and will grow up to make fun of their Mommys together!

Some additional highlights of our time in Orlando are:

Sunday- We headed to Orlando a little later than we had planned (are you surprised?), but we managed to get in a few hours at Seaworld. Our clan (Grammy, Papa, me, Keith, Annabelle, and Corgan) met up with Kelly, Jason, and Kelson at the park and got going right away. We saw the dolphin and whale shows again. Headed to the condo to get settled in at our home for the next few days. Papa started to feel yuck, and found out the hard way that he got "the bug" that the rest of us had been passing around for the past week.

Monday- We headed to Magic Kingdom without Papa. Again, we got a later start than intended (but with 3 under 2, and a bunch of Kolumbus... again... not surprised). Annabelle had fun riding the monorail, and did really well staying in my new wheels (the Sit-N-Stand stroller that Angelle recommended). Brave Grammy watched all 3 babies and a toddler friend while Kelly, Jason, and I went on Space Mountain. Annabelle's favorites of the day were Small World, the Dumbo ride, and "horseys" (the merry-go-round) and her take-home bonus was a Mickey balloon from Grammy. When we got back to the condo that night, we found a much better Papa. :)

Tuesday- Epcot day! We intended on starting at Epcot, then heading to Animal Kingdom, but we ended up just staying at Epcot. Annabelle went on Nemo and liked it, but wasn't nearly as excited about it as I thought she'd be. She loved the interactive section (at the end of Nemo, I think) and liked the Figment ride, but her very favorite ride seemed to have been the Dino ride/show with Ellen Degeneres. Because of "The Land Before Time" movie, she's really into dinosaurs now, so even though there were some semi-scary parts of the ride, she wasn't scared and really liked the "dino ride" (as she called it). "The World" section of Epcot stayed open later than the rest of the park, so once it got dark we went around to visit the various countries, and Annabelle got another great take-home present from Grammy & Papa... a stick with a ball at the end that lights up and changes colors. :)

Wednesday- IKEA! Grammy & Papa watched all 3 kids so that I Kelly & I could go to the Orlando IKEA on its grand opening day! We didn't get there until around 1pm, so it wasn't crazy crowded and we didn't have to wait in any lines or anything. It was everything I dreamed it would be, and more! We walked through all of the showcase rooms and looked at most of the items (some twice). I got LOTS of great ideas of things to buy once the addition is done. I bought a few things, but mainly wanted to do pre-shopping for ideas for Corgan's room, the kids' bathroom, the playroom, and Keith's office. I can't wait until we have the space to put everything so that I can go back and buy the items to make the rooms of my dreams a reality! (Is it sad that I'm so incredibly excited about this?). It was great to get to spend a day with my sister too! We don't get to do that often, so after our 5 hours at IKEA (we weren't shopping the whole time... we stopped to eat a Swedish meatball meal too), we headed across the street to the mall for more shopping. Our day was great, but by the time we got back to the condo we discovered that Grammy and Papa had been struggling with the kids since A. They were all out of their element and didn't have their usual toys, etc. to keep them occupied. B. Apparently neither Corgan nor Kelson is a fan of Similac, and they didn't realize that there was Enfamil there to give them. and C. It was a VERY long day with a toddler and 2 infants who didn't want to be put down at all. Although they probably won't volunteer to do that again anytime soon, Kelly and I REALLY appreciated the time that we got together without kiddies to worry about because we knew they were in great hands!

Thursday- Kelly and family headed home and I headed back to IKEA. I lined up transportation for some bigger items (via Ben and his dad's truck) and remembered to bring my paint swatches with me for Keith's office so I headed back to actually buy quite a bit of stuff. I had SO much fun picking everything out and actually getting to purchase it! In fact, I had so much fun that I ended up getting back to the condo way later than intended and Grammy & Papa missed their flight home by about 3 minutes. :(

We really had a great, memorable week and I'm sure it's just the first of many of these types of trips. I know as the kids get older, we'll probably be making more and more trips to the Disney and Universal parks.

Pictures from our week are on our photo gallery, including a not-to-be-missed album of the cousins' first photoshoot together. My mom also got some great pictures that are available here.

P.S. One more thing... having the kids sleep in the same room wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. I think one thing that really helped was that Annabelle was so incredibly exhausted everyday so she was able to sleep through anything. Keith didn't stay in Orlando with us, so I was on the sofa bed and Corgan and Belle were in their respective beds in the living room. Annabelle was SO tired each night the she would lay down in her playpen and go to sleep, even with us still up and moving around her. Corgan did well too, except that the cold had his nose so stuffed up that he was waking up in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe well. I ended up bringing him into bed with me and sleeping with his head laying on my arm so that he was a little more upright. Although I would still take seperate rooms any day (or night), it's good to know that we can survive in the same room if we have to (at least that is the case this month). :)