Orlando part 2

Part 2 of our trip consisted of the parks and the beach!  So much fun!

Downtown Disney was awesome as well.
Grandpa and Grandma Bergstrom - Don't they make good pirates :)

 Austin and Daron with the Legos!

We decided to do Magic Kingdom first.  Grandpa and Grandma Bergstrom bought Josh his first Mickey ears!  They had bought Austin his ears last year when we were at Disneyland.  Now they both have ears!
 

I think Austin's favorite part was the water.  He loves running through these water spots which made him completely soaked, but happy.




 We also loved the train ride.

 
We couldn't leave without watching the electrical light parade.
 
The next day we did Animal Kingdom.  We loved Animal Kingdom!  We went on a Safari ride.  It was so cool!

 The animals were so close we could reach out and touch them!  That Giraffe was right by me.  So fun!

Daron had Austin touch their noses :)
 

 Can you find Grandma and Austin?  They were brought up to dance!  One thing I love about Disney is they have dances and music everywhere!
Daron and I were also able to ride the new Kilimanjaro Roller Coaster ride.  It was awesome!  There was no line so we ended up riding it 3 times! 

 To end our day at Animal Kingdom we saw the Lion King.  It was a 35 minute show and it was amazing!  The costumes, dancing, singing was incredible.  It made me want to watch the Broadway show.  Next time it comes to Utah, I'm there!

The next day we did Epcot.  I am so glad we did Epcot!  Austin loved getting pictures with each of the characters.  He would get the biggest smile on his face and give them hugs and fives.

 We started by riding the few rides at the beginning of the park and then we started walking around the different countries.  We made it halfway through the park, and realized we only had 2 hours left until it closed!  We had to speed walk through the rest.  We've decided that we need 2 days for each kingdom.  Each Kingdom has so much to do and see. 

 Austin and Daron with Mater and Lightening McQueen.  They were hedges :)

 A picture of Germany.  We wanted to try some different type of food for dinner, so we decided on Moroccan food.  Let's just say, we won't do that again :)  It was okay, but nothing wonderful.

The next day was Sunday, which happened to be Mother's Day as well.  So we had a break from the parks and we first went to church which was wonderful.  It was fun to go to the same ward for two weeks.  The people there were so great.  After church we drove the hour and a half to Clearwater Beach.  We heard that Clearwater Beach was the beach to go to.  It was awesome!  The sand was the white tropical sand, the water was pretty warm.  It was so fun.  Austin absolutely loved it!
Building sandcastles and jumping in the waves.
Josh woke up for the last little bit.

 We loved our ocean day!  We stopped at a nice steakhouse on our way home.  They were giving out free desserts for mothers.  I enjoyed a nice Key Lime Pie on the way home :)

Monday we decided to do Animal Kingdom again.  We didn't make it to the Dino Land on our first day there, and Austin loves Dinosaurs, so we thought we should for sure do that Kingdom again.  Dino Land was okay, not wonderful.  It actually worked out perfect because we did what we wanted to do and then it was about 5:00 and a storm was coming in.  So we thought, let's leave!  It was nice to have done everything we wanted.  We stopped at Cici's for dinner.  We ended up going there twice while we were in Florida.  It was a great pizza buffet.  Yum!  Oh, also we went to dinner a few days prior, to a play called Smokey Bones.  It was SO GOOD!  It was like Famous Daves, except better!  They also had yummy donuts (thanks Shirley for thinking of that one!), we ended up getting some, and yum!

We then flew home on Tuesday.  The way home was a bit crazy.  We had a 3 hour wait before we even left Orlando!  And 1 1/2 hour of that was actually on the plane.  It was crazy.  But, thanks to Daron, we were able to get a $100 credit :)  So we are already planning another vacation :)

This vacation was so, so fun.  One of my favorite things to do is travel to new places.  Going to Florida for the first time was so much fun!  I loved being with my cute family and spending quality time with Shirley and Gaylyn.  We had such a blast.  I'm pretty sure I can convince Daron to go back there sometime in the future :)

Orlando part 1

Oh how I love vacation time.  There's nothing better then having my family together 24/7.  We were so spoiled by flying out to Florida for 10 wonderful, fun packed days.  The reason for choosing Florida was because Daron had a work conference.  When I heard he was going to Orlando, a smile crossed my face, and Daron knew what I was thinking :)  He would not be going by himself, he would be bringing 5 other people with him!

When we started planning our trip we decided that the first 4 days when Daron would be at conferences, that I would have the boys and just stay at our nice Hilton hotel and try to handle the boys by myself.  When Daron's parents heard about it, they offered to come with us and help out with the boys.  Wow!  We were so excited to share this vacation with Grandpa and Grandma Bergstrom.  Austin and Josh loved the bonding time they had with their grandparents.

We started out by the long flight to Baltimore and then connecting to Orlando.  The boys did incredibly well.  I was super nervous bringing Josh on a long flight, but he did really well.
Daron and Joshie ready for take off!

Austin loved the set up of movies, treats, drinks, flying high in marshmallows...what's not to love?

We arrived at our dream hotel, the Orlando Hilton.  Daron's work sure goes all out when they send him on business trips, this time I was able to enjoy it as well!  The hotel had an awesome lazy river, water slide, warm pools, hot tubs, all the wonderful outdoor amenities.  Plus, the flowers and trees were absolutely beautiful!



Josh's first swimming adventure!  He loved it!


 Cute kids ready for bed.  We sure wore them out!

The first few days while Daron was in conference, Shirley, Gaylyn, the boys and I were able to do a few fun things.
We found the Orlando temple, which was beautiful!  Austin loved seeing all the little lizards.
 

Love this picture of Austin and Grandpa!

After an hour of trying to find a park, we found an incredible one!  Great picnic and toy time.  The weather though, was so so hot!  It was about 90 degrees, with 75% humidity if not more.  It took quite  a few days to get used to.

We took a drive to downtown Orlando.  It was so interesting.  The downtown area was quite small.  It was really well kept and a pretty little city.  We drove on the outskirts were we saw some really poor areas.

While we were doing all this, Daron was able to go to his conferences, and then at night he was absolutely SPOILED!  His boss always takes him and the other England employees to nice restaurants. The conference also took the participants to Universal Studios.  Daron was able to go to the Harry Potter world and ride the rides.  I was jealous.  He said it was really cool. 

On Wednesday, after Daron finished his conference we were able to do one last swim in our dream pools, and then head to our next hotel.  Our next hotel was the Buena Visa Suites.  It was definitely not a Hilton (because we were paying for this one :), but it was so, so nice.  They had awesome FREE breakfast every morning, which included a variety of foods like bacon, eggs, pancakes, donuts, fruits, juices.  Yes, it was a wonderful way to start the day.

More to come... :)