Home from Florida!

We flew into Detroit on Sunday after an early morning flight and i spent the last few days recovering! The trip went great though, minus a sick baby :(

The flight out went well. We made the 4 hour drive to Detroit and the kids did beautifully. Although we arrived to the airport like 2hrs ahead of time, we still ended up rushing around and just about walked on the plane after parking, getting through security and all. Which was nice, because the kids didn't have to sit around, but bad because I totally forgot to purchase drinks for them! We tried to grab a flight attendant and request some water or milk while people were boarding and you can imagine how well that went over (as it took a second visit once we were well in the air to actually receive something). Jacob did great, he LOVED every aspect of flying and I only used the portable dvd to keep him occupied, other than that the flying alone was entertainment enough. Brody, on the other hand, wasn't so impressed with flying. (Or Florida, or Mickey, or Dolphins, or heat). It was an 8pm flight and he was tired and just could not.get.comfortable. Eventually he fell asleep about 30 minutes before we landed. So then we picked up our car and realized that 2 adults and 2 kids could easily fill a 7 passenger minivan with no problem at all and it was off to the hotel. The kids were pretty excited, but fell asleep easily since it was like 1am at that point.

The next day, we left our room in search of breakfast and found the pool. It was SO HOT that we ended up just staying right there at the pool all day (I ran back to the room for suits). Our hotel was rated "Best for Families" by trip advisor and we quickly learned why. There were three pools, all the zero depth entry. One had a huge pirate ship with waterslides (Brody rode down with me a few times) and a bunch of splash fountains. One was a more traditional pool with a large waterslide that was adjacent to a huge splash playground and the third was a shaded infant pool. We spent the first day in all three and the rest of the time in the more traditional pool where Jacob practiced his "jumping in" skills. The air temp was always in the 90's and the water was about 83-84 degrees, it felt heavenly!! The pool also featured a miniature golf course, which Jacob LOVED. He would play with sweat pouring down his little face, determined to get all 18 holes in!

On Tuesday we decided to try out Sea World, which was less than a mile from our hotel. Aaron said "you could have walked!" which showed he had no idea how.stinking.hot it was. I know we have 90+ degree days with humidity in Michigan, but this was ridiculous. I don't know if we were just out of practice after that arctic winter or what, but we all struggled with the heat! Anyways, we made it to Sea World, walked around a bit and went to the dolphin show. Despite sitting in the shade, it was still unbelievably hot. Brody did NOT enjoy the show. He was just too hot. Grandma, Jacob and I thought the show was pretty amazing though. Of course the animals were spectacular, but the high diving and trapeze aspects of the show were incredible. After that we walked around some more and made our way to a restaurant with a huge shark aquarium inside. We sat at a table right next to sharks and dined while watching 12+ ft sharks swim by, it was very entertaining. It was slightly pricey, but it allowed us to all cool down and regroup for an hour - I would have paid that much just to sit in the AC for an hour, the food was just bonus! We made our way to the next show with Shamu and this time the whole family enjoyed it. Brody seemed cool enough from our lunch and I bought a misting fan to help keep him that way. And having him comfortable made a huge difference, he LOVED watching Shamu and was pointing and hollering during the whole performance. We checked out a few more exhibits and another show before we made our way back home.

Wednesday we enjoyed another pool day and then I picked up Debby and Robert from the airport in the evening. Jacob jumped in some more, holding his breath for longer and longer and he also got a ball and practiced playing catch. Brody spent too much time watching the dolphins and whales and tried to swim underwater like they did. He loves the water and thinks he is ready to take off swimming on his own!

The next day we did a little shopping and bought some water toys for the kiddos and spent more time at the pool. Jacob began swimming independently with his noodle and Brody and Robert got some new little boats that worked out perfectly. That evening we ordered Outback to go and decided Outback was the best food ever. And take out is the best invention ever.

Friday we decided to try Magic Kingdom despite the high temps. Visiting Disney, you would have NO IDEA that the economy was bad. It was packed with people and they all seemed to be spending money. The day started off pretty good, except all of our kids seemed too hot and uncomfortable. We walked around a bit and did a little jungle cruise before we decided that we needed to find an air conditioned restaurant and let these kids cool off. We walked back to the 1st restaurant we saw and while we were being seated we learned that we lucked out and picked a restaurant where the Winnie the Pooh characters visit your table while you eat! I expected Brody to be really into it and for Jacob to be scared, but they surprised me! Brody was terrified and Jacob loved it! It was so cute to watch Jacob get all excited and give the characters big hugs! Robert was cute too, he kind of acted like a teenager... definitely interested and watching the characters, but too cool to get real excited about them. Although, that may have been because he was very sick but we didn't figure that out until later... After the restaurant, we checked out a few more things and then began to get a little concerned about Robert. It was hard to tell if Robert was sick or if he was just hot, tired, teething, etc. Debby kept walking into stores in an attempt to cool him down which seemed to be working and then stopped working. At that point we decided to take him to the first aid station to have his temp checked out just in case and that is where we discovered he actually had a fever of 105.4! It was pretty scary to see such a high number. The nurses put some wet towels over him and Debby gave him a feeding. His fever came down a bit and we got escorted out of Disney and took Robert to pediatric urgent care where he was diagnosed with an inner ear infection. Once we realized how sick he was we couldn't believe how well he did all day! Poor guy! Jacob and Brody did great through the whole thing and waited very patiently.

The next day was our last day and thankfully much less eventful. We hung out around the hotel and pool and enjoyed the sun. We packed up all our gear and enjoyed another take out dinner that was fabulous!

Sunday (Mothers Day) we headed to the airport bright and early and remembered the drinks for the boys this time! Our flight went great and got in ahead of time. Brody was a little less antsy and slept about an hour this time. The only negative about our flight home was that when we were boarding the airplane I noticed a maintanance worker cleaning my seat cushion. I said "oh no, did someone get sick?" His reply? "No, I'm just dusting. It looks fine to you, doesn't it?" So based on his response I was thinking worse case possible (ewww). I sat down on the seat (what else was I going to do?) and then the flight attendant brought me and the guy behind us new seat cushions. He said he didn't know what happened, he just knew that we would want to use these. Gross. Anyways, Jacob only slept 20 minutes on the plane and didn't sleep at all during our 4 hour car ride despite getting up 2hrs before normal - I think he was pretty excited to see his dad! And best of all, he never asked to use the bathroom during the car ride!

So I think I've mostly recovered from our trip. I now have to find the motivation to finish the laundry and prepare for Jacob's 3rd Birthday Party this Saturday! Wow, three!