Florida stories

Our Florida trip is going well :) We spent Monday hanging out at the hotel and also picked up some groceries. Jacob is a little slow to change and insisted he needed to wear jeans when he was getting ready to go play miniature golf with Grandma in the morning. Thankfully I talked him into shorts and he returned to the room after 36 holes with his hair wet from sweat. After their golf, we all went to the pool and were having a great time until Jacob slammed his face on the edge of the pool and cut his lip worse than what Brody did last week. Good thing he has a dentist appointment already set for the 5th! He didn't chip any teeth, but the gums were bleeding a bit where the teeth and gums meet so they definitely got knocked around. The funniest thing was that he didn't trust swimming with Grandma for about 24hrs after that experience (despite the fact that she was several feet away from him when the injury occurred).

Tuesday we woke up and started getting things together for our trip to Magic Kingdom when the fire alarm went off, evacuating the entire building. Status quo for Switzer hotel stays I suppose. At least this time it went off when we were awake (except for Austin). We heard from maintenance that some kids were responsible for the false alarm because they were playing with the sprinkler system. I tried not to get too annoyed about it since, as the mother of three boys, there is a good chance that an entire building will be evacuated some day because of my children... oh, the gray hairs that will appear then.... Anyways, we finally got everything together and headed to Disney. It was a beautiful day and much cooler than last year, but still pretty hot. Brody loved every aspect of Disney, while Jacob was a little cautious and untrusting. We ate at the Crystal Palace again this year where the kids got to meet all the Winnie the Pooh characters and this year Brody wasn't scared at all! He played peek-a-boo, he growled and he tried to pet them - it was hysterical. Jacob acted the same as last year- he seemed excited, but like he might be a little too cool for it ;) Austin did pretty good for a four month old! I purchased a new baby carrier called an Ergo before the trip because I heard it's easier on the back than our Bjorn. Well, I quickly learned that the Ergo wasn't going to work out so well because it puts his face against my sweaty, sunscreened chest. Not something I really want him to ingest! So we went back to the bjorn and it worked out well between his hat, my bebe au lait nursing cover loosely hanging over him, and a modest amount of sunscreen. He slept a lot and made cute baby faces the rest of the time, enjoying all the people watching. We left Disney the plain old boring way without a Disney escort like last time, (courtesy of Robert Brady's 105* fever) and headed back to the hotel. Grandma stayed with Austin in the hotel room while I took the boys to the pool. The boys were really good for me (thank God) and the water felt incredible.

Yesterday was a pool and miniature golf day - thankfully no injuries. :)

Today we had lunch reservations in Downtown Disney. We didn't feed the kids much for breakfast in hopes that they would eat a big lunch and that backfired on us. It was meltdown city in the restaurant. We had planned on eating at Rainforest Cafe, but Jacob didn't like the noise level and Brody was uneasy with the gorilla staring us down. I forgot my nursing cover up and tried feeding Austin under a heavy blanket and he didn't care for that, so even my little rockstar baby was having a fit! Not to mention half the restaurant caught a glimpse of my left breast! We hightailed it out of there faster than you can say "Check, please!" So we traveled to Downtown Disney to eat at.... drumroll... McDonalds! Classssy, but whatever works right? We ate outside and the kids were completely giddy over some overly friendly birds and animals. Just so you are caught up... yes, my kids are completely terrified of fake animals at Rainforest Cafe but ADORE real, dangerous, disease-ridden animals outside of McDonalds. We made up for the boring lunch by having some amazing ice cream sundaes at Ghiradelli's. YUM! Then we helped stimulate the economy a bit at a couple stores and headed back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel I made the mistake of thinking I could go play miniature golf with Jacob and Brody. Brody has no interest in playing mini golf. He only cares to throw his golf ball and club in the various waterfalls and ponds around the course. Additionally he likes to try to walk on the uneven greens, falling frequently. Once we lost all of our balls (the 11th green), we made our way to the basketball court. Things went pretty well here until Brody decided to try to throw the basketballs into the adjacent lake. So we headed back to the room and mommy was in need of a major time out and margarita. Oh, did I mention that Brody fell in the road on the way there and Jacob fell on the way back? They both ended up with skinned knees and elbows from this quick visit... lovely. Since there is no rest for the wicked, we made a family trip down to the pool and this was a great trip. Very relaxing and the boys played great. We ordered a pizza from the front desk and didn't head back up to the room until dinner had arrived.

The boys have all been sleeping great and going to bed so well. Mom and I celebrate the calmness of the evening by picking up some night caps (mudslides) from the pool bar and playing some Scrabble. Debby, I know you are jealous... we've been thinking of you and Robert a lot! Miss you guys this year :(

So we have two more days by the pool and then we will head back to Michigan. We will be stopping in Lansing on the way home to meet the newest Shadduck - Owen Charles! Born Tuesday night weighing 8#6oz. We can't wait to congratulate Chris and Charissa and say hi to big sisters Kyra and Leah.