On to Orlando!

Sunday, February 22:

On Sunday morning, we finally got up and got over to Sugar & Papa’s by about 10 a.m. We spent a few hours with them in the morning and then Jacob napped there again. After Jacob’s nap, we (my grandparent, my mom, Jacob & Jeff, my brother & his wife) headed back over to my aunt’s house. She used to work in restaurants and is a fabulous cook. We helped her finish up dinner which consisted of greek salad, roast beef, creamed spinach, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, cream corn. Wow. Everything was SO good. We were stuff and couldn’t eat dessert (Mississippi Mud Pie) for a while. We sat around and my aunt had a great time playing with Jacob. He loved it. It’s funny, but Jacob loves to be surprised. So, she’d sneak around the couch, and jump out and say Boo! Jacob would laugh and laugh and say “do it again!” She did it a few times and I got video of it. I will have to post the video’s later.

Jacob is still doing great with napping & going to bed.

After everyone left, I helped my aunt make overnight caramel french toast for Monday morning.

Monday, February 24, 2009:

Jacob woke up at 5:00 am again. After listening to him toss, turn and wiggle on his aerobed, Jeff and I finally told him to hop in bed with us. Even with Jacob’s knees in my back, I was able to sleep better than I was listening to him toss & turn on his bed. We all went back to some semblance of sleep until nearly 7 a.m.! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

We got up and got going before my aunt, so we started up the french toast because we were taking it with us to my grandparents. We spent some time packing and parked Jacob in front of the DVD player so we could work on that. He was also starting to get a little bored and whiny and the DVD player did the trick.

Finally around 9 a.m. the french toast was ready and we were all heading out. We went to Sugar & Papa and fed everyone. We spent some more time visiting with them. Since my grandfather will be 87 in June, it’s so good to be able to go spend time with them. We really try to go about once a year. We went in May 2004, Sept 2005 and then because I was pregnant and all that happened when Jacob was born, we made it back in Feb 2007 when Jacob was 6 months old. Then, we went in December 2007, and now Feb 2009. We are even talking about coming back again as soon as this fall because my brother & I won free passes to Universal Studios that have to be used by Dec 2009. Anyway, it’s so tough to leave and I wish we lived closer.

We ended up leaving around 12 Noon to head to Orlando/Kissimmee, which in hindsight was not the greatest idea. The first hour, Jacob was fine. He fell asleep around 1 p.m. - which was what we were hoping - he’d take a car nap the way he did on Friday. But, this time, he woke up after only 30 minutes in a complete melt down. Poor baby. He was just exhausted and wanted to sleep. We should have let him take an early nap at my grandparents before we left. Hindsight is 20/20. He was in melt down for the next 20 minutes and not even jelly bellies could console him. He finally got interested in the jelly beans, which kept him calm until we could get to Super Wal-mart and through the first part of our shopping trip. My brother’s wife, Katherine, was so helpful in helping us with Jacob in the store (and other times too!)

We left Walmart and got to our rental house (www.vrbo.com - #51407) around 3:15 - just 45 min early. We are staying in a house in Emerald Island resort. The resort is just awesome! The clubhouse has a pool/tiki bar, a concierge, and offers things like movies, karoake night, DJ night, etc. We got our parking pass and headed off to the house. The cleaners were still there and getting ready to mop. They let us through our groceries in the fridge, and we went off to the little park down the road. After about 20 minutes, the cleaners called and said the house was ready. We got back and unloaded everything. My brother made some “welcome cocktails” for us and we checked things out and relaxed a bit. Around 4:30 ish, I popped in our Digiorno. Then, we also had a Freschetta and CPK. Hey, we like leftovers ! Katherine and I made a big salad, and we had an easy dinner our first night.

After dinner, I gave Jacob a bath and we explained his Mee-ma would be taking him to bed. Jeff and I, John & Kat, had planned to go to Epcot and visit the World Showcase because I know Epcot won’t be all that interesting to Jacob, especially the countries. So, we headed off to Epcot and got there around 6:30 p.m. Soarin’ had a 65 min wait and no fast passes, so we headed to the World Showcase. We started off in Mexico with frozen margaritas. Yum. Mine went down way too good. Then, we rode Maelstrom and had a great time being silly. We headed on, and visited Germany for a Spaten and a pretzel. We went to Japan and shopped. John & Kat bought chopsticks and sake. I bought a very pretty Japanese tea mug. Then, we headed on and went to the pub in England and Katherine and I had cider. The boys had Bodington. They have a great singer in the pub called the Hat Lady. We caught the end of her act. We really enjoyed the start of our Disney Trip!

Tuesday - we take Jacob to Animal Kingdom!