Catching Up....

So, I'm not a great blogger. I can't find the time to do it on a regular basis, but for the last few vacations we've taken, I've tried to blog about our trips, which also serves as sort of a way for me to go back and relive some of our experiences.

We were in FL & Disney last week, and I'll get to the trip in a moment, but first, to catch up from where we left off in Dec 09.

Jan 10: Jacob and I took a trip with my mom to FL - two nights in Naples with Grandma Elsa and two nights in New Port Richey with Sugar & Papa. We hadn't been to FL in about 11 months, so it was a good time to go. We had a great visit with them, albeit short!

Also in January, I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd child!

February: We had a pretty decent snowstorm and had a good time playing in the snow!

March: We took a trip to Myrtle Beach for a weekend and we told our families about our new addition and learned around the 12 week mark that they were 95% sure we were having a boy. Jeff and I also celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a stay at the Hilton in Durham and a meal at the Melting Pot.

April: We had a Level II Ultrasound that confirmed we were having a boy and that all looked normal. We also went to Wilmington for the Azalea Festival where my friend from childhood & beyond, Kim Munley, was the Grand Marshall of the Azalea Parade. Thanks to Dad & Nancy, Jeff and I attended the black-tie Patron's Gala and got to spend time with Kim, her daughter Hope and her brother, Wesley.

May: We took a trip to the NC Zoo for Mother's Day, and I got a cool new camera (Yay!) Later in the month, we had a Fetal Echocardiogram at Duke which showed that this baby boy has a normal heart! We also went to Wilmington for Memorial Day Weekend and enjoyed visiting family and swimming in Dad's pool.

So that brings us to June! And our trip to FL!!

Friday, June 4: I had a morning meeting at the NC Bar Center and after the meeting, headed home. We left home around 12:30 p.m. for our trip. We drove to Savannah and arrived around 5:15 p.m. We stayed at the Embassy Suites near the airport - it's pretty new - only open a couple of months and is a new, more modern design for Embassy Suites. It was a very nice hotel! We went to dinner at a nearby Ruby Tuesday's and headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night!

Saturday, June 5: Jacob awoke right at 6 a.m. - I swear that kid has an internal clock! We had to kill time until 7 a.m. to go to breakfast at the hotel. We packed up and had the car packed before we ate. Breakfast was great - Jacob had made to order pancakes. Jeff did too. I had a yummy veggie omelet. We discovered that Jacob loves Fruit Loops - which is interesting because he has not eaten any cereal (other than occasional Frosted Strawberry Mini-Wheats) in well over one year. The E.S. breakfast also had rice krispie treats! :D We got on the rode just before 8 a.m. headed to New Port Richey to visit my grandparents. (Unfortunately, a few days before we left, my grandma, we call her "Sugar", fell and broke her hip, so she was in the hospital.) On the way, we stopped near Ocala and had lunch at a McAlister's Deli. We arrived in New Port Richey at Sugar & Papa's house and visited with Papa. Later that night, we went to the Chinese buffet in NPR that we've now gone to for our last few trips. After dinner, we headed over to my Aunt Alice's house where she had ice cream cake for Papa's 88th birthday which was that day. After cake, my Aunt & I went to visit Sugar at the hospital. We stayed until about 9:30 p.m. and I was exhausted, so we went back to her house where we were staying and Jeff and I went on to bed!

Sunday, June 6: My sweet Aunt Alice set her alarm because she knew Jacob would be up bright & early. She made us a HUGE breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit salad, muffins. Everything was delicious! Then, we headed back over to visit with Papa for a little while. We stayed until 10 a.m. and then headed to Orlando where we were meeting the Darroch family at Downtown Disney to get started on our trip! At DTD, we did a little shopping and then went to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. I was surprised to find it wasn't too busy compared to previous visits. Looking back I think that is because Sunday is probably a travel day for many people. Especially, lunch time on a Sunday. Jeff had the original sandwich, and I had the chicken cobb wrap - it was very good. Jacob went with peanut butter & jelly because that was what Sterner wanted!

After lunch, we let the boys (Jacob, Sterner & Grayson) ride the small carousel and the train ride. By then, we decided we should probably head to Super Target for groceries. When we got to Super Target, Jeff took Jacob & Sterner to look at Wii stuff on the other side of the store, while Kim tried to keep Grayson happy and the three of us (Kim, Steven & I) shopped. Our goal was to get the weeks' worth of groceries in one trip! Kim & Steven had smartly planned a menu for the week and made a list of groceries. By the time we checked out - our total bill was $273! We packed the groceries into the car which was no easy feat considering both cars were PACKED still from the trip down. We headed to our rental house - www.orlando5.com at Emerald Island Resort in Kissimmee. Jeff & I stayed at Emerald Island Resort in February 2009 with my brother & Katherine and my mom and really enjoyed it. The house we rented this year was even better! It was nicer and bigger too - its a 5 BR with 4.5 baths and it's own pool & hot tub. All the houses in the subdivision have their own pools. By the time we got to the house, it was a little before 4:00 p.m. We decided the first thing to do was to go swimming!! Well, of course, after we unloaded the cars, put away the groceries & explored the house!

After our swim, we got cleaned up and made dinner for the boys - they enjoyed fish sticks w/ veggies & fruit and we tucked them into bed by a decent hour, 7:30ish, and enjoyed an adult dinner later of steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, salad, and grilled bread. Which is the same meal we had the first night of our trip to the Outer Banks last September, so I guess now it's a tradition!! After getting dinner cleaned up, we made plans to be ready to leave for Epcot the next morning at 8 a.m.! More to come!!