The short version…

Pretend for a minute that it’s August with me.  Hurricane Ike threatened to hit the Florida Keys (aka, home) and we were ordered to evacuate.  It was scary because this was one of the first real threats since Hurricane Wilma flooded our house.  But I found a great daily rate at the Nickelodeon Hotel, and a fun doggy hotel for the dogs.

We headed off to Orlando, a little worried, but excited about the next few days (initially, we booked 3 days).  We stayed a full week.  The storm had slowed somewhat, but looked like it was going to miss us, phew!

My review of the hotel:
If you ever get the opportunity, it is worth it.  You really don’t need to go anywhere else in Orlando to have a fun week.  The hotel is beautiful, brightly colored, and perfect for children.  On check in, everyone is given an arm band (much to Chris’s dismay), but the adult armbands are equipped with a sensor…no need for keys!  Which means that you can literally walk out of your hotel room with nothing but your bathing suit (and sunblock).  The pool/waterpark area has towels, and most rooms are so close to that area that you really only need to walk back to your room for a quick drink or snack.
They have tons of activities for the kids, and plenty of opportunities to meet all the Nick Characters.  We didn’t go to the Character breakfast because I have this organic food obsession and one of our first stops in Orlando was the Whole Foods up the highway.  But we did meet most of the character’s anyhow.  Ashley was in a couple of the poolside activities - in one she dressed up like Wanda from the Fairily Odd Parents and shot a watergun… you get the idea.  And everyday at a certain time they have a mass sliming, where they dump this HUGE bucket of slime (green water) over the entire slide area.  Oh and there was a nice seperate area for smaller children, which was fantastic for us because the little two had as much fun as Ashley.  Ok, now for the pictures…

Riley offered Kaitlyn tips "Don’t wiggly too much"  And "don’t get your lolly in the hair"

I was impressed!  She sat up like a big girl and was so behaved! 

Before:

She was seriously upset about the apron.  She ripped it off and threw it on the floor.  Then she took off her shirt.  I guess she felt in her element, because that was the end of the dramatics!

The first snip:

Blowing it dry "so tickles"

As an added bonus - Grandma took the photos, so yes, that is ME!!  Amazing!

And the final product, so beautiful!

I’d say that the most fun, and interesting part of the day was the frogs.  We lowered the awnings above the windows, and a bunch of frogs (like 10!) decided to ride out the storm inside that awning.  The kids thought it was awesome and set to naming the frogs.  I decided that I needed a picture of these smart froggies.  Now here was a problem, I certainly wasn’t going outside with my camera.  And it was too dark out to shoot through the window.  So we opened it (it’s the louvered kind) and I stuck my camera out.  Scary (for me) but effective.  I edited and added the TTV effect because it’s my new favorite thing to do.   I wanted to get long shot showing just how many frogs were there, but it just wouldn’t work with the lighting and the window. 

Today we’re supposed to have storms too (obviously not like yesterday).  Hopefully it will be dry long enough for me to go set those trees upright.  

Me: Kaitlyn did you pee on my floor.

Kaitlyn: Giggle giggle giggle …  Noooooooo … giggle giggle

Kaitlyn: Meow

Me: Did KITTY pee on my floor?

Kaitlyn: Giggle giggle YES!

Great!

She is fully interested in peeing in the potty…but does that mean she will?  Let us all hope so.  I made her some training pants and I bought some, all with a hidden PUL (fused leakproof fabric) layer.  So when she pees in them it just stays with her - and not on my couch or floor…sigh.

So, keep your fingers crossed that this short lived, and she takes to peeing in the potty sooner rather than later.

Oh and for the title to this post.  I realized that I never did put the rest of those pictures up here.  And since I’m in love with them and plan on ordering at least one of them HUGE…you should see them.  So here are a couple of my absolute fav’s

I’ve also been working on some more sketches.  I am going to get some watercolor paints and work with those next.  In the meantime, here is something a little more "mod"  what do you think?

I call it - a place for swinging 

In the meantime, I’ll post some new pictures of the kids soon.  They’ve been busy in the splash pool, eating popscicles, oh and we cannot forget - imaginary trips to the moon (aka, the back corner of our lawn)

Here’s Kaitlyn, not so patiently waiting on her ice cream.

And here’s one of each of the kids enjoying a Blizzard - might actually be Kaitlyn’s first blizzard.

After the ice cream, we headed over to the big party.  They loved the big waterslide, it was huge!  Riley climbed up and went down one side, and Kaitlyn got help from daddy for the other side. 

Then they played on the bounce house, which I don’t have pictures of because Kaitlyn made me get in that thing.  She loved it.  Riley loved it.  Let’s just say they could have stayed in that thing all day long.  Then we ate lunch, yummy!  And we hung out on the playground.

Libby handing out with her daddy!

And relaxed cloud watching - at least for a minute or two haha.

Then we went over to the beach and watched the fireworks over the ocean.  It was so beautiful, and relaxing.  The children weren’t afraid of the booms from the fireworks.  And Kaitlyn described the fireworks as "so cute"  It was really ended up being one of the best days.