Disney #1 - The Hotel

I can't believe our trip to Disney World is already over. So much planning and discussing and it's over before you know it. As you can imagine we took a ridiculous amount of pictures so I am splitting up my posts and will write about each park separately. This first post is probably the most boring...it's how we got there and shows our hotel. It takes a long time to search through pictures from my camera and Mondo's phone so these posts will be coming for a while.

Here we are waiting at the airport for our 0830 flight! It was the boy's first time to fly so I was a little nervous...especially about Caleb.

We had some time to get some donuts for breakfast. Caleb watched out the window for our plane to come.

Caleb did great on the plane! He watched a movie, played with guys, ate snacks. He was very quiet until the last 20 minutes or so then he was ready to get off. He got whiny but no big fits. Whew!

Of course Ethan was easy. He didn't even sit next to us.

We took the Disney Magical Express from the airport to our hotel. I'm still shocked about the lack of seat belts in buses!!

Watching cartoons on the way.

Our first day we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort. We stayed the remainder of the time at another hotel. Flight was cheaper, etc. It was a bit of a hassle to wake up the next morning, pack, rush to a new hotel, then rush to the park. Next time we will just stay at one hotel. This hotel was nice but very spread out. It had a few beaches and a nice pool area.

The weather was low 70's and the water was heated. But it was still a bit nippy for me.

Of course the boys had no problem being cold. They were so excited to be swimming again.

The big pool. Ethan had fun doing the slides.

They roasted marshmallows on the beach.

The next morning we went to Fort Wilderness Lodge and stayed there for the remainder of the week.

We got a room with bunk beds thinking the boys would love them but it backfired.

They argued over who would sleep on the top bunk. I knew it was a waste of an argument. Caleb won't sleep alone and I wasn't going to sleep squished up there.

Caleb played up there but ultimately Ethan slept on the top bunk. Caleb slept with Mondo and I. Until the next night when Ethan wanted to sleep with us too. Then Mondo ended up on the bottom bunk alone. There was just a lot of bed switching throughout the week...we'll leave it at that.

Ethan was excited about the totem poles in the hotel since he had just learned about them at school at Thanksgiving.

There was a giant Christmas tree in the lobby. Perfect for a family photo.

This is a view of the back of the hotel and part of the pool. There were also two hot tubs and a wading pool for kids.

I don't know how many times the kids went down this slide! Good old Mondo stayed in the water the most because I was freezing. I opted for the hot tub or picture taking.

There were lots of poolside activities for the kids. They got tattoos....

Did some hula-hooping...

There was a geyser that erupted every so often behind the hot tubs.

There was a beach and a playground.

One night the kids watched "The Santa Clause" on the beach. Caleb didn't last very long. He was so tired so I took him back up to the room.

Everything has Mickey ears!

Another family photo on the grounds of the hotel.

We took several pics of the kids around the back of the hotel. There was too much great landscaping not to!

This was inside our hotel. Every time we passed it they begged to "try it".

***Whew, that completes blog #1. Stay tuned for Hollywood Studios!***