Condo Days

The condo my parents got was beautiful!  It was the same resort we stayed at when we went to Orlando four year before.  There are multiple pools there (including a lazy river, slides, splash pads and many hot tubs), a playground, a game room, and a pathway winding around the whole property.  We had a blast hanging out at the resort with all the family.  We all flew into Florida different days, but by Saturday night we were all in Orlando together.

Like I said, there were numerous pools.  Our favorite was the pirate ship pool because it had a slide and it also had the warmest water. We also loved the lazy river because there were tubes the kids could ride on and they seemed to love that. The weather was in the 70s and low 80s when we were there so it was good weather to swim, but it sometimes got a little chilly by the end, so we would always warm up in the hot tubs afterwards. We swam pretty much every day we were there...it was the kids' favorite activity.  Swimming in November feels pretty great!

 That little ball entertained these boys for hours!

When we weren't swimming, we'd play board games (like the infamous Cards Against Humanity), play on the Wii, go to the playground, walk around the resort, visit and hang out of course, and the kids would have a blast running around together.  I'm sure everyone on the 14th floor thought we were a little too loud and hyper!  

My parents spoiled their 10 grandkids!  They gave them each a Disney stuffed animal of their choice.  Those stuffed animals (Nemo for Aiden, Pluto for Brennan, and Minnie for Callie) are their new favorite animals. My parents also gave the kids other gifts throughout the week including Disney shirts and matching outfits.

My mom did a special family night about "The Last Straw" that helped us get in the Christmas spirit.  We have since started that Christmas tradition at home and the kids love doing service for family members each week.  My parents put on a really yummy Thanksgiving dinner too which is impressive to do on vacation.  We also got family pictures professionally done on Sunday.  Sadly, the weather was great the entire time we were in Orlando...except for Sunday! It rained REALLY hard...right at the time our pictures were scheduled.  So we did some family pictures in the show room condo and some outside in the rain.  

We haven't gotten the professional pictures back, but here's one Melanie snapped on her phone:

One of the days there we all went shopping at Disney Springs.  We had already taken our kids before my siblings had arrived but we wanted to go back.  The kids all loved the Lego store and they spent time building Lego cars and racing them down a track there.  They also loved the Disney souvenir shop and they wanted everything they saw! Except everything was priced crazy high (like a simple pencil was $3!) so we didn't get them anything.  We got some frozen lemonade after and then headed to Disney to ride around on the monorail.  The kids loved riding around the Disney parks and it got them really excited to go the following day.

The day we went to Disney Springs, my mom, Becca, and I showed up wearing practically the same shirt.  We must be related or something :)

One memorable (but scary) experience at the condo was when Savannah went missing.  We had all been in my parent's condo (our condo was across the hall but we spent most of the time at my parent's) and we were talking and hanging out.  Suddenly, Steve comes out of their room and asks us if we have seen Savannah (who is barely two).  But no one had seen her for 5 or 10 minutes.  So we all looked around in both condos and still couldn't see her anywhere.  So then we looked all over the 14th floor which we were staying on and she was still no where to be found.  Everyone got a little worried and split up to search for Savannah...my mom ran around the lake outside although it was already dark outside (worriedly looking in the pools and lake), and the rest of us looked on various floors of our building and every other random spot she could have possibly gone. After another 5 or 10 minutes, Nathan found Savannah on the 3rd level!  Some random people had found her knocking on their door and they held her in the hall until someone came and found her.  Apparently, Savannah had left our condo, walked to the elevator, pressed a random button (obviously level 3), and then roamed that floor until those nice people eventually found her.  She wasn't even scared at all!  But the rest of us sure were.  We were so happy to find her because those 15 or so minutes without her were sure nerve-racking!  

Other than that little scare, our condo stay was so much fun! It was a dream place to have a family reunion!