Brent says this was a very "relaxing" trip. I'm not sure I'd go with relaxing, but we definitely had a great time. We packed a lot into the four days we were there. We flew in on Tuesday. The girls were so cute because they both insisted on having their own backpacks. Funnily enough, Calli started it when she kept putting things in and taking things out of my bags. I finally gave her her own back pack to "pack" and she loved it. She carried it around the house and had to bring it with her (along with the sidewalk chalk she tried to bring). Too funny.
Wednesday was a relatively quiet day. We didn't get in until almost midnight Tuesday so we just went to the park and in the pool and relaxed most of the day.
Wednesday night, we went to Nana's friend's house. Her friend has ponies and does birthday parties and whatnot on the weekends. We weren't sure how the girls would do. We half expected Lana to run screaming. At first, Lana was a bit timid. Calli was absolutely fascinated with the ponies (though not thrilled with being on them). Lana eventually got over being terrified (which she was at first) and would have happily rode the ponies all night. She loved it (as you can see from the video below). They also had a great swing set and trampoline. Lana never wanted to leave.
Thursday morning the Easter Bunny came to Nana's house. I called him to tell him we'd be at Nana's and that we were going to be flying out early Easter morning. He decided to come a few days early to make sure he didn't miss us. The girls were so excited. The only problem was that while Calli ran around finding eggs (kinda), Lana opened the first egg she found, figured out there was candy inside and started eating. Of course, apparently the Easter Bunny put a ton of candy in each egg - like 5x what the girls ever got in a sitting in each egg. :-) The girls definitely loved it!
Later Thursday morning, we headed to the beach for a few hours. The girls were in heaven!
Friday, it was onto Disney World. Again? I know, seems ridiculous, but Disney is running this new promotion where it's free to get in on your birthday and Lana is only free until she turns three. Nana and Pop gave me Brent's ticket (and theirs) for my birthday this year. It just made so much sense since we'll have to pay for both me and Lana next time we go. Anyway, we were more than a little nervous about the idea. Nana and Pop watched the girls Thursday night while Brent and I went out to dinner. Unfortunately, dinner wasn't the best - good food, great view, horrible service. Seriously, it was bad enough that I'm writing a letter to the manager (and I've never done that). Still, we came home to find both the girls still up, though no longer screaming. Lana gave Nana and Pop a taste of "real life" with her and it wasn't pretty. Not only did she refuse to go to sleep but she screamed and woke Calli up too. Fun times. So the girls didn't get to sleep until after 9:30 and we were leaving early Friday morning. I figured it could go either way - either they'd have a meltdown within minutes of getting there or they'd last forever.
Luckily, it was the latter. I will say that I do not recommend taking a 1-year-old to Disney, especially not a younger sibling. Calli was great but she definitely wanted to do everything Lana did including walking (not riding in the stroller), etc. Still she loved Small World again and even rode Dumbo and went to Mickey's Philharmagic. She slept through meeting the princesses again. Poor thing since Lana even brought Calli a princess dress to wear to meet them. Maybe next time (in another year or two).
Lana, of course, loved the princesses again, the shows, the parade and the rides. Her favorite was probably Dumbo or the carousel. She's been talking about Dumbo since the last time we went.
Saturday was another "quiet day". It really was good. The girls played a bit in the morning. Then they went to an Easter Egg hunt over in Nana's park. The girls loved it. Thank goodness it was designated by age and Lana was still under 3. They get distracted so easily still. They had fun, though. Then everyone took a nice long nap. Calli woke up before Lana (because Lana took so long to fall asleep) so she got some nice one-on-one time with Nana and Pop in the pool in the afternoon while Lana slept. Afterwards we had a great dinner before heading to the fountain for the girls to play and then over to the beach for the drum circle. The drum circle and beach were just a bit too much for the girls after such a hectic week so we bailed early. But they loved the fountain and had a blast.
More pics added from my good camera. Hope it's not too many for you!
