Flying to Orlando

When Zuri was two and we were living in Georgia, my sister Emily came to visit us for a few days.  We took her to see the sights around Atlanta and had a blast.  Emily and Zuri formed a special bond, that they still have despite the distance and time between visits.  Emily told Zuri that when she turns eight, she will take her to Disneyland, and every two years after they will go on a special trip.  

Well, she turned eight and Emily remembered her promise.  It was going to be just the two of them, but the invitation was extended to J and I as well.  J declined because he had already taken so much time off work for our vacations this summer and hunting, but I gladly accepted.  To help offset the cost, I took care of the hotel room and we split the food.  Unfortunately, our planning took place too late, and hotel rooms in Anaheim were booked out for over 13 months, but there were openings in Orlando, so instead of Disneyland, we did Disneyworld!

When I booked the hotel room, I mistakenly looked at the wrong track, so Zuri was actually in school for the week we went--I had thought she was off track.  D'oh!  The timing worked out well, though, because it was the slow period for Disneyworld and we didn't wait more than an hour for any ride.  In fact, many rides had less than a ten minute wait and we were able to ride multiple times in short periods of times.  The temperature was also pretty nice.  There was only one day that I can remember it being really hot--in Animal Kingdom, but the rest of the time it was almost perfect.

We flew the red-eye flight, and our flight was delayed, so we didn't leave Utah until after midnight.  I thought Zuri would crash on the plane, but she stayed awake until about an hour before we landed.  It was her first flight (that she could remember) and she was really excited.

Leaving so late meant arriving in Orlando super early, which wouldn't be an issue, except that check-in time for our hotel wasn't until four in the afternoon, so we had almost 12 hours to kill before we could check-in.  With Zuri being awake the nearly the whole time on the plane, it meant I was as well.  We were tired, so I took a chance and went to the hotel right away.  We got lucky and they let us check in early.  Zuri and I crashed.  Emily wasn't due to arrive in Orlando until the afternoon, so we took advantage of the time and slept.  Much needed!

Welcome to Orlando!

One of the hotel buildings...there were 18 buildings on the property!

 

The sunrise from our balcony when we arrived at our room

The view from our balcony

We had a jetted tub in our room!

 When we woke, we were starving!  The hotel was so large that they shuttled us from the check-in to our building, and of course we were near the end of the property, so it was quite a walk.  Still, we walked to the little grocery store (somewhat) nearby.  Zuri wouldn't go without first seeing the pool, and of course she had to dip her feet in!  Silly girl.  All week she talked about swimming.  I almost think she would have been content spending the whole vacation just swimming.

We picked up a few groceries at the mini-store (like a gas station store) and we were planning on getting more when Emily arrived, however, we didn't end up doing that--we went swimming instead. Zuri was pretty insistent and we spent the rest of the day in the pool.

The fountain in the pond in between buildings on our walk to the grocery store.  Every pond had an alligator warning sign posted--no swimming!

We watched as an airplane made this smiley in the sky!  How fun!

Emily's here!

"C'mon guys! I'm waiting!"

This is the life...