Babymoon (of sorts)

We have struggled with figuring out good family vacations with toddlers...when I've looked into it, most of the suggestions have been to try the beach, but when you live at the beach already, what do you do?  After an exhausting, somewhat teary (both for me and Josh...Dan may have even shed a few) trip to the Smokies when Joshua was one, we've pretty much only traveled to see family or gone on trips without the kids.  The trips without the kids (Caribbean cruise, Colorado skiing, MN North Shore, staycations here in Jax) have been surprisingly frequent, so fun, and much needed for Dan and I to rest and remember who we are as a couple...but, I was anxious to do something fun as a family before Baby #3 came and we were back to babyland with its frequent naps and limited flexibility.

We decided to try a fun, resort hotel in Orlando for one night...keep it short, simple, and sweet!  The main requirement was a fun kiddie pool.  We were able to meet up with my friend, Kristin, who was visiting from Ohio, for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and a stroll around Downtown Disney.  I guess Rainforest Cafe made quite the impression on Josh because he still talks about it every day when their (super annoying toucan) commercial comes on during Curious George.  Downtown Disney turned out to be the perfect amount of Disney for the kids.  I am soooo glad we didn't try to do a theme park!  We walked around, saw a statue of Mickey Mouse (which I was surprised the kids cared about because we don't have a lot of Disney stuff and haven't watched TV or movies), and best of all in Josh's book, got to go on a free pontoon boat ride across the lagoon there.

We met Baby Jackson for the first time - I LOVED how smiley he was!

This one just cracks me up!  Poor Joshy!

It was fun to see Kristin again and meet each others' kids...the last time I'd seen her was August 2007...funny thing is, I was about as pregnant then with Josh as I was this time - go figure!

Next we headed to the hotel to check out the pool, then ate delicious dinner at Pizzeria Uno (I LOVE and miss Chicago-style pizza), and headed to bed.  The next day we played some more at the pool and headed back to Jax around naptime.  A successful family get-away...maybe we'll shoot for two nights next time?