Vacation

We were blessed this year to go on a very special family vacation. We took a cruise to the Bahamas, then went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We cruised on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas for 4 nights and 5 days, visiting CocoCay and Nassau. Sean and I had cruised once before on the Disney Wonder (click here to see photos from our Disney cruise), and this ship paled in comparison...but, it was also much cheaper. What made the trip memorable for us was spending time with family and friends. We brought along Michele's mom, Darlene; Sean's sister, Lauren (the cruise was part of our graduation gift to her); and our friend, Brandon. Ethan loved being on the ship, and he was mesmerized by the ocean views. He also enjoyed playing in the pool, but Mommy and Daddy didn't care for the salt water. Thankfully, we had beautiful weather for our entire vacation. We enjoyed spending a gorgeous day at the beach on Royal Caribbean's private island, CocoCay, as well as doing some sightseeing and shopping in Nassau.

Royal Caribbean Bahamas Cruise

Our favorite part of the vacation was our time at Disney World. We only stayed a couple of days, so it was a whirlwind visit! We arrived in Port Canaveral on Friday morning, drove an hour to Orlando, checked in at our resort, then booked it over to the Disney Wilderness Lodge for our lunch reservation at 11:50 a.m. After lunch, we quickly settled into our hotel room, then went out to the various theme parks. The park hopper option was definitely the best way to maximize our short time at Disney. We hit three parks on the first day! Some of our favorite rides were: Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom; Mission: SPACE at Epcot, with the Test Track being a bit of a letdown, especially after the long wait; and Aerosmith's Rock 'n Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios (when Sean and I visited several years ago, it was MGM studios--click here if you'd like to see those pics).

With Ethan being so young, we weren't sure how he would do on the rides and in the shows. He was scared of the characters, especially when they got up close, so photo ops were limited. Michele just knew he would love the chance to dine with the Disney Junior characters from some of his favorite TV shows, but he was frightened most of the time. We had to think of creative ways to take pictures with the characters as they came to our table! Ethan had the most fun at Animal Kingdom, which was like a super, uber zoo. There were animals all over the park, and he loved every minute of it. Overall, he wasn't really into riding any of the attractions and was afraid of the live shows. I think the best experience he had was riding the buses from our resort to the theme parks. He would call them the "school bus" and loved getting on them. In fact, as we were preparing to leave, he told us he didn't want to get into "Mama's red car", but instead wanted to ride on the "school bus"! Even while looking at pictures, he will say "school bus" so we know that experience made a lasting impression. When it comes to kids, it's always the little things you least expect that bring the most amount of joy!

Ethan also received some additions to his animal posse during this vacation, compliments of Nama. He got a dolphin named Coco at the straw market on CocoCay; a stuffed dolphin from the gift store at the Nemo & Friends pavilion in Epcot; and an adorable stuffed giraffe we call "Raffie" from a truck stop on the drive home. Try as he may, he can barely carry all of them around!

Disney World