Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Vacations, Oh My!

I went and turned a year older recently...last Sunday to be exact. It was nice. My mom cooked me brunch and invited over some family. Chris got a TV for the bedroom - which I love and fall asleep to often now. I'm sure I will love it even more on maternity leave.

The day of my actual birthday I got on a plane to Florida. We went to Disney World...again. Yes, we were just there in February! This trip was generously financed by my mother in law though, so I couldn't not go on an awesome free trip. And yes, I am 30 weeks pregnant and lugged myself and a 2.5 year old around Disney World. Oh, and, the day before we left said 2.5 year old was diagnosed with an ear infection! Nothing like an ear infection to make you want to bring your toddler on a plane ride. So here's how it went:

Sunday: Plane ride. Eliot was incredible. He couldn't wait to get on the plane, never cried or acted like his ears hurt, and basically played with toys or technology the entire time. We did buy a brand new Mater and Lightning McQueen car for him to play with that he got to open up on the plane. Strangely, we met the rest of Chris' family walking in the airport. Drove to the condo, had some dinner, and basically relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Monday: Went to Animal Kingdom. Eliot loved the rides - he went on this crazy big Triceratops ride. I had no idea he was getting so brave. We looked at some animals, tried to keep Eliot from breaking down, and saw the Lion King which was a big hit. Eliot was noticeably....crabby....and continued to be so for the rest of the trip. Most of this is from the fact that he was up before 6:30 every morning (5:30 here) and was going to bed late. The kid couldn't sleep.

Tuesday: Chill day. We went swimming. A LOT. Eliot loved the zero depth pool.

Wednesday: Sea World. I was getting quite tired by this point. Being this pregnant and this...exhausted...was making me tired. Eliot found a train ride and rode it a lot. He went on a few other rides and we went to see the Shamu show again. Chris and I left pretty early so I could relax back at the hotel.

Thursday: Another fairly chill day. We went swimming again, and picked up food for Thanksgiving. That evening Chris and his family went out to Disney Quest. I stayed home with Eliot and went to sleep at about 8pm.

Friday: More swimming! We bummed around in the morning, Chris' nephews and brother left around noon. Chris' mom watched Eliot in the evening so we could go out. We went to see Circque du Soleil's La Nouba! It was so, so very aweseome and amazing to be out just as two adults. We walked around Downtown Disney and had some dinner. A glass of wine would've topped the night off wonderfully, but I can wait.

Saturday: Magic Kingdom. I may have overdid it. Eliot and Chris went on Dumbo and drove race cars (Eliot's favorite - he still talks about it), we all went on It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh. The adults watched a parade that Eliot slept through. That took all day. We were there from 9:30-5:30. Oh! I forgot to mention Eliot's favorite part - the Mickey train. He lost his mind over the damn train.

Sunday: Chris' mom leaves, we have to switch hotels. We swam from checkout time until lunch, and then headed over to the new hotel for Eliot's nap. The new hotel did not have a heated pool, but it did have free breakfast with Mickey waffles. Glad we didn't stay there the whole time, but I'm a sucker for free breakfast. We also discovered the rental car had a nail in its tire and spent an hour at a Walmart getting it repaired. Stupid rental cars.

Monday: Head to the ocean. Our flight didn't leave until 6:30 pm and checkout time was at 11am. So we headed out to Cocoa Beach. Eliot was all excited to go see the ocean until we got there. And then he was terrified. TERRIFIED. We held him while we put our feet in the ocean and I put him down (on dry sand) and he just started running and crying and nothing I could say or do got him to stop. I barely caught up with him. We had to sit at the back of the beach and even then he didn't like it. It is so big, and it's loud. He was scared it was going to get him. We ate at some overpriced ocean-side cafe and I felt like I'd been ripped off enough. $50 for lunch...sheesh. So we drove the hour back to Orlando, Eliot slept for about an hour and a half and we were at the airport by 2 pm. We were just seriously out of things to do. In Disney World. How sad is that?! We got home aroung 10 pm Monday night and Eliot slept like a champ last night and is napping again right now as I write this. I am so glad to be home and so glad we took Tuesday off. Being able to get laundry done and go get groceries is a necessity.

I missed home. That vacation was awesome, but also exhausting and draining because Eliot is really testing his limits lately.

I'm finally just posting this without pictures...I'll try and add more later. I think it's time for a new computer.