Almost two years ago at this point, but I'm going to try and remember as much of this trip as possible:
The husband's parents planned an excellent family vacation for all of the siblings and their families. First we flew with three small children aged 6 months, 3 years, and 5 years. I don't even remember the flight, so it was either SO awful that I have blocked it out, or it wasn't terrible - it could have gone either way.
When we first got there we were at a condo off Disney property. And there were ants everywhere. The girls got to swim in the pool for a bit and we tried to have an early night. The baby didn't sleep much, so we didn't sleep much either.
The next day we packed up and moved to the Grand Floridian which is a Disney property. This was my first time at this particular hotel. It was really nice and and has great access to Magic Kingdom.
Our first day I think we went to Magic Kingdom. It was REALLY hot and we probably overdid it. I know for sure we overdid it because that night the middle daughter had a headache/migraine from overheating and vomited before she went to bed.
The next day was long and hot as well and that night the middle daughter vomited before going to bed again. She also fell out of the bed at about 2:00am in the morning as well. I am a very light sleeper, but I heard her head hit the floor - it pulled me out of sleep. I screamed because I knew what had happened and was so freaked out about the whole situation. She was fine, but I worried about her the rest of the night.
The Grand Floridian has a sandy beach area that backs up to a little lake/lagoon area. It is right next to the splash pad and pool area. My two oldest and their cousin were playing on the sandy beach and wading ankle deep in the water. The very next week, after we were back home, an alligator dragged a young boy under at this exact same beach area where my children and niece were playing. He did not survive. And all I could think about was how easily that could have been one of my own. Terrifying.
After we had been at Disney for three days and visited all of the parks we drove south to a resort called LeHigh. the baby basically screamed and cried the entire drive to the condos. I don't recommend driving with an angry baby in the Florida heat. It turns out she needed to poop and she has never liked pooping.
The resort was a very old school resort with daily activities and games. Lots of grandparent-aged guests playing lots of shuffleboard. It was fun though. And also next to a lake that was most likely alligator infested. We didn't go near the water.
We drove about an hour to Fort Myers beach one of the days we were at LeHigh and went out to Sanibel Island another day. We got plenty of beach time with sand, water, and sun. The kids loved it.
Beach days are hard with three so young. They always had to have someone in the water with them and they got hot and cranky easily, but we still managed to build some sandcastles and eat some sandy snacks in between the tears about water stinging their eyes.
There was a really shallow sandbar out a ways at the beach on Sanibel Island - which our older girls really had fun with. There were also tons of sand-dollars - I found a couple as big as my hand, but most of them were quarter sized. I had never seen a living one that hadn't been bleached and dried out, so that was super fascinating to me. You could see the cilia covering their outside moving when you looked closely enough.
One of the last days we were in LeHigh there was a torrential rainstorm. Everything was wet and flooding because of how flat the land is down there. We played some games and watched some movies to try and pass the time. And we all met at the inlaws condo to have a nice dinner together.
I think we spent four days at LeHigh and then trekked back to Orlando to the first condo we had checked into. There were still ants everywhere. We packed up that night though because we were heading to a different hotel the next day.
We got to spend a day at Universal. It was long and hot and fun. We saw The Wizarding world of Harry Potter. Or "Harry Poppins" according to our five year old. We watched some animals do fun tricks and played in Feivel's play land. All of the cousins got to meet Dora, Boots, and Diego.
At our hotel the morning we were checking out there was a guy showing off a baby alligator. Our two oldest girls got to pet and hold it. That was pretty exciting. We don't see a lot of alligators where we live.
Travelling with three small children is never easy or simple, but I also never regret any of it. I wouldn't trade the family time and life experiences for anything.
