Orlando

We're back!

OK, so probably 99% of those who read this journal had no idea I was gone...but then my husband was careful to remind me of the obvious before we left on vacation. John - "Don't announce that you are going away for a week in your journal...someone might take that as an invitation to clean out the house of all our valuables while we're gone." Uh, ok honey. Momma didn't raise no fool. Ha!

Forgive me if I sound a little...uh...off. We are all sick. Well, let me start at the beginning.

John was wooed away from his old job and starts a new job on Tuesday. The decision to change companies came up rather suddenly and the decision to take a week off and go on vacation between gigs was decided upon even more suddenly. We found ourselves up REALLY late one night trying to decide where to go, find flights and book the trip. Woosh! Disney World was #2 on my short list of where I wanted to go but after some research on my #1 choice, Disney won. Who wants to swim in ice cold pool water in February? Not me!

The day after we had our trip all booked and charged to the credit card, I came down with a bad cold. I'd been doing fairly well avoiding all the germs flying around this house in the past couple months. Ugh! I had four days to ply myself with orange juice and cold medications in an attempt to get better. By the time the weekend arrived and we were headed for JFK (to fly JetBlue), I was still popping decongestants but not feeling too horrible.

Tyler did FANTASTIC on the plane. I had tons of snacks, toys and activities to keep him busy and JetBlue has TV screens and DirectTV FREE at every seat. Ty was able to watch Boomerang (the classic cartoon channel) and Nick the whole way down. Wonderful! Arrival in Orlando was uneventful and we got to Disney's Beach Club Resort right about dinner time.

We boarded the boat and motored across the lake to eat dinner at Spoodles on "The Boardwalk". We were staying at one of Disney's Epcot property resorts and I was told there were some good places to eat around the lake. Dinner was tasty,but after a long travel day, Tyler was starting to melt down a bit. He barely touched his dinner and kept telling us he wanted to go home. *sigh* Back in the room (which was decorated with a very cute old-fashioned beach theme) Tyler passed out less than five minutes after his head hit the pillow.

Around midnight, I woke up to the sounds of pained moaning. Uh oh. Tyler was burning up with fever! John sprang into action and morphed into Super Dad. He flew at the speed of light to the front desk, found a pharmacy nearby that was open 24 hours and the location of the nearest emergency care clinic (if needed). He raced out into the night and returned with a thermometer and various medications to attack Tyler's fever. 103.2 under Tyler's arm...which translates to close to 105. Talk about scary!

Super Dad had come back with Tyler's favorite grape flavored chewable Motrin...but Ty wasn't able to chew/swallow easily. So Super Dad smushed up the pills and dissolved them in a small amount of water. Mission accomplished!

By morning Tyler was cooler, but still measuring 101+ under his arm. We stayed in the room all day and fed him juice, water and more Motrin. By day 2, his fever was holding at about 100 and he was itching to get out of the room.

We finally decided to take him to the little beach that was right behind our hotel so he could sit and dig in the sun. Ty was very unhappy with how bright the sun was (he seemed very light sensitive) so we moved to a shady spot on the sandy volleyball court to do a little sand castle construction.

We weren't outside for long, but it was enough to make Tyler happy. I felt so badly for him! We had so many plans, but not much you can do with a sick toddler. The next day his temp was hovering right around 99 and we decided to risk a visit to the Magic Kingdom.

Tyler had a ball at TomorrowLand and told us he wanted to live on the new Buzz Lightyear ride. Literally. Live IN the ride. Ha! What a kid. We rode that and the transit train twice. We had the best burgers right in TomorrowLand (I think the place is called Starlighters) and Ty nibbled at his chicken nuggets and apple sauce. He still wasn't eating much. We made sure he drank plenty of water and juice.

After a ride on Goofy's Barn Stormer rollercoaster and play in the tot lot, we could see that was going to be it for the day. Ty was fading fast.

The next day Ty was feeling even better so we crammed in some time at Stormalong Bay (a cool network of sandy bottom kid pools and a lazy river ride (sit in an inflatable and let the current carry you around a lovely landscaped "river") located at our resort. Then we spent the evening at Magic Kingdom catching some of the rides we hadn't gotten to the day before.

Ty loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and Peter Pan. I was VERY bummed that the Dumbo ride and It's A Small World were closed for renovation. Many age appropriate rides were closed. John was making obscure movie references by calling the park "Wally World". 10 Points if you can tell me where that came from. *wink*

After the 7pm fireworks (very nice show!) Ty was ready to go back to the room again. John was complaining about a sore throat and I was feeling heavy chested and bone weary.

By the next morning, both John and I were sick. I was coughing up a lung and he was stuffed up and still nursing a sore throat. Tyler's temp had crept up a bit, but it wasn't too high and he was starting to get sniffly too. My coughing fits had kept me up all night, so the two boys ventured out to Epcot and left me in bed in the room. They weren't gone very long. Tyler had started to fall asleep on the Mission Space ride.

We slept in on Friday and spent the afternoon at Animal Kingdom. Tyler loved the safari ride in the open jeep. He also enjoyed brushing the animals at the petting area. We made our weary way back, Tyler passed out in bed without any dinner and we ate some more room service. Saturday was our travel day to come home.

All in all, we had a nice time, but it would have been SO much better without all the illness. We missed doing a LOT. Ah well. We can go back to Disney next year.

So...we are home. We are sick. We are tired. We have a funeral to attend. Sadly, we lost John's Grandmother this week. She was 99 and living in a nursing home. Her quality of life was very low. She was wheel chair bound, nearly deaf and nearly blind. Not much to do all day when you can't see or hear well. She had a very positive attitude, however, and never complained. She often told us she would be ready to go whenever God decided to take her. No regrets. We're happy she was finally able to join her husband on the other side. She has been looking forward to seeing him again.

It's late. I have no clue what I will wear tomorrow. Usually fat women have no short supply of black clothing. So what's my story? I need to do laundry! I need sleep! I was without my computer for a whole week! I don't want to go to bed. *sigh*