Fun in the Fall Sun

While everyone here in Georgia was experiencing the first nights of freezing weather this fall, Josh, Olivia, and I were basking in the Florida sun!!!
The weekend before Olivia's first birthday, we loaded up the car with sunscreen (and most of the house) and headed for Sunny Orlando. We were told that Orlando would have temperate weather (and I read on the internet that all of the resort's pools were heated) so we hoped to escape the 30-40 degree nights in exchange for some sun bathing and splashing in the pool - and that we did.
The resort has three pools, but the newest is called Splash Lagoon and it's a 12 acre water adventure. There are two cool water slides that even impressed Josh. There's also a long, relaxing lazy river with all sorts of water features. Olivia loved every moment in the water. We had to force her to get out when she started turning into a raisen, but after a few minutes out and a snack, she was running right back for that big blue bathtub. The funniest story from the pool was when we were floating down the river and Olivia was in her baby float and Josh was hanging on to the side of my float. He and I were talking and watching Olivia (she was floating like 2 feet in front of us) and this lady jumped up and headed toward her. I guess she saw us and realized that Olivia was with us, and then she laughed at herself. She thought my 12 month old kid was floating down the river alone....(what kinda parent does she think I am!!)


They also had these fountains at the entrance to the pool, and they amazed Olivia. She watched as the water shot out above her head, and then suddenly it would sink back beneath the ground. What was this??? It took her a while to figure it out. Do you splash in it? Do you grab it? Can you taste it? She ran from spout to spout grabbing at the water like she was going to tear it from it's stream, but alas, her little hands went right through the shoots of COLD water. (This was the only water attraction that wasn't heated...and it was freezing!!)

On Monday night, Olivia's birthday, we took her to Universal City Walk. Josh and I love walking around that area checking out the venues. Olivia loved it even more. She ran around the courtyard and even made quite a few new friends. Two little girls in particular caught her eye and they chased each other around for quite a while. We ate at Daddy's favorite resteraunt, Bubba Gump's Shrimp, but Mommy creamed him on Forest Gump trivia!!! Run, Mommy, Run!!
We did spend one day away from the pool. Josh convinced us to go to WonderWorks. It's this huge upside down building, but we weren't sure what was in it. We found that it was full of science fun that boggled the mind. One not so scientific game was the baseball pitch. As you can see, Daddy's already teaching Olivia a little about pitching.
Our last night on the resort was spent outdoors. We took Olivia to one of the four put-put courses on property, and she loved it. She couldn't quite figure out how to use the club, but she certainly knew where the balls went. It was the first time EVER that Josh and I weren't competative on the Golf Course....and we had a blast letting Olivia pick up the balls and do with them what ever she wanted.

Overall, we had the best vacation in the world. We're debating on whether or not we want to go back to Orange Lake next year with Olivia and Sweetpea, or if we want to try someplace new. One thing's for sure, you can definetely go to Orlando and spend the whole week on the resort and NEVER run out of stuff to do. It was hard coming home, but if there's one thing that we'll learn for next time.....AirTran all the way!!!