Orlando - Part 1

This week, I was lucky enough to take a few days of vacation. I know that some may think that all my trips seem like a vacation. I guess I have you fooled ; ) This time, it's official. It was the first time that I had all of my children together - with their spouses! The seven of us had an INCREDIBLE time in Orlando, Florida. We spent the bulk of our time at the various DisneyWorld locations - so brace yourself for plenty of Mickey pictures....

My daughter and her husband arrived a day earlier than her brother. With the extra time, we decided to check out the Orlando LDS Temple.

A rare photo of the three of us...

Instead of staying at a hotel on this trip, we decided to rent a house (my brilliant wife's idea). It turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. The pricing was right, for the number of people we had on the trip. The home was located only minutes away from DisneyWorld, with a secured entry. The bonus was having a kitchen where we could make breakfast and dinner each day - saving us a great deal of money. In addition, it had a private pool, that we used extensively.

G-Man has an awesome Elmo towel

The next day, we went to the airport to pick-up my son and his wife. On the way there, I became more and more excited to have all my kids together. I suppose that this feeling becomes more intense as I grow older. Perhaps my kids will understand it as they build their own families. I can tell you that I was just in heaven to have everyone together in one place.

We went straight to DisneyWorld and decided to spend the day at the Magic Kingdom:

The family on Main Street

A great shot from Main Street towards Sleeping Beauty's Castle

My son and his wife. I swear there were tons of people there that day...

We went immediately to FantasyLand, so that G-Man could ride the iconic Disney attraction - Dumbo the Flying Elephant:

The heat was pretty close to oppressive. The Florida humidity was very high (for the whole trip). One way to cool off? Ice cream!

That's someone who knows how to enjoy an ice cream cone!

We tried to introduce G-Man to the possibility of meeting actual Disney characters. He enjoys the Pixar movies, as well as some of the Disney Channel. It took some warming up, but he really loved many of the characters. He's a HUGE fan of Toy Story:

This shot is typical of most of the vacation...G-Man did really well in keeping up with the very tall Robison clan. We had a stroller, for when he was tired. However, he really seemed to love this particular mode of transportation:

Riding the carousel was a huge hit

My daughter and her husband were good sports - they probably went on some rides that adults wouldn't normally go on...so that G-Man could have a really great time.

G-Man and I spent some quality time at the Swiss Family Robison Treehouse (OK, we're going to claim the spelling for today) He also really wanted to show off some "dance moves" that he was working on..

We finished the day with a very traditional photo at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom:

That evening, we all ended up at the rental house, for a wonderful home-cooked meal by my daughter. Everyone pitched in...

However, there was plenty of entertainment going on in the rest of the house. My two boys were hanging out in G-Man's room. They were playing on the bunk beds. You'll need to make sure your sound is turned up to hear G-Man's hilarious comments - including the 3 year-pld telling me to "get out!"

Next stop...Disney's Animal Kingdom....