Naples and Disney

"Helping" pack for the trip

We spent this past week in Naples and Orlando, Florida. Our great friends, the Potters, opened Julie's parent's condo to us and invited us to stay with them for part of their vacation. They were wonderful hosts and we had so much fun!

After a flight delay of about an hour and a half, we finally arrived at the condo around 1:00am on Monday morning. The boys didn't fall asleep until the car ride which was around 11:45 pm!

The first morning was a bit chilly, for Florida, so the guys decided that it was a perfect morning for golf. After taking the kids for a walk around the country club, we met up with the guys and stayed close to the condo and hung out at the "little pool" in the afternoon. After much needed naps, we got ready and headed to downtown Naples for dinner on the town. We attempted to do some shopping after dinner, but after a late night the night before, the boys were having a meltdown and it was time to get ice cream at Kilwin's and head back to the condo for bed!

Very happy about the Kilwin's:)


With two cars full of stuff and excited kiddos, we headed to Naples Beach on Tuesday. Joshua and Luke instantly ran to the shore and stayed busy playing with the shells/sand for the first hour or so that we were there! The water was a bit cold, so we didn't head too far into it. Brad played with Joshua in the water for awhile and they found a living starfish and crab.  Joshua was quite intrigued by the ocean. We walked the pier and watched the fishermen for awhile. The trip to the beach was complete with a stop for ice cream, a temper tantrum from Luke (because I took his ice cream cone for a second to take the napkin off the bottom of the cone), and a ticked off little boy who lost his ice cream cone to the seagull(because he was mad and dropped his cone).  It was a hilarious site for sure!

After a much needed afternoon nap (for all), Julie made us a yummy dinner of shish kabobs and grilled it poolside for us.  It was such a fun way to spend the evening with the kids!

We decided to spend our last day in Naples at the "big pool" at the country club.  The weather was extra hot and beautiful that day!  The kids had a blast at the pool. Joshua loved playing on the surf board, and Luke loved sitting on the stairs and playing with all the toys. We also got awesome food, poolside, from Martin (a wonderful waiter at the club). After spending some time packing and napping, we got ready and headed to Marco Island for supper.  We ate at a yummy pizza place called Joey's. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with the adults only and packing.

We got up extra early on Thursday morning to make our way to Disney World.  We took a back way of getting there and didn't get there until about noon. As soon as we drove into the park, the boys faces were priceless.  They were both so excited about seeing Mickey everywhere.  Joshua would tell us all about the different Mickeys he saw and Luke would just point and babble with the biggest grin in the world! The park was extremely busy (because kids were on "Winter break" - which we didn't realize was going on) but we still had a lot of fun. 

After waiting in a 30 minute line, the boys met Mickey! Joshua was grinning from ear to ear and gave both Mickey and Minnie huge hugs.  Luke was a little timid at first, but warmed up to them as we were about to leave.  Joshua told us that "meeting Mickey" was his favorite thing from all of Florida. 

We also saw parades and shows, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear and the carousel. We would have loved to have done more, but the heat, long lines, and tired boys had us headed back to the hotel at around 8:00.

We got up early the next morning to get on the plane. Everything went smoothly and we arrived in Chicago around noon and were home by 3:30!  Traveling with two kiddos, three and under, had its challenges, but overall it went better than could have been expected for sure!