Sunday, March 25, 2012

A Much Needed Getaway...

Dennis and I headed to Orlando this past Wednesday for a little getaway. We had 2 plane tickets that were about to expire and Deb got us one of their timeshare getaways for the week for a great price! Also, Dennis found out that the PGA tournament was going to be at Bay Hill that weekend, so off we went! I was a nervous wreck leading up to the trip b/c we haven't flown in about 7 years!!! More importantly, I haven't flown since I've had children, so I was having small panic attacks on the inside. I'm not a huge fan of flying anyways, but knowing that I was leaving my 2 kids behind while BOTH of us were on an airplane was a bit nerve-racking! Luckily, our flight there was very non-eventful, so that helped! We caught a cab in Orlando to our resort. We orignally had booked an "efficiency" studio room, but we thought we'd ask for an upgrade! Luckily, the lady checking us in offered us a 1 bedroom villa, which had 2 full baths, huge bedroom, full kitchen, dining area, large den, screened in balcony and....the BIGGEST jacuzzi tub I have EVER seen in my life INSIDE of our bedroom!!! Seriously? It was like a small swimming pool! Seriously, my words do it no justice! It only cost us $20 additional per night to have the 1 bedroom villa over the studio room, so we upgraded right away! We put our stuff down in our condo and went straight to eat dinner before all of the places closed.
The next morning, we got up and decided to go to Universal and Islands of Adventure theme parks for the day. We had the BEST time. I haven't ridden any roller coasters like that since I was probably a sophomore in high school and I got very sick when I did it, so I was a little skeptical about doing it again. I didn't get sick AT ALL on any of these roller coasters and there were some SERIOUS roller coasters!! We had the best time just walking around and acting like kids again. We had lunch at the Nascar Cafe (redneck, I know). It was delicious! The best part was that we had our own personal TV in our booth and Dennis loved that.
We had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant. It was REAL good too! I've always wanted to eat at one of those. It was a neat atmosphere, with lots of Forrest Gump stuff everywhere.
After dinner, we walked around the Universal City Walk a bit more and then headed back to the condo. We had a GREAT driver named "Ben" that took us everywhere the whole time we were there. He drove a pimped out new black Escalade XL and was super sweet and always on time!
Friday morning, we got up and headed to Bay Hill for the PGA tournament. I've never been to one, so I was really excited sbout going. Little did we know, since we were in a pimped out ride w/ blacked out windows, the people at Bay Hill must've thought we were somebody famous, so they sent us to the Lodge to get dropped off. Once we got there, the lady told us how to get into the tournament, and we never even had to use our tickets. Oh, to be famous...they really do get the "star" treatment!
The tournament was so much fun. We even got to be on national TV! My mom texted me during the tournament and said that she had just seen us on TV. How cool! We got just inches from Tiger, Phil, Zach and some other famous golfers at the 14th hole. We were front row and center and it was so cool to see it from that point of view. I got FRIED. Like, REALLY fried! Like, the worse sunburn I've ever had fried! Ouch.
We also learned that if you act like you know what you're doing, you can do whatever you want. So, while we were waiting for Ben to come pick us up, we walked straight into the Lodge clubhouse, walked straight into the sitting room where it's "members only" and watched the rest of the tournament. Security must've been really tight for these pro-golfers! LOL
We went and had dinner at Oceans Prime. Delicious steakhouse. The food was fantastic.
We got up Saturday morning and had NO plans for the day. So, we walked around the property and looked at all the pools and activity center. This place is HUGE. We grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and then decided to just chill by the pool for a while and head to Downtown Disney for the night. I LOVED Downtown Disney! I seriously could've spent all night long there!!!!! We had the BEST dinner at the House of Blues. It was by far the best meal we had the whole time we were there. Wow. Aaron Sanchez of the Food Network designed the menu and boy, did he hit it right on the mark! Amazing food.
Afterwards, we shopped and shopped and shopped. We went to "World of Disney" which is the worlds largest Disney store (duh). I told Dennis that I was having heart palpatations and a rush of adrenaline being in there. I could've spent hours (and a few thousand dollars) in that store!!!!!!!!!!! We bought the kids a few goodies to take home to them and then Dennis made me leave. Boo.
We got back to the condo and packed everything up.
Sunday morning, we headed back home. We had the BEST time, but we are both SO ready to see the kiddos!!!!!!!!!! This is the longest we've ever been away from them! 4 whole nights! LOL We appreciated my mom and Dennis' mom watching them and taking such good care of them while we were away. We are blessed.
I cannot wait to see them. We're currently in Raleigh for our layover and in just a little while, we're headed to Nashville!!
I cannot WAIT to head back to Orlando in 2 months WITH our kiddos!!! Ready for the MAGIC!

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