Disney Vacation 2009 - Part 3 - Tuesday

On the way to the pool. See Dianna holding the life jacket? We could borrow these for free, but we got the dire warning that if we didn't return them by the night before check out we would charged $47 on our room bill. Umm, I think we'll manage to get them back to their home on Thursday! Our area of villas is right behind Talani; there are about 4 buildings in each little rotunda or keyhole. We are about halfway from the villas to the pool in this picture. (I hope that gives you some idea of how close we are to the pool.)



Arriving at the pool area early in the morning, this is what greets us. It's so nice to have the pool(mostly) to ourselves in the morning. By lunch time, the pool will be crowded and noisy. We love getting there so early and enjoying the privacy. The pool continues under the bridge. Do you see the giant sandcastle in the background? That's the waterslide, which empties into the far end of the pool. Behind that sandcastle is a large children's area you can't see. There is a shallow pool and a playground area just for the little ones. Jarod prefers the kiddie pool, but Dianna likes the big pool.



Getting our feet wet and getting in slowly. The pool really is nice and warm, but first thing in the morning it feels a little chilly. Dianna and Jarod like to watch Daddy swim away from them, then splash back to them.

Doesn't look like Jarod's enthusiastic about this morning's lesson. He's surprisingly gotten less adventurous as the days go on. He'd just as soon sit on the steps into the pool these days.

Oh, looks like he's getting into it a little bit more. Daddy's a good teacher, so patient and encouraging.

Dianna has gotten so good at swimming. She wears her life vest and just goes all over the place. She usually needs some help getting started, like she's a little scared each time at the very beginning. She's turning circles now and swimming backwards a little. Such a big girl!

Lifeguard Jarod. Aren't his little swim trunks the cutest? He's so adorable!

Dianna sending a message to her Daddy across the pool. Do you love it?












Off to the side of the main pool area there is a hot tub (wonderful!) and a lighthouse (which you may have seen in another post). Inside the lighthouse is a sauna. Never having been in a sauna before, I decided to check it out. This "grill" is just inside the door. The room smells, for lack of a better description, dry. Hot and dry. I always thought a sauna was moist and steamy, but I guess not. Unless it's the water on your own skin that creates the steam. (If that's the case, then saunas are kinda gross.) My overall impression was just, "Hmm. Hot and dry. How about that?"









Trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Nope, not getting it.






We've been so busy every day. Each time we head out to wander the World, we tell the kids we're going on an adventure. And it has been an adventure! They've loved the picnic style lunches we've had each day (although I am truly tired of ham sandwiches). We have visited the Downtown Disney area and 10 different resorts. We've been rained on and we've been sweaty. We've been relaxed and we've been exhausted. It's been a wonderful vacation so far, with such variety of activity that we've hardly missed the parks at all.

Disney Vacation 2009 - Part 2 - Monday

Outside Once Upon A Toy at Downtown Disney
Hanging out outside of Basin. Dianna's only pretending to sleep.

Woke to beautiful blue skies on Monday morning, so it was OFF TO THE POOL! So nice! Dianna practiced swimming by wrapping one of those pool noodles around herself twice so she could stay afloat. She got pretty good at swimming a little distance from Mommy or Daddy. Jarod's so fearless. No noodle floaty for him, but he would jump off the side of the pool if he thought we were close enough to catch him. He likes to kick his legs and can move his arms but can't quite manage both at the same time. And he is NOT happy if we hold him away from us or try to get him to float on his back.

After the pool, it was breakfast on the porch. Mom and Dad Bailey joined us close to lunch time. Mandy, Ayden, and Will joined them. We ate a lunch of ham sandwiches with chips in the villa before heading out to Downtown Disney. We were able to take a boat that launches from OKW to Downtown Disney. That was fun; I think we all enjoyed seeing the sights along the way. At Downtown Disney, we enjoyed a very hot walk, stopping in a few fun stores. We went in Wonderful World of Disney, which was packed (as it usually is). Next came one of my favorite stores of all time, Basin. They sell all manner of bath products, all for a premium. The best part is the sample sink, where you can try their salt or sugar scrub for free. (Such a bargain, since one container of either would cost $28.) The sugar scrub has a lemon scent that I'm crazy about. Dad sat that store out; for some reason, stores that smell of 1000 bubble baths all at once just aren't his thing. :) Couldn't miss the Ghirardelli store. It's a tiny place, but they give out free samples of chocolate - today's feature was chocolate-peanut butter - Dad enjoyed that place a little more. :) Found the Once Upon A Toy to be fun. After a lot of walking and sweating but no buying, we were ready to leave.

As soon as we got back to the villa, we changed for the pool. As soon as we were ready for the pool, we started hearing the thunder. We changed again and made plans for supper. We went to a Golden Corral buffet not far from Disney World. Mom and Dad had to leave after supper, since Mandy had to be at work at 6:00 the next day. We decided to go back to the pool, since the bad weather was gone. We'd only been at the pool for a few minutes, though, when cold rain started and we cold hear distant thunder, so out we got. Dried off, warmed up, bundled into bed. Another great day.

The weather forcast calls for 60% chance of rain each day for the rest of the week. We're hoping for those summer-shower-kinds-of-days where the morning is fair, then the skies gray up in the afternoon. We've never had such a rainy vacation, at Disney or anywhere, but we'll make the most and best of it.

Summer Vacation, Part 1 - Sunday

Enjoying a drink and a good read on the porch.
Relaxing on the living room floor. The TV is in the island; see the kitchen in the back?

Getting the ham ready for the oven.

The porch and lovely view.

On the sidewalk to Hospitality House.

On the sidewalk from our villa to Hospitality House. Can you see the rainbow on the left side?

A couple of pictures of a beautiful rainbow we saw on the way to Hospitality House. Thank you, Lord, for the reminder of your watchcare over us!

Wow! This storage bin really IS useful! We store this Owner's Locker in Orlando and have it delivered to us for our longer vacations. We keep air freshener, a crock pot, a first aid kit, ponchos, and lots of other little things that make our villa more like home. (Last summer we bought some clothes for the kids on clearance and stored them. Now, they have a complete summer wardrobe and most of it was new and waiting at Disney for them!)

Sunday:

(About the pictures - I am inept at formatting an entry and cannot figure out how to move the pictures around. So, they're stuck at the top.)

Ahhhhhh! We made it to vacation, finally! We are so grateful for this break away from work responsibilities and for the time to spend with our wonderful children. And Disney's Old Key West Resort is a perfect setting! While the resort is LARGE (You can see a great shot of it on Google Earth.), we are quite close to the lobby building with the restaurants and gift shop and the wonderful pool area. (More on the pool to come.)

After church with the Baileys, we enjoyed a lovely ham dinner (thanks, Mom!). We hit Walmart for our week's groceries (thanks, Mandy, for the $2.76 savings!), then hit the road for Disney. We encountered a few showers on the road, but hit really rough weather as we entered Disney property. The rain was coming down so hard and thick that we could hardly see the road signs. When Talani let me out of the car at Old Key West (to be termed OKW from here on out), I got soaked in spite of the umbrella. After check-in, which went super-fast because we used Disney's new online check-in last week, I raced back out to the car. The water in the parking lot covered my feet completely in spite of my heeled sandals. We practically boated to our villa and waded our belongings in. Our villa is wonderful. So spacious. We have a one-bedroom, with a nice living room and full (but small) kitchen. A gigantic bathroom (bigger than our two bathrooms at home put together) and full laundry room are such a blessing. The living/dining area and the bedroom each have doors to our private little porch with its table, chairs, and ceiling fan. Perfect for a quiet breakfast overlooking the golf course.

I put the ham (thanks for the idea, Mom!) in the oven and we set about settling in. Even though we're only here for a few days, it's nice to put our clothes and other belongings in the drawers and pretend we live here for a little while. Since the rain stopped by 8:00 pm, we decided we'd head over to the Hospitality House (main lobby area) and check out the pool and the Wii tournament that was scheduled for the Community Hall room. The pool was open and nobody was there at all, so we decided to go back to the villa, change, and try out that pool. (It's a good thing our villa is so close to the action!) The kids LOVED the pool. After the pool, we came back to the villa, warmed up, ate leftover pizza, and put the kids to bed - they were exhausted since it was close to 10:00 pm. Talani and I sliced up the ham and put almost all of it in the fridge. We made sandwiches with the rest and enjoyed them with chips before bed. We all slept very well, and no surprise, but were up early on Monday, ready for action.

Mother's Day Photos

Just wanted to share some pictures from our Mother's Day here in sunny/hot Pensacola. Here are Barbie and the children sporting their chic island style. Thank you Mom for the beautiful lei; Barbie wore her lei to church will wear it to school on Friday. My beautiful family. They take such great outdoor pictures. I love them.

Smothering Mom with kisses.

A mother and daughter photo. So gorgeous.

Love you all so very much. Hope you had a great day and hope you have a fantastic week.

Happy Mother's Day!!

To the Mommies in our aiga: Thank you for all that you do for our families. We praise the LORD for you and could not function without your love and support.
Mom, thank you for your unwavering support and unconditional love throughout the years. We love you and cannot express in words everything that we feel for all that you have done. Thank you for being an excellent model of the Biblical wife and mother.
To Lika and Iva, I am so proud of you and wish you Happy Mother's Day. You are doing great jobs caring for your children as well as your families. I wish that we could all be together this Mom's Day, but know that we love you and are thinking about you.
For my phenomenal wife, Barbie-Happy Mother's Day, Baby! The LORD has truly blessed me with the best wife in the world. You are brilliant, organized, patient, loving, driven, caring, and the list goes on. Thank you for being such a fantastic role model for Dianna and just an overall great Mom to her and Jarod. I am totally lost without you, and this is proven true whenever you go away for CEC. You are definitely the most important person in our relationship. I daily and will forever thank the LORD for the best gift he could ever give me after my salvation - YOU. I love you forever and all the way up to the moons of Pluto and back.
Thank you all for everything our family is tremendously blest because of you. Happy Mother's Day!!

Birthday at Disney!!

Praise the LORD that my little Princess is four years old!! At 8:02pm, four years ago the Lord blessed our already incredible lives with a little bundle of joy: Dianna Noell Keloe.
Thank you to all of you for your prayers as we traveled. We made great time getting down here (we left at 3 and arrived around 11:30). We had a spectacular family day; it began with breakfast and then on to the Animal Kingdom. Some shows, some rides, plenty of animals, and one great parade later we are all very tired, but feeling great. Thank you to everyone who called and e-mailed to wish Dianna a happy birthday - it really made her day. She got to wear a button that said it was her birthday, so everyone who noticed, wished her a happy one and made her feel super special. We will be leaving the magic tomorrow morning, but we are counting down till we return in three weeks. Here are a few pictures of our day.
Dianna opening her present from Grandma Ella and Grandpa David. Thank you Mom and Dad. She loved all of her stuff. Jarod was trying to help.Not quite tall enough to ride some rides yet.
Our family with the main mouse.This is a towel shaped like a cake for Dianna from Housekeeping. Behind it is an "autographed" picture of Mickey.My babies after a full day at the Animal Kingdom Park.