Our Florida Trip: The Journey Down

After waking Calleigh up far too early for her little head to take we managed to get her to have some breakfast before leaving and we were on the road by 7:30am. 

We had a long journey ahead of us, 16 hours driving 1000 miles over the course of 2 days. We did however feel fully prepared after filling the iPad up with Calleigh's favourite episodes of the Little Einsteins. 

The first leg actually went really well as Calleigh had a nice long nap, god bless those long naps. 

When we arrived at our hotel in Atlanta we were ready for a good rest, Calleigh on the other hand, after being stuck in a car seat most of the day, had other plans. We took her for a walk to the pool to tire her out a little. She enjoyed paddling her feet in the shallow end and splashing her legs about. 

When we got back to the room she still wasn't tired and carried on even when Mummy and daddy had gone to bed. They didn't have a spare cot at the hotel so she ended up sharing the bed with Daddy. It was a cracking sight waking up to Calleigh spread-eagled across the bed and Daddy just hanging onto the edge. 

After a hearty breakfast at Ihop we were back on the road for the final leg of our journey. A few wee breaks, a McDonalds and another long nap from Calleigh later we arrived at our hotel. It was a lovely room with a small kitchenette and seating area. We all got scrubbed up and headed out to explore some of Orlando before turning in for the night. 

If you want to see more on our road trip you can find it here. 

My Birthday

My Birthday is coming up very soon and Paul has planned the best best birthday ever for me. 

We are taking a road trip down to Florida and taking Calleigh for her first taste of Disneyland!!

We will be hitting the road very early Friday morning. It is a 16 hour drive from St Louis to Florida so I decided it would be best for us to stop for the night on the way down as it would be a little unfair on Calleigh to keep her cooped up in a car for that long. We have planned to take a short break whilst driving through Nashville, Tennessee, for something to eat and a little air and then we will carry on to Atlanta, Georgia, where I have booked us in a hotel for the night. On Saturday morning we will resume our journey to Florida and should arrive by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. 

I got a great bargain on a fancy hotel room from hotels.com for the week on Universal Blvd so we are close to all the attractions. We have also booked 2 days at Disney World and have decided the parks we want to do are Disney's Animal Kingdom (because Calleigh loves animals) and Magic Kingdom (which we will do on my birthday). 

On our way back we have chosen a different route and will be stopping overnight in Birmingham, Alabama and travelling through Memphis before getting back to St Louis. 

As you can imagine I am beyond excited and think this little trip is just what we need. I'm starting to miss my family and friends quite a lot. Luckily when we get back it will only be a couple of days until my mum and sister arrive in St Louis to visit! 

I hope to try and post whilst we are there but if I don't get chance I will be sure to fill you in on all the details when we get back. 

With that being said, on the off chance that anyone is interested in guest posting while I am away do get in touch. 

You can find my contact details here

From our last trip to Disney World in 2009

Cooling Down In the Pool

Remember the Princess Ball Pit we got?
Well it also doubles as a paddling pool. And with summer finally here we ditched the balls and filled it up with water to cool down on these hot days.

Calleigh really enjoyed splashing about in the water and it was great to see her having so much fun in water. With her previous dislike of water I was worried we would never get her in the pool. Now she is much more confident I plan to start taking her down to the local community pool and have some fun there. 

The St Louis Zombie Run

This post is a little different to my usual posts, mainly because it's not about Calleigh but about me instead. There's no shame in writing a little bit about yourself on your daughters blog. 

Today I took part in the St Louis Zombie Run.... as a Zombie. 

I have been looking forward to this for about a month since I found out about it on Facebook. The event itself is a 5K run (if you choose to take part as a runner). Or you could opt to be a Zombie instead and face the task of scaring the living daylights out of the innocent runners and trying to take their lives by popping the red balloons they wear around their waist. 

We headed down to Queeny Park and arrived just before 9am for check in. Once checked in I joined the queue to go and have my make up done. It all went relatively quickly and before I knew it I was an official Zombie. 

I got to ride in a school bus as me and the other Zombie's were taken to our positions along the course. I was fortunate enough to get the first Zombie spot just after the race start. We hid in the bushes and waited for the race to start. 

The runners were released in waves and I put on my best zombie act as they ran past, managing to get a few screams out of them. It is so much fun scaring random strangers, although I did get scratched by one of them near the end, accidentally of course, but it was hard to tell how bad is was as I couldn't distinguish between my own blood and the fake blood. 

Calleigh wasn't bothered much by it at all, she just kept looking at me strangely. She is a brave girl and I'm pretty sure that if I did scare her at any point she would of headbutted me anyway. 

All in all we had a brilliant day out. 

Even if I did burn my shoulders and get eaten alive by bugs. 

Customer In Training

So we went shopping earlier.....

Calleigh found the customer in training shopping cart. 

I spent the whole time running around after her zooming down the aisles. 

Watching other customers dive out of the way. 

And fearing for Paul's wallet when she made her way over to the wine aisle. 

And of course after a while she got bored! 

So I ended up pushing the tiny cart instead.. Fun

All in all a successful trip to the shops... I think.