It is a Disney trip, let’s be clear on that. We’re going to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios over the next few days. The reason I title this an Orlando trip, however, is that we’re not going to parks every day. Really it’s just today that we didn’t go, and while we had to book our place for the full week, we’re probably heading back on Friday, so we also don’t have anything planned on Thursday.

My day started at 7:19 AM. I woke up, tossed around a bit. I had to pee but I didn’t want to get up. I looked at the clock and then thought this: “Well, the boys went to bed three hours later than normal last night, so surely they’ll sleep in at least a little bit.” So I figured I’d get up to pee and get back in bed, maybe doze off for a few more minutes. I didn’t think about the fact that I’d already gotten more sleep than usual. Tristen and I got in bed sometime after midnight and I read a bit to her, but I was probably asleep around 12:30. Yes, that’s earlier than usual for me.

So I walked over to the master bathroom and was just about to let go when I heard the kids. Normally I’d just go ahead and do my business then go get them, but with them waking up in a totally new environment, I wanted to make sure that nobody was freaking out and that nobody was getting into anything they shouldn’t.

They were fine, of course. It’s a bedroom with two beds and we got them to bring a crib (that looks like something from a 1950’a hospital). Each of the twins got their own bed with plenty of pillows to make sure they wouldn’t roll off. They were excited to get out of the room and look around the suite. The door to our room was open because, as I didn’t previously notice, there was a hanger hanging on the top of the door. So while I was getting milk, the boys discovered they could get into our room and were very excited to get into the big bed with Mommy. We spent a little time snuggling there before getting on with the day.

Nobody ate much breakfast. I swear these boys have all gotten worse and worse about eating as time has gone by, but as their pediatrician says, they’re not going to starve themselves.

There’s a pond behind our building and we saw some ducks in there from our screened-in porch, so we got some old bread (which happened to be in a bag we brought from last weekend when we went to Long Leaf Park because we were going to feed ducks there, but cut that plan when Milly injured herself). I took the twins and we were shortly joined by Tristen, Griffin, and Nonnie.

We were walking around after feeding the ducks and saw a hawk swoop low over the pond and alight in a tree. Watching it, we saw that there was also a squirrel in the tree, and the hawk was looking to get some breakfast. The squirrel kept staying on the opposite side of the trunk from the hawk, who would hop around on branches trying to get a good angle on the squirrel. I couldn’t leave, as I’d always wonder who won the standoff. Would the hawk get bored and leave or would the squirrel make a run for it and get caught?

In the end, the hawk did get bored. It swooped low over the ducks as there were a few medium-sized ducklings, but one of the grown-up ducks reared up and flapped its wings and the hawk flew off.

We went to a playground for a while, came back for a bit, then went to a splash pad and pool. Fawkes didn’t want to go at first. Throughout the day, he was the one who was most moody today. I’m sure it was in large part the funky schedule. Regardless, once we got to the splash pad he had a great time. We also went to a shallow kiddie pool that all three boys had fun walking and splashing around in.

The weather was decent; not exactly hot which made it very cold when you first got out of the water, but not bad. It’s actually going to be a little cool the next few days.

We came back and let the boys nibble at what lunch they deigned fit for themselves then put them down for a nap. They were all down pretty fast.

Laura’s cousin David, whom she hadn’t actually seen in decades, came for a visit and we went to Laura’s suite (right next to ours) to visit with him. I thought he was a really awesome guy. Smart, funny, a good storyteller (with plenty of stories to tell). He stuck around for dinner and I think he was staying in Laura’s extra room for the night.

Before dinner I’d gone to check and see if anyone was up from their nap. As I walked in, Fawkes was walking out of the bathroom connected to their room. Sure enough, they were awake, but I don’t think they’d been up long at all.

We got the boys down around their normal bedtime. Tristen and I prepped for tomorrow, which is Magic Kingdom day!