Justin and I just returned from a week long vacation in Orlando, Florida with my parents, Josh and his girlfriend Suzy. We had so much fun! It was full of lots of "Chaffin" things like Josh and Justin buying a questionable hat for my dad, which he loved and wore the whole trip. It caused my mom to ask why Justin or Josh didn't talk him out of it (personally, I thought it looked fine). My mom added to her "Debbie-isms" with "hit me with a dribble" (which means give me a little bit more coffee, apparently), adding to "can you turn that down a smackerel?" and "can I get a heat up?". Going against everyone's opinion, I wore a belt bag around all of the Disney parks-and I'd do it again! I managed to stay completely pale, despite the insane sun, while Suzy got a perfectly even tan. Josh got some sun in a weird V-shape on his chest and my mom and Justin managed to get a little splotchy. My dad also kept pretty white, like anyone who hung out by the pool in shorts, a t-shirt and a wide brimmed hat would.


Justin and Josh getting ready for a week of Florida fun!


I do have to mention on our first day at the resort, we were all in our swim suits and we piled into the tiny, non-air conditioned elevator to head down to the pool. Once it reached the 3rd floor it stopped and we were stuck. Now I've never been stuck in an elevator before but I always imagined that I'd handle it with grace and a calm manner. Nope. My mom and I were freaking out and I quickly came to the conclusion that we were going to die in there. I imagined it heating up like an oven and we were going to just die. I think my mom was on the same page because she was pounding on the elevator door yelling for help. There was a phone in there, which I'm assuming that you have to have one in all elevators by law, but, my immediate thought was that there wasn't. The woman on the speaker phone was like "is everything okay?" and I like, uncontrollably screamed "NOOOOOOOOO!". My mom was trying to keep it together over in the corner, but everyone else seemed okay. Help came quickly and we lived. Yay!

Our resort was super nice. We had a suite, so the guys got a mini apartment which was connected to the main area. My parents had the master and Suzy and I got a room with two beds and its own bathroom. The pools were really great, too. There were four, but we only ended up visiting two. It is so hot and humid in Orlando!!! Man, we were hot! The pools felt so great! It took us about 45 minutes to sunscreen up for the pools. And since I'm super white and will fry, I wore a hat whenever we were at the pool. We spent most of our time in the pool playing with a beach ball. At one point we kept it in the air for 82 volleys! Woo-hoo!

Justin, myself and mom checking out the pool from the lobby balcony for the first time.


A shot of the living room in our suite.


The pool!


Also, this was posted by the pool area. It either needs further explanation, or we weren't following the rules.


One of our main reasons for going to Orlando was to go to Disney World! I have complained to Justin for a long time that California's Disneyland is a mere speck compared to Orlando's Disney World. I've gone on and on about how Orlando's Magic Kingdom puts CA's to shame, and how CA's is pathetic, etc. After seeing Orlando's Magic Kingdom, Justin informed me that the Kingdom is an exact replica of Disneyland. Fine. But Disneyland doesn't have the dozens of parks that Disney World has, including Epcot. So there.

Here we are super excited to head to Disney World! Suzy and I had to sit in the back of the Ford Explorer the entire time. Like, the back back. Where there's no door to get in, so you have to figure out how to properly fold every seat in the car so that you can squeeze back there. I will say, once we got seated it was pretty comfortable.


We've arrived! Our first stop was Magic Kingdom.


They started the day off with a Disney Parade.


We checked out "Tomorrow Land" first. This is the place that has Space Mountain, and all the other futuristic stuff.


We had lunch in "Tomorrow Land". I can't remember the name of the cafe, but there was an alien DJ-ing in the main dining area.


Josh and Justin were the only ones brave enough to do the "Alice in Wonderland" Tea Cups. The rest of us were sure we'd throw up if we attempted it.


Shortly after the Tea Cups it started pouring. Which wasn't that bad because it was so hot out we welcomed the cool down, however we did have to buy ponchos and find somewhere where we wouldn't get drenched. So it was a perfect time for "It's a Small World". Here I am with my belt bag. A word on the belt bag. Yes, I know it's not stylish, but 1) it made it very efficient to carry around all of my stuff with out having something heavy on my shoulder, or preventing me from being hands-free; 2) it's Disney World! I wouldn't have stood out if I was wearing a miss-matched outfit, high socks with tennis shoes and a sun visor, so I'm certainly not going to stand out wearing a belt bag for crying out loud! In fact, I think I blended in more. When I mentioned I was going to sport a belt bag in Disney World, people were like "no!", as if I didn't know it was out of style. This is a place where people wear Pluto, Mickey and Minnie ears around all day people, I think I'll be okay.


This was on Thunder Mountain after it stopped raining. My dad tightened his hat so that it wouldn't fly off, giving it an even cooler look.


We stayed for the Electrical Light Parade. The castle looked so pretty! I do think the Mannheim Steamrollers song that plays along with the parade will be stuck in my head for some time...


The next day we went to Epcot! This was unanimously our favorite park. If you've never been, it basically highlights a lot of countries as well as some space/science stuff. It's more adult themed. It was Josh's birthday as well! He got a special pin, two birthday phone calls from Goofy, and all of the staff that saw his pin wished him a happy birthday.




China was really cool. They had a huge shop, a restaurant (as most of the Epcot countries do), a small museum type thing with facts and a video on the country. There was also a show outside with Chinese kids doing insanely impressive acrobatics. It was really hot out so we got a very refreshing mango smoothie. What Disney does is staff each country with people from that country, to make it as authentic as possible.
 

We had lunch in Germany. We ate at their Biergarten and it was really good! I loved their chicken! They also had bratwurst, chicken schnitzel and lots of other German cuisine. It was really cute inside, too. They sit you with other people and they sat a really nice older couple next to us.


We also caught a real gem while in Germany. We always give my dad a hard time because when he smiles in pictures he all of a sudden becomes Asian. So we're always like "open your eyes!". So now when taking a picture there's a 50% chance he'll turn Asian, and a 50% chance he'll, in an effort to not have squinty eyes, go to the other extreme, and make his eyes super wide and look a little crazy.


So, when I went to take a pic of my dad, Josh and Suzy at lunch, I realized that instead of "camera" mode, it was on "video" mode. Which, no big deal. But what serendipity, because we caught the shift from Asian to Crazy eyes in action!

We stopped in Italy and hung out in their courtyard.


While we were hanging out in the Italy courtyard a traveling performance group came along. They did a play called "Romeo and Edna" and picked my mom (much to her surprise) out of the audience to play Edna! My mother did a great job and when they were finished they gave her a "Participant Pendant" that guaranteed she'd never have to participate again. I even have some video!


We had dinner in France. It was perfect because we were seated at a window and we were able to see the fireworks show when it got dark. It was raining outside but since we were inside we didn't have to stand around in ponchos like everyone else. The staff sang "Happy Birthday" and Josh got a candle to blow out.


The next night we went to a baseball game at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. They played the San Diego Padres and lost, but it was close. We stayed till the end where we thought they might win, but no. I liked this stadium because it had a huge variety of food to choose from, although my dad said it's one of the worst designed stadiums he's been in. I got pizza and garlic fries.


Being on vacation, we of course, when we weren't at a Disney park, went out to dinner! Here are some shots of us all dressed up, ready for a night on the town.


The last Disney park we did was Hollywood. It was super hot that day, and there didn't seem to be as much to do as there was at the other parks, so after Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and a lot of ice cream sandwiches, we left the park and grabbed lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We spent a lot of the day at the pool, and then went for a steak dinner at Cattleman's Steakhouse. This was our last night in Florida so it worked out that it was a relaxing one!

Here's Mom, Dad, Josh and Suzy in front of the Tower of Terror. The guys wanted to go on it, but it was a long wait, so they skipped it.


We did not buy these hats. We were in a store and they were there...


So that is our vacation in a nutshell! I had so much fun. I am so blessed with such a wonderful amazing family, and we really enjoy being together. My fam loves Justin and Suzy. They fit in perfectly! I wish we had had two weeks in Florida! I will leave you with this video Justin got of me when we first arrived. Our plane took off from LAX at 9:30pm, and we landed in FL at 5:30am, so we didn't get any sleep! We had to wait five hours for my fam, so this is us in the Super Target parking lot after buying a GPS. Enjoy.