A Family Affair

This year for Easter, we broke tradition. Instead of me coming home, I had my family come here. Mom, Dad, Mike, Sam, Sonia, Kristie, and Grandpa all made the trek to Orlando. Everyone arrived Friday evening after a few minor setbacks such as making wrong turns and delayed flights. Better late than never I always say. Sam & Kristie stayed with me in my apartment and everyone else stayed at the hotel. I’m not quite sure if they were the lucky or the unlucky ones. Either way, I was glad to have them.

On Saturday, we all went to the Tiger game in Lakeland. Unfortunately, they lost to the Indians, but I still had fun despite the rain and temperature changes. During the game Sam got himself and me last-minute tickets to the Maroon 5 concert in Kissimmee. We had a great time. The band was awesome! We had excellent seats for last minute – first row of the third section from the front and center.

Going to the concert the night before I had to sing in the choir probably wasn’t the best idea as I woke up with a sore throat and a rough voice. Although I don’t think the concert was entirely to blame, but it didn’t help. I still sang in both the 8:00 & 11:00 services (by the 11:00 my voice had mostly recovered). After church, we met up with the Otter clan (Jason, Nicole, and Christian as well as Jason's and Nicole's respective fathers). We swam for a bit at the hotel and then went out to dinner at Houston's Restaurant. Sam, the wine connoisseur, ordered us two bottles of wine. After dinner, we went hung out on the dock at the restaurant. Al Otter pulled out his video camera. We sat and chatted until it was time for the Michigan State/Kentucky game to start. We totally took over the lobby of the hotel to watch the tense game. Some people came in that started rooting for Kentucky. We jokingly ran them out. It was an exciting game: bouncing leads, double overtime. Mom kept pacing throughout the lobby. Dad seemed quite pessimistic throughout the game (especially when they went into overtime). But through it all, MSU came out on top and Mom celebrated with her rendition of the fight song.

I took the day off work on Monday. I got to sleep in. We went to lunch in Winter Park, did some shopping, and then relaxed at the hotel. We ordered in pizza for dinner. We ate in the lobby and hotel staff was nice enough to give us plates and silverware to use. Mike and Sonia headed back to Chicago that evening. Sam, Kristie, and I went to Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney with the Otters, while Mom reluctantly watched the baby (for those of you who don't know, I'm being incredibly sarcastic here). Dad found the hotel's guest laundry room and Sam remarked that that was his Disney World. We had a good time at Pleasure Island. We visited all the clubs and shows. At the comedy club, we made a big deal about who would sit by the phone because we didn't want to get called on (which didn't happed at all). The ironic thing is that when we saw the show at the Adventurer's Club, we all got picked on.

Tuesday morning, Sam and Grandpa flew back to Michigan and I went back to work. Mom, Dad and Kristie spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Mom fell in love with "all the flowers and the animals." We met for dinner at the All Star Cafe and then watched the Tiger game at Disney's Wide World of Sports - the Spring Training home for the Atlanta Braves. It wasn't a very good game. We lost 12-4. We had just about as many hits, but we couldn't bring 'em home. Dad & Kristie left after the 6th inning, but Mom & I stayed 'til the end. An interesting thing happened, though. On the way in to meet my family, I ran into a former coworker of mine. I just thought that was kind of cool considering that there were over 11,000 people there.

Today, everyone is just taking it easy. I went to work of course, but met my parent for lunch at this Italian restaurant across the street. I think Kristie is spending the day by the pool. I don't blame her. It's a perfect day! Tonight, I think we're going to eat in and maybe go see a movie.

Everyone heads back tomorrow morning. I had a great time while everyone was here. I hope they did, too. Come back again soon!