Good morning dear reader of this blog! It's very likely that the next time I write here we will be back home in Sweden. It is our last full day in Orlando and I intend to spend it ourdoors and get some more color! I am already by the pool and enjoying every second of it. Today we will get up to 31 C and I couldn't be happier. It has been a wonderful one month in Florida and I am greatful that we could do this and we have to do it again (and again and again). I feel that both my body and soul have had a great rest and I am ready to get back to the reality. This morning i skipped breakfast cause I wanted to enjoy this wonderful glazed cinnamonbun one last time, and I am not dissapointed I can tell you that ( i will be when I will step on the scale back home :P). We will also go eat lunch at our favorite restaurant at Millers Ale House and I am looking forward to that too. As I was buying my glazed cinnamonbun this morning the cashier asked me if I was a flight attendant. I take it as a compliment ;). I told her that, no, I am a nurse, but I have heard that lot of the nurses become flight attendants. Maybe something to concider if I get tired of nursing ;). Someone asked me how much would a vacation like our cost. It all depends on what you want to do and how the dollar rate is. Our flights costed around 10 000 sek ( we bought the tickets really early and Mia flew for around 400 sek back and forth cause she is under 2 years old). When it comes to living costs, well, we moved a lot to save money and lived in different areas of Orlando. We lived in nice, but not fancy places, mostly apartment hotels. I think for one month it was like 15 000 sek (my husband is really good at finding good deals and put a lot of hours in to this). The food is quite expencive at Supermarkets. We shopped at Publix, Dollar tree and Wahlgreens. We mostly cooked our own meals, but when we ate out the average cost was around 15-16 dollars per person (20 % tip included) and then we only ate main course and drank a soda or juice. Talking about tips, you have to have a budget for that too cause you have to tip for pretty much all the services you get even when you buy coffe over the counter. I am actually not sure how much we have spent on food but maybe 5000-7000 sek. In two of the hotels we stayed was breakfast included which saved us money. And then of course all the shopping and other things you wanna do. We like to shop so a big part of our budget went to that. We didn't rent a car, but a friend said that 25 days costed them 6000 sek plus gas. We have instead spent money on taxis (when we have moved from one place to another or to and from airport). If you wanna go to Disney World than thats like 230 dollars PER PERSON and then there ate tons of other parks here that cost a little less or about the same. We didn't go to any of those cause Mia is to little to appriciate that yet. So you can spend a lot of money here but maybe now you got an idea how much a budget version on Orlando vacation can cost.

One last time by this beloved poom

Todays dress :).

There was sale at MK outlet store ;) (70 % off).

My little darling after bathing

My favorite sallad!

I did not make her do that!

Another beautiful sunny day is gone. Not many left now - monday, tuesday and on wednesday we are leaving. One month has gone really fast. I read that it was pretty warm in Sweden today too. I sure hope it will continue that way when we get back home.Something happened today that made our day even brighter -we had a quick visit from Jacksonville from a lovely couple T&F. It was so fantastic to meet them again after four years. Next time we come back we will plan a visit to Jacksonville cause this time we only had time to have a quick lunch. Thanks again for coming T&F! It was really-really nice to see you plus I am happy you got to meet our little Mia. Otherwise not much happening: hanging by the pool, sporting my new dresses ;), taking walks, shopping, running after Mia. Life is beautiful (specially when I can buy a Tommy Hilfiger clothes that had a starting price 159$ and are now 9.90$ :P).

Lets paint this town red mama! Needless to say she got even more attention than usually in this cute little outfit.

Soaking up the sun!!!

I am going to miss this view...

I am having hard time with the tip system here in USA. I just don't like it. Not because I am greedy, but because it gives me anxiety: who'm to give, when to give, how much, etc. Is he/she being genuinly nice to me or is that person being nice cause his/her tip depends on it?! The bellboy lifted my two suitcases on a luggage trolley, do I have to tip him!? Someone brought a crib up to our room, am I suppose to give him a tip? Do I leave the housekeeper a tip? Do I have to leave a tip when I buy hot drinks from a coffe shop? I wish that these unwritten rules were written ones. I want a price list, like how much for this and that. At the same time I can't give all my cash away for every little "favor".Or should I? One day when we were changeing hotels we gave three different people tips before we even got into our room. Thats crazy. I guess I just not use to this system and it makes me feel akward. Oh well, now we are back at Rosen Plaza hotel after 3 nights and Hawthorn Suites. The weather is bad again, as expected, but thats okey because now I can fill the "craks" in my suitcase with some more outlet shopping. I am ashamed to say that but today I came home with SEVEN dresses from Ross. I am not quite sure how I will bring them home, but I love each and every one of them. Where there is a will, there is a way!

Sorry for the funny fake pose, but here is one of the seven dresses ;P

Bye bye Hawthorn suites!

I miss the sun already. Haven't seen any today.

American breakfast with turkey bacon

So, we have like 7 days left in Orlando and of those 7 days only 2 will be sunny. It will still be warm during the day (over 20 C) but mostly cloudy, rainy, blaaaaah! So today I am pretty much grilling myself by the pool and enjoying the 27 C and lots of sun. I am wearing a straw hat to protect my face (cause since few years back I get these huge pigmentation spots in my face) looking at the beautiful blue sky and feeling lucky to be here. We have a pool in our new place, but its not heated so I am not so tempted to hop in just yet. Todays "sightseeing" was a morning walk to Walmart. Not that exciting, but we needed some stuff. It amuses me when the staff in different stores ask me if they can help me to my car, and when I tell them that I walked here, the impression on their face is priceless. Yesterday I ate lunch at Perkins restaurant and bakery for the very first time and I must say that the food was very tasty. Since it was really warm outside I took a chicken sallad with honeymustard dressing. When I first saw the sallad I was like, oh boy, how am I going to eat that, this thing is huge! But then I discovered that most of it was lettuce so I munched it up. I also ordered a little piece of pie. I can't remember ever trying one whem I have been to the States. It was a chocolate pie, but the only thing that was baked was the crust. Rest of it was pie filling (chocolate mousse and whipped cream). Nevertheless it was very good and that little piece was just enough because it had a really rich taste. By the way, did I tell you that Mia can speak few words in Englih now? "änk juuu" (thank you), bye bye, mooooning (good morning) and "cash" ha ha.

My "little" chicken sallad

American take on a pie

Hello Walmart

Grilling

Ahhh

As usually, when in USA, I have gained weight. I am not sure how much because I still fit into my jeans, but I see from the pics that my curvrs are getting "curvier". It feels like the mere word USA makes me blow up like a ball. The food here is so good and the portions are big compare to Sweden and It's so hard to say no to all the good stuff around me. I am weak when it comes to food. When we get home I will do a one month added sugar free diet again to get back on track again. Today we are moving again. We are staying 3 days in another hotel and come back to this hotel for another four days, just to save money (cause during these 3 days we are away this current hotel is very expencive for some reason).Oh well, what to do. Yesterday was a wonderful day. I had "me time" until 14.00 (tanning, swimming, reading, eating out) and then it was my turn to have Mia and we spent another few hours by the pool (in a shade) swimming and having fun. We ate our dinner by the pool and just enjoyed ourselves. Today, as soon as we have moved and done some food shopping we will be hitting the pool again vause during the weekend the temperatures are dropping again and the sun will be hiding behind the clouds. Oh, some days ago, I found this Tommy Hilfiger outlet store that had a final sale and I got five items of clothes for 60 dollars! This is crazy! And my husband of course bought tons of clothes to Mia ( they were 5 dollars each). Mia has nicer clothes than me!Too bad my suitcase is pretty much full now :S.

My lunch view yesterday

My little "fish". She loves the water

Great view from the hotel gym

The sun is back and I love being on a vacation again! Blue skies, palmtrees, a nice pool, listening to my favorite music, having "me-time"- yeah, what more can I ask for. I am feeling content! The only thing thats missing is a good old friend to chat with. Facebook Messenger will have to do this time :). Hope you are all having a good day whereever you are!

Me and Mia went out for lunch yesterday, just the two of us. A difficult task, but somehow we made it.

I went to the movies yesterday and saw The Theory of Everything. Loved the movie, fought with tears so many times...

Hello again beloved sun!

This cinnamonbun was so gooooood it's dangerous'

There is something magical with the word "orlando" cause all of a sudden the statistics of how many people visit my blog have doubbeled. Cool! I wish I had more exciting things to write about right now, but nope, we are just relaxing and taking care of Mia. Right now R. is shopping and when he comes back I will go to the movies. Yeah, going on a vacation with a small child means taking turns from taking showers to eating breakfast or going to the pool, etc. Luckily Mia is fun to be with at least most of the time he he. But I do realise that it won't be untill many years from now before R. and I can go on a vacation without kid/kids. This vacation to Florida has really been a learning experience. There are things we want to do differently next time, like travel with another family or bring a babysitter with us ha ha. I also think that renting a car is a must and living in one or max two different places (in a house or an apartment hotel). Child friendly places go before everything else. On another note, I am starting to miss our home in Sweden! That is a good sign and makes coming home to snow and cold weather less difficult. I even miss working just a l-i-i-i-ttle. It's Mias nap time. Wishing you all a great day/evening and thanks for visiting my blog :).

Mia suprised us by eating TWO cheeseburgers at McDonalds yesterday. We will not do that again :P

Its so humid in Florida that Mia gets these cute little curls :)

This morning Mia slept untill 7 am and "only" woke up twice during the night (at home she slept the whole night almost all the time, but here she wakes up at least twice per night).There is a big difference between waking up at 5:30 or 7:00 am, at least for my well being :). So, today, despite the gray skies again I am in a better mood. Another bad weather tomorrow, but then we should get between 27-30 C for at least 4-5 days. Wonderful! Hoping that the 12 days we have left here will be good! No big plans today because of the weather, but Mia will get to play at an indoor playground (the only free indoor playgrounds at the International Drive are at a junk food restaurants like McDonalds) might meet friends for dinner and we will just take it easy. There will be plenty of stress when we come back home to Sweden...

Our room