Today was a great day! First I just want to say that JJ has chosen to put himself to sleep TWO nights out of the 3 we have been at the house. TWO! That means that it is the same number of nights he has put himself to sleep at home in 6 1/2 years lol! That makes all kinds of things better:)
We got up and had the boys swim this morning while Beautiful did the girls' hair with Minnie ears - and herself. We then headed to Magic Kingdom. First we went on the roller coaster at Space Mountain. Can I just say that my husband really REALLY dislikes roller coasters. We had it on fast pass which is good for 1 hour. By the time we got to the parking lot, got on the tram to take us to the entry, rode the ferry to the actual park, and got through security it we were 3 minutes from our fast pass expiring. He did not know what the ride was about. We ran into the ride. We got on the ride. It was a very good roller coaster and I loved it. He...did not. I did splurge and buy the pictures of all nine of us on the roller coaster because I know that after today it will never happen again;) The girls didn't like it. JJ looked scared in the picture but wants to do it again. So...we will see if he is a roller coaster kid or not. Of course Superman loves that stuff!
Then we went over to the Tomorrowland Speedway. All of the kids got to drive by themselves and they thought it was great. I rode with Grace and my husband rode with JJ. We manned the accelerator since they couldn't reach and both of us have whiplash from the experience lol!
From there all 9 of us enjoyed the Tea Cups. My husband, JJ, Faith, and I were in one and got it spinning enough that I was nauseated and quite dizzy when we got off. The kids thought it was very funny.
I took the 3 youngest on the Carousel then we all found each other and watched the 3:00 parade which was amazing! I am amazed at the creativity and expense that goes into the parade...and they do it every day. Wow! For a non-creative person like me it was very fun to watch. It also gave us all a chance to not be walking for a bit. My back and legs are noticing the constant contact with concrete, that is for sure.
Then we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which is very fun as well. Then "Jack Sparrow" did a performance and Superman got called up on stage to be a part of it. He loved it:)
From there I got the whole family on Thunder Mountain promising them that it wasn't as big of a roller coaster as Space Mountain - and it wasn't dark so it would be better. I actually got to sit with my husband for the ride (not typical) and he promised me that it was the last.time.ever that he would be on a roller coaster:( When I was a little girl and I was at my mom's for summer visitation we always went to an amusement park every summer - I love amusement parks. When my husband I met 24 years ago I took him to the amusement park and he hated it from the first ride. Therefore, I am VERY impressed that I got him on these 2 today and will consider it enough lol!
Our family went separate directions at that time. We got to see a partial singing/dancing parade earlier in the day and I had hoped for the electric parade we saw last time, but they didn't have it. I took the 3 youngest kids on the People Mover. Oh dear. Not a good choice. It was supposed to be this fun but relaxing time of sitting in a booth like seat with the kids, not being strapped in, giving my feet and back a rest, and relaxing. But...1/2 way into the ride it stopped! In the middle of Space Mountain! Where it is pitch black while listening to people scream as they are riding the roller coaster through the dark lol! After awhile they turned the lights on. We waited about 15 minutes before someone came and escorted us off the track and down to the ground. I have never had that happen before - what a memory lol! Of course JJ and Grace did not handle being stuck on a ride for 15 minutes very well and got a bit rowdy. It was almost the end of the night... I had told JJ that it was the last ride of the night as the fireworks were going to start, so when we got off he started in with "I want to go on another ride" since that one did not finish. He said it over and over and over...and over and over again. I about lost my mind. He used to have a terrible time with perseverating like that and it is actually one of my most vivid (and worst) memories of the last time we went to Disney World. He has been soooo much better with that - until tonight. We found the rest of the clan who had found awesome spots from which to watch the fireworks. He finally settled down and ate another bucket of popcorn and got distracted by the fireworks. Eventually.
Another highlight - after going to the Laugh Floor from Monster's Inc. JJ said to one of the kids "you want to hear a joke? Who's there?" Yeah...that was funny;) Now he thinks he is a jokester lol!
It was even warm enough today for short sleeves and we still sweat! I got a little red on my face and reveled in the awesome January weather;)
The fireworks were great - of course. They did not seem to be what I remembered from last time. I think that the new Star Wars fireworks display at Hollywood Studios was better. It was still amazing.
Grace had a hard time by the time we were leaving the park. I decided to try something different since last night's drive home was a nightmare. I put Superman and Faith in the front bench seat with JJ and I sat in the back with Grace so there couldn't be any fighting. During the day we also kept one of us adults between the girls at all times. Usually I lead the way with Grace and my husband heads up the rear of the 9 of us so that no one can get lost in the shuffle. As you can imagine I haven't gotten to see him much these past 2 days lol! When we didn't keep the girls apart it was nuts how much they fought with each other. Once we got in the van (the worst part of last night) I handed her her kindle and warned her of what she would lose if he kept talking at all (nothing kind was being said). She did well once we got in the van. Standing in line and taking the ferry all took an hour after the fireworks and that was...touch and go. But we got it done.
You know, I spent a lot of time analyzing Grace today. ADHD is just a very difficult disorder. It is a terrible one that I don't think people really appreciate in terms of the intricacies and pervasive influence of it unless you have to live with someone who has it. Her impulsivity kept her wanting to be first and in front all of the time - even though that meant she did not know what direction we were going since she wasn't following us and would go off in crazy directions. Or she would look behind her to see where we were going and then would run into people/things since it was crowded. Her distractibility kept her head spinning with all of the many distractions so she would not be tracking with us. Her oppositional attitude kept her arguing with us whenever we would try to reign her behavior back in or keep her in our group. All of it keeps her from tracking conversations or following the line of instruction so she asks questions over and over that were just answered. All of that is exhausting. Add to it constantly counting heads over and over and it is a stressful experience. I finally decided that it was easier to count 3 boys and 2 girls (I stopped trying to keep up with Beautiful and her husband figuring they could keep up themselves...then we lost them lol!) than trying to count to 5 over and over. Otherwise I kept losing track of who I had lost track of lol! I finally concluded that corralling my kids is not as much like herding chickens with their heads cut off like I used to feel - now it is more like trying to corral a swarm of angry bees...
Anyway, waiting in line to get on the tram to find our van I finally initiated our son in law into the family for good. I went to call his name (the more stressed I am the less able I am to find words and names accurately). I looked at him and called out "Ja, Jo, Ad.....ahhhhh" before I finally got his name out right. Since I am constantly calling my kids the wrong names and sometimes just stop and say "you over there - come here" and I ran through all of the my boys before I got to my son in law, I figure he is now fully indoctrinated into our family;)
Well, today is my last day of being...this age. Tomorrow is my birthday. I get to turn, um, 29 while at Epcot. It is my favorite park so I get to do it on my birthday. I told the kids that the greatest present would be for them to all get along and not fight. We will see if it get it or not;)
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Disney World: Day 4 Hollywood Studios
Today was our first day of actually being AT Disney World on this Disney World vacation! When we came to DW 3 years ago we did not go to this park. I packed 6 backpacks (Beautiful and I had fanny packs and JJ didn't carry anything - I looked like a pack mule) with enough food, snacks, and water for the day. I did end up buying Buddy a $6.50 funnel cake...and I don't even want to know how much the 2 buckets of popcorn cost;) Otherwise we saved money by eating out of our backpacks. I did the fast pass system this morning for the first 3 days of parks to not waste as much time in lines. We got to the park by 10:30. I was surprised we got everyone around and there by then!! We are only about 20 minutes away.
We went on the Path of the Jedi first - which was really just a shortened version of all 7 movies into about 20 minutes in a movie theater setting. JJ was really bummed that most of the entertainment at Hollywood Studios are not rides a but theater seating.
Then we went on the Great Movie Ride. That was really, really interesting. We sat in moving tram-like cars and it took us through the history of movies from black and white, to gangster, to westerns, to sci-fi with fear and terror (like of communism, etc), to space sci fi, to other sci fi like Indiana Jones to animation, etc. The sets that we rode through were very fun to watch/learn about. Like most of the "rides" at DW it isn't about the thrill of the ride but the entertainment value of the experience. That took me awhile last time to understand - it isn't an amusement park.
Anyway, then we stood in lines to get pictures with Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. The kids thought it was great. They also got pics with Sophia (the girls) and Pluto (JJ and Superman). The girls and JJ got a pic with Olaf too:) We couldn't get pictures with the storm troopers or Darth Vader like JJ wanted to do, but we did get to watch them do a lot of "shows" and the storm troopers walked around and told people to "move along" and asked for their identification, etc. JJ was enthralled with them and followed them around. At one point after he followed them through half the park they asked him for his identification. I gave him his DW card and they held it up to his face (It has Donald Duck on it). They shook their head that it didn't look like him and made him stand against a wall. It was a hoot!
Beautiful and her husband went on the Rock n Roller Coaster (well, he made her go;) while the rest of us went to a Beauty and the Beast musical show. It.was.amazing. Even JJ sat enthralled with it. Of course the girls thought it was sweet and wonderful. I looked over at Superman once and he had a look on his face of barely concealed disgust. Romance is NOT his thing. Thank goodness lol!
Then we all headed over to The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It, again, was set in theater setting. I thought the kids would not like it but they loved it. It was like they were teaching us the behind the scenes of how stunts are done. Describing it doesn't sound very interesting - but the fire, explosions, and theatrics of it were very, very funny while acting out Raiders of the Lost Ark. I am glad we did it.
The Stars Tour was next. The line was super long so I am glad that we did the Fast Pass and only waited about 10 minutes. I did not tell my amusement park ride phobic husband about the ride and he was a bit apprehensive when he realized it was a simulation ride. But we all loved it. Grace got a bit scared but JJ wanted to go again. I laughed the whole time. It was crazy! It was like we were in a space ship flown by C3-PO. It was jerking all over the place, in 3-D so it looked pretty real, and had scenes from Star Wars. It was great! Again, we only sat in a seat and didn't move (other than the simulator tipping us all over) so it was helpful to remember that when it felt like we were falling down a mountain;) At the beginning the enemy "captures" the ship and demands that a traitor is aboard and that is why they are trying to shoot us down. They then show a picture of a person who is in the cabin. They put up Faith's picture. It was very funny:)
By then it was getting chilly. We went to the Little Mermaid show - kids thought it was nice. It was like a theater again and the character puppets were done well. It was warm in there so I really liked that lol! Beautiful, Buddy, and I took the 3 youngest back to The Stars Tour next as our son in law had taken Superman down the big roller coaster again:)
Then it was time for fireworks. Oddly it seemed warmer then than an hour before. I thought it was amazing. It had the projection on the main building showing scenes from Star Wars and the fireworks were set to the shoot-em-up scenes. It was epic. We will see how it compares to the fireworks the next two nights:)
The best part was that the fireworks were done early due to it getting dark earlier. Last time we were here we got home around midnight every night. This time we were home by 8:30! Yay!
After the fireworks my husband and oldest son had the great idea of walking to our vehicle instead of waiting in a long line for the tram to take us to our car. Yeah... We did eventually find our van and still made it home at a reasonable time;) The men even had time to run to Walmart while I put kids to bed since we have run out of bottled water and toilet paper. A family of 9 goes through a lot of both of those things;)
We did have some drama. JJ had some times at the park when he was less then...cooperative. The girls also had plenty of drama. So, Faith has been removed to another sleeping location and Grace is alone in the room. Hopefully I won't be woke up by drama tomorrow morning and all of us will get to sleep a bit longer;)
We went on the Path of the Jedi first - which was really just a shortened version of all 7 movies into about 20 minutes in a movie theater setting. JJ was really bummed that most of the entertainment at Hollywood Studios are not rides a but theater seating.
Then we went on the Great Movie Ride. That was really, really interesting. We sat in moving tram-like cars and it took us through the history of movies from black and white, to gangster, to westerns, to sci-fi with fear and terror (like of communism, etc), to space sci fi, to other sci fi like Indiana Jones to animation, etc. The sets that we rode through were very fun to watch/learn about. Like most of the "rides" at DW it isn't about the thrill of the ride but the entertainment value of the experience. That took me awhile last time to understand - it isn't an amusement park.
Anyway, then we stood in lines to get pictures with Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. The kids thought it was great. They also got pics with Sophia (the girls) and Pluto (JJ and Superman). The girls and JJ got a pic with Olaf too:) We couldn't get pictures with the storm troopers or Darth Vader like JJ wanted to do, but we did get to watch them do a lot of "shows" and the storm troopers walked around and told people to "move along" and asked for their identification, etc. JJ was enthralled with them and followed them around. At one point after he followed them through half the park they asked him for his identification. I gave him his DW card and they held it up to his face (It has Donald Duck on it). They shook their head that it didn't look like him and made him stand against a wall. It was a hoot!
Beautiful and her husband went on the Rock n Roller Coaster (well, he made her go;) while the rest of us went to a Beauty and the Beast musical show. It.was.amazing. Even JJ sat enthralled with it. Of course the girls thought it was sweet and wonderful. I looked over at Superman once and he had a look on his face of barely concealed disgust. Romance is NOT his thing. Thank goodness lol!
Then we all headed over to The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It, again, was set in theater setting. I thought the kids would not like it but they loved it. It was like they were teaching us the behind the scenes of how stunts are done. Describing it doesn't sound very interesting - but the fire, explosions, and theatrics of it were very, very funny while acting out Raiders of the Lost Ark. I am glad we did it.
The Stars Tour was next. The line was super long so I am glad that we did the Fast Pass and only waited about 10 minutes. I did not tell my amusement park ride phobic husband about the ride and he was a bit apprehensive when he realized it was a simulation ride. But we all loved it. Grace got a bit scared but JJ wanted to go again. I laughed the whole time. It was crazy! It was like we were in a space ship flown by C3-PO. It was jerking all over the place, in 3-D so it looked pretty real, and had scenes from Star Wars. It was great! Again, we only sat in a seat and didn't move (other than the simulator tipping us all over) so it was helpful to remember that when it felt like we were falling down a mountain;) At the beginning the enemy "captures" the ship and demands that a traitor is aboard and that is why they are trying to shoot us down. They then show a picture of a person who is in the cabin. They put up Faith's picture. It was very funny:)
By then it was getting chilly. We went to the Little Mermaid show - kids thought it was nice. It was like a theater again and the character puppets were done well. It was warm in there so I really liked that lol! Beautiful, Buddy, and I took the 3 youngest back to The Stars Tour next as our son in law had taken Superman down the big roller coaster again:)
Then it was time for fireworks. Oddly it seemed warmer then than an hour before. I thought it was amazing. It had the projection on the main building showing scenes from Star Wars and the fireworks were set to the shoot-em-up scenes. It was epic. We will see how it compares to the fireworks the next two nights:)
The best part was that the fireworks were done early due to it getting dark earlier. Last time we were here we got home around midnight every night. This time we were home by 8:30! Yay!
After the fireworks my husband and oldest son had the great idea of walking to our vehicle instead of waiting in a long line for the tram to take us to our car. Yeah... We did eventually find our van and still made it home at a reasonable time;) The men even had time to run to Walmart while I put kids to bed since we have run out of bottled water and toilet paper. A family of 9 goes through a lot of both of those things;)
We did have some drama. JJ had some times at the park when he was less then...cooperative. The girls also had plenty of drama. So, Faith has been removed to another sleeping location and Grace is alone in the room. Hopefully I won't be woke up by drama tomorrow morning and all of us will get to sleep a bit longer;)
Disney World: Day 3 Our Down Day
Today was a delightfully relaxing day. We slept until 8. I refuse to flip over time zones so that I am not off track when we get home lol! I swam in the pool with the kids in the rain for awhile. We then went out to Red Lobster for lunch at around 1:30. Our son in law had never been there so it was a treat. We had some fun conversation about weird words that the kids have used over the years to name things. I also got quite the reaction out of Buddy when I informed him that I was so old that the "video games" that I played as a kid were actually computer games with a cassette tape and there were no graphics, just words that said "walk 5 steps to the left" etc. I felt like dinosaur when he said that he didn't know that he would ever meet a person who played games like that lol! Moving into Atari with the Asteroids game was a big deal!! My kids have no clue. They are quite spoiled with electronics.
While at Red Lobster JJ announced that he had to go potty. Beautiful asked if he wanted her to go with him and he said, "I can go to the bathroom by myself. I am a man." What a nut lol!
Then we took a trip to Walmart to get food for the week. That was an exercise in cultural diversity. It was so odd that through KY, TN, and GA people so were so friendly holding doors, calling me "ma'am," and smiling while looking me in the eyes. In FL everyone is just rushing around quickly past each other and not making polite comments. Although the kids pointed out that they could not understand them if they did as English is not the sole language;)
Grace put on her jacket and somehow wrapped a significant amount of her hair around a snap. It took some maneuvering and pulling on the part of Beautiful and I to get it undone. She has less hair now...
When we got back the kids swam some more while I supervised and my husband took Beautiful, her husband, and Buddy mini-golfing at the club house for this gated community. It was nice to be able to split the kids up and let them do activities that were more age appropriate. Our son in law won at mini golf:)
We then watched some TV with the kids while the big kids played pool. My husband baked chicken and we had a healthy and delicious supper while watching the Pro Bowl. We found out about the Pro Bowl being here in Orlando after we had set our vacation time. I really, really wanted to go. Just for the experience of it and I knew that Superman would really enjoy it. But...it just didn't work out logistically so we did not. The next best thing was to watch it on the big screen TV at this house. It was cold and rainy yesterday (in the 50's) so it was far more comfortable to do it here than be at the game live!!
While at Red Lobster JJ announced that he had to go potty. Beautiful asked if he wanted her to go with him and he said, "I can go to the bathroom by myself. I am a man." What a nut lol!
Then we took a trip to Walmart to get food for the week. That was an exercise in cultural diversity. It was so odd that through KY, TN, and GA people so were so friendly holding doors, calling me "ma'am," and smiling while looking me in the eyes. In FL everyone is just rushing around quickly past each other and not making polite comments. Although the kids pointed out that they could not understand them if they did as English is not the sole language;)
Grace put on her jacket and somehow wrapped a significant amount of her hair around a snap. It took some maneuvering and pulling on the part of Beautiful and I to get it undone. She has less hair now...
When we got back the kids swam some more while I supervised and my husband took Beautiful, her husband, and Buddy mini-golfing at the club house for this gated community. It was nice to be able to split the kids up and let them do activities that were more age appropriate. Our son in law won at mini golf:)
We then watched some TV with the kids while the big kids played pool. My husband baked chicken and we had a healthy and delicious supper while watching the Pro Bowl. We found out about the Pro Bowl being here in Orlando after we had set our vacation time. I really, really wanted to go. Just for the experience of it and I knew that Superman would really enjoy it. But...it just didn't work out logistically so we did not. The next best thing was to watch it on the big screen TV at this house. It was cold and rainy yesterday (in the 50's) so it was far more comfortable to do it here than be at the game live!!
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Disney World: Day 2
If I don't write this out every day I will forget the details - so bear with me:)
Today we got up about 7:00. I was glad that I had packed things simply for the hotel room. My husband showered then took the girls down for the hot breakfast while I showered. JJ was still sleeping. Just as I was stepping into the shower I heard the room door open. I looked out to see if my husband needed me but didn't see anyone. Then it occurred to me that it may have been JJ. Sure enough he woke up, thought he was alone, and bolted from the room! Thankfully we were about 20 feet from the breakfast area. I ran for my phone (since I obviously couldn't run into the hallway) and called my husband. He answered the phone by saying, "I have him." Whew! When they got back I had a talk with JJ about how we would never leave him alone ever. If he thought he was alone he should have knocked on the bathroom door. He said he was scared and thought he was alone. I supposed he heard talking in the hallway and thought it was us. About gave me a heart attack.
We got on the road at 9:30 and I instituted a rule that we would only stop every 2 hours and not sooner! We made a stop at 11:30 at Subway for lunch and again about 1:30. We started the trip by playing Bible Trivia. Lots of fun questions from the kids in response to the questions... like "what is circumcision?" The kids watched movies and Beautiful and her husband had a speaker that we could listen to music. The kids were a bit more testy today, understandably.
JJ asked some tough questions like why his Tummy Mommy had him adopted and why we chose him to adopt. He doesn't seem satisfied how his adoption came about - he wants to know why he, JJ specifically, was adopted. He is quite the thinker. When he wasn't doing that he was jamming to music from the ipad with his headphones or singing with Beautiful's music. He really likes music. A lot. He likes to try to rap too. Crazy kid...
About 5:30 We were getting so close to getting to the house we rented. We were pushing it and did not stop for a bathroom since 1:30. Big. Mistake. We were about 10 minutes away from the house and the traffic came to a standstill. About 1/8th of a mile ahead we could see some flashing lights, then more police came, then more. Pretty soon a helicopter landed. Then took off. Then a firetruck came. Then they all left and we got to leave again. Traffic was completely stopped for miles in both directions. After an HOUR we finally got going again. While waiting we prayed for the incident and whoever got taken by helicopter and we sang a lot of praise and worship music trying to distract us from having to use the bathroom lol! A word of advice - stop when you have to go because you may get stuck in traffic for a hour lol! JJ couldn't hold it so I took him in front of the van so he could relieve himself. It was very dark by then and the cars in front of us had their lights off (so did we). I finally started praying that the accident would clear and there was a gas station VERY CLOSE! We tried to keep it in perspective that we were far less inconvenienced and uncomfortable than whoever was taken in the helicopter but we have rarely been so happy to find a bathroom:)
We got to the house, unpacked, and got the boys into the pool (the girls had lost it due to behavior in the van). The girls played fooze ball in the game room. We are very pleased with the house so far. It is in a gated community and very nice.
I am so tired I could sleep about 12 hours straight. It is amazing how tired one can be from sitting all.day.long. But before I can sleep I have to get JJ to sleep. He is wound up and is supposed to share at room with Superman. I really hope that he falls asleep soon and sleeps through the night:)
Today we got up about 7:00. I was glad that I had packed things simply for the hotel room. My husband showered then took the girls down for the hot breakfast while I showered. JJ was still sleeping. Just as I was stepping into the shower I heard the room door open. I looked out to see if my husband needed me but didn't see anyone. Then it occurred to me that it may have been JJ. Sure enough he woke up, thought he was alone, and bolted from the room! Thankfully we were about 20 feet from the breakfast area. I ran for my phone (since I obviously couldn't run into the hallway) and called my husband. He answered the phone by saying, "I have him." Whew! When they got back I had a talk with JJ about how we would never leave him alone ever. If he thought he was alone he should have knocked on the bathroom door. He said he was scared and thought he was alone. I supposed he heard talking in the hallway and thought it was us. About gave me a heart attack.
We got on the road at 9:30 and I instituted a rule that we would only stop every 2 hours and not sooner! We made a stop at 11:30 at Subway for lunch and again about 1:30. We started the trip by playing Bible Trivia. Lots of fun questions from the kids in response to the questions... like "what is circumcision?" The kids watched movies and Beautiful and her husband had a speaker that we could listen to music. The kids were a bit more testy today, understandably.
JJ asked some tough questions like why his Tummy Mommy had him adopted and why we chose him to adopt. He doesn't seem satisfied how his adoption came about - he wants to know why he, JJ specifically, was adopted. He is quite the thinker. When he wasn't doing that he was jamming to music from the ipad with his headphones or singing with Beautiful's music. He really likes music. A lot. He likes to try to rap too. Crazy kid...
About 5:30 We were getting so close to getting to the house we rented. We were pushing it and did not stop for a bathroom since 1:30. Big. Mistake. We were about 10 minutes away from the house and the traffic came to a standstill. About 1/8th of a mile ahead we could see some flashing lights, then more police came, then more. Pretty soon a helicopter landed. Then took off. Then a firetruck came. Then they all left and we got to leave again. Traffic was completely stopped for miles in both directions. After an HOUR we finally got going again. While waiting we prayed for the incident and whoever got taken by helicopter and we sang a lot of praise and worship music trying to distract us from having to use the bathroom lol! A word of advice - stop when you have to go because you may get stuck in traffic for a hour lol! JJ couldn't hold it so I took him in front of the van so he could relieve himself. It was very dark by then and the cars in front of us had their lights off (so did we). I finally started praying that the accident would clear and there was a gas station VERY CLOSE! We tried to keep it in perspective that we were far less inconvenienced and uncomfortable than whoever was taken in the helicopter but we have rarely been so happy to find a bathroom:)
We got to the house, unpacked, and got the boys into the pool (the girls had lost it due to behavior in the van). The girls played fooze ball in the game room. We are very pleased with the house so far. It is in a gated community and very nice.
I am so tired I could sleep about 12 hours straight. It is amazing how tired one can be from sitting all.day.long. But before I can sleep I have to get JJ to sleep. He is wound up and is supposed to share at room with Superman. I really hope that he falls asleep soon and sleeps through the night:)
Disney World: Day 1
The Big Day has arrived! We got up at 3:30 in the morning and were on the road by 5. We drove until after 9 p.m. making it to the Georgia border. It went better than it could have gone. The kids were all wide awake after we woke them at 5 to get into the van - we thought they would fall asleep right away. They stayed awake for about an hour. At that point JJ nodded off. Since I share a seat with him I laid down (not much room but I managed lol!) The next thing I knew we were in MO! Best part of the trip;) The Middles did not sleep but did stay very quiet letting me sleep. It was just getting to be sunrise when I woke up. My husband always does all of the driving and I take care of the kiddos. He did a great job staying awake and navigating us safely. We got to Chattanooga, TN and found a hotel with very comfortable beds and a hot breakfast.
Some highlights of our day:
* realizing that I forgot movies lol! Thankfully Beautiful had packed 5 movies. Buddy suggested that we buy the new seasons of Duck Dynasty and binge watch them on the way home:)
* bathroom issues were an issue. I have a kid who has issues with public restrooms. We got it worked out by the end of the day but it made for more frequent stops and specific stops. It is always something lol!
* Leaving one gas station in MO there was a man bent over the engine of his truck...with his shirt hiked up and his pants below his...well...thigh level. Thankfully he wore really huge whitie tighties. I yelled, "close your eyes kids!" That meant some of them looked around for what they weren't supposed to see. Uff da!
* The kids did pretty well with conflict. Between movies, books, snacks, and frequent restroom stops they handled themselves better than I expected. By 7 or so they were all pretty fed up with being in the van for 14 hours. However, I gave Grace her bedtime pills, she fell asleep, and the rest of the trip was quiet;)
* We got 2 hotel rooms with 2 queen beds each. I would have thought that JJ was sick of me after sitting right next to me for the entire day, but he wanted to cuddle up and actually be held. I tried to lay him on pillows on the floor after he finally fell asleep but he woke immediately. He seems to have a radar when he is not right against me. I sat up and read my Bible until he fell asleep harder, then laid him down. I then got about 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep before he popped up and said "I am cold!" and then snuggled in with me and fell right back asleep. We got up at that time and got ready for the road.
Pretty good for Day 1 of vacation:)
Some highlights of our day:
* realizing that I forgot movies lol! Thankfully Beautiful had packed 5 movies. Buddy suggested that we buy the new seasons of Duck Dynasty and binge watch them on the way home:)
* bathroom issues were an issue. I have a kid who has issues with public restrooms. We got it worked out by the end of the day but it made for more frequent stops and specific stops. It is always something lol!
* Leaving one gas station in MO there was a man bent over the engine of his truck...with his shirt hiked up and his pants below his...well...thigh level. Thankfully he wore really huge whitie tighties. I yelled, "close your eyes kids!" That meant some of them looked around for what they weren't supposed to see. Uff da!
* The kids did pretty well with conflict. Between movies, books, snacks, and frequent restroom stops they handled themselves better than I expected. By 7 or so they were all pretty fed up with being in the van for 14 hours. However, I gave Grace her bedtime pills, she fell asleep, and the rest of the trip was quiet;)
* We got 2 hotel rooms with 2 queen beds each. I would have thought that JJ was sick of me after sitting right next to me for the entire day, but he wanted to cuddle up and actually be held. I tried to lay him on pillows on the floor after he finally fell asleep but he woke immediately. He seems to have a radar when he is not right against me. I sat up and read my Bible until he fell asleep harder, then laid him down. I then got about 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep before he popped up and said "I am cold!" and then snuggled in with me and fell right back asleep. We got up at that time and got ready for the road.
Pretty good for Day 1 of vacation:)
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Preparing for Vacation
We are going to Disney World! I am trying to get myself excited for it. But as a mother preparing for a trip for 9 people to drive 25 hours each way and have loads of busy craziness while there...I am far more apprehensive then excited. My NUMBER ONE goal: to keep the children from fighting as much as I possibly can. I often wonder when I will actually get to enjoy a vacation...Hmmmmm...
Why are we going on this trip when I told the children 3 years ago when we went that it was a ONCE in a lifetime experience? Eh, because they want to go again. And Beautiful and her husband will likely have a child sometime in the next few years and it will be much easier to go now than to go with an infant/toddler later lol! Yes, I am assuming that our married daughter and her husband will continue to go on family vacations with us. We are blessed that she hasn't run for the hills thankful to be rid of our chaos. Actually she hangs out at our house a lot. She says that her house is too quiet and she isn't used to it lol! She babysits for an adorable baby and has had the experience for the first time of a happy non-fussy infant who is easy going. Not something she has experienced in this house...all she remembers are the effects of prenatal "stuff" on babies...
Anyway, My Plan To Reduce My Stress Level (and hope that everyone has fun): (yes, you may laugh at any point. I am quite certain that my best laid plans will go ridiculously awry, but I am trying;)
* lots of electronics! Each child as a kindle - and I have two extras in case one doesn't work. The more time they are engrossed in their electronic babysitter the more time it is quiet in the van. I downloaded a series of books written for their age (6 books - yes, SIX!!! Woo hoo!!! I can't wait to see how long it takes to get through them...probably not 25 hours...;) that is a Bible allegory. I have two other series that Superman has read, but not the girls, to back those up. One Kindle can run text-to-speech at a time with a 3 way splicer to each headphone. That makes the Middles occupied at the same time so they won't (in theory) bug each other. Grace is far less interested in reading so we will see how it goes. One kindle at a time running will reduce the batteries being used (I have really thought this through!) and my brother got us external chargers for Christmas so we will have enough battery to get us all the way to evening, and we can charge up overnight for the next day with our ultra fast 10 dock electronics charger.
* We have 2 sets of double portable DVD players! Disney movies to prepare for Disney World when not reading (listening) to books.
* my biggest genius idea yet - are you ready? I have 2 huge bags of snacks. Every hour (yes, hour. you may think that is frequent but in our van an hour is a LOOOONNNNGGG TIME) if there have been no conflicts everyone will get handed a snack. Fruit snacks, oranges, granola bars, and even some sweets. Hour by hour we will get there!
* each child has their own rectangle canvas box (thank you Thirty One Bags!) and everything that they want to have with them for enjoyment has to fit INSIDE of the box and will sit on the back seat with them. EVERYTHING. That will keep Grace's hoarding tendencies in check:) Those boxes are set in the "empty" seat between Grace and James on the 4 person bench in the back of our 12 passenger van. Superman has always been placed between Grace and Faith to protect the girls from each other - and now there will be boxes as well.
* everyone has their own bag of clothes that I supervise packing. I tried to have them be responsible for themselves a few times but ended up one time with no swimsuits (unhappy kid), and once Superman brought nothing... It helps when we get to the house we are renting that they are each packed separately so unpacking go smoother.
* We have 1 bag packed with everyone's things for the night we will be in a hotel on the way down. that way that bag and the toiletries bag is the only one that has to be unpacked when we head in.
* backpacks. Once we get to Disney World every kid will have a back pack daily with their water and sandwiches that they are responsible for lugging around all day.
* Beautiful is in charge of pictures. She loves it. Has a nicer camera than me. And I can focus on supervising children while at Disney World and not worry that I am missing once in a lifetime memories - she is on it!
* We rented a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house. An absolute must. Having our family in a hotel room (or 2) is a recipe for no sleep and tons of fighting. Besides, getting this gorgeous house with a heated swimming pool costs much less than getting us 2 hotel rooms anyway (off season). It is a win/win. I am so glad that we have learned about vrbo.com!
* medication. Right now Grace takes 1/3 of her normal sleeping medication dose. We are bringing her whole dose just.in.case:)
* I have told the children that they are responsible for making sure that I do NOT leave my cell phone in a hotel room again on the way down so that I am without a cell phone for a week. 5 out of the 9 of us will have a cell phone so if we get split up it should be ok (from experience...that was not fun last time. Of course, I hope that I don't lose my cell phone at all...
* Beautiful and her husband are married this time so we don't have "chaperone" duty lol!
Well, off to continue packing and planning. Praying that God gives us travel mercies and that we can all extend grace and love to one another resulting in a vacation that will only have fond memories;)
Why are we going on this trip when I told the children 3 years ago when we went that it was a ONCE in a lifetime experience? Eh, because they want to go again. And Beautiful and her husband will likely have a child sometime in the next few years and it will be much easier to go now than to go with an infant/toddler later lol! Yes, I am assuming that our married daughter and her husband will continue to go on family vacations with us. We are blessed that she hasn't run for the hills thankful to be rid of our chaos. Actually she hangs out at our house a lot. She says that her house is too quiet and she isn't used to it lol! She babysits for an adorable baby and has had the experience for the first time of a happy non-fussy infant who is easy going. Not something she has experienced in this house...all she remembers are the effects of prenatal "stuff" on babies...
Anyway, My Plan To Reduce My Stress Level (and hope that everyone has fun): (yes, you may laugh at any point. I am quite certain that my best laid plans will go ridiculously awry, but I am trying;)
* lots of electronics! Each child as a kindle - and I have two extras in case one doesn't work. The more time they are engrossed in their electronic babysitter the more time it is quiet in the van. I downloaded a series of books written for their age (6 books - yes, SIX!!! Woo hoo!!! I can't wait to see how long it takes to get through them...probably not 25 hours...;) that is a Bible allegory. I have two other series that Superman has read, but not the girls, to back those up. One Kindle can run text-to-speech at a time with a 3 way splicer to each headphone. That makes the Middles occupied at the same time so they won't (in theory) bug each other. Grace is far less interested in reading so we will see how it goes. One kindle at a time running will reduce the batteries being used (I have really thought this through!) and my brother got us external chargers for Christmas so we will have enough battery to get us all the way to evening, and we can charge up overnight for the next day with our ultra fast 10 dock electronics charger.
* We have 2 sets of double portable DVD players! Disney movies to prepare for Disney World when not reading (listening) to books.
* my biggest genius idea yet - are you ready? I have 2 huge bags of snacks. Every hour (yes, hour. you may think that is frequent but in our van an hour is a LOOOONNNNGGG TIME) if there have been no conflicts everyone will get handed a snack. Fruit snacks, oranges, granola bars, and even some sweets. Hour by hour we will get there!
* each child has their own rectangle canvas box (thank you Thirty One Bags!) and everything that they want to have with them for enjoyment has to fit INSIDE of the box and will sit on the back seat with them. EVERYTHING. That will keep Grace's hoarding tendencies in check:) Those boxes are set in the "empty" seat between Grace and James on the 4 person bench in the back of our 12 passenger van. Superman has always been placed between Grace and Faith to protect the girls from each other - and now there will be boxes as well.
* everyone has their own bag of clothes that I supervise packing. I tried to have them be responsible for themselves a few times but ended up one time with no swimsuits (unhappy kid), and once Superman brought nothing... It helps when we get to the house we are renting that they are each packed separately so unpacking go smoother.
* We have 1 bag packed with everyone's things for the night we will be in a hotel on the way down. that way that bag and the toiletries bag is the only one that has to be unpacked when we head in.
* backpacks. Once we get to Disney World every kid will have a back pack daily with their water and sandwiches that they are responsible for lugging around all day.
* Beautiful is in charge of pictures. She loves it. Has a nicer camera than me. And I can focus on supervising children while at Disney World and not worry that I am missing once in a lifetime memories - she is on it!
* We rented a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house. An absolute must. Having our family in a hotel room (or 2) is a recipe for no sleep and tons of fighting. Besides, getting this gorgeous house with a heated swimming pool costs much less than getting us 2 hotel rooms anyway (off season). It is a win/win. I am so glad that we have learned about vrbo.com!
* medication. Right now Grace takes 1/3 of her normal sleeping medication dose. We are bringing her whole dose just.in.case:)
* I have told the children that they are responsible for making sure that I do NOT leave my cell phone in a hotel room again on the way down so that I am without a cell phone for a week. 5 out of the 9 of us will have a cell phone so if we get split up it should be ok (from experience...that was not fun last time. Of course, I hope that I don't lose my cell phone at all...
* Beautiful and her husband are married this time so we don't have "chaperone" duty lol!
Well, off to continue packing and planning. Praying that God gives us travel mercies and that we can all extend grace and love to one another resulting in a vacation that will only have fond memories;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)