We decided this year that the whole family would attend Life Light this year. In the past only Beautiful and I have attended. I haven't gone for 3 years (Beautiful has missed 2 years). Here is a bit about the trip.
First, life has been crazy busy for us lately. I have been working an extra day a week due to an increased caseload, Beautiful is in her Senior Year and is also taking 2 online college classes, it is "harvest" time for our little garden and fruit trees, my husband hurt his back and can't do as much (and mine has been acting up so I have been really careful), and...home school has resumed:)
I normally work 10 - 12 hour days on Monday and Tuesday, but have been working 1 or 2 more afternoons lately which is affecting the routine at home. Then I had to figure out how to take a whole day our of our routine to get Grace in for a root canal. Poor kid. The root in the tooth that got chipped off during the cheering of the "hail mary" Husker win last year was dying and she was in pain. So...we spent a day getting that done and doing some shopping. By the way, did you know that Endodontists ONLY do root canals? So, if you feel bored in your job, imagine ONLY performing root canals day in and out! Anyway, while 5 of us did the root canal route which included clothes shopping, my husband took 2 kids to the state fair (we were all in the same town). Our kid who NEVER gets sick said he didn't feel well so stuck with me as we went home early. Hmmmm.....
The next day (Thursday) the other kid who never gets sick complained of a headache and vomited. We were trying to figure out if we were heading to Life Light or not! We hoped that she just ate too much at the state fair...
Friday we canned all of the apples. They were already rotting and we knew we would lost a lot more if we waited another week until we had a free day to can again. My husband had to attend a follow up appointment for his mother and didn't get home until 11. I was supposed to have all of the apples picked from our trees and be started canning before he got home. However...it rained almost 2 inches in just over 2 hours that morning...so I saved the apple picking for him;) He and some kids went out and picked when he got home. Grace hauled buckets of apples to the house constantly. It was a great job for her and she did great (she was 100% from her root canal. She heals quick!) The rest of us were in the house starting the applesauce process. We finally got done after 11 p.m. We had less quarts than usual - only about 75 or so. But since we haven't used up last year yet it will be fine.
Saturday we headed out to Life Light. We weren't sure what to do since the forecast called for bad storms on Sunday and there had been a lot of rain Friday night already, and we didn't know if a kid would get sick. But, we went. We checked into the hotel and then headed to the grounds.
On the way we picked up Beautiful's boyfriend where he attends college. I haven't talked too much about him. I don't like the word "boyfriend." That implies something very different than the courtship relationship that they have. "Boyfriend" seems to cheapen how they are carrying on their relationship to something that the world had made to be...I don't know...uncommitted? Anyway, we call him that for lack of a better word but we think of him as another member of our family, whom we prayerfully expect will be a member of our family one day. They have been in this relationship almost 2 years and we have loved how they are conducting their relationship with us or with his parents. They have only been allowed to go anywhere without any chaperones present twice (to public locations). We are blessed that they don't rebel against these boundaries but actually seem to appreciate them. But, I really like getting to know him as my daughter gets to know him. This weekend he pulled a practical joke on her that had all of us in tears laughing. He is a wonderful young man to deeply loves the Lord...and he is fun. Anyway, he is usually a fixture at any of our family outings and Life Light was one of them:)
At Life Light the kids loved the music. By the time we got to Skillet at night - wow. Grace LOVED how the bass from the music just ran through her body. She and JJ were dancing up a storm totally into the music. I couldn't understand a single word the band said...but I guess that isn't the point at a concert;)
Sunday morning we quick ran through Kohls to buy matching shirts for our upcoming family pictures. We have never done matching outfits before so this will be fun!
Then we went to the worship service - awesome music...followed by the sermon by KEN HAM!!!!!!!!!!! He was one of the 2 biggest reasons I wanted to go to Life Light. We have almost all of his videos and many of his books. We went to the Creation Museum during our Disney World trip in March. Love his ministry. Love his speaking. It was great!
The weather was hot during the day. We wandered around, sweat, and some of the kids napped on the blankets in the grass. The mud had dried out so we didn't need boots on Sunday.
In the course of 30ish minutes a bunch of things happened. I was talking to one of my cousins whom I hadn't seen for 2 years. My husband and big kids went to get food and look around before the next band. Grace had to go potty. There were rows of port-a-potties (the cleanest ones I have ever experienced). Two banks of them were behind where we were sitting to each side of the entrance/exit. We were toward the back of the crowd but there were a lot more people behind us. We sat right on the "alley" between the left and right groups. That made knowing where we were much easier and the kids could "dance" in the "alley." Well, Grace had to go potty so I sent her to the port-a-potties that she had gone to many times. However, I told her to go to the ones on the east side of the entrance instead of the west. I watched her walk east through the scattered chairs rather than just walk to the back of the crowd and then over. I thought that was probably a bad idea and would get her disoriented. My cousin left soon thereafter. Grace didn't return. I ran back to find her and couldn't. I came to our spot and she wasn't there. I saw Buddy heading to the other bank of port-a-potties so went to get him to sit with the younger kids so I didn't lose them. I went back to the other row and she wasn't there. I was wondering where they took lost kids if they found them. Would I have to head over to Lost and Found (I had found someones cell phone earlier and returned it to that tent so I at least knew where it was)? Would they announce her name over the loud speakers to 100,000 people...in the middle of a concert? Had someone taken off with her through the exit? Then Superman said, "Hey! Grace is riding on a golf cart!" Whaaa? Sure enough, apparently she had come out of the bathrooms and walked straight down the alley like every other time she had gone...but since she was disoriented it was the far east alley and not the central alley. She stopped at a Pizza Ranch tent and asked for help (she did have my cell phone number on her wristband but no one called it). They handed her off to volunteer. And they put her on the golf cart. I don't know where they were taking her since she didn't know where we were (I am assuming to the Lost and Found tent). She didn't make a lot of sense when she got back (which is typical- asking her for logical, linear, chronological information is asking for tons of confusion) about what exactly happened. However, since we were sitting right on the alley and I was standing in the alley looking for her...they found me:) I started crying and was so relieved when they drove up with her that admittedly I didn't ask them many questions except to find out that she asked for help at the Pizza Ranch. So, I snuggled up with her so relieved she was found when...
I was soooo excited to hear Big Daddy Weave and Michael W. Smith (the reason other than Ken Ham that I wanted to make this family trip happen). The band right before them, Remedy Drive, was playing at 5 as we watched the heavy clouds roll in (also while I was searching for Grace). I had packed up everything earlier and thought we could just brace ourselves under umbrellas if it "rained" on us - after all, I could see the back edge of the storm (eye roll...). People started to leave. We didn't. Then...at 5:15 the sky opened up. It didn't just rain, it down poured. I am so glad that I had everything packed up. We ran and Beautiful (somehow she had showed up during that as I had texted her to come help since Grace was lost - but the men still weren't back) spotted a tent for us to hide under rather than run to the van a long ways away. We were all dripping wet and soaked through completely. My husband and Beautiful's boyfriend were still off getting food. Later we learned that they had headed to the van thinking we would be there...but were too soaked to get in so just got...soaked... It seemed like it rained at least 1 inch in 20 minutes. The ground had standing water everywhere and we just sloshed through it. Life Light is set on a 1/2 mile square farm. So the concerts are outdoors and the main stage is in a field. It was ...wet. After the men sloshed back to us it was a hard decision of what to do next. We finally agreed to go back to the hotel and get dry clothes on (and warm up) and come back but stay in the van in the back field to listen to the last 2 bands (the ones I wanted to hear...and there would be NO problem hearing the band from the field).
But...we got stuck in the parking lot. It was downright embarrassing that our 1 ton 12 passenger van couldn't get traction in the wet grass/alfalfa. God provided an older gentleman with a truck and a towrope within 2 minutes of us realizing we weren't going to get out and he towed us a 1/2 mile - completely out of the parking lot (field).
That, of course, meant that we couldn't go back for the last 2 concerts as we probably would get stuck again. I really had to wrestle with God about that one. I only wanted to come for 2 reasons - Ken Ham and Michael W. Smith. God reminded me of my constant and innate selfishness and told me to knock it off. So, we went out to IHOP for supper (which made Buddy VERY happy) and I fell asleep early in one hotel room with the girls while the rest of the kids stayed up later in the other hotel room. JJ had fallen asleep soon after getting drenched and cold and slept for 3 hours. I was really worried that he would get sick. But, he didn't. He had a restless night of sleeping that kept me occupied. That wasn't a terrible thing for me as I was awake "wrestling" with God anyway;)
The next day my Dad drove down to see us. We hadn't seen him since he came with us on our Black Hills trip last September. We enjoyed a trip to The Falls and got lots of great pictures of him and the kids:) We went out to eat at a buffet restaurant that he likes. We always eat there with him as my kids are all so picky with their food that it suits everyone well!
While we were at The Falls the kids were climbing over rocks and such. You can imagine Grace not slowing down for much. I told her repeatedly to slow down, not run, and NOT jump over the small pools of water between the rocks. But...she did...and lost her shoe...when she fell in... I was a ways ahead of them and watched as she and the older kids tried to find that silly shoe. I was trying to figure out how we were going to go out to eat with a kid with no shoes! She kept wanting to reach in one spot and grab it but Beautiful couldn't see the shoe and didn't want her tumbling in and getting her clothes wet so stopped her. I eventually went back and finally I told Grace I would hang on to her and she could grab her shoe if she thought she knew where it was. The little goofball reached right in...and came back up with her shoe!!! It was lodged in the...crud...in the bottom of the pond. Just another adventure with Grace:)
We drove home and JJ vomited in the car. He really can't handle much with his stomach and food and gets car sick way too often but usually it is only in the morning. Anyway, we got home and settled in.
Tuesday and Wednesday I worked all day. I was so tired lol! I worked 1/2 a day on Thursday and got lots of other things accomplished. It was one of those very, very rare days where the kids actually cooperate and we can all click. I wish there were more days like that... Friday was back to the frantic "rat in a wheel" that I hate but is the reality of my life.
This weekend I finally felt like, even though I have been very productive, I was able to take a breath again. I am so thankful for our trip to Life Light even though the week before and after any such "extra" family activities brings me so much extra stress. It is such a wonderful ministry and lots and lots of fun! I will say that I was probably the most blessed (aside from Ken Ham) by seeing the shear number of transracial families. I have never seen that many transracial families in one place before. It made me feel like we were a little more...not atypical? And, of course, I was so excited to see all of those kids who had been adopted into Christian forever home families. We met one and exchanged numbers. They live in our state and the boy and girl came from Haiti. I have to laugh and share that the best way I have found to meet another transracial family (well, one with a child with African hair) is to walk up to them and ask the girl, "your hair is beautiful, does your mom do that?" Faith's hair has been a conversation starter many times:)
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Disney World 2014!!
We went on a spontaneous, last minute, throw it all together with a weeks notice, vacation to Disney World! Beautiful has always wanted to go, we had promised her we would go before she graduated, it all came together...so we went:)
This will be essentially my journal of the trip so be prepared for length and silly details;)
If you want the short version, here it is:
We drove, drove/walked, drove, walked, walked, walked, walked, walked, drove, and drove.
Very long version:
Day 1: Well, last night we finally got packed up, all of the clothes washed and packed, and everyone showered. We ran out of hot water and I ended up having to heat up water to give JJ a sponge bath. He is at the lovely stage where he hates baths so that was a joy...
We got on the road early and drove through many states. I had backpacks made up with snacks, water, and activities for each kid. Everyone was responsible for their own backpack for the duration of the trip (repacked daily). Beautiful and my husband had wired up the connected portable DVD players so we could all see them and wired the sound to the van's speakers. Beautiful insisted that we only pack Disney movies to get us on the mood:) We were set. We each had thoughts about the states we traveled through on the trip. I'll skip ahead and share those here:
Iowa: Long. not much to see.
Illinois: the worse roads of the states we drove through.
Indiana: it was dark, we were watching a movie, not much notable
Ohio: Only saw a bit of it, nothing of note
Kentucky: Nostalgic for me since we had lived there for a year right after Beautiful was born. It was much more modern and developed than I remembered. Good roads.
Tennessee: Beautiful AND good roads! It was FINALLY WARM lol!
Georgia: loooooong, the people where we stopped were mostly very hospitable
Florida: loved seeing palm trees, roads were decent but there were TONS of toll roads!
Alabama: The most beautiful. I had a lot of preconceptions of what Georgia and Alabama would look like. I was wrong. Alabama was gorgeous.
Tennessee: The western side of the state is just as beautiful as the eastern side:) Roads are good too!
Kentucky: Good roads, very pretty on western side too.
Illinois: Wish we could avoid that state lol!
Missouri: Pretty, long state but at least we had something to look at;) The kids loved getting to see the Arch
Iowa: Thankfully brief this time, we stopped to get something to eat on the border and it was our LAST STOP before home! Yay!!
OK, now that we have that out of the way. Grace was so funny about "rating" the states, she rated them based on how "messy" they were lol!
Day 1 ended in Kentucky where we stopped at the most amazing hotel we have ever stayed at. It was a Hilton suites and each of the rooms were two rooms so we were able to spread out well. The beds were so comfortable! We stayed there because it was recommended by the Creation Museum and we got a discount for that.
Day 2 we went to the Creation Museum. The Museum was very well put together and the gospel presentation was so clear and well done. We only did the indoor exhibits as it was raining outside. The animatronics were so realistic. It was definitely an educational display of story telling rather than just a presenting of "things."
We left there and drove to Lexington, KY where my husband and I lived when Beautiful was a young baby. I had finished my coursework and was doing my predoctoral internship working at the federal prison there for 12 months, then graduated. That is where Beautiful first crawled, walked, and did all of those cute baby things. It was emotional for me, and very sweet that we got to show her the house/town. We even went to eat at Fazoli's, the first Fazoli's that my husband and I had ever eaten at (our family is very fond of Fazoli's ;)
We drove through Kentucky and Tennessee. It was a very beautiful drive. We got into Georgia and stopped to eat. We were thinking that we wanted to get south of Atlanta before we stopped to avoid traffic during morning rush hour. Some locals confirmed that so we drove on through the large and busy city of Atlanta getting to our hotel around 11.
Day 3: The biggest problem with Day 3? I forgot my cell phone in the hotel:( :( In trying to be philosophical about it I did enjoy the rest of the vacation without being tied to my phone and "reality" responsibilities. However, now that I am home and apparently the woman who promised to ship my cell phone to my house last Monday did not do so I am still phoneless is a little irritating.
I did not live down this mistake the entire trip. I doubt I will live it down for the rest of my life. My husband is the "final check" guy (which slows us down and I make fun of him for). His foot was hurting so badly that he went to get the van and did not come back up to the room to do the final check. I had called him to see if he was ready for us, then laid my phone down instead of putting it in my pocket since it was still "on" and the keys weren't locked (I didn't want to pocket call someone). But, getting 8 of us out of 2 hotel rooms was apparently more than I could handle as I then neglected to pick the phone back up. Sigh. I lost my husbands house/car keys once about 7/8 years ago. I have not lived that down either (I am convinced that I laid them on the counter and Grace knocked them into the trashcan). So...yeah...my husband did not let me hold any keys or phones throughout this vacation. Thankfully we all laughed about it...a lot...;)
We made it to the house we rented around 6. We had gotten the recommendation from my brother to check out www.vrbo.com for a house. We had looked into AAA for flying down and staying at a value Disney Resort. We could have had 3 days at the Disney Parks and 4 nights in their resort (with food and Disney tickets included) for what ended up being just a few hundred dollars more than our 10 day trip with 4 days at the Parks, Kennedy Space Center, Creation Museum, 4 days of drive by "sight seeing" ;), and having a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house for 6 nights with a pool and room to spread out, sleep comfortably, and make noise without bothering someone on the other side of a wall. It was a good choice! Anyway, we got there and settled in.
Day 4: We drove to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center - the first of 2 of my favorite days on the trip. It was an overcast day. It was a very emotional experience for me and very educational. I love historical stuff:) It stayed dry while we did the outdoor exhibits, then we got on a bus to do the tour of the launch sites, etc. They took us to another building where we sat through a simulation of the first launch of American's into space, then saw some other museum like things. Those of us who had cell phones got a tornado warning alert. It was really raining hard outside. We got on the bus and drove to the main site and ran through the rain to the Atlantis building (the actual shuttle Atlantis was in there!) We were locked into that building due to the weather but it was very, very educational and fun filled. Several of us went to a space shuttle simulator - soooooo neat! Even being in there a couple of hours we did not get to see everything. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the Space Center was, they talked about the Angry Birds exhibit where there was a mirror maze lol! Oh well, hopefully they learned something from the rest of it!!
Day 5: First of day of Disney Parks - Animal Kingdom. The overwhelming memory that I have of it...the crowds. Yuck. I prefer vacations with not many people. Anyway, Grace enjoyed dancing to some African music with some dancers. We lost Grace briefly when she stopped to watch the dancing/musicians and I thought she was still walking behind Buddy (keeping track of 9 of us in the crowds was insane. Thankfully Buddy usually was in front and could take care of himself and JJ stayed strapped to me 95% of the time (although I will say that I wished that he would have walked more. My back held up amazingly well on this trip, especially with 5 days of my carrying him all day)). Grace realized she was alone and freaked out a bit but saw us 10 feet away and came to us (Beautiful had gone ahead thinking Grace was still walking and tried to find her and I stayed put in case someone doubled back). The next thing I knew, Grace was crying and clinging to me. She never let us out of her sight again. It was a lesson in sticking together that was well learned (everyone had their names and my husband's cell phone number written in two places on items on them in case they got lost). We all went on a Safari and the kids got a picture with Rafiki. The big highlight in was the 3-D film with Flik from A Bugs Life. It was a very fun experience (even though it really freaked Faith out!)
Day 6: Epcot...my other favorite day on the trip. FAR fewer people the day we were there. We spent about 13 hours there. Everyone was given a backpack for the day with PB roll ups, water, and snacks that sustained us for the day and each person was responsible for their own. Everything was so expensive it was the only way to do it.
Anyway, the highlights of this day (LOTS of them - after all this was my favorite day!!):
Rides - Soarin' - sitting in rows suspended above the ground in front of a screen so the experience is as if you are hang gliding over California - including olfactory experiences. It was really cool. The wait was 1 hour but it was worth it. JJ could not ride on it so my husband took the kids first, then I was given a "fast pass" to go through once my husband got back. I don't know if my husband will every forgive me for having him go on that ride. He is scared of heights. Very scared of heights (some of you remember him falling off of the room and hitting his head a few years ago? That didn't help.) I had been told that the ride involved just getting your feet a few feet off of the ground so the seats could move as if you were moving with the scene. Yeah. You are much, much (much) higher off of the ground than that. Not such a happy husband...but still a very neat experience!
Test Drive - "designing" a car then "test driving" it. The wait was also 1 hour but VERY worth it. Once in the car you go through "tests" to see how well it can brake, accelerate, etc. We were going 70 mph at one point. Oh yeah. Very cool.
We went on a boat ride through some testing areas of how to use natural pest control, fertilizer, etc. Essentially thinking outside the box on how to grow things. It was quite cool.
It was dark and late when we all finally got through the Soarin' ride - were supposed to leave then. I walked past the place where Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie were. It was a very long wait all day long and I saw that at that hour we could get in right away. So...I changed "plans" (see being spontaneous again lol!), went and got the rest of the group, and we got to get pictures with them. Epcot was not the place I was expecting to see so many characters, but it is where we saw the most! We also saw Cinderella's wicked step mother/sisters, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck (got pictures) and Belle, Alice, and Cinderella (no pictures). The kids (in particular the girls) were thrilled to get pictures with the characters.
Captain EO: This Epcot Only 3-D came out about a year before the last time I went to Disney World...25 years ago. It was so fun to see it again with the kids. However, it was even funnier with the comments from the girls. Captain EO is Michael Jackson. Faith was on my left and when Michael Jackson came out she got a quizical look on her face, tilted her head, and said, "so...he is a girl?" Then Grace, on my other side, after Michael Jackson said his first words also reiterated, "so...is he a girl?" Six or 7 years ago after Beautiful and Buddy had heard the song after the Free Willy movie argued and argued and argued with me that a woman sang the song. I finally had to get on the internet and prove to them who Michael Jackson was (and that he was male). To have the girls do that again during the movie was very hilarious to me - since I am of the era where Michael Jackson was such a huge icon it is interesting to see him through the next generation's eyes. Anyway, even Buddy enjoyed the flick and laughed as he commented that he has never heard of using music to defeat ones enemies before:)
Figment: Sigh... When I went to Disney World at age 15 the thing that I remember more than anything else (besides that I got to see Captain EO;) was Figment. It has been significantly updated (just like everything else) and it was so fun! I had gotten a stuffed Figment back then and have kept it for 25 year not letting it get lost or wrecked. It was my "memory" of that family vacation. It was very special to get to share it with my own children:)
The sculptures. Wow. Wow. Wow. It was the International Flower and Garden Festival - I don't know if they have all of the gardens and sculptures made up just as beautiful when it is not this festival but it was incredible. To take shrubs/hedges/I don't know what, but living growing vegetation, and sculpt/clip/cut it in a way to make the Disney Characters was sooooooo amazing. To have even different colors/textures of plants growing on them. I can't put words on it. Aside from the fireworks at Magic Kingdom it is what we by far took the most pictures of.
Finally, the World Showcase was wonderful. To walk around the lake and see all of the buildings where the architecture looked like the country it was showcasing was fun! Superman did a great job of knowing what country we were "in" by the architecture. Very, very interesting and educational. Beautiful.
Then, after we got out of the Character place with Mickey Mouse, etc the fireworks started. I was so thankful that we impulsively stayed longer to see Mickey, etc or we would have missed them. I thought the only fireworks were at the Magic Kingdom. They were beautiful and amazing.
Day 7: (aren't you glad I am finally done with Day 6 lol?!?!?!)
Magic Kingdom. To be totally honest, by the time we left at 6ish this day I was thinking that I would have had more fun pulling out my own teeth with a pliers. It was hot, crowded, and...well...crowded!
Highlights: (yes, I think I can come up with some;)
We were in a Presidents historical exhibit (very, very, very cool) when Beautiful leans down to whisper that we know people standing 10 feet away. Sure enough it was a family from Maine that we know! The wife/mom is a sister to a friend of ours here so we know them from when they travel back to visit in the summers. How cool was that?!?! It was also ironic as when our family went on vacation to Florida when I was 15 (I lived in MN then) and in KEY WEST, FL we saw MY GRANDPARENTS (who lived 10 miles from me) who were on a separate bus tour at that time. My mom had known that they may be there about the same time as our vacation but didn't want to tell us in case we didn't see them. It was CRAZY! There were lots of little "God" moments like this for me on this trip (e.g. the Figment ride at Epcot, the house having the same tile as our house, plate pattern as us, bowls as us, and that the county we were in was the same name as our county here, and the name of the development we stayed in was the same as the name of the town that our friend that we brought with lives in, etc).
Watching the Disney Princesses dance/put on their show in front of the Castle
Jack Sparrow show.
Pirates of the Caribbean ride/Jungle Cruise ride. The first was a fun "ride." The second was educational and funny. The guy running our boat spoke the entire time from his script of...puns. Almost every single comment he made was a pun. I found it absolutely hilarious! The jungle stuff was nice too...
The Swiss Family Robinson treehouse/fort thing. It was especially fun for Superman who had read the book whereas the girls have not.
Riding on the Ferry Boat.
"driving" on the race track with Grace. She steered the car and I had the accelerator. It was one of those cars with a piece of metal down the middle of the track so you can't run off of the track or into someone...but you sure can run into it and jolt yourself a lot! Imagine Grace driving on that. "nuff said. Uff Da lol!
OK, I don't think I can find anything else nice to say about that day. Oh, we left and went out to eat (the only time as a family we went and sat down to eat on the trip) at IHOP:)
Day 8: I really, really did not want to go back to Magic Kingdom this day. I really wanted to go back to Epcot. I could have done 5 more days at Epcot. But, the kids wanted our last day to be a 2nd helping of Magic Kingdom so I psyched myself up, got out my pliers (just kidding) and we made a PLAN for the day. Yes, no more spontaneity, I made a plan. It ended up being a very enjoyable day:)
We got up and packed a lot of stuff, ate a big breakfast, and got Fast Passes figured out via computer.
here is the one regret that I have from our spontaneous vacation:
In the rush of having 7 days to plan/pack for our 10 day Disney World vacation I did not have time to research everything like I would have wanted. I really, really wish that I would have understood the FastPass+ system. I didn't really understand that I could, from the luxury of my computer at home and not stand in line for up to an hour in the heat the actual day at the park, line up the rides we wanted to go on and the times. The FastPass+ system is really neat in theory and function. So you don't have to stand in line for hours you can pick up to 3 rides to get a "fast pass" too. You show up, scan your card (everyone at Disney World has a credit card like "ticket" that is set to your fingerprint to get you in the gate and to get onto rides that are Fast Pass rides. You pick when you want to go on a ride and then show up and get right in at that time. However, when you show up that day you may not get one of the rides you want (hence us standing in line at Epcot for 2 rides - we were lucky to get 60 minute waits. We watched throughout the day and they were up to 100 minute waits). If I would have understood how I could have done this from the house it would have made life easier. On the other hand, if we would have picked all of those days/rides before we went there we couldn't have been as spontaneous on what time we got to the park, when we left, etc.
OK, enough with my one regret.
We knew were were staying late until after the fireworks so we planned the FastPass+ accordingly and got there around noon. It was less crowded this day (YES!!!!).
We went on our rides and a few more due to short rides. We enjoyed a paddle board ride.
I took a raft ride with the 4 kids to Tom Sawyer's island. We walked around and got lost. Grace kept running around ahead of us and there were lots of twists and turns on the island (and in the caves). JJ kept running after her (of course - one of the few times that he actually wanted down!!) and I could not keep all 4 of them together. I got disoriented and thought I was on the other side of the island. Therefore, I was late meeting back up with the others. I was very happy to get the kids back on the raft and off the island lol! It was a fun island though:)
In Frontierland there was a Flash Mob and the 4 kids got pulled in to dance. I was so thrilled to see JJ actually go with the man (Faith was on the other side) and be separated from me. It was fun to watch and fun for them.
The Monster's Inc Laugh Floor was really cool. It was set up like a stand up comedy club...but the virtual "monsters" were the comedians. They took live feedback from the audience and did spotlights on various people. Then they showed the spotlight on Superman! He got to answer some questions and the monster made some jokes in response. I was enthralled with the technology of it all.
We went on the car ride again. Yesterday Superman drove Faith in the car (he did pretty good!) and today Faith got to drive. Oh My! Yeah...neither Faith nor Grace will ever drive while we are responsible for their car insurance. Sheesh. We all got a big laugh out of that!
I loved, loved, LOVED the Fantasy Parade. Apparently it is a new parade that is at 3 p.m. The floats and people on the ground were wonderfully and creatively decorated/dressed. But the story of the character was told through the people and the float. It was so artfully done. For example, they had a Prince who was being "talked to" by the fairy godmothers (who were gliding along on something individually, fairies wouldn't "walk" you know!) The Prince then turned and "fought" with several characters dressed up as if they were thorn bushes. Behind the thorn bushes was a large fire breathing dragon (and it looked like REAL fire!). It was indescribable so I won't attempt to fumble through any more description. It was...wow...
Then at 9:00 was the classic electric light parade. That was really neat too, but not as neat as the Fantasy Parade. At 9:45 was a light show projected onto The Castle with music. It depicted many of the famous characters. Very creative and well done. Very cool.
Finally, at 10:00 were the famous fireworks over The Castle. We got standing room fairly close to the castle and it was amazing. Just amazing. Yep, that about sums it up.
We took the Ferry back to the parking lot and went home, packed, and slept some.
Day 9: We packed and got out of the house at 10:30. We decided to drive through Alabama and Mississippi to get home rather than the Georgia route (and thus Atlanta) again. Alabama was so beautiful. I had some pretty wrong misconceptions of what the deep south looks like. I would like to go there again. Very pretty. We made it through FL, GA, AL, then the GPS took us to TN rather than through MS so we missed seeing that state. We knew that there were some tornado warnings around us but also wanted to get north of Nashville so we didn't hit rush hour. We checked into a hotel at midnight.
Day 10: We got going at 8:30 and it was already humid. Over breakfast we watched the news with the tornados and flooding not too far east of us. We were glad we made it as far as we did the night before. We drove through KY and stopped in IL. It was cold. I made a note to myself where the "line" seems to be for warm/cold weather. I will move south of that "line" someday lol! We drove through St. Louis and the kids got to see the Arch. We made it through MO and finally got home around 10:30. It was SOOO good to be home.
Some other items worth mentioning.
There is no way we could have taken this trip without Grace being on the new supplements. It was by far the easiest trip with her. We had excitable behavior and only 3 meltdowns (one was leaving Disney late at night Day 8 - but we were all tired, cranky, and it was 11 p.m.). But her meltdowns were less than 1/2 of what the "old" Grace would have done. She was enjoyable for the vast majority of the trip. She was in awe of all of her surroundings but mostly did not get overstimulated by it. She did not get distracted and wander off (just that one day but she really thought we all had stopped to watch it, she didn't wander off). When she was difficult it was verbal rather than behavioral. Essentially she would argue. The 4 and I (are you noticing a pattern here? How did I end up alone with the 4 and that was when trouble would happen?!?!?!) anyway, the 4 and I got separated from my husband and we had to get up to the predetermined meet up spot and I kept telling them to look for his red shirt. She argued the ENTIRE length of the park that he was wearing a grey shirt, her feet hurt, she was thirsty, she was hungry, she was hot, she was tired...and she...would...not...stop. I was carrying the 40 lb kid and trying to keep us together in the crowd (yes this was day 7...the day where I would have rather had the pliers...). Anyway, we finally made it to the spot and my husband showed up about 10 minutes later (in a red shirt)...and I had help again:)
I might add, that and one other time were the only times that wished that I had my cell phone. I really REALLY enjoyed not being tied to it this week.
It was absolutely delightful to see Buddy enjoy himself. Buddy does NOT like people, crowds, noise, or anything new. He strongly detests waking up early. He had FUN! He enjoyed himself, was a delight to be around (the vast majority of the time), and laughed and joked with us. I had expected him to be more difficult and he was the one who actually liked the Magic Kingdom as much as, or more than, the rest of the kids lol! We joked with him that it was all of those Princesses;)
Finally, we had Beautiful's friend with us on the trip. He is a delightful young man. I will be honest with you and admit that there are very few people with whom I think I could get along on vacation, much less the stress of over 50 hours of driving and 10 days together (are you surprised?!?). Most of the time I am trying to find a way to hide from my own family and get some breathing room lol! He was (is) a gem. It was a blessing to have him with on our trip. It was a good vacation, a magical time, and many memorable memories were made. I am so thankful that God pulled it all together, kept us safe and healthy, and provided for our trip. We were (and are) blessed!
This will be essentially my journal of the trip so be prepared for length and silly details;)
If you want the short version, here it is:
We drove, drove/walked, drove, walked, walked, walked, walked, walked, drove, and drove.
Very long version:
Day 1: Well, last night we finally got packed up, all of the clothes washed and packed, and everyone showered. We ran out of hot water and I ended up having to heat up water to give JJ a sponge bath. He is at the lovely stage where he hates baths so that was a joy...
We got on the road early and drove through many states. I had backpacks made up with snacks, water, and activities for each kid. Everyone was responsible for their own backpack for the duration of the trip (repacked daily). Beautiful and my husband had wired up the connected portable DVD players so we could all see them and wired the sound to the van's speakers. Beautiful insisted that we only pack Disney movies to get us on the mood:) We were set. We each had thoughts about the states we traveled through on the trip. I'll skip ahead and share those here:
Iowa: Long. not much to see.
Illinois: the worse roads of the states we drove through.
Indiana: it was dark, we were watching a movie, not much notable
Ohio: Only saw a bit of it, nothing of note
Kentucky: Nostalgic for me since we had lived there for a year right after Beautiful was born. It was much more modern and developed than I remembered. Good roads.
Tennessee: Beautiful AND good roads! It was FINALLY WARM lol!
Georgia: loooooong, the people where we stopped were mostly very hospitable
Florida: loved seeing palm trees, roads were decent but there were TONS of toll roads!
Alabama: The most beautiful. I had a lot of preconceptions of what Georgia and Alabama would look like. I was wrong. Alabama was gorgeous.
Tennessee: The western side of the state is just as beautiful as the eastern side:) Roads are good too!
Kentucky: Good roads, very pretty on western side too.
Illinois: Wish we could avoid that state lol!
Missouri: Pretty, long state but at least we had something to look at;) The kids loved getting to see the Arch
Iowa: Thankfully brief this time, we stopped to get something to eat on the border and it was our LAST STOP before home! Yay!!
OK, now that we have that out of the way. Grace was so funny about "rating" the states, she rated them based on how "messy" they were lol!
Day 1 ended in Kentucky where we stopped at the most amazing hotel we have ever stayed at. It was a Hilton suites and each of the rooms were two rooms so we were able to spread out well. The beds were so comfortable! We stayed there because it was recommended by the Creation Museum and we got a discount for that.
Day 2 we went to the Creation Museum. The Museum was very well put together and the gospel presentation was so clear and well done. We only did the indoor exhibits as it was raining outside. The animatronics were so realistic. It was definitely an educational display of story telling rather than just a presenting of "things."
We left there and drove to Lexington, KY where my husband and I lived when Beautiful was a young baby. I had finished my coursework and was doing my predoctoral internship working at the federal prison there for 12 months, then graduated. That is where Beautiful first crawled, walked, and did all of those cute baby things. It was emotional for me, and very sweet that we got to show her the house/town. We even went to eat at Fazoli's, the first Fazoli's that my husband and I had ever eaten at (our family is very fond of Fazoli's ;)
We drove through Kentucky and Tennessee. It was a very beautiful drive. We got into Georgia and stopped to eat. We were thinking that we wanted to get south of Atlanta before we stopped to avoid traffic during morning rush hour. Some locals confirmed that so we drove on through the large and busy city of Atlanta getting to our hotel around 11.
Day 3: The biggest problem with Day 3? I forgot my cell phone in the hotel:( :( In trying to be philosophical about it I did enjoy the rest of the vacation without being tied to my phone and "reality" responsibilities. However, now that I am home and apparently the woman who promised to ship my cell phone to my house last Monday did not do so I am still phoneless is a little irritating.
I did not live down this mistake the entire trip. I doubt I will live it down for the rest of my life. My husband is the "final check" guy (which slows us down and I make fun of him for). His foot was hurting so badly that he went to get the van and did not come back up to the room to do the final check. I had called him to see if he was ready for us, then laid my phone down instead of putting it in my pocket since it was still "on" and the keys weren't locked (I didn't want to pocket call someone). But, getting 8 of us out of 2 hotel rooms was apparently more than I could handle as I then neglected to pick the phone back up. Sigh. I lost my husbands house/car keys once about 7/8 years ago. I have not lived that down either (I am convinced that I laid them on the counter and Grace knocked them into the trashcan). So...yeah...my husband did not let me hold any keys or phones throughout this vacation. Thankfully we all laughed about it...a lot...;)
We made it to the house we rented around 6. We had gotten the recommendation from my brother to check out www.vrbo.com for a house. We had looked into AAA for flying down and staying at a value Disney Resort. We could have had 3 days at the Disney Parks and 4 nights in their resort (with food and Disney tickets included) for what ended up being just a few hundred dollars more than our 10 day trip with 4 days at the Parks, Kennedy Space Center, Creation Museum, 4 days of drive by "sight seeing" ;), and having a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house for 6 nights with a pool and room to spread out, sleep comfortably, and make noise without bothering someone on the other side of a wall. It was a good choice! Anyway, we got there and settled in.
Day 4: We drove to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center - the first of 2 of my favorite days on the trip. It was an overcast day. It was a very emotional experience for me and very educational. I love historical stuff:) It stayed dry while we did the outdoor exhibits, then we got on a bus to do the tour of the launch sites, etc. They took us to another building where we sat through a simulation of the first launch of American's into space, then saw some other museum like things. Those of us who had cell phones got a tornado warning alert. It was really raining hard outside. We got on the bus and drove to the main site and ran through the rain to the Atlantis building (the actual shuttle Atlantis was in there!) We were locked into that building due to the weather but it was very, very educational and fun filled. Several of us went to a space shuttle simulator - soooooo neat! Even being in there a couple of hours we did not get to see everything. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the Space Center was, they talked about the Angry Birds exhibit where there was a mirror maze lol! Oh well, hopefully they learned something from the rest of it!!
Day 5: First of day of Disney Parks - Animal Kingdom. The overwhelming memory that I have of it...the crowds. Yuck. I prefer vacations with not many people. Anyway, Grace enjoyed dancing to some African music with some dancers. We lost Grace briefly when she stopped to watch the dancing/musicians and I thought she was still walking behind Buddy (keeping track of 9 of us in the crowds was insane. Thankfully Buddy usually was in front and could take care of himself and JJ stayed strapped to me 95% of the time (although I will say that I wished that he would have walked more. My back held up amazingly well on this trip, especially with 5 days of my carrying him all day)). Grace realized she was alone and freaked out a bit but saw us 10 feet away and came to us (Beautiful had gone ahead thinking Grace was still walking and tried to find her and I stayed put in case someone doubled back). The next thing I knew, Grace was crying and clinging to me. She never let us out of her sight again. It was a lesson in sticking together that was well learned (everyone had their names and my husband's cell phone number written in two places on items on them in case they got lost). We all went on a Safari and the kids got a picture with Rafiki. The big highlight in was the 3-D film with Flik from A Bugs Life. It was a very fun experience (even though it really freaked Faith out!)
Day 6: Epcot...my other favorite day on the trip. FAR fewer people the day we were there. We spent about 13 hours there. Everyone was given a backpack for the day with PB roll ups, water, and snacks that sustained us for the day and each person was responsible for their own. Everything was so expensive it was the only way to do it.
Anyway, the highlights of this day (LOTS of them - after all this was my favorite day!!):
Rides - Soarin' - sitting in rows suspended above the ground in front of a screen so the experience is as if you are hang gliding over California - including olfactory experiences. It was really cool. The wait was 1 hour but it was worth it. JJ could not ride on it so my husband took the kids first, then I was given a "fast pass" to go through once my husband got back. I don't know if my husband will every forgive me for having him go on that ride. He is scared of heights. Very scared of heights (some of you remember him falling off of the room and hitting his head a few years ago? That didn't help.) I had been told that the ride involved just getting your feet a few feet off of the ground so the seats could move as if you were moving with the scene. Yeah. You are much, much (much) higher off of the ground than that. Not such a happy husband...but still a very neat experience!
Test Drive - "designing" a car then "test driving" it. The wait was also 1 hour but VERY worth it. Once in the car you go through "tests" to see how well it can brake, accelerate, etc. We were going 70 mph at one point. Oh yeah. Very cool.
We went on a boat ride through some testing areas of how to use natural pest control, fertilizer, etc. Essentially thinking outside the box on how to grow things. It was quite cool.
It was dark and late when we all finally got through the Soarin' ride - were supposed to leave then. I walked past the place where Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie were. It was a very long wait all day long and I saw that at that hour we could get in right away. So...I changed "plans" (see being spontaneous again lol!), went and got the rest of the group, and we got to get pictures with them. Epcot was not the place I was expecting to see so many characters, but it is where we saw the most! We also saw Cinderella's wicked step mother/sisters, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck (got pictures) and Belle, Alice, and Cinderella (no pictures). The kids (in particular the girls) were thrilled to get pictures with the characters.
Captain EO: This Epcot Only 3-D came out about a year before the last time I went to Disney World...25 years ago. It was so fun to see it again with the kids. However, it was even funnier with the comments from the girls. Captain EO is Michael Jackson. Faith was on my left and when Michael Jackson came out she got a quizical look on her face, tilted her head, and said, "so...he is a girl?" Then Grace, on my other side, after Michael Jackson said his first words also reiterated, "so...is he a girl?" Six or 7 years ago after Beautiful and Buddy had heard the song after the Free Willy movie argued and argued and argued with me that a woman sang the song. I finally had to get on the internet and prove to them who Michael Jackson was (and that he was male). To have the girls do that again during the movie was very hilarious to me - since I am of the era where Michael Jackson was such a huge icon it is interesting to see him through the next generation's eyes. Anyway, even Buddy enjoyed the flick and laughed as he commented that he has never heard of using music to defeat ones enemies before:)
Figment: Sigh... When I went to Disney World at age 15 the thing that I remember more than anything else (besides that I got to see Captain EO;) was Figment. It has been significantly updated (just like everything else) and it was so fun! I had gotten a stuffed Figment back then and have kept it for 25 year not letting it get lost or wrecked. It was my "memory" of that family vacation. It was very special to get to share it with my own children:)
The sculptures. Wow. Wow. Wow. It was the International Flower and Garden Festival - I don't know if they have all of the gardens and sculptures made up just as beautiful when it is not this festival but it was incredible. To take shrubs/hedges/I don't know what, but living growing vegetation, and sculpt/clip/cut it in a way to make the Disney Characters was sooooooo amazing. To have even different colors/textures of plants growing on them. I can't put words on it. Aside from the fireworks at Magic Kingdom it is what we by far took the most pictures of.
Finally, the World Showcase was wonderful. To walk around the lake and see all of the buildings where the architecture looked like the country it was showcasing was fun! Superman did a great job of knowing what country we were "in" by the architecture. Very, very interesting and educational. Beautiful.
Then, after we got out of the Character place with Mickey Mouse, etc the fireworks started. I was so thankful that we impulsively stayed longer to see Mickey, etc or we would have missed them. I thought the only fireworks were at the Magic Kingdom. They were beautiful and amazing.
Day 7: (aren't you glad I am finally done with Day 6 lol?!?!?!)
Magic Kingdom. To be totally honest, by the time we left at 6ish this day I was thinking that I would have had more fun pulling out my own teeth with a pliers. It was hot, crowded, and...well...crowded!
Highlights: (yes, I think I can come up with some;)
We were in a Presidents historical exhibit (very, very, very cool) when Beautiful leans down to whisper that we know people standing 10 feet away. Sure enough it was a family from Maine that we know! The wife/mom is a sister to a friend of ours here so we know them from when they travel back to visit in the summers. How cool was that?!?! It was also ironic as when our family went on vacation to Florida when I was 15 (I lived in MN then) and in KEY WEST, FL we saw MY GRANDPARENTS (who lived 10 miles from me) who were on a separate bus tour at that time. My mom had known that they may be there about the same time as our vacation but didn't want to tell us in case we didn't see them. It was CRAZY! There were lots of little "God" moments like this for me on this trip (e.g. the Figment ride at Epcot, the house having the same tile as our house, plate pattern as us, bowls as us, and that the county we were in was the same name as our county here, and the name of the development we stayed in was the same as the name of the town that our friend that we brought with lives in, etc).
Watching the Disney Princesses dance/put on their show in front of the Castle
Jack Sparrow show.
Pirates of the Caribbean ride/Jungle Cruise ride. The first was a fun "ride." The second was educational and funny. The guy running our boat spoke the entire time from his script of...puns. Almost every single comment he made was a pun. I found it absolutely hilarious! The jungle stuff was nice too...
The Swiss Family Robinson treehouse/fort thing. It was especially fun for Superman who had read the book whereas the girls have not.
Riding on the Ferry Boat.
"driving" on the race track with Grace. She steered the car and I had the accelerator. It was one of those cars with a piece of metal down the middle of the track so you can't run off of the track or into someone...but you sure can run into it and jolt yourself a lot! Imagine Grace driving on that. "nuff said. Uff Da lol!
OK, I don't think I can find anything else nice to say about that day. Oh, we left and went out to eat (the only time as a family we went and sat down to eat on the trip) at IHOP:)
Day 8: I really, really did not want to go back to Magic Kingdom this day. I really wanted to go back to Epcot. I could have done 5 more days at Epcot. But, the kids wanted our last day to be a 2nd helping of Magic Kingdom so I psyched myself up, got out my pliers (just kidding) and we made a PLAN for the day. Yes, no more spontaneity, I made a plan. It ended up being a very enjoyable day:)
We got up and packed a lot of stuff, ate a big breakfast, and got Fast Passes figured out via computer.
here is the one regret that I have from our spontaneous vacation:
In the rush of having 7 days to plan/pack for our 10 day Disney World vacation I did not have time to research everything like I would have wanted. I really, really wish that I would have understood the FastPass+ system. I didn't really understand that I could, from the luxury of my computer at home and not stand in line for up to an hour in the heat the actual day at the park, line up the rides we wanted to go on and the times. The FastPass+ system is really neat in theory and function. So you don't have to stand in line for hours you can pick up to 3 rides to get a "fast pass" too. You show up, scan your card (everyone at Disney World has a credit card like "ticket" that is set to your fingerprint to get you in the gate and to get onto rides that are Fast Pass rides. You pick when you want to go on a ride and then show up and get right in at that time. However, when you show up that day you may not get one of the rides you want (hence us standing in line at Epcot for 2 rides - we were lucky to get 60 minute waits. We watched throughout the day and they were up to 100 minute waits). If I would have understood how I could have done this from the house it would have made life easier. On the other hand, if we would have picked all of those days/rides before we went there we couldn't have been as spontaneous on what time we got to the park, when we left, etc.
OK, enough with my one regret.
We knew were were staying late until after the fireworks so we planned the FastPass+ accordingly and got there around noon. It was less crowded this day (YES!!!!).
We went on our rides and a few more due to short rides. We enjoyed a paddle board ride.
I took a raft ride with the 4 kids to Tom Sawyer's island. We walked around and got lost. Grace kept running around ahead of us and there were lots of twists and turns on the island (and in the caves). JJ kept running after her (of course - one of the few times that he actually wanted down!!) and I could not keep all 4 of them together. I got disoriented and thought I was on the other side of the island. Therefore, I was late meeting back up with the others. I was very happy to get the kids back on the raft and off the island lol! It was a fun island though:)
In Frontierland there was a Flash Mob and the 4 kids got pulled in to dance. I was so thrilled to see JJ actually go with the man (Faith was on the other side) and be separated from me. It was fun to watch and fun for them.
The Monster's Inc Laugh Floor was really cool. It was set up like a stand up comedy club...but the virtual "monsters" were the comedians. They took live feedback from the audience and did spotlights on various people. Then they showed the spotlight on Superman! He got to answer some questions and the monster made some jokes in response. I was enthralled with the technology of it all.
We went on the car ride again. Yesterday Superman drove Faith in the car (he did pretty good!) and today Faith got to drive. Oh My! Yeah...neither Faith nor Grace will ever drive while we are responsible for their car insurance. Sheesh. We all got a big laugh out of that!
I loved, loved, LOVED the Fantasy Parade. Apparently it is a new parade that is at 3 p.m. The floats and people on the ground were wonderfully and creatively decorated/dressed. But the story of the character was told through the people and the float. It was so artfully done. For example, they had a Prince who was being "talked to" by the fairy godmothers (who were gliding along on something individually, fairies wouldn't "walk" you know!) The Prince then turned and "fought" with several characters dressed up as if they were thorn bushes. Behind the thorn bushes was a large fire breathing dragon (and it looked like REAL fire!). It was indescribable so I won't attempt to fumble through any more description. It was...wow...
Then at 9:00 was the classic electric light parade. That was really neat too, but not as neat as the Fantasy Parade. At 9:45 was a light show projected onto The Castle with music. It depicted many of the famous characters. Very creative and well done. Very cool.
Finally, at 10:00 were the famous fireworks over The Castle. We got standing room fairly close to the castle and it was amazing. Just amazing. Yep, that about sums it up.
We took the Ferry back to the parking lot and went home, packed, and slept some.
Day 9: We packed and got out of the house at 10:30. We decided to drive through Alabama and Mississippi to get home rather than the Georgia route (and thus Atlanta) again. Alabama was so beautiful. I had some pretty wrong misconceptions of what the deep south looks like. I would like to go there again. Very pretty. We made it through FL, GA, AL, then the GPS took us to TN rather than through MS so we missed seeing that state. We knew that there were some tornado warnings around us but also wanted to get north of Nashville so we didn't hit rush hour. We checked into a hotel at midnight.
Day 10: We got going at 8:30 and it was already humid. Over breakfast we watched the news with the tornados and flooding not too far east of us. We were glad we made it as far as we did the night before. We drove through KY and stopped in IL. It was cold. I made a note to myself where the "line" seems to be for warm/cold weather. I will move south of that "line" someday lol! We drove through St. Louis and the kids got to see the Arch. We made it through MO and finally got home around 10:30. It was SOOO good to be home.
Some other items worth mentioning.
There is no way we could have taken this trip without Grace being on the new supplements. It was by far the easiest trip with her. We had excitable behavior and only 3 meltdowns (one was leaving Disney late at night Day 8 - but we were all tired, cranky, and it was 11 p.m.). But her meltdowns were less than 1/2 of what the "old" Grace would have done. She was enjoyable for the vast majority of the trip. She was in awe of all of her surroundings but mostly did not get overstimulated by it. She did not get distracted and wander off (just that one day but she really thought we all had stopped to watch it, she didn't wander off). When she was difficult it was verbal rather than behavioral. Essentially she would argue. The 4 and I (are you noticing a pattern here? How did I end up alone with the 4 and that was when trouble would happen?!?!?!) anyway, the 4 and I got separated from my husband and we had to get up to the predetermined meet up spot and I kept telling them to look for his red shirt. She argued the ENTIRE length of the park that he was wearing a grey shirt, her feet hurt, she was thirsty, she was hungry, she was hot, she was tired...and she...would...not...stop. I was carrying the 40 lb kid and trying to keep us together in the crowd (yes this was day 7...the day where I would have rather had the pliers...). Anyway, we finally made it to the spot and my husband showed up about 10 minutes later (in a red shirt)...and I had help again:)
I might add, that and one other time were the only times that wished that I had my cell phone. I really REALLY enjoyed not being tied to it this week.
It was absolutely delightful to see Buddy enjoy himself. Buddy does NOT like people, crowds, noise, or anything new. He strongly detests waking up early. He had FUN! He enjoyed himself, was a delight to be around (the vast majority of the time), and laughed and joked with us. I had expected him to be more difficult and he was the one who actually liked the Magic Kingdom as much as, or more than, the rest of the kids lol! We joked with him that it was all of those Princesses;)
Finally, we had Beautiful's friend with us on the trip. He is a delightful young man. I will be honest with you and admit that there are very few people with whom I think I could get along on vacation, much less the stress of over 50 hours of driving and 10 days together (are you surprised?!?). Most of the time I am trying to find a way to hide from my own family and get some breathing room lol! He was (is) a gem. It was a blessing to have him with on our trip. It was a good vacation, a magical time, and many memorable memories were made. I am so thankful that God pulled it all together, kept us safe and healthy, and provided for our trip. We were (and are) blessed!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Texas Trip: family fun!
We enjoyed our trip to Texas! The kids got to do fun things every day and my husband so was wonderful with keeping them moving and playing while I sat in class day day every day:) They attended the zoo, a museum, Lego Land, a long horn steer stampede, the Botanical Gardens, a Mustang Makeover horse event, and plenty of swimming:)
Food: We had a big breakfast provided by the hotel every morning. It was a great start to the day! Supper was provided 3 nights - we really liked the Texan tacos:) I ate like a queen at the conference. The top restaurant in Fort Worth catered the food. We had all kinds of unique food like Tamales, delicious hot chocolate bread pudding served in a corn husk, cheddar grits with jalapenos, and then basic delicious food like grilled chicken and pork chops. Of course everything had plenty of peppers and spice to made it very tasty!
Sleep: Not much for anyone...moving on:)
The conference was amazing! I will be posted on what I learned in various posts. There was so much information I need to integrate it in my own brain and try to articulate it here in smaller chunks:) I have begun implementing it already here at home with good results so far:) Kids who come from hard places process and learn and react so incredibly different than kids without early trauma. I will admit that I did not always understand that and have some trepidation about sharing what I have learned with others who will dismiss this information...to the detriment of the children...
I am so passionate about adoption and about parenting. I am brain storming and praying about how God wants me to share this information with others and be a more active part of Orphan Ministry.
For some reason my pictures of the trip are not uploading so they will be on facebook if anyone wants to see them;)
Food: We had a big breakfast provided by the hotel every morning. It was a great start to the day! Supper was provided 3 nights - we really liked the Texan tacos:) I ate like a queen at the conference. The top restaurant in Fort Worth catered the food. We had all kinds of unique food like Tamales, delicious hot chocolate bread pudding served in a corn husk, cheddar grits with jalapenos, and then basic delicious food like grilled chicken and pork chops. Of course everything had plenty of peppers and spice to made it very tasty!
Sleep: Not much for anyone...moving on:)
The conference was amazing! I will be posted on what I learned in various posts. There was so much information I need to integrate it in my own brain and try to articulate it here in smaller chunks:) I have begun implementing it already here at home with good results so far:) Kids who come from hard places process and learn and react so incredibly different than kids without early trauma. I will admit that I did not always understand that and have some trepidation about sharing what I have learned with others who will dismiss this information...to the detriment of the children...
I am so passionate about adoption and about parenting. I am brain storming and praying about how God wants me to share this information with others and be a more active part of Orphan Ministry.
For some reason my pictures of the trip are not uploading so they will be on facebook if anyone wants to see them;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)