ahhhh....finally back to the blog

Well we’re back from our trip and I don’t want to be home! Being home just means that it’s back to the daily grind of cleaning my house and making lunches! Not for long I guess…only a couple weeks left of school and then Christmas and then we’re off again to Texas!

We had so much fun though! I felt bad when I looked back at the last post I wrote and it sounded so negative and stressful! Despite the little complaining, potty breaks, outbursts and quarrels we had it was definitely forgotten and replaced with extreme joy, excitement, energy, and fabulosity! I have never been to Walt Disney World and neither had my kids or Sean so this was definitely a huge first for all of us and it was one of the best vacations I’ve been on. I didn’t get to sit on the beach like I love or go shopping, but to see my kids SO happy and excited to see the characters that they watch on tv so often really made my week! We got to go to Magic Kingdom and see Cinderella’s castle (Taylor’s favorite part), do some thrill rides, eat some yummy sweet cream cheese pretzels and see all kinds of fun characters. We also went to Animal Kingdom where we went on a safari and took a ride on the best roller coaster around! I’m glad my kids are thrill seekers and could ride all these rides because they were fun! Brayden was a little bit too short for the big coasters on the first day so we remedied that with a couple of tops to water bottles and he used those in the heel of his shoes and called them his high heels! I felt so bad the first day when he was too short for Space Mountain (the one ride he was looking forward to) only to be turned away because he was just a tad too short. On our last day on Saturday night Nana took him back and waited in line for a couple of hours just to take the ride! Thanks Nana, it saved his week!

One day we took the girls to the Bibbidy Bobbidee Boutique in Downtown Disney where they sat and got pampered as the little princesses that they are. Taylor had been sort of acting like a diva the whole morning and was acting like she didn’t want to have anything to do with the whole makeovers. When it was her turn we hoisted her up in her chair and the fairy godmother started to talk to her about what kind of hairstyle she wanted. She was acting shy and quiet and just as the girl was putting her hair up in a pony tail she started to fall asleep! I couldn’t believe it! She was getting her hair done like Sleeping Beauty, wearing her dress and decided to act like her too and actually fell fast asleep! We decided to continue with the makeover and I held her head up while the stylist did her hair, makeup and fairy dust (glitter)! I’m not sure if that was a bad mom moment or a dedicated mom moment. Either way everybody watching thought it was extremely cute that Sleeping Beauty fell asleep. When she woke up she was all done up and once she saw herself in the mirror she got excited and warmed up to the whole thing! I guess I don’t blame her though…sometimes when I’m getting my hair done and they’re combing through my hair it’s so relaxing I can’t help but close my eyes for a bit!

It was really fun to have some cousins there to hang out with and get to know a little bit better! We missed Melia and Troy but hopefully one day we’ll get the chance to go to Disney with them too!

The weather was awesome…probably averaging 24 degrees. One day it poured rain and we decided to go to the country’s “largest” McDonald’s for lunch and to play. Not that exciting, just a McDonald’s, but it got us out of the rain. After we went over to a huge mall and walked around a bit while Taylor and Natalie had huge tantrums at each other while they tried to share a pop! When it was time to go and pick up Sean from his conference we were leaving the parking lot in the rain and my windshield wipers broke! Yep...not the wiper mechanism but part of the motor that moves them! We headed to the closest repair shop going very slow with the hazards blinking (I could hardly see!), only to find out that the part we needed could only be purchased from the Dealer and couldn’t get in until Thursday! AH…the only option was to pray for clear weather on the whole way home! So I set my GPS to take me back to the hotel by way of the least amount of freeways. It was pouring rain and I had my head out the window with my hand shielding my eyes from the pelting rain as I drove a car full of kid’s home in the darkness! Scary much? We made it but my left arm was unable to move and frozen and I was soaking wet! AH…I think my mom got some good pictures…yes that’s right, as I’m trying not to crash I could see the flash of pictures being taken of me in the passenger seat! Well to make a long story short, on our way back we stopped a special stop in Augusta, Georgia on Sunday night so that early Monday morning we could get our van into Nissan to get it fixed. They really accommodated us (bless the southern folk) and crazy enough were the only Nissan close enough to Florida that carried the part we needed!

A few things I’ve learned this trip

· It’s very hard to stay on track with regards to food when you start the trip eating at Texas Roadhouse and are introduced to their homemade rolls and cinnamon butter!

· Patience! Patience! Patience!

· Yelling solves nothing!

· Don’t ever wear flip flops to walk around a park all day long…and don’t do it two days in a row!

· Always make sure you know where the closest bathroom is!

· Explore your resort the first day you get there so you don’t find the cool features the day before you leave and can’t experience them!

· Learn to laugh at your 2 year old when she insists on screaming in the tone of a velociraptor.

· Let little girls fight it out…it doesn’t always end in hair pulling.

· Always take Nana on vacation with you!

I’m in the car typing this and we’re now in Pennsylvania on our way to Kingston, hoping to make it far enough to miss the ice storms that are coming! I’m so glad Sean had this conference to go to otherwise I have no idea how long it would have been before we made it to Florida! It’s definitely a new favorite vacation spot for us! Now we can look forward to Christmas and the many adventures that come after that!

L

Orlando