We had a REALLY great trip. We left early Sunday morning (the 21st). We spent the day swimming at our resort and at downtown disney shopping and eating. Monday we went to Magic Kingdom. Tuesday we went to Epcot. Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom. Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios, and Friday we went to another resort for breakfast, downtown Disney again, back to our resort to play on the playground and an early dinner and then flew out that night. We touched down at DFW about 8:30 pm.
A few things:
1. Crocs are awesome!! As ugly as they are my feet NEVER hurt. Even after 14 hours in the park my feet felt great. They were worth every penny even if I never wear them again!
2. 95% of everyone that works at Disney is extremely sweet especially to the kids. I think it would be awesome if the whole world treated kids like they mattered as much as they do at Disney.
3. The magical express is awesome. They picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel. Two hours later, they knock on our door and deliver our bags. Every day they have busses that come by every 15 minutes or less for each of the 4 parks, 2 waterparks, and downtown Disney. We never had to rent a car, pay for parking, worry about finding a parking space, or waste energy on walking from the parking lot to the park. Oh, and the last day we checked in our luggage at the hotel during check out and when it was time to go to the airport all we had to do was go through security and sure enough there it was on the belt at DFW. I was in awe!!!
4. The dining plan rocks!! We are family that does not go out to eat very often. The kids and I go to ChickFilet once a week with friends and as a family we go to the Donut Shop, Sonic, or have pizza two or three times a month and then go out nicer: Chilis, Cheddars, ect. once a month and we share meals. So for the dining plan.....we paid about $85.00 a day ahead of time and got 20 Table Service Meals, 20 Counter Service Meals, and 20 Snacks. The counter and table service meals included a drink, entree, and dessert. The only thing we had to pay was tip for the table service meals. We felt like we were SOOOOO splurging. We would split two counter meals at breakfast (for instance that would be two big egg, ham and cheese crossiants, 2 giant cinnamon rolls and 2 big milks), split two counter meals at lunch ( for instance 2 good size personal pizzas, 2 giant cookies, and 2 drinks) and then we'd have a big dinner. Most of our table service meals were buffet - all you can eat. When you added it up we would have spent way over $85 if we had eaten that much NOT on the dining plan. We ended up with a ton of snack credits on the last day because we were just never hungry between meals - we were always afraid that we would ruin the next meal if we ate a snack and then after a buffet dinner there was no way we could stuff in a snack!! Even with all the walking in the parks, I gained 2 lbs on this trip! On the last day we went to a bakery/candy store and used up all our snacks credits to bring goodies home in our suitcases.
5. Animal Kingdom and Epcot were our favorite parks
6. Magic Kingdom was fun and did make you feel like you were in some type of "magical" place but it rained the last 6 of the 13 hours we were in the park. It puts a little damper on your day when you are walking around in a plastic poncho sticking to you and wet pants from where you've sat on the wet curb waiting out the never ending rain storm!!!
7.Hollywood Studios is a good place to end on. There is not as much to do and there are a lot of shows so you do a lot of sitting and watching. It was good for us because we did it on our last day so we were all a little tired and Hope and I had colds that we had gotten the day before. Oh, and our favorite things was at this park. Its a new ride Toy Story Mania. Its the one thing that I REALLY wanted to do again, but the line was 70 minutes!!
8. Fastpass is genius! All the popular rides have fastpass. You go to the ride, put in your cards (everyone has their own card) and it gives you a time to come back and ride with a minimal wait. You can get one every two hours. So you go get your fast pass, then go do a bunch of rides that don't have long waits and then at the appointed time come back and get on the popular ride in like 5 minutes - when the wait time in the regular line could be over an hour. We worked it pretty good and never waited any more than 20 minutes for any ride. Every ride told you how long the wait was. It always over-estimated. That was VERY helpful for someone like me - that likes to have everything scheduled and planned ahead of time! I loved it!
9. I think the best part was just being able to focus on having fun with my kids. I didn't have to worry about dishes, laundry, straightening, cleaning, or school work. It was just about having fun and being together. I REALLY needed that and I'm sure it was good for the kids too.
10. When it was time to leave Blake and I realized how blessed we were that although our vacation was awesome that coming home was awesome too. We love our life. Blake enjoys his job. I enjoy homeschooling the kids and taking care of our home. Everyday that we are together is fun. We are very blessed.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Am I sad or happy?
Something big happened tonight.....Hope said a word with a "R" correctly for the first time. We took the kids to the park tonight and I was sitting on a bench watching Hope ride her bike. At one point she sailed past me crazy fast and when she stopped I asked, "Was that scary?" And she said, "Vewy ScaRy!" I said, "WHAT?!" And she said, "Vewy ScaRy." I said, "Say 'scary' and she said, "scaRy." On the way home, Blake and I got her to say several "R" words and she said her R correctly about 50% of the time. I'm glad to know that she won't be a big kid one day that still can't say their R's. But I am sad that in several months I will probably never hear all those cute "r" words anymore. My three favorites that I LOVE to hear her say: Yes sir, Burger, and Cinderella's Slippers. SO CUTE!! I WILL NOT get baby fever, I WILL NOT get baby fever, I WILL NOT get baby fever!!!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Marrying Young
Its good for a marriage to think back to your first weeks/months of marriage...to remember where you've come from. But when you got married at 18 and 19, looking back fills you with a sense of gratitude that you survived. I'm not talking marriage survival....I'm talking actual survival......living to tell about it. I decided to blog about some of the funny stories of our first year starting with our honeymoon. Now in thinking about our honeymoon you must know that we were not old enough to rent a car so flying anywhere was not an option. However Blake's parents did graciously say that they would let us stay in their time-share condo in Cancun. When we asked if we were old enough to stay at the resort, their reply was, "Oh, we would go too." Oh yes! Fabulous idea. I could just imagine driving off from the wedding with our parents in the backseat or wait....would we be in the backseat. Needless to say we decided to stay within driving distance. After we left the wedding we had to go back to Blake's house (i.e.. his parents house) to switch cars because when your friends are between the ages of 16-20 they "decorate" your car until its illegal to drive down the road much less across several counties. But anyway we were sitting in the front seat of the second car and before driving off Blake leaned over to kiss me and *ahem* break one or two of our dating rules (I might add that I made a ridiculous amount of rules early on in our boyfriend/girlfriend relationship that we stuck to like glue until our wedding day. Like the freckle two inches above my knee that I told him God put there so he would know as far up as he was allowed to touch before he married me. Yep...two inches above the knee. "We" also decided we would only kiss once a month but I was afraid we might have an accidental kiss on occasion so I'd only let him kiss me once every two months just in case..... Yes, I am afraid to say this is all very true..... And yes, I will be tattooing a freckle on Hope's leg around the age of 12.) But anyway...back to breaking a couple of rules in his driveway...... suddenly I gasped, he turned around and there was his uncle's very perky 40 something girlfriend waving enthusiastically and smiling hugely with her face smashed up to the window holding a big plate of wedding cake. Blake sheepishly rolled down the window and before he could open his mouth what's her name (can't remember because she and Blake's uncle broke up right after that and I haven't seen her since.) began to gush about how there was so much wedding cake left and she decided to hurry some over to us before we left. What an angel!!!! We decided to leave the driveway after quickly accepting our cake!
So our first stop on our honeymoon was a condo at Sam Rayburn with mirror ceilings in the bedroom. Oh yes, you read it right. Mirror ceilings. The bedroom was on the bottom floor and the stairs were in the bedroom that lead up to the top floor. On the second night, we kept hearing noises upstairs. I was scared! Finally Blake got up, grabbed his pocket knife and began to creep upstairs. Watching my man/boy husband headed off to protect me, I just remember thinking that I really wanted my Daddy. Our second part of our honeymoon was a bed and breakfast in Hot Springs. Upon arrival, I decided I didn't like the smell and cried my eyes out telling Blake that I did not want to stay and would he PLEASE go ask the lady if we could have our money back so that we could leave. He did exactly that, bless his dear heart and then had to come back and tell me that no we couldn't have our money back but that he did have a plan. Hiccuping and sniffing I asked him what his plan was. He said, "I'm going to hold you while you take a nap and when you wake up you tell me what you want to do. If you want to leave, we'll leave right then and not worry one bit about the money. I tearfully agreed and fell asleep in his arms while he watched Cool Runnings on TV. I woke up two hours later much happier and from that moment on, I can't remember ever feeling like I really wished I was with my Daddy instead. He was my new hero. (Daddy, if you read this you will always be my hero too!)
Well, we finished our honeymoon and a few days later we were headed back home for Christmas. The first night we stayed in his bedroom at his parents. We knew it would be weird but it was Christmas Eve and we wanted it to be romantic so we lit candles. Several minutes into our "first Christmas Eve...with candles" there's a knock at the door and his mom says she needs to come in to get the pies out of the the fridge. You have to go through Blake's room to get to the laundry room where they keep an extra fridge. Upon entering, she decides to turn and talk to us about the dangers of sleeping with candles lit, and how breathing in the fumes for a long period of time could be fatal. I have no idea how Blake responded. I was too busy with my head buried in his back thinking that I was going to die of embarrassment.
Back home at CFNI, we managed to somehow adjust to not living in single dorms anymore. HA HA HA HA HA. There were several times we would sit down for the 11:00 service and then after discussing it between ourselves announce to our friends that we were going to clock out and go home to take a nap instead of staying through the service, to which our single friends would holler out as we exited the IB, "We hate you, do you know that, we hate you!" Yeah, that was fun.....again proof of our age.....but fun still the same. Ok. One more story. The next Christmas right around our one year anniversary we decided to get a Christmas tree for our apartment. I had to have a real tree so we went to WalMart to find a tree small enough to fit in the trunk of our Kia Sephia. We found the perfect one and got it out to the car and NO WAY would that thing fit in our trunk. But lo and behold my manly husband had brought a rope to tie it to the roof. After some deep thinking he said, "Roll down all the windows." So we went around to all 4 windows and rolled them down. (They were manual of course.) Then my amazing husband started tying that tree to that car like you wouldn't believe. Through one window and over the top, through the next and over the top, on and on until he had that thing so secure it would not be going anywhere! And I thought he was so hot! Then we went to jump in but.....we could not open our doors. What the heck......OHHHH..........the doors are tied shut with the rope. I thought it was hilarious and began to laugh but poor Blake, his ego was shot. We eventually did get that tree home and I'm pretty sure I helped him repair his ego as well.
I could probably think of many other stories. I might have to do a part two sometime but for now I'll just say that we survived. God gave us wisdom when we needed it, lots of grace for ourselves and each other, an amazing love that continues to grow stronger and to this day we still have moments we know that .....eventually "we'll look back on and laugh."
So our first stop on our honeymoon was a condo at Sam Rayburn with mirror ceilings in the bedroom. Oh yes, you read it right. Mirror ceilings. The bedroom was on the bottom floor and the stairs were in the bedroom that lead up to the top floor. On the second night, we kept hearing noises upstairs. I was scared! Finally Blake got up, grabbed his pocket knife and began to creep upstairs. Watching my man/boy husband headed off to protect me, I just remember thinking that I really wanted my Daddy. Our second part of our honeymoon was a bed and breakfast in Hot Springs. Upon arrival, I decided I didn't like the smell and cried my eyes out telling Blake that I did not want to stay and would he PLEASE go ask the lady if we could have our money back so that we could leave. He did exactly that, bless his dear heart and then had to come back and tell me that no we couldn't have our money back but that he did have a plan. Hiccuping and sniffing I asked him what his plan was. He said, "I'm going to hold you while you take a nap and when you wake up you tell me what you want to do. If you want to leave, we'll leave right then and not worry one bit about the money. I tearfully agreed and fell asleep in his arms while he watched Cool Runnings on TV. I woke up two hours later much happier and from that moment on, I can't remember ever feeling like I really wished I was with my Daddy instead. He was my new hero. (Daddy, if you read this you will always be my hero too!)
Well, we finished our honeymoon and a few days later we were headed back home for Christmas. The first night we stayed in his bedroom at his parents. We knew it would be weird but it was Christmas Eve and we wanted it to be romantic so we lit candles. Several minutes into our "first Christmas Eve...with candles" there's a knock at the door and his mom says she needs to come in to get the pies out of the the fridge. You have to go through Blake's room to get to the laundry room where they keep an extra fridge. Upon entering, she decides to turn and talk to us about the dangers of sleeping with candles lit, and how breathing in the fumes for a long period of time could be fatal. I have no idea how Blake responded. I was too busy with my head buried in his back thinking that I was going to die of embarrassment.
Back home at CFNI, we managed to somehow adjust to not living in single dorms anymore. HA HA HA HA HA. There were several times we would sit down for the 11:00 service and then after discussing it between ourselves announce to our friends that we were going to clock out and go home to take a nap instead of staying through the service, to which our single friends would holler out as we exited the IB, "We hate you, do you know that, we hate you!" Yeah, that was fun.....again proof of our age.....but fun still the same. Ok. One more story. The next Christmas right around our one year anniversary we decided to get a Christmas tree for our apartment. I had to have a real tree so we went to WalMart to find a tree small enough to fit in the trunk of our Kia Sephia. We found the perfect one and got it out to the car and NO WAY would that thing fit in our trunk. But lo and behold my manly husband had brought a rope to tie it to the roof. After some deep thinking he said, "Roll down all the windows." So we went around to all 4 windows and rolled them down. (They were manual of course.) Then my amazing husband started tying that tree to that car like you wouldn't believe. Through one window and over the top, through the next and over the top, on and on until he had that thing so secure it would not be going anywhere! And I thought he was so hot! Then we went to jump in but.....we could not open our doors. What the heck......OHHHH..........the doors are tied shut with the rope. I thought it was hilarious and began to laugh but poor Blake, his ego was shot. We eventually did get that tree home and I'm pretty sure I helped him repair his ego as well.
I could probably think of many other stories. I might have to do a part two sometime but for now I'll just say that we survived. God gave us wisdom when we needed it, lots of grace for ourselves and each other, an amazing love that continues to grow stronger and to this day we still have moments we know that .....eventually "we'll look back on and laugh."
Monday, August 11, 2008
silly girl
Just now, Hope was downstairs having a snack of cheerios and milk before bed. She hollered up to me, "Mommy, I need some more milk for my cheerios." I could see as I was going downstairs that she had about five soggy cheerios sitting on the bottom of her bowl. She had her face real close to her bowl when I heard her say to her five remaining cheerios, "Ahhh You little cuties."
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Can't wait to tell Blake!
This morning I was ironing clothes for church and the kids were downstairs eating breakfast. (Blake was already at church) I heard the kids start to fight and then Hope burst out crying. Camden ran upstairs and into my room to report that it was not his fault. I said, "Camden I would just like for you guys to be kind to each other this morning and not fight. I want to get my heart ready to worship the Lord this morning at church and can't do that when I am angry." Then Camden said, "Well Mommy, that is just not going to change. You know how Daddy is meaner in the mornings? Well so are me and Hopie. We just can't help it." I was just so happy he said Daddy was meaner in the mornings and not Mommy!
time change
I finally corrected the time clock on my blog. All the times on my previous blogs have been wrong. My mom picked that up pretty quick when she saw that I had blogged at 7AM. She knew there must be a mistake! I have to add that all my times were changed to the correct times from my previous posts. Cool!!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Memories.......
The summer that I was fifteen and Blake was fourteen several of us from our youth group at church went to a kids camp to be junior counselors. I "liked" Blake and he "liked" me. Though we knew the other one liked the other one and we talked often, we had yet to actually talk to each other about our mutual "attraction" haha. He talked about it with our friends that were boys and I talked about it to our friends that were girls and then they talked to each other and brought back word. Wow! I think we were a little old for that even at 14 and 15 but...anyway. One night I handed him a note before evening service as my campers walked past his campers that said, "I am getting tired of talking through Ben, Leah, and Kacie are you?" Later he handed me the note back and it said, "Yes, so now what???" And that was twelve years ago today.....
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