It’s Friday and we got back from a short little Disney vacation on Wednesday and as a result I’m all sorts of messed up. I went around all day yesterday thinking it was Monday and today feels like Tuesday. I’m not complaining…it’s just hard to get back into a routine, ya know? And, yes, I have about 300 sessions to blog, but I thought I’d go ahead and do the Disney post because I don’t want it to get lost in the shuffle. It was our first Disney trip with Caroline and Lilah Drew, our first time camping at Disney in the Airstream, and just an overall fun time. I realize that these vacation posts might be pretty boring for the rest of you. That’s okay, they’re my memories and I like having a place to store them. Speaking of memories, want to hear something funny? I used to have a private personal blog that was totally devoted to our family, more specifically to Mak and CB. I shared their toddler stories there and I’m so thankful for it. Two blogs got to be too much to keep up with, though, so I kind of merged the two back into this one. Anyway, I was looking back at a blog post about a Disney trip when Mak was four and CB was two and I came across this little gem:
“Here we are bright and early on the bus to Epcot. Wilderness Lodge shared buses with Fort Wilderness, so we were able to see that resort too. Probably not a place I’ll ever choose to stay. It seemed really spread out and smelled like horses.”
Ha! How little did my 30 year old self know about the person I would become? Not only have I now stayed at Fort Wilderness several times and I love it, there’s honestly nothing in the world I’d rather do than go camping with my family (Disney or anywhere else). The horse smell doesn’t bother me anymore. Funny how things change.
Here’s the short version of our trip. Florida in August is BLAZIN’ HOT (really??), but a thunderstorm will move in every afternoon bringing a cool breeze and very much welcomed rain. Crowds were not nearly as bad as we feared they would be. There were A LOT of British people there which was cool because I loved hearing their accents and them telling their kids things like “Throw your rubbish away”. Rubbish sounds so much better than trash. It’s shameful to say, but Clara Beth still needs a stroller. I know, she’s six. However, the stroller prevents whining and I DO NOT handle whining well. Disney with a big group of family is the best way to do it. If you like your family. Thankfully, I do. =) Poor Caroline is at that age where the unknown is pretty scary and as a result, she was scared in pretty much every line. Except Dumbo and Small World. She would have been happy if those were the only two rides we did. She always enjoyed the rides once we got on them, though. Baby Lilah Drew was a total champ and even on her tired day, never fussed one bit. I love my nieces and I’m so happy I got to do Disney with them. Camping in the Airstream was fun…different, though. We’re definitely still on a learning curve and there are a lot of things we need to figure out about our new-old trailer. Overall, really great trip and I’d go back tomorrow if I could.
As always, a highlight of the trip to Florida was a stop to visit with Collin’s grandfather, Abie. Y’all, the man is 97 years old and I promise you he looks better each time we see him. SO extremely thankful for our visit with him!
We had a great little visit, went cruising on down 95, hit Daytona, and saw smoke coming from the back of the Suburban. Nice. Oh, but it gets even better! It’s 5:00 on Friday afternoon. I’m sure service stations will be lined up, anxious to help us at 5:00 on Friday, right? You all know we love our guys at Creel Tire here in Florence, don’t you? Well, as we are seeing smoke, Richard Creel’s wife Marti comments on a photo on Facebook saying that she’s praying for us. Seriously, RIGHT as we are seeing smoke this pops up on our phones. We pull off at an exit, Collin calls Richard who talks him through what to do, and we find a service station that is willing to help us. I think they are Richard and Walton’s Cuban cousins. SUPER nice father/son duo who did NOT take advantage of people when they very easily could have. That, my friends, was the Lord. Before we knew it we were back on our way and the rest of the trip was VACATION.
The next day, CC arrived!!! They left Florence at 4:00 in the morning, so you will see the kids get progressively more and more tired through pictures as the day goes on.
Love her upside down shades. =)
Saturday night we did the Camp fire at the campground with Chip and Dale, and the kids were picked to be the ones to introduce Chip and Dale that night! So Fun (although Mak pretty much hated it 😉 ). Y’all, I’ve said it before, but this is the BEST deal in all of Disney. It is a FREE character meal!! And they go through the crowd and speak to each and every kid. Well, they don’t speak, but you get what I mean. You must do this.
Finally…PARK TIME!!!
There are WAY too many pics here to put in a blog post, so I’m going to put up a few and then link to the slideshow. It was such a great trip and we look forward to the next one! Let us know if you want to come with us and do a session!
