It’s hard to believe it was a month ago that we visited Epcot. 
It was a fantastic day and seems like just yesterday in many ways!

As we did on all our park days, we made it there in time for rope drop.

For people who do not believe it is important to get there a solid 40 minutes before the park opens, I offer you this photo.

That is what it looked like as a full 50% of the rope-drop-crowd headed straight for Soarin’.  Everyone except Scooter and I got on the ride to mark our first Disney attraction of our vacation! 
[I rode later with FastPasses.]

We cooled off three times during the day at Club Cool where we thoroughly enjoyed sampling sodas marketed around the world.

Mommy, Nanny, and the girls headed to Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion for lunch with the princesses.  It was delicious and a lot of fun.  Scooter didn’t love it [she was hungry and tired] but all the other members of the party gave it two thumbs up!

JB and I joked that this is what our photo would look like if we only had one child!  [She never passes up a photo op.]

We were there for the Flower and Garden Festival.

The big deal of the day was meeting Marie the Cat from Aristocats!
She was a new character the last time we went in 2007 and we couldn’t find her.  This year we did and were rewarded with good, good hugs.

*sigh* – bliss!

Skeezix was selected to sit in a prop. chair used for an acrobat show. 

Meeting Mary Poppins.

We headed into a store buried in the United Kingdom area and were rewarded with a visit with these guys.  I love that my homeschooled [a/k/a no-one-ever-told-him-he’s-too-old] almost 9 year old still hugs characters!!!

This was a really cool find also tucked into the store in the U.K!

What are the odds???????

More Club Cool!

And dinner in Sunshine Seasons in The Land Pavilion. 
It is our favorite place to eat in Future World.

We closed out the day with Illuminations: Reflections of the Earth.  It is a wonderful fireworks show [although over-the-top with “green” messages and a big-bang-theory start…].

Our day was magnificent.  We went to bed that night late and very tired AND in disbelief that we still had 10 more days of vacation ahead of us!!

We arrived in Florida on Saturday, April 30th to sunny skies and HOT temperatures.  We spent Saturday evening swimming and got to bed early.  The 24 hour drive had left us all tuckered out.

Sunday we enjoyed the pool all morning, making our first splash just minutes after breakfast.   We had an small, early lunch and headed to Downtown Disney. 

We toured around for a bit and Mama checked out the status of years’ worth of partially used tickets.  Daddy and the boys stayed for dinner at T-Rex while Mama, Nene, and the girls headed to Orlando airport to pick up Nan.

The ladies had dinner at Sizzler before meeting up with the guys again for more pictures and playing and purchasing!  Champ went home with a new lego set and Skeezix found a new Minnie Mouse dress-up set to replace a used-to-pieces set from 2007.

It was a great way to start vacation.

We headed to bed early as Monday would mark our first full day of touring a park.

This is how we drove around all week. 

^{We were blessed with a fantastic vacation to Florida from April 29th – May 13th.} 

^{We drove down through the night and found the journey very pleasant.  We all agreed we’d do it again!}

^{The vacation house was nice.  Four bedrooms, three full baths [two with soaker tubs] and a living room and a family room/kitchen set-up.} 

^{Nan and Nene’s bathroom}

^{Girls’ room}

^{Boys’ and Scooter’s room}

^{Mommy and Daddy’s Room}

^{Mommy’s bathtub!}

^{Nene & Nanny’s room}

^{The pool was great.  We were disappointed that what we thought was a “hot tub” was only a “jetted spa.”  But it didn’t take away from our trip to not have the hot tub.}

We headed to Splash Lagoon on Friday with a bunch of friends. 

We had a fantastic time.

The weather was FREEZING outside, which made the balmy 85 degrees delightful.  The crazy waterslides and lazy river made it crazy fun.  It was just what Mama needed.  It was magnificent.

Skeezix wasn’t really sad.  She was tired of taking photos. 
We had to work to get Scooter to look at the camera.

After swimming we headed to Quaker Steak and Lube and had a great, fun meal.  Our friends were celebrating two of their children’s birthdays there.  It was a good time for everyone.

On the ride home. 

Don’t spill the beans…

We are going on vacation in a few weeks, but we are going to try not to tell the kids!
Why not? Well, three years ago we planned a trip to Columbus, Ohio to see VeggieTales Live on Stage and we didn’t tell the kids [then Beau 5, Champ 3, Skeezix 1] until we woke them in the morning and headed on our way. It just so happens that a few weeks ago, out of the blue, Beau asked if someday we could surprise them again with a vacation. “Mom, can you do that thing again someday where you wake us up and take us on a trip?” At the time I mumbled something about, “sure, maybe, someday,” and went on with my day. WELL – just this past Sunday, our friends let us know about an opportunity to visit a beach house with them in the outer banks. Another family that was going with them had to back out and their was room for us at a great price. So we prayed about it and JB asked at work and HERE WE ARE planning a surprise trip.

And get this! The curriculum we have for this next year has a 5 week unit on Seashores for science and a 5 week unit on the Wright Brothers, for history. How is that for perfect?!

So – don’t tell the kids if you see us.

But do pray for NO hurricanes!