Home! We’re home! We enjoyed our motel breakfast and then got on the road before 10 a.m. We only made three stops before arriving home around 3 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »

Paducah! It has such a fun sound to it. Paducah, Kentucky. That’s where we’re staying tonight. We surely have turned into travel wimps, because we could have made it home tonight, maybe before midnight, but we chose to stop anyway. It sure has been nice. Being on the road, stopping every hour or so, and making slow progress, is really tiring. So finding a motel that has high-speed internet and an indoor pool is really nice. And I must confess, I was cheered even more when I spied the waffle iron in the breakfast nook. Woo-hoo! I can’t wait for breakfast! Read the rest of this entry »

Today was such a sleepy day for me. I got up and ate the delicious pancakes that Natalie made for breakfast. Then, when Michael came down to breakfast, I took Judah back up to our room. He was acting fussy and I wondered if he was tired. I laid down with him and felt so sleepy. By the time Michael came to check on me, I was dozing and Judah was ready to be rescued. So Michael took Judah and I fell fast asleep. I didn’t wake up until lunch time! I got up again, ate some more, and then socialized a bit until it was time for Judah’s nap. Yep, you guessed it, I went back and laid down next to Judah and slept for two more hours. What a treat! It felt so good to catch up on my sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning is packing day. It’s my least-favorite day of our whole vacation. Traditionally, tempers flare, children drag their feet, and everything takes longer than it should. We are trying to combat the trends, but it’s hard. No one wants to leave! Read the rest of this entry »

What a day. This morning my dad accompanied two daughters and two granddaughters to Animal Kingdom. We got out the door in good time and arrived just after opening.

The weather was cold and rainy, but we were prepared. We had layers of clothes and even a few rain slickers to share between our group. Read the rest of this entry »

After a busy day and late night Tuesday, we were so pleased to not have anything on the agenda this morning. We didn’t sleep as late as we would if we didn’t have young children in our group, but we did enjoy a later morning than usual.

Since we were all together and weren’t rushing off to any parks, we made waffles again, and this time Steve made German pancakes. We didn’t have enough ingredients to make a huge batch, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ones we had. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning we got up, ate breakfast, and finally got ourselves out the door to see the world of Disney. Things went pretty well up until lunchtime, but then Judah started to get tired and the rest of us were needing something different. We decided that I would take Judah, Miguel and Isaac back to the motel room for a while, and the others would stay and enjoy the park with a leaner crew. That worked very well. Judah and I napped, Isaac and Miguel played and de-stressed, and the folks left at Disney enjoyed being able to move around more freely. Read the rest of this entry »

I was able to sleep late this morning since Michael got up with the kids. We had a leisurely breakfast and then we finally got our family together and headed to the main lobby to buy the tickets for the theme parks. We dropped almost $600 just to see Magic Kingdom as a family tomorrow and then for Michael to take the three oldest children to a park on Thursday. Whew! Disney vacations are not cheap! Maybe next time we’ll just go camping… Read the rest of this entry »

Because I’ve fallen behind on my blogging, I am going to talk twice as fast as I recap days five and six. So hold on to your hat and turn up your hearing aid! Read the rest of this entry »

We did it! We were up by 5 a.m. to shower, waking kids up by 5:30, down to breakfast by 6:00 and on the road by 6:50 a.m. Whew!

We made pretty good time, even with stopping every hour. If we ever drove for more than an hour at a stretch we felt very speedy.

We stopped at a Walmart to look for a GameBoy DS; no luck. We stopped in Hopewell, VA, to tour Michael’s home town, and while there we stopped at “Roses” (where he used to work) to see if they had a DS, but they didn’t. Later on we stopped at another Walmart and I ran in to check their electronics department. Score! One DS in stock, so I bought it. We’re calling it one of Michael’s Christmas presents. He had some Christmas money to spend, so it’s not too much of a stretch. Now I look wistfully at department stores as we pass by. Our hunt is over.
Some of the interesting sights we saw today: Read the rest of this entry »