Orlando Vacation Days 1 & 2

Our crazy vacation started right at midnight on Friday.  We had a 15 hour, 933 mile trip to Orlando, so we figured driving at night would let the kids sleep half the way.  Of course, they were so wound up and excited that an hour into the trip, they were both wide awake...  They eventually fell asleep and we made amazing time, sailing into Chattanooga right as the sun came up over the mountains.  Beautiful!  They were both up shortly before we made it to Atlanta and then things went downhill.  GPS kept telling us to keep right through the city.  Even though the lanes were exit only, Christopher kept right and you can guess what happened...  we exited.  Thankfully we were in a nice area.  Actually, we were right at the doorstep of the Ritz Carlton- literally, the doorman was 5 ft from our car.  Betty (GPS) got us back on I75 only to tell us to keep right again.  And yes, he exited.  This time we were in the ghetto, BIG TIME!  A little scary!  Betty got us out of the ghetto, but took us WAY around Atlanta.  Thankfully, she got us back on our original track and the rest of the trip was uneventful and we pulled into our resort at 4:00.

My sister-in-law and her family had made it into town earlier and we waited a short bit for my in-laws to arrive before we went to buy groceries.  Afterwards, the guys went out to buy the rest of our tickets for the week.  Then we crashed, and crashed hard after being up all night.

The next day we had plans to go to Universal Studios.  The kids were thrilled to be wearing shorts!  It was 33 when we left IL, so this was pretty cool for them.

We had a good time.  We did get rained on for about an hour, but the rest of the day was OK.  The sun never did shine, but it was warm.

 We ate lunch in the Simpsons area of the park- actually in Moe's Tavern.  The kids were clueless as to who the Simpsons were, but growing up with them, we thought it was neat.

 Preston is a sucker for carnival games so he just had to play. 

 And he won a pillow.

 They had this huge Christmas tree that I just knew was real, but it wasn't.  Who knew they were that big?

 By 4:00 we were all pretty worn out, so we headed back to the house and cooked our traditional spaghetti dinner.  It started 10 years ago on our first big family trip (coincidentally to Orlando) and we got slammed by Hurricane Charley and everything closed down.  The only thing we could find at the store was stuff for spaghetti, which we ate right as the storm hit and the power went out.  We've continued this meal every year since. 

Preston's favorite activity of the week was playing pool in the garage.  He loved it in Gatlinburg, and was thrilled to be able to play again.  We played a lot of pool!

2014

Hello!  It's been a while since I've blogged.  A LONG while.  Life kind of got busy last fall when I debuted princess aprons in my shop and I literally spent my days (while the kids were at school) sewing non-stop from September to the week before Christmas.  I never expected such a fantastic response, but it was wonderful!  I put my shop on vacation for 3 weeks to re-coop, and am now back open and am beginning new items to add in the near future- think spring and Easter items!!!

Our Christmas season was a little unconventional this year with a big Orlando vacation planned for the day after Christmas.  I'm not quite sure whose bright idea that was, but it is unanimous that we won't be doing it again!  Even though we had a fabulous Christmas, and surprisingly, low-key, having to get ready for a major vacation at the same time made it a little harried.  Our trip was absolutely wonderful, and I can't say how refreshing it was to not cook or clean for a week, especially after how hard I'd been working!  I'll be sharing our vacation in the near future before I forget all of the details!

What I did not enjoy about our vacation was leaving 70 degree temps behind and coming home to 3 inches of freshly fallen snow (roads were still bad) and it being 16 degrees.  Talk about a shock!  Then to top it off, we got a foot of snow Sunday and we've not gotten above zero since.  I'm not a cold weather girl AT ALL.  In fact, I HATE being cold more than I can express.  It's so cold that our boiler can't keep up.  This afternoon it was 61 in our house.  SIXTY-ONE!  The kids and I have been holed up in the basement, which contrary to conventional wisdom, is the warmest place in our house thanks to the boiler downstairs and the fireplace.  When you walk upstairs, the cold hits you, and it's not nice.  Christopher finally got out a space heater this afternoon and put it in the kitchen so I'd come up and fix dinner.  It wasn't like I had much of a choice, though, because we're snowed in and can't go out to eat.  Thanks to the heater and the oven, the upstairs warmed up some, but it's still not up to normal.  Tomorrow it's supposed to get to 20, so the boiler should be able to catch up then and we'll get some relief.  That, and I've got 2 kids who are dying to go play in the 4 foot drifts once the wind chills aren't -36 degrees!

Here's to a fantastic 2014!  I promise I'll try to get on here a lot more this year!