Funroecation 16/17

We just returned from a great trip with lots of family!

Here are some random thoughts from our trip to Orlando

If you go to Disney and or Universal please make a plan.  It broke my heart to see frazzled parents and children at 1230 every single day trying to decide what they wanted to eat and by then the places were all so packed.

Pack snacks.  Alicia and Marisa and Kaitlin did this so well.  Your children and you will be hungry so throw in some cereal and peanut butter crackers etc.  William and Alicia had big carabiners on their stroller to hang snack cups on plus other necessities.

If you can read the newspaper through your stretch pants, don't wear them to Disney.  I was in a wheelchair and I saw lots of folks and I am so sorry I can't unsee some of those things.

There is a dragon on top of Gingotts in Harry Potter World and when he goes off and roars and the fire comes out, you will jump.  I jumped so high I scared the folks standing near me.

The child swap at Universal is usually a room to wait in which is nice.  At Disney it is a fast pass given which is a different kind of nice.

We were there the same weekend as the Disney marathon.  There is a 5K, 10K, a half and whole marathon.  The folks that wore their medals after the 5 and 10K cracked me up.  I got the feeling from them that they felt like they had beaten Usain Bolt at the Olympics.  Seriously.

Mr W loved watching the monorail.  We had no need to ride it.  Fairest had us ride it from EPCOT to MK one night so he could ride it. Heaven.  He was in heaven.

We rode the bus back to our motel one night with a group of runners from New Hampshire.  When the canned bus music played Sweet Caroline and they all sang with gusto, Carl and I joined in with them.  Thanks to Andrew we knew how the Bosox fans sing it!

We have lots more pictures!  Just ask if you want to see them.

Below is our Florida trip crew.  Several folks wondered how John could be in two places in one picture- John in the front and William is in the back.  William is John's cousin and they are often mistaken for each other.  They decided that for our next trip they will dress more alike to really mess with your mind!


Our first stop was to Atlanta to see Mr Precious and his parents.  Fairest enjoyed all the time she had playing with him.  The boy loves his vehicles!  We had a great time.  Lots of laughing and visiting and reading to Mr P.

My brothers came over with their wives and we celebrated Christmas.

We met up William and Alicia and ARose and Pandi and John and Marisa and Mr Wonderful and Miss Adorable at Universal.  We all loved the Butter Beer.

Some folks loved embracing their Slytheriness!  We bought wands and owls but no house robes.  Some of those folks take things real serious.

The Hogwarts ride was amazing.  You are sitting on a bench and Hermione casts a spell on it and you go for a ride.  Going through Dumbledore's office was too cool.  I closed my eyes lots so ask Kaitlin about the spiders and the dementors.

You get a marauders map with your wand purchase.  Here is Miss A checking it out.

We rode lots of roller coasters a Universal and ate lots of fun food then we headed to Animal Kingdom.  I took this pic as we were on the Safari ride and yes those guys are running right at us.  Our guide stopped our vehicle and they decided to go on the curved path----whew!  We all loved this ride.

My friend, Kathy Sawyer, made all the amazing Disney dresses for all the little girls and next time she may be making us all princess dresses.  If you need some sewing done contact me and I'll give you her info!

Anna and Elsa were due on the same day born two weeks apart two and 1/2 years ago.  It is fun to see their  cousin friendship grow.

The sheer joy that Mr W is feeling was so catching that I cried.  He loves Goofy and couldn't wait to have his picture made and to talk to him!

Our Fairest of them all got to meet another Fairest of them all.  Miss A loved her magic band which is your Disney room key, ticket into the parks and your fast pass.  In the picture below she is showing it to Snow White.  She showed it to everyone!

This was taken on our last day and it was very chilly and rainy.  Please notice my fashion statement of the socks and sandals.  My feet were so cold.  It was in the high 60's to start the day and after the rain it dropped to the 40's.  Marisa is holding Pandi in the carrier to keep them both warm.  That is the Beast's castle behind us.

French fries and hot dogs- yum!

 

 

56, 57 and Indoor Camping

We live in a home that has things that go wrong and need to be fixed often  older home.  On Monday of this week at 4 very AM our power went out.  It is January and I know cold is all relative but soon that house grew cold.  My very smart husband checked out a few things and found out that our main breaker needed to be flipped back.  That worked for 2 hours and then we were plunged into darkness and coldness again.  He flipped it again but even I know that can't keep happening.

Carl found us an electrician and he came out yesterday.  The bad news is that the breaker is bad and needs to be replaced, the rest of the bad news is that they don't make that breaker anymore so they have to order one.  He recommended that we turn off our upstairs heat to give the breaker some relief in the chilly mornings when heat comes on in the whole house.

Last night was the first night in Operation Keep the Power on.  Now, I do sleep better when it is chilly but really chilly is well, really chilly.  I slept with a hooded jacket it and I looked like I belonged to the sand people from Star Wars and I thanked God all night for whoever invented the electric blanket.  I may have arthritis but I still have quickness when it comes to 'powdering my nose' in the middle of the night when it is so cold.  I don't even think the covers had time to touch the bed before I was back in them.  I do plan to buy a new/bigger rug for our bathroom because the bathroom floor was really cold but then again maybe that was what made me so fast?!?!

When I woke up this morning it was 56 degrees upstairs.  After I got dressed, in the blink of an eye, I decided to put my nightie and my hoodie under my covers so that tonight I'll warm them up with the electric blanket and then put them on.  That sounds like a great idea in theory but I am also 57 years old and I am afraid that between now and tonight I am going to forget when my night clothes are!!!!! I am setting all kinds of reminders and if you want to text and remind me that might be good too.

Where is Joanna Gaines when you need her?  I'm ready for a her to fix up my place!

Family Great Adventure 2015 1 of 63

Just kidding about 1/63.  I am not sure how many installments but it won't be 63.

I'm not sure when the idea for this vacation was born. My sister in law, Elaine, pictured below with Kaitlin knows all things Disney. A few years ago she said that she wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. I never really thought more about it until last year.  Elaine and I were talking in April of 2014 and we decided to make it happen!  We decided on Alaska and started looking at our options.  Before the end of April we had a travel agent, had booked our rooms, had downloaded the Disney app with the countdown map, had changed our week for our vacation to the following week and the excitement was building!!

We met up in April to plan our excursions.

 Suitcases were bought, passports were received and  Disney clothes were packed.   And then.....

We three left from our house at 3 on August 28th!

We met up with these four at the airport.  We were headed to Seattle via Dallas.

Andrew and Taylor couldn't join is on our trip but Andrew snapped this picture of Uncle John and Aunt Elaine before they boarded their flight to Seattle.

Fairest told Miss Adorable to hold on and she was very serious about this ride on the tram in Dallas

I forgot to ask Uncle Charles/Aunt Frances and my cousin Gary and his wife Lisa to snap a shot of them as they flew but we would meet them all on the ship in Vancouver!  Our party of 3 went to 7 then 9 then 13.  But first we did Seattle!!!!