Day 2 of Disney

Another fabulous day in the most magical place on earth! The family got up bright and early and we were ready to leave by 7AM! 

We hit Animal Kingdom first, specifically, the Safari! It was amazing to see all of the animals as we rode through their habitat! I took lots of pictures of animals since we were right next to them! The kids heard lots of "educational" information about them. A-hem, not their favorite part!

Granny and Grandpappy took a great photo with us and enjoyed shows and the monorail for the rest of their stay while we ran from ride to ride. 

Surprisingly the favorite was the Dinosaur ride! Truly it scared us all. The magic of Disney brought to life prehistoric creatures we knew weren't going to attack us, but the build up of the story line combined with the anticipation of what was next truly captured the kids attention!

Have I mentioned that Disney truly is the most magical place on earth? Any place that causes two brothers two re-inact the titanic romance scene-now the BROMANCE scene, is magical. 

One more magic moment. Turner has decided he is an expert at spotting people that "need" hugs. Specifically, the Disney employees. Finally I snapped a picture of him meeting this need. As we walked off, he said that was his "bro-ski"! Only Turner!

A few more highlights...Mandy believes God truly had his hand in some strangers giving us their fast passes to get on space mountain at 8. Ours were at 11PM so the kids decided this was a hug worthy moment and chased down the strangers to give hugs. 

I'm seeing a pattern! 

Lastly, while experiencing the comedy of one of our favorite characters Mike Wazowski, "That Guy" became famous. Different audience members were incorporated in the show and one became known as "That Guy". We lucked out and were on the very next ride with him so the kids HAD to he their picture with "That Guy"! We know it made his day! He became famous at Disney!

I couldn't ask for a more loving and joyous family to be with right now. Sharing these experiences with this group makes me feel like the richest person in the world. My love bank is overflowing as I hear the laughter, see the smiles, and feel the hugs myself. Thank you God for another great day!

First Day at Disneyworld!

The most magical place on earth is Disney. No, seriously!  Turner ad Cole got to go to Jedi training and Dayne and I auditioned for American Idol!  We didn't go to Hollywood, but Alice critiqued us beautifully!  We felt like they just preferred a different styles but we still think we're great singers!  Ha!

We spent the day at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. The kids enjoyed their packed lunch and dinner!  I may be cheap, but these kids appreciated the $3.50 cookie they had tonight!  It's the little things in life!

The kids were overwhelmed with all of the amazing Disney techniques. The magic is truly that you get to experience things in a simulation format thY you may never do in your lifetime. 

For instance, we will probably never blast off into space. I do believe the kids feel like they have come pretty close!

Leaving the campgrounds, a hot air balloon was landing right in front of us. I thanked God in all the excitement that He was going to show us things we never thought we would see. We met a family tonight in line. They loved The Lord. Not only did we get to enjoy their company, we felt like we made lifelong friends. We built a connection with them for an hour of our lives. God knew who we needed to meet and when. Normally I would think He would put needy people we could help or give us some sort of service opportunity, but today was different. We met exactly who we needed to an when it was time. 

Thank you again, God, for the wonders of your great love. You are showing me so many things on this trip I need to see!  

Summer kinda Monday

Who says Mondays are no bueno?  Today we had lots of adventures and explored the campground. Swimming, packing food for Disney, and preparing for tomorrow's adventure by studying Disney online made for a quite productive day. We went down to the lake and found some boats for Friday to see if there are really alligators in the Florida waters. That gives us something to look forward to after we finish three days at Disneyworld. 

The boys built a tower of power.  I used to be on the bottom but that ended about two summers ago when Dayne grew up!

This is the coolest find of the day. Looks like the boys found a tree frog on the vending machine. He peed, we snapped a photo, and he jumped on Dayne's shirt. Quite the exciting moment

Walmart really does it up for Disney. This is made from cokes, diet cokes, and coke zero!

Thanking God for His provision, His Holy  Spirit, and His great love. The woman at the check out stand was the slowest line. I noticed this immediately. I decided to wait it out. I'm glad I did. For some reason she decided to tell me she is walking the "walk of shame". She's moved to Florida with her 10 year old daughter only to be out of work for 5 months and have her car repossessed.  She was so saddened by her circumstances, but had a humble spirit that I believe will allow God in her life. I encouraged her in The Lord to trust Him and I committed to pray for her. I felt so much empathy for her and her daughter and it made me thank Him yet again for how blessed I am. She has no family and here we are staying with my mom, step dad, and niece. We have family all over we can love and be loved by. Hug your family tonight and thank God they are here on earth sharing this life with you. 

Second travel day!

We arrived safely at thousand trails campground in Orlando!  Now THIS is a vacation!  Wow!  No, our luggage was not delivered magically to our resort room, but we get the pleasure of having a pool, tennis courts, and a place to go run every morning in the great outdoors!

The boys enjoyed swimming first thing this morning at the hotel before we ate our continental breakfast. This was on purpose. We generally eat very little at the hotel and I have to feed the kids two hours later, but today was different!  Swimming gave the boys an appetite affording them an opportunity to get our money's worth at the hotel!  

We took our time driving. We had lots of pizza leftover from last night because they gave us an extra for free so we found someone in the park that wanted it!  We heard there were homeless there but decide not to go last night at 10:30 just to be on the safe side.

Not long after we got on the highway, we saw an amazing battleship so we toured the park and saw the Alabama Korean War memorial along with the Vietnam memorial. I had just changed my Facebook picture to my dad in his military uniform so I was a little moved by this on Father's Day!

The distraction of finding homeless people to feed caused us to miss the 9:30 church service online so we attempted to attend the 11:00. Somehow during my search, we all missed the Florida visitor center as we crossed the state line. I took the next exit and turned around. It was a great plan since we had missed Alabama yesterday so we were able to go there first. The part I don't realize was that you would have to travel another 20 minutes the wrong way to turn back around. We eventually made it back to Florida and it was worth every minute. They had the best free OJ I've ever had!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We plate a license plate game and attended another church service at 4 (our 11:00 had issues with the Internet) and we got a little lost at the end. Overall, we had a great time making memories, chatting, worshipping, and of course playing Minecraft!

Sweet Home Alabama

Ending our day in Alabama!!!  We are staying in the historic downtown Mobile!  The kids were fantastic to ride with and our day flew by!  We were so excited to cross state the state lines into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Somehow we missed the small sign for Alabama so no pics but we jammed out to Sweet Home Alabama!  The boys hung their limbs (SAFELY) out of the window screaming the lyrics.  True sign of the times...while driving down the highway, I heard a child say, "we haven't had wi-if for hours"!  We also enjoyed seeing the grocery store Winn Dixie.  Cole immediately remembered the book and movie Because of Winn Dixie.  He recorded it on video with a little bit of narration.  He still has that sweet child voice!

It was a very adventurous day.  W are heading to bed and as I listen to the kids, they are asking Siri where the nearest Quick Trip is located.  Siri didn't respond.  I'm so grateful for this time with the boys.  Thank you God!  More pics later...heading to bed!

On the road again...

Well we're off to a great start to Disney World!  After rearranging the trunk, filling the tank, hitting two breakfast joints, and oversleeping, the kids pulled away from minecraft long enough to play tic tac toe! Daynes already snoozing and I'm hitting the worship on pandora. The first song that played was You Said.  It's based on ask and you shall receive. This week I'm  going to ask for everything that is good for His kingdom. He delights in more than we'll ever know. He's the perfect father!

DISNEY 2013

We are heading to bed now!  We are waking up to the vacation of a lifetime. Just last week our pastor preached about how Disney is a trip, NOT a vacation.  I beg to differ. That's not even in the Bible. Ha!  We are doing things a little different. We won't arrive at a hotel within the park only to have our luggage brought in by the hotel concierge...we are driving across the country road trippin' style to see America. We will land in a comfy RV with Mom and Larry where we will leisurely choose 7 days to explore the Disney parks-these will not be consecutive either. Camping style...an opportunity to blend vacation with a trip!  I'm so excited I can't sleep. Stay tuned to  hear all about our experiences and lets NOT FORGET who blessed us with this opportunity!  Our Savior Jesus Christ who deserves an accolade!  We won't be quiet about Him!  Thank you Lord for family, friends, and for this incredible journey!  May it bring You glory!