The Grand Finale

We are home and I am posting the final message! We made it home safe and I am so excited to say we had the time of our lives. Everyone needs to experience road trips like these last few days....here is a list from July 4th to July 8th of things we saw on the way home from Destin to Dallas... Ms. Pearl, the Squirrel A Pumpkin carriage (the Cinderella story) A real life truck on fire with an explosion 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre BBQ place 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre slaughterhouse, Home they filmed at, and the gas station Swamplands in TX! Buc cees! An El Camino with a HUGE Chicken in the back 50 ft statues of the Beatles A 15ft Coke bottle The Lunar Module from Apollo 13 A HUGE Texas star Multiple presidential head sculptures Lake Georgetown 3500 Miles of North America To finish off our trip, we were able to spend the weekend at our family-to-be's! We met lots of family we will merge and everyone had a great time celebrating a birthday! God is all over this place! He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end. We are so blessed by His grace, mercy, and ABUNDANT gifts he pours over us as His children. How can we not thank our very creator for EVERY breath we breathe!?!?! God bless Texas!

A Few Days Worth....

These kids make friends everywhere they go! Even the characters at Disney stopped us on the way out to say goodbye on Monday! The kids always had smiles and joy and shared that with everyone they made contact with by calling them by name from their name tag. We even invited one of the Disney employees to stay with us in Dallas! The kids got to ride roller coasters with their grandparents and they thought that was the best thing ever! We finished up Disney this week and we were able to do and see EVERYTHING we wanted! We even did several things twice! Disney also did the best firework show-if you could see the sky, you could see the show! It was amazing, Disney style. Before leaving Thousand Trails, we colored our hair, visited souvenir shops, and went to the largest McDonald's in America. We weren't sure if everything would fit in our little car, but we managed to cram it all in there! We started our road trip and found some great apps to help us find fun things on the way. We saw the Citrus Tower in Claremont, a White House replica, Mt. Rushmore replica, a limousine used by the presidents in '73-78, the largest fishing lure, a double decker bus filled with mannequins, the set of the Truman Show, and a statue of Ray Charles in his hometown of Greenville, FL. We can't wait to get back on the road to see more of America! I can't think of a better way to spend Independence Day...oh, well, maybe on the beach at Destin, BUT IT IS POURING!!!! I don't think we will get to do all we planned, but we have enjoyed our hotel stay and palm tree view! Enjoy the pictures of our trip!

The Past Week

Oops....we must've been having so much fun we forgot to post on the blog! I saved my notes so here are some highlights: We enjoyed a couple of more days at Disney this past week. Dayne had to go to the Indiana Jones show at Hollywood Studios because this is where his trauma began last time we were here. He was 5 and terrified last time he saw this show. We threatened him with everything, including making him leave Disney and he was fine with any consequence! He DID NOT want to see that show! As we watched it at age 14, I realized I might have been a little too harsh on him back then! It was very loud and it really was a bit action packed for a sensitive 5 yr old! We went back to ride the Dinosaur ride at Epcot because the kids enjoyed it so much! The first time we rode it with Turner it was pretty intense and scary. There was a part on the ride that we stopped for about 30-45 seconds and it built up the tension to create more of a scare for us all! I thought surely it was supposed to do that, but after riding two more times, we discovered it WASN'T supposed to stop! Cole was really freaked out! Kids make life so much more exciting! We watched the LIon King show and the kids enjoyed it so much, they played Disney Pandora stations the entire way home! We have covered most of Disney that we want to see, but we are going back tomorrow and Monday to finish our last two days. We love being at the parks and just seeing the details they put into everything makes Disney new every time we go! Tuesday was a great day to relax...after getting Chris from the airport, we relaxed, swam, ate dinner at a local steak house, and hit Downtown Disney. We spent the night in a cabin so we had a little break from the RV and enjoyed more movie time! Monsters University came out so what other movie would we go see? After all, we are in Orlando, FL! Wednesday mom cooked a delicious roast and we headed out to church. I always love visiting churches out of town because we get to see how God is moving all over His kingdom! We enjoyed a service about living a blessed life! Cocoa Beach was next on our agenda. We took a little road trip to get there, but it was amazing! Chris taught the boys how to actually use the boogie board they bring to the beach every year! Cole caught the first wave and fell in love! Dayne learned later in the day. I stepped on an eel. Yes, you read that right. Ok, ok. I don't KNOW that it was an eel (probably not), but it FELT like an eel. It was creepy and I had to get over the creepy factor to stay in the water! I can't wait to go back to the beach! The kids walked over and begged for Hibachi...we found the perfect place right by the beach but they didn't want to wait so I followed the GPS to a little Sushi Hibachi place back in orlando, but you had to watch the guy through a glass and sit at regular tables because this was the "Express" version. Oh well! We are looking forward to a great week ahead and wrapping up our time! I think Dayne is getting a bit homesick. He asked if we could go home early! We will see. We will see!

Lazy Saturday

Laundry is finished and we are rested up to hit Disney tomorrow!  E enjoyed swimming, playing in our devices, and I got some great video of silly birds!

It wasn't an eventful day, but God showed up!  Dayne and Cole made new friends. Cole played chess with his friend.

 

Jesus calling had a great first line today, "Thank Me for the very things that are troubling you". As much fun as we are having, I have loved ones truly struggling. The devotional was just what I needed to press in to Him and thank Him for the trials. Seeing them as an opportunity to grow closer to Him changes me!  Thank you God!  

A Day of Rest

Today we practiced the ancient art of sleeping in! Turner packed to go home and we headed for the pool where we played Turner and Cole's famous sharks and minnows game. It forces you to burn a calorie or two so I guess I can't complain. We all loaded up the car and mom followed us in the truck to have a late lunch at IHOP courtesy of the Prewitt's!  

Everyone said their goodbyes to Turner and he and I headed to the airport. God put all of the right people with us in the airport and also with Turner on the plane. I was so glad when his mom texted they were heading home safely!  Seriously we were so sad to see him go. I almost cried and drove home a little on the down side. He is part of our family!

RIP to the mosquito that died of heat exhaustion. I would be sad if I wasn't so sure he's the one that bit me three times on my leg last night. I found him like this when we got in the car today. Hopefully you can see it in this picture. Either way he is laying on his back unharmed, just overheated. Ha!

Lots of interesting things about Florida...they seem to love fractions. We saw the  Fifth Third bank today. It had a 5/3 on the sign which would have led me to pronounce it Five Thirds but I guess things are different here in the sunshine state. What leads us to believe they love fractions is that the speed limit when entering the campgrounds is 9 3/4.  It's just cute!  

We are ending the night with a Redbox!  Love family movie nights!!!

Heroes and Villains

Yesterday we parked in the Villains lot at the Magic Kingdom. I knew the kids weren't paying attention and so I just drove on in without a thought. However, the tram driver was sure to notify the kids where we parked!  So today I made sure we were the heroes!  We even got a fantastic spot right in front!  Well, that was only because I thought the park opened an hour earlier than it actually did. Oops!

This went perfect with the theme of our day. The boys spent lots of time defending Disney as they played the interactive game throughout the park. They were the heroes destroying villains as they moved from clue to clue in the different areas of magic kingdom. Turner and Cole LOVED this but guess what?!?! So did Dayne!  They really got into this game!  A-hem. Did somebody say magic?

Turner magically turned Irish. I guess I've been keeping crazy hours for the kids and we started having some fun with speaking in accents.  We left the park for a break and when we returned I told the family to decide where we were from sober could all use the same accent. Turner chose Irish so he began yelling "I'm from Ireland". Repeatedly. I mean, repeatedly. I really intended for everyone to speak in an accent and go on living normally. He chose this method instead. It. Was. Hilarious. Omgoodness!  

Did you know the ponchos at Disney are magic too?  The rain came and everywhere I looked, people were wearing a Disney poncho. Finally I decided these must be reasonably priced and I inquired about them. The woman I asked said all of the stores had them for only $17.00. 

EACH!  

I thought for sure she meant PER FAMILY!  Sigh. Magically everyone thought they had to have one!

Sweet magic between Dayne and Mandy...note each have in a headphone. BFF!

We saw downtown Disney tonight and Turner enjoyed building a few Lego guys! We had an adventure by choosing the public transit system vs driving our own car. It rained most of the evening so we decided it would be better not to run to the car since we would rather eat for the next week instead of buying ponchos!  I heard the sweetest conversation on the bus. One little girl asked another how old she was. The little girl replied 5 and said that she would be going into Kindergarten next year and said she want in a grade.   The first little girl who was a little older said ,"You can just say kindergarten. You don't have to say I'm not in a grade".  It made the entire bus ride worth it!

Well, we've changed Dayne's name to Crush. If you know Dayne and the movie Finding Nemo. If you don't, I'll be delighted to explain!

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!