Disney World: Take 2!

We left for Disney last Saturday around lunchtime. Traveling in the car for long distances is sooooooo much easier than it used to be! The kids literally watched a few movies and played on their IPads the whole entire time. I remember a few years ago when we would travel, I wouldn't be able to sit still for more than 5 minutes without having to open a new snack, hand them something they'd dropped on the floor, or digging through a whole "travel fun bag" of stuff to bust out once an hour. We hadn't originally planned on driving all the way to Orlando on Saturday, but we ended up doing just that. We stayed just outside of Kissimmee, so we would only have about 30 minutes to drive to our condo the next morning. We arrived at our hotel, promptly around 2:00 a.m., just after driving through the shadiest neighborhood outside of Orlando, and encountering a scene that I can only compare to Boyz In Tha Hood, at a gas station.
We arrived at our condo on Sunday and checked in and got unpacked. We met Daren, Rachel, McHaney, and Alba and we all went to Downtown Disney. Apparently DD is undergoing a major renovation, so the traffic to get in was horrible. The boys dropped us off at a sidewalk and we did some fast shopping!
After DD, we went to eat dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. It was delicious!!! It was even better than I had remembered it being last time. Y-U-M! I also must add that we were up until about 2:00 a.m. (again) because our air conditioner wasn't working.
No air + record heat in Orlando = not happy vacationers (on a side note...they never really fixed it)
Monday morning, we got up and started out at Magic Kingdom. My tears started as soon as we walked up to Cinderella's Castle and watched a Mickey Mouse show that had just begun on the front steps. I wish there were words to explain what I feel when I see the look in my kids' eyes as they watch things like that. It leaves me speechless. There is a reason they call it Magic Kingdom. Everything is MAGIC! I even find myself at times screaming out (loudly) Mickey and Minnie's names and waving for them to please look my way and blow me a kiss. (what is wrong with me?) I mean, everyone called Sadie "princess" and called Sawyer "prince Charming". Everyone. Even the policeman that checks your bag as you come into the park. All of the employees WANT to talk to you and carry on a conversation. There's no way that they get paid enough to actually be THAT happy. They just love what they do in that magical place. I can't say that I blame them. Daren and I, in a matter of about 3 minutes during a parade one night, literally planned out both of our family's futures if we lived at DisneyWorld, complete with Deb being the Fairy godmother!! (side note: we made sure to point out that she would only be available to do the 9:00 p.m. parade, but not the 11:00 p.m. parade, because she goes to bed too early...LOL)
Anyways, we spent the better part of the day at Magic Kingdom riding all of our favorites! We started with Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We did Mickey's PhilharMagic Show, which is one of my favorites! We watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which quickly became one of my favorite parades EVER. We just happened upon it as we were walking, and it was amazing! It had several of the princesses in it, and Sadie got to see Elsa and Anna for the first time. It also had Maleficent's fire-breathing dragon, which was so neat! We went to the condo for a little while and then came back for dinner at the Beast's castle. It was gorgeous!!! We got to meet the Beast! It was such a neat atmosphere (the red napkins were folded into the shape of a rose) and the food was delicious! We finished off the night by riding the new Little Mermaid ride, Splash Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean. We of course watched the Electric Parade at 11:00, and then Sadie and I went right before midnight and luckily got in line to meet Elsa and Anna. It was so neat! She was speechless and it was so cute to watch her get nervous to meet them. It was a great first day, even though we didn't get home until about 1:30 in the morning! (side note: this was the 3rd night in a row to go to bed close to 2 a.m....keep on pushin!)
Day 2 started at Animal Kingdom. We began with the Safari. It wasn't as good as last time we went, but we still saw some neat animals. We had fun watching the Gorillas play around afterwards. One of them kept bending all the way over and showing his rear end. It was quite comical to watch and the kids thought that part was hilarious. We rode Dinosaur (beware of whiplash) and then rode Expedition Everest. It was awesome, although when it started going backwards, I felt like I was going to hurl! The kids really loved all of the big roller coasters this year, which made it so much fun! We left Animal Kingdom and rested shortly at the condo before heading to Epcot for dinner. We met the other Phillips fam and we all went to a restaurant in Mexico so that we would have fabulous seats for "Wishes", the water/light/fireworks show on the water in Epcot. It was gorgeous!
Day 3, we surprised the kids and went to LEGOLAND. It was only about a 40 minute drive, so we slept in a little bit and headed that way. Our opinion on LEGOLAND is that it was a bit of a let-down. After riding amazing roller coasters and rides for the past 2 days, all of the rides at this park left a lot to be desired. Plus, nobody calls you "princess" at LEGOLAND. Just sayin...
There were some really neat things there, especially the whole Lego Town, but the rides were extremely short and it just seemed more like a "Fair", than a theme park. The shows were a bit silly (ok, they were stupid), and the whole park was definitely geared more towards a younger crowd. The kids had a blast and they loved it, but Dennis and I thought it was going to be a lot better than it was.
We headed back to the condo and got ready for dinner the the House of Blues at Downtown Disney. It was very good!!!! Its one of our favorite restaurants, so we had to go back! We walked around Downtown Disney and shut down the World Of Disney store. (and by "shut down", I mean that we had a certain child who couldn't make a decision on what he wanted to buy, so walked from room to room over and over again while the employees ever-so-kindly kept asking us if we needed any help, when actually, we know they were just wanting us to hurry the heck up and get outta there!) We enjoyed delicious treats from Ghiradelli and just had fun walking around and listening to all of the different music and seeing all there is to see down there.
Thursday morning, we got up early and opened up Hollywood Studios. We wanted to get there early so that we could get on Tower of Terror! And, we had a Fast Pass mix-up that we needed to get sorted out. The Tower of Terror was just that. Terrorizing!!!! Rides don't normally scare me, but this ride literally made me almost pass out. It totally freaked me out, beyond anything I've ever done! Everytime the ride would "drop", I would almost black out! It was awful!!! My kids both loved it, but I definitely did NOT! We got our Fast Pass situation fixed, and the nice guy even gave us 3 free Fast Passes to use at any time during the day. Yay! We rode the Great Movie Ride, went on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie set, saw the gold Cinderella Carriage from the new Cinderella movie, and did Toy Story Mania. We also did the Rockin Roller Coaster, and it was probably my favorite ride of the whole week! It was sooooooo fast and so neat! We could've ridden it a hundred times!!!
We rode the ferry boat over to Epcot so that Sadie and I could have lunch at Akershus in Norway with the Princesses. It was so much fun. I was so incredibly thankful that even at 8 years old, she was still completely fascinated by all of the Princesses. She got her picture made with Belle as soon as we walked in. We got to see Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, and Ariel while we were eating. I had a delicious Butternut Squash ravioli. It was sooooooo good!!! I had the best time with Sadie. It was just the 2 of us. Dennis and Sawyer had gone to do Test Track while we were eating. I realized during lunch how incredibly blessed I am to have her as my daughter. She is growing into such a precious young lady, and I am completely smitten by her. We laughed more together this week than we probably have in our whole lives. I feel like I "get" her and she "gets" me. I can reason with her. I can be honest with her. I love to sit back and just watch her. Her face lights up all of the time. I could cry just thinking about it. That girl is filled with more love and joy than any other little girl I know. She still has the tendency to be nervous or anxious about trying new things, which totally preserves her innocence. But, she's also showing me that she's ready for a little independence. And, I know I can trust her. For now. She cares from deep inside her heart and she still has that desire to please, but she's also learning to express her opinion...with love; not with attitude. I love her more than life and I was so lucky to be able to steal these few moments with her, where it was just the 2 of us! I laughed at how she would rock back and forth in her chair as soon as any princess would come up to our table. She would fidgit with her hands and get so nervous the whole time she would talk to them. She was speechless and I loved it!
We met back up with up Dennis and Sawyer and the other Phillips', and we went and met Jasmine and Aladdin. They were precious!
The 4 of us rode the ferry back over to Hollywood Studios to meet the other Phillips' for dinner at Hollywood & Vine. We left from dinner and went to the Frozen Sing a Long. It started off a little slow because it was all on video, but then as it went on, it became magical. At the end, Elsa came out and sang "Let it Go". It started "snowing", and the girls got SO excited. They jumped up from their seats and started reaching for the snow and singing...and of course my tears started to F-L-O-W!!!! Dennis started hysterically laughing because he didn't realize that I was crying. It was quite funny. It was a magical moment for sure. I will never forget!
After that, we jetted to the amphitheater to see Fantasmic. Holy cow! It was unbelievable!!!!!! I've never seen a show like that in my entire life! It was crazy GOOD!
We ran as fast as we could to go and get on the Tower of Terror with all of them. I was still scared to death, but I ended up laughing so hard at McHaney's face, so it made it a little easier to handle. We went and rode the Rockin Roller Coaster one more time to finish off the night. We went to the bakery afterwards to get some treats and the bottom fell out of the sky! It was pouring down rain. We couldn't find our car in the parking lot! Looking back, it was kind of funny, but at the time, it was frustrating, because we were all soaking wet! We had no ponchos and we were walking through huge puddles! Finally, we found it!!! (thanks to my red, white, and blue glittery Mickey Mouse antenna head! Ok, not really, because we couldn't see it in the dark, but I really want to believe that I purchased that thing for a good reason!)
Our last morning began with breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Sawyer was so excited!!!! We had a great time getting to see all of the characters!
We headed straight over to Magic Kingdom to finish off our day. I was so sad that it was our last day. We went right when we got there over to AdventureLand and I was able to have my first Dole Whip. There are no words. It was better than I had imagined! We met the other Phillips' for our Pirate Adventure that Rachel had planned. It was soooooo neat!!! They each got a pirate name and each got to sit in a chair and be made up to be a pirate. They all looked SO cute! They got to go in a secret pirate room and have their pictures made, etc. It was really, really neat. Disney doesn't hold back on anything!!! We left after that to go home and rest for just a minute because we knew that we would want to shut the park down that night. We came back in time for our Fast Passes to start. We went to Tales with Belle first. It was ok. I think its geared more towards the younger crowd, but it was still neat, because it's new, so it's all done very cool! After that, we walked over to Belle's village and did a little shopping. Dennis went and got a cinnamon roll and an apple drink from Gaston's Tavern and he said it was delicious! We went and rode Space Mountain and met the other Phillips' to get a spot for the Electric Parade, the Light Show on the castle, and the fireworks. All of the shows were so amazing!!! I cried during the fireworks, as I figured I would. When you hear "When You Wish Upon a Star", there's just nothing like it! Once it was over, we went to get another Dole Whip (ha ha) and then we went to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We also used our last Fast Pass to ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and I loved it!!!! We rode Splash Mountain again and then Sadie and I went to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel before the park closed. Dennis and Sawyer literally ran to ride Space Mountain one more time. We did one last Team Phillips huddle before leaving the castle and headed out. It was by far a magical trip. I wouldn't change a thing!
I think it is so incredibly important to do family vacations with just your immediate family. I want my kids to grow up with memories of having fun TOGETHER on vacations. I don't want all of their memories to be with friends! Of course, I know that its important to make those memories with friends as well, but I want vacation memories to be with my family. I will always remember hearing Beth Moore say one time that one of her biggest regrets was always letting her 2 daughters take friends with them on their family vacations. She said that all of their memories were of their friends, instead of each other. My kids have so much fun together. They get along wonderfully and they love each other more than anything. They don't "need" anyone else in order to have fun. They have just as much fun with each other as they do with any other friend. Probably more! We laughed more as a family than we ever have before. We laughed several times to the point of crying. We made lots of inside jokes and we grew a million times closer as a family. I cherish those things more than anything else. We walked through the parks waving our glowing/blinking/light-up Light Sabers, singing, shouting, and couldn't care less who stared at us!
I couldn't be more thankful to God for allowing us to take this vacation together as a family. We were blessed, both big and small, and I am thankful for each one.

New Years 2015

I am certain that 2015 is going to be fabulous! I just have a feeling!
This will be a quick post...
We loaded up and headed to the farm to celebrate New Years. We went with Daren & Rachel, their girls, their neighbors (the Wards) and their 2 girls. The Jacksons came down for the day on Tuesday.
We had a wonderful couple of days! The only drawback was that upon our arrival, we found that the house had a bit of a mouse infestation. If you know me, you know that I was not happy about this discovery. We finally have a GORGEOUS house to stay at when we go to the farm, and now its infested with MICE! Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Basically, we found mice poop everywhere. We also found lots of bits of acorns all over the place. They made themselves at home downstairs where the kids sleep AND all over the kitchen, AND in all of our beds. G-R-O-S-S! I got a little cocky when I went into our bedroom, and I didn't think there was any mouse poop in our bed, until Rach quickly came and showed me several little pieces all over our comforter. Kill me, kill me now!!!! We had to clean EVERYTHING! We looked up some home remedies and discovered that mice don't like the smell of mint and they don't like dryer sheets. So, we rubbed dryer sheets all over ourselves and our beds AND I slept with an open tube of toothpaste (mint, of course) on my bedside table. We had no other choice that night because it was sooooooo late!
The next day, Rachel and Jennie-Blair went to Walmart and spent almost $100 on mice repellants. Who knew that they had plug-in mice repellants?? So cool! We ended up catching one mice in the middle of the night in one of the traps. We know that there are many more! We are out to get them!!!!!
Here are several pics of our time at the farm. Several times, we heard the kids say that they were having the "best experiences of their life"!

Christmas 2014

First of all, one of my goals for the New Year is to start blogging more again! I have done horrible for the past few years and I am determined to be better!

 I ended up with the flu the week before Christmas and it totally kicked my rear end! I've never felt so horrible in my entire life. Everything they say about the flu is true. My whole body hurt, even down to the follicles in my hair. On top of the flu, I also developed bronchitis, and I'm pretty sure that was coupled with a severe sinus infection. For about 3 days, straight blood was coming out of my nose. That may be TMI, but its true! I think I waited too long to go to the doctor because once I started the Tamiflu, I was too far gone. The Tamiflu made me puke, so I had to take Zofran on top of that. It was pretty much the week from hell. In the meantime, I was not able to finish ANY of my Christmas shopping. (just like last year...you'd think I'd learn my lesson by now and maybe try to finish all of my shopping a little early) And, I had to miss BOTH of my kids' class Christmas parties. Broke my heart. Thankfully, my mom took them and went in my place. It still wasn't the same as being there, but at least they got to go and have her with them. Dennis was a complete rock star that week. He had to do EVERYTHING for the kids, including finish my Christmas shopping! The whole week is a total blur, but I'm pretty sure one thing I will never forget is how horrible I felt!
On a more positive note, we thankfully got to enjoy our 4th annual sleepover at Opryland Hotel on Christmas Eve eve. Below are a few pics from our special night!

The kids did a reindeer scavenger hunt all through the hotel that night. Stay tuned to see if we won a free 2 nights stay at Opryland...!!!
Christmas Eve, we woke up at the hotel and came home to get ready for the days festivities. We started out at Deb's house, went to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then headed to mom's house to end the day there. It was such a fun day!

Once we got home from mom's, we let the kids put out the reindeer food and set the cookies/milk out and then it was OFF TO BED! Santa and I stayed up until after 3:00 a.m. this year...probably the latest we've ever stayed up on Christmas Eve. I was beyond exhausted!!

Christmas Day was wonderful!!!! Poor Sadie woke up at 5:45. Kill me now. Luckily, she held herself off until about 7:00 when the rest of us got up. They were sooooooo excited to see what all Santa brought them. Sawyer's big surprise was a basketball goal and Sadie got a soccer goal!

Dennis surprised all 3 of us BIGTIME and gave us a trip to Disney World for Spring Break. I was completely, 100% shocked. I had absolutely NO idea and it was the best surprise EVER! The way he did it was the sweetest! He had wrapped up a huge box and he had notes that went along with it that we had to follow. In the end, the kids each had a box to open, and I had a little bag to open. On the count of 3, we all had to open them together. Mine had our Disney passes in it. Sadie's had a huge stuffed Minnie Mouse and Sawyer's had a huge stuffed Mickey in it. I was screaming and crying and went straight to hug Dennis. Then he started crying. I think the kids were confused as to why we were crying! LOL We were all soooooooooo excited!!! It made my whole entire Christmas and the countdown is ON! I've been dying to go back since we went almost 3 years ago. I seriously cannot wait! We were able to chill all day long and we made a huge French toast breakfast. Dennis made a huge prime rib for dinner and it was delicious! Such a wonderful day!

There is no heartache that Heaven can't cure...

What a week...
We learned Tuesday morning that our pastor, Bro. David had gone to be with the Lord. Apparently it happened in the early hours of the morning. We didn't receive much more information than that, and although we had all speculated that the time was near, I know I'm not only speaking for myself when I say that we were still holding out so much hope that his earthly body would be completely healed. We learned the night of his funeral that he was ready to meet Jesus, which led me to believe that he must've gotten pretty miserable. For that reason, I am thankful that he got what he wished for. Although I was devastated by the news, and our whole church family grieves the loss of our fearless leader, I also know that he is exactly where he wants to be and he is happier than he has ever been in his life! Dennis told the kids about his passing on the way to school that morning and sweet Sadie leaned her head on the window and started to cry. That broke my heart. I know that she felt a sense of disappointment in her 7 year old mind. She has prayed for him every day for the past 20 months and she has watched me hit my knees by her bedside every night to lift him up as well. I think it was just hard for her to believe that he didn't make it.
That night, me, mom, and Rachel went to a benefit concert at Crosspoint Church for a 20-something year old girl that is battling Stage 4 Colon cancer. It was led by Natalie Grant. Other performers were Mandisa, Plumb, Building 429, lead singer of Casting Crowns, Danny Gokey, and Dave Barnes. It was so, so good. I left there that night feeling restored from the brokenness of learning about Bro. David's passing. I felt hopeful again and my eyes were reopened to what life is all about.
To make a long story short, as soon as I got back to my car, I noticed that I had missed several calls from a friend of mine. I called her back, and she said that she thought I needed to head to Skyline and see what was going on with a friend of ours' husband. She lives across the street from our friend and had seen through her window what looked like him being carried out on a stretcher and put into an ambulance. I decided to turn around and head to Skyline since I was already out. I get to the ER and quickly find out that he had died from a massive heart attack. I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. He was only 44 years old. Their daughter is Sadie's very best friend. They've been in school together since pre-school. Over the next couple of days, I watched my friend go from literally being in total shock at the hospital to having to deal with the grief, to planning the love of her life's funeral, to barely being able to walk, to saying goodbye to him as we buried him yesterday. Those poor, poor kids. They have a set of twin 7 year olds. The same age as Sadie Jane. How will they learn to live without their daddy? How will they be able to deal with watching their momma grieve day in and day out? How will she learn to become a single mom overnight?
So, on the exact same day, November 18th, we lost 2 men from 2 completely different walks of life, from 2 completely different causes. That will definitely cause you to do a quick reality check.
Bro. David's funeral was Friday night at church. It was precious. So many men got up and spoke so incredibly about him and told wonderful stories and truly honored him in every way. Brad's funeral was on Saturday. Completely heartbreaking to watch Cristi and the kids having to tell him good-bye.
I don't know what tomorrow holds...for our church family or for my friend. But, I DO know that "there is no heartache that Heaven can't cure". I heard those words today in a song, and I hope to one day share them with my friend. Right now, she needs to mourn her loss.
During this week of Thanksgiving, I will most definitely have a heart full of gratitude, but at the same time, I will be heartbroken for my friend and the whole Landrith family who will all be having to already learn how to adjust to their "new normal". Jesus be near. Jesus come quick.