Our Visit With Mickey Mouse

So on to part 2 of our wonderful Florida/Disney vacation this past December. If you read part 1 you know how awful the trip was going down to Fl and I can say even after that it didn't turn out half bad. I think the big problem is we went in with expectations of one thing and it ended up being totally different. The original plan was to go down, meetup with FIL and his family on Sat, he would go with us, his wife, her kids/grandkids would go on their way. That didn't happen though sadly, which put a kink in our scheduling.

Our plans were: Go to Disney Hollywood Studios Day 1 and see the Osborne Family lights that night, go to the Magic Kingdom Day 2 and 3. We orginally wanted to do Epcot and Animal Kingdom but decided against it. What happend was, we went with EVERYONE to MK Day 1 (got there around 12) and did a couple rides, then had lunch, then off to do some more rides. Well finally I told hubby that we needed to split up because they weren't interested in doing the kiddie rides we wanted to take the girls on etc. So finally we do, things went much better after that, we hung around til 4 and then headed back to the hotel to check in our room and plan the evening out. We ended up eating dinner at the Pepper Market, which is a place in Coronado Springs, it was pretty good. Then headed back to MK to take advantage of the cooler weather. We headed back around midnight, of course Hailey fell asleep before we even got out of the park.

Day 2, we went back to MK since we didn't get to do as much as we had wanted. More rides, more walking but it was crazy busy. So we ended up leaving the park after 2 or so and headed back to the hotel to relax. Then FIL decided to do dinner reservations for us all, around 7. We didn't get out until almost 10:30 ugh, and rushed over to DHS to see the Christmas Lights, well the park was closing at 11 I believe, so no rides. Luckily we were able to see the lights and they were beautiful. If you ever go at Christmas, be sure to go see them.

On Day 3 we went to DHS since we didn't get to do much, we rode Star Tours, saw the HSM3 show, which Jess got to be part of, did a couple other rides (not much though because of the lines) and decided to head out around 2. We didn't get there early enough to get fast passes for the important rides, so no riding. Plus this day we had FIL with us, but that part wasn't bad since it wasn't the entire other half! We headed back to the hotel to meetup with the rest of the family and head back to Venice for a few days.

Fil and his wife live in Venice now, so we stayed with them and it wasn't to bad. One of his wifes grand daughters stayed to, shes about Jessicas age and the girls had a blast. They picked oranges and grapefruits off the trees, we went to the beach 2 times and saw Marley & Me on New Years Eve.

Overall the trip home was much better, we stopped in Tifton Ga, which is about halfway back and spent the night. That made such a big difference, rather than driving straight thru, we plan to do that when we go back. Here are a few pics from the trip.

Our Trip To Hawaii

My mom and stepdad were kind enough to pay for our 4 tickets to go to Hawaii for 2 weeks! It was really nice of them and I need to send a thank you card as an extra thought. You never realize how much you need a vacation until you get there and not have the stress you do at home.

Our flight to Hawaii was wonderful! The kids did soo well at the airport considering we had to wait 4 hours between the time my sister landed and our flight left. We got thru security and checked in all in less than 30 mins at the ATL airport! Thankfully it went so well, I was nervous about the rules.

The flight itself went well, the girls loved flying and Hailey napped the first 4 hours of the flight once we took off. Then she woke to eat and slept for another hour or so and didn't get antsy until about the last hour. Jessica slept the last half of the flight lol figures eh? She enjoyed it and got to sit by the window which she loved.

I posted in another post the slideshows with almost all our pics from our sightseeing, I hope you enjoy them. We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation, Pali State Park, North Shore, Bellows Beach, Honolulu Zoo, Waikiki Beach and went to Paradise Coves Luau. There is so much to do there and see and I wish we had had more money to do more! I really wanted to go to Pearl Harbor, see Cirque Hawaii and go on a dinner cruise and to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It worked out though because I think we did just enough activities and not wear ourselves completely out.

We spent our 8th wedding anniversary in Waikiki, that was really nice. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner to celebrate and Oh My the food was sooo yummy! They give so much food we only got 1 slice of chocolate mousse cheesecake to share. That was delicious, I give it a 5 out of 5 stars!

The kids had a great time visiting with my mom (nana) and stepdad (papa) and my sister (Lauren). Oahu is such a beautiful island and if you ever get a chance to visit its an experience you'll not forget.

Our trip back was a little more eventful than I cared for lol. The airport was fine, got thru security again within 30 mins and only had about 45 mins before we left. We left at 4:15 pm and due to arrive in ATL att 7 am which we did on the dot. Unfortunately the flight was all night and Hailey did NOT sleep until the last hour and Jess stayed awake the whole time. Hailey was in a mood and would scream, cry, fuss at every single thing. No matter what we did she was miserable, overtired for sure. I felt bad since so many were trying to sleep but everyone was pretty understanding. Other than that the flight wasn't to bad, except for a couple of rude flight attendants. I am sure they were tired too but come on, its your job get over it.

Once we arrived in ATL we got our luggage and was off to the car in about 30 mins, seeing a trend there. So off we go to IHOP for breakfast (they served umm yogurt and a fruit cup for breakfast) and then home bound. We got about 30 mins or so from IHOP and Hailey threw up all over herself, the car and carseat and the duffel bag. So here we are on 20 and I had to pull thru 3 lanes of traffic to the side of the road. Unpack the entire trunk to get to clothing and the other carseat. Change the clothes, change the carseat out, clean up clean up and FINALLY get back on the rd. I was worried about driving to far though since we didn't know what was wrong with her. We opted to stay at hotel in Douglasville for the day/night. We all ended up napping for about 5 hours when we got there and then Hailey only slept 4 hours that night. Essentially were were up all night she woke up at midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep. On top of that the couple next door to us was getting it on Very Loudly. We heard it all thru the walls over a loud tv. Jess heard it and was like what is that mom? UGH!

I was soo glad to arrive home on Sat morning around 10 am. To bad our bodies/time clocks are so messed up. None of us have slept at night since we got home. I am working hard today to keep the girls and myself up and moving so we sleep tonight.

We were glad to go on vacation but so glad to be home as well!

Aloha for now

Hawaii Vacation Pictures

We just got back from a wonderful 2 weeks in Oahu Hawaii. We spent some wonderful time with family and saw some great places. Below are some slideshows from the trip.
Enjoy!

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Honolulu Zoo

Honolulu Zoo

Honolulu Zoo

Nuuanu Pali State Park

Paradise Cove Luau

Paradise Cove Luau

Paradise Cove Luau

Paradise Cove Luau

Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Beach

Slacker Blogger

WOW I have not written a single entry since New Years??? Where has the time gone? I can't even begin to explain where it has gone or what I have been doing, oh yes I can lol. My bright idea for the 1st part of the year was to become involved in a charity event with my moms group. We usually do one a couple times through out the year and I decided that this time would be Relay For Life. Relay For Life is an important fundraiser for the American Cancer Society to help fund the search for a cure for cancer. This is very dear to me as I have lost several family members to cancer and have a good friend who is a survivor.

That was in January when I decided to become involved and the event was this past weekend May 2-3rd which is why I have been MIA and slacking. My team goal was $3000 and I am happy to say we made and surpassed out goal prior to the Relay so my new goal by the end of Relay was $5000. Right now it looks like we made it! I just have to turn in the final amount of money and wait for the goal charts to be updated.

So between that and shuttling between hearing aid appointments and trying various ones I am settled with a set of upgraded BTE's and happy with them. Other than that, Hailey turned 3 in March and we had a small party for her. It was nice and she got to play with her friends . Jessica is doing great in school still and only has about 14 days of school left if I remember correctly.

In March we decided to see about a home loan so we could move and we were approved and now the process is ongoing for home improvement projects to get it ready to sell. We are down to the wire and have to have them done by May 20th! So much left to do and I don't even want to think about it right now.

Other big news, our Hawaiian Vacation later this month! WHHOOOHOOOOO so looking forward to that and sharing pictures when we get back. We have a wonderful 2 weeks coming up, and thankfully my mom paid for our tickets!

Well just a quick update, will write more tomorrow if I have time! Hopefully after vacation I'll get back to writing once a day or so.

Happy Monday!

Whew made it thru the weekend with sleep and I am sooo happy! This is the first weekend in at least 2 to 3 months that I have slept and felt rested when I woke up on Monday morning. I didn't have that typical Monday Blah, I didn't wake up feeling sluggish or anything.

Today's weather is absolutely beautiful, warm weather, slightly breezy and not a cloud in the sky. Oh how I love Spring, except for the allergy problems. I am still having some issues with that, but some rain would help. OH did I mention school is almost out? Jessica has 12 days left and tech it's only 11 since she will not be there the last day.

We are going to SC for my sisters graduation (high school). Yep we are 12 yrs apart lol my mom was crazy starting over! It's been a fun ride watching her grow up and become a young adult and hard to believe she'll be starting college this fall. She is going to USC in Aiken, made their cheerleading squad which she is super excited about!

Other than that there are no big plans for this month, trying to get some cleaning done, the garage reorganized yet again and hopefully the house painted (outside). I would love to take a mini vacation, but dh and I think we'll try to sneak away for the weekend in June to Chattanooga or Nashville. We'll see what this month brings!