So during this season of Lent I am doing a Bible/book study on Jen Hatmaker's book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. I read the book last spring, absolutely loved it, tried a few fasts, possessions and spending (no Target for a month!) and jumped at the opportunity to really experience the lessons in the book with others. What was I thinking?????
So the first week was introduction. This week is food. The ideal would be only eating 7 items for a week, but I have young kids, a limited budget and little time and would not be able to make 2 separate dinners each night, so I decided to eliminate 7 items from my diet for a week. I chose 7 items that I love/ eat regularly and even though I am only 2 meals and 1 snack in, I am hating this.
The 7 items I have eliminated:
- eating out, no restaurant food (not too hard usually)
- chocolate (there goes my chocolate/almond morning granola bar)
- dessert (oh how I crave something sweet)
- bread (my favorite, I love bread, the challenging one)
- sweet breakfast/bakery items (muffins and pancakes)
- french fries (do tater tots count?)
- anything to drink other than water (i.e. the occasional soda that I can crave when I cut out chocolate)
So I am 2 meals down, 19 more meals to go. I am already grumpy and craving all the things that are on my list. I am regretting my meal planning because the meals I planned before I knew I was going to fast includes all my favorites. Not only am I regretting the food choices, I haven't made a real shopping trip in over a week so our food stash is low and the options are sparse especially when you get rid of the regulars i.e. bread. No rolls, no bread for sandwiches, no bun for hot dogs or turkey burgers, no fun.
So here I am whining and complaining and missing certain foods. Wow! What a small little world I live in. I am cutting out these foods for 1 week. 1 week! That is 1.92% of a year. Say if I live to be 80 years old (4,160 weeks), my fasting from my favorites would only be 0.02% of my life, that isn't even half a point! What a spoiled brat I am.
There are some people who never get to eat fresh out-of-the-oven homemade chocolate chip cookies or a loaf of french bread. I have a tendency to compare myself to others, well actually to the haves, not the have- nots, and so my life seems lacking, yet it really isn't. Even with my elimination, I will have plenty of food to eat and next week I can go back to my chocolate and bread, but some people in the world's poorest countries would take my simplest, 7 free foods any week.
I also have to admit that I am amazed at how I went from eating when hungry to obsessed about food overnight. I didn't think I would be. I am not a foodie. I am not constantly thinking about food, when I am hungry, I eat, usually what sounds good and don't really give it much thought. Yes, I am someone who can forget to eat, food is not usually a weakness for me, or so I thought. Maybe food is a bigger deal and I just didn't realize it because I always had what I wanted. I have never been without food. I don't know what it is like to go hungry, yes we have struggled to pay bills, but we have never gone hungry and even with my eliminated food choices, I will not go hungry.
So today I have realized that I am rich, not necessarily by American standards, but compared to most of the world, I got it good.
Just some food for thought.
Showing posts with label thankful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thankful. Show all posts
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Thankful Thursday
I am thankful
- for my two sweet kids who are so excited to see me when I get home from class early
-for a job doing what I love
-for portable heaters that keep me warm when the thermostat is low
-that Jeff has a job that I can come and hang out with him
-that I didn't have to cook dinner tonight, my mom made me dinner
-that tomorrow is Friday and that my kids have a 3.5 day long weekend
-that we are halfway through January and just a little bit closer to spring
-for heated mattress pad, I love getting in a warm bed in the winter
-for my Kindle that allows me to read with the lights off
-for my book club that exposes me to books I probably would have never chosen myself
-for my new blue cotton sweater because finding an 100% cotton sweater is hard to find but warm and comfy
-for friends and adventures with them (I am working on plans for a visit down to south Florida soon)
- for my two sweet kids who are so excited to see me when I get home from class early
-for a job doing what I love
-for portable heaters that keep me warm when the thermostat is low
-that Jeff has a job that I can come and hang out with him
-that I didn't have to cook dinner tonight, my mom made me dinner
-that tomorrow is Friday and that my kids have a 3.5 day long weekend
-that we are halfway through January and just a little bit closer to spring
-for heated mattress pad, I love getting in a warm bed in the winter
-for my Kindle that allows me to read with the lights off
-for my book club that exposes me to books I probably would have never chosen myself
-for my new blue cotton sweater because finding an 100% cotton sweater is hard to find but warm and comfy
-for friends and adventures with them (I am working on plans for a visit down to south Florida soon)
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
things taken for granted
I get irritated at my children sometimes, who doesn't? I get annoyed when they won't get dressed, or put on their shoes, or whatever task they say they can't do, but we all know they just don't want to. Today the kids and I went to lunch and at a table at the restaurant was a child in a wheelchair who mother had to feed her, and wipe her mouth, and basically do all the things that I take for granted. I realized that I so easily forget how blessed or how lucky I am. I have two children who do have struggles, Lance especially with his speech and learning disability in school, but their struggles are so miniscule in comparison to the struggles that some parents face. I feel like a spoiled brat after getting irritated at Lily for not getting her seat belt on in the car. I need to remember the little girl in the wheelchair to keep me humble and thankful, because I have so much more than I could ever deserve and I need to always remember that.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
spring break marathon part III
So our last full day in Florida was spent at the Magic Kingdom and we took advantage of the early magic hours. Magic Hours are the best, it isn't crowded and the early hours give you a head start to get some rides done before everyone else gets there.
We went to Tomorrowland and hit up all the rides we still needed to, did a few more in Fantasyland, got to ride Splash Mountain (without a fast pass, wait time 15 minutes), had lunch on Main Street (the one time we made reservations), went through Adventureland, and the Hall of Presidents. We basically did the whole park in the morning and early afternoon, twice as much as we got accomplished on Monday and even had dinner at table service restaurant.
We even saw the 3pm parade, though Lily didn't because she fell asleep in the Hall of Presidents and continued snoozing in the stroller so unfortunately she missed seeing all of her favorite princesses. The best Lance quote of the day came during the Hall of Presidents. When George Washington was speaking, Lance turned to me and whispered, "How is he still alive?" I loved it, I wondered what was going on his head, was he thinking that all of the presidents came and lived at Disney when they were done being president? I explained to him that Washington was a robot and wasn't real, I loved that Disney, even the presidents were real and magical to Lance.
Last stop for the afternoon was Tom Sawyer Island.
We got into a raft and headed over and while we were on the raft I got a text message from my sister saying that her and her husband were ready to leave, they had decided to split up the trip into two days instead of powering through just one. So we quickly walked through some of the island and boarded a raft to return.
Red flags were going off when we were waiting for the raft to dock so we could board, there were two cast members on the raft, one was instructing the other on how to dock and drive the raft. We should have left and gone to the other raft docking area, but we stayed and boarded the raft, big mistake!
The cast member doing the instructing stayed on the island and the other cast member started off across the water. She made a turn and tried to dock, but missed, backed up, tried again, missed, backed up, tried again, missed. At this point she was very frustrated and we had drifted into the middle of the "river" and then we heard the the riverboat horn and started to get a little nervous. We were packed like sardines on a fake raft in the middle of a fake river in the path of a large fake riverboat, not good, not good at all. The poor cast member who was driving the raft was getting instructions on what to do from her radio and she holding back the tears and probably very frustrated, I felt so bad for her, but at the same time, I was annoyed, I wanted off of the raft. She managed to make it back to the island before the riverboat came through. Her instructor got back on the raft and took us to the other side of the water where we quickly exited and left the park. What should have taken 5-10 minutes took over 20, go figure when we had somewhere we needed to be, things took forever! We rode the bus back to the villa and said good-bye to my sister, I was sad to see her go, it was the beginning of the end of our vacation.
After saying good-bye we had some dinner then dressed in slightly warmer clothes and headed back to the park to see the Electric Parade, the memories castle light show, and the fireworks.
We thought we had a horrible location for the Electric Parade, we were under an awning at the end of Main Street and not close to the road, but when it started to rain we were thankful we were there. We were also across from the emergency exit so no one was in front of us, though there were people constantly walking in front, but it wasn't too bad. After the parade we navigated through the mass of people and found a spot to claim for the fireworks in between Main Street and the castle. It was perfect and the Memories show and fireworks were awesome.
I was too enthralled with the magic, memories, and you show I did not take any pictures, I am just amazed at what they can do with the castle and the part where the lanterns from Tangled float up through the castle was just so beautiful.
After the fireworks and waiting for the crowds to thin out, we hit up the stores and then said good-bye to the castle and Disney. We had driven to the park that morning so to get back to the parking lot we tried the ferry (we had been taking Lance's preferred method, the monorail). I highly recommend the ferry at night, it was neat watching the castle get smaller and smaller as we crossed the lagoon. It was sad leaving the Magic Kingdom that night, there is just something magical about that castle, and I hated to leave.
We got back to the van, headed back to the villa and called it a night. It was an amazing night and the best day of our vacation.
Friday morning we got up packed up the car and headed out. We hadn't officially planned anything for Friday, we didn't know if we would be too tired, but we hated to leave Florida so we headed east and went to the Kennedy Space Center.
When we saw the ticket prices we questioned whether it was going to be
worth it, but we decided that we would just stay longer than expected a
make a day of it, which I am so thankful we did, it was amazing. I have
never really been interested in the shuttles, rockets, or even space in general,
but I was blown away at Kennedy.
I was in awe at the size of the rockets and the microscopic capsules the first astronauts were in, especially when compared to the rockets, those guys were sitting on bombs! I learned a lot of interesting facts about the lunar rockets, the launch pads, and the lunar program, it was all very fascinating. I was amazed at how large the missile building facility is in real life, it seems large on TV, but in real life it is indescribable.
We had arrived at Kennedy about 10 and left a little before 4 pm. We started heading north towards home. It was sad leaving Florida and around 10pm we were in South Carolina, 6 hours from home, and tired of being in the car so we started to look for a hotel. We stopped at the first exit in South Carolina and went to 3 hotels all to discover they were sold out. We drove to the next town, went to several hotels and discovered they too were sold out. Florence was about 40 minutes away (where we stopped on the way down), so I called the hotel we had stayed in before and made a reservation. At 11:30 we arrived and checked in, my mom and Jeff went to the room, opened the door and discovered the TV was on, the bed was unmade, and it appeared that someone was staying there so they quickly exited. My mom went back down to the office and they gave her a key to a room that supposedly had a king and pull out sofa, she went into the room, it had a king, but no pull-out, not enough room for all 5 of us. The woman at the front desk offered my mom sheets to make the bed in the room upstairs they had first encountered, but she said no thanks, why pay $80 for unclean room you have to make the bed for and who knows who was in there before. We called around to try and find another hotel, couldn't find any, the front desk found a room across the street at the Ramada, we didn't have much choice so we headed over. If it hadn't been midnight I would have looked elsewhere or kept driving, but we were exhausted and didn't have any other options. We quickly learned why the Ramada had vacancy: the bathroom needed some serious remodel, the veneer was peeling or missing, the hot/cold sign on the faucet was missing, the sink was dirty looking and crooked, the toilet was crooked, and the room just looked tired and gross, yet there was a HUGE new flat screen tv and a nice fridge. The sheets were clean and appeared bed bug free, in fact the bed was a lot nicer than the rest of the room (tv was nice too). Anyways, we touched as little as possible and went straight to sleep. The next morning we got dressed and headed home. We sadly made it home at lunchtime and our trip was officially over.
Our first trip to Disney with kids was a lot of fun, I can't wait to go back especially now that I have learned so much about what to do and what not to do. I am so thankful that my whole family got to have a nice family vacation, everyone stayed healthy, and the weather was perfect. I am already planning another Disney vacation for when Lily is Lance's age, and I can't wait. I miss Disney, though there were crying fits, arguments, and some not-so-happy moments, Disney is a magical place.
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| early morning magic hours, love it when there aren't many people at the park |
We went to Tomorrowland and hit up all the rides we still needed to, did a few more in Fantasyland, got to ride Splash Mountain (without a fast pass, wait time 15 minutes), had lunch on Main Street (the one time we made reservations), went through Adventureland, and the Hall of Presidents. We basically did the whole park in the morning and early afternoon, twice as much as we got accomplished on Monday and even had dinner at table service restaurant.
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| lily on the tea cups |
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| at the speedway |
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| waiting to spin |
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| Prince Charming's Carousel |
We even saw the 3pm parade, though Lily didn't because she fell asleep in the Hall of Presidents and continued snoozing in the stroller so unfortunately she missed seeing all of her favorite princesses. The best Lance quote of the day came during the Hall of Presidents. When George Washington was speaking, Lance turned to me and whispered, "How is he still alive?" I loved it, I wondered what was going on his head, was he thinking that all of the presidents came and lived at Disney when they were done being president? I explained to him that Washington was a robot and wasn't real, I loved that Disney, even the presidents were real and magical to Lance.
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| lily missed seeing Cinderella |
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| lance taking it all in |
We got into a raft and headed over and while we were on the raft I got a text message from my sister saying that her and her husband were ready to leave, they had decided to split up the trip into two days instead of powering through just one. So we quickly walked through some of the island and boarded a raft to return.
Red flags were going off when we were waiting for the raft to dock so we could board, there were two cast members on the raft, one was instructing the other on how to dock and drive the raft. We should have left and gone to the other raft docking area, but we stayed and boarded the raft, big mistake!
The cast member doing the instructing stayed on the island and the other cast member started off across the water. She made a turn and tried to dock, but missed, backed up, tried again, missed, backed up, tried again, missed. At this point she was very frustrated and we had drifted into the middle of the "river" and then we heard the the riverboat horn and started to get a little nervous. We were packed like sardines on a fake raft in the middle of a fake river in the path of a large fake riverboat, not good, not good at all. The poor cast member who was driving the raft was getting instructions on what to do from her radio and she holding back the tears and probably very frustrated, I felt so bad for her, but at the same time, I was annoyed, I wanted off of the raft. She managed to make it back to the island before the riverboat came through. Her instructor got back on the raft and took us to the other side of the water where we quickly exited and left the park. What should have taken 5-10 minutes took over 20, go figure when we had somewhere we needed to be, things took forever! We rode the bus back to the villa and said good-bye to my sister, I was sad to see her go, it was the beginning of the end of our vacation.
After saying good-bye we had some dinner then dressed in slightly warmer clothes and headed back to the park to see the Electric Parade, the memories castle light show, and the fireworks.
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| my favorite picture of the lagoon by the entrance of the magic kingdom |
We thought we had a horrible location for the Electric Parade, we were under an awning at the end of Main Street and not close to the road, but when it started to rain we were thankful we were there. We were also across from the emergency exit so no one was in front of us, though there were people constantly walking in front, but it wasn't too bad. After the parade we navigated through the mass of people and found a spot to claim for the fireworks in between Main Street and the castle. It was perfect and the Memories show and fireworks were awesome.
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| the only downside to our spot was the lamp post |
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| the fireworks set to music was awsesome |
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| the finale |
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| I am just amazed what they can do with lights, fireworks and technology |
I was too enthralled with the magic, memories, and you show I did not take any pictures, I am just amazed at what they can do with the castle and the part where the lanterns from Tangled float up through the castle was just so beautiful.
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| Main Street with street lights out for the fireworks |
After the fireworks and waiting for the crowds to thin out, we hit up the stores and then said good-bye to the castle and Disney. We had driven to the park that morning so to get back to the parking lot we tried the ferry (we had been taking Lance's preferred method, the monorail). I highly recommend the ferry at night, it was neat watching the castle get smaller and smaller as we crossed the lagoon. It was sad leaving the Magic Kingdom that night, there is just something magical about that castle, and I hated to leave.
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| Magic Kingdom from the ferry |
We got back to the van, headed back to the villa and called it a night. It was an amazing night and the best day of our vacation.
Friday morning we got up packed up the car and headed out. We hadn't officially planned anything for Friday, we didn't know if we would be too tired, but we hated to leave Florida so we headed east and went to the Kennedy Space Center.
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| lonely palm on the way out to Kennedy |
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| the rocket garden |
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| the launch pad |
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| the missile building building facility which was HUGE |
I was in awe at the size of the rockets and the microscopic capsules the first astronauts were in, especially when compared to the rockets, those guys were sitting on bombs! I learned a lot of interesting facts about the lunar rockets, the launch pads, and the lunar program, it was all very fascinating. I was amazed at how large the missile building facility is in real life, it seems large on TV, but in real life it is indescribable.
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| on the tour bus |
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| Lily and the Saturn V rocket |
We had arrived at Kennedy about 10 and left a little before 4 pm. We started heading north towards home. It was sad leaving Florida and around 10pm we were in South Carolina, 6 hours from home, and tired of being in the car so we started to look for a hotel. We stopped at the first exit in South Carolina and went to 3 hotels all to discover they were sold out. We drove to the next town, went to several hotels and discovered they too were sold out. Florence was about 40 minutes away (where we stopped on the way down), so I called the hotel we had stayed in before and made a reservation. At 11:30 we arrived and checked in, my mom and Jeff went to the room, opened the door and discovered the TV was on, the bed was unmade, and it appeared that someone was staying there so they quickly exited. My mom went back down to the office and they gave her a key to a room that supposedly had a king and pull out sofa, she went into the room, it had a king, but no pull-out, not enough room for all 5 of us. The woman at the front desk offered my mom sheets to make the bed in the room upstairs they had first encountered, but she said no thanks, why pay $80 for unclean room you have to make the bed for and who knows who was in there before. We called around to try and find another hotel, couldn't find any, the front desk found a room across the street at the Ramada, we didn't have much choice so we headed over. If it hadn't been midnight I would have looked elsewhere or kept driving, but we were exhausted and didn't have any other options. We quickly learned why the Ramada had vacancy: the bathroom needed some serious remodel, the veneer was peeling or missing, the hot/cold sign on the faucet was missing, the sink was dirty looking and crooked, the toilet was crooked, and the room just looked tired and gross, yet there was a HUGE new flat screen tv and a nice fridge. The sheets were clean and appeared bed bug free, in fact the bed was a lot nicer than the rest of the room (tv was nice too). Anyways, we touched as little as possible and went straight to sleep. The next morning we got dressed and headed home. We sadly made it home at lunchtime and our trip was officially over.
Our first trip to Disney with kids was a lot of fun, I can't wait to go back especially now that I have learned so much about what to do and what not to do. I am so thankful that my whole family got to have a nice family vacation, everyone stayed healthy, and the weather was perfect. I am already planning another Disney vacation for when Lily is Lance's age, and I can't wait. I miss Disney, though there were crying fits, arguments, and some not-so-happy moments, Disney is a magical place.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Spring Break Marathon, Part II
Let's see, so we got down to Florida in 2 days, we stayed in a tacky looking, but nice hotel, and we enjoyed 1 day of warm weather. Sunday we woke up with the plan to go to Sea World and unfortunately the cold weather followed us down to Florida. The cold front that brought rain and cold temperatures at home, fog and thunderstorms on the trip down, had now passed over Florida and left it very windy and temperatures in the mid-60s, not cold, but not as warm as I would have liked.
After a complimentary breakfast the hotel gave us to make up for the late room check-in, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Sea World, all bundled up. As soon as we got to the park we headed to the whale and dolphin show, unfortunately it had already started and we didn't get the best seats, but it was still nice and the way the theater was situated we were protected from the wind.
The shows had change quite a bit since the last time I was here (over 10 years), there was a lot more want-to-be-Cirque du Soleil. After the show we headed to the dolphin observation, my favorite, I could have watched them swim around all day.
We saw more exhibits then headed over to the Shamu theater because we learned at the dolphin show that to get good seats you need to get there early and it was way too chilly to anywhere close to the splash zone.
The Shamu show was okay, after just seeing the dolphin whale show it was kind of similar, just bigger whales. The trainers did not get in the water, I assumed a result of the trainer dying awhile back, but it was still an entertaining show.
After the show we explored more and had lunch, it finally started to get warm and the wind kind of died down.
I am not usually one to spend extra money on something trivial like feeding an animal but for some reason I couldn't resist spending $5 for fish to feed the seals, or was it sea lions? There were signs posted all around saying beware of the birds because they are aggressive, and boy were they, the sea lion/seal in the bottom left didn't get the fish I threw to him since that white bird was quick.
Sea World was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I look forward to going back one day when hopefully it won't be so cold and windy.
After leaving Sea World we stopped at the Fresh Market and a regular grocery store to get food for the week and headed to Disney. We arrived at the Old Key West resort and were blown away, staying at Disney was the best decision and I don't think we have ever stayed somewhere so nice yet fun. A cast member at check-in gave the kids tons of stickers, temporary tattoos, coloring pages and crayons, a 1st time guest pin, and balloons (a sword for lance and a flower for lily). We then got directions for our villa and headed "home."
The villa was amazing, it had two bedrooms and was HUGE, it was a tiny bit smaller than our house (we do have a small house) but still for a hotel/vacation home at Disney it was HUGE. It had a full functional kitchen (better equipped than some beach houses we have rented), a large covered porch and huge bathrooms, it felt like home or at least what I would like my home to feel like.
After hauling all of our stuff up two flights of stairs we had dinner and got the kids ready for bed. Then Jeff and I as well as my sister and my brother-in-law headed out to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the magic hours while my mom stayed with the kids.
That Sunday night was one of my favorite times as Disney, it wasn't crowded, we got to ride all my favorite rides, at least the ones that were open (Dumbo and Big Thunder were closed for refurbishing), and the Magic Kingdom is just magical at night, something about that color changing castle makes you believe wishes do come true. Jeff and I had such a fun "date" night. We rode Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, the people mover, the speedway, the tea cups, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
When we left the villa to go to the Magic Kingdom at 7:45 I was exhausted and thought I would not make it till 10, but Jeff and I stayed out till midnight, and had a great time and I hope we can do it again one day.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed out with the kids to the Magic Kingdom. I had read that Monday is a busy day for the Magic Kingdom, but how do you not go on your first full day? Well never again, it was extremely crowded and crazy and we rode half the rides we had the night before in twice the amount of time. Never again.
If the rides didn't have long lines then they weren't working. Jeff, Lance, my brother-in-law and I all got fast passes to ride Splash
Mountain. When we arrived at our time we discovered the ride was
temporarily closed, we were bummed, we waited awhile to see if it would
start up shortly, but after 10 minutes we gave up and headed out. After
talking to a cast member we discovered that the ride stopped at about
the time our fast pass would have allowed us to ride and after seeing
the poor people stuck on the ride we were thankful we missed it.
We headed back to the villa shortly thereafter, had dinner, and then returned that evening for the fireworks and a few rides. I should note, upon exiting we bought the kids balloons and both are still afloat two weeks later, best $19 spent. The fireworks were amazing, but our location was not. We unfortunately did not have a good spot and our trip back to the park was kind of a waste, but we planned on what we would do next time.
Tuesday was our "off" day, day off from the parks, but not from activities. We headed down and west to Bradenton to visit my grandfather. We had a nice visit with him and then headed with him and his friend Dee to Anna Maria Island for lunch and some beach time. The kids got to see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time and if the water had been warmer or the air hotter I don't think we would have ever left.
After some beach time we headed back to Disney and that night we did some shopping at Downtown Disney. I wish I had more time and energy to really check out Downtown Disney but we were tired and had a full day the next day so we just went a few places and headed back early.
Wednesday we visited Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, both were a bit of a disappointment. Animal Kingdom was okay. I think it will be more fun when the kids are older, but there wasn't that much for them to do there. The safari ride was cool, but the Safari Park in Natural Bridge (with mostly herbivores) is a lot more exciting and fun with less wait. We did get our picture taken with Mickey and met Pooh and friends at Animal Kingdom since the lines weren't too long. Jeff and my brother-in-law rode the Everest roller coaster which wasn't as fun as they had hoped since it stopped multiple times and they sat on the ride for a bit. By 2:30 we were done with the park and headed over to Hollywood Studios because Lance wanted to ride Star Tours, the 3-D moving Star Wars ride/movie/whatever. My mom and I thought about doing the Backlot Tour ride but it was closed for refurbishing. We got in line for the Little Mermaid show, but the wait was over an hour long and it didn't seem worth it so we just walked around.
We then headed back to the villa, had dinner, and tried out the pool.
The pool was freezing so we dragged the kids back and let them "swim" in
the jacuzzi tub in the villa, they loved it. I have always wanted a
big jacuzzi tub, but after seeing how much water one requires I realized
I don't really want one, it seems like such a waste.
Saving the best for last, our last day at the Magic Kingdom. . .
After a complimentary breakfast the hotel gave us to make up for the late room check-in, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Sea World, all bundled up. As soon as we got to the park we headed to the whale and dolphin show, unfortunately it had already started and we didn't get the best seats, but it was still nice and the way the theater was situated we were protected from the wind.
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| I somehow managed to capture this amazing shot. |
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| Lance taking in the underwater observation area |
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| it took a couple of times to get a shot with the dolphin in the background |
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| Enjoying a snack before Shamu |
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| Good shot from Shamu |
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| A beluga showing off its tricks |
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| If there is a carousel, Lily has to ride it |
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| the sharks and rays taken by Lance |
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| Orange bird also by Lance, he took pictures of EVERYTHING |
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| taken by lance as I threw fish |
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| the shamu lighthouse at the entrance |
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| the ball of fish at the shark and ray exhibit |
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| the kids really enjoyed Sea World too |
Sea World was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I look forward to going back one day when hopefully it won't be so cold and windy.
After leaving Sea World we stopped at the Fresh Market and a regular grocery store to get food for the week and headed to Disney. We arrived at the Old Key West resort and were blown away, staying at Disney was the best decision and I don't think we have ever stayed somewhere so nice yet fun. A cast member at check-in gave the kids tons of stickers, temporary tattoos, coloring pages and crayons, a 1st time guest pin, and balloons (a sword for lance and a flower for lily). We then got directions for our villa and headed "home."
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| the Old Key West Resort |
The villa was amazing, it had two bedrooms and was HUGE, it was a tiny bit smaller than our house (we do have a small house) but still for a hotel/vacation home at Disney it was HUGE. It had a full functional kitchen (better equipped than some beach houses we have rented), a large covered porch and huge bathrooms, it felt like home or at least what I would like my home to feel like.
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| the kids resting on the couch |
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| the swans in the master bedroom- love the little Disney touches |
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| the towel bow in the kitchen |
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| the swimming pool size tub |
After hauling all of our stuff up two flights of stairs we had dinner and got the kids ready for bed. Then Jeff and I as well as my sister and my brother-in-law headed out to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the magic hours while my mom stayed with the kids.
That Sunday night was one of my favorite times as Disney, it wasn't crowded, we got to ride all my favorite rides, at least the ones that were open (Dumbo and Big Thunder were closed for refurbishing), and the Magic Kingdom is just magical at night, something about that color changing castle makes you believe wishes do come true. Jeff and I had such a fun "date" night. We rode Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, the people mover, the speedway, the tea cups, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
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| Main Street Sunday night- love Magic Kingdom all lite up |
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| the ever changing color castle- so magical |
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| just the two of us |
When we left the villa to go to the Magic Kingdom at 7:45 I was exhausted and thought I would not make it till 10, but Jeff and I stayed out till midnight, and had a great time and I hope we can do it again one day.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed out with the kids to the Magic Kingdom. I had read that Monday is a busy day for the Magic Kingdom, but how do you not go on your first full day? Well never again, it was extremely crowded and crazy and we rode half the rides we had the night before in twice the amount of time. Never again.
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| lance showing lily how to go down the steps every other foot- very cute |
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| the castle Monday morning, it was incredibly crowded by 10 am |
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| taken by lance |
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| fortunately some rides had in line entertainment |
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| lance excited to be on the steam train |
We headed back to the villa shortly thereafter, had dinner, and then returned that evening for the fireworks and a few rides. I should note, upon exiting we bought the kids balloons and both are still afloat two weeks later, best $19 spent. The fireworks were amazing, but our location was not. We unfortunately did not have a good spot and our trip back to the park was kind of a waste, but we planned on what we would do next time.
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| a tree was kind of in the way for most of the fireworks |
Tuesday was our "off" day, day off from the parks, but not from activities. We headed down and west to Bradenton to visit my grandfather. We had a nice visit with him and then headed with him and his friend Dee to Anna Maria Island for lunch and some beach time. The kids got to see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time and if the water had been warmer or the air hotter I don't think we would have ever left.
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| lily enjoying the beach while we were waiting for lunch |
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| the lunch crew |
After some beach time we headed back to Disney and that night we did some shopping at Downtown Disney. I wish I had more time and energy to really check out Downtown Disney but we were tired and had a full day the next day so we just went a few places and headed back early.
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| lance and woody at the lego store |
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| yes we did spend $65 on a princess dress, the one thing she wanted at Disney World |
Wednesday we visited Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, both were a bit of a disappointment. Animal Kingdom was okay. I think it will be more fun when the kids are older, but there wasn't that much for them to do there. The safari ride was cool, but the Safari Park in Natural Bridge (with mostly herbivores) is a lot more exciting and fun with less wait. We did get our picture taken with Mickey and met Pooh and friends at Animal Kingdom since the lines weren't too long. Jeff and my brother-in-law rode the Everest roller coaster which wasn't as fun as they had hoped since it stopped multiple times and they sat on the ride for a bit. By 2:30 we were done with the park and headed over to Hollywood Studios because Lance wanted to ride Star Tours, the 3-D moving Star Wars ride/movie/whatever. My mom and I thought about doing the Backlot Tour ride but it was closed for refurbishing. We got in line for the Little Mermaid show, but the wait was over an hour long and it didn't seem worth it so we just walked around.
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| Lance and speedster |
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| at the Hollywood Studios enterance |
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| grumpy boy after a long day |
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| lily meeting Tigger, not to sure about him |
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| the huge bathtub |
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