A trip without the kids

Since November, Jon and I have been discussing a trip for just the two of us in the winter sometime after the New Year. We knew we wanted to go somewhere warm. We we leaning toward a cruise, but to different ports other than the Bahamas we had been to previously, but we only wanted to be gone for a long weekend so our cruise choices to somewhere else were pretty slim. We would have to go on a 5 day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman Islands. We also checked into going to Disney land and California Adventure. We already asked Morgan if she would be interested in watching our kids (with pay of course I wouldn't have anyone (besides grandparents) watch all 6 kids while Jon and I are living it up on vacation for free). She is on the Summer/Fall schedule so that is a big reason why we wanted to go in winter and I hate winter cold so tropical sounded great to me. Since she didn't have a full time job, She subbed for a daycare and watched a boy and their 2 dogs and cat while his parents were on vacation for 10 days she agreed to watch them. So where did we end up going?? Jon's parents, when they were over for Brenton's birthday in January, asked if we were interested in going to Disney World with them again and they wanted to go soon. They didn't have enough Disney vacation club points left (I think they borrowed some for their trip the previous year). Jon and I both love Disney World, but we were just there less than a month before. After talking with his dad some more, and figuring out all the details, we decided we would go with them. So on February 26 we left for Disney World. Jon and I took turns driving down. We drove Jon's parents car since his mom wanted the option of laying down and our back seat doesn't recline. The deal was we would drive and pay for the gas and they would pay for the hotel room. We left after all the kids were in school and I dropped Hayden off at my mom's house so Morgan could watch him. We didn't have any delays driving down. After we checked into our room at the All Star Music Resort (now we have stayed at all the All Star Resorts) we all headed down to Down Town Disney (all except Jon's mom she wanted to take a bath and rest). First stop of course had to be Ghiradelli for some sundaes. I love their sundaes. Then we looked at a few shops mainly ones our kids don't like to go to or ones we don't feel comfortable in taking our kids into. I did want to stop off and take a peak at the new dinosaur restaurant. It was packed with people waiting for a table and it was almost 8 pm. It is like the Rainforest Cafe except with Dinosaurs. Very cool my kids would love to eat there. Maybe, when the newness dies down and it isn't jam packed with people. When we got back to the resort, Jon and I wanted to check things out around the resort while his parents went to bed. We checked out the 2 pools they have one is shaped like a piano and the other one like a guitar. They had a big blow up screen with people playing Mario Cart on the Wii. We checked out the gift shop and had a little something to eat since lunch we had only our sundaes. Jon and I split a couple things. The thing I like about the All Star Resorts is they have cafeteria style restaurants. It is divided into 4 different places one had desserts, one had salads and sandwiches and roasted chicken, one had burgers and hot dogs, and the final one had pizza and pasta. Something to please anyone. After we ate it wasn't quite 9:00 pm and we didn't know what else to do we had toured the whole place and it was too chilly for me to sit and watch the movie they had playing on the big blow up screen. So we headed back to the hotel room and went to bed. I don't remember the last time I went to bed before 9:30 pm. I am not a night owl I usually go to bed at 10:30 pm since I have to get up at 6:30 am.

The next morning we all headed to Magic Kingdom. Since we were only going to be at Disney for 2 whole days we had to go to Magic Kingdom and Epcot our 2 favorites. Since we knew Jon's parents (by this I mean his mom his dad could last the whole time) wouldn't be at Magic Kingdom much past lunchtime we decided to do the things they would like and leave the thrill rides for Jon and I later. The only fast pass we got for all of us to use was to the Jungle Cruise. This is where the cool part came into plan. Jon and I would get fast passes for us to use on Splash mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Buzz lightyear using both sets of tickets for Jon and I to use later when his parents have left the park. Jon's parents left a few hours after lunch. So Jon and I headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Buzz light year, Space Mountain, and a couple more. We checked out a few stores and were ready to leave just before dinner time.

When we got back to the resort, we went down to the cafeteria for some dinner and took it back to our room and ate. I don't remember what we did after we ate. I think we just hung around the room and watched some Tv. We ended up going to bed at 9:30 pm again. This time I didn't mind since I was on my feet all day and I didn't get a good night sleep the night before (I never sleep good the first night in a different bed).

Saturday we went to Epcot. Epcot was open a hour early for resort guests so of course we took advantage of that since we usually rent a house and can never take advantage. Jon's parents didn't want to do the thrill rides again so we got some fast passes to test track and mission space. They almost didn't go on Soarin but we talked them into it and they loved it. We also did Space Ship Earth, Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush, and Living with the land with them. We skipped Journey to Imagination (not one of my favorites, but fun to take the kids on because there is never a long line) because it was 11:00 am and time for the countries to open. We watched the O' Canada movie and the American movie (not one of my favorites) how come all the other countries that have movies talk about their country and what there is to see and do and the American movie talks about all the bad choices America made in history for about 20 minutes and the last 5 minutes were happy. There are awesome things to do and see here why not show that. It left me feeling mad. Oh well. We also did the rides in Norway and Mexico as well as look at all the shops. By then is was way past lunch and we were starving. We headed back to our resort and dropped Jon's mom off and the three of us headed to Fort Wilderness for some dinner. I love Fort Wilderness. I want to stay in one of those cabins (not a tent) one of these days. Then Jon and I took a boat to Magic Kingdom, hopped on the Monorail and headed back to Epcot. Jon's dad took a bus back to the resort. We did Test Track and a few more rides. We ran into some members in line at Test Track that used to be in our ward until they split off and added their own Spanish branch. It was fun talking with them. We left Epcot just before the night show.

Sunday morning we headed out. We stopped and ate breakfast at IHOP. We didn't get stuck in any traffic. Although we did get phone calls from all of our family saying that while they were in church it started snowing. The biggest snowflakes we had ever seen in Atlanta. We were all ready to turn the car right around and go back to Florida. But instead about 1 1/2 hours till home we hit this

These were taken while driving so you don't get the full effect. It was snowing basically the rest of the way home, but by the time we got to our town the snow was really wet and was almost just rain. This didn't make the kids too happy because the snow was to wet to do anything with. All and all it was a great trip and it was plenty warm in Orlando while we were there.