Monday, October 26, 2009

The family and I just returned from a fantastic vacation to Orlando. Himself's family is there, a few friends and relatives of mine are there, and, of course, The Mouse is there.

We managed to squeeze in some of each, though I'm convinced vacations are either too short or too long. Has anyone had exactly the right amount of time for everything? No? Yes? Maybe it is just me.

More photos may come, but there's 600+ for me to sort through (just the ones I took), and, well, I'm just not up for that yet. Anyway, here's a few just to prove we were there.
I had hours and hours on the plane to knit, but it was hard to concentrate on it for long. I had no trouble getting my knitting needles through security (I used my bamboo needles) and I didn't even try to take scissors. I'm working on a scarf in sock yarn, though, so it is taking forever to reach the end. Sort of like one of those things where you knit and knit and never get closer to the end, I think. I did get a good deal of knitting on the plane, and a little at the in-law's house, but not as much as I thought I'd do.

Himself was inspired to book the trip because his high school had a band alum reunion (all years) for the school's 70th anniversary. The alums were able to sit next to the band at the homecoming game on Friday and play along. I think the band director may have gotten an ulcer over his lack of control over the alums. They played whenever, and whatever, the wanted fairly often. The current school band had to stick to a more rigid plan. I suspect his mantra was "alums give money" or something like that. LOL Still, I sometimes caught this look on his face...

We went to the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, and attended Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party later that night. You must buy special tickets for that, of course, but they close the park to non-ticket holders and there's trick-or-treating, fireworks and a parade. The kids brought their costumes and we took a break in the evening to head back to the hotel and change. It was so much fun! It was such an incredibly long day! 11 am - midnight. Exhausting! I don't think we waited more than 15-20 minutes for any ride, and for most of them, the wait was the length of time it took to walk from the entrance to the loading area. October is the month to go!

Wednesday we went to the Animal Kingdom. It was also pretty awesome with minimal wait times. I met up with a buddy from college (Austin College) and her mom for a few hours. They are living out that way now and so, when I do make it back to Texas, I never get to see her. The park is terrific, though much smaller and with fewer rides. We went to see several shows, including Nemo, The Musical, and rode several things twice. I made it on Expedition Everest, but only once. No one else would ride it with me and I felt bad making them all wait for me, even if the wait was short.

I will share one funny thing that happened at Animal Kingdom. While having lunch with everyone, I kept feeling this poking on my rear end. I thought it was my youngest child being obnoxious. It wasn't. It was a rather cheeky duck, pardon the pun. He was looking for a bit of my lunch and had the most remarkable expression on his face. Well, it looked that way from my point of view. Sadly, no one had a camera sitting out (safely tucked away from the food), so I can't share a photo of the fellow. He was rather bold, though. Just sitting there looking at me with an expression that said "Well?!"


We spent lovely time with family, mine and his, but it was all too short. Well, most of it was. Some folks are best in teeny, tiny doses, but I'll not dwell on that bit. LOL October is the best month for Florida, I think. Not too hot, but plenty warm for the kids. Himself and I were glad to return to Washington and real Fall weather.
The last day or so of the trip, the youngest developed a bladder infection. Sleep-deprived mom didn't really notice, or more correctly, connect the dots on that one until the night before we left. Seriously, I could not adjust to the 3-hour time difference the whole trip! Who knew those three hours could make my brain FAIL so much all week? It didn't help that the youngest was in total denial of all symptoms, for some unkown reason. So, the first day back, we were at the clinic for antibiotics for her. On the second leg of the flight home, the eldest got a sore throat. So, today we were at the doctor's office for her. She's got strep throat, and so they are both an antibiotics now. I hope that at the least, the meds will help the youngest recover from one and avoid getting the other. The adults will have to take their chances, I guess. Oh well, no one was sick while there and so far, no nasty swine flu symptoms.
I still say this was the best vacation ever, and I do hope we can go again in a couple of years. I miss my family, but visiting them is never relaxing, really. Visiting the in-laws provides innumerable amusement parks to visit, plus the beaches, and NASA, and goodness knows what else! But it also allows me to actually just enjoy the trip in a way that I just can't when visiting my family. So, the next trip will certainly be to see my folks, but probably not for a while. Which is good. I have all these photos to work through first...