Let The Memories Begin....

See, didn't I warn you that this blog may be dreadfully boring?  There are only so many ways to describe what goes on in my day to day life: work, home, [work], sleep, repeat.  We are back to regular life and counting down the days until the next vacation.  Although the calendar says it is winter, it feels more like early spring. I am, as usual, anxious for summer to get here but am also wanting it to take its time getting here so it will not have to come to an end - much like a vacation.  Which brings me to this post......vacation.....

Most of you probably know that I have a photography compulsion.  Between my 2 cameras, my phone camera and my favorite app, Hipstamatic, I took well over 6,000 pictures from our trip to Florida.  Yes I mean it.  It often takes me a zillion attempts to get "the one".  So cleaning out the multiples, unclear and bad shots often takes me longer then the vacation lasted, but I enjoy it in some warped kind of way.  Culling through each picture basically allows me to re-live the whole trip and keep the memories alive.  Maybe it is gross excess, maybe its not.. either way I obviously have a difficult time finding the line between the two!!!  So here they are, consolidated as best I could, for you to review at your leisure.  I hope you enjoy them - I know we enjoyed being there to take them!

This is a summary of the trip, it is more of an album of favorites which also serves as a condensed version of the trip:


Most of these are Hipstamatic prints from the trip.  I have such a good time playing with that camera...



These are from the road trip.  We left home around 10 on Friday and drove until Virginia where we spent the night.  We woke up and drove from VA to Orlando arriving on Sunday Morning





Here is the Hipstamatic version of the road trip...



We arrived at Disney on Sunday morning, had lunch and then went to our room.  Later we went to Epcot and then watched the fireworks from our patio before going to bed. Magic Kingdom was open until 1am and I tried my hardest to get Madi to go but she just wanted to go back to the resort. 




We slept in on our 2nd day there.  Madi and I hung out by the pool in the morning then I went for a pedicure while they relaxed in the room.  We went to Epcot for a while in the afternoon and then had a pre-birthday dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse.  As usual, it was fantastic!  






The 3rd day, Tuesday, was Madi's 11th birthday!!  She opened her birthday presents, then we went to breakfast at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, hung out in the park for most of the day and then had dinner at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney later on that evening.




We went racing on the 4th Day!!!  I did a ride along (which was ah-maaaa-zing) and Chip drove.  He was signed up for the 8 lap package which he quickly upgraded to 18 laps (more laps and faster speeds, who could resist??).  After our fun at the track, we hung out at the pool and then went to Hollywood Studios for dinner.
  




Our last full day was the 5th Day.  Since we didn't get to do all we wanted to at Hollywood Studios the night before, we decided to go back.  After spending most of the day there, we came back to the resort, Madi got a hairwrap, we went back to the room and then went to Epcot.  No trip would be complete without room service so that was our dinner.  I don't know what it is, but I just love to get room service.  There is just something about it...





Much to our dismay, the last day had arrived and it was time to check out. Everyone had a great time, the weather was very nice and the moods were fantastic!  We can't wait to go back!  After the car was packed up we let Madi swim for a while and then went to Downtown Disney.  We had an amazing lunch at Paradiso 37, did some shopping and then hit the road around 4:00.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.....




We drove until some small town in Georgia where there was a decent place to sleep.  And thank goodness because this is when I got VERY sick.  Ugh.  What a long ride home.  Chip and Madi were very good to me.  They did chuckle at me for falling asleep and bobbing my head and later said that they could tell I was feeling better because I started taking pictures again.  LOL.  Very funny you two!





So that's it.  Well, until I get my Photopass pictures back from Disney that is....









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What an ending

As I said we had a truly spectacular vacation - until Friday night. We'll get to that in a bit.

After packing up the car, Madi went for one last swim and I spent a my last bit of time chillin in a lounge chair, soaking up the sun. From there we headed over to Downtown Disney for lunch and to pick up out last few souvenirs (which we needed like a hole in the head but anyway....).

We ended up finding a great restaurant called Paradiso 37. Everything was so yummy and we had a really nice table outside on the water. And then our first rain storm hit and hit hard! We scrambled to grab our food and scurry inside to get out of the rain. By the time we were done with dessert the sun was shining in typical FL fashion.

There is an adorable new store called Little Missmatched that had fun and colorful single socks. Apparently kids these days don't need matching socks. Who knew? We hit the rest of the usual stores (World of Disney, Vinylmation, Orlando Harley to name a few) and off we went towards home around 4:30.

Everyone was pretty much exhausted and we drove through some rather severe torrential rain. So we decided it was time and stopped somewhere in Georgia for the night and man was I sure glad!

Here's the bad part....ready? We got to our room and I was feeling rather blaaah. I was exhausted, ate like a horse and drank like a fish all week. All I needed was a good nights sleep right? WRONG. I woke up around 1am sick as I can ever remember being. I had some stomach bug that had me up all night. Now what?

We were still SO far from home and I wasn't sure how I would manage the ride. I was also grateful we had stopped when we did, that it was late so Madi wasn't aware and I didn't have a plane to catch. I can't fathom anything worse then flying while I felt so awful. We debated staying another night so I could recover. By the time check out had arrived, I had nothing left in me so I figured we could give it a try. Hoping that the worst was over we hit the road.

Those of you who know me probably know you wouldn't normally catch me dead looking all disheveled in public. This was one time I didn't care! I had managed a shower and borrowed a pair of Madi's sweat pants that were too short, my socks didn't match (call me trendy I guess), slippers, no make up and hair a mess. I must say I got some rather funny looks. After a loooooong several hours I finally mustered the strength to get down some saltines and ginger ale which helped. I slept for a while in the car.

It wasn't until around 8pm that I actually ate - a baked potato and water. Yummy! But it did help and I finally feel better. Whew.

Thankfully I wasn't sick during the vacation part and no one else has what I had....yet. And let's keep it that way!!

All in all if someone was going to catch the nasty bug I'm glad it was me. I'd never want to see poor Madi or Chip feel that badly and vacation was still a success. What can you do about it anyway.

This is probably a TMI post but hey, that's how I roll. I will leave you with these oh so gorgeous pictures of me. These were hours into the ride after I felt better. Trust me when I say it was worse then this!

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In summary....

I lost track of where I last updated you all along the way. Detaching from my phone was a vacation objective so i guess that means it was a success! We had an absolute blast! Perhaps the best trip ever. Everyone had a great time. We took our time and had spectacular weather. Especially for the 1st week of February. It was mostly in the 80's with one day "cold" in the low 70's. All around perfection!! I have ten gazillion pictures to sort through. I'm my own worst enemy! I guess I'll be re-living the past week for some time to come!

We left Disney around 4:30 on Friday. In hindsight bad timing for traffic. But we made it through and are on our way. Word is we have snow to look forward to at home. I sure hope I have something besides flip flips in this car!

PS - for the record my phone was acceptable for photos :)
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My Babys Birthday.....

11 years. How can it be? Today is THE day. So needless to say we are off to Magic Kingdom to see what fun can be had!

PS - you gotta love that Madi is "letting go" of her too cool ways and rocking the Donald hat!

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What have I done

You want to know what's worse then "how many more miles" or "are we there yet"?? "Do you want to know how much we've spent so far?". That's much MUCH worse. On vacation I live in a place where money doesn't matter. I don't keep track. I don't want to know.

So why am I now you might ask? Well I thought it would be a good math project to give Madi a driving log to add up (or subtract) our mileage and gas, etc. on the trip down. That was a fabulous idea in her mind!! But now she's taken it to the extreme. She keeps all of the receipts and has a running tab to the penny.

Do you wanna know how much we've spent so far?? NO. No I don't!
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Yesterday...take 2

Well my last post was extremely brilliant but I lost it...so lower your expectations!!!

After two days of driving the words "arriving at destination" were magical to say the least! If you've ever been to the Beach Club you know what I mean by THAT SMELL....oh we walked in the doors and the blissful smell hit us!

I make the same request with every trip - a room on the Epcot/woods side on a higher floor. You never know how that will pan out. We got here around 1:00 and our room wasn't ready yet. No worries we grabbed lunch and enjoyed the heat of the day. It was HOT. Very hot, very sunny and quite wonderful!! I think the earth must have shifted on its axis because Chip joined me in having a Mai Tai....and liked it! Finally the text came. Our room was ready. Room #471 was waiting!!! Holy moly we've never had a better room! The view is smack dab in front of Spaceship Earth (a/k/a the big golf ball). Wow! I was blown away!!!

A shower was on the agenda and man oh man did it hit the spot! Then it was off to Epcot for dinner and I thought to Magic Kingdom since it was open until 1am. We ate and wandered the rule as Madi announces she'd rather go for a swim. What? No MK? No rides? The pool. Well okay, we were tired so that worked!!!

Being the uber mean parents we are the thunderstorm that passed over with lightening but a damper on swimming plans. Literally. We watched the lady half of the Super Bowl and crashed!! The view of the fireworks from our patio was spectacular!

I woke to the sounds of Madi's spoon hitting her bowl of Froot Loops. It is vacation after all!!

She declared today a chill day. Already? It's our first day. After coffee on the patio with the sun blazing we hit the pool!!

On the way down we were talking to the resort greeter, Tina. She reminded us that we might want to avoid the Magic Kingdom. When Eli Manning says "I'm going to Disney World" he means it!! The victory parade was this morning. All set with that for a number of reasons!

So I'm chillin in a lounge chair, Madi's swimming and Chip is up in the room relaxing. I have a pedicure later this morning. Unfortunately I seem to be losing the sun. Rain is in the forecast for later. It's warn so let it rain!

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Where did it go???

Well I had a post about yesterday but the app crashed & I lost it. I'm being summoned to the pool. It's a beautiful hot sunny morning. A post can wait!

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Are we there yet????

Remind me about how much fun I said the traveling part was mmmmkay?? LOL.

We spent most of yesterday on the road. Well, from about 11am on we were any way. I don't know how Chip does it but he just goes and goes. Sign him up for the 24 hour Daytona Rolex race.

At around 10:00 we had too far to go for a logical check in but didn't seem worthy to get a hotel for a few hours. So a rest area it was!! All the pillows and blankets got unburied and we crashed for a good 7 hours or so.

We were back on the road around 5am & projected to be at the Beach Club around 10:30. And lemme just say my butt cheeks are numb and are SO ready to be there!!

Madi has been so good and patient. With every mile her excitement builds. She says she loved being surprised so much she wants every trip to be a surprise. I'm guessing she has no clue how difficult it was to get everything ready without her knowing. Not sure this is something we can manage to pull off twice but you never know!

We also found a western boot "outlet" which I encouraged Chip to stop at so I could check out the Gringo's. Turns out my idea of an outlet isn't the same as the Booty Bros! The owner was a real fine southern gent, let me droll a bit and off we went. Again.

Madi says no road trip is complete without a stop at Cracker Barrel. So that's where we had dinner!! It was such a nice warm evening, after we ate we chilled in the rockers on the porch and played a game of checkers. Turns out I need some lessons - totally forgot the rules! Oh well, I was there more for the fresh air and photo ops.

I am now seeing palm trees all around which you all know makes me giddy! That was, I saw these palm trees before the fog set in! But it's warm and the forecast for the next few days is 80*. Can't beat that in February!!

Just a couple more hours and we will be "home" again. We are all quite ready to be there and all for different reasons!


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