Vacation Day 1- Monday

Vacation Day 1
Monday December 27
Kevin and Charlotte were blessing Vaughn in Brownsburg the day after Christmas, so we figured there wasn't really any point in driving down and then back home, so we just packed up everything and left from there after the blessing.
We stayed at a surprisingly nice Microtel in Indy that night for surprisingly cheap (thank you again Priceline). And had a quick breakfast in the morning before taking off. The excitement in our van was palpable. We were finally on our family vacation. I love family vacations!!! Can you tell? We had already decided that we were NOT interested in a straight-through mad-dash if we didn't have to. And we didn't have to. We had a hotel in Daytona Beach, FL for Thursday night and 4 days to get there. Nice and slow. We had also already decided we wanted to spend some time in Nashville (we've been eyeing it for a while as a possible place to move to- temple, good schools, good home values, good job market). Anyway, so we only drove an hour before we saw the Edinburgh outlets in Columbus, IN and thought "yea, we can stop." Jared has a soft spot for Columbia wear and IZOD shirts. And we hit the jack pot, because it was after-Christmas sales. Yay!
Moving on. We planned to reach Louisville by night (a whooping 3 hours of driving for the day- I told you we were taking it slow). We thought we'd stop at Mammoth Cave and do a little sight seeing, but can you believe it- they were closed for Christmas? Bum-mer!

So we got to Louisville, KY earlier than expected and found a local BBQ joint. Yum!! We had a super nice room that night because the hotel was practically empty and they gave us this gynormous corner suite- for FREE! Awesome. And we had the whole pool to ourselves. And the kiddies were happy happy. Eat, swim, play, hotel. We all fell asleep in happy vacation mode that night.

The LONG anticipated Disney World Trip Post (the background info to the trip)

We have been saving together as a family for a Disney World trip for about 2 years. We even made a bar graph and would color it in $20 blocks. At the beginning it was daunting- the idea of getting all those blocks colored in to reach $3,000. It seemed so far off. But the kids loved it when we could add some money and color in a few blocks at a time. It was slow going. Early in 2010 we found ourselves without work. Saving for the trip came to an abrupt halt, but Jared and I were broken heart-ed when we had to borrow all the money we'd saved out of the Disney envelope (we never told the children about that). Fortunately, when work came in the summer we were able to pay back what we'd borrowed and even reach our savings goal. We had told the kids when we reached $2,000 we would start making firm plans. We were so excited to finally start planning our trip- for real!!

We had several options to consider.
When to take the trip? When knew we had to get a bargain so we would have to go during off peak (slow) season (which is usually during the school season when most people can't go) when the rates are cheaper.
Where to stay? Jared and I went to Disney for a belated honeymoon and stayed for 10 days at a beautiful Wyndham Resort (off Disney property) through Priceline and paid just under $50/ night ($500 for the whole trip). With cheap eating and minimal purchases, the budget for our first trip (with gas) was just $1500. But we knew we would double that this trip (since we had tripled our numbers since then:). So we had to decide if we wanted to stay on Disney property or off. It's cheaper off property, but there are some conveniences with little people that are worthwhile. I spent a LOOOOOT of time on the internet and on http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ and on a few awesome blogs( http://land.allears.net/blogs/dnews/ and http://www.themouseforless.com/ ) that had great info and tips. I must have priced and repriced different scenarios of that vacation at least 1000 times (seriously). Tweeking this and that. Since we were traveling with 6 people that put us in a different boat than the customary 4 people per room. We were going to need 2 rooms or a suite (hotel mandates not ours). There are a whole lot of off property resorts that offer multi-room suites for really reasonable prices. And we almost booked with one of those. But when I found an excellent after-Christmas rate at Disney's Fort Wilderness Cabins that was 40% off, plus FREE Disney Dining (AMAZING!!) we were only saving about $400 (after you purchase park tickets and add the food back on) by staying off property. We decided it was worth it to spend the extra money and stay on property. WE. WERE. RIGHT.

I could just kick myself now that I didn't take any pictures of our cute cabin. Here are the stock photos Disney offers. 

But this place was so perfect for us. We scored a cabin near the bus route but off the main road- so it was very quiet. Everyone out there was looking for the same kind of experience and we had no problems with loud neighbors. We were able to park our van right outside the cabin and didn't move it until we left. Our Dining Plan included a quick lunch (which is really a nice lunch at a quick restaurant), snacks, and a sit down dinner (which I made advance reservations for every night at the best places we were really wanting to go to and that determined the park we went to each day). We ate breakfast in our cabin (it was super great to have a kitchen- plus they did the dishes every day!!). The kids wouldn't have wanted to go out to eat each morning anyway. They wanted to go have fun. So we got up whenever (usually around 8, but we were totally relaxed) ate and were on our way quickly. One reason we had wanted to stay on property was for Ethan so that if he was completely tuckered out one of us could run back easily with him and let him get a nap while one of us stayed at the park with the kids. But who wants to leave all the fun??? Not me. Not Jared. Not the kids. And Ethan was such a trooper. He'd just lay down on Jared's shoulder and zonk out for a little bit then be ready to go again. Our stroller was like our traveling home. Every morning we'd load it up with a whole day worth of changes of clothes and jackets and snacks and head out. Definitely glad I had the double stroller. I considered taking something smaller to move around like an umbrella stroller, but there were always at least 2 tired kids who wanted a ride and they'd rotate in and out. They all took a turn at some point. Plus it carried all our gear.

I carried the camera everywhere and, even though the Photopass folks took pictures, I did too. Boy was I glad I did. I didn't realize until I got home that they were $15/ picture!! Yikes! But fortunately, I had also taken the pictures from similar angles as the Photopass ones so my pictures were almost identical. I only ended up buying 2 pictures that I couldn't live without.

Part of vacation for Jared and me is the eating out. We love good food. Who doesn't?? And we had some amazing food at Disney. Several of the blogs I had read talked about ways to eat cheap and bring your own meals. I wasn't really interested in being stressed about how much money we spent at each meal and how much we couldn't spend on the next one. And how we couldn't afford the nice places we wanted to go to. So it really REALLY was so nice for me and worked out great that we bought the package that had the free dining plan. I wouldn't have probably sought it out myself because I didn't know much about it. But, boy, am I glad we got that one. When we made our Disney Reservation I started making dinner reservations. I knew the nice places go quickly and didn't want to be out of luck. I was able to get all the places we wanted. We had a nice (super nice!) dinner every night at each park. Then that determined which park we went to each day. It's so easy to do. You just go to any restaurant or vendor and ask if they're part of the Disney Dining Plan (usually it's posted actually), then buy whatever you want for the most part (there are a few places that you can only pick from a selected part of their menu). Then you give them your Disney Key to the World and they just scan it and it prints out a tally of how many meals and snacks you've used and how many you have left. Just for fun (purely for our own info) we kept the receipts at every quick service meal, sit down meal, and snack we ate the entire time. The DDP would've been like $850 or so to add on to our package (we got it FREE!). Our total food receipts came to just over $1250. Wow!!! First of all, I had no idea we could spend that much just on food in a week. And second- awesome! What a good deal. And we ate at restaurants that we never would've otherwise. Monday we ate at 1900 Park Fare and had a delicious gourmet buffet dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the evil stepsisters. That meal receipt was $150 for all of us!! We never would've gone and spent that money right out of our pockets. Every day was like that. The kids would ask for those ridiculously priced Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Cones and we'd say "sure, take your card". It was soooooo nice and sooooo much less stressful. We will definitely do the DDP again. Definitely.

When to go? We got our awesome amazing deal for 2 weeks after Christmas- just when everyone else would've been going back to school. If you looked on the Disney site, the rates were high high high for Christmas and the week after, but the week after that (the first of January) they plummeted. Score. So we just pre-approved the vacation time with Coleson's teacher (she said they'd be having an easy first-week-after-break week anyway) and we were good to go. I was a bit concerned about what the weather would be like in January. Who wants to go out for a beautiful beach and parks vacation when it's 30/40 degrees? Not me. I really didn't want it to ruin our dream trip. But the price was so good. I scoured tons of websites and almanacs about Florida weather and it seemed like the weather could go either way. We were so so so so so relieved when the 10-day forecast started showing 70 degree weather for the week of our trip. SO relieved. In fact, the day we arrived at the beach the weather spiked up to 80 degrees for that day and the next (which were our 2 full days at the beach). It was 65/70ish all week at Disney. Which we decided was absolutely perfect weather. Cool in the morning and evening (perfect with jackets) and the perfect t-shirt and walking weather all day long. We did get caught off guard one day when we stayed later than we thought we would and it got really chilly and then we had the boat ride back to our resort and that was cold. But other than that, the weather was perfect. Which turned out to be more of a blessing than we could've imagined because on our drive home Saturday and Sunday, an ice storm hit Georgia (and reports said down into Florida) with the coldest weather and more snow than they'd seen in 20 years!! Ha! What a blessing it didn't ruin our trip.

Every night of our 2 week trip (except being at Disney) we Pricelined our hotels. We bought only 1 room for all of us- the kids are small and we really don't mind. Poor Ethan spent every night of the trip in some sort of closet. I thought about taking some funny pictures of the tight spaces we got his little porta-crib to fit into (so he couldn't stand from inside his bed and see me laying in my bed and then scream "Mama!" until he could get me to come get him-which doesn't take long in a hotel room, because you don't want all the kids up and crying for mama in the middle of the night), but Jared didn't want him to know about it when he gets older (thought he might feel less loved or something for being tucked into closets. Weird.) Several hotels let us upgrade to a suite either for free or a really small fee (bonus to traveling off peak travel season). And every hotel had a continental breakfast for us to take advantage of before we took off for the day. We were extremely strict with our budget for the trip. We allotted ourselves a certain amount of money each day (I think it was $115) for hotel, food, and any extras in a specific envelope labeled for that day. If our hotel took $50 we had extra for a nicer dinner. If our hotel took $75, we had less. We were amazed with how far our money stretched each day. Almost every day we closed up our envelope with extra money in it.

So, on to the actual trip.

My Grandmother

My grandmother was one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. She loved her family more than anything. She was the perfect example of what a "lady" should be. I have always wanted to be a lady, because my grandmother and mother were so lady-like. She was soft spoken, never spoke ill of others, always primped and beautiful, slow-tempered, a loving mother.

My wonderful grandpa passed away of a form of dementia in 2001, just a year before Coleson was born. So none of my children were able to meet him, in this life. I remember the day we were sealed, my grandma leaned over and whispered in my ear, that she knew grandpa was there with us that day in the celestial room. He loved his family more than anything, and he always showed it.

Somehow, grandma came down with the same thing. It was strange since obviously they weren't blood relation. The past few years, it has been my parents' blessing to care for her as she quickly went down hill. I remember the last fluid conversation I had with her in April 2009. I was pregnant with Ethan and we were there in Utah for Becca's wedding. I remember leaving that conversation knowing that was the last time she would really know me. It was shortly after that she became "lost". She didn't know who even her own daughter was. That was a really, really tough thing for my mom. Although we talked and cried about it, I can't imagine how hard that must have really been for her.

Grandma finally passed away on January 23, 2011- a Sunday evening, with all of her daughters standing by her side. She was a very loved woman.
I will miss her very much. She was a wonderful grandmother and mother. She has been an amazing example to me of the kind of wife, mother, and daughter I would like to be.


This is a picture of a board I made to put up at her viewing. Becca and I decorated several tables with flowers and pictures of her 7 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Coleson played the violin and I accompanied him on the piano as we played "Families Can Be Together Forever". The service was perfectly attended- enough to pay tribute to her, but small enough to be sentimental- the people she loved most. It was a beautiful service. I am so very, very thankful for our forever family.

Christmas 2010

I realized today that I don't even have any pictures of Christmas 2010. We were leaving for Disney World the day after Christmas, so we had a rather small Christmas, but pictures would've been nice still. Actually I did take them, but I remember being at Disney World frantically going through my camera deleting pictures to make room for more (something I'd planned to do BEFORE) we got there, but hadn't. And when I got to the Christmas ones I was just sure I had uploaded them to my computer before we left. But alas, I must not have. So no pictures from Christmas 2010. Which is a bummer because Coleson and Hunter both got a pretty cool gift. Jared and I wanted to give them money to spend on the trip (and limit the number of "mom, I want that's") so Jared got $100 in 1 dollar bills. Then he taped 50 together and rolled it up. After the time it took to tape the 50 together he figured we'd just hand the other boy his money in an envelope. So the roll was to both of them (just so they'd both get the effect. Anyway, he rolled it up and made a little dispenser box for it. When the boys opened it together their eyes nearly popped out of their heads as they unrolled it- it stretched nearly from one end of the family room to the other. It was pretty cool- I have to say. Then we detached them all, and each boy had an envelope of 50 1 dollar bills for vacation.  What a great idea that was.  They were so extremely frugal with that money.  They kept a tally on the front of their envelopes of what they'd spent their money on.  Nature took over a little and Hunter was a bit more antsy with his money.  But he had plenty to spend.  So when we were at the Buzz Lightyear station on Day 1 of Disney World, and he just had to have the light spinner toy- he got it and loved it.  Coleson, naturally, hoarded his money all week and barely spent a dime.  He was saving it for the Star Wars exhibit at Hollywood Studios on Friday.  And it's a good thing he did because he found a place to build your own Light Sabers!  It was more money than I would've spent and that's ok because he had almost all of his left.  He happily (more like giddily) built his own saber and paid for it.  Jared and I still bought all the kids a few things through out the week, but they did enjoy getting their own money for Christmas to spend at the park.
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Edit...I did find Christmas pictures!  Yay!  Here they are.

Thanksgiving 2010

We decided to try something new this year. We stayed home. Just the 6 of us. No stress getting ready for a houseful of people. No traveling long distances. No cooking for hours only to eat it in 30 minutes. Well okay we did do some cooking- what's Thanksgiving without pie? We volunteered to take pies to the local homeless shelter. So we all got up and made apple pies together that morning. That made it all the more fun. And then the boys helped me deliver the pies. The lesson I was hoping to teach them- made. The look on their faces to see people right in front of them who have less than they could imagine. Then the buttons popping off their jackets as the folks sang their praises for bringing their pies. Yes, that was a lesson learned and a wonderful way to spend a Thanksgiving morning. We did return to our own small feast that afternoon, but just kept it low key. I wondered if I'd miss the BIG, but I didn't. It was quaint and relaxing. We really enjoyed it.

Sacrament Meeting Program

Today was the yearly Sacrament Meeting Program at church. It's a time that every adult looks forward to each fall. It is such a joy to see all of the sweet children up there on the stand, belting out the songs they've practices OVER and OVER and OVER again (sometimes I actually feel bad for them, as I think to myself in primary, "Do we have to sing that AGAIN?"). And the little cuties all line up to recite into the microphone the little script line they have been rehearsing at home for weeks. There is always one adorable child that more or less screams into the microphone bringing on chuckles from the understanding audience.
So, like I said, today was the big day. Coleson was prepped and ready. No freeze-ups this year, like last. He had that line MEMORIZED. Bring it on! Hunter, well, he was flat refusing to even stand up- much less say his line. With MUCH, MUCH coaxing and proding (alright, I just about drug him up there) he was able to make it to the microphone. He said his part- whew! Stress over? No! With nothing else to occupy himself with, he took to disassembling the choir chairs that are bolted to the floor and to each other. I was trying to lovingly lean over to him and convince him to stop doing it (as I didn't really want the congregation to see me bop him on the back of the head). But he was practicing his octopus impression (all hands) and I couldn't stop him. I was reassembling them as quickly as he disassembled them. When the program was FINALLY over, I was exhausted!! I returned to Jared, who simply sat smiling at my struggle from the audience seats, and frankly handed him a pile of screws and bolts that needed to find their homes. He chuckled, knowing there had been something going on up there, just not knowing what. Leave it to Hunter!

The 4 B's

Apparently Jared and I like to canoodle in January because we've had 3 of our 4 babies in October- within a week of each other. "Oh that's cute," you say. But keep in mind, that means 3 birthdays within a week. And this year was full of big ones and a baptism- thus the 4 Bs (idea borrowed from a sis-in-law).

Coleson turned the BIG 8 on October 6th. We are so proud of him. He is growing up to be such a wonderful young man and such a great example to his brothers and sister. He is gentle, kind, considerate, creative, and just plain fun too. He is doing wonderful in school and loves making new friends. But, as I expressed to him at his baptism, he will always be my baby. It seems like just a few days ago that it was just Coleson and me. We spent our days playing together and sitting in his comfy spot reading books. Where did that time go? Why didn't I do more of it all? It's going so quickly. And now my baby is 8 years old. I tend to get sentimental about these things. But seriously, his time with us is almost half gone. Ok, ok I'll pull it together. So Coleson's baptism was on October 16. It was a beautiful baptism. I have to admit that, although I've helped with several other baptisms, planning our own was nerve-racking. I was so worried that some glitch would come up. I ran around the morning getting children ready and preparing food for the lunch afterwards. As we rushed out of the house and off to the church building I looked at Jared guilt ridden for the raised voices and tears to get us out the door. I told him that I was done. It didn't matter anymore if food wasn't ready right on time, or if someone had to wait unexpectedly, or if I misspoke during my talk (all this coming from me who stresses over everything and wants everything perfect- especially for such a HUGE day). But I told him I was finished stressing for the day. Coleson wouldn't care or remember any of the other details, but if I was wound so tight and caused him to stress- that would cause him stress and that he would remember. Somehow I was able to follow through and let go. The day went beautifully. The baptism went smoothly. That included me giving a talk and Coleson and I doing a special musical number together. All went beautifully. I was so grateful. (As a side note: Coleson handled the one snafoo like a champ- I forgot to pack a clean dry pair of underwear to change into- so he laughed and went commando. Thanks for being easy going dude).

Katelyn turned 3 on October 10th. She had a beautiful princess party. Special thanks to cousin Elena for letting us borrow a few of her dress up gowns. The girls came ready to primp and dress up. We painted nails, did their hair, each girl got to pick a dress up gown and we took their pictures. Then we played princess games, made magic wand and crowns, drank pink princess juice and had princessy snacks- served by butler daddy :) It was just a perfect beautiful party and all the girls had a wonderful time. Especially our little princess.

And then there was Ethan. He turned the big 1 this year. My little baby- 1. Can you believe it? Now he's toddling around the house, chatting up a storm, and he just won't stop growing. He had a ball shoveling into his own little cupcake on his tray. What a cutie! 1 of the 4 cutest kids ever!!