Amber and Dan's Blog: Disney--let the adventure begin!

After my Mom passed away, each of the 5 kids received a portion of her life insurance policy. As Dan and I discussed what to do with that unexpected money, our biggest thought was that while we had lots of "things" on our wish list to buy, the best thing we could do to honor Mom was to use it to make memories for our kids. So we put the money aside and started planning our ideal Disney vacation (one of Mom's favorite vacation spots). We wanted to go during an off-peak time, when our kids were older but before Megan was in school. So--October 2012 was the goal!

We LOVED it. Seriously every minute. It was the first trip with our kids that wasn't a trip to see family and Dan and I were a little apprehensive before we left. Would we actually have fun with each other? Would we get bored? Would our kids make us crazy? We had a blast, we did NOT get bored, and our kids did so well. Phew, 7 years and 3 kids later and we still love each other!

We drove out EARLY on Saturday, October 20. We were on the road by about 4:30. We brought our breakfast, lunch, and snacks with us so other than bathroom/gas breaks, we were rolling. The kids enjoyed their movies, candy, and naps and we drove into the hotel around 7:30 pm Florida time. Our kids were thrilled to be in a hotel and thrilled to know that unlike our trip to UT, we were done driving for a while and would be in the hotel for 8 whole days. They were pretty wired and after we put a few bags in the room, we headed to the hotel food court for Dan and I to eat some dinner. (*sidebar here, next time we'll request a first floor room...closer to the parking lot. It took forever for us, i.e. Dan, to unload!)

About 7 am--3 happy girls!

Right after lunch (mmm, lunchables), still happy, still watching movies :)

Mostly happy. This was right before we flipped one of the dvd screens so she could watch too.

One of my favorite moments of the trip was as Brooke and I walked around the side of this lovely gas station to find the outside bathroom and she goes ,"Mommy, is this Disney World?!?". Let's just say if this Brooke thought THIS was Disney World, she was in for a real treat when we actually got there!

Three excited girls, wearing their new pins and waiting to go to our hotel room.

We tried putting the kids to bed around 8:30, but they were up for quite some time. We finally got them to sleep when we turned out all the lights and sequestered Brookie to the bathtub for about 10 minutes until Megan passed out. Brooke was up until 11 (or later--I fell asleep!). But never fear, my kids are nothing if not on a schedule. So sure enough, they were up at 6 am and we had no trouble making it to a ward that met at 9. It was in the church building right across the street from the Orlando temple, so we had fun walking around after church. We headed back to the hotel for a quick lunch in our room and then hit the road for the coast.

Beautiful day, beautiful temple

I was really liking the shadow of the lace on Megan's dress...

As we drove back to the hotel, we saw this--thrilling to say the least.

We did most of our own food for the week--so this was our "pantry". It felt like we brought SO MUCH FOOD! But we did use almost all of it by the time we headed home.

Candy's corner...

We drove to Cocoa Beach and found a free parking lot. We walked along the sand, collected sea shells, and dipped our toes in the Atlantic. It was a beautiful, beautiful white sands/clear blue water beach. Then, back to the hotel for dinner in the room before bed. The kids fell asleep a little earlier Sunday and we were excited for our first day in the park Monday!