Life in the slow lane

It was good to take some time to try to relax after the pace life has been at for the past 3 years. Florida was just the ticket, and it was even nice to have the kids with us. I - in particular - have a hard time spending any money on the kids since they don't appreciate it at all and would have just as much fun fishing for crawdads in Mayfield.



What made this such a good trip was that two of Tiff's sisters came, along with her youngest brother, to help out with the younger kids. So we ended up with 4 adults and 5 kids most of the time we were wondering around. It worked out well.

We also met up with Joe and Jessica Ashurst while we were there which was great. Hillari and Heidi even babysat all the kids twice while the four of us went out to dinner where we could discuss Joe's golden slacks in a more adult environment. It was good to see them again and the kids flipped out seeing their old friends again.





The weather held up enough to where it was plesant to be at the pool or out mini-golfing most of the days. The kids had a lot of fun since we were practically the only ones there most of the time. In fact, we pretty much had the parks to ourselves too. The crowds were minimal and the lines were mostely non-existent.

Dues to Mickey --> Paid

Mickey got his dues from us. The little rat soaked as much from us as he could. We have diffused the situation where the kids complain "but you've never taken us to Disneyland!" And we have the pictures to prove it. We had a great time. The kids did really well - everything considered. I was surprised how well they all did on the plane. No real meltdowns to speak of.

Poor Stewie was too short to ride some of the rides, so he had to watch. He was rewarded with some ice cream though which kept him occupied while the rest of us rotated through the lines.


We spent ~ an hour by the sword in the stone cause I told the boys if they pulled the sword out they got to keep it. We were well rested by the time they gave up.


We were able to save some money by taking pictures of the boys with souvenirs we didn't buy. The plan is to tell them later that we bought all these things from the park but the boys either broke them or lost them. That way we retain the reputation of being cool parents while simultaneously opening an avenue for us to complain at the kids for not taking care of their stuff.


The best was the Tower of Terror 4. The boys wanted to illustrate exactly how big they were by fronting how 'not scared' they were. The ride is prefaced with a story of a family that gets in an elevator and is struck by a bolt of lightning, thus zapping them into the Twilight Zone - Do DO Do do, Do DO Do do. The ride itself was the elevator car and it went up and down sporadically and suddenly which was great fun. Chris had the hardest time on the ride. The second time through he went to keep Mom safe, but ended up crying through the whole ride part with his head buried in her lap. Braden talked all day about how un-scary the ride was, but as bed time grew closer he couldn't stop talking about the story of the family who got zapped. Turns out all the kids took the story as the truth and Dad singing the Twilight Zone theme tune flipped the we're-no-longer-in-reality switch. Oh what fun. Luckily the kids were so absolutely exhausted at the end of the day that the nightmares stood no chance keeping them from going to sleep.

So, we rode the rides, saw the characters, and pretty much walked our feet off. Poor Ellie only got to get out of the stroller a few times through the days. Her favorite was just back at the resort out in the swimming pool.


I think we have to label the trip as a success. We had a great time and it's only taken a week or so to recover from the entire 'vacation'.