Family Vacation Day 10

When we woke up on Monday morning we sat the kids down for "a family meeting".  The kids knew that I had only booked the hotel we were staying at until that morning, but they thought we would be staying in another hotel Along the coast for the rest of the week.
I very seriously said to the kids "After doing some on-line research last night, it looks like all the hotels we can afford are already booked. There are some hotels available, but they are way out of our budget." (The kids looked so sad at this point.)
"The good news is, we won't be needing a Hotel because WE'RE GOING ON A DISNEY CRUISE TODAY !!!"
The trio just sat there...stunned with their mouths gaping open. It took them several several seconds to register what I'd said. Then, slowly smiles spread across their faces and they started saying things like "really?" And "Seriously?" And finally, "WE'RE GOING ON A DISNEY CRUISE!!!"

I gave them their special luggage tags to prove that we weren't joking, and we were all so excited. We finished packing and tidied up our hotel room then drove north to Port Canaveral.

When we pulled up to the port, there was only one ship parked there. The Disney Dream!
It was beautiful and HUGE! We could hardly believe that we would be boarding it. Even I, myself who had been scrimping and saving all year for this moment, had  a hard time believing it was finally happening!
Check in and boarding went a lot smoother than I thought it would. As we boarded the Dream they announced our family's name followed by a round of applause from the cast members lined up to greet us in the atrium. The sight was breathtaking! We went straight down to the enchanted garden restaurant where we were served a delicious and very fancy lunch.
After lunch we went up to the top decks where the girls and I took a turn on the Water slide and Adam and Caleb did a little exploring.  Once Our room was available, we got settled in and then went back up to the top deck for the "Sailing away party". As we left the port, we saw a sea turtle swimming along beside the ship and marveled at the beauty of the ocean!
After some more exploring, we had dinner in the Animators Pallet. The dining room walls were covered with giant movie screens and the sea turtle Crush from the movie finding nemo would swim I and out of view. Sometimes he would stop and interactively have conversations with dining room guests.  It was pretty magical. Dinner was delicious and dessert was even better! So yummy!
After dinner, we went over to the D Lounge and participated in a game show called Family Fusion. The game was a combination of seeing how well we knew eachother, and Disney trivia. We played against four other families, and WE WON!!! Wahoo! We were given Mickey Mouse medals which the kids wore proudly for the rest of our cruise.
After the game we went to the Walt Disney Theatre and watched a musical show called "the Golden Mickey's. We all enjoyed it so much.
When the show was over, we went back to our room and spent a little time on the veranda before finally going to bed. 

Family Vacation Days 7-9

Friday was our last day at Universal.  Early in the day we rode the water rides and the rest of the day we dried out as we rode  all our favorite rides over again.  The girls bought some candy at Honeydukes. Eliza got a Chocolate frog, and Sarah got Bertey Bots Every Flavored Beans.
By mid afternoon when we'd had all the fun we could stand, we left the parks and drove down the coast to Indialantic where our hotel, the Tuckaway Shores was.
Once we got all checked into our room, we hit the Beach which was just a two minute walk from our room!  The beach and water were Wonderful! The sand was soft and the water wasn't too cold. We played for a few hours and then watched a little TV before going to bed.
On Saturday morning,  I went and bought a couple of Boogie boards for the kids and we spent just about the entire day playing in the ocean. We did a little shopping at the local Mall, then picked up some pizza for dinner. After dinner the kids and I went back to the beach for a bit.
Today is Sunday so we slept in, then went to a local ward for church. After church, we played some games, and did a little laundry. Our room has a nice little kitchenette so it's been nice to be able to prepare our own meals, and observe the Sabbath as best we can while on this vacation.
Tomorrow morning we'll be letting the kids in on a big Suprise... I CAN'T WAIT!

Family Vacation Day 6

We started the day at Universal's Islands of Adventure and rode some of our favorite rides again. Adam was done after just a few hours...He's not a theme park kinda guy. He went back to the hotel and rested and made a bunch of calls for work and watched a Harry Potter movie. The kids and I went over to the Universal Studios park and rode SO Many RIDES!! One of the nice things about staying at an on-site hotel, is that we all get Express passes that allow us to skip the regular lines and get onto the rides quicker, which means we get to ride more rides.  The kids loved the roller coasters, the Transformers ride and The Jimmy Fallon ride.  I loved the E.T. ride and the Hogwarts express (They were the most relaxing, and had air conditioning).  I was honestly sick of rides by dinner time. We met Adam at Three broomsticks for Dinner and afterwards, the girls and I came back to the hotel, while Adam and Caleb rode a few more rides. We are tired, but we are having a blast!

Family Vacation Day 5

Today was our first day at Universal Orlando and it was SO fun!  The very first thing we did was go to Diagon Alley and ride Escape from Gringotts. WE LOVED IT!  We walked around Diagon Alley for a little bit and then rode the Hoggwarts Express train over to Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure. We loved Hogsmeade and our favorite ride of the day was The forbidden Journey of Harry Potter.
We walked around all of Islands of Adventure and rode so many fun rides. We got completely soaked on Ripsaw Falls and the the raft ride. We rode all few more rides after getting wet, then went back to the hotel to dry off.
We decided to go somewhere nice for dinner to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary as a family! We ate at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium! Dinner was just okay, but the dessert was AMAZING! What a great way to celebrate our Family's birthday! It was raining when we left the restaurant so we just came back to our hotel room to watch a little TV, and turn in early to be well rested for another fun day tomorrow.

Family Vacation Day 4

On Tuesday,  after another long day of driving, and traveling thru some pretty incredible rain storms, We finally arrived at the beautiful Leows Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. We got checked in, and settled in and enjoyed some R&R together. Eliza and Caleb went to the pool for a bit, while I did some laundry and Dad and Sarah watched a little TV. We ordered a pizza, then went to bed and dreamed of all the fun we'd have over the next couple of days.

Family Vacation Day 3

Monday was our longest day of driving. We drove all the way from Wichita Falls, TX to Mobile   Alabama. As we drove, we listened to Harry Potter and got excited about our upcoming trip to the Wizarding world of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.  Aside from bathroom breaks and stops to fuel up we only made a couple of stops. We stopped at Costco for dinner and then at the Baton Rouge, LA temple. We didn't get to our Hotel in Mobile Alabama until late Monday night.

Family Vacation days 1&2

We packed up and left our home on Saturday July 8th. We drove straight to Albuquerque to spend some time with the Dodds Family. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Dion's Pizza, then played some games before going to bed.  On Sunday morning, we had an enjoyable time playing games, reading and visiting with the Dodds before going to church at 1:00. After sacrament meeting, we hit the road again. We arrived in Wichita Falls Texas late Sunday night and went straight to bed.

Camp Raymond

Scout camp had its ups and downs for dad and Caleb. The food was a bit of a downer... and evidently, the staff members were some interesting characters.
Caleb earned quite a bit of Merritt badges though. He earned:
Leatherworking, woodcarving, archery, rifles, orienteering, and  environmental science.
Way to go Caleb.