Magic Kingdom....

Monday we went to Disney. It was...okay. I guess I expected *magic*--especially for that price--but it was just an amusement park. It was hot and crowded. The kids had fun--but Taj and Aria aren't really into the whole "rides" thing--and Za was too short for most of them. We were all ready to leave by the time the parade came around--but by then we were trapped. The parade itself was cool--but the kids were too short to see it. By the time we got out of the crowds, Jeff was having a minor anxiety attack. We got back to the hotel about midnight.

Ocean FINALLY!

We got to Daytona Saturday Aug 18th. We got a room with a little kitchen right on the beach for $600 for 11 nights. I called Kenny and we made arrangements to go to the restaurant where he works for dinner. We hit the beach and settled in. That night we went to the BBQ place where my ex-husband works--it was really good to see him--and show off the kids.

Sunday we hung out--swam, played Playstation.

More vacation...

Friday we got up and headed out. We stopped at a little place with a buffet, but they didn't have much that looked good to me, so I stayed in the car with Sascha and ate cereal and nursed her. Jeff called his ex to see if she wanted to get together for lunch--but her husband was kinda creeped out by the idea, so we skipped GA altogether. We made it to FL--just past Tallahassee that night. I *really* wanted to push on and see the ocean, but the kids (and especially Sascha) were ready to quit for the night. So we stopped at a nice little place and had a decent dinner--the room was so new--I think we were the first people to stay in it--I noticed dust--then realized it was drywall dust from drilling holes for the ironing board.

Also, a fun side note--the first night we were driving near St Louis and Jeff was getting tired. He said the tire pieces on the road were starting to creep him out--he was expecting them to explode. In fact, he pointed out to me, they'd recommended in his briefing that the guys avoid long car trips and crowds during their R&R--so we took a cross-country trip to go to DISNEY!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention--Jeff's going bald--in PATCHES.

More vacation...

Thursday August 16th was the 30 anniversary of Elvis's death. Did you know that? We didn't know that. Guess where we'd decided to stop on the way down? Did you guess Graceland, Memphis, TN? Yup. It was both HOT and CROWDED. We bought tickets and had a $50 lunch--and sat down in the heat to wait for our tour. At nearly three o'clock, they announced the final 12:00 tour--so Jeff went up and got a refund--and bought me a cool t-shirt, instead. We got back on the road and slept in Alabama that night--nice place with a cute little pool.

Vacation continued...

Tuesday we met Marty and Dawn at McDonald's --then went to Jeff's parents' house and visited.

Wednesday we got an early start--made it past St. Louis the first day. We drove through some good rainstorms--lost the plastic cover to our taillight--and stayed at some rinkydink place off the beaten path--but at $35 a night, we didn't quibble.

Our vacation:

We got home on Saturday, Aug 11th. I called Sommer on the way up and she and I and Joey took the kids swimming. Then we met my parents for pizza at Valentino's. After dinner my folks helped me get situated in the room (second floor--not much fun!) and let me run out for groceries.
Sunday we went to church and met Dawn and Eve and got pictures taken of the cousins. Then my folks took the three big kids (Wow--I guess Zadina is a "big kid" now!) to Shrek the Third while I took a NAP with Sascha. We got a big thunder storm that night and my parents were wishing they'd stayed for dinner, 'cus when they got home they had no power and had to cook soup on the grill.
Jeff got in Monday Morning the 14th. His parents, and Amy and her kids were there--as well as my mom and I and our kids. Zadina was so happy--she just kept saying "MY Daddy" with a satisfied sigh. Jeff brought us gifts from Ireland (a layover) and movies from Iraq. We went back to the room and Jeff changed clothes--and we went out for lunch at that Vietnamese place on Center St. Then we headed over to Amy's house for pizza. Carrie was there with her four kids--good to see her--and Jeff's friend, Kurt, from high school. Jeff was exhausted by the time we left at 7:30 from "staying up all night" (He kept very early hours the entire vacation due to his inner clock being off kilter.)

It's been a whole month!

And I'm a little overwhelmed by wanting to catch up and tell everything that's happened since I last logged in.
So--short story: We had a great vacation with Jeff--went to Florida, played in the ocean--had tons of family time. He's back in the big sandbox now and we are home. We're heading out again this weekend--then going down to AZ with my folks next week.

(I'll fill in details later.)

First--I want to give credit for the picture that's on the previous post--the red card was MADE by my upline--but its an exact copy of a card made by a woman named Laurie Schmidlin. Her website is called "Just give me stamps". This red card was posted July 12, 2007. I was CASEing her before I knew it was her! Anyway--credit where credit is due:
http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/index.html She's a very creative and talented woman.