It's official...

We're moving to Cincinnati.

I have fought this for the kids' sake (and for mine, to be honest). I don't want to move again. I love my neighbors. I like it here. I don't love it, but I like it. More than that, I just don't want to move. Unless it is to Albuquerque. Albuquerque is home. We have so many memories, such good friends, such involvement. I would walk back into that tomorrow if I could. Without looking back.

But Cincinnati? I am excited to be a reasonable drive from family, but it's still 4 hours. Not a day trip. We will still be strangers in a strange town, once again trying to find our place. Trying to fit in. Ugh. I HATE moving. HATE it. Especially when the destination is just not exciting.

So now I go from praying that we can go back to Albuquerque to praying that it all works out. And that we can go back to Albuquerque soon.

I finished my Disney scrapbook and it arrived today. 74 pages. I love it! The kids love it. It will really keep the trip alive for us. I don't know if we'll take that trip next November because we might not be homeschooling next year.

And I miss my mom.

Disney Scrapbook

I have done enough pages (47 so far) to order for my scrapbook. I use the kind that you can add pages to, so I will just add more as I get them done.

I uploaded all my pages to the site where I order the 12x12 pages, so you can see them here.

UPDATE: up to 55 pages. I want to get this book done and printed in time to show off at Christmas. And it is so much fun when the kids look at the pages I have done so far- they actually forgot about some of those details already! Every time they see a new page it sparks memories. We get to relive the trip each time we look at the scrapbook. It will be worth all the hard work. Now if only I ever scrapped pages for our day to day life. I'm only like 3 years behind on that.

We're going back!

I just updated my Disney trip ticker on the top of the page. This time it's a real trip! (I was using it before as a temporary ticker until we knew our exact travel dates). The homeschool group set their next trip and we are jumping on again. The savings are unbeatable. We'll pay about half what we would pay on our own. The countdown begins!

Fit for a princess

My favorite sight after a 6 hour drive south:

What a monster! What a shark!

SO the kids' main goal (besides riding lots of rides and spending all of our money) at Disney World was to meet as many characters as possible and get their autographs.

We met Mike and Sully at Disney's Hollywood Studios.



My main goal was to snorkel with sharks. And rays. And various colorful fish. And I did. So did the boys. Kelsey would have done it. She is a strong enough swimmer this year. However, the mask would not fit on her face tight enough to make a seal. She was a good sport about it, and patiently waited for me as I selfishly proceeded into the water without her. And then did it again. Next time we'll bring her own mask. Disney's masks are one size fits all.

Wanna know a secret? I literally hyperventilated in my snorkel the first time I attempted to do this. The cold water, the {DEEP} lagoon, the sharks (no, I don't even think the sharks bothered me). It was the fact that I have never put my entire life in the hands of a small rubber tube. I freaked out trying to breath through it and had to turn back. On my second try I did great. And then I went back for more. I was just a little shocked and ashamed at my little anxiety attack. The boys acted like they have been snorkeling with sharks their entire lives. Way to make mom look bad, guys.

IllumiNATIONS

We saw fireworks nightly- we could see Epcot's nightly show from our hotel, and if we were at the Boardwalk, we could see both Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We went to both shows at the parks, but only once. The crowds are unspeakable during fireworks.

For Epcot's show, called IllumiNATIONS, the fireworks are best viewed from World Showcase, looking toward the lake. My camera stinks, but you get the general idea.

Some more adventures

Besides rides, shows, parades, fireworks, and food, there are some "hobbies" that are easy to get sucked into while visiting the world. Fortunately for us, our kids were into the free one: character meet and greets. The competition was fierce: Who could get the most autographs? Logan and Kelsey got the upper hand almost immediately: on our second park day, while Grant was at his homeschool class at Animal Kingdom, the 2 conspirators were at the front of the crowd at morning rope drop. We quickly made our way into Camp Minnie Mickey and met up with at least 6 or 7 characters (pictures to come later). Within a few days, Grant had found those characters and caught up.

Since we mainly travelled in a pack, they continued to be neck and neck. The autograph books were filling up fast, along with our photo pass and my memory card.

Then came the turning point. One evening at Magic Kingdom, someone handed us 5 fast passes for Space Mountain. We thought we were done with Space Mountain, as Kelsey's very first experience at Disney world was to be whisked unwittingly into this vortex. She came out crying, we made nice and promised never to go near it again.

Fast forward to the fast passes. This was pretty amazing to us, because about a week earlier, we handed an unsuspecting, adventurous looking family of 5 our fastpasses to Expedition Everest, because while 4 of us thought that ride was the best thing around, one certain little girl decided she was NOT going to ride it a third time. So when we were randomly chosen to receive someone's fast passes to Space Mountain, well we had to accept them. Guess who started crying at the thought of being dragged on that ride once again? Yup you guessed it. And Kelsey cried too (I kid, I would have done it again!)

We decided to split up. The boys would get hurtled through space in pitch blackness, while Kelsey and I had girl time. We headed straight for the princesses. 3 princesses and 3 fairies later, Kelsey was the undeniable winner in the autograph category.



The other hobby that many get into? Pin collecting. We abstained until Jason bought Grant a safari type hat with several pins on it. The only problem was that Grant didn't really want to wear the hat. I think it was one of those things Jason really liked so he used Grant as the excuse to buy it. The cool thing about pin trading is that most (if not all) of the Disney cast members wear pins, and will trade with you. If you see a pin you want, just trade with them for one you have but don't want. They will take anything and they'll let you trade for any of their pins. Next time, before we go I am going to try to find a bunch of Disney pins on ebay for trading. They are just too expensive to buy in the parks.

Besides the theme parks, we also visited Disney's two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Here the kids are posing for me as we entered Typhoon Lagoon.



I'll have much more on the water parks. We had so much fun at both of them.

Disney kicked our ...uh, rear ends.

I haven't done much scrapping since my last post. I have done ALOT of:

walking
riding rides
waiting for busses
walking
fighting crowds
waiting for boats
spending money
getting some sun
getting wet
riding more rides
walking
waiting on line
taking pictures
meeting some real "characters"
waiting on more lines
did I mention walking?

4 more days of magic and then we head home.

Needless to say, we are all completely and utterly exhausted. I did one scrapbook page... I couldn't resist snapping this picture of L and K sleeping peacefully. Click to see larger and read the journaling:)

Disney: Our first 3 days in the world

It has been crazy, busy, fun, amazing, exhausting, and overwhelming. I know I will forget the details if I don't write it down. This is an epic, once in a lifetime kind of trip, so I want to create a memory book. I decided to start now, while we are still "in the magic".

I am going to do journaling pages that chronologically tell our day to day adventures, and then I'll create pages for all the major events, parks, characters, etc.

The first 3 days: (click to see larger)


A few more pages I have done. Today was especially long and tiring so it will be a few more days before I get those pages caught up.

Blogging... again!

I decided to start a blog back up in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Disney World. A trip we can't afford. Except that the stars lined up one day. And J found out he had a two week training class in Orlando. I wished we could come along, because the hotel would be paid for. And travel expenses. All we would have to pay for would be park tickets.

And then I remembered that the Carolina Homeschool group was planning a Disney trip. I wondered if the dates would be even close. Guess what? Uh huh, those stars were in a straight line. (Okay I don't really believe in stars lining up, clearly it was all God!!!) So anyway, the dates lined up and the group rate for tickets was a fabulous deal. We were able to get 8 day park hopper passes, which will keep us very busy for the two weeks. At prices way cheaper than I thought possible.

Now if only we didn't have to eat while we are down there. because man! The food prices are right up there with those lined up stars. So I have an elaborate plan that includes the in-room fridge that comes with our room and cheap breakfasts and lunches to carry in to the parks. I hope it goes according to what I have built up in my mind.

We have started walking in the evenings to get our feet ready for the onslaught. I hear you can cover 5-10 miles a day walking around the parks. My Disney book has a whole section on blisters. Guess I better take that seriously. We all know how painful blisters can be. And I know how whiny I the kids can be.

SO there is the start to my blog. I hate to post without a picture, so I guess I'll give you one from our one and only previous Disney trip- circa 2005.

Three very tired kids after one very long day at Magic Kingdom.