Monday, 25 May 2009

• Swimming with Ariel...

  In the last previous post, I had mentioned that our family needed much time away..with just our family.  It has been a trying couple of months, and both Steve and I felt as if we needed to get away and get recharged.  We started thinking of all alternatives of what we could do with two little ones and ALL have fun.  Well, conviently enough for us, DisneyWorld was having UNBELIEVEABLE deals...like rooms for $68 a night!  Which we really looked into possibly everything else, since we just went to Disney in December, but this was just as cheap..if not cheaper then a lot of our other options.  So two weeks before we left, we booked a trip to DisneyWorld!  But we didn't tell the girls.  We wanted to surprise Reese and Finley.  Reese has been begging to go again, and I would rock Finley at night before bed and she would look up at me with those big blue eyes and say, "I want to go to Disney to see Mickey Mouse's house!"  How can you resist?  :)  So while they were up visiting their Mimi and Grandpa's, I went to work and started packing.  We were going to drive this time...and we were doing Disney "Dave Ramsey" style...!!  :)  So between packing breakfast and lunches, etc it was nice to not have to girls there to see what I was doing.  The weather looked perfect according to weather.com and all local Orlando news sites...high 80's and sunny!  I couldn't wait!

  Sunday morning we woke up.  Steve had to teach Sunday School at church so we were planning on taking off right after that.  Once Finley and Reese woke up...we broke the big surprise to them.  Finley was obviously...not very excited.  If you listen closely to the video, her exact words are..."I DON"T WANT TO!"

  The drive started out a little bit better then Finley's reaction to the "big" surprise.  I think Finley knew something about what our trip was going to hold that we all weren't aware of.  We have now come to think Finley may have some ESP powers and insight...:)  Once we hit Charlotte, NC the raindrops started to fall, pitter pattering on our windshield.  By the time we hit Columbia, SC the wipers speed with from swish....swish...swish...swish to swishswishshwishshwish!!  The rain was coming down so hard that you couldn't even see the car in front of us.  Hmm...weather.com didn't say anything about this!  Usually one may experience this heavy rain for maybe a half an hour while on the road and then it lets up at least a bit.  Well, about an hour and a half of the heavy rain, Steve said, "can you use your phone to check the radar?"  Thank goodness for the iphone.  But..all local weather predicted scattered showers...this was anything but.  Thunder and lightning surrounded us.  By the time we "floated" to Palm Coast, FL (90 miiles from Disney) we had all had it...the rain was just coming down so hard.  Like nothing I have ever seen before.  We pulled up to our hotel which was a Hilton Garden Inn only to find out that the Hotel had NO ELECTRICITY.  Here it was thunder, lightning, and 80 degrees in Flordia and the storm had taken out the electricity.  Oh boy...this was a great start to our trip!

  The next morning we woke up bright and early, crossing our fingers that there would be sunshine ahead...only to find out it was pouring again.  We listened to the local weather...they were predicting 8 inches of rain.....EIGHT inches!  What in the world!  Thankfully, it looked like only two days were to be rainy...but VERY rainy.  Once again we headed in the van..not being able to see the cars in front of us.  We finally get to Disney and our Hotel....Port Orleans French Quarter.  Everyone that I saw coming into the hotel was in ponchos...and soaked to the bone....and they looked miserable!  What I didn't know is that ponchos were to be the fashion statement of the week.

  Well to make a long story...a little shorter, every day the rain got extended ONE more day.  And it rained EVERY day while we were at Disney.  And it just didn't rain...it POURED.  It was the hardest rain I had ever seen.  There was some days that a strip of walkway at the Magic Kingdom was flooded up to our ankles and shins.  Everyone was saying hurricane season started early this year.  If this would have been June 1st, it would have been called a Tropical Storm.  There was flooding EVERYWHERE.  State of emergencies were being called and people have said they hadn't seen this in Flordia in years and years.  Just our luck for our much needed time away.  When we pulled out of Orlando on Friday after our vacation was over (still in the pouring rain no less!), 22 inches of rain had fallen.  It was CRAZY.

  Yes, the weather was horrendous.  Yes, we got soaked every day from head to toe...and that felt miserable,  Yes, Finley hated being wet.  But, we did try to make the best out of it that we could.  And I feel we had a great time together as a family despite the weather.  The girls LOVED being at Disney...rain or no rain.  We got to do a couple dinner shows...the Hoop De Du Revue, ,and a Hawaiian Luau.  Both girls LOVED this...it was fun to see Reese locked in on the shows and Finley dancing her little jigs to every song that was sung.  Finley was no longer scared of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, or Goofy.  In fact, she was so happy that Goofy didn't bite her!  :)  She kept telling me about that and also how she touched Pluto's whiskers.  The one thing the rain did help with was definitely the crowds.  We got to ride every ride we wanted to without having to wait too long. 

  I wasn't able to take too many pictures because my camera would have been ruined in  the rain and plus, half the time I was so wet, cold, and miserable to even think about taking about my camera, but I will share a few of our pictures!

  

  Standing in line for TInkerBell..wet, bad hair, and the ever so fashionable poncho!

  

  

  The girls are now in love with Tinkerbell stuff..especially Finley.  This was fun for them to meet the Fairies!

  Here is what our week looked like.  This was at the animal Kingdom.

  

   

  

  The girls had to get their face painted.  They were so excited about doing this the moment we told them we were going to Disney.  We had to do it twice.  The first time, it rained so hard that the paint came off within an hour...

  Finley gets really into her face paint!

  

  Epcot was having their Flower and Garden Festival.  The characters carved in flowers and bushes were so fun to see!

  

  This was the day that it didn't rain hard until the evening!  We were lucky that day!

  

  Hey..what do you know...Finley didn't cry this time at the characters!

  The last full night there we went to the Luau.  They called the girls up on stage and then me and the girls.  Finley loved being on stage so much she tried the rest of the night to get back up on stage!  My little performer!

  

  We were doing the birthday Luau!

  

  I haven't updated a prego picture of me with this 3rd little baby!  I am now between 21 and 22 weeks.  We hope to find out on Wednesday at my ultrasound if we will have a prince or a princess!  :)

  

  I hate taking these kinds of pictures of me!  :) 

  

  My girls and me!

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