We're still here...

I know it's been a really long time since I've been able to post.  I'm sorry for the delay.  We've had quite the busy last two weeks.  In interest of boredom, I will attempt to catch everyone up on our crazy adventure without droning on for pages.  I think I will attempt one week at a time.

When I last posted we were still living in the hotel anxiously awaiting our move into a home.  Well, we still had a few more days to play before making the move so we decided to make the most of it.

One day the girls and I decided to explore Disney's Quest which is a five story building in Downtown Disney that is filled with all types of video games.  The day we decided to go was a bit drizzly and apparently everyone vacationing that day had the same idea.  It was very crowded and dark, so we didn't stay long.  We redeemed the afternoon with a stop at the Candy Calderon where the girls got to pick out a yummy treat.

Waiting for our shuttle bus.

Later in the week, the girls and I took the hotel bus to The Magic Kingdom again and this time we got to meet quite a few princesses.





Cinderella was very sweet and polite.

The girls told me later that Belle must have been tired this day.  She looked it and wasn't very cheery. 

They were all very wonderful, but Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) took the prize today. 

She relayed a hilarious story about the three fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) squabbling as usual and turning Prince Philip's boots pink and turning breakfast blue.  "Have you ever had BLUE orange juice?" she asked the girls.

As you can see the girls were beside themselves.  Sarah kept rolling up her skirt because she just couldn't stand it! 

They also got to meet Cinderella's Fairy God Mother outside of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Fantasyland.

Moving day arrived and we got everything packed up and ready to go.  The hotel was wonderful and allowed us to check out but leave our things that didn't fit into the car in the room until we could come and get them.  We couldn't move into what I will call House #1 until 4pm so we had a whole afternoon to kill.  We decided to take Daddy to Disney Quest and this time, we had a blast.  Daddy makes everything more fun and the smaller crowds didn't hurt either. 

Sarah couldn't believe that we didn't have to pay to ride this firetruck!

Isabelle is showing her daddy's concentration.

This may not be the last time Sarah and Isabelle play a role in knocking out teeth.

This is a virtual rollercoaster game.  Go figure, while at DisneyWorld, Macky chooses a ride more her speed. 







After getting mostly settled into the first house Sunday night and grocery shopping Monday, by Tuesday morning, Mike and Sarah were sneezing...a lot.  I realized it was because there was gray pet hair on everything!  Also, while trying to clean as much as I could, I discovered a snake skin near a sliding door in my bedroom.  That about did me in.  So we called our booking agent and to not bore you with too much drama our booking agent creatively booked us into a temporary home (House #2) for three nights, then into the home we are now (House #3) where we will be until the end of September.  Needless to say, I re-packed, lived out of a suit case and then unpacked again all in a one week window.

Sometime in the mix of packing and unpacking, we were able to get out just a little.   The girls and I were invited to a Park and Picnic Day with the homeschooling ministry at First Baptist Church Windermere.  The park that we played at was lovely, but very different from California parks.  My kids were almost the only ones with flip-flops on.  Woops, I guess you should wear sneakers in the grass here in Florida.  The trees were really wonderful though.  There is Spanish moss hanging down from every branch.  The girls played with a few of the kids and I think mostly they were relieved to get out of the house.



Since I am without a car most days, the girls and I try and find things to do around the neighborhood.  Well, in House #2 there was a community pool, so we wandered down there one day and the girls played air hockey, pool, tennis and swam under a big mushroom. 










On our next moving day, we moved most of our things into House #3 then had to find something to do while the house keepers cleaned up after the last tenants.  So after missing the start time for Cars 2 we decided to head over to Epcot.  It was really hot out and we were tired and hungry, so we decided to trek back to the German pavilion to get a brat and beer.  We had a really nice rest in a cool shaded area where we all felt a whole lot better.  We hung out in "Germany" for about 45 minutes, popping into gift shops and candy stores. 

This is a Christmas tree decorated entirely in glass pickles.  If you aren't familuar with the tradition, here it is:  “A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.”
We have celebrated this tradition since the girls were just babies, so everyone knows if they come to our house around Christmas time, alway look for our Chistmas pickle. 








About the time we decided to head to the next attraction we noticed the sky had darkened and then the rain started.  We stood at the candy shop doorway deciding whether we should wait out the storm or not.  We decided to go for it.  30 minutes later we were at the car, soaked to the bone.  We drove home partially clothed and a little chilled, but have a great memory of walking bare foot through Epcot in the pouring rain, while splashing in the puddles that were as warm as bathwater.  It was wonderful!


Since we were tired and a little shy on Daddy time, we slept in on Sunday morning and decided to hit another park, so Hollywood Studios, here we come!  It was pretty hot and busy on this particular Sunday, but we were able to hit a few of the more popular attractions.  We began by watching a stage show of Beauty and the Beast.  The girls loved it.  Then we headed over to the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror!!!  We decided Sarah, although tall enough, just wasn't old enough to go on this ride.  So we did what is called a "rider switch".  We all waited in line together, then Mike, Isabelle and Mackenzie went on the ride while Sarah and I waited.  Once they were done, I got to go on the ride and Isabelle volunteered to go with me.  She is so brave!  It was horribly scary and I can't say I will do it again, but Isabelle and Mike immediately loved it.  Macky, after three days, is coming around and decided she really did like it after all.

Another excellent attraction was the Journey into Narnia film.  It wasn't the movie trailer on steroids that was all that great, it was the set that we got to walk up to and see.  They walk you into Aslan's How and there in the center is the stone table!  Macky and Isabelle are such fans of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia that they were in heaven.  The stone table, if you are not familiar with the story, is the table that Aslan is sacrificed on in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It cracks in half just like the tapestry that hung in the temple and tore in half when Jesus was sacrificed.  It's all very symbolic.  Once you leave Aslan's How, there is a small area set up with the costumes that some of the main characters wore in the movie Prince Caspian.  All very exciting. 

This brings us to Sunday, August 21.  I always like to throw in a few random photos that have no chronological significance.

I received my box of curriculum that I packed up and my mom was kind enough to bring to the post office once I had an address to ship it to.  Can you believe the condition in which it arrived.  I am so thankful that I haven't discovered any important items missing; maybe a pair of scissors and a ruler, but nothing of any real value.

   

Some very exciting news is that Mackenzie received her very own cell phone from Papa this week.  She loves getting calls from all of her friends that she misses so much in San Diego.  She has even let Isabelle use it on occation.  So keep the calls coming!

If you don't remember, Isabelle has been trying to get this top tooth to fall out for months!  She would gross us all out by giving us her best Nanny McPhee impression.  Well, finally on a drive to pick Daddy up from work, it fell out! And if it's possible, she is even cuter with a gapeing hole in her mouth!

 

We are finally feeling settled and almost rested.  So I will leave you here, but I will post again soon with the latest in our travels and adventures.  We miss you all and can't wait to see you soon.

Such an exciting adventure....

More time has passed since my last post than I would like.  This is going to require me to mentally travel back and do my best to recall all the exciting adventures we've been on.

Let me begin by announcing that we've found two different vacation homes to rent that will get us through the end of the year.  The first we will be moving into this Sunday afternoon and will be moving out August 28th.  Here is a link:

House #1 available 8/14 - 8/28 (14 nights):
http://www.vacationhomebid.com/HomeDetail.asp?HouseID=708

The second we will move into on August 28 and stay until we come home sometime in December.  Here is the link for this one:

House #2 available 8/28 - 12/31 (About 4 months).
http://www.vacationhomebid.com/HomeDetail.asp?HouseID=843

You will notice both of these homes allow for family and friends to come and relax with us.  (hint, hint)  I have also been able to open a PO Box and forward our mail, so slowly but surely we are getting everything in line.

Our next really spectacular news is that we splurged and got our Premium Passport Passes to Disney!  This means we have access to all of the following parks:

In California:
 Disneyland Park
 Disney California Adventure Park
In Florida:
 Magic Kingdom theme park
 Epcot theme park
 Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park
 Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park
 Disney's Blizzard Beach water park
 Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park
 DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park
 ESPN Wide World of Sports® Complex
 Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course

The girls and I took one of the hotel shuttle buses over to The Magic Kingdom on Friday to purchase our passes and I'm really glad that we did because it took a good two hours once we arrived, took the monorail over, waited in line at Guest Relations and finally got them.  Of course, while we were there we had to go in and go on at least one ride.  We agreed on seeing the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor show and then ride Pirates of the Caribbean. (Disneyland Pirates is a better ride).  Then it was off to the Transportation Center so that we could catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel.

 

On Saturday, it was off to Blizzard Beach with Daddy!  This is a super fun water park.  We only explored about half the park, but two of the girls went down the second biggest water slide there - Slush Gusher.  I was so proud of them.

We enjoyed slowly floating around their lazy river.

 

We even had a quick meeting with Goofy, himself that thrilled Sarah.

The characters are always willing to pose for a quick picture, and really how can they resist these bathing beauties?

Sarah attempted to cross an "icy" path to get to the water slide on the other side.












 




Possibly even more exciting than the water park was Isabelle losing her first tooth!  It easily popped out Saturday night and she immediately began calling all the grandparents to tell them the big news. 

Sunday, after getting ready for church, we headed down to the lobby for breakfast.  We were greeted by the hotel's friendly clown.  He entertained the girls with magic tricks and balloon animals while they ate their breakfasts.  He even gave Isabelle an invisible magic coin that she keeps in her nightstand drawer here at the hotel.  I hope I don't forget to pack it when we go seeing as how it's INVISIBLE!

So that wraps up the weekend, but because everyday we do something new and different, I'm going to bring you right to the present.

Because Mike has a coworker staying here at the hotel that he can carpool with the first few days of this week, I was able to use the car!  So we spent Monday running around and getting a bunch of errands done.  We opened a PO Box, bought some new swimming suits, grocery shopped, and ran into the bank all while a nice thunder storm brought bucket loads of rain down on us.  It was actually really great to get out and around.




 

Can you guess where we went on Tuesday?  Yep, Epcot.  We barely even dented this park.  I didn't really know much about Epcot before we went, and I can say I still know very little, but one thing I did learn was that this park is enormous.  It has many "educational" areas, but since it's summer we were diligent in avoiding those places.  We headed straight for the best rides in the park: Test Track, Soarin' (over California), Nemo and Spaceship Earth (which can almost be counted as educational, but how can one visit Epcot and not go into the giant golf ball icon?) 

This is the Saving Nemo ride and a jellyfish that Isabelle got a shot of while waiting to go to Turtle Talk with Crush.  "Dude"

The girls measuring up to a crash test dummy at Test Track.  This ride was a big hit and we were fortunate in that the weather cleared up just long enough for us to take advantage of our fast passes and sail past the 70 minute wait!

That brings you up to speed.  Below are some random photos that I wanted to post, but didn't want to bore you with every detail in their capture. 

Who can help but nab a picture of a four year old walking to dinner holding her Daddy's hand on one side and her Princess Poohy's hand on the other.  Too sweet.

Every Wednesday in the lobby of our hotel is Happy Hour.  Here the girls are enjoying popcorn, Sprite and some live music by the hotel clown.

This is a shot out of our hotel window.  When we got home from Epcot on Tuesday, the rest of the afternoon was spent watching the rain come and go.  This shows a waterfall and puddle at the bottom due to the great amount of rain that comes down in such a short time.

While eating out this week, the girls got yet another round of balloon animals and the fruit of the week was watermelon. 

We will leave you here because we are having a relaxing day just laying around watching movies in bed.  Our summer is almost over so we must take advantage of it as much as possible.  We miss you all and can't wait to talk to you soon.

Our daily routine...

I know I just updated you only a few days ago, but if I don't post pictures often, the girls might grow up before we get back and no one would recognize them. 

We are finally falling into a slight routine around here.  We have gotten used to getting up and getting out so that house keeping can come in.  As luxurious as it sounds, it's a little difficult getting three kids fed and out the door when there is really no destination.  So we have opted to skip the royal house keeping treatment to just stay in our pajamas a few mornings. 

But, on a normal day, we begin with morning devotions and breakfast. Then it's off to the gym, then maybe a walk to the supermarket. Then we have a snack, take a dip in the pool and back to the room for lunch. 

My competition!

We break up the afternoon with a few games in the game room and then it's to the pool before a nice afternoon nap.

If the girls are lucky, they can catch a swim with a couple of the hotel guests that they have befriended. Pictured above are Isabelle, Lucy from England, Macky and Bridget from the Netherlands.  Sarah, on the left was taking a break from swimming and visiting me by the waterfall hot tub. 

By this time, Mike is due home from work.  We may head back to the gym with him for a quick workout, then it's off to dinner.  We enjoy walking to one of the many restaurants near our hotel.  We've been to Pizza Hut, Sweet Tomatoes (Souplantation out west), Olive Garden, Chevy's and Kobe Steak House.  Then it's usually back to the pool or the super hot jacuzzi before bed. 

 

We've even enjoyed the late afternoon and evening thunderstorm from our balcony.  I'm not sure the word "enjoyed" is accurate when speaking of the girls, but Mike and I sure like the weather. 

A huge bit of good news is that Mike's company has given us the go ahead on finding more permanent housing.  Due to Florida's interesting Tourist Tax laws, we've had a bit of grief finding a place to rent for less than 12 months.  However, after much prayer and faith, we have a lead and are going to look at two possible homes this evening that would allow for any of our wonderful family and friends to come and stay with us should they be interested (hint, hint). 

Until the next chance I get to post, God bless!

We have arrived...

I know it's been a bit since I last posted, but this jet lag is killing me.  I can barely form a sentence in my mind, let alone put it down in writing.  So I will attempt to give a quick recap of the last week without boring you stiff. 

We had two wonderful flights on Wednesday.  We left Carlsbad at 5:55 am and all three girls were thrilled to experience flight.  Mackenzie had a dim recollection of flying, Isabelle had no memory and Sarah has never flown, so this was very exciting.  We then landed at LAX and had a short 2 hour lay over which allowed us to grab a bite at Starbucks and easily make our way to our gate where we settled in for our 5 hour flight to Orlando. 

Again, we had a wonderful flight.  The girls were well behaved and enjoyed watching a movie, eating the many snacks that I brought along and playing with all the buttons and compartments that are found in and around the seats of an airplane.  I had taken some pictures, but in my jet lagged state, I somehow erased  them. 


We were again blessed when we arrived in Orlando because according to Mike there were thunderstorms all around us, yet no part of our flight was delayed or diverted.  We walked off the plane, went right to baggage claim, retrieved our luggage and stepped out to the curb where Mike arrived within 10 minutes.  It was awesome. 

Goofing around at the hotel.

We spent the first few days relaxing at the hotel. There are two pools, a gym that the girls surprisingly enjoy as well as a game room that has various video games and air hockey. We have spent most of our time in the pool, but I did drag the girls down to the Winn Dixie one of the days. It turned out to be about a 2 mile walk and it was plenty warm but since we had just finished listening to the book "Because of Winn Dixie" which is about a dog that is named Winn Dixie, I was able to get the kids to keep going. I think they were hoping that they just might see a dog running around the produce department. 

It didn't hurt that there is an ice cream shop in the same parking lot.  This photo prompted the woman watching me take the picture to tell me that I would have my hands full when they get a little older.  Yeah, you think? 

On our walk we ate breakfast at an IHOP, visited one of the many Disney gift shops that are located on just about every corner, and we visited this nice man who allowed us to hold and take pictures with his parrots. Definitely a highlight for the girls. Sarah did hold the little parrot, but I couldn't get her to hold it for a picture.

We have had to eat out a lot because a mini fridge and microwave don't allow for many gourmet meal preparations. After eating out on Friday we took the girls miniature golfing for the first time. We had an absolute blast! Isabelle got a hole-in-one on the fourth hole that earned her a free round of golf on her next visit! 

Everyone say, "ARRRR". 

We've had a nice relaxing weekend so far.  We also took a few hours looking into rental homes. We haven't been given the go ahead on moving out of the hotel into more permanent housing yet, but as soon as we get the green light we want to get out! The trick is finding a property owner that is willing to allow us to sign a short term lease. This might be tricky. We are just praying and waiting.  I have faith that when it's time to go, the house that we are to move into will be available.  We also visited the First Baptist Church of Windemere this morning and the girls really enjoyed themselves. I was encouraged to hear they have a homeschooling ministry that meets once a month!  That might be a nice option for me and the girls. 

I will try and blog again soon and now that I am feeling a bit more rested, I'll be sure to load up on pictures.  We have plans to visit Disney World this Saturday, so that is exciting!!  Until then, we miss you all and would love to hear from you.  God bless.