Florida Finale--Vacation 2016

Our Disney Days were Wednesday and Thursday, so Friday was the day to drive down to Fort Lauderdale for the wedding weekend of Steven's oldest nephew who is like a brother to him. Mark and Rachel had their wedding and reception at the Marriott Harbor Beach, which was a gorgeous resort. We're so glad all things worked together to get our crew there for Steven to be a groomsman and Tommy the ring bearer!

But before we left our Orlando resort, we needed a couple of hours to enjoy the pools!

After a rainy road trip down to South Florida, we finally made it to the hotel in time for Steven to jump into his dress clothes for the rehearsal dinner. The rest of us enjoyed our evening in the hospitality suite and at the pool where they had a movie night!

On Saturday morning, we woke to a rainy day, but made the most of it as we had an outing to a local mall to pick up Steven's tux and meet my cousin Erin and her family for lunch at PF Changs. Then it was back to the hotel to meet up with my high school friend Nicole who always amazes me with her crazy adventures working a top secret job for the US government. After visiting with her in the lobby for awhile, the rain had cleared and we opted for a quick dip in the ocean and a little swim in the pool before it was time to suit up for the wedding!

And a beautiful wedding it was!

Here are a couple family photos I took of Steven's beautiful sisters Mary and Pam and their families.

With just a bit of Lego bribing, we were able to convince Tommy to walk down the aisle as the ring bearer.  He wore a chalkboard sign that said, "Here she comes!" The flower girl was a toddler and didn't quite want to cooperate. But we were proud that Thomas pulled it together!

Of course, during the ceremony it was another story, as both Katie and Tommy were antsy and loud, so we played off to the side.

Afterwards the boys enjoyed finding (and squishing) caterpillars.

There was a cocktail and appetizer hour,

And then the reception began! My camera didn't handle the lighting well, but at least I captured some fun memories of the family. 

The band was amazing and we had so much fun dancing!

Steven and all his siblings

L-R: Paige, Jill, Steven, Pam, Katie, Mary, Thomas

The next morning we woke early to go to a nearby mass, where we were asked to be the gift bearers during the offertory. We also gave a ride to a kind gentleman who was staying at our hotel. It's nice to have the big van!

We arrived back at the hotel in time for a brunch hosted by the bride's family. It was delicious and just what I was craving (bacon!) after days of breakfast pastries! It was also a nice time to visit with family before we all went our separate ways.

One more swim, this time with Daddy who had been busy with wedding party stuff most of the weekend.

I actually did laundry while the others swam. If we don't do laundry every 2-3 days on vacation, it gets out of control! This was about two days worth of laundry!!!

Then it was time to pack up and hit the road again. We loved singing and dancing to the music of the guitarist in the outdoor lobby area. We had to valet the big van since it didn't fit in the garage!

We made it back to Orlando by evening, in time for a little jaunt over to Disney Springs!

Live statues

Lego store

We ate dinner at the yummy Wolfgang Puck Express, and I found an ornament for our Christmas tree at the nearby Christmas store. I try to get an ornament from each of our trips! Then we waited in a LONG line for cupcakes at the famous Sprinkles bakery.

Monday was a long drive to Louisiana, including a little side trip to dip our toes in the clear water in Pensacola. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel and then settled for the last night at another Homewood Suites, getting back home early Tuesday afternoon!

Road trips with a big family are no joke. We had a great time, but a busy and full vacation! It took me quite awhile to recover and finally post these photos! I'm so grateful we were able to spend this time together, visiting one of our favorite spots (Disney) and spending time with our family at the wedding. 

Florida 2016, Disney Day 2, Magic Kingdom

Our 2nd and last day at Disney was spent at the Magic Kingdom, our favorite park! We woke early again and got to the parking lot around 8, then took the monorail to the entrance of the park. Parking is a bit more complicated here since the lot isn't next to the park.

We got there about 15 minutes before park opening and got to see the little welcome production they do each day! Fun was in the air, and we were ready to rush in and get Steven and the big kids over to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train since we couldn't snag a Fast Pass to that one.

While they were on the Mine Train, I took Thomas and Katie to the Winnie the Pooh ride. They weren't crazy about it.  I think from there we all went over to the Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain area. We found a little toddler playground for Katie to enjoy while the others went on the roller coasters.

Next we made the "great" decision to wait over an hour in line for the Jungle Cruise. It was the one thing Thomas really wanted to do, but the waiting was truly miserable. At least Katie Grace got a little nap, and we played some charades on an iPhone app!

From there we went to eat lunch at the Columbia Harbor House (good chicken fingers and fried fish), then headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the People Mover, which was like a train up in the sky. Steven and the big kids then used their Fast Pass for Space Mountain, where the ride got stuck for about half an hour right before they got on!

After that, the boys went to the Tomorrowland Speedway while the girls and I went on It's A Small World. I think both the little ones fell asleep pretty quickly after that and I took the oldest three to one of my favorites, Mickey's Philharmagic, which is an awesome 4D show. Then Steven took the oldest three back to Big Thunder Mountain, their favorite, since they had a Fast Pass for that one. We ate dinner at Pinocchio's Village Haus (pizzas and pastas), and then took some castle photos and made our way back to Main Street to prepare for the parade and fireworks and for Mary Clare to get her silhouette cut-out.

This was the first time we'd seen the Electrical Parade. It was so cute and fun! Katie really liked it.  I also loved the laser show where they project scenes onto Cinderella's castle. That was so cool! I missed it last time when I took the kids souvenir shopping. The fireworks were amazing as always, but Katie was terrified, so Steven had to take her someplace while the rest of us enjoyed our little bistro table with a great view of the castle.

I was glad we remembered the glow bracelets this night, it's always fun to put them together while waiting for the night shows!

And that was the end of our 2016 Disney adventure! A quick but wonderful time, and we still had a few days in Fort Lauderdale to look forward to. To be continued...

It's a...

7 Quick Takes Friday--I've been MIA

(Posting this a few days late since I just got the computer fixed and can finally post photos!)

Looks like it's been about three weeks since I've blogged here! I will hopefully get back to updates about our Florida trip soon, that is once I can use my laptop again. It got stepped on and has a cracked screen! Not only is this challenging with blogging and our summer screen addictions (I'm binge watching Gilmore Girls), but it also makes it hard to do all the things that are more urgent on my to-do list like...paying bills, registering for online classes, searching for an exterminator (ANTS!), and planning an anniversary getaway. But we have been doing a few things besides laying around and watching Netflix! Let's see if iPhone blogging will work...(it didn't)


1. I'm still growing a baby! Little one is 19wks today and my pregnancy app says that means about 6 inches, 8.5 ounces, and the size of an heirloom tomato! We are anxious for the big ultrasound in about 10 days and the kids are really wanting to have some kind of gender reveal celebration. Katie Grace loves to talk about the baby and kiss my belly, and if we accidentally say something about her being the baby she replies, "My no baby. My a big girl!" She's convinced it's a baby sister. We will see!

kissing my belly

2. We went up to Aggieland in June for the last Sunday mass of now-Bishop David Konderla! We got to see a lot of old friends from our days at A&M. We were sad to miss his ordination mass as Bishop of Tulsa, Oklahoma (we weren't quite up for another out of state road trip), but at least we could watch it live streaming on the internet and take some screen shots! What a gift to the Church that he and Bishop Mike Sis are...and how cool that they were our two priests in college!

running out steam before mass

with the now-Bishop!

took this screenshot while watching the ordination,

our two college pastors

3. We had a fun Independence Day weekend with an afternoon at the beach house to celebrate some family birthdays and then the local parade and a swim party with friends on the 4th. There's a lot of tragedy going on in the world and in our country. We have lots to pray for!

4. There has been a lot of swimming going on this summer! Our city pool is just a few blocks away, and now it's right between our house and my parents' house. We often see our neighborhood friends there and it's a nice evening activity to get us out of the house and tire everyone out before dinner and bedtime! We finished swim team in late June and are proud of Steven who qualified for the All Star invitational meet in breast stroke. Both boys worked very hard this season!

5. Last weekend was my 20yr high school reunion. One of my friends hosted a ladies brunch at her parents' house on Saturday morning, and then the actual reunion was that evening. It was nice to catch up with so many old friends at the brunch, and see classmates I hadn't seen in 20yrs at the reunion. It was a bit hard to catch up that evening because the DJ was playing very loud music and we all had to yell! But we had some great fajitas and it was fun to see all those familiar faces. I was quite the interesting person for many of them, being pregnant with my 6th baby made me get lots of wide eyes!

6. We are planning our first trip away since having kids! It will be our 15th anniversary, and we're blessed to live close enough to family members who are willing to come stay and watch the kids. It's rare for me to not have a nursing baby or toddler, so we just haven't had time for trips alone or even many dates. I know I will miss my little Katie Grace so much; she's still very attached to mommy. But it will be a good time to focus on each other and give the kids some fun time with their aunts!

7. I can't believe we're halfway through July. I need to register for our MODG online classes, and start sorting through books to order what we need for the new school year. I still need to mail last year's work and report cards! The girls are getting ready for VBS at our church at the end of the month, and then August will be here. I'll be taking a mom's weekend away and hopefully we will have a weekend getaway for all of us before we start back to school.

And now, 5 days later I'll finally post this before more time gets away from me!