We made it back from vacation safely a week ago. It was a fun trip, but exhausting in many ways. The time at Disney was truly magical and I'm glad we did that at the beginning of the trip so we could relax a bit on Sanibel Island before we came home. Disney is fun and magical and all that, but TIRING - especially with 2 young kids. The days when we went to a park for the morning, went back to the hotel for a nap and returned to the park in the evening worked best. It's hard to force yourself to do that, though.
I took over 500 photos on our vacation, most of which turned out well and are in my Flickr account if you'd like to see them. We all agreed Halloween is a fun time to visit Disney. The Halloween parade was awesome. The girls went on many, many rides and both went on all the roller coasters they were tall enough to ride (except Splash Mountain - Emmelia decided not to go on that one because she didn't want to get wet). Emmelia's 6th birthday was fun - she got a special button to wear that clued the Cast Members to wish her a happy birthday and give her special things - one Cast Member even called "Goofy" on his "cell phone" to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. At 11 pm on her birthday, she went on Space Mountain for the first time and LOVED it! Too bad the park was closing for our last day there, or she definitely would've gone again. Next time...
For her birthday, I gave her a copy of "Now We Are Six" by A.A. Milne. I remember when I was five, I could hardly wait to turn 6 so I could read it (hee). Emmelia is quickly learning to read, but not quite up to reading the poems on her own. She is enjoying them when we read them to her. The Deac got her a pretty pink princess crown necklace with a mickey head on it. She also picked out a Minnie Mouse alarm clock that we bought for her. Princess Aurora left a personalized card for her in our room that was a fun surprise. All in all, a good birthday.
After we got back, I got sick. I spent 2 days in bed with headache, nausea, fever and muscle aches. I figured it was a virus or just exhaustion from our trip. The next day, however, I got a horrible sore throat and figured it was strep. Apparently this is going around. The good news is, antibiotics really helped and I'm feeling much, much better today.
The Deac has switched back to the day shift for now. He is going to have to go to California again for more training at some point, but that's not so bad - he had a good time last time he went. It's nice having him around in the evenings. We get to do things like visit our newest Orthodox mission in Colorado on their Patronal Feast Day (that was Tuesday night) and play Munchkin with friends (last night).
Tonight's plans include making corn bread for the Thanksgiving feast in Emmelia's kindergarten classroom tomorrow, doing her homework, and playing on WebKinz (Emmelia got one from her Aunt when we were in Florida). Have a good evening!
