Last year in the midst of chaos, selling a home, moving, and planning our current abode, we took a much-needed break from reality, and honestly if you’re considering it I say why not! Life can weigh us down sometimes, we get caught up in making a living we forget to live, I think a healthy balance is necessary!
So after coming home from vacation, I actually started this blog, then I put it on hold, I wasn’t quiet ready for it anyways… I reflected a lot last year going through a new process of life, transitioning into bigger responsibilities and what not….
so anyways now here I am officially up and going with the blog,
I don’t really know where this is going to go, but my only hope is that I can share some of the goodness that life has blessed me with…
Truth is, I have been blessed tremendously! Where my life is today I have but one to thank and that is God! I have been wanting to start a blog to share with anyone and everyone A little about my relationship with Christ our lord! The only place that I can take credit for my life is the day I chose to commit my life to him, and each day forward that I choose to let him lead my life. That is why you see a smile on my face that is why I want to share, I feel the need to share his Love because it has been huge in my life! I hope to inspire, to give hope, and share truth to anyone that chooses to read. But please don’t compare your life with mine, you too can have a beautiful life, if I ever share opinions please know that they are mine and please don’t follow after me as a person, but if you want an amazing, fulfilling life follow after Christ! So this is where I start I feel that in the social media world we live in today it gives us a false sense of reality and although you will mostly see pictures of happy times from me too… I hope that I can be as real as possible in the words that I write! I’m not perfect.. neither is my life, but I am oh so happy with the hope that is found in it knowing that whether I have a good or a bad day, one day everything will be perfect!
So thank you for following ❤️
Now to our vacation….
March 4th-17th 2017
Day 1 traveling…
a little advice to anyone traveling a long distance with young ones! Pack lots of snacks I scrambled last-minute for the best travel advice via Pinterest 👍 and since I have 2 hangry daughters (hungry/angry) who love to snack I took this piece of advice. Gummy snacks, Goldfish, puffs, oh and lots of emergency lollipops, but we didn’t use them all! Oh and our 7-year-old yeah we just pulled out the iPad nanny and he was good! Since we try not to use her often he was loving the flight!
Also just expect the worst with kids so you don’t get disappointed when your traveling becomes complete chaos. Prepare for cranky kids, I was so thankful for my husbands patience throughout our whole trip and I remember him saying to me before we left oh yeah the flight is gonna be a disaster but it will fine. That mindset kept us sain because our expectations weren’t set too high especially with children and things actually went rather smooth (at least on the trip down)
Alaska✈️Florida total flying time 8 hours (not including layover stops)
Days 2-7 Disneyworld…and some other fun…
Now let me tell you, you are about to see a mix of my favorite photos and videos, what you won’t see is the exhaustion, the crowds, the sometimes fussy babies, the hotel that was definitely not a luxury room that you would expect for a vacation, the waiting (oh the waiting) and the happiest place on earth…yeah that fits in well doesn’t it?
But really this vacation as do all I’m sure came with a few challenges but that was nothing we couldn’t handle. Honestly it was all about perspective, on day 2 we checked in to our hotel room somewhere honestly I wouldn’t stay again…and I know my husband felt the same way but as we were walking on the first night seeing how excited our kids were I looked at him and said …you know, to our kids they don’t see the low quality hotel, they don’t see the crowds or the bad food, they are not thinking like we are, they are creating memories that will not hold any of those things…so instead of letting those little things frustrate or bug us in our days let’s just try to view this trip through their eyes and help them create the best memories.
One day we will look back at this whole trip and that is what I want to remember, the happiness of our children! The happiness through the eyes of our children 😍 if it weren’t for my husbands patience when things didn’t go as planned as they often don’t with children, my patience wouldn’t have lasted long either so I’m very thankful for that!!
Disney through the eyes of a child and Disney through the eyes of an adult with children are two completely different places but nonetheless it’s still pretty great! My advice is just this though, make the best of it let your children soak it all in and while they are doing that soak them in and you will have a successful Disney trip! Don’t have expectations for them to see it as you see it now or even to see it as you saw it as a kid but just let them create their own Disney experience and enjoy the ride even if involves an overheated meltdown!! Buy them a popsicle!! 😊
a
Crash pad= Disney’s Pop Century
Pros
- Disney resort (extra magic hours)
- Dining plan participant for meals
- Eye appealing to the kids
- Bus transportation to Disney
Cons
- Lots of people (it was spring break)
- Cheapest hotel ⬆️
- I found bugs 🐜 🙈(we were in Florida)
- Food quality not the greatest
- Bus transportation had long waits (more so leaving the parks than going but we tried to leave early to the parks which probably helped)
- Not very comfortable beds
- Rooms were small
….but they were happy…and we didn’t leave broke! 👍👍
Animal kingdom
Dining- Tusker House
This was a fun buffet style breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant where you get to meet Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy. The only downside to this place was that they didn’t participate in the Disney dining plan which we paid for ahead of time so this meal we had to pay for outside of the dining plan!
It was very fun though! We ate breakfast, took some fruit to go and off to the park we went!
We traveled and went to the Disney parks with family which was great! I’m usually a vacationer who likes to get away with my husband and kids and just spend some good quality family time together, so this was our first family vacation that we shared but I really, really enjoyed it! We shared our Disney vacation with Joes aunt and uncle and their 3 kids which one of them happens to be my good friend from high school and her 3 kids who are all close to the same age as ours! So it was GREAT!
Also it gave Joe and I a chance to go on a few roller coasters together! ❤❤
Mickey and Minnie “I love your show” -Tiernan 
I overheard Tiernan telling Mickey “I love you show” I about melted!! So cute!! And he gave Minnie the sweetest kiss on the nose!! If you’re wondering why we take our kids so young that is why! Thier innocence 😍😍
Russell from “Up”
Flick from “A Bugs Life” 
And this….
Hollywood Studios
So other than those 3 rides Hollywood studios has more to see! We got to meet The Disney Junior Characters, watch Disney Junior live, met Woody and Buzz, Green Army Man, Moana, and saw Belles Beautiful yellow dress in person!!! 😍😍😍 ahhh!! (I just saw the movie and I want all of her clothes!!) oh and also watched The Little Mermaid Live (Brooklyn was afraid of Ursula, not gonna lie she was big and scary looking)
We ate dinner at a place called Sci fi where we sat in cars in front of a big screen and watched old movies like a real drive in theatre, all while being served dinner, of course we got burgers and milkshakes!!!
And we ended the day at Fantasmic! Which always makes me want to cry when Mickey defeats his evil imagination, or something like that… Disney really knows how to put on a show!! 😍💥
Hollywood Studios ✅
Hollywood ready!! 😎🎬📸🎥🎞
Toy Story
We always have something to say about these guys they have been apart of our lives since Tiernan was a little guy! Obsessed may have been putting his love for Woody lightly, then he grew out of the phase thinking he was too cool for Woody and all the Toys went to the basement for a good year until we watched Toy Story 3 and I think it brought a little guilt to poor Tiernans heart and the love came back stronger than ever! These guys are practically part of our family!
So I was standing outside spying through the window watching my kids meet Woody and Buzz because I hadn’t waited in line with Joe and the kids to see them and I didn’t want to be rude and squeeze through all the people so I decided I would just record them like a creeper through the window! Well let me tell you theses characters are the real deal!😉 Buzz what a sweetheart saw me through the window and invited me in to take pictures with my family I don’t know but I may be team buzz now! 😍
EPCOT
To sum up epcot, lots of pretty flowers (we were there during the Flower and Garden Season), places to see, and food to eat! Traveling through the world Disney Style… If anything in my personal opinion, the Ride Soarin is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life 😉 This Place is imagination and Dreams at its fullest! Adult style but the kids can definately have fun too!!
MAGIC KINGDOM
and Magic Kingdom….just MAGICAL….
…..or let me just say this instead, don’t forget how happy you were when entering the Disney park, because leaving is a whole different story! Its exhausting, there too many people, your kids are probably crying or falling asleep in your arms, all you can think about is a bed, any bed, or maybe even just relief, you have had a long day your feet are tired, but don’t forget, your children had a blast! You can easily ruin a good day with a bad night…Have patience, and enjoy the ride!
If you have made it this far on my trip down memory lane, I will share with you this! I can’t remember much more from this trip as clearly as everything wrote last year…this is the point I stopped, when things are fresh in your mind write them down!!
But I will say
This…
3 Things that I have learned from taking vacations….
- Joy is a great motivator– whether you are on a vacation or not try to find it everyday. What I love about vacations is that they make us take time for Joy. But I must say vacations can be lost, if you choose to get caught up in the perfect expectations that you set yourself up for. LOOSE THOSE EXPECTATIONS!
- Childhood is amazing– Its pure, innocent, and So FULL, and Beautiful!!! When you take vacations with your children, try to be as relaxed as possible, your purposefully away from reality, enjoy that for a moment, let them be kids, and see it through their eyes whether you go to Disneyworld or on a forest camping trip, watch them and how they see the world, you took a break from reality for a reason! And they love you for it!
- Expectations are the killers of reality– I learned this the hard way, long before these Disney vacations, I constantly found myself feeling disappointed in reality because I had such high expectations for it and I’m sorry pinterest but I think you may be setting many people up for failure….(it’s a love/hate relationship) I actually really really love Pinterest but if you’re looking at it with expectations that your life will be exactly like that perfect housewife on Pinterest, or you will have that perfect home, family, children, outfit, hair, VACATION! Loose it, Reality is far better when you don’t have expectations there is so much beauty around us that we lose trying to make everything as perfect, as we think it should be!
Cocoa Beach, FL
The memories made are treasured in my soul, Not only did we go on this trip to see Disney world but my husband actually spent a portion of his life in Florida, where he lived with an amazing family, who made a huge impact on his life and love for the Lord. We love to go there to visit them, Dave was a preacher who took Joe into his home for a short time while he was a teenager, getting to go back there last year Joe was given the opportunity to preach the Word of God at the Congregation of Church of Christ at Flagler County, we received so much love and encouragement being with them, and watching a story like that come full circle was beautiful. You never know where you can make an impact on people, and the love shown by such a wonderful family motivated by God has made a great impact on our family today!
Enjoy everyday and every moment!
Until next time Florida!
she desires TRUTH 