Pirates in the living room

These two decided to play pirates in the living room today, complete with a couch-ship and blanket-sail, blowgun-periscope, flashlight tissue paper-torch, map, and bandanas!

Arrrrrrgh, matey!  Walk the plank,!

Coffee with loved ones

While the girls are in String Project Summer Camp every morning this week, Caeden and I have a lot of time in town.  Yesterday morning, we spent several hours at Fusion Brew.  Caeden had an orange snow and I just had a regular brewed coffee with almond milk.  He was such a good boy and sat quietly and read while I did work!  I hope I conveyed to him what a blessing that was to me!

This afternoon, the kids and I spent as long as we could at Sam's Club.  I had a dentist appointment at 4:00, and didn't want to go home between.  I think it's going to be a long week with morning and afternoon activities in town.  Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge living 20 miles from "town."

This evening, Jeremy picked up Ashley and met me and the kids at McDonald's.  I took Annah, Sylvia, and Ashley, and we ate then went home.  

Jeremy took Sylvia on a date!  They ate at Wendy's and went shopping.  Jeremy bought Sylvia some BRIGHT new gym shoes for school.  They are ORANGE!  It was a very big deal to Sylvia that Jeremy spent time treasuring her.  He is such a great daddy!

Twisty-headed giggles

Uncontrollable giggling was coming from the back seat of the car this evening while the kids were playing with the Photo Booth app on the iPad.  It never ceases to provide entertainment for them!

One more swim

We made a quick trip to Indiana this weekend.  We arrived somewhere between 1-2am Saturday morning.  Saturday the boys (Jeremy, Caeden and my Dad) went fishing in the morning.  In the afternoon, Jeremy took Caeden over to see Grandma Lopshire and Great Grandma DeHaven, and Mom took the girls and me to Fort Wayne to a going-out-of-business sale at a resale shop.  (We bought 3 kitchen trash bags full of nice clothes and only spent about $80! I felt like we were highly successful!)  

Last evening, Jeremy went to his 20th high school reunion!  How in the world it has been 20 years, I'm not sure.  He had a good time reconnecting with old friends and catching up with the 30 classmates that were there.  Meanwhile, Mom picked up pizza and sausage rolls from Papa's Place and Travis and Erin and the kids came over for supper.  

This morning we all went to church together and Mom made tacos for us for lunch.  We decided to let the kids swim one more time before we left, because Dad had heated the pool for them.  It's been so mild outside; the water was warmer than the air.

Krampa's pool is our favorite place to swim!

A bit o' 'caching

I didn't realize it until today, but it's been nearly 2 years since we did any geocaching!  We got a few in today though, and it was really fun!

Annah climbed down to this one near a little bridge and found it in the hollowed out end of a log.

This one was an educational one at the windfarm lookout.  This is about 3 miles from our house.  Kinda pathetic we didn't know it was here until we went looking for a geocache!  We really enjoyed our time here!

The kids found this one mostly by themselves up in a tree at a cemetery a couple miles from our house. (Another thing we didn't know was there until today!) It was a beautiful, peaceful place.

This one, the kids did by themselves too.  They are getting good at following the radar, thinking about where things could be safely hidden, seeking out camouflaged items, and signing the log.

We had fun getting these caches and back into our little treasure hunting hobby!

Lego Village

The kids are all excited to use the cool new LEGO pieces Caeden got at the Downtown Disney Lego store, so they've been working on a village.  It's starting to look pretty cool!

SF Park Swim

It's nice to be home.  I think Jeremy feels like he needs a vacation from our vacation before he goes back to work tomorrow though.  We dropped Annah off at youth group this afternoon and the rest of us spent a couple hours at the pool.  Ahhhhhhhhh!

Vacation is over

Oh-so-soon the time has come to go home.  This has been such a special vacation for our family, a precious time with friends; a week of exhilarating, exhausting, and exciting times.  

This morning, it's hard not to be sad at the thought of, "It's the last time we get to..."  But, instead of being disappointed that all good things come to an end, we reflect on the many, many fantastic memories we shared.  Each moment is a treasured blessing!  We're so fortunate to have had this time and experience and to share it with each other.  We leave with hearts full--and maybe eyes full too.  

Goodbye lovely balcony, green savannah, and quiet animals.

As I was waiting for the kids to wake up, I was going in and out to the balcony.  One time I went out and saw 8 hot air balloons floating by!  (I just love hot air balloons and dream of riding in one someday!)  After those had passed all the way across the sky, 6 more floated by.  Boy, wouldn't Disney World be an awesome place to fly over in a balloon!!

 Once the kids woke up, they packed their last few things and lounged around.

Annah's henna is looking different already.

These boys are such good buddies.  I'm so thankful for their friendship!

I love the way these girls treasure and encourage each other.  I'm so glad they're in each other's lives! 

Check-out envelope was slid under the door in the night.

 Sylvie packed her new bag instead of her little backpack for the trip back.

Jeremy is ready to haul all of our luggage back home.  Wow, I'm so thankful for this man.  He is the reason we were able to come on this vacation! 

Goodbye, suite 7935.

Goodbye Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village.

Goodbye beautiful lobby.

We're back on the Magical Express bus.

The Orlando airport is very busy and seems more overwhelming than the Indy airport on our way here, but it was much less difficult to navigate than it looked.

At the gate, we relaxed with their electronics, books, and snacks.  Jeremy ventured off to get Starbucks for me and Dawn.

We're pretty sure Annah ate all the fruit snacks we brought for the week.

It is a beautiful sight.  And we will be glad to get back home.

Back in Indy, the hotel shuttle arrived to take us to our cars, and we said goodbye to our friends.  I thought about how, the whole time we planned this trip and people asked us if we were going to drive or fly, we always responded that we were going to fly because we wanted our chances of remaining friends to be as high as possible.  It's a big deal for two families to vacation together, and I'm so glad we are not only still friends, but our friendship has been enriched by the experience.  Blessed, blessed.

We stopped at Jimmy John's not far from the hotel.  The kids had never eaten at one before.

Goofy girl.

It didn't take long at all before the kids were asleep in the car...

...even these two found a way to make it work.

We arrived home in the evening to a still-standing house, heads and hearts full of memories made, and sweet dreams tonight.  It was a wonderful vacation.