It’s hard to believe another year has finally passed and it’s time for our annual pilgrimage to Disney with the whole family. Travel day, Sunday, was pretty non eventful and went like most of our travel days do. Everyone was up early actually, no one had to be drug out the bed except the youngest one who then slept to somewhere around Daytona I think, and we had no problems or arguments even. We got our Little Guy trailer loaded pretty quickly and were on the road 15 minutes before planned. Read more

For the first time in quite a while we had a Saturday with all the kids and nothing on the schedule, nothing that we HAD to do. We wiped the morning out by being lazy, some of us lazier than others. My original idea was to go see the SCAD Sidewalk Arts Festival but there was a steady rain all morning so I wasn’t sure if it was even going to happen and if so when it would start, chalk and water don’t mix well, but once we were all up and dressed we headed to Savannah. Alyssa unfortunately didn’t get to go because she was babysitting a friend’s 3 month old twins, so we had the 3 younger kids only. Read more

Last year we kind of “discovered” Tybee events. We did Mardi Gras and St Patricks Day parades plus July 4th fireworks and attempted Labor Day but the wind/sand storm forced us to leave. We missed Mardi Gras this year but thought it would be good to get the kids dressed up in green and go get some beads and candy. Read more

Again we took a trip to beautiful Tybee Island for another parade, this time St Patrick’s day. Tybee held it’s parade on the Saturday before the big Savannah parade and we again had kids on hand and an extra one to boot in Courtney, Alyssa’s friend, so we loaded up and trekked to the island hoping for another fun day. It was gray and cooler this time, as opposed to the beautiful day we had in February for Mardi Gras, so we decided to get back off the beach breeze a little and stood on Tybrisa this time. Read more

This past weekend Tybee had it’s first Annual Mardi Gras parade and street party. We had all four kids this weekend so Kriss and I made plans to go down to the beach and check it out. The kids really love going to the beach and the weather was going to be nice. We got there early enough to get good parking and get down by the pier where a few vendors were set up selling beads, masks, drinks, etc. We had over an hour before the parade came so we walked up on the pier and then the kids wanted to go dig in the sand so we let them while we sat on the pier and enjoyed the sun.We ran in to several friends too. Read more

Marc has gotten in to a lot of activities over recent years, I don’t know how he even keeps up with them all and his school work sometimes, but one that he seems to really enjoy so far is acting in plays. He’s done a few plays for his school (last spring he was the lead role as the prince in The Prince and the Pea) and church. This Christmas he was in a short play at his local community theatre called The Elves Impersonator, you’ll get the name when you watch it. Dad and Lynn were going to Nashville and stopped in to see it on the way up and he filmed it.

Yep, this is the first year that we’ve had all four kids, or Marc at all, on Halloween for Trick or Treating. I drove up Friday afternoon to get him and try to get back in time before the other 3 ripped the door down at dark, we barely made it right after dark. Kellie was Princess Aurora, or Sleeping Beauty as you probably know her. I’m not sure what Erin was, I guess a dead, scary, witchy, something or another. Marc was a cowboy, at least that’s what he said he was, there was a hat. Alyssa was scariest of them all, she was an ugly, mean looking witch ! We walked a good bit through the neighborhood though there were some skipped houses along the way, I think the older kids hit more but they always get ahead of Kellie since they don’t need adults holding their hand. We worked our way around to where the Pirate’s of the Caribbean show will be the next weekend, at one of our neighbor’s houses. He does a big production that gets bigger each year with costumes, sets, smoke, etc, and it’s free although they will take charitable donations to benefit SMA, Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This was in front of the Flying Dutchman set. Click on the image to see the full size version. The extra girl beside Erin is her friend down the street Ashley.

I then walked Erin over to a friend’s house that was having a party ’til late, their house was all made up cool with crystal balls with floating heads inside them and lighting effects, while the rest of us went to get something to eat and then we all came back home to divy up the treasure and enjoy a sugar rush.

As mentioned a few posts ago, we went to Hollie and Chad’s wedding at Bethesda Chapel on September 6, yep, had to wear shoes that day. The three of us were in it and I wish I had been able to get a pic of all three of us and one with Pepa, all of us in our monkey suits.

But here is a pic of two of my beautiful babies, click it for a full size version. Kellie was the flower girl and Marc was the ring bearer, although he bore no rings. He wasn’t at the rehearsal the night before and had to wing it so they walked in the door and down the aisle not knowing he needed the little pillow. I think Kellie showed him where to stand.

This is the only pic I have so far, hopefully more to come and you can check Hollie’s Facebook for many candid shots.

Just finally getting around to writing this trip report. Yes the kids were surprised with this one again although it was a lot harder since we were pulling a trailer, sort of hard to hide it. But Marc Jr was here for his last week of summer vacation and we had the girls this weekend too so Kriss and I decided to plan a surprise trip for the kids. We booked a room on Expedia (link in the right column) and got an awesome rate on a 2 bedroom at FantasyWorld Club Villas that was a few miles from Disney. I am the first to admit that we are WAAAY spoiled by staying on Disney property all these years and yes our first impressions were not of excitement, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to do this trip if it weren’t for Expedia. The room was a little small for 6 of us but fortunately my parents decided to go with us and were able to get the same rate and Marc stayed with them right next door. It was a 2 story room that seems to have been partially refurbished recently (it looks like they have been doing it gradually based on reports on Expedia) with a kitchen, living room, and complete bathroom downstairs and two bedrooms, bathroom, and washer/dryer upstairs. Read more

What an awesome trip we had this year, I think our best family trip yet. The large family ones seem to be improving each year, probably due to us knowing more how to handle things and the kids getting older. This year we really slowed things down, partly due to finances and several kids only having a few or no days left on their tickets so we only planned one big commando park day. Read more