Family Vacation April 2010.

We decided to do a big road trip and drive to Florida (after driving last summer I'll never get Sean on an airplane again. He hates them!) this vacation. With Trew being two now buying SIX plane tickets stinks! (Don't ask me why buying five was okay!!) We drove down to Shannon's (their family's at Disney this week!) on the 16th to sleep so we could be 3 hours further down 95, which helped the next day when we drove to VA. We got to meet Ammon, our great-nephew. The tiny peanut is as cute in real life as he is in pictures!!

Look at all his hair! Can't you imagine what it would have been like if he was full term??!! He was a 32 weeker. After visiting the NICU we all left to meet up with one of my very good friends from church growing up!! It was kind of a mess (I apologize Flossie!) but I was SO happy to get to meet her husband and two adorable little boys! And see Heather--who I haven't seen since she was like 3 or 4! Sadly I didn't take any pictures. I'm hoping to meet up with her again when we drive through another time. It'll be more planned out and hopefully include Erin, Sarah, and Becca!!

I ran out of bath towels the next morning at our hotel so Trew got a hand towel. I wrapped him up like a little man!

Embree requested me to take this picture of her after she watched me taking Trew's.

The three of us headed down to breakfast once Sean, Dallin, and Alanna got back. There was a baseball league in town for a tournament so the breakfast area was filled with a bunch of burly men. While I was up from the table getting something Trew fell off his chair onto the tile floor about 15 grown men yelled "ohhh, noo" (a few even ran to him) I just said "oh, he's fine" knowing he wasn't hurt. Trew got up rubbed his hand together like he was dusting himself off while the room erupted in "wow, he took it like a man" comments. It was really funny.


Dallin and Trew enjoying the drive. You can see Alanna in the first picture getting out of her booster going to use the "Emergency Potty". Thank goodness for it!


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We met up with Amy and Glen (and fam) somewhere in South Carolina had some dinner together and hit the road together headed for Orlando!!! We got to the FL house around 11pm-ish. The remote garage opener worked perfectly. However, the door between the house and garage was locked by accident!! Sean had to break the door knob off!!


Monday morning, the girls walking to our first ride.

Embree's first Star Tours ride! Hooray for being 40 inches tall!

Sometime Monday morning Dallin showed Sean and I a 'bug bite' on his arm. By the afternoon he had about 10 more. We just assumed they were red ant bites. Then he woke up like this Tuesday morning................

After consulting Google and his pediatrician it was confirmed that he had CHICKEN POX!!!!!

Mimi and Grampy had flown in Monday afternoon and kindly volunteered to stay home with him. Sean ran out to Wal*Mart to buy him a Wii, which he was super excited about. Then we left the poor boy home to meet Amy and Glen at Epcot right under the Bally.

Tasting different Coke's from around the world.

Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival was going on.

A butterfly in the butterfly house. And Embree with Tinkerbell.

Poor Dallin felt good all Tuesday until around 5pm, then his fever hit.

He rested on the swing while the kids (and I--because I had to jump in with my clothes on to help Trew. I'd rolled my short up and was wading on the steps but he got out of my reach) swam.

He was such a sweet boy. Unprompted he said he was glad HE got the chicken pox so Alanna and Embree could still go to Disney. The girls felt real bad he didn't get to go on any rides with Luke. Alanna couldn't wait to be able to give him a hug. On his first day back driving to Disney in the car Embree started chanting "Dallin's back, Dallin's back". He loved it!

I stayed home with Dallin on Wednesday. Sean took the girls to Hollywood Studios to meet Amy and Glen then to Epcot to meet up with Uncle Scott, Justin, Brook, Laken, Chad and Melody his new fiance!

This is what Dallin looked like that night.

In case any one's wondering Dallin did get the Chicken Pox vaccine when he was a baby and he got his booster last summer. He's just one of the lucky few who get it anyway. He should have gotten a more mild case then he did, the poor guy even had them on his tongue and gums!!!! He was covered from head to toe. I am still a fan of the vax though, our three other kids didn't get it!! I tried to get more pictures of his pox the next day but he was so uncomfortable I couldn't bug him. He did SO good not scratching.

The girls meeting Buzz and Woody with Amy that day.

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The next day Sean stayed home with Dallin so I could take the girls and Trew to Disney and meet Chad's future wife, Melody--she is super nice! (Chad, Justin, and Cameron sure picked great spouse's!!) We went to Magic Kingdom, Embree got to go on Splash Mountain for the first time. Around 2pm Scott and all of his kids left to go to a different park. Mimi and Grampy volunteered to go back to the house so Sean could meet the kids and I and later go meet back up with Scott and everyone.

The construction walls are up for the new Fantasyland expansion!!!

It was super weird to be at Disney just me and the three kids!!! We rode a bunch of rides and had our favorite smoothies waiting for Sean to get there.

Once he got there we did a few things then we took the Monorail over to Epcot to meet up with everyone.

The girls on Brook's lap with Justin, Chad, and Melody in the background in front of Mexico.

After we listened and sang along with The Beatles in England we went to France for some pastry's!! I couldn't decide and got two!! Then tasted Sean's and had to eat his too!! Thankfully today is my last day of Prednisone so maybe my ferocious appetite (that has made me put of 10lbs!!!) with go away! Plus my gastro just upped my dose of Azathioprine, one of the many side affects is appetite suppression--I hope it kicks in!

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Friday Sean's parents stayed with Dallin (he was feeling better) so we could meet our friends at Magic Kingdom.

The animals waiting to watch PhilharMagic.

Posing after the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Trew being a monster before going to the Laugh Floor.

This is Trew scared.

We've never seen it before--we might never see it again!! The second we got into the holding area at the Laugh Floor Trew hid his face and pointed to the TV. He's totally afraid of Roz!!! Of course being the terrific parents that we are we laughed and laughed at him!! We spent the rest of our vacation teasing him. Everytime Sean or I say "alway's watching Wazowski" he'd wimper and put his head down. Okay, it sounds really mean but I promise we were always right there to hug him. When we saw the Laugh Floor again the next week he had me in such a bear hug I could stand and let go of him and he clug on to me like a kola bear!

All of us before our friends headed back home.

(also pictured is our friends friends (Mike and Debbie) who met up with them from UT)



This is how we found Dallin that evening!

Playing baseball with Grampy! He was feeling so much better!



Saturday moring Dallin's pox were all scabbed over so he could resume his Disney World vacation!!! We let him choose where he wanted to go--Magic Kingdom (my third day in a row there).

Resting in the shade waiting to get the kids picture drawn.

Sean took pictures to pass the time (about an hour).

Dallin's sad chicken pox face.

His happy chicken pox free face!

Embree with the castle in the background.

Everyone.

Dallin's new favorite toy.

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Sunday we went to the 11:30am Spanish speaking ward then took the kids to the temple.

(this was one of about 8 attemps to get a picture of Sean and I)

Someday I'm going to blog a whole post about the outtakes from this day. I guess it was 90 degree's and all but boy, to get four kids to look at the camera at the same time!!!! AH!!! Of course this last picture they all looked just fine!! We kept hauling Trew off the security golf cart until the end then we let them all climb up really quick. When we drove away I noticed the security guard had been watching us the whole time!!

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Monday we finally hit Animal Kingdom for the first time in the week we'd already been there!

We ate at my FAVORITE place, Pizzafari. I only got my sandwich once this trip, last time I think I had it three times!!

We got some pictures and brushed goats at Rafiki's Plant watch.

Waiting in line for Kali River Rapids. It was a hot day, perfect to wear swiming suits. We didn't let Dallin take his shirt off because of his pox. They were still pretty gross looking.

Alanna's first Mount Everest!!!!

I was so excited she wanted to go with me. It was so fun. I just love my kids so much!

You can see us third row back.

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A little morning swim.

Dallin finally could go in!

Trew LOVES cars.

He spends all day lining up his cars and trucks. Even in his lap driving to Disney.

The kids got autograph books for Christmas to take to Disney this trip. They loved getting all the characters to sign their books. Trew was super excited to meet Mickey, Sean got great video of him.

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More swiming.

So Trew jumped off the side of the pool last summer and all but now at two years and two months old he jumps off completey by himself--as in no one holding his hand or catching him! He's a nut. He's so big he sinks to the bottom them pops right back out of the water. He saw the girls back up and run across the patio together and jump in so he decided he's do it too! Then Sean started tossing him in the air. The higher the better was his attitude!

We headed to Hollywood Studios later in the morning.

Taking pictures with "doggie friend".

Wating to meet Buzz and Woody.

Trew was so excited he could hardly turn around to take this picture. His eye balls kept going to the side--he was trying to look at them without turning around!

As we were walking away after our turn Trew was waving goodbye then he stopped put both his arms out straight pulled them back then pushed them quickly toward Buzz and Woody and said "Pshhtt, pshht". Everyone who saw him laughed and laughed. It was so cute! I think he was pretending to throw pies at them like on the Toy Story ride.

After eating dinner at a new place (for us) Mama Melrosa's, we ran into a green army man and Jessie. As the kids were walking over to them (there was no line because the park was closing) Dallin tripped and fell. The army man ran over to him picked him up off the ground and hugged him. It was really sweet.

Trew sacked out.

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A family tea cup ride the at Magic Kingdom the next day.

Embree's first Big Thunder Mountian Railroad ride!

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Animal Kingdom, our last day.

Sean did a great job of snaping these Mt. Everest picture's just at the right time. Alanna liked it so much she wanted to ride it again and again. This time we're in the 6th row back.

That night Grampy treated Sean and I to a date--we went to the Hoopty Do Review dinner show at the Ft. Wilderness resort. (one of Sean's favorite's) We stuffed ourselves silly. The next day was Saturday we got a late start (10am) but made it to VA. Spent the night and drove the rest of the way home. The kids were super good in the car and minus the chicken pox we had a great vacation.

Post edit: I've been working on this post since Tuesday!! So glad I'm done!