House For Sale...

Does anyone want to buy a big brown house in fabulous Pocatello? I think we'd like to sell ours and move to Florida. We had sooo much fun! It is good to be back, but only cause I missed my kids (it took a day or two, but I really did miss them). I'm not looking forward to tending to those piles of laundry that need to be done, but at least some of it includes clothes I didn't have when I left home.

Here's how our vacation went down:

Sunday: Got out of church to find 4 inches of snow on the ground, and snow still swirling out of the sky. A friend in church said he drove from Boise to Pocatello that day and it took like nine hours. We decided to drive to Boise that night, just in case it took us the same amount of time. Luckily, the roads outside Pocatello were clear. We stopped in at my Grandma's house on the way so she could meet Samantha, then drove on to David's cousin's to leave Samantha there for the week. We stayed the night at David's sister's house in Boise.

Monday: Headed to the airport. Got there plenty early. Only six people in line ahead of us, so we thought it would be a breeze to get through. Those six people were headed through Chicago, just like we were, and the Chicago O'Hare airport was closed because of storms. So after about an hour, they re-routed us through Salt Lake City and then on to Orlando. Got to Orlando about 11 pm local time, took about 2 hours to find our hotel, which was in Kissimmee (we learned it's pronounced kis-SIM-mee; we'd been pronouncing it KISS-i-mee), normally only 30 minutes from the airport. Turns out every street there has three different names, depending on who you talk to.

Tuesday: Spent the morning catching up on sleep and learning our way around. Headed down to Tampa in the afternoon, then on to Clearwater Beach. The water was so warm! And it was clear, just like the name implies, which was fun; we could see big schools of tiny fish swimming around. We watched some kids breakdancing on the sidewalk. I'm more convinced than ever that it's something I want to learn.

Wednesday: Went to Sea World. We had so much fun, and loved the shows they had. There was a whale and dolphin show that also featured platform divers (made me wish I'd been better at diving). We of course saw the Shamu show, which was really good (too short, I thought). And we went on a couple little rides. After Sea World closed, we went out to dinner--Thai food! Yum!

Thursday: Loved Sea World so much, we took advantage of the free bounce-back. We didn't get to see everything on Wednesday, so we saw the rest when we went back. We stayed for a few hours. Went to Cocoa Beach in the afternoon (this is where I'd like to live). Almost got in a wreck on the way; somewhere around Cape Canaveral, some dude darted out across the highway in front of 60 mph traffic, causing all the cars to slam on their brakes. There were all kinds of cars parked on the side of the road. We didn't know what was going on, so we kept driving. Got to the beach and heard a countdown on the radio. Looked up in the sky and there was a space shuttle, tearing through the sky. Rented some surf boards from a little shop. Surfing is a lot harder than I remember. I'd only done it once before, and only got up once, but I couldn't do it at all this time. Ate at Ron Jon Surf Grill on the way back to the hotel. Had a scallop wrap with capers. I love capers!

Friday: Went to Busch Gardens. This was probably one of my favorite days (tied with going to Cocoa Beach). Busch Gardens wasn't crowded at all. They had four rides, and we were able to ride each of them with little to no wait. Sometimes we even got to stay on the ride for the next round. We went on one of the water rides and got absolutely drenched. The lady sitting across from us had on a poncho, but even without it she wouldn't have gotten wet at all. She just sat there and laughed at us. We had to buy new clothes, 'cause it wasn't quite warm enough outside to dry ours. Ate at Waffle House on the way back to the hotel. There's a Waffle House every other block down there. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was a fun experience, anyway.

Saturday: Went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. The disappointment of the year. Shoulda gone to Epcot like everyone said. Tomorrowland was pretty cool; the Carousel of Progress was amazing, showing all the progress that's been made in the last century. I liked Mickey's PhilharMagic Orchestra, too--cute little 3-D show. And of course we went on the Small World ride. The whole time I kept thinking, this would be way better if the kids were here. But they weren't, so it was a little bit boring. Went to CityWalk at Universal Studios. Ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Elvis Room (thought of you, Ace)! CityWalk was really cool. It was a little like Mardi Gras. But without girls lifting their shirts up. Of course, we didn't go there during Spring Break, so who knows what it'll be like then... Actually, the whole town seems really family oriented. I don't think I even heard a cuss word our entire vacation.

Sunday: Slept in (I always feel like we pack so much into our vacations that I don't get to rest, so I made sure we did on our last full day there). Bummed around Orlando and Kissimmee looking at shops and stuff. Went back to the hotel packed up, napped a little, then went back to CityWalk in the evening. Checked out all the shops, including the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I didn't realise such a place actually existed. It was loads of fun. Didn't eat there, though. Ate at Black Angus Steakhouse on the way back to the hotel. It was delicious.

Monday: Got up early and headed to the airport to return the rental car. Flew from Orlando to Washington D.C., then to Chicago, then to Boise. Got to Boise about 8:30 pm. Went to David's sister's to get our car, then to David's cousin's to get Samantha. Got back to Pocatello about 1:45 am. I woke the boys up to say hi. Drew was a little confused, then when he realised it was me, he let out a little sob and held his arms out to me. It made me feel loved.

It's weird to be back doing the whole mom/housewife routine. I gotta start planning meals and cooking and cleaning and all that craziness now. Hope it doesn't take me too long to get back into the swing of things!