Disney-Part Two

Before April of this year, we had not been to Disney (or Orlando, for that matter) in 9 years. Our trip in April was the first one that the girls could really "remember". When we left that last day, it was with sad hearts, thinking that we would probably not be back for a couple of years. Much to our surprise, and delight, we got to make a second trip this year. Yes, I said two trips in one year! Thanks, very much, to Kearsdad's employer! He was chosen to attend a conference held at none other than the Disney Swan and Dolphin! And we got to go with him!

Here are the girls at the fountain in the lobby as we were checking in. The girls and I decided that the lobby smelled like Soarin'. Kearsdad said he couldn't smell anything.


Here is a view of the hotel from the walkway between the Dolphin (where we stayed) and the Swan. The Dolphins, as seen in the picture above, don't look like dolphins. They look like fish. Here is the information my good friend Junebug provided for me about the Dolphin and its' emblem:

The statues on top of the Dolphin hotel are not mammalian dolphins, but a stylized version of a nautical dolphin, a common symbol used on old world nautical maps. The design of the creatures is based on Triton Fountain in Rome.
Kat said she and JMatt decided that the real story is that the dolphins are magical Disney dolphins and that is why they look different.

We spent the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, in Epcot and the Magic Kingdom with Kearsdad. David, one of Kearsdad's "boys" got to join us Saturday and later in the week too! It was an extra treat to get to spend time with him. (He is attending school in Orlando. Rough life, ya know?)


While Kearsdad was in his conference during the week, the girls and I went back and forth between the pool (I will have to post a picture of the pool later), and the parks. We slept late, enjoyed breakfast, took our time, and had lots of fun.

There was, however one sad and traumatic moment. On Sunday (day two) about midway through the day, the unthinkable happened. There I was, sitting on the boat on the Jungle Cruise, when I reached for my camera. Something felt wrong. I looked down to realize the shutter release button was GONE! Not there! I panicked! I disturbed the whole boat looking around for the missing pieces. We found the button, and a spring. But apparently an integral part was still missing. There was no fixing it. I really almost cried. Instead, we ended up going back to our room for a little while. While there, I got online, looked up the missing part, found it, and ordered it! So now, that part is on its way. Not in time to use my camera in Disney all week, but hopefully we will be able to fix it. The rest of the weeks pictures are on my phone and Kat's camera. Not sure how good those will be, but better than nothing I suppose!

So...for now...here are a few more pictures from our trip BEFORE my camera died. I haven't loaded the pics from Kat's camera to the computer yet. More pictures to come...
(I am not sure what the fascination was with this phone booth...but we have multiple pictures of it from both trips.)

Test Track!

End of Summer

So, today is the official last day of summer. It's a beautiful day, not too hot, and I actually saw a couple of yellowish leaves on the ground in the back yard today. Fall must be on the way.

School is off to a good start. So far, high school isn't nearly as scary as I expected it would be. The girls are moving along nicely and liking their studies. They are taking two "classes" this year with our homeschool group-art and science-and are really enjoying them! Anna begins ballet this week, moving us into a full swing schedule. I'm afraid I've grown quite lazy, and I'm a little worried about getting back into a routine. We'll see how I do.

Now, with all that talk of schedules and routines...we are about to blow ours. You see, we leave in just 11 days for ORLANDO! We are going back! I finally got over the fact that we got to spend a whole week there in the spring, never dreaming we'd go back so soon. Kearsdad gets to attend a conference there...at one of the Disney resorts, no less...and we get to go too! We'll do a couple of days at the parks on the weekend before the conference begins, and then the girls and I will spend the week hanging out, swimming, enjoying the resort, shopping, etc. for the rest of the week. And spending a little time with our Orlando-based Devore as well! So much for routines and schedules, huh?

Finally, I leave you with a couple of pictures of the girls with their little friends from down the street. They are also church buddies...and the girls are their favorite babysitters. They took advantage of the beautiful weather this week and took the boys down to the boat landing to fly their kite...