Disney

♬ Nothing can stop us now. I'll tell you how, we're gonna make it happen. Let's take a ride and spend the day in the countryside. Good times are here to stay. Let's get away and have the perfect picnic. We'll sing a song, and absolutely nothing will go wrong. ♬

Disney trip 2.0 (This time with Daron!) was pretty dreamy. I wouldn't say nothing went wrong... I did try to pick the folks up at the wrong airport, there was a moment Aunt Cheryl was laid out on the ground after riding Guardians of the Galaxy, and two of our rope drop rides broke after we had been waiting for an hour, but other than that, it was a fun family vacation!

My parents went with us to Epcot which is kinda a big deal since Dad is very anti after losing Conn in Disneyland as a child. I got to show Daron Soarin' (although I liked soaring over the world better than just America.) I also liked the movie at the Land Pavilion (even though it is funny to get ecology advice from a billion dollar company showing wind turbines as great for the future.) All the "future" bits of the park are pretty comical- although I am sure they were impressive technology for their time. The Epcot ball ride had me laughing so hard when they build your future and crop your face on the picture. I was riding with Hannah and her face was one pixel. I don't know why it got me but I just thought it was hysterical. 

Conn's crew ditched us for a character lunch at one point and I was forced to navigate. I established a role call and potentially doubled our necessary steps. It is hard to keep big groups together and I do not envy the task. 

Daron loved Guardians. Rory screamed through the whole thing. He had been on it before so I was a bit surprised, but I think he is going through a sensitive phase. He opted out of most things after that and hung out with Aunt Cheryl (scary in its own rite 😄) who also faired poorly on Guardians and ended up horizonal at several points on her park exit. She lived. 

 

Animal Kingdom was pretty uneventful minus a double wait in the Avatar line. The safari was the highlight. We did see Rory's first grade teacher, who is a fanatic so it was fun to see her in her element. We had a short day there and then went back to our Air B&B where Dad hosted everyone with barbeque chicken. There was no grill, so he bought one and I now own a grill.

 

The next day we played at Copper Creek where Mary was staying. Uncle Steve made us a lunch of... barbeque chicken. (We should really communicate better. I like chicken though, so not really complaining.) We played in the pool and went to the Hoop-dee-doo Revue for dinner (chicken).

Our last day was Hollywood Studios. I don't think the Star Wars stuff disappointed Daron. I rode Rockin' Rollercoaster and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad which I hadn't before. Enjoyed both, but am mildly obsessed with the latter. Rory and I watched the Beauty and the Beast show with Aunt Cheryl who proceeded to park her scooter at the top and walk down 50 flights of stairs to the front row to sit in the handicapped section. There were a few side eyes, but she got away with it. Silas stayed with the big kids for the night show and the rest of us ducked out early. Rory also invented a game called Waboba Pro where he would throw our water ball up the stairs and teammates at different levels would try to stop it before it made its way to the floor. I did enjoy it. 

I am not the fan of Disney that my sister is and having been somewhat recently, I was mostly there for the people, but it ended up fun and I am glad Daron can share in the memories.

May

That's a wrap on 7th and 3rd grade! Both boys got all A's and Rory won the citizenship award for his class. We went to the ceremony because we were told he was getting an award. Last year he got the PE award so we were wondering which related art he would get this year. When they were all given out and he wasn't announced we were pretty sure the invitation was a mistake and we would need to leave with our tail between our legs, until apparently there was one final award at the end we didn't remember. Whew. Now every time he is doing something shady we like to remind him what a good citizen he is. He loves it. (Silas's teachers send no pictures.)

 

We had a summer kick-off party because I need something to ward off the end of school blues, which make no sense but hits me every year. It worked pretty nicely. We also had our small group over for Memorial Day.

 

Also pictured: rodeo, fair, and Derby with the Williamsons. I picked the winner last minute after my initial pick scratched. 

 

My first week of summer was almost entirely consumed by finding Waldo.

April

We had an early Easter basket hunt and went to the Good Friday service at church in place of Sunday, since we were boarding our ship on Easter. Pastor Malcolm didn't pull any punches and Rory was asking some good questions on the way home. 

See the cruise post for all of that fun. 

When we got home from Florida, we celebrated Lilly turning 10, spent an evening with Nox in the ER because he ate a butt ton of oatmeal raisin cookies, and Rory had field day at school. Then Silas had his spring orchestra concert and Gigi and Shelly came to watch! They drove the whole way smelling fumes from my newly stained planter boxes Dad made for me. (They are lovely. I named one Cynthia and one Jolice.) We planted those, shopped, and went to a Fireflies game on Friday. Saturday was a murder mystery dinner that turned out to be a bit amateur, intimate, and awkward. Poor Jane got pulled up for the show. We did have 2 of the murder victims at our table and we won the prize for figuring it out! Sunday we saw Mary and relaxed before they made the trip back home. Now the house feels empty and we are all depressed.