Our Magical Vacation

*Bear with me as I document our trip for my memory in this long post!
After two years of planning, and an unseemly amount of research and prep on my part, we finally executed our family's trip to Disney.  I use the term executed intentionally since anyone who has ever been to Disney knows that it takes a highly sophisticated plan in order to navigate the crowds, lines, fatigue and fun that is Disney.  Thankfully, I was the right girl for the job.

With my plans clenched in my fist we tackled as much of Orlando Disney's offerings as we could reasonably fit in and we had a fantastic time!  It was crazy.  And crowded.  And unbelievably fun.  My parents were able to be with us which added to our fun since my dad joined in on all the rides and my mom preferred to peel off to more tame rides with Marcus.  Our favorite park was Animal Kingdom followed very closely by Magic Kingdom and we spent the majority of our time at these two.

Day 1-Magic Kingdom
Our first day there we met up with the Nelsons who were finishing their week in the area.  It was not a great 'catch-up' visit but it was fun to see them and they helped us get our bearings on how to navigate the parks.  Then that night we had tickets for Hoop Dee Doo a dinner and show which was perfect for our family's humor and palate.

First (and last for Zach and Marcus) roller coaster, Barnstormer!

Not sure you will able to see this dark video, but I secretly captured Marcus moving to the music-which is so much a part of his personality! (For those that receive this via email you will have to go to the blog site to view.)

Hoop Dee Doo dancing from Marcia Miller on Vimeo.

Day 2 we spent at Epcot where we enjoyed Soarin, Test Track and Mission Space (My dad even ventured for a solo trip to Mars on the orange level which was the full g-force experience-the rest of us were too chicken.)  At Epcot we got to meet some Disney characters and we enjoyed a German feast at Biergarten.  Everything Disney does is in such detail and it is one of my favorite parts of the Disney experience.  The restaurant is indoors but is intricately set up to look like you are dining in a German village square-complete with singing, dancing and yodeling.  The World Showcase portion of Epcot was so crowded and we had such limited time that we did not really get to enjoy very many of the countries.

Day 3 was back to Magic Kingdom.  Where the boys got to drive at the Speedway, take a Jungle Cruise, ride the Carousel, meet Buzz and defeat Zurg on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Finally got to the Carousel!

4-D movie Philharmagic

Day 4 (we're starting to feel the fatigue) Animal Kingdom!  This park was a definite hit for us.  A slower pace to the park combined with attractions that are focused on animals and dinosaurs is a perfect fit for us-what's not to love?!?  The adults were amazed by the creativity and beauty of Finding Nemo the musical.  It had such an interesting mix of theater and puppetry.  The boys loved The Festival of the Lion King, another show, and they even got to participate at the end (Marcus did not like this part, even though he was the only one to receive a hug from Timon.)

Primeval Whirl-think tea cup on a roller coaster...

Day 5 was an 'off' day for us.  No rushing out the door early to beat the crowds!  Instead we stayed at the resort and played miniature golf and swam in the pool.  It was a very relaxing and low-key day.  After dinner we had tickets to see La Nouba which is a Cirque de Soleil show that was gravity defying and amazing and gave the boys many new career options they would like to pursue.

Day 6 was a repeat-favorite rides at Magic Kingdom day, plus the new experience of Space Mountain (for Steve, dad, Eli and myself).  Then we had dinner at the T-Rex cafe (another hit) which was a very elaborately decorated jurassic period restaurant with moving prehistoric creatures.  We ended our day at Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic, their firework, laser and light show, and encountered major-stress with crowd volumes-wow!

'Tea Pots' (according to Marcus)

A million of our closest friends for Fantasmic....

And finally, Day 7 we spent another half day at Animal Kingdom.  We got to see more animals on the trails that we hadn't fit in on our previous day.  We rode the Kilimanjaro Safari again with a vastly different and better experience early in the morning. And, we had to see the Festival of Lion King again!

Truly our trip was one of the best vacations ever!  Everyone felt the infectious positive and happy feelings that are evident in every single Disney employee, from the parking attendants to the performers-- they were all enthusiastic about their jobs and about our being there.  That 'magic' makes all the difference and was especially felt by certain members of our family:

Cousins' Camping Trip

Remind me to never again agree to do two camping trips in the same month!  Seriously.  Especially if I am responsible to feed 15 people on the second one.....  We have survived both trips and even really enjoyed them, including the most recent one with oodles of people.

Steve had the idea to do a cousins camping trip since two more of them graduate from high school this year.  It seems like it is going to be harder and harder to find time to all be together.  Our rules were simple; no boyfriends/girlfriends and no cell phones!  They all couldn't wait! :)

Everyone met at our house late Friday night and our caravan of 3 vehicles (stuffed to the gills) started off at 6 am.  Our first stop was Falling Spring waterfalls which had been recommended to us.  It was just a tad disconcerting to ignore the posted signs about not climbing around down to the falls (I did not fully understand in the recommendation that this would be the case!) but once we got past the signs, and my conscience, we spent a very pleasant couple of hours clambering around among the falls with plenty of other low-moral people.

The view from the top of the falls.

After the falls, we drove the remainder of the way to Bolar Mountain campground on the beautiful Lake Moomaw.  We arrived fairly late in the day, 5pm, and had a somewhat stressful couple of hours unpacking, setting-up and serving dinner before dark.  (Probably didn't seem too stressful to anyone but me....)  

This lizard 'hung' out with Brandon

The next day we managed to fit in a 4+ mile hike with a couple of lake overlooks and swimming in the lake.  The main attraction at this particular campground is the lake, so while most of our neighbors were kayaking, fishing and boating we blazed a trail on one of the surrounding mountains.  Since the hiking is clearly not a main draw for the area, we found the trail markings to be somewhat spotty but did managed to complete the circuit we had originally intended.  phew.  Our reward was swimming in the lake for the afternoon and some people even managed to play a football game in the water on the very mucky, slippery mud and rock bottom.

The next day we only had time for breakfast before we had to begin reversing the process of Saturday night.  And packed-to-the-gills (despite all the food and firewood that we consumed), we headed home!

Camping trip #1

This past weekend we met up with the Eddys for a quick camping trip in West Virginia.  We stayed 2 nights at Blackwater Falls State Park.  It was a beautiful area and the rain held off until we packed up on Sunday.  The boys all agree that we need to do more camping and hiking--which is good since we go again with their cousins in 2 weeks!

Blackwater Falls

 

Exploring the creek at Dolly Sods-an adventure to get to it!

Lindy Point!

Summer ramblings

Marcus' face says it all!

My blogging frequency has certainly been on the decline.  I want to maintain it since my main reason for keeping it is to remember all these events and moments.  Please forgive me as I catch up in a choppy manner.

Since my last post, we have had:

• Stephanie's wedding!

•  Finished a homeschool year.
• Completed another year of Little League with ace pitcher, Zach and cool catcher, Eli.

• Celebrated 4 year old birthdays and 9 1/2 year old birthdays.
• Had our first buzzcuts and then mohawks (sigh)!

• Marcus learned how to ride a 2-wheeler.

•   We've driven to LFR, Duck and back.

LFR gang 2016

• Went tubing with Uncle Michael (Aunt Jan and Big Marcus too).

• Got to visit Nana in her North Carolina home.

• Celebrated 15 years of marriage!
• Picked crabs and had Bri and Nathan come visit.

•  Spent a lot of time with the Wilhelm boys (while Lisa is in the hospital).

•  And we enjoyed the following Marcus moments..

• Marcus is a loud, boisterous, relentless child.  Sometimes his exuberance is exhausting.  One especially energetic day Steve said, "Marcus! Cork it!" to which Marcus responded, "Ok. (pause) What does 'cork it' mean?"

• While in Mississippi at LFR this summer, the boys raced to our cabin ahead of us to get changed for swimming.  We opened the cabin door to Marcus stripping off his clothes in the living room doing a very loud baseball cheer "I'm fired up, you're fired up-Yeah! I'm fired up, you're fired up-yeah!"

•  Oh, and Marcus learned how to raise his eyebrows. 

Eyebrow trick2 from Marcia Miller on Vimeo.