Dream Vacation Part 1

 

So if you know my kids...or really have even met my kids.....you have heard about THE TRIP!

It has been in the works for close to two years.

My GENEROUS and KIND in-laws treated ALL of us....My crew, Rhonda's crew, and Ryan's crew to the trip of a lifetime:

Sea World, Disney Cruise to the Bahamas, Disney....all expense paid.

And I do mean ALL.

So last Thursday we loaded on a bus they rented and headed south.

The cousins were psyched!

 

Cousins, cousins, everywhere!

 

Everyone paired up

 

and had a lot of fun!

LOVE THESE TWO SWEET BOYS!

 

So this post is either going to be REALLY long.....or it will be several posts.

Seeing as time is crunched right now I'm going to opt for several shorter post.

This post is just some of the highlights for me!

 

I had two teary moments on the trip.

The first is when I walked onto Main Street, USA at the Magic Kingdom and saw my children see Cinderellas castle.

The little girls were enthralled!

 

 

Fairy Tales!

 

The second was when my sweet little boy touched a dolphin.

 

 

If you know Jack very well, you know he adores dolphins.

I don't know why....but from a very young age he has a special love for dolphins and to see him touch one was priceless :)

 

He was a little emotional too.

Sweet, sweet, boy.

 

My favorite part of the trip was definitely the cruise.

Especially the few quiet moments Randy and I were able to steal.

 

 

R-E-L-A-X-I-N=G

 

 

The color of the water.

AMAZING....so BEAUTIFUL

 

Another one of my favorite parts of the trip was how brave Sophie was.

She wanted to hang out with her cousin Geer.

He wanted to ride all the big rides: Thunder Railroad, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Rock and Roller coaster, Tower of Terror.....so she did them....all.......... and loved it!

Go Sophie!!! 

 

 

The fancy food.  I love fancy food.

YUMMY!

 

The day I got to spend alone in the park with Audrey.

So special.

She was scared of the big rides and the other four wanted to ride them....so Daddy took the wild ones and I got to ride Dumbo and Peter Pan and the train and watch Mickey's Philharmagic with my baby girl.

I love one on one time with my kids.  It is so rare and so special.

 

The most wonderful surprise of the trip was running into Chique.

In a crowd of over 61,000 people I saw the doctor who is a very close friend to the missionaries I spent time with this summer.

I fell in LOVE with Chique.  Her testimony is powerful and to run into her unexpectedly at Disney World was a precious blessing!

It was definitely a God thing because my whole family was there when we ran into her.

We were all together for maybe 10 minutes that entire day!

Thank you Lord!!!!!

 

Oh Happy Day!

 

Another highlight was Castaway Cay!

 

Disney's private island....was for lack of a better word....magical!

Paradise!

 

I loved my boy having good, rough, boy cousin time!

Love those smiles!

 

And the view!

Loved waking up to that view!

(No Jackson didn't sleep in the window....they just all loved to lay in it!)

 

And Radu our fantastic server.

It was a blessing to share a bit of life with him.

Over the week we learned a lot about him.  He is from Romania and has a 4 year old son and a wife. Heonly sees them every 8 months.  The rest of the year he is on the boat.

He misses his family but it is the best way he can provide for them.

He dreams of taking his son to Disney World one day.

He loves his family.

I am praying his dream will come true.

He shared about how his life was influenced by some Baptist missionaries to Romania.

He is a kind and hard working man.

I am glad to have met him.

I love how God orchestrates our paths and how he allowed ours to cross with Radu.

BLESSING!

 

Oh....and these two

Pure preciousness.

I love when they love each other.

 

So those are a few of my favorite moments from the trip.

Tomorrow I hope to do a bonus weight update post vacation.....UGH!

 

Thankful to Bob and Ruth for providing such an amazing experience for my family.

Thankful to God for placing precious friends old and new along the journey.

Thankful for the beautiful weather.

Thankful for the sweet family God gave me.

Thankful for the memories that were made!