Here we are, less than 10 days into the new year, and as my
mother likes to remind me, she’s been reading the same blog entry since
Saturday. I have fallen down on
the job, yet again. I started a
post on Sunday, but then got caught up in planning my trip to Florida, and what
can I say, Mickey is more fun than just about anything else. They’re lucky we showed up at church
that day.
This week has been a blur in trying to get ready to go on
our trip. We have been planning
for a year to take a massive family vacation to Disney World with my
family. Granted, it’s not as if
this has never occurred before, but it’s been a few years and as the grandkids
proliferate and we are ever more involved in life, extracting all of us for a
few days is hard, let alone planning 10 days away. Fortunately, we all love it enough to try and make it work.
The impetus for this trip is actually my fault. As Matt has gotten more and more into
running, he has added a few Disney medals to his collection. Last January as I stood along the race
course for the marathon in Hollywood Studios, dancing to the loud music,
watching the runners in costume and generally just enjoyed being in the crowd,
I thought, “I think I could do this.”
Matt was all about it, so in that moment, our family was headed back to
Disney in 2014. We mentioned it to
my brothers and my folks and they were in too. Greg and Sarah even said they’d run with us. Aunt Suzy wanted in too, so now, we
head to Florida, a group of 17, to run a couple of races, eat a lot of food,
celebrate a couple of birthdays and have the BEST time.
As I sit typing this on the airplane, between Jack and
Allie, I am excited. Not really
for the race, because at this point, I’m more excited to just have it over
with, but for the time together.
Time away from home, from school, from work and from all the demands of
daily life. Oh, and the air.....
‘cause it really sucks in Utah right now.
I hate pulling my kids out of school to travel, but more than that, I
have the winter blues and boy, do they seem to hit this time of year. Therefore, Florida is the perfect
solution.
Let me just say, for the record, that being the mom and
trying to get 6 people ready for vacation is no easy feat. Add to that the planning and
coordinating for a group of our size and the last week has been a little
stressful. But...... that’s all
the complaining you’re going to hear from me. I felt a little guilty as I got out of the car at the
airport this morning. Matt is
coming tomorrow with Erin and Will and I’m leaving him to tie up all the loose
ends before the trip.... the dogs, the chickens, final school stuff and
bringing anything that I discover that I’ve forgotten once I get there. I all but pushed the kids into the
airport as I shouted goodbye over my shoulder to Matt and Will. Add to that the snow that is flying at
home over the next few days, and I was more than happy to say goodbye for a
bit.
I have to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for
a kid like Allie. She has gotten
ALL of her homework finished before our trip. Although there have been a few panic attacks this week, she
has emerged relatively unscathed and ready for a good time. Erin has also made a monumental effort
to get things done ahead of time.
As a parent, I hate it that my time with the kids seems to be regulated
by schedules so much. There’s part
of me that feels that I should just be able to pull them out whenever I want
to, to go wherever I want to. I
know I can’t, but I want to! Jack
has done some of his homework, but it’s been a fight and although I know we
need to work on it while flying, I’m not sure that I want to subject those
around us to the whining and fits that are going to ensue.
I’m not sure how the activities of this weekend are going to
go. I’m pretty sure that I’m not
going to die, but you never know.
I plan on blogging a little bit about Disney races in general, and my
race in particular. I don’t think
my fingers will be injured in the running of said race, so tune in later to
find out how it went.
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