Disneyworld – 10 Takeaways.

I want to share some pictures and memories from our recent vacation by doing a bit of a 10-list. So here it goes. In no particular order – The 10 things I took away from my week long vacation in Orlando, FL.

1. Kids can swim all day, really – all day. The house we rented, which was a great deal just before peak season, had a pool. This was great because we got plenty of relaxing and/or playing time at the convenience of our back door. And it was screened in so there weren’t any bugs – or gators…


2. Dreams do come true. It is a good thing I had on sunglasses while we were standing there watching this show because I was crying. It was an emotional moment. We had just entered the park, the kids were so excited, this dramatic show started up, they were singing about dreams come true, and I realized I was living a dream having this opportunity to take my kids to Disneyworld. Something my family could never afford to do when I was growing up (the first time I went to Disney was as about 14 and it was with our church youth group – not the same as going when you’re a child).
3. I am a good daddy no matter what that voice in my head keeps telling me. I held Skyler a lot of the time – and tolerated her 21 yr old attitude in a 3 yr old body (it’s mini-Shawna – and, huh, umm, huh, I love it sooo much. This is how I joke and provoke more attitude – lol). I also had to teach Devin multiple times that he is both an awesome crazy cool superhero no fear conquerer of the world and then turn around and teach him constraint and when it’s right or wrong to get mad and hit. Don’t mess with Skyler – that’s when Devin has my ok to open his little can on somebody, and he does. Bless Gauge’s little heart (our nephew and Devin’s best friend/cousin). For some reason the kids were spitting. After multiple scoldings, a spanking, and a very serious talk, Devin decided he was going to stop spitting and warn Gauge that if he spit on Skyler again he was going to unleash hell on him. Ok I used my own words there – he told him he would “have to hit him”. Anyway, this trip was all about family time so I enjoyed spending time with the kids – lots of stories I could write about for days…
4. Disney is the world’s best at marketing to kids and every church in America should require their childrens ministers to visit Disney once a year for creative learning, because call it what you want but lack of creativity and marketing sense is how churches have missed entire generations of people when they were young. I can’t even begin to describe the experience Disney has created. Pictures can’t even describe it. All this stuff is man-made. Amazing!
5. Peter Pan looks gay. Well, a lot of Disney characters look gay. Come to think of it there were quite a few really gay people at Disney – employees and guests. Maybe it’s all the make-up. Quite interesting but I’m not going there right now – I’m talking vacation. Let’s just think of gay for it’s happy meaning. These people are smiling and the kids love them cause they’re heroes. Look at these people. This was the highlight of the trip for Skyler – seeing the princesses.
6. I actually like Mickey & Minnie, Goofy and Donald.

7. Devin is going to be my Extreme Sports child – fearless climbing, crazy in water, can’t wait to get him on snow skis one day. Skyler doesn’t know what it means yet but she is a daddy’s girl.
8. Rainforest Cafe is a great experience, but don’t go unless you can handle eating in the jungle with a bunch of wild animals and rain storms. They have the largest mound of nachos I’ve ever tried to eat – couldn’t finish it.
9. These guys have crabs…I mean they ate crabs at Joe’s Crab Shack (This is Hal, David, and Kyle – most people would call them in-laws or out-laws – but not us – we’re all family). Why didn’t I get crab? I didn’t go on vacation to work so hard just to get a sliver of meat out of a bottom feeder – so I ate some of David’s…
This Elvis pic is in here because Shawna has a pathetic liking of how “pretty” he was in his younger days. How ironic that we saw him at Joe’s because among a lot of things he probably had crabs too… I’m just jealous cause I ain’t so purty. The caption says “Joe’s crab shack has got me all shook up!!” – yeah, in the pants crabby.
10. Here are some random pics of all of the family who went on the trip. Our family (Me, Shawna, Devin, Skyler), Shawna’s sister, Lenae, and her husband David and boys Gauge and Gavin, Shawna’s mom & dad (Hal & Grace) and her brother Kyle. Here’s some random pics:
This is David & Lenae – Shawna’s sister. David looks like a huge scary mafia hit-man, but really he’s a big teddy bear of a lovable guy – at least to the family. If I weren’t part of the family I would leave him alone.
This is baby Gavin – David and Lenae’s 8 month hoss. I didn’t get him in any of the other pictures with the kids so here he is pimpin. It ain’t easy.
This is just a good picture so I wanted to put it on here. Skyler loves her aunt Nae-Nae. Aren’t they beautiful. If you’re reading this Nae there’s your one compliment for the year. Don’t get too used to it.
Another big reason for this trip that I haven’t mentioned is that it was Hal & Grace’s 40th wedding anniversary. So we did a sand ceremony. The white sand represents Hal & Grace and all the other colors represent their children and their families. I guess a sand thingy like this is sentimental. Mine and Shawna’s family is represented by the purple sand.
Here is a picture of all of us together. Thanks to the nice lady who took our picture.
Here’s Shawna and I – we’re so in love… My wife is sooo beautiful!!!
This is the best vacation we’ve have had since our honeymoon (last year in San Diego is a close second but it was too short a trip), but now I’m looking forward to Shawna and I having a vacation for just the two of us. Heck, we’ll take a weekend getaway.

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