Magic Kingdom

Now that you've survived a year of deployment hell, what are you going to do, Simons family?. . . We're going to Disney World!!!

Saturday, December 5 we left for one of the best vacations EVER! We were a little nervous how things were going to turn out based on how the morning of our departure went. First, our alarm clock didn't go off and we had to be out of the house by 7:30 am because the exterminator was coming to bomb for our stupid German roaches. Which meant we had to hurry, and that always means something gets forgotten. We loaded the car and Brian realized he had forgotten his sunglasses. . . and, of course. . . he had to have THOSE glasses. Brian had to cover his head with a towel, over his mouth, hold his breath and run through the smokey house without breathing. He got his glasses and was exceptionally proud of his brave mission, when suddenly his eyes started burning. Two blocks into our journey, Brian pulled over, jumped out of the car and started dumping a water bottle into his eyeballs. It took a minute or two, but he was fine and we went on our way. After stopping at McDonald's for breakfast, Brian remembered he had left his military leave forms in his car at home, so we had to drive all the way back. We attempted to start the trip again. By that time, I was suddenly soooooo sick with something between a UTI and a kidney infection. I was nauseated, feverish, crying from pain, etc. I tried to be tough and keep going, but after traveling about 15 miles, I started to cry because I felt so bad that I was ruining the trip but I knew I couldn't make it 10 hours. I made Brian drive all the way back to Ft. Campbell so I could go to the emergency room. Usually going to a military emergency room takes HOURS (go socialized healthcare!!!), but that day we had a miracle and I was in and out with medication in 30 minutes. Finally, we left town, after the kids had already been in the car for three hours. But they did great and we made it to my brother's house in Jacksonville that night.

Sunday we hung out with Justin's family and had a blast. We then went down to our rental home in Orlando and were thrilled with the arrangements (pics to follow in another post). Everything was perfect despite the rocky start.

Monday we visited the Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed it, but it was crowded and we stayed ALL day to see the parade of lights--which only Brian could really see since he could look over the tops of everyone's heads. It was a good time and the kids enjoyed it immensely, but it wasn't our favorite park for sure. It just got better every day.