From Destin we drove east to Orlando. While driving I was overcome with this feeling of gratitude and accomplishment so I turned to Dave and said, “We are living my dream!” I was so happy we were making it happen. It felt like all the tough parts were worth it.
And then we spent a week in Orlando that nearly did me in. I’m not sure why that week was so hard for me. I got to see two of my sisters and their families, which was super fun, and we spent 4 days in amusement parks with spectacular weather and older cousins and aunts/uncles who could help us stand in line and take little kids to the bathroom and take big kids on roller coasters the littles couldn’t ride. Whatever the reason, I have spent the last few weeks trying to piece my mental health back together. I think we’re getting tired. We don’t take any days “off” because I can’t bear to waste an opportunity to see or do something, and homeschooling unwilling kids who miss their friends and normal life is hard, and not having our typical routine/beds/food is tough. We are so glad we’ve done it though and have learned a lot about ourselves and our family and what is important to us. And we are looking forward to the next chapter in our lives. Our current plan (much different than the one we thought we had figured out a month ago) is to travel through the summer and then settle down in time to enroll the kids in school in August.
At any rate, here are about 50 pictures from our 4 days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The kids were so excited about all the Harry Potter stuff, which is why we chose those parks over Magic Kingdom. Since we didn’t give them much for Christmas (no space!) this was their Christmas present. We started listening to the Harry Potter books in January 2022 and were in the middle of the last book when we got to Orlando. The detail in the rides and Diagon Alley and all the HP stuff is incredible. We made our own HP shirts to wear, tried lots of treats from Honeydukes and of course had to drink Butterbeer a few times (it is delicious). Mabel discovered that she loves thrill rides, Else discovered that she is brave and likes most roller coasters, and June discovered that she was still just barely too short to try them out. The little ones were good sports when they couldn’t ride much, and Townes learned that he can overcome his fears and try the coaster again and it’s not near as scary the second or third time. Wren learned that she loves roller coasters too and can’t wait to try to big ones someday. Margot surprised us all by walking the entire day, all day, 4 days in a row. And I learned that I truly cannot handle going to another amusement park until all of my children are independently responsible for their own toileting.
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