Our last two weeks in a rather large nutshell.

We are back and all alive from our marathon 2 week trip in the south. The whole point was that Than was going to be traveling to a few conferences and gone for two weeks, so why not travel with him and see some friends and family on the way? You know I'm in. I did have to think about taking Pacen out of school for 2 weeks, but this was way more fun.

First stop: Florida!

We stayed with Dan and Brittany for a night and then headed off to Orlando to hit Disney World. I have to say...We DOMINATED that place. We only had one day and so we just got up super early and made our plan and hit the ground running. We started in Animal Kingdom and headed for the good jungle ride, saw some characters, rode some dinosaur rides, saw a Nemo Show and had gotten a good feel for Animal Kingdom so we headed towards Hollywood Studios.

Early morning in Animal Kingdom.

Pacen and Claira rode in the back of our double stroller together and did so well. People kept looking strangely at us having three kids in a stroller but we had to move and make our kids happy so that they would last until 10pm. And it worked!

Characters, anyone? My kids are obsessed with seeing the characters so we spent some time doing that.

In Hollywood studios, we did the Playhouse disney thing, while Than rode some big kid rides, did star tours, and the starwars show, saw the Pixar Parade and then the kids were begging for some rides, so we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. The main problem with Disneyworld is that there aren't too many small kid rides in any of the other parks. Good for older kids, bad for mine. Pacen kept asking for the teacups and Camry wanted Tiana. Off to Magic Kingdom we were.

We love the "Music-go-round".

And especially the teacups...

The last picture of the day. Camry hadn't seen Minnie yet and so we had asked the kids if they would rather see the fireworks or ride rides, and they said ride rides, so we headed off to do that when we saw that minnie didn't have a wait so we saw them and then rode some rides and I still got to see the fireworks and also the electrical parade as we were heading out. It really was a perfect day for only having one day at Disneyworld. Really not the preferred way to do it, but we had a blast and our kids are amazing!!! They just kept going and going and going and on our trip back to the car everyone was asleep in the stroller and I was wishing I had a stroller myself because I was beat! I really love that we travel with our kids and of course, there were times when Camry didn't want to walk and the one time where I couldn't find where we left our stroller...argh...but overall, it was so dang fun and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The rest of our time in Florida was spent with the Jagoda's. Than was working his conference and the kids just played and played and played. Camry loved having someone to play princesses with and Jack loved chasing Pacen around. It was a perfect match. Thanks D & B for letting us crash your house.

Next Stop: New Orleans

This was the most difficult part of the trip since I had never been there before, Than had to work most of the time, and I had three kids in tow in a very un-family friendly town and our hotel was freak nasty. Stains, small, smelled. Just gross. But they did have a great continental breakfast of biscuits and gravy. :) New Orleans is a great place if you're into getting drunk and partying, not so great if you're a mormon family of five. We did make the most of it and I'm glad that I can now say, "I've been to New Orleans." But I'd never tell anyone to go there. I do feel for NO, with all the poverty plus Katrina. It's like Detroit and you just wish there was an easy fix for their problems, but it will take a lot of time and work and desire to improve that place.

Our first day was spent around the Mississippi River watching boats and going to a less that great Aquarium. We tried the 3D IMAX but they overbooked it and so we didn't get seats and the kids couldn't handle not sitting next to me so we only lasted 20 minutes into it. Best part of the day was having to lock up my stroller outside the theatre. At least they provide locks for you, just a little not like Happy Valley.

Then we met up with Than for lunch in the French Quarter. That is a really cute part of town. Lots of people, artwork, music, balconies, food. We found some real NO cuisine. He had a Muffletta and some craw gumbo, and I had red beans and rice. Check out that claw...yikes.

Then we finished off with a Beignet...a little bit of fattening heaven. No picture though. dang.

Isn't Camry just pretty?

Day two in NO was spent riding the street car to this beautiful park and zoo. I didn't take my camera since I had to do the street car thing and just didn't have enough hands and arms. And it was the most pretty place in all of New Orleans! But it was pretty interesting getting all the kids on the street car, get all of our junk out of the stroller, break down the stroller, put it on the car and then pay our fee to ride and hope that the kids are finding a seat while I'm doing all this. Most people were very helpful, especially when they saw my growing belly. But, no camera after all that. I need a little travel one I can put in my pocket.

Day Three: Children's Museum. Not exactly in the best part of town. I kept looking over my shoulder the whole walk there. But we were safe and sound and the kids loved it! What I think is so funny is how kids just want to do what grown ups do. They spent lots of time "cleaning" a house and "shopping". Pacen loved to be the cashier.

And they loved these two boats that they had. You could be the captain and we were the only kids in that part and so Camry and Pacen would yell at each other, "Are you okay, Captain?" "Right here, Captain!" and so on for probably 30 minutes. After we were walking away from that Pacen said, "Mom, I wish my friends could be here and play on that boat. They would love it!" Next time.

We did take a haunted history tour that was lame. But we did get to walk by Galatoire's for Loren. Story goes that when he was a child, his family went to Galatoire's and asked for ketchup for his food. The entire staff emptied the kitchen to see what was wrong with his food and why on earth he would ask for ketchup. He was horrified, his parents were horrified and the chef was horrified. It must be good since it's still in business almost 60 years later.

Right before we were ready to drive up to Tennessee, the rain came. And came. And came. We had just gotten off a street car and it just started pouring so we hopped into a little cafe, ate some lunch, ate some more beignets, and just waited for the rain to stop. But it never did! We had to brave the storm back to our hotel and we all were soaked! At least the kids thought it was awesome. I was ready to kiss New Orleans goodbye!

Last stop: Memphis, Tennessee

One of Than's states that he is over is TN. So, even though he didn't have a conference there, he had to visit a bunch of schools there and it was only 6 hours away from NO, so we headed up there and had a blast! We didn't do a whole lot, but the kids just played and played and played. We all do need to live closer to each other so that can happen more often.

Shauna just spoiled my kids with treats the whole time. We got in late and then the kids woke up and didn't go to sleep until 1 am, but then were up at 6:30 for their donuts. Spoiled rotten kids.

Playing in the gutter and watching How to Train Your Dragon. I LOVED that show!

Best thing about Memphis....BBQ. So good. I could have eaten that every night.

Okay, real best thing.

Baby Blake. The kids loved him and were up in his face most of the time. My first nephew. What a cutie pie.

Okay, other best thing. Claira and Daisy.

They are just little BFF's and I love it. It is the way that you hope all cousins play but they are usually shy or mean or could care less about each other. But not these two! They were so happy to play together. We loved it. Shauna got some cute video if you want to head over to her blog.


Slumber Party! Shauna let the kids (and me) pick our favorite treat at the store and had a little party. Pacen and Cam picked the movie....the lame Barbie and the three muskateers that Savannah had shown them. Pacen said, "Well there is sword fighting in it." True.

Then we flew home from Nashville. We walked around the Gaylord Hotel and Grand Ole Opry for a few minutes before getting to the airport. We just had a great time. I love being with my kids away from home 24 hours a day doing new fun things. I'm so glad we got to see Shauna and play with cousins.

But my fun didn't end there. We got into Utah at midnight on Wednesday night, then I headed off to BYU Women's Conference at 7:00AM! But that is for another post. It was amazing and I want to go again and again.