Day six, our second travel day, had a nice start. Our flight was in the early evening and the Magical Express was scheduled to pick us up at 1:30, so we slept in a bit and then started packing things up. I was outside for a while and noticed our first character sighting at the resort. I called the kids to let them know Goofy and Pluto were outside our building, so Naomi and Tyler headed down for a shot with those two Disney dogs in the distant background.
Why was I outside while everyone else was in the room? Remember how I told you only two friends knew about our the timing of our trip way ahead of time? One was Tammy, as I mentioned in another post. The other was Pam, a woman whose sons I grew up with because our families were friends, was initially my mom's friend, is super special to my sister and I, and who Naomi adores. (We all love her, but it's just different with the girls than the guys.) She lives in Florida and drove over to spend a couple hours visiting, a trip that required more time on the road alone than out of it with the Ws. I was outside so I could meet her in the parking lot and bring her to our room. You all know how much I love Pam, so it goes without saying that this was icing on the cake of a fantastic trip.
So good for my heart!
She left as we boarded the Magical Express back to the airport and started our journey back across the country. It's not a thing anywhere else like it is in Portland, but I asked the fam for one final trip shot, one of our feet on the Orlando airport carpet. They complied. Probably because I promised it was the last shot.
Six carry-ons, six personal bags, and six Ws left Orlando at 5:45 Friday evening, January 15th.
Is it bad to pick an airline based on the color of their wings? I'm not even the one who made the choice, but I love that we ended up with a view of a wing tip in my favorite colors of green and blue.
Our trip began with a flight at sunrise and ended with a sunset takeoff. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was so pretty!
There was one point in the flight where I discovered this bag was about to explode. Ay yi yi. That would have created some unnecessary excitement on the flight! Thankfully, the bag survived. And its expansion amused Tyler.
Speaking of Tyler, he stayed awake for the whole flight, which landed at what our bodies thought was 11:45. Well, at least until about two minutes before the wheels touched down and his attempt to lean on me turned into sliding down my side and completely konking out. I waited until all but one family had disembarked before waking him up and guiding his groggy self out off the plane.
We quickly hopped a shuttle to our van, then made the 45 minute trek home. I'd told Natie a couple weeks earlier that she could meet us at our home in order to see Silas as soon as possible, but warned her she might be greeting six tired people who were pretty crabby after a really long day and a time zone change. She'd asked to keep it a surprise for Silas, but ended up telling him at some point during the trip. Despite a partial slip of my own, the other kids didn't know she'd be waiting for us.
I'd thought about asking her to pick up a Costco lasagna and salad that I'd reimburse her for, as we'd have missed a real dinner (no meals on flights), but I knew our body clocks would be totally messed up and didn't want her to go through the hassle if we ended up not hungry. Then at some point during the week she texted to say she was making dinner. If we wanted to eat when we got home, it would be ready. If not, we could save it for the next day. No pressure either way. So sweet!
What was shaping up to be an unpleasant reentry (because that part of a trip's never fun) was totally turned around when Natie and Callyn (one of her sisters, the musician whose debut album I blogged about recently) greeted us at the door with hugs, hellos, and a meal they'd prepared. It was 10:00 local time, which our bodies thought was 1:00, and we walked into a home that smelled amazing. Within just a few minutes, all eight of us were gathered around the table they already had set and ready for us.
I took this picture before I realized there was a big tray of roasted veggies in the oven, but the spread was awesome. Tons of pasta with sausage (enough for intentional leftovers), salad, a ton of veggies, breadsticks, and cookies for dessert. Did I mention it smelled good? Because it did.
Food (and everything else) always looks best in natural light, but that wasn't an option for this late night feast. I didn't realize how much I needed a full meal until I took my first bite. I was immediately and exceedingly thankful for the work Natie and Callyn put into making it for us.
I love cookies, so these soft ginger and eggnog with eggnog frosting treats that Callyn made were a superb ending to my day. Evidently my disdain for eggnog as a beverage doesn't transfer to eggnog in cookie form. Good gravy, the whole meal was so good!
The little Ws protested my request for a picture of the whole group because I'd told them earlier in the day the airport carpet picture was the last trip picture. I responded with the fact this wasn't technically a trip picture. And I compromised by only taking one shot, even though half my face was cut off. The moment just had to be documented.
But the perfect ending to the night got even better. Tammy had stopped by earlier to drop off enough food that we wouldn't have to do any cooking the next day and could just rest as we adjusted back to real life. Seriously. We know some pretty thoughtful people! I opened this cute Disney card from her before dinner, hence the clean plate, but it wasn't part of that meal.
There were lemon blueberry muffin tops for breakfast (I love lemon!); tortellini pesto salad and spinach to serve it on for lunch (I love that recipe!); slow cooker honey pot roast (sauce made up so I just had to dump it all in the slow cooker) that I put over spinach for my own portion, cauliflower Devon roasted, and cookies from Crumbl for dessert (because they had a lemon poppyseed one in the mix, and she knows I love both lemon and cookies). There was also lemon blueberry bread (same recipe as the muffin tops) that I popped in the freezer for later. And to keep things fair, I took pictures of this food in bad lighting. I'm an equal opportunity presenter of unappetizing pictures. Ha!
This was my first Crumbl experience. It won't be my last.
Folks, this trip was such a big deal for us. Lots of people do regular Disney trips. We aren't those people. That's totally fine, but I'm just pointing out why this trip was significant to our family. Silas went to Disneyland with his youth group a few years ago. I went with my family in seventh grade and again with my class as part of a senior trip when we graduated. I'm 44, so it's been quite a few years since my trips. Four Ws had never been to any Disney park at all. None of us had ever been to Disney World.
To win the prize was such an unexpected part of an incredible #BracesOnFaces experience with an office we love. We were sending people to Senestraro Family Orthodontics long before we realized there was the potential to get something out of the referrals (and we'll continue referring people now that we've already won because we still think they're the best).
If we'd won a few years ago, we'd have faced a dilemma in not being able to afford paying for the two Ws not covered in the prize. There just wasn't that kind of wiggle room in our budget. To win now, at a time when we had some leftover braces money after getting braces on each family member in less than three years (that will never cease to astound me), some miscellaneous income we could put toward the cause, and extra money in our monthly budget in the time leading up to the trip, was a huge blessing. Not only were we able to pay all the necessary expenses, but we were able to give each family member a good chunk of cash to use as personal spending money, leave generous tips at the two dine-in restaurants we had reservations at, eat whatever food we wanted for the entire trip, pay for miscellaneous expenses and extra purchases, and still have a ton of money left at the end. If you know me at all, you know I'm not saying that to be boastful about the amount of money we had for the trip. Instead, you know we've had lots and lots of years of exceedingly tight finances that made this trip feel absolutely miraculous.
This was our first and last true vacation as a family - a trip without tents, sleeping bags, freezing meals ahead of time to cook over a fire later, or sleeping on the couches and beds of friends or extended family. We love the other kind of trips, but this was a once in a lifetime event for our family. To be able to go before our oldest gets married and when our youngest is both old enough to remember the trip and tall enough to go on all the rides was perfect. The timing may have been wonky because of C19 stuff, but it was so amazing in so many ways. I'll be forever grateful.
Day six, our second and final day of travel, was done.
*****
Here are links for all the posts about our Disney trip.
The trip was a prize from our orthodontist's office, Senestraro Family Orthodontics, as our name was drawn from all the established patients who referred new patients to their office in 2019. We've loved that office for over three years now and highly recommend them to anyone within driving distance of their three offices in Sherwood, Wilsonville, and Woodstock. Initial travel information was provided by Kristy and all travel arrangements, as well as really helpful daily tour plans for us to use as suggested launch points for our days, were provided by Tanya, both from Incredible Memories Travel. I'll definitely use their services if we ever get to travel again and recommend them to anyone who'd like someone else to do all the background work for their next vacation.
