Home at last!!



My brother, Hal and his lovely wife, Charlotte



  It was a nice drive to New Jersey to stay with my brother even though it was rainy and dreary outside. The traffic was not bad at all early in the morning.




Our talented chef

  Hal and Charlotte took us to an Hibachi Restaurant that was alot of fun; not to mention the food was fabulous. The chef cooks the food right in front of us on a huge grill set in the table. The chef was a riot. He juggled his utensils and squirted saki into your mouth, if you wanted.  We had fun with the Cook family. Jill is due to have her baby this week. We are praying for everything to go smoothly. 

Tom, Chris, Jill, Rob, and Hal

    It was good to get home and unpack everything. You really appreciate home when you come back from a long trip. We rested and went for a long walk since we walked so much at Disney we felt we wanted to keep that up at home. I really feel better when we exercise every day.

Beautiful landscape in N.C.

Spring has sprung it the South

  Here are some pictures of the ride home. We stopped at the same fleamarket that we visited on the way to Disney. I got a cute bunny there.





Great stuff at fleamarket

I've started working on my cardmaking again. I have started a cascading card which I will post as soon as I get it done. I love my craft room. I think I will take some pics of it and share with you all.... oh.. does that sound like I just came from the South.

Heading Home!

   We had a great time at Disney this year. Well, we do every year, but the weather was perfect with a breeze every day to help the 80 plus degree temps. It was hard to pack up and leave, but we are anxious to get home, too. We left Orlando at 9:00 this morning. We ate lunch at a Cracker Barrell. We ended up spending the night in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Russ is getting me a warm pretzel at Germany.



The torches are lit.

  

We spent out final night at Epcot watching the fireworks again. We love them. It is so romantice walking back to our resort with the music still playing. Disney knows how to do it right. Hope you enjoy the video of the first part of the fireworks show at Epcot.

Shopping Therapy at Downtown Disney

  We hopped on a bus for Downtown Disney after taking a nap. Tom went golfing at Osprey Ridge. The shopping therapy began after having a sandwich at Earl of Sandwich. The place was not busy until later when everybody and his brother landed there. We had fun looking at all the good stuff. I bought a few souvenirs

Russ is just as cute as Mickey; cuter....



He squirts water.





   We were lucky enough that while we were waiting for the Disney bus to pick us up.. and we were tired, too- Tom called and said he was finished golfing. He offered to pick us up in five minutes. Whoopie!
   We were home in no time with our feet no worse off.. It was a great day.
   Tomorrow will be our last day. We plan on going to flea markets and then to the Epcot fireworks for one last time.

Infinity and Beyond!

   We headed back to Magic Kingdom last night to watch the parade and see the fireworks. I am not a fan of Disney's Electrical Parade 'cause the music is awful. The floats are cute. The fireworks are awesome, though.



Waiting for the parade!



Cinderella's Castle at night.

  I took lots of pictures of the castle 'cause the different colors were so cool.

Lovely shade of pink



Multi colored castle


 The night was so perfect as far as weather. There was a slight breeze which was refreshing in wake of the day's heat. The only problem was the mob of people. We have never seen so many at Magic Kingdom before. It was a slow walk to the bus once the fireworks were over.
  Today we walked over to Soarin at Epcot to get Fast Pass. We watched Captain EO and Figment before getting on. I forget how much I love this ride. Everyone heads there first so it's quite busy. The Fast Pass is a wonderful invention.
    We ate lunch at the Chinese Pavillion. The orange chicken was delicious. We then walked to the boat and got off at Boardwalk Resort.
     We shopped a bit at The Screen Door gift shop and then headed toward Welcome Home Wednesdays for Vacation Club members. Russ had decided that we should sit down front so that he could get chose for the Jeopardy Game about Disney. And guess what ???? He was picked.


He's a shoo in for the real show....

    He knew he wouldn't know most of the answers, but whoever plays wins and gets free gifts. He was a riot because for most of his answers he chose Japan. People thought he was funny. He won a Disney magnet for the car, a Disney thermo bag, and a can cozy. When we walked back to Boardwalk to go to the Members gift shop, we walked by someone and they said, "Hello, Japan!" He's famous now.

Illumination 2012

Hollywood Studios and Toy Story Mania



C3PO in the dark



   We went back to Epcot last night to see the fabulous fireworks which start at 9:00. We tried to go and ride Toy Story Mania but it was an eighty minute wait. We decided to do that ride tomorrow. We did go on Star Tours. It was kinda fun, but a little scary. We went to the less intense version since the other ride would have probably given me a heart attack. I got a picture of C3P0. Idon't think Iwould do this ride again, though.

   Chris wanted to go through Walt Disney's museum at Hollywood Studios. It brings back memories of our childhood watching Disney on Sunday nights. What a great man he was.



I love this poster of Mickey.



.



Russ and Tom checking out the turtles.



   We rested our feet back at the room. Beach Club is such a beautiful resort. I love taking pictures of it.

   Next we walked to Epcot for the Illumination Fireworks. It is such a beautiful show. The lights go dark and the music starts. I love it and have to see it every time we come to Disney.

Love the Fireworks at Epcot.



So lovely

 The walk back to our resort is so pretty with the lights on and the  music still playing from the show. It's so romantic. We were walking by the French Pavillion when I took the picture of the water fountains outside.
   It was a wonderful night and we were glad to go back to our room. NO pool or hot tub for us. Just hit the hay.
   I' try to blog tonight about our day  today. We went to Toy Story Mania and Magic Kingdom for lunch. We plan on heading back to Magic Kingdome for the parade and fireworks after our nap.

Animal Kingdom today!

   We had a good nights sleep and headed to Animal Kingdom for the morning. The weather was quite lovely. Not too hot. We love to take the Disney bus from Beachclub right to the park. Didn't seem like there were too many people there. It was early morning hours for Vacation Members. Nice...


Giraffe siting

    We headed for the Safari Ride. We practically walked right on. Hardly any wait time. It was a rockin roll ride. The driver was not a meadering driver. He really went to it. He stopped when there were animals to see.. Which was nice. Here are some pics of the animals I was able to get.

Posing for us

   We saw so many more animals than we normally have seen. We saw a girfaffe chasing some wilderbeasts. An ostrich came right up to the jeep and started chasing us as we left. The driver said they can peck you... I was glad it stopped after awhile   



Flamingos

   We walked around and saw as much flora and fauna as our feet would let us. This is a great park. We spend half the day there. We actually saw the back of the Tree of Life. I have many pictures of this tree. This was a great shot of the side toward Mt. Everest.

LOve the carvings

                                                              
  We all stood behind these walls to get some interesting shots of us. I think they are a hoot.
We had a great day at Animal Kingdom. We rode
on a new ride that we had never been on called "Dinosaur". It was not a bad ride as rides go. I cloesed my eyes through alot of it, though.







Heehee...



Hee hee

   I am not sure what we are doing tonight, but I think we are going to Hollywood Studios to see fireworks and to play Toy Story Mania. We are resting our feet now. We will need the energy later.
   Here are some more pics of the Epcot Flower show from yesterday. Enjoy!







Add caption













Spending time with the Burchams



They had haddock. Yeah!!

    It was a wonderful trip to Florida from North Carolina. The weather was perfect. No rain at all. We stopped at rest stops and ate at Red Lobster when we hit Florida. A tradition we started with my brother in law, Tom. He was happy.





We made it.



   We were happy to finally arrive at my sister, Phillis's and her husband, Cary's home. It was nice to catch up with them and share stories from the past year. We decided to go out to dinner. Cary suggested Remington's Steakhouse in West Chapel. What a great place. It has a western theme. Really cute. We had a great time.



Good eating here, too.





This was in Phillis's yard. Cute, huh?

















Where do I get on?



Love the saddle decor.

  









  When we got back we all walked around Phillis's complex. There are some lovely homes in Florida.
It was hard to leave the next day, but we were due at Disney World. We said our good-byes and hopefully we will see the Burchams coming to Maine this summer or fall.


So romantic

   Our first day at Disney was hot and fun. We checked in at Beachclub and headed for Epcot. They are having the flower show there.

What a great idea for our garden!

  I got so many ideas for my garden back home in Maine. Well, maybe not the Cinderella one.
  The water fountain being used for succulents is a great idea. I think I might try this one.

 Well, Chris wants to go down to the pool since there isn't anyone in it. It's about eight at night and it's cooled off quite a bit. Perfect for a quick dip in the pool. Check in tomorrow and I'll have more ideas from the flower show and our adventures at Animal Kingdom.

The Long Drive

    We set off for North Carolina about 7:00 this morning; saying good-bye to Hal and Charlotte. We had alot of fun visiting with them. Hopefully on the way back in a few weeks we will get to meet a new member of our family being born soon. Jill and Rob ( Hal & Charlotte's daughter) are patiently waiting for their new arrival. We can't wait.
   Chris and I kept ourselves busy with nap, iPad games, and practicing Zentangle. I haven't done it for a little while but really love trying out the creative doodles.


This should be framed.



Another wonderful design



Chris has done some amazing Zentangles. She has inspired me to practice some more and use some of her ideas with stamps and stencils. Aren't these amazing? 



Recognize him??



I love this one of Mickey since we are heading to Mickey's home in Orlando. I've told her she should mount these and frame them for her wall. They are so gorgeous.

   We had been searching for a fleamarket along the trip and Tom found a flyer after we left Perkins in Winchester, Virgina. We followed the directions and had no trouble finding it. What a find it was, too. The place was huge. We didn't have time to really explore it, but Russ found some Mickeys that I thought were so cute. I bought one and a Minnie Mouse for Mom.



This place was huge.



I felt like I had to leave bread crumbs for fear of getting lost. This place was awesome. We are going to try and stop on the way back home 'cause we will have more time to explore.  



Not enough time to explore.

   

Signs of Spring














  We landed in Fayetteville, North Carolina for the night. The temperature here was 80 degrees. Nice. It has been nice to see so many signs of Spring. Some of the trees are budding and we've seen daffodils blooming. It feels so great to know that this is coming to Maine. Can't wait.
   Tomorrow it's on to Florida and seeing my sister, Phillis and her husband, Cary. Here we come....

On the Road Again...



IHop breakfast

    We are traveling by car to Disney World again. What fun to go with family. We are headed to New Jersey to stay with my brother, Hal and his wife, Charlotte.
   We stopped in South Portland and had a healthy breakfast. It was a good start. I love how they put the calories on the menu.


Looks good...




Have you ever seen so many die cuts?

 The best part of traveling is the food.  

More Memory Box





    We talked our husbands into stopping in Topsfield, Mass to a favorite craft store. They had the most Memory Box die cuts I have ever seen. Just look at these pictures . Chris and I stood here and looked for the longest time.We each bought three of them and let me tell you it was hard to chose.



  The name of this craft shop is Absolutely Everything. And is does have everything. The staff there are really helpful and friendly. We traveled to Willington, Connecticut and stopped at Country's Pride. We had a fabulous lunch.



Good eating.



Stopping at Country's Pride



It was a buffet . Always good. Enough about the food. Well , we are in Whitehouse Station and enjoying our time with family. Hal made hamburgers on the grill; more yummy good. It has been a good start to our trip.

  I just want to thank Donna for house sitting for us. It's so nice of her to help us out.



More food.