~ VACATION TIME'S GETTING CLOSER! ~

~ well, it's almost here as we leave in just 8 days!! ~ it's funny because we've tried explaining to the girls (ages 5y, 4y & 3y) that we're going on a plane to disney world to see mickey mouse for quite awhile now ~ i overheard kiara (5y) telling her sisters the other day about us all flying to haiti soon ~ i talked to them about it & explained that we were flying, but we weren't going to haiti, but instead to florida ~ kiara said, "don't you know, all planes fly to haiti mommy!" ~ i thought about it & we've been blessed to have attended many, many, many homecomings of people bringing children home from other countries by adoption & all but 1 have come from haiti ~ when we're standing in the airport at these homecomings we say, "be looking for 'so&so' as they're coming home from haiti today", or "they just went to haiti to pick up their child 'so&so' & we're going to the airport to meet them!", etc. so our children not only believe that babies/children come from the airport & NOT from hospitals (or anywhere else for that matter!), but that all planes fly to haiti (ONLY) *smile* ~ i'm sure we'll have much blog material when we return as even though they've all flown, they were much younger & don't remember it, they've never been to florida & we're going with our best friends the caswells http://thehotrod5.blogspot.com/ & there's ALWAYS blog material when all 11 of us get together!! ~ they're leaving their house a couple days prior to us & driving out & then we're all meeting up on the 8th & will be together until the 17th (look out florida, here we come!) ~ while there we're hitting the magic kingdom, universal studios, sightseeing as angie used to live in florida & eating our way throughout the entire state, trying our best to top the eating marathon we had going in myrtle beach last year when we vacationed with them! ~ there will be spike, myself, kyle, angie, brit (turns 16 on july 10), sanite (7), noah (5), kiara (5), ruby (4), karleigh (3) & maddie (2) ~ i'm going to begin packing this weekend as the time's creeping up on us ~ we'll be checking 8 bags (ie: suitcase with 3 booster car seats in it, pool bag & then 6 suitcases/1 for each of us) & 2 strollers (one of which's a double stroller) & we'll be taking a few things on the plane with us (ie: 2 purses, 2 backpacks & a laptop computer) ~ it's funny because when we go anywhere with my parents, dad loves to sit & make up stories about families he sees (ie: sitting a restaurant with them & a family comes in ~ dad will say, "watch martha, she's got to be the one seating everyone (as we're watching it unfold before our very eyes), c'mon charlie sit down (as a little boy might be not wanting to sit where his mom's telling him to sit), etc. ~ it's so hillarious to hear this all from dad as he's 'living through another family' for a bit ~ we keep teasing him telling him that he needs to go with us on vacation as with all 6 of us, all our luggage, strollers, 3 bear cubs who've never flown (that they remember), it'll for sure be memorable ~ he just laughs & says, "there's noooooooooo way!" ~ well, i've gotta catch some sleep so hugs for now! ~ can you tell i'm excited?!?! ~