Vacation

So two months later I finally have a free moment to try and write this blog on our vacation. I will try to keep it short...but detail-filled...no promises though.

So for any unaware we got to take a magnificent trip in February that started off as Disney world but quickly turned into our "Florida Trip". Because we did so many wonderful things! Let me start from the beginning...

We left our home on Sunday February 8th, we made it as far as Royals/Chiefs stadiums (which is about 40 minutes for us) and Annie asked if we were there yet....its a 23 hour drive. Our first stop was in Maryville Tennessee, we spent the night with Valerie and her family, and although we didn't arrive until 10 o clock at night almost they were glad to have waited up and visited with us until we were ready to settle down for the night. I must say we were all star struck by their beautiful home and had such a great time exploring it! So thank you to Valerie for giving us a great place to stay and letting us feel so unbelievably welcome in your home to where we almost felt it could have been ours as well. Our next stop was Scottsboro Alabama, to the Unclaimed baggage store. It was something we saw on the Travel Channel at Christmas time and saw that it was on our way and thought it would be fun to stop somewhere we saw on tv! So we stopped and saw some wonderful things but in the end it was really more like a glorified thrift store...however, I can now say we've been somewhere that we saw on tv just because we saw it on tv! The second night on the road we stayed with Gabi and her family in Georgia, they also waited up for us late into the evening and visited with us until the late hours of the night and made us feel extremely welcome in their home and so thanks again to them as well.

Finally on our 3rd day on the road we made it to Florida, our first stop was to Cocoa Beach where Aunt Carla lives, we visited with her for a couple of hours and then she took us to the ocean, the very first time the kids ever saw the ocean and as you can see from the vacation pictures we came from the colder weather since we are standing in the sand with the ocean at our backs, in sweat shirts and jeans. But we all had a fantastic time playing in the sand and water, until it was time to hit the road again...however we finally only had a 3 hour drive and we arrived at Disneyworld! We stayed at a resort called Pop Century, there were several buildings of hotel rooms and each building had a different saying on it, the one we happened to drive up beside first said "Don't have a cow man", the kids read this and both looked at each other and said what does that mean?! I guess I'm getting older than I thought!! We got all checked into our hotel and first thing the kids did was put on swim suits and head to the pool, this would become the theme for the next 4 nights. We went with Dan's family, his mom and dad, brother and family and sister and family. Also Jerri's two sisters and their families. I was worried with this many people how we would make sure and be together each and every day but we managed to make it all work out. The first day our little family went to Animal Kingdom, O I have failed to mention until this point that the day before we left on the trip Dan was diagnosed with Pneumonia and Annie woke up puking in the night. So back to Animal Kingdom we were all still feeling the effects of the stomach flu Annie had managed to pass around and Dan seemed to have gotten it the worst but we knew we only had this day to do once so we pushed as hard as we could. We realized VERY quickly that with two kids this just wasn't possible, so we came up with a different approach-half a day at a park of our choice and half a day at the pool at our resort. This became the theme for the next four days where we saw each of the four parks, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot (and Animal Kingdom mentioned before). It was a trip none of us will ever forget and one of those "once in a lifetime" things people talk about. We made some amazing memories with some wonderful family and we were able to see each of them every day, we would go to the park and then meet by the pool in the evenings to share our stories of what we'd done for the day. Dannys favorite park was Hollywood Studios, where we got to see a car stunt show, Annie's favorite never was determined. :-)

The last thing we did on our trip was a stop by the Daytona 500. The racing itself was fantastic and anyone who knows me knows how much I love racing! However one would assume that after 51 years of putting this event on they would have come up with some better solutions! We sat waiting to park for 2 and a half hours, we became friends with all of the people around us when we all went and stood in line for the "wooded bathroom", then we rode a school bus to the race track where we waited out a couple of rain delays and watched the race to half way at which point it was shortened by rain and called off, then we stood in line for 2 hours to get back on a bus to take us to the parking lot and sat in the car for 3 hours waiting for traffic to even move. Once we finally got on the road it was 1115 pm on Sunday Feb 15th, we drove straight through and got home at 730 pm Monday evening!

But minus that one glich in the trip and the initial issue with the stomach flu/pneumonia we had a fantastic time and I spend most days wishing we could all go back. But maybe some day, for now I am thankful that we all got to go as a family and celebrate Jerri's 10 years of remission from cancer and maybe in another 10 years we will celebrate Christys remission!

Miss. Annie Banannie

Her first day of school went very well apparently, she can't wait to go back! So let me start at the beginning....

I got a call on Tuesday from the school pre-k program, they had an opening if Annie wanted to attend. When we went for the testing at the beginning of the year they told us she was too smart and would never come up on the waiting list. So when they called I was shocked! The teacher said a lot of kids had dropped out and the ones they called on the waiting list changed their minds and didn't want to mess with it. So the spot was Annie's if she wanted it....of course she did because she cried when she found out she wasn't going to get to go to school in August. So we got a backpack and two folders-the required school supplies for pre-k and we got ready for our first day of school. She was in the afternoon program which meant she went from 1215-315, so I took a long lunch break and took her from the babysitter to school. We met the teacher and waited for the remaining students to arrive. One boy apparently still was not comfortable with being away from mom so he screamed and yelled for a good 5 minutes and finally 3 teachers drug him away from his mommy. This was a little upsetting to Annie I could tell so I told her that it would be ok, he was just upset and she looked at me and said, "I know mom! I'm not going to act like THAT!" And she didn't! The first thing they do is get out their journal and write their name in it. And when she did this the teacher was amazed at how easily and quickly she was able to do this! At that point I left her alone to enjoy her first day at the big kids' school.

When I got to the babysitters to pick her up she couldn't stop talking about her first day and how excited she was to go back tomorrow! So I guess we will call this a success and yet another first in her life.

I was proud of myself, I only cried this morning on my way to work, by the time I left again to go and get her and take her to school I had gotten it all out. :) She is getting so big and my little baby isn't a baby anymore. I am so proud of her for all that she has accomplished!

The First

So I thought I'd finally take the advice of friends and family and start one of these silly blogs. People all seem to live so far away but even the ones that live right down the road are just as busy as we are so hopefully this will be a way to keep everyone up to date on our family. I am going to start out with a just a simple "catcher-upper" and will get more specific in later blogs.

So for starters, Dan still works at the mine, he is the "know-all" of rock quarries and I don't think there is a job or a piece of equipment out there that he can't fix or completely overhaul if necessary! Kelly is still at the Pasta Company, working in the Finance Dept. Danny is in 3rd grade and 8 years old...although if you ask him he is going to be 9 this year (yea, not until May but gotta love the simplicity of his reasoning) He tried several sports over the years and while he is excellent at them all he decided sports just wasn't his thing. So I have not forced the issue. Instead he is learning to play guitar. I never realized just how big a guitar case was until I saw him carry it! But he is doing great at it and well doesn't really have a choice, since he comes from a musical family I knew he'd pick it right up. Annie is my little queen. She has the same rules as Danny and any other children that come through our home but she seems to find a way to put her mark on ANYTHING she does. She is 5 now and will start kindergarten in August of this year. She is smart as can be and probably too smart for her own good! I am pretty sure that by October I will have my own seat in the pricipals office at the elementary school where I will learn all about how much my daughter talks and disrupts other students. :) But God love her she has a big giant heart and loves everyone she meets.
Most if not all of you know we are heading to Disney World in a couple of weeks. I think I've pretty much rubbed it into everyone's face that we might get to enjoy some spring/summer weather in February. :) But our purpose for going is to celebrate my mother-in-law's remission of cancer, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 right as Dan and I were beginning to plan our wedding. She went through the chemo and radiation and was given a clean bill of health about a year later. So to celebrate her 10 years of remission they are taking the family to Disney World. The kids are super excited! We are driving down and will be visiting family along the way and taking in sights I've never seen (like an ocean, or that silly little race called the DAYTONA 500!) so to say the least this will be the trip of a lifetime for our family and I am not sure there is anything we can do in the future to top this excersion we are about to go on.
So as time goes on I will get on this here blog and do my best to keep all who read it up to date on the "goings-on" in the Pope household in tiny little Lathrop Missouri.