Home Again and Gone Again

We are back from our extended weekend getaway. It was a nice relaxing time with family. Greg, Dakota and I went and we took Justin and Brianna (my step-children) with us to Orlando for a family reunion. Greg's mom, sister and her daughter & husband and their son traveled with us and we all stayed together in a 5 bedroom/5 bath house in a gated community about a mile from Disney World. The entire family had rented homes in this community. I think we had a total of 4 homes occupied - there were LOTS of family members there!
I had never met Greg's side of the family before other than his immediate family so this was an adventure. Everyone was very nice but there were just so many people and this was one of those "out of my comfort zones" times when I just didn't feel the need to go above and beyond getting to know everybody. We only met for dinner every night so I would stick around and eat and chit-chat for a couple of hours then I would sneak away back to our house and just hang out while Greg spent time with his family. I was happy - he was happy and nobody missed me....until the last night when I didn't tell anybody goodbye. Oops, messed up there.

We drove all day Friday to get to Orlando...for those of you who don't realize it, it takes us 8 hours to get there -- even though we DO live in FL! By the time we got there and got unpacked it was time to go eat dinner with the family. After dinner we went to the grocery store for food items for the weekend.

We decided not to go to Sea World on Saturday because thunderstorms were in the forecast and it was expected to be nice on Sunday so we just rested and laid around the pool all day Saturday. Dakota loved that about the house....we had our very 0wn pool!! He spent every day in the pool!
I played Guitar Hero with the kids Saturday morning for awhile while Greg went up to one of the other houses to visit with his relatives. When he came back he and I snuck away to Wal-mart by ourselves (our only alone time on this trip - whoohoooo, big date at Walmart and lunch at Chick Fil-A...but anytime I can be alone with my honey is great!!)Sunday we headed to Sea World. This was quite a different experience for us. Our first trip to a theme park where we were on our own. The kids left us and went to do their own thing most of the time. They would meet back up with us for the shows and for lunch (since WE were buying) but for the most part we were on our own. Just leisurely strolling through the park doing what WE wanted to do...wow, I could get used to that!! I enjoyed the shows and the heat wasn't too too bad. We were there from about 9-5 and saw everything we wanted to see this trip. We went ahead and bought the FL resident Fun Pass which will allow us to go back unlimited times until the end of the year. It was only $10.00 extra and we do get down that way a few times a year so now we will already have this ticket and can go back to Sea World as much as we want.Me and my sweet boy are watching Shamu (the whale show). All of the shows were incredible! I love how the trainers interact with the dolphins and whales!Greg and his mom, Ruth. She had never been to Sea World before. She enjoyed herself although she received some sad news while we were there...a very dear, dear lifelong friend of hers in Indiana died during the day Sunday.
As soon as we got back home Monday she and Greg both began repacking for the trips out today. She left this morning to go to Indiana for the funeral on Thursday and Greg flew to New Jersey for a business trip until Friday. He then has to fly back out on Sunday to New York for another few days. After spending a wonderful weekend together I miss him terribly today!