What a Month!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted on here.  I had been doing so much better, too! :)  But things have been incredibly hectic here.  I've barely been home long enough to homeschool Elliott lately, so I haven't had time to do much else.  In fact, I think today is only the second day in the last 4 weeks that we haven't spent the majority of the day away from home.  And we leave for vacation tomorrow, so it will be a long while before we are home again!

Between my husband and I we have been to the doctor 7 times this month.  We're both fine now, but it has included way too much time in waiting rooms.  Elliott says the waiting rooms tire him out immediately.  Haha. Carl has needed a driver for the majority of his appointments so Elliott and I had to go with him.

Somehow it slipped my mind until about 3 weeks ago that we were going to be gone the week of collection for the Operation Christmas Child boxes.  My sister and I set a goal of doing at least 50 this year, so we have been really busy working on those, too.  We had over half the stuff already, but still had to go buy quite a bit more stuff.  Then we spent several hours sorting and organizing.  I am happy to report that we got almost all of them done, so my sister just has to pick up puzzles for a few of them, and hard candy for all of them and they will be ready to go. :)

We've also been busy with all the regular things that homeschool families have to do.  It's been unseasonably warm, too, so we've tried to take advantage of that and do more of our lessons outside.  We don't normally have pretty autumns here, but this year it's beautiful.  We've done a few fun fall projects with leaves and other things we've found in nature.

We leave for vacation tomorrow, too!  So of course there are all the plans that go into that.  I am definitely a planner, so I have spent an unreasonable amount of hours planning and budgeting, and replanning things on our vacation this month.  Haha.  It's paid off, though, I think. 

I will try to update my blog at least once while I'm on vacation, but no guarantees.  I haven't tried blogging on my new phone (which I also got this month!), so I'm not sure how that will work.  I can use my tablet if I am somewhere with a decent wifi connection, though.

Walt Disney World in November

Recently I posted about an upcoming trip to Florida.  We have decided on November and started making our reservations now.  We will be back up here in time for Thanksgiving so my sister doesn't have to spend it alone, but will be gone for the month up to the day or two before Thanksgiving.  In fact, we will be leaving here at the end of October, and spending Halloween in Missouri.  Elliott has decided that he wants to see Casting Crowns in Missouri instead of trick or treating, so if we can get tickets, that will be our Halloween plans.  Since Elliott can't have anything with artificial dye anyway, I can see why trick or treating would lose some of its appeal.  We'll just take him and buy him a bag of his one of his favorite dye free candies instead. :)

As for our time in Florida, we will be staying 11 nights.  Part of them will be on Disney property, and part of them will be nearby in Celebration.  We'll be going to Disney World, the Disney water park that is open, and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas.  We'll also be visiting Sea World (we all get in free through the military appreciation program) and Lego Land (Carl's ticket is free there as well) while we are there.

Elliott and I have been having a lot of fun planning our trip.  Almost every day when we take a break from school work, we work on vacation plans.  Elliott has been putting together a list of must rides, and characters he must meet.  We met many of his favorite characters last time, but he's looking forward to seeing many of them again.  Plus there are characters that we missed that he wants to see this time.  Then of course there are also some new characters that weren't there 3.5 years ago.

As for rides, last time we went he was barely 5, and was afraid to ride a lot of the rides.  He was also really afraid of the dark.  This time he will be almost 9, and is no longer afraid of the dark.  There are still several rides that he thinks would be way too scary, but his list is much longer this time. 

Last time we didn't make it to any of the water parks, and that is on Elliott's must do list this time.  He's pretty excited about some of the rides there as well.  He hasn't ever been to a water park, but has really enjoyed water slides at hotels we've stayed at, and birthday parties he's attended.  One of the places we are staying has a water slide at one of their pools.  Elliott's really looking forward to that.

Over all, we can't decide what we are most looking forward to, but we are all definitely looking forward to our vacation!

Throw Back Thursday: Walt Disney World March 2011

Since we are currently planning another trip to Disney World, Elliott and I have been going through our pictures from last time over the last few days.  We thought we would do a throw back Thursday post with a few of our favorites.  We literally have hundreds, so it was hard to narrow it down, but for various reasons, here are a few of our favorites.

Waiting in line to meet one of his favorite characters.

He loved Chip and Dale and never missed an opportunity for a picture.

This was the first character hug he initiated.

Handy Manny was the only Disney Junior character we got to meet, but that was fine, because he was Elliott's favorite at the time.

When Elliott looked at this picture he told me that he almost completely disappeared into Lotso's belly!

Pooh was another favorite to hug.

Elliott had a lot of fun with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen.  Here Prince Naveen is asking if Elliott is trying to steal his princess after she hugged him.

Elliott's response was "maybe"

Naveen decided they could still be friends, because Elliott had an awesome name, just like their friend, the dragon (from Pete's Dragon)

Pluto was the first character Elliott went up to by himself (he had already met Snow White and Daisy Duck, but wanted an adult with him for those)

He couldn't believe it when Cinderella wanted to dance with him.

Dancing with Cinderella

All smiles after their dance.

Stitch was Elliott's favorite character to meet, but we only got to meet Lilo the one time, he was soo excited!

Vacation Planning

Ok, so anyone that knows me knows that I like to plan A LOT in advance for any expensive vacations.  I'm totally fine with waiting until the last minute to do something under $1000, like going to visit family, but anything more, I want plenty of time to plan.  Our last vacation besides to Missouri was in July and I started planning in March, and that was the latest I've ever waited.  Last time we went to Florida I planned for nearly a year (I think I started planning in early May and we went in late March).

So I think my husband was pretty surprised when he came home from work the other day, and Elliott and I had been looking at Disney World and Universal rides and comparing them, trying to decide which was better.  We tentatively had a trip to Missouri planned for September, to see family.  After thinking about it, and looking around online, I decided that we should extend it and go to Florida as well.  We have a time share sampler thing that we bought last year that includes more than enough points for 10 nights in Celebration, FL, and they had openings for when we wanted to go.  I told my husband I wanted to do it, fully expecting to have to talk him into it (last time we went to Disney World, he said that would most likely be the only time we went), but instead he liked the idea.  He's been wanting a real vacation for a while because of some of the things going on at work.  And I think it would be great for our whole family as well.  We've had a pretty crazy year!

Carl checked his schedule at work, and it looks like he can take off the full 25 days we want, as long as he requests it soon.  But then the same day he checked it, we got the soccer sign up information, and it turns out that the season is starting late this year, so Elliott wouldn't be able to play if we go then.  So now we have checked out the stuff going on at Disney in November, and made sure that we would be able to get a suite at the resort and everything as well.  Carl hasn't been able to check at work yet to see if he could get that time off, but Elliott is really pushing for that time instead.

There are definite advantages to going in November, like how much cooler it will be.  Elliott and I are both wimps when it comes to really hot weather.  November in Orlando is typically similar to July in North Dakota (our hottest month of the year).  September will seem incredibly hot to us.  No matter which time we go, we can go to one of the special night time parties at Magic Kingdom.  I think I would like the Halloween one better, but Elliott is pushing for the Christmas one.  Waiting until November would also give me more time to plan and save.  So I have a feeling that if November works for Carl's work schedule that is when we will end up going.

I've already checked with my mom (she's who we stay with when we are in Missouri) and she said she doesn't foresee any kind of problems with either dates.  And she can watch Snoopie while we are in Florida as well (Darla will keep Trixie, and the cats will go to my father in law's house, or stay with the house sitter).  I'm getting anxious to know when we will go so I can go ahead and start making reservations and real plans!

Summer Time

Well, Elliott is officially done with second grade now.  His last day of school was Thursday, but his last day of doing anything work related was Tuesday.  His summer vacation lasts until the seventh of July, when we officially start homeschooling.  I think he would kind of like a longer summer vacation, but he's on board with starting school in July so he can have more time off at other times of the year. :)

We started summer vacation with a bang. We drove to Bismarck yesterday and went to the zoo and Red Lobster.  We considered staying the night, but couldn't find a hotel with a decent pool that had openings by the time we made up our mind to stay the night.  So we came home.  We are planning on going swimming at one of the hotels in Minot today or tomorrow, though.  My husband is going to make some calls when he comes in from mowing the yard.  We're trying to decide whether to spend the night in a hotel, or just do the afternoon at the one with waterslides. Decisions decisions!

We have a few fun things planned this summer.  Living in North Dakota, a lot of the stuff is only open from Memorial to Labor Day, so we are planning on having a fairly busy summer.  We have plans to work on some school stuff that is related to different places in the Dakotas.  As I have been doing research, I've discovered quite a bit about my current state that I didn't know before. :)   I'm looking forward to learning even more!  We believe that having a good foundation of state history is pretty important, too.  And since this IS Elliott's home state, and the only state he's lived in so far, we think now is the time to really find out more about it, and do some traveling to see it in person.

Another Vacation?

We go on vacation every year, and have for a while now.  In my opinion it's important for our family.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but I think I personally need the time away from home to recharge, and spend more time enjoying my family.  Even when our vacations are just to my parents' house in Missouri, it helps us recharge and relax.   Plus of course, it's awesome to see family.  We live 1100 miles from "home" for both my husband and me, so we don't get to see our families nearly as often as we would like.  Elliott and I do manage to go home every year, and Carl is with us most of the time, but sometimes he's just not able to take the necessary time off from work.

This year, we were planning on just going home again.  We were  planning a trip to Kansas City for a few days.  Our parents live in the Springfield area, so Kansas City isn't that far away, but we had planned on spending 2 or 3 nights there anyway, so we could do more stuff.

However, my husband recently found out that he will almost certainly not be allowed to take any leave next summer (2014) if we are still here.  He will most likely either be sent to another base for a while, or will be left here, where they will be obviously short manned because so many will be elsewhere.  We were planning another Florida trip for next summer.  My son is really into Super Heroes and Lego blocks, so we were planning on doing Universal Orlando and LegoLand, while he still loves those things.  However, we have been talking over the idea of doing the Florida trip this year instead.  We normally have a pretty extravagant Christmas, and my whole family is on board with the idea of clearing out our Christmas savings account in late June for a July vacation to Florida.  We were also planning on buying a 3D TV within the next few weeks, and have decided instead, to put that money toward a Florida trip as well.  So if we can come up with another $500 by the end of March (about halfway between now and the trip), without cutting into debt repayment, or any of our other savings goals, it looks like the Florida trip might happen this summer!

Saving Money on Vacation

My family took two vacations this summer.  And we paid for both with cash.  Our first vacation was to Missouri, where we are both from.  We stayed with my parents, so that saved us a bunch of money . Our second vacation was to Washington state, though, where we know no one.  We were still able to save a bunch of money.


Travel by car if it's cheaper.
We travel by car when we travel because we often take our two dogs.  We also live in the Minot, ND area, where it costs around $500 per person to fly anywhere.  It's MUCH cheaper to drive where we need to go, even counting stays in a hotel.  We also like the freedom to stop in various places.

Travel with others.
Even though we are only a family of three we own a minivan.  That means that we are often able to invite others on vacation with us.   In addition to having more fun with extended family, they can also help pay for gas and even hotel stays so we save money that way.  My sister lives with us now and was able to get off work to travel with us to Missouri.  When we went to Washington in July, we invited one of my other sisters and my aunt, and met my sister in law there.  We were able to rent a larger suite and saved a lot of money over paying for just a hotel room.  We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite in one area and a 4 bedroom beach house in the other.

Pack your own snacks and meals.
Another way we save money while traveling is to pack a cooler.  My family isn't necessarily big into sandwiches, but we also pack fresh fruits and easy to eat veggies, along with beef jerky, sunflower seeds, and trail mix.  Throw in some juice boxes, soda, and bottled water, and we are set!  We limit our eating out to once a day or less, and maybe one additional drink from a gas station (if they are cheap, like they often are in the summer), while we are on the road.  When we are at our destination we try to stick to the same limits on eating out, but if we are busy, we sometimes have to eat out twice in one day.  That works on a budget if you plan carefully.

Look for good deals.
Another way we saved money was to look on groupon and livingsocial for the area we knew we would be traveling.  We ended up getting vouchers for 2 different area restaurants this time, but there were other options as well, just none that we wanted to do this time.

Plan Ahead.
I always start planning for a vacation several months in advance.  In fact, we are already laying the groundwork for our family vacation next summer!  By planning ahead you can often find a great deal on lodging.  We ended up paying $125 a night for a 4 bedroom cottage just a few minutes from a beach on the Washington coast.  Just outside of Seattle, we got a 2 bedroom suite (with a pull out couch in the living room) in a decent hotel for just over $100 per night, by booking early and using an additional discount.  They even upgraded us for free!  If you are traveling with others, this can really save you money.  We had full kitchens in both units, so that made eating in much cheaper and more appealing.

Plan to relax.
We did a lot of things in Washington, but we made sure to leave some free time, to just sit on the beach and relax, or play games in our room.  That helped us recharge our batteries, and helped us save money.

One Busy Summer!

I'm not sure how so many bloggers manage to post everyday.  I know part of it is because I don't treat blogging like a real job, but I seem to have a terrible time finding the time necessary to blog.

We just got home from our first summer vacation over the weekend.  We went "home" to Missouri to celebrate my dad's 65th birthday.  Darla was able to get the time off to go with us, and we were there for about 2 weeks.  Since we stay with my parents, it was a pretty frugal vacation.  We did end up doing some shopping (although the fact that there were 3 adults, a child, and 2 dogs traveling together in a minivan meant we had to really watch what we bought so we would have room).  But overall we stuck to our budget pretty well.

It's always amazing going home and seeing how much things have changed in the area.  The growth in SW MO isn't nearly as fast as it is here, but since it had been almost a year since we had been there, there was still plenty of new stuff.  We didn't get to check out nearly as much of it as we had hoped, but that seems to always be the case.  We had planned on going to Kansas City, or at least Branson, but didn't have a chance.  The only touristy thing we really did was a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield. Haha.  It was actually the first time we had ever even taken Elliott there even though we had been meaning to for years.  He loved it there, and wants to go back every summer now. :)

Assuming my husband gets the leave he requested, we are only going to be home for about 2 more weeks before taking another vacation.  My husband just switched work centers, though, so we still aren't sure on his leave.  If it goes through, we leave for Washington in just over 2 weeks. We will be spending some time in Spokane, Seattle, and right on the beach.

A Discount Vacation to Disney!

My son never missed a chance to meet Goofy!

My husband deployed last May, and was gone for six months. Before he left, we decided that while he was gone, I was going to plan for, and save for a Florida vacation in March. We had been kicking the idea around for a while, but didn't have a set time or plan until that point. He put in for leave, and I started looking for great deals.