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.

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!

Surgery and Time Together

My husband had surgery on Tuesday.  It went well.  He's off work this week recovering.  So far it's gone really well.  We were both a little bit concerned that we might drive each other crazy. :)  I mean, obviously we love each other and like spending time together, but this is definitely more time than we usually spend together, unless we are on vacation, or he's really busy with some project at home.  Since he can't do much right now, he's mainly been hanging out in front of the TV.  Which is fine by me. :)

Next week Elliott and I start doing a little bit of homeschool stuff.  We aren't doing much in June, just kind of getting a feel for how things will work.  We aren't counting it as far as record keeping or anything either.  It will mainly be a few fun things, and me checking for gaps so I know if we have to hit anything harder before we move on to cover the stuff in his third grade books.   While I was in the waiting room on Tuesday, I worked on some loose lesson plans, and tried to figure out just what all I will be checking him on.  I don't think there are going to be any major gaps anywhere, but I do want to get a feel for the time it takes him to do some stuff, too.  I've been looking at ways to work on a few things that he's not quite as comfortable with, too.  It's amazing how many books and worksheets are out there to cover just about anything you want.  Right now I'm mainly sticking with things that someone else has already created, although I have a feeling that as I get more comfortable with it, I will probably end up doing a lot more of my own.

Happy Memorial Day

We've had a busy weekend full of family fun this weekend.  We went to Bismarck to go to the zoo on Friday (it's much larger than the Minot one, with more room for the animals).  Saturday we spent the night in a hotel with a pool with two waterslides so we could go swimming.  I think Elliott ended up going down the slides about 200 times. lol  We were at the pool for about 5.5 hours Saturday and then Elliott and Carl went back for another hour Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church.  Yesterday after church, a couple from our church invited everyone to their house for lunch.  Elliott finally played with the other kids from our church and had a blast.  Right now Carl is outside grilling.

We have had a great weekend, but we are also taking the time to remember why Memorial Day is a holiday.  As a military family, it hits close to home.  We don't personally have any close friends that have been killed in action, but it's easy to see that it could happen.  And people that are willing to give their lives for us deserve all the respect and admiration that they get, and even more.  Memorial Day is such an important holiday to teach children about.  We've talked about it several times with Elliott this weekend, and I think he really gets it now.

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.