orlando or bust

On August 1, the day had finally arrived that we had been waiting for all summer! We were FINALLY leaving for Orlando! Yes, this was family vacation but we were also going to attend National Fine Arts. We drove to Orlando over two days with our friends the Everaard's. We rented a large, 7-seater SUV and packed ourselves in. Between people, luggage, movies, video games, coloring books and snacks it was a tight fit! Good thing we love each other! Doug did the driving, Brandon rode shot gun, the three boys sat in the middle row with the built in DVD player and Jill and I tucked neatly into the two-seater back seat. We each had our own DVD player and got to sit right next to the snacks! Ready. Set. GO! Orlando or bust!

I joked that the people along our route could tell we were out-of-towners simply based on the fact that when we stopped for lunch (and nearly every meal thereafter) we found these futuristic Coke machines and couldn't help but take pictures with them! They were awesome! (Pardon my country hick-ness...) First, you chose via touch screen the type of soda you wanted and then got to choose from a variety of flavors what you wanted in your soda choice. Yum-O! It's almost sad how giddy I was over these machines! Ha!

Since we were so close, we couldn't help but stop by the Duck Dynasty warehouse on our way to Florida. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity! Unfortunately, we didn't get there early enough to go inside the warehouse but we did take pictures with the sign and trailer. The boys were in redneck heaven!

The drive to Florida was long but it honestly went by much faster than I thought it might. The boys are old enough now that they pretty much watch movies and play video games the entire time, not needing as many stops along the way. That left plenty of time for us grown ups to watch our own movies and even nap when we wanted to! I don't know that I'll ever say that driving hundreds of miles in a day is my most favorite thing to do but this was the first time I can honestly say it "wasn't that bad!" I could do it again!

After two full days of driving we finally arrived in Orlando, checked into our condo and got to bed as quickly as possible so we could wake up bright and early the next morning to go to Disney World! I was afraid we'd be exhausted already and not eager to go to Disney World but our adrenaline was pumping and we were so excited that even after so many hours in the car we could hardly get to sleep in anticipation of the next day! Sleep tight everyone! Get ready to make some magic memories at the happiest place on earth!