No, I didn’t travel to another country this week. But it was fun pretending I did while in Disney World! My family was gifted tickets to Florida to go to a church planter’s conference in Orlando (kind of like going to a blogging conference but for people who are starting churches like we are!). I was so excited, such an amazing gift! It was awesome getting to hear one of my favorite pastors and author Francis Chan! It was very inspiring.
After the conference we got to spend a few days at Disney World with our kids. It was a real blessing to have some time ALL TOGETHER as a family away from home in a magical place like Disney World! I’ll tell you the story after I show you a few pictures from Epcot and the hotel I thought you might enjoy!
Remember the night I couldn’t blog because of the storm? It was a major thunder and lightening storm. I snapped a pic (above) outside of our window.
While I loved all the architectural delights, food and fun things about our trip, nothing delighted me more than seeing my kids (and my nephew, who is just five weeks older than my son and like his twin) having the time of their lives! PRICELESS.
I have been dreaming of taking a special family trip like this for years, but one thing after another prevented us from going. Job losses, failed home sales, loss of income, paying for kids’ braces, schools and college educations…and my oldest daughter got married. You just don’t always have the money to take a large family anywhere but the closest beach for a vacation! Nothing wrong with those vacations (they are some of our BEST memories!), but I just dreamed of doing something outside of the norm as a family. Florida is basically the opposite corner of the country from us so it was not something we could do on a whim.
We’ve been to both Disney World and Land before at various times over the past 20 years, but NEVER all of us together at the same time. So a whole family, special trip like this was a dream for me.
I thought this trip was a dream that might never come to be!
This was a very rare opportunity and such a meaningful trip for us! So grateful we were given this gift of memories to last a lifetime!
We even made it extra special by surprising my son and his cousin about the trip. We woke them up at 4:30 AM and said, “Get dressed and get in the car!” and off we went into the night towards the airport. They didn’t even know where we were going until we got to Denver and switched planes! It was a blast!
Next surprise for them was that our girls were going to come later in the week, after we attended the conference! One morning just before we headed to Disney World, the boys woke up in our hotel room and our girls were there, asleep in our room! It was great fun pulling off big surprises to make this trip even more memorable for the kids. And for me.
This really was a dream come true! Aw. I get teary just talking about it.
So happy for your family. You all obviously had a great time! Hopefully you also took away great encouragement for your church plant.
.-= Linda @bushel and a pickle´s last blog ..Friends Coming Over =-.
FUNTASTIC! My “kids” just got back from Disney in Orlando. My daughter said, “we will go back one day!” Loved your photos! fmp
So fun, Melissa. So glad your whole family could go! We all went together a couple summers ago, and then years ago just Paul and I went. So fun! It all looks too familiar … LOL!
Yay!
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Tomatoes: Easiest to Grow! =-.