The Franklin Family

The night that we got home from Disney, Brian's grandmother passed away. She was 99 years young. She lived an amazing life. She did everything and when I say everything, I mean everything. Some of her jobs included, a homemaker, a truck driver, worked for her husband's construction company, owned part of a bowling alley, and during the depression, she let people work to earn room and board. To say she was a jack of all trades would be an understatement. But, the thing that I will always treasure and remember most about Great Mom was the way she took me in as her own. From the time Brian and I met, I was part of her family, and not the married-part-of-the-family, just part of her family. She would often call to check on us and would sit and talk about anything and everything, asking about me, the kids, my parents, my sister's family, and it wasn't small talk. She truly wanted to know how everyone was doing. She was an amazing woman and she will be greatly missed.

Great Mom was from Indiana, and her husband is buried there, so that following Wednesday, we left to take the 10 hour drive up to West Lafayette, Indiana. Brian's sister, Elizabeth, rode with us up there and back which was wonderful. The kids loved having her in the car and we enjoyed catching up with her. We made two stops on the way up, one in Nashville for some good ole' bar-b-que and the other for a restroom/gas stop. The kids once again were amazing! A total of 36 hours in a car over 2 weeks and they never complained once. They were itching to get out once we got to Indiana, but happy and agreeable!

It really was a great trip. Brian's brother and wife, and their 4 kids flew back from England, so it was amazing to be able to spend a few days with them because obviously, we don't get to see them as often as we like and the kids LOVED spending time with their cousins. Brian's brother Bradley worked at a church in the area, so we were able to go to the recreation center and let the kids run around on the indoor track and play a little basketball. It was nice to have a place to run around other than in the hotel. But I have to say I enjoyed the hotel too. It felt like we were back in college in the dorm. We had about 6 different rooms all next to each other so we sort of had our own wing :-) We got lots of great pizza from Arni's. Brian had it every meal possible, including left overs for breakfast. All around it was a great trip with family and I think it was just the way Great Mom would have wanted us to remember and celebrate her.

While we were there, we also got to visit the Purdue campus, which was really fun to see. The girls were really excited because it snowed all day!

Here are some pictures from the trip. (You know I have the camera glued to my head no matter where we are :-)

Andrew chewing on some corn

Aubrey and Grammie at Arni's

Bradley, Mary, and some of the cousins

Elizabeth, Caroline, and Nancy

Joe and Sarah, Judith and Denis, and Brian and Andrew

Aubrey

Andrew

Caroline

Mary with Peter and Sean

Grammie and Grandpa with Aubrey and Great Grandpa

The boys playing on Mary's iphone

Boys....

Caroline and Elizabeth

Elizabeth with the girls

Brian and I with Andrew

The fam with Great Grandpa

Great Grandpa with all his great-grandkids

All of Great Mom's grandkids and great-grandkids

Grammie and Grandpa with the grandkids

Caroline and Mary

Aubrey and Sean

Aubrey relaxing

The girls sleeping in the hotel

Purdue Archway

Their stadium

The Boilermaker Special (very loud :-)

I've actually been dreading writing this post for a while. It was such an amazing trip, I know that my writing will in no way, shape, or form do it justice! Brian and I had been planning to go to Disney in February of 2012 since back in the summer of 2011. We always said that we would wait until the girls were older to go so that they could remember it, but then after Andrew was born we wanted to make sure Caroline got to experience it when she was at a young age and didn't wait until she was too old to enjoy the little things. (Also, Aubrey and Andrew were both free so that made it even more appealing :-) We did a scavenger hunt right before Christmas to the let the girls know that we were going. We debated on telling them on our way, but decided Caroline needed some time to get process. Also, we thought that half the fun was looking forward to the trip. We asked Brian's sister, Mary to go with us and help us out with the kids and also because I needed someone to skip around with :-)

We left early on Saturday morning and drove straight through. The kids did amazing!! We stopped at the Georgia/Florida line to eat, Chick-fil-a of course, and we made it with just that one stop. We got to our hotel and unpacked. The kids could not have been more excited to 1. be out of the car, and 2. be in a hotel. The hotel we stayed at was perfect because it had two bedrooms/two bathrooms and a kitchen, which made all the difference in the world! We were able to eat in the parks during the day and then come home and stay in for the evening and unwind. We got everything unpacked and then headed out to the grocery store. The Publix that we went to not only had the normal grocery items, but also a Disney gift shop as well. We had already decided that we would look other places in hopes to find souvenirs that were less expensive than in the park, but come to find out, the prices in the park were very comparable to that of a Wal-Mart or a Target.

We built in a "rain day" while we were there, so we actually had 4 days to do 3 parks. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios on Sunday. Our pediatrician actually suggested that we go there instead of Animal Kingdom, which I am so glad that we did. I got lots of great advice from her because she had just gotten back from taking her family the week before. We saw her a lot the week before because Andrew was diagnosed with RSV and, up until a couple days before, we really weren't even sure we would be able to go, but thankfully all of the types of treatments that he needed, we were able to take with us and she gave us the OK to go.

Hollywood Studios was great! All the characters were there, but the lines were very short and the rides/shows that they had were perfect for the kids. As we were walking in to the park, Minnie was out taking pictures and signing autographs. It was so fun that she was the first "character" that the kids saw. Aubrey was totally in awe of her! It was the sweetest moment and one that I won't forget. After we made it into the park, we headed to The Little Mermaid show, which on a side note, is Brian's and Mary Katherine's favorite :-) I forgot how neat and organized that show is. I know the people that move the characters do it on a daily basis, but how they kept from running into each other was really amazing! After we watched Aerial, we headed over to the Disney Jr. show. This was Aubrey's favorite and mine too. It was a really neat puppet type show that featured many of the Disney Jr. shows like, Little Einsteins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and of course Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, all of which the girls LOVE watching. After we watched that show walked over to Rockin' Roller Coaster, which Mary and I rode! AHH-MAZING! That is by far one of my favorite roller coasters. We then met back up with Brian and the kids and went to the Beauty and the Beast and the Buzz Lightyear ride, which was really cool!! After that, we headed over to grab some lunch and take a little rest. Also that morning we were able to knock a lot of characters off our list. We saw, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Pluto, and Goofy. After lunch, we split up. Brian drug Mary to Tower of Terror (yes, right after lunch) and I took the kids to wait in line to see Mickey. After Mickey, Aubrey wanted to go see Pooh and then we headed out to pick out treats for the day. It was a great first day! We took our time and accomplished everything we wanted to without anyone getting too tired!

On the second day we headed to Magic Kingdom. Right away we got pictures with Daisy and Pluto and headed into the Theatre to get pictures with Mickey and Minnie. After that we headed over to Fantasyland and rode It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Pooh, saw the Mickey 3D show, rode the carousel, and the teacups. Thankfully, someone had to stay with Andrew, so I didn't have to ride the last two. It looked like Brian enjoyed spinning Mary around in the teacups more so than the girls! After those rides, Caroline wanted to ride the Astro Orbiter (the rocket ships in Tomorrowland) I think she was most excited about riding the elevator up to the ride. While waiting in line, Brian and Mary spotted Jeff Gordon and snapped, stealthily I might add, a few pictures. After that we ate lunch and then headed over to Adventureland and Frontierland. We stopped by and got pictures with Prince Eric and Aerial and then rode Aladdin, trying not to get spit on by the camel :-) For a little down time, we rode the train around the park and then Brian, Mary, and Caroline went on Splash Mountain. Caroline was beyond herself when she got back! She LOVED it! She wanted to ride it over and over. After Splash Mountain, we were going to head back to the hotel, but as we were leaving, we saw that the parade was getting ready to start, so Brian bought the girls (and me) a little pick me ice cream and we sat on Main Street and watched the parade go by. After the parade we did head back to the hotel to rest a little and get ready for the next day!

Our third day, last park day, we went back to Magic Kingdom. We probably could have accomplished everything that we wanted to do in one day, but we really wanted it to be a laid back trip that we all enjoyed so we decided to break it up and go for a second day rather than heading somewhere else. That morning we got to the park earlier than we had the other mornings. It wasn't planned, but I'm so thankful that we did. If you've never been there to watch them "open" the park, you need too. The characters ride in on the train and they have a big countdown with fireworks. It's just a really neat experience that added to the magic of Disney. Once we were inside the park, we began by going back to the Theatre to see the Storybook Princesses, Aurora, Belle, and Cinderella. The girls were dressed in their princess dresses, so the princesses made a very big deal about them being "royalty" :-) One of my favorite memories for this day happened while Aubrey was talking to Belle. While she was getting ready to get her picture taken, Belle explained/showed Aubrey how to formally hold up her dress to the side like a princess. (As you can see in the picture) Now whenever she wears a dress, she always holds up one side and reminds us that Belle taught her how to do that. After the princesses, we headed over to ride the race cars because we knew that the main event...Rapunzel, didn't open until 9:00, so we had a good bit of time. After the race cars, I went to get in line for Rapunzel with Andrew, while Brian, Mary, and the girls went to ride the teacups and the Astro-Orbiter again. Another cool thing that we got to experience was seeing Rapunzel come out. Since we were one of the firsts in line, we had to "call" Rapunzel down from her tower yelling, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" After we yelled that she popped out the door, while Aubrey squealed! While waiting in line for Rapunzel, it was all I could do to keep Aubrey from just running to her ahead of the line. When it was our turn, Aubrey just ran to her, but Caroline was a little hesitant, which was interesting, because she had not been like that with any other character. But Rapunzel was amazing! She inched over to Caroline and talked to her about her experience of being scared to leave the tower and on and on and just made it so real for Caroline. She was just amazing! The funny thing was that while Rapunzel was talking and coaxing Caroline over, Aubrey was propped in her lap just gazing up at her. After we peeled Aubrey off of Rapunzel's lap, we headed back over to Frontierland and Adventureland where we ran into Donald, and then Jasmine and Aladdin. We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean. (A Brian pick :-) After that, we began to head back to Main Street so the kids could pick out their treats for the day and we could wrap things up. While we were looking around, another parade came through, so of course, we sat to say one last goodbye to our new friends. We got pictures taken with Snow White on our way out and headed out, saying goodbye to Magic Kingdom.

Our last day, Wednesday, we headed to Downtown Disney to do some light shopping and just walking around to see what all was there. We picked up some shirts of us and the girls and found a few souvenirs that were unique. The girls really enjoyed the Lego store and the toy store that had the Mr. Potato table. We also checked out the outlets and headed back to the hotel to pack.

On Thursday, we got up bright and early and headed to a surprise for the kids. Brian had booked breakfast with Chef Mickey and the gang before we headed out of town. The food was great and the kids were so excited that the characters actually came to our table!

It was an amazing trip and one that I will never forget. We always said we would wait until the kids were older to go, but I'm so glad we didn't. The looks in their eyes is something I will never forget, even if they do. (Plus, I have only like 1,000 pictures to remind them of every step they took :-)