Florida

In late August our family (the Burke side) had a family gathering in Orlando. My parents, Stash, Krys, Sydney and Seth (my older brother's family), us and Stephen and Erica (my younger bros family) all stayed in a 3 bedroom resort near Downtown Disney. Our family arrived on Monday and the rest were scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Therefore, our family did a little "touristing" for a few days. The above picture is my parents and all the grandchildren. (the giraffe is not real)
Our first "touristy" event was the world's largest McDonalds. (I did not take pics) The kids had a blast, and after the plane ride to Florida it was much needed. Oh, I forgot to mention that due to the high gas prices and low airfare, we flew to Florida this time. Half of the family liked it better, the other half of us preferred driving. We looked like a parade going through the airport. I wanted to take a picture, but couldn't, if you saw us you would understand. See, Lance's legs are taller than Launa and he was the leader. Also, one is allowed two carry ons and each checked luggage cost money. With six people we were allowed twelve carry ons. We took twelve carry-ons. After all, we were there for over a week. We all wore a back pack and rolled a suitcase, with the exception of Launa who only had a backpack filled with baby dolls. Lance carried her extra luggage.
Moving on, our next event was the M&M store in the mall. The kids thought this was the coolest place. Even cooler than the large McDonalds. We put six M&Ms of each color into a bag and went to a table in the middle of the mall and ate them. We each took the same color, counted to three, and then ate it. Lance and I decided that all the colors tasted the same. Drue had a different opinion.

Next, we took the kids to Arabian Nights. This was now their new favorite event. Launa and Samuel were so intrigued(sp?) by the horses they did not even eat their food. When we came back home (to AZ) that was the event they spoke the most about. Samuel even did some sample tricks to show everyone what they were talking about. (He did it on the ground, we do not have a horse)

Now the rest of the family arrived and we began to swim until we all looked like prunes. I do not have any pics of the swimming time. Some people don't like to have "swimsuit" pictures. The pool had three slides and I am surprised the kids did not wear them out. Launa was a crazy person on those slides. She would fly off there so far because she is so light. It was hilarious.

We took all the kids to Downtown Disney one afternoon. The highlight for my kids was the LEGO store. They had been dreaming about this since my mom told them about all the things she had seen there. The picture below is my mom and all the grandkids mixed with LEGO people. The LEGO people were amazing.

That just about sums up our trip. Other than Mema (see earlier post) we did not visit any other family. This trip was especially for my immediate family. Stash had just come back from Iraq for the second time and my mom really wanted all of us to get together. I am so glad that we did. It worked out so well, we may have to do it every year.