The Johnson's

Sat June 7

Well my vacation didn't start off well because I left my phone at home. My dear friend Sarah Denton was kind enough to goto the house and mail it to me. She went to the Crown Point fedex and they had closed so she had to travel a long way to get it mailed. I should have it by Monday after noon. The trip was going well -kids transferring from car to car every stop. Braxton and Evan hit it off great. They have been inseparable! It seemed to take forever to finally get Kambrye. Stephen took us the back roads...he said it was a short cut. Kambrye is as short and stocked as ever! We've cleared the following states: Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and are stopping for the night just outside Atlanta Georgia. No major problems-I drove most off the way. Lisa mom and rode together and tried to discuss our plan for the week. We did get some bad new from Pam that Pops passed away just after noon. What a sad day. He should be receiving 3 letters in the mail from us. Wish he could of seen them. We might have to miss a day if Disney to show our respects to Stephens Grandfather. More on. Pops when we get the info from Pam. We drove all day from 7am to about 9:30pm.

Sun June 8

Got up early had breakfast and headed off for 7 more hours to drive. We made our normal pit stops for potty breaks and lunch but otherwise had a smooth drive. Got to the hotel about 3:30. Check in and preceded to unload.. That was a chore! The guys and kids headed to the swimming pool and Lisa and I unpacked and headed to the grocery store. We stopped at a few places to look for cheep tickets. We discovered after many hours that unless you sit through a resort presentation you will not get any discounted tickets. We got groceries for the next day and stuff to make spaghetti for dinner with. We had a great dinner then headed to bed. We are headed to Hollywood Studios.

Monday June 9

We got up early and headed down to breakfast which is served from 7-10 every morning. Lisa mother and I ate fast and headed to the concierge and decided to a 3 day Disney pass. Since we got our tickets at the hotel we didn't have to wait hours in line when we got to Disney. When we got to the park-Hollywood studios we hit the ground running. Lisa and Stephen had the day planned out with fast passes planned for the whole day. Because I didn't have my phone I was not able to help with the planning for finding locations of rides. Oh well. Was kinds nice. We went to the Indiana Jones stunt show where list was chosen to be an extra(video taped that!) a motor car and bike stunt show, beauty and the beast musical show, Star Wars ride, the great movie ride, tower of terror, back lot tour and got tons of character signatures. All the kids carried their own Micky or Minnie backpacks with snacks and drinks in them. The Disney pins were a huge hit. The kids put them all on their lanyards and traded them with everyone and anyone the would. About 6 pm we got hungry and left the park for cei ceis fir dinner. It tasted so good. It was SO so hot all day long. After dinner we headed back to Disney but went to magical kingdom for rides. We had to take the mono rail from the parking lot to the rides. We went to buzz light year, sped way, space mountain, stitch ride, tea cups and dumbo. By then it was midnight and the park closed at 1am. Boy did we have some hot tired kids. We all showered when we got home and went to bed

Tues June 10

We all slept in! I woke up at 9am and got everyone else up so we could make it to breakfast before it closed. Our plan was to hit a beach but plans changed. After breakfast Brent mom and I headed to walmart to get supplies for tomorrow. We also wanted to get lunch. We got hot dogs and Mac n cheese. The kids played in the pool after breakfast. The weather was not the best and the kids were in and out do the pool because of lightening. So we decided to eat a late lunch swim in the pool all day then head to Disney city to walk around and have dinner. Stephen talked to Pam and got info on Pops funeral Thursday. We will drive the 5 hours-Kam and Evan will stay with everyone and go to the beach.

Wednesday June 11

Up at 5 am to get ready for Animal Kingdom. We all got ready and ate our breakfast that the hotel provided us all week. Headed to Animal Kingdom and arrived just after opening. Headed to the Kilimanjaro ride-a jeep ride through Africa. It was neat seeing all the animals free on the preserve. We spent the morning on rides and adventures in Animal Kingdom. About 1pm we headed to the parking lot for lunch. Stephen and I had to leave to go rent a rental car for Pops funeral tomorrow. The rest of the family ate a sandwich lunch we packed in coolers. Boy it was another very hot morning. Stephen and I headed to Enterprise and rented a car for the trip. Enterprise was just across the street from the hotel. We dropped off the car, stopped at Wendy's for lunch and headed to Magical Kingdom for the rest of the night. As we driving to Magical Kingdom for our 3pm fast pass it started to down pour. Stephen and I had to find the family in the rain. We ended up splitting up because our fast passes got CXL because of the weather. We hit the haunted mansion and the tiki show. We met back up with everyone at the Aladdin ride...where it poured again. We put on our rain coats and kept trucking. We decided to eat dinner in the park. After dinner the guys-Stephen Evan Braxton and Brent wimped out and headed home. The rest of us stayed and hit pirates of the carriebien, Peter Pan, Bella village, dumbo, the train ride. We even got to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks and tinker belle fly from the castle. What a very exciting night! We finally left the park at midnight wearing our rain coats with very wet feet.

Thursday June 12

Up at 5 am getting ready to travel with Stephen to Chattahoochee for poppies funeral. We grabbed breakfast at McDonalds and ate on the way. It took us 5 hours to get to the church. We first met Ryan, Pam and Dale at this little mom and pop restaurant/flower shop. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the church. Stephen and I changed into our dress clothes and greeted everyone who entered. Pops didn't look very good..he just had lost a lot of weight when he was sick. After a nice service we headed to the cemetery-stephen was a pallbearer- which was next to the church. It was another hot sunny day to say good bye to Pops. After the cemetery we went back to the church for a nice meal with family. They made chicken, lots of fresh veggies and salads, deviled eggs and lots of desserts. We left about 4pm and headed back to Kissamee FL to continue our vacation.

I also got a card for Lisa and Brent for their Anniversary today. Left grandma in charge of having everyone sign the card. Almost home..so tired but have another early day at Epcot tomorrow-our last day. We got all our stuff arranged and packed so leaving on Saturday will be a bit easier!

Friday June 13

Well it was the first time in a long time that it was Friday the 13th and a full moon. Nothing to crazy happened. Got up early and usual, got ready, had our ritual breakfast gathering for breakfast and headed out to Epcot today! We got there about 8:45am just in time for opening. We headed straight for the ride Fast Track where you designed a car and got to test drive it. A very fast exciting ride. Poor. Braxton was having "scare" day and he didn't ride any rides in the morning. We explored Epcot all day until 6pm. We had rain about 10am so we had wet feet all day long! We had lunch in the park today and had sandwiches for dinner when we switched parks. After our sandwiches we headed to Magic Kingdom to finish out the night. We picked our favorite rides and rode them again and watched the fire works. What a great night. Everyone was so tired by the time we were leaving! Got home late packed some more for our departure tomorrow!!!

Saturday June 14

Got up early and headed to breakfast. After we ate made a quick stop at the gift shop to get something for Sarah for taking care of Boyfriend. We got in the road about 9:30am and hope to do 10-12 hours. Funny-mom started following a truck that had watermelon in it. She was focusing on this water Mellon so much that she followed the truck right off the interstate at an exit. Oohhh mom!! Made a quick stop at an outlet mall. Bought Kam an outfit-shoes shirt shirts and Evan a pair of expensive shoes. We spent the night in ChAtanooga TN. Not quite half way. The kids had about 40 min to swim. We were all in bed about 11pm.

Sunday June 15

Got up at 6am and headed to a small breakfast. Enough to get out bellies full! I'm so tired today. We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove...ugh. Just want to be home. A beautiful day with no rain. We dropped Kambrye off in Centralia with her grandma-her mother is still on vacation and she has band camp next week and can't stay the week with us and Evan. She started crying..Awah. The Zaehringer's didn't stop for the Kambrye drop off and kept going. 4 more hours!!! Oh before we left the hotel I had bought Father's Day cards but forgot the one for grandpa. Oh well. The kids signed them and gave them to their fathers! Spent the night at moms and headed back to Indiana Monday morning!