Disney Family Adventure - the Journey

The Carroll's have adventured yet again to the Happiest Place on Earth - aka My Happy place: Walt Disney World.  I think our Disney trips are numbered.  Not for me, mind you, but I think I can only ask Mark to go so many times.  We have a great time when we go, but it is an exhausting trip in July and it did seem extra hot this year.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic the entire time, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears was shed.  Just like the last time we went, I will try and post in terms of the days.  My first post will log "the journey".

Our Magic Bands arrived about 3 weeks before we left.  This is Disney's new ticket method and it also opens up your room doors.  You can also book your Fast Passes for rides in advanced and it all triggers back to your (truly) Magic Band.  This is also how you see your Photo Pass Pictures, which I will probably do as a totally separate post.

They do not come with the cute Mickey stickers;  I found someone on Etsy who makes these.  They had our initials and names on them:

I definitely don't think I am the only one excited about this trip:

The traditional count down calendar:

Who's excited now?

So I tried to take pictures at each state line or rest stop, and they really did not come out.  When we finally made it to the Florida rest stop, as per tradition, we stopped for the free orange juice.  I like this picture of Emma and I but it took Mark about 20 minutes to take it (don't get me started!)

So this year we drove about 8 hours to Lake City and stopped.  I great choice b/c they had a million places to eat by our hotel, and we only had about 2 and a half hours to Disney.  Here are some pics from our hotel there:

So I was basically "too excited to sleep" that night and bounced out of bed the next morning ready to get to DISNEY!  Here Emma and I show our excitement to hit the road:

One of the other cool things about all this Disney technology is that you can receive a text when your room is ready and go straight there.  I got a text that morning that our room would be ready when we got there and we didn't even have to go to the lobby to check in.  How cool?  When we got to Disney around 11:15, since we already had our Magic Bands, we could go straight to our hotel room - and it worked!

When we got there, Mickey had a little surprise for us - a cool ice chest with some yummy treats inside:

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, which was great for this Louisiana family.  I picked it because it is the smallest of the moderate resorts, and you don't have to wait hours for a bus.  When you go to Disney at one of the busiest times of the year, you have to do some wise planning!  It was also really nicely landscaped with lots of trees and shade.  I will post some pictures when I get to the end of the roll.  Here are a few of our room:

So we decided to go to Downtown Disney that day and rest of for the parks tomorrow.  I will post our shopping pics in the next post!

Quick Beach trip June 2015

Katie and Emma and I took a quick trip to Perdido Key last week with one of her friends and her mom (who happens to be one of my coworkers). I didn't take many pics but the weather was great and we had a great time. 

DSJH Honors program

On Friday, Katie had her awards program at Denham Springs Junior High.  She made the A / B Honor Roll and was recognized for her "Hall of Fame" status from Youth Leg activities.  We also found out that day that she made an Excellent (the highest you can get) on her Algebra End of Course test - hopefully this proves a good thing for high school.  I was very proud of her b/c as she gets older, that A/ B honor roll list gets smaller and smaller.  Now on to the Freshman High!  Ahhhhh!

Proud parents

Sorry for the bad action shot; it was the only one I got!

Katie and Carson Duet (a friend since preschool days)

Her favorite teacher, Ms. Rea

Katie and Avery - another friend since preschool - like, literally since the baby room!

Katie and her friend Josh

Jessie, Ali and Katie - friends since hanging out with moms at the high school.

Jessie and Katie (her best friend)

Katie and her principal, Mr. Wax - one of my former co-workers

Algebra I teacher - Mrs. Watts

Another favorite - Mr. Fry - social studies in 6th and 8th grade

Northside Awards program

So, as usual, the highlight of Emma's year is the awards program for her grade.  She is so disappointed that they don't do an AR contest any more, but still glad that she can excel in her grades.  I hope she keeps this competitive spirit throughout high school.  She received all A honor roll, highest average in ELA, Math and Social Studies.  She also received  an excellence in Spanish award.  So very proud!

Emma and Mrs. Graham

Emma and Senora Gonzales

The proud dad

Emma and her 2 4th grade teachers, Mrs. Berthelot and Mrs. Graham

Spanish teacher Senora Gonzales

Her buddies: Addie, Libby and Skyla

Proud mom

Emma and her buddy, Carson (and her biggest competition!)

Camp Marydale 2015

So it was time for another Girl Scout camp out at Marydale this past weekend.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best.  We got some rain free time in the morning on Saturday, but right around lunch time, it started to pour.  The only thing they couldn't do that weekend was the actual camp fire;  but all the crafts were done, and they did ride horses again this year.  Emma had a great time.

 

 

The morning flag ceremony:

 

Emma didn't know this when she got to camp, but her t-shirt design won for the official camp t-shirt.  When they picked up their shirts Friday night, she suspected it b/c it looked like what she drew, but it wasn't officially announced until that morning. She was so excited.  A few other girls' ideas also contributed to the style:

 



Our first craft of the day was a dream-catcher - very cute:

Troop 10353:

Hiking down a rather muddy trail:

Kyleigh, Mia, Audrey, Addie and Emma:

The new favorite craft was copper enameling.  They loved this, and even the moms got to make one.  Mine, of course, was purple and gold and Emma's was white with all different colors - very cool.

The entire troop and moms.  It was pretty rainy at this point:

Emma, Addie and Alena stayed in a cabin together at the Owl's Roost.  I got a few pictures before I left for the night.