The coldest 10 days of my life

We have just returned from a jam packed, fun filled, cold, and expensive trip from Disneyworld.

Maddy threw up on the plane 2 minutes before take off. Noah, who was sitting next to me, starts to dry heave. Dan grabs him before a huge chain reaction hits the plane. I saw that as a major problem diverted. The plane waited for us "patiently" while she and I "showered" in the bathroom, with no soap. Airplane sinks are every tiny and they don’t have much water pressure. I heard nothing but complaints and commentary by an extremely obnoxious man who sat kitty corner to me about how put out he was by such a late departure. Luckily it was a short flight.

We lost Blake in Fantasyland for what seemed to be forever (1 hour). He knew where we were all going; he just found his own way there. We saw many tour groups following a flag. I thought many times we need an Olson flag to keep us all together, tip for next time – remember to pack Olson Family Flag.

We were lucky to be apart of record low temperatures for Florida. It's always fun to be part of a record. I’m not sure I would have chosen this particular record. Usually this time of year it's in the mid 70s. We were there when it was easily 30-40 degrees below that, and completely unprepared. By day two we were frozen and spent a fortune in one of the shops buying everyone hats, jackets, sweatshirts, and mittens. Having lived in the tropics for 4 years my kids do not own cold weather clothes. The kids have school uniforms ( I love it) and never need a jacket. They each have one pair of long pants to there name. By the end of the trip, those pants could walk the park on their own.

Maddy had had enough one day and through herself on the ground and caught herself with her nose. We put a band-aid on it so she wouldn't pick at it. She had a bad reaction to the adhesive so she looked pretty beat up by the end of it all. Sometimes we are more harm than help.

Audrey is a thrill junky. Between all the fast passes her brothers didn't want to use, and rider switch passes we had because of Maddy, Audrey was in heaven riding all the roller coasters over and over. Many rides take picture while on the ride. We had a blast trying to make the most dramatic posses at just the right moment.

We learned that Noah is fascinated by maps and always needed one in his hand. We could not move on until Noah found our location.

I'm not sure who equated vacation with relaxation. I don't believe it is possible when you travel with children. I was worried about what and when we will eat, clean clothes, keeping everyone warm, counting heads, what time the bus was in the parking lot to take us back to the hotel, and nap time. I don't know when it happened, but I once had a brain. What was ever in there, has now been replaced by a potty log of who went and when. What do you do with that kind of knowledge? Yes, we had a great time but I would not define it as relaxing. I've spent the last 2 days in a lazy daze.

We’ve spent the last 3 years saving for this vacation. Back to work to being the savings fund for another vacation. Maybe in 3 years we will have recovered from this one and with the passage of time have nothing but rosy memories of our trip to Disneyworld. That’s the blessing of memories and a brain of mush, I always tend to remember how great things were when….