No Place Like Home

What a wonderful adventure. But all good things on earth must come to an end. Here's a quick summary of Day 6 and Day 7:

Day 6 (Wednesday) - Vegging Out
We stayed in bed until around 9am. The kids woke up, came into our room, and hopped into our beds around 9:30am. My parents came over from their bedroom at around the same time completely dressed, and ready to leave for breakfast. They were going to be visiting Animal Kingdom and MGM. (I secretly wanted to go SO badly, but I didn't say anything) Chris, the kids and I continued to lie in the bed for another 45 minutes or so, until the kids made it clear that it was time for breakfast. We quickly bathed, dressed, packed up the kids' on-the-road bags and were out of the door by around 11:30am.

After a rapid meal at the IHOP down the street from the villa, we all started feeling pretty lethargic. Cassie began getting fussy, Olan was a little irritable, and Chris began slightly stressing about a huge paper that's due to be submitted this upcoming weekend. We still had a day left on our "Magic Your Way" Disney passes, and a part of me wanted to go to Animal Kingdom or MGM. But after assessing everyone else's moods, and taking my own fatigue into consideration, we just decided to drive to Downtown Disney to pay a little extra and upgrade our Disney Passes so that they wouldn't expire. This way, we can use those passes another time, preferably about two years from now at the earliest. The kids and I waited in the car while Chris took care of this.

Once Chris returned to the truck, we just decided to go back to the villa since everyone was obviously in need of some time to veg out. On the way, I decided that I wanted to go buy some S-Cables for our DVD player that we brought down with us. I figured that while Chris was working on his paper, and the kids were busy with their new toys, I needed to busy myself with something. We took a longer route down Hwy 535 to get to Orlando where we knew that a Best Buy was located. There, we bought the cables, along with the first season of Entourage (we don't have HBO, and Jeremy Piven is one of my favorites). When we got back to the villa I put the kids down for a nap. Chris went into the bedroom to work on his paper, and I stayed in the living room and watched "The Devil Wears Prada". AWESOME movie! I also spent the day washing clothes and packing the suitcase here and there.

We ended the day by getting some takeout from the T.G.I.F. down the road from the villa, and lamenting on the fact that our vacation was coming to a swift end.

Day 7 (Thursday) - And, we're out...
Woke up at 7:30, finished packing, and got the heck out of the villa by 10am. (Note: The villa charges you a $200 fee if you checkout after 10:00). We all went to Golden Corral for one last breakfast together in Orlando. Afterward, we said goodbye to my parents who were headed directly home. Chris, the kids, and I stopped by the Books-A-Million near Universal Studios so that I could buy some very expensive, but useful computer programming books in addition to the 6th installment of Harry Potter (The Half-Blood Prince). Chris also bought some very cool Christian books. We left the bookstore, and drove all the way to a town just outside of Valdosta to have lunch at Sonny's. VERY nice people there, and that includes the workers and the other patrons. It reminded us of why we love small towns and hate the city so much.

We finally made it back to Atlanta around 9pm. As soon as Chris unlocked and opened the door, the fresh pine scent hit us. I felt a warm fuzzy feeling take over. Before I could say anything, Chris said "There's no place like home". Amen to that. No matter how nice your vacation is, there's nothing like the feel of walking on your own carpet, and being in your own bed.

I'm adding pictures from the trip to facebook. Enjoy!