MY FIRST TRIP May 1982

James 1st trip

1971

I was asked by a friend why do you go to Disney every year. My answer was a quick, because I love the time off work and the magic of it all. But having a few days to think over the question makes me want to share.

Why does anyone do something they enjoy over and over? Like camping, fishing, beach trips, zoo trips, museums, etc... Good thing people are creatures of habit and do like to repeat things, cause if we didn't there would be NO NEED for them to even open.

Everyone's reason for liking Disney is different. For me, the second I see the WELCOME to DISNEY sign, I leave the rest of the world behind. My beds at home are either made or not and I don't care, the bathrooms are clean, the kitchen is clean and guess what I will not have to clean it again for at least a week! NOW, I get that same feeling when we hit the beach or we go to the mountains and I love doing both of these things as well BUT they are not DISNEY and are a different type trip. Disney takes it a step further for me. We prefer to stay onsite, which means for a week we do not have to load up a car and drive anywhere. Most of you know we are on the road ALOT. So its a nice break..

I can not speak for my husband or son. For the record our youngest son loves Disney world and I know he will always be a Disney fan. Our oldest son could take it or leave it. We tormented him with trips to Disney every so often for a day or two.. He's never stayed a week at Disney because we always made our trips cover at least two things when he lived at home. Disney and beach.

Okay back to me, lol I wanna talk about me. ;)

Disney offers me just about everything I need in a vacation, awesome resorts to pick from, awesome pools and water parks, shows where the whole family can sit back to laugh, rides the whole family can do together, a place where you can go and act like a kid again and no one really notices.. Okay maybe they do notice but I will never see them again so who cares what they think. 90 % of the time every cast member is HAPPY to see you and be a part of your vacation. They seem to love their work and they serve you in a happy manner... NEVER have I had to hear about how hard a life they have while checking out..

I love the smells and sounds of Disney.. Of course I have no idea how to explain that without just taking you to Disney. When you think about it I live a pretty busy life with something going on all the time and well at Disney there is always something going on. :) So it feels right to me.

I began my Disney trips back in the early 80's when my mom and Bob took me. Now that was a trip! To be young again.. ;)

From 1987(little James first trip) till 1999 we went about once every 3 or 4 years. Then Curtis entered the world and his first tip was at the age of 6 months old. Oh my gosh.. that baby loved everything about Disney world. His fav ride was Buzz Light Year/. We have been at least once a year since then except for one year we did Universal only. Which he also loves.

With every trip things change, we change, but we always KNOW we are going to come home and say when can we go back?

I know the parks like the back of my hands, we get through the turn styles and don't have to wonder what do we want to do. I know where to go and what we like to ride and see.. So off we go. Which brings me to another question I get often. "why don't you like roller coaster".. Makes me want to say to people "why don't you like snakes, or spiders or whatever it is that they don't like" .. We all have different taste.. I love Brussels sprouts but do not make you eat them if you don't..

When I was younger I would ride anything once EVEN if it was my cousins who made me ride it. HAHAA love ya Liz and Mark. They made me ride the scream machine at Six Flags plus made me ride with their half brother who had a broke arm.. he told me if I screamed he would hit me with it. Not sure if the ride or him scared me more.. But in any case it wasn't fun. I have ridden it many times since then.. I still do not like the ride.. LOL As I have aged I have had to give up some of my favorite rides due to health. I miss riding Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom so very much. It is one of my all time favorites but due to back issues I will not risk it. I love dark and a bit scary rides.. Dinosaur is that but with lots of twist and jerks.. My old body cant take it.. WAHHHH

I love fun silly rides.. The jungle cruise comes to mind.. I love some rides just because they are old favorites and what Walt had in mind.. Small World is a favorite.. Buzz light year where I can beat the pants off the others shooting up stuff.. Snow white and Winnie the pooh where the stories of my childhood come to life.. At the other parks, some of my fav rides are Spaceship Earth, Mission to mars, Star tours, oh my gosh there's so many too many to name.. Out of the 4 parks I think there's 7 or 8 rides I don't do any longer. It's okay there's so much to do that I don't miss them.. Well I do dinosaur. LOL That's what is so great about Disney there's something fun for everyone from little babies to grandmas and grandpas..

And to the folks who hate Disney, that's okay cause I hate football and racing and fishing.. Thank goodness we are all different.. Plus it leaves more space for me if you are not there! grin.

I have missed blogging!

Yesterday was a normal busy crazy kind of day, but as I checked in on facebook one more time, I realized how much I missed blogging. Not that I ever blogged about much of anything important to anyone other than me! So here I am reading over some old blogs and wishing I had finished trip report 2009 and where's my 2010 report and oh the things I wish I had placed here to save forever. Get ready folks, I am back. Will get something worth reading up soon. :)

5th Grade

Here's Curtis at 7 or so this morning.. He was still just my baby for a bit longer.. Bundled up watching cartoons. :)

All of a sudden he took on that older 5th grade look. WOW..

Gosh the summer flew by. I haven't gotten our vacation report up yet nor shared the pictures on here. They are on facebook. The report is ready to upload just need to do it.

Today I drove Curtis to his school for the last first day of elementary school for him (hopefully! hahaha). Just think I have been enjoying first days for the past 20 years. Whatever will I do the first year he is out of school????

As we neared the school I asked him if I could walk him in today since this is his last year at this school.. He gave me that look and said "I will be fine mom". LOL So I dropped him off at the door and was sad that he never even looked back. Acting so like a 5th grader.

He had a great first day and seems excited about whats to come. I enjoyed meeting the teachers and was excited to see he got a karate students (been out awhile but once a student always a student) wife for homeroom. They will change classes just like last year and have a total of 3 teachers for the main subjects.

Curtis wants to have the highest AR score this year. Let's see if he can do it. Had 110 last year I think. The highest was 300 something. So he has to push it a bit to beat that score.

Trip Report Day 1

 

The Cambas Family's 2009 Vacation with the grands

 

Saturday June 27th

 

              I left here at 9 am and met Mom in Whitesburg.  We went to Douglasville and met the kids at the mall picking up Andrew and Courtney.  As Sylvia kissed the kiddos bye Andrew was so sweet and patted the seat next to him telling her there was room for her to go with us.  What a sweetheart he is.

              Had lunch at the Seabreeze restaurant.  Mom and I shared the Tilapia (YUMMY) and the kids shared a kids shrimp plate. We were waiting on our food and Andrew said "hey where's there bread" .  I think we eat out too much.  :)   

               We picked up moms car and all of us came to Newnan.  The kids played in the pool while I got the van loaded.  Mom and I went down to our neighbors veggie stand to get her some stuff to keep her busy while we are gone.  After she left we just played in the pool and had dinner of hot dogs and chips and pickles.   Baths and a movie before bedtime.  The grands were asleep by 10 or so.  James and I both got some sleep but Curtis NEVER went to sleep. 

 

Sunday June 28th

                James and I woke at 2:30 or so and decided to go ahead and get ready.  Curtis was bouncing off the walls.   We pulled out at 4 am.  Andrew woke as we loaded him and he got as hyper as his Uncle.  Courtney just opened her eyes and smiled.  :)

                We made it to Baxley GA by 7:30.   Made a stop at McDonald's for breakfast.

McDonalds                     

Pancakes

Saus Egg Mcmuffin meal

chicken bis meal

1 small coffee

2 small cokes

Everyone enjoyed our little breakfast and then went outside to play on the playground a bit.  Mom called me at 8 am.  :)  We sure were missing her already.  I called Billy to see if they were awake yet.  I think I beat his alarm clock by seconds.  :)  While the kids were playing Courtney looked at me and asked "where's Kncle Billwee"?

So we gave them their 5 minute heads up and then went to see Billy and family.

 

                We made our family visits short and sweet this year.  Limiting us to about an hour at each place.  Enjoyed our time with all of them and wish we had more time.  I was not ready to leave at the hour mark but we really needed to stay on track in order to have happy kids on the road. 

                 We were back on the road here by 9:15 or so.  On to Waycross.  Got to Bonnie's house around 10:15.   Enjoyed our time here and showing her our grands for the first time. 

 

                  Loaded kids up about 11:15 and handed out snacks to everyone.  Snacked our way to the Florida State line.  :)   Curtis still has not slept.  He keeps saying he doesn't want to miss anything.  :)   I finally got him to chill and nap a bit so he could have fun at the next stop.  

                   Stopped in Saint Augustine to show the grands the little house made out of a log that sits outside of Ribley's Believe it or Not.  We love this town.  We stopped here each year just to wander around and look at the shops and such.  I think we really need to take time to spend a couple nights here soon.  Kids got to burn up a little energy and then needed more snacks.  

 

                    12 hours after leaving home we arrived at Hard Rock Resort.  Bellhop unloaded car and said all rooms were ready so he would have our stuff up within 10 min. of check in and showed us where to park. 

                     As we are getting out of the van all of us were so darn excited to be here and poor little Courtney wet herself.  I had to laugh cause well Mom you remember the first trip you went with us to Disney and I was so excited to show you around.    

                        

                        Check in went smooth and we were sent on our way to our room.  I had requested near the elevators in order to save my old feet the LONG walks that can happen at these resorts.  We were on the 3rd floor (lobby level) room 3096. Our rate was for an obstructed view so I was a little worried just what we would be looking at, out our window.  But loved our view.  You could see parts of the pool and the ping pong tables and shuffle board courts through the trees.  I loved our view! The obstructed part was pretty to me, trees with pretty orange flowers of some sort on some of them. 

                         We got our clear back pack ready to go and headed to the park.  We rode the water taxi over to City Walk then picked up the kids tickets and entered Universal Studios.  Andrew and Courtney were so excited just on the water taxi.  ;)  We rode Jimmy Neutron (boys loved this ride) Courtney and I had to sit in the stationary seats, saw the shrek 4D show (we all love this one), rode Men in Black (had to use child swap here but we love this ride), the Simpsons (another child swap one and a favorite), and Jaws (the grands did not like this one at all)  then ate dinner at

International Food and Film Festival 

Fruit plate

pepperoni pizza

refill soda

stir fry beef place & rice

                        We got so much done in just 3 hours this night.  Was back in room by 9 and kids in bath.  We did not do a stroller for this night and poor little Courtney got blisters.  A couple of funny things said during trip.  Andrew kept asking as we traveled if I was going in circles.  He said he saw that sign already many times.  :)   He also made it clear when he needed to stop and get out a bit, he would say "how much further, my butt is cracking".  Curtis was a hoot.  He is always excited before a vacation but the excitement of showing the grands for their first time really got him wired.  He read, he took pictures with his DSi, he played games, he tried to sleep, he told silly jokes all the way there. 

Andrew was totally blown away by the parks.  His most used comment all week "It is so amazing".  I wish I had got that recorded.  Courtney loved everything as well.  But she kinda just went with the flow.  She had her special moments at Magic Kingdom.  :) 

 

 

I have pics on my facebook account if you want to see them. 

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Honors Day Pictures

Okay, one day I will learn to upload in reverse order so they turn out in the correct order. Sorry they are all backwards today. Such is my daily life sometimes. Hahaha

We are moving

 

 on up to 5th grade!   Made ya look didn't I.. :)

 

    Fourth grade was all we expected and more!   Curtis had an awesome year and it will always stand out in our minds and his I am sure.  

     He had 3 great teachers who I am sure thought I was nuts when they first met me and had meetings with me.  But they really shown that they could take Curtis' differences and help him grow and take charge of his differences and do his best.  Just how do you really show teachers how thankful you are for them? 

 

      Grades were awesome for him as always.  Schooling for Curtis is about so much more than grades.  But of course we are very proud of the A's and B's.  :)   Awards he got today included Prefect Attendance Award,

Accelerated Reader Award 100 point club, Presidential Academic Fitness Award, and the Extraordinary Effort Award. 

 

       The school years are going by so darn fast and I am really not ready to think of him as one of the oldest at his school.  But come August that's what he will be.  Wow..  A 5th grader.  We are so proud of you Curtis!

 

       Bring on summer sunshine and heat and fun!  Here's a few pictures from today. I will have to go to the site and upload the pictures.  It seems they did not go through with the email last night so started all over this morning.  Pictures to come. 

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Kalyn all grown up and a mommy now.. WOW

They call me La-La

 

 

Not to long ago someone asked how I got my nickname of La-La.  I have been waiting to share the story until I could get a picture of the young lady who named me about 18 years ago.

 

   I have been taking care of little ones in my home the past 24 1/2 years.  Gosh that sure makes me sound old.  @@  We were living in apartments in Newnan when we met Tracy and Keith.  They had a little boy Mathew who was a year or two older than our James.  They moved in right next door to us.  Our doors faced each other from our kitchens.   Tracy and I would cook and the boys would play between the two apartments.  We had a little disagreement one time (if only I could change the past but then again it made us better friends in the long run) and didn't speak to each other for close to a year.  Let me tell you, that's hard to do when you walk out your door and they are there. 

 

  Well one morning we were walking out and Tracy opens her door in her house coat and says guess what "I am pregnant and shows us the positive little cube thingy".   We have been friends since even though we are not near as close as we use to be as life has moved us both forward and taken paths that keep us apart. 

 

  That pregnancy went by fast for me (not for Tracy) and before we knew it a beautiful little girl named Kalyn entered the world.  One day when she's was between 8 months old and a year old I was leaving and we kept saying tell Angela bye bye and that sweet little girl says "byebye LaLa" and well I have been La-La every since!

 

  Kalyn is now grown and married and has a 5 month old little boy named Adrian.  Mathew grew up and joined the Marines and has a baby boy on the way as well.  To think Tracy and I are both grandparents.  I am now Mawmaw and the daycare kiddos are picking up on it and turning it into Mawaw La--La so we shall see what happens as time goes on.  My grands call me mawmaw and always want to know why the other kids call me La-La.  :) Tracy is Mimi to her little grandson. :) 

 

  Names full of love no matter what they are.  Kalyn will always be very special to me.  Love ya girl give that baby hugs and kisses from his La-La.

 

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