Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts

Various Kissimmee, FL Tourist Views

     Just a few different sites every tourist sees in the Kissimmee, Florida area! There are tons and tons of shops set up just selling various souvenirs from t-shirts, to key chains, to everything in between!

Awesome Orange Stand
Some buildings had the coolest shapes and sizes including
the wizard on the front of this gift shop!
This is one that I loved the drawings throughout the exterior!
There were several that had amazing drawings, this is just
one of the few I was actually able to photograph while
stopped at a stoplight! I kept saying I'd walk the strip and
take pics, I just didn't want to get caught up in all the
tourist-y stores! :)  

It looks like snow, it feels like snow...

     I posted this on Facebook and just had to post it in the blog! We are obviously from a cold weather state and are used to seeing lots of snow. Due to our traveling, especially due to my back pain issues and our need to passionately homeschool hands-on across the United States, we have not actually lived in cold weather for about three winters.

     Kristi happened to open the freezer and saw this snow-like mixture throughout it. She scooped it up in a cup and said, "It looks like snow, it feels like snow; but, it sure doesn't taste like snow!"



LOL! It still makes me laugh! :)

Our Ice Cream Party - Thanks Micah & Auntie Stephanie!

We had to plan this party quite quickly! As you know, in this lifestyle one never knows how long their neighbors will be around before they get the “itch” move on!  :-)  Just kidding! Yes, that's true; but, in this case one of the families that participated were scheduled to leave in two short days! Now, THIS blog post is going to be fun! As you all know, the kids are benefiting with an ice cream party thanks to a lot of wonderful people out there! Here are the pictures of the party as I promised, Auntie Stephanie!

To begin with, I had all of these wonderful ideas of having a huge party - you know, the bigger, the better! I was going to buy streamers, screamers, party hats, and all of the wonderful things that make up a party. However, when I started thinking about the practicability of such things in our environment, it wasn’t such a realistic thought! You see, if we had the party here at Thousand Trails, I can see us putting up streamers and all just to “get in trouble” and have to take them down. Not to mention feeling like a bit of a nuisance to the elderly in this community.  *giggle*  We thought about and decided it would be a lot more fun to make the mess elsewhere so others can clean it up! Just kidding… (us ladies ended up cleaning up the mess none-the-less!) After running some figures of what was do-able with that many people, we decided to have our party at CiCi’s Pizza! Remember altogether, we had a total of 23 people! We were able to have all we can eat and the managers were even letting us bring in ice cream along with all our goodies for sundaes! We decided against the screamers that you can blow (might get us in a bit of trouble with CiCi’s), figured streamers and other ideas were out, so we focused on what we all LOVE the most – food and good people to socialize and share it with! Needless to say, you can tell by all of these wonderful smiles that EVERYONE had a wonderful time! A great time was had by all! (Beware, lots of pictures for Auntie Stephanie and everyone else to follow!)   All in all, it was an AMAZING time! Thank you to all that made this happen in so many ways! You know who you are!


A great overview picture of all 23 of us!
Adults socializing!
My daughter and her good friend - BFFAEA - (This is what
they say - Best Friends Forever And Ever AMEN!)
Older boys having fun!
More of the older boys having fun!
I should call these guys the "big kids" - Allen and his father-in-law
Margie and her lovely mother
Rita and Peter DeMichiel
Katie and her daughter
Schrier family (minus my son - how is he getting away
with not being in these pictures?)
Gary and Kerry Murphy
Rita showing off her FUDGE swirl. How yummy is that?!
You can't tell us ladies like our chocolate can you?  :-)
What a beautiful smile from Katherine!
The dishing of the ice cream! We had three huge choices either vanilla, chocolate, or fudge swirl!
My son having the best of both worlds (ice cream and the electronics/video game area)!
Love these messy smiles! :)
This is where the kids had the most fun I think! They had the choice of cool whip,
chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, sprinkles, and I think one other choice? They
made some great creations! I should have taken pictures of them!  *giggle*
You can tell right here that Lizzy has a BRAIN FREEZE! We all know what
that is, right? Everyone had one of those before? Yikes! They aren't fun!
A great group picture of many of the full-time family kids before we left.
Unfortunately, we did miss a few of the kids that had to leave early (Lundy).
They grow up way too fast (which make all of these great pictures even better)!

Our RVing Family Rocks!!!


I’m not sure I will really be able to get my point across to those of you out there that don’t live this lifestyle. Most RVing families can agree that we have found that this lifestyle is simply the best with so many more benefits than not. But, in order to live this way, we have had to sacrifice a few things. Most of the sacrifices are small in nature such as giving up conveniences like having a washer, dryer, dishwasher, huge living area, etc. One of the biggest sacrifices to us is that we had to leave behind our loving extended family and friends. Once on the road, we have found that other RVers have become our “on the road” extended family.   :-)  

 

This is the picture we submitted to the contest!


Our extended family members on the road are simply AMAZING! I just had to write about a recent experience of how wonderful others can be – including others that we haven’t even met in person (only online such as in forums or Facebook). Stephanie Mulac, the owner of the Full-time RVing - FTRVing.com, made a contest for the photo of the Super Moon that had the most “likes” from people on Facebook. Five full-time RVing families that were still at the Orlando Thousand Trails RV Resort Park (where WE are); all decided to head out and enjoy some fun at the pool all at the same time (including us). The kids were swimming and having a great time together when one of the other mothers had a brilliant idea to take a picture of the kids with the Super Moon in the background. Right at that moment, the Super Moon was so pretty and very low still in the horizon. Within minutes we had all of the kids out of pool ready for the picture. Unfortunately, by that time the moon was a bit higher and didn’t appear as large or bright as it did a few minutes ago. It was also right in line of a nearby lamppost! It’s the thought that counts, right?! So, we entered the picture and decided if we win, the kids would enjoy an ice cream social! So, we watched and reared the teams to like our picture!  It came down to the last few hours and we were neck and neck with another person.
Here is another one of the kids with a total of
5 participating Full-time Families including the
Lundy, Murphy, DeMichiel, Keller, and Schrier families!
Pool fun at Orlando TT!
What came after this moment is what truly showed what an AMAZING group of people we call our RV family! Prior to the event being over, other RVers including others that had their own picture in the contest listed us on their Facebook page to get even more likes! Hmm (clearing my voice), I’m not going to mention any names… Michelle Thomas! LOL! Then still others out there were making such sweet comments about our photo and our children. Still others were voting for us, and just wishing us well wishes throughout. At the end, we ended up losing – having 136 likes versus 139 likes to the winner, Micah Sheheen. Stephanie Mulac, the group owner, decided that since we were so close she just had to donate the money ($50) to the kids’ ice cream party from “Auntie Stephanie”… we love you Auntie Stephanie!!! Then, within minutes, Micah Sheheen let us know that she wanted her ($50) to go to the kids’ ice cream party too! She figured it could be a pizza and ice cream beginning of summer kick-off party! Yay! My heart is still warmed over by all the great generosity within the RVing community! It just shows one what kind of tight-knit community we are a part of with this lifestyle! I love you guys! Our RVing family ROCKS!!!  (Next post will show the awesome ice cream party!)