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Christi's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/2/00 -------------------- 11/1/00 10/31/00 10/31/00 10/30/00 10/29/00 10/28/00 10/27/00 10/23/00 10/14/00 -------------------- Christi's Introduction

October 28, 2000

Saturday 10/28/00

We awoke at 1:50 a.m. and while Phill showered I dressed. At 2:20 we woke Alexis up and got her dressed, and finally at 2:35 it was Caleb's turn to get up. Once we were all dressed and re-packed we loaded the car and at 3 a.m. and headed off for the bus terminal. We unloaded the car and simply waited. Caleb was very wired and Alexis was mellow.

After all the stops we were on the way to O'Hare by 4:20. On the way I was worried about Caleb not having a seat belt, but he sat very still next to me and eventually we all dozed for a while. We arrived at O'Hare at 5:45 and as soon as we were off of the bus there was curb side help that checked our bags in for us so we simply had to head to our gate. Our flight was not due to leave until 8 a.m. so we had a while to wait. (There was not a later bus to take that would get us there on time.) The kids ate some breakfast that we had bought earlier -- it was a little box meal of a cereal bar, a bag of cereal, a juice box and a toy. Of course, they both spilled some of the cereal all over the floor.

We finally boarded with no problems. We had three seats (we did not buy one for Caleb), but the four of us fit just fine once we lifted the middle arm rest. That way we were all able to be buckled in and seated.

Five minutes after take off both of the kids were sound asleep. Phillip and I enjoyed a small breakfast and we watched "Big Mama's House." By the time the credits were rolling it was time for our landing. The flight was perfect, thank God!

Once we were finally off of the plane we found our luggage and went to pick up our rental van. We had pre-booked so there was little problem picking it up. We rented a Plymouth Grand Voyager for $199 for a week. They did try to get us to buy insurance for $18.35 a day, but before we left I had double checked with our insurance agent and he assured me our insurance would be the same for the rental as it is for us driving our own car. So we declined.

By 12:30 eastern time we were at our resort. We could have checked in right then but since Phillip had done so much research on the resort he knew the section they wanted to put us in was not a great one. So, we opted to wait until 3:30 p.m. to get a nicer section. We decided to go to an outlet mall where we had lunch at a food court. We shopped for a while before leaving to go to a grocery store. Once we finally found the grocery store we were running late. We were suppose to meet my sister at 4 p.m. and it was 10 til when we got to the store. So I made Phill rush through so we would be close to on time. We did pick up the cake we ordered for Caleb's birthday and a few things, like milk, eggs, butter, bread, soda. By 4:15 we were back to the resort and checking in, but I did not see my sister anywhere. They are always on time or early, so I figured they were already there and left, or had already checked in. Once Phill had finished with the check in we went to our apartment. We had a play ground right outside the door, a rec. room across the street, and a pool across the street too. The apartment was a 2 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath, full kitchen, washer/dryer, a pull out bed in the living room, a screened in patio. It was pretty nice. After we had unloaded the van I decided to try looking for Patti. It was now 5 p.m., and it was not like them to be this late. Once I got back to the main gate they were just pulling in also. Once we got them checked in we were on our way. Patti and I went to a small grocery store across the street to get some more needed things, like dinner! :-)

We spent a mellow night getting things unpacked and letting the kids run around and get some of the stored up energy out. We did have a little birthday celebration along with some cake for Caleb. After baths the kids were in bed by 9, and asleep very quickly!

I showered and changed and then took some Nyquil as I had a bad head cold, lets just say the medicine did not take long to kick in and I was in la-la land.

Our day had been 20 hours long by the time it was bed time for us. But we were thankful to be there safe and with out major problem. One day down, 11 to go!

The one thing that I can recall that went wrong, besides all of us getting lost at least once, was that we left Alexis' back pack in the bus terminal. It had a few toys in it that I had put there for her to play with on the plane. I figured that it would be no problem, why would anyone take it, it was a small bag with her name printed on it. When we got back in November we realized someone did take it. It was not in the company's lost and found. She was crushed, and I had to buy her a new Brittany Spears doll. I told Lexi that whoever took it was wrong to do so, and I was sorry that we had left it in the chair. But whoever does have her bag also has a tape of her "Jesus songs" and maybe they will learn that Jesus loves them. She was moderately comforted by that, but mostly wanted her bag back.

Tomorrow: The Magic Kingdom!!