Thankful, for sure.

We have been home for 3 days now from the trip of a lifetime.  Really.  It was just incredible, and I am so grateful to have been able to share so much time, experience, and memories with my little family and with Matt's parents, and two of his sisters and their families too.  Blessed, blessed, blessed.

I have learned most about my nieces and nephews as I spent a lot of time talking with them, answering questions and watching them play with Asher.

Asher LOVES his cousins and felt so joyful with their love and attention of him.  He really just soaked it all in.

Valerie loved their attention too and I know without a doubt she feels more a part of Matt's family than ever before because her cousins love her and no one was mad at her (and understood better than I did!) when she stayed home from one of the Disney World venues.  She too, felt so loved. 

If that was all, I would be blessed indeed, but I felt loved and taken-care of and that is just... wonderful.  It was really such an incredible week for all of us and I definitely am feeling a part of something incredible, and wonderful, and great.

While I did miss separate bedrooms, room to spread out, and my memory foam mattress, I was so happy being where we were and often found myself trying to remember every second of every day.

To keep myself awake the last three hours of our journey, I replayed in my mind every detail of every day and I was not quite finished with day 5, when we pulled into town. 

Here are some photos:

Thanks to Jason for this! I was holding my sweet Ila so that she and I could play a little while they were brave enough to take Asher to meet Mickey and Minnie.  

We drove Sunday/Monday and I am SO THANKFUL for Chic-Fil-A (or as Asher says, "Chicka-way!") for their grilled chicken sandwiches and INDOOR PLAY AREAS! They are a God-Send to us when we travel.

Upon arrival, this is the first person I saw! Asher said "awww cuuuute!" when he met her too.

While Ila was enjoying dinner, Asher and Valerie and I went to the pool to get out some of Asher's wiggles.  He LOVED the pool at the resort.  I think the showers and sprinklers were his favorites and Valerie definitely loved spraying Asher with the shower...

For the Magic Kingdom, Asher and Lilia hung out- they were fast friends and held hands with no prompting.  Such sweeties!

Happy Family!  Colby was in the Haunted House during this.  Valerie decided to try to make me sick- she succeeded in getting herSELF to vomit ;-)

Asher needed a hug by this point.  That was a LONG wait, but luckily, Pooh was there at the end and he understood.

So did Tigger.  That they were so sweet was such a nice surprise! They really do spend time with each child that comes up.

Even Valerie was impressed!

We rode Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, Tea Cups, Flying Dumbo, TWO TRAINS and we met lots of characters.

This is where the 30 minutes of frustrated mom began... In the line, Asher was NOT about to stand still.  He kept going under the ropes and trying to rush the princesses... then he did not want to stand still and meet them.  While trying to take pictures using "manual," I was a little flustered to say the least.  He was cracking the princesses up though.  Sadly, he got pretty wild in the gift store too- I picked up a stack of Mickeys and got outta there.  The girls were really happy to meet the princesses!

Christmas-y Disney is so beautiful!

This is Lola.  She is sweet and mild and I heard her cry for about 2 seconds total the entire time.

Asher on the Safari on day 2- Animal Kingdom

The entire family was able to go on the Safari together.  IT was actually really good, but that safari driver was a crazy driver!

This is the day Valerie stayed home.  She is just not into Disney anymore (but she was the BIGGEST PRINCESS until 3-4 years ago).  Sadly, she really would have loved this park- the Animal Kingdom is not like Magic Kingdom in amazing and awesome ways.

 We went to a wonderful Nemo Show- it was really incredible- a dinosaur roller coaster, a WONDERFUL kids play area where digging in course sand was just what all of us needed, we went through Africa and danced to African drums, we went on a Safari, then 2 train rides, then a super fun river raft ride and a 4-D show about Bugs that is in the base of the awesome tree you see above.  It was a wonderful, wonderful day and I am a BIG FAN of the Animal Kingdom.  I would love to go back some day. 

Grandma got Asher a sword just like his older cousin and Asher literally screamed in delight.  That was such a heart-warming scene.

Matt came in Thursday morning after THREE 12 hour days and 3 hours of sleep.  We spent Thanksgiving at the pool, then looking for a place to eat before we found a Golden Corral fairly close to where we were staying.  That was chaos too.  Asher was WILD! But he did eat fresh veggies, fruit, bread and CHOCOLATE!

 

 

 

 

Friday, Valerie, Matt and I went to Universal Studios.  We were interested in visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The rest of the family planned to go to see a space launch at Cape Canveral, but it was canceled.  I felt so badly about that! Asher had a wonderful time at the indoor play area, the pool and the condo with his cousins. 

The Wizarding World is magical.  I actually got a tiny bit teary standing next to Hogwarts.  I love the story of Harry Potter.  He is a hero of mine- Love does win.  That was not luck, that was love and it is a good lesson to us all.

 

 We finished with Universal early in the afternoon, so we went back and took the kiddos to the pool for one last experience with that.  Asher was REALLY upset at one point, but when he sat on my lap, I opened up a box of pizza I had brought down for Matt and Asher grabbed a piece and gobbled up the entire thing.  This is unheard of for Asher.  Poor kiddo was tired and starving.  After that, it was sweet dreams.  We took him up to Matt's parents bedroom and all the Delgadillo kiddos came and kissed him one-by-one.  I wish I had a movie of that- but the memory is tender inside my heart.  

We are so grateful for our lives.  They are unrecognizable from last year at this time.  I am so humbled and grateful and I hope that good things continue for us.  It is certainly a little easier to bear.  We are so grateful for each other, our home, our jobs, and belonging to the Croshaw family.  It is a wonderful blessing and we are so grateful that they are ours forever.  We are also grateful for my siblings and their familes too.  I love all my sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews that my brothers have given me so much.  Family is such a joy.