Sinuses, Sunshine, and Good Wins!

 Like many in the great state of Kentucky during these winter months, I am completely struggling with something upper respiratory.  I thought I had picked up a virus in Louisville the weekend of Karson's graduation.  I tried everything to get relief - Delsym, albuterol, sinus rinses, Cepacol - nothing seemed to help.  Because I know viruses take time to go away, I tried waiting it out.  I ended up missing the entire last week of work because of it.  Am I better now?  Stay tuned 'til later in the blog.

Last day of school with the final Deaton student - Friday, December 20, 2024!

~LET THE HOLIDAY FESTIVITES BEGIN~

Despite feeling like trash, I powered through the holidays.  As the kids get older and things have settled down, time together feels more precious.  When they were little, it seemed like we were constantly running.  It's a nice to be able to sit, relax, and spend time with people you love during the holidays.  It also helps that our kids are very content adults and value that time also.

Christmas with Pap and Nana Monday (23rd)

Look at us all attempting to squish onto one couch!  I pretty much lived in my Little Debbie Christmas Tree cake sweatshirt that Matt's parents bought for me.  No telling how many of those trees I consumed over the break.  Those treats are a Christmas highlight for me each year!

While on the subject of sweet treats, here is my local Parlor Donut saga.  I wanted to take some donuts to my parents house on Christmas Eve since they were having a brunch.  I wish I had better things to say about our local Parlor Donut, but it seems like there are always issues.  These donuts were loaded upside down in the box so got terribly messed up when I opened them.  However, they still tasted wonderful and didn't spoil the day.  Maybe at some point our local store will get it together.  Their donuts are pricey but delicious - the hours are just weird and seems like they are always out of what I want (even before they close). 

Christmas with Meme and Pops Christmas Eve (24th)

Our adult kids and their cousins have an acronym for themselves called the IKEEM club.  It's the first letter of all their names.  They spelled it out in the picture above.  How fun having cousins so close in age - more like bonus siblings.

 

Christmas at our house Christmas Day (25th)

Still sick at Christmas, but glad to have everyone under the same roof.

Big Christmas breakfasts are always a must!

Christmas came and went as fast as it normally does, and Karson's graduation wish was to go to Orlando and visit Universal Studios.  We booked a trip right after Christmas and took off Friday morning. The last trip we took as a family was the fall of Karson's first year at UofL and even then, she was only with us for 2-3 days at the beach.  It's been a minute since we've had a family trip.  We are all on different schedules which makes it hard to plan something.  

I was also worried about Miles being able to join us.  He graduated from South early and got a job at Meijer right before we left.  They were gracious enough to give him the time off which I appreciated.

Miles loves working at Meijer and has made friends with many of his co-workers.  Thankful he has a great work culture.  The BG store is really nice too.

The trip was an adventure and longer than usual because we chose to drive.  We also chose to sleep in and left later in the morning causing us to run into multiple stops and traffic jams along the highway.  However, we all looked at is as time together.  The van we took had a DVD player to help pass the time.

WE MADE IT!

We got to Orlando pretty late Friday night and checked into our hotel.  I booked a room at the Holiday Inn because of it's location.  Universal was within walkable distance from our place.  I wouldn't say the hotel was super nice or that I would stay there again, but it worked for what we needed and was fairly affordable.  Finding a place that can accommodate a family of 5 is tricky.  

After crashing that night, we kicked off the next morning at Islands of Adventure.  Our goal was to get there early for quick access to the rides with long wait times.  I'm not sure what drew us to the Hulk coaster, but it was the first one we saw and the line was short.  Not sure that was the best choice because it was intense at 9AM, and afterward, all of our stomachs were swimming.  Part of it was that we were worn out, and part of it was that we were hungry.  As I've gotten older, motion sickness has gotten worse.  I used to be able to ride almost anything that didn't spin in circles.  These days, it's "iffy."  Matt, Karson, Miles and I all decided to try out those scopolamine patches.  I had no idea it would make my mouth so dry.  That coupled with the upper respiratory sickness didn't feel the best.  

After Hulk, we headed over to Starbucks to get something in our system. This helped and off we went to explore the park.  Because we had downloaded the Universal app (which I highly recommend), you could see the wait times for different rides.  

Seuss Landing was the first stop and had lots of rides for smaller kids.  It was fun walking through it and remembering all those stories which I was told as a child and also shared with my own kids.  Side note:  Matt's favorite = The Digging-est Dog.  My favorite = The Star Bellied Sneeches.  

We rode the Cat in the Hat storybook ride (sort of reminded me of It's a Small World at Disney).  After a quick bathroom break, we got in line for Hagrid's Motorbike.  The weather was perfect and waiting in line didn't seem all that awful.

The entire Harry Potter set up at Universal is incredible.  If you have a HP fan in your family, this place is a MUST.  I loved the motorbike ride, but it was enough to put my stomach over the edge if you know what I mean.  We were also getting hungry again and trying to figure out how to navigate the park.  Matt and the boys headed over to the Jurassic Park area, and I got in line to try a butterbeer.

 

The Jurassic Park area features the Velocicoaster which looks totally terrifying.  

The kids couldn't wait to try it out.  I will say this...we didn't ride many rides during our time there and two of them stalled which I thought was weird.  Also, when you pulled up the app, it looked like there was delays on quite a few of the rides (aka stalls, I assume).  I'm not sure what the deal was with that, but it made the wait times even longer.  For me though, it was time for my brain and stomach to reset and recover.  Hah!

We ate lunch in Jurassic before heading back over to the Harry Potter The Forbidden Journey.  This is a simulated ride in the castle.  The last time I rode something like this was at Epcot - Soarin  which made me terribly ill.  The wait was fairly long, but the ride was worth it.  Again, we had a stall mid-way through and it was right after Karson got dragon steam blown right in her face.  I told her afterwards, I was glad that wasn't the area we were stuck in - HAH.  I didn't get sick at all thankfully.

The kids were ready for Velocicoaster, and Matt and were ready for a break.  Because it had been delayed a few times, the wait was long.  

THEY LOVED IT. 

AND SURVIVED TO BUY THE T-SHIRTS!

At this point though, we were all worn out.  While walking back through Seusslanding, we managed to catch The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular Live Show.  It was a treat, and a fun way to wrap up the day. We did walk over to Marvel Super Hero Island because that was an area we hadn't been to yet.  I wanted to make sure there was nothing else the kids might want to ride before we left.  Again, I wasn't feeling great and Isaac had also been struggling with something upper respiratory too.  Plus, we were all exhausted from the trip.  Miles got a to-go pizza at City Walk for dinner, and we headed back to the hotel to drop the boys off.  

A friend of Matt's had recommended a restaurant that he LOVES when he goes to Orlando called Fish Bones.  It wasn't super close to our hotel, but a nice meal sounded good to me.  Little did we know that it was super fancy.  Matt, Karson and I all walked in wearing our theme park attire from the day and were very out of place.  The hostess and servers couldn't have been nicer and seated us in the back corner where we couldn't been seen - just kidding!  The food was awesome, and our bellies were full.  It was the perfect ending to our first night in Orlando.

I learned my lesson years ago when we went to Disney with small children.  You need a rest day between parks if it's doable.  Resting we did on Sunday.  We all slept in before heading over to First Watch for a big breakfast.  If you haven't been, I highly recommend it.  Our food was fantastic.  Also, I'd seen a Tiktok about their iced coffee and how fabulous it was and wanted to try it. YUM.

Because we were all cotton-mouthed from the patches, I picked up a case of water before heading back to the hotel. 

The pool was open and although we didn't have suits, that didn't stop Miles from swimming in his shorts.  Karson, Matt, and I laid in the Florida sunshine which felt fantastic.  Isaac wanted to chill in the room.

Later in the evening, we ventured over to the large premium outlet mall next to our hotel before wrapping up the evening at Long Horn for dinner (which Isaac later stated was his favorite meal on the trip).  It was an easy kind of day.

Monday was day two of Universal, this time we went to the Studios side.  It was hands down my favorite.  I did enjoy Islands of Adventure, but Studios had more of a movie feel with characters, shows, and attractions.  It was spread out too making it feel overall more spacious.  

 

We scheduled the shuttle from our hotel to ride over and avoid the high parking fee.  What was supposed to feel short (about a 5-minute drive from our hotel), felt sort of like the movie Office Space where traffic was at a stand-still and inching along.  It probably took 45 minutes to get there.  We'd been better off walking.  

When we finally arrived at the park, we were starving.  It was also a later in the morning which made finding something for breakfast challenging.  Matt and the boys opted for lunch at Mel's dinner while Karson and I made our way over to a crepe vendor and then onto Starbucks.

Have you ever seen a crepe this size?  They were superb.

 

 

After our brunch/lunch or whatever it was, we got some fun character pictures with The Mystery Machine, Beetlejuice and the Simpson family before heading over to a Horror Make-Up show.

 

Studios is divided up into big cities which all feature different rides and attractions.  We found ourselves first in Illumination's Minion Land at Villain-Con Minnion Blast which reminded me of the Gobbler Getaway at Holiday World.  The difference - you stand on an assigned dot on a moving walkway.  I have no idea how anyone on this ride would know which gun and target they are aiming at.  I could never tell which laser pointer was mine and was firing like a maniac.  It was okay but not something I would do again unless I was with little kids.

From there, we traveled over to New York lining up for the Revenge of the Mummy ride which was awesome.  

   

Isaac and Miles wanted to go to Krusty Land while Karson, Matt, and I wanted to visit Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter area.  We managed to get in line for what turned out to be the LONGEST wait in history for the Esacpe from Gringotts ride.  The boys rode The Simpson's ride and played games, winning prizes before making their way over to us and joining the line.  We had no IDEA it was going to take as long as it did to get to the entrance.  At one point, Isaac said this line has been longer than my drive to Richmond.  Ugh, he was right. 

 

 

Isaac + Homer Simpson = True Love

~Loads of fun in Krustyland~

   

After Gringotts, we did some more exploring at Harry Potter but were getting hungry again.  The boys went back to Krustyland for a Krusty Burger.  Karson, Matt and I got a butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron and headed to San Francisco for some pizza!  While we were dining, a parade was coming through the area and lovely with all the Christmas lights and SNOW.

Side note:  I LOVE BUTTERBEER and have watch multiple Tiktoks on how to make it.  I have it down to science and love my homemade version just as much!

Karson wanted to meet up with the boys after dinner.  They all wanted to ride the Men in Black Ride.  Matt and I stayed back and did the Fast and the Furious followed with Jimmy Fallon's Race Through New York.

After meeting back up with the kids, we walked back to our hotel since it was too late to catch the shuttle.  Plus, I know it was probably quicker.   We packed up all our things and crashed.  Tuesday morning we took off super early heading back to Kentucky.

The drive was short and sweet, and the second we hit the state line, my respiratory stuff came right back like it had never left.  This time was vengeful!  

It was New Year's Eve, and we had decided that we were going to The Mint that night!!!  Karson and I had gone to the Mint on Christmas Eve when I had deposited two bonus free play entries into a drum there at the casino.  There were two drawing days/times (that evening and Christmas evening), and you didn't have to be present to win. We waited around on Christmas Eve to see if my name would be drawn and nothing.  Bleehhhh!

 

 

The day after Christmas, I decided to login to my Mint app and see if I had any Free Play loaded from the Christmas Day drawing since we weren't there. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw $1,000 loaded in my account.  I showed Karson and said we have to go there and make sure it's legit AND if it expires.  Lo and behold, my name was drawn on Christmas Day, and I had all this free money in my account to play with, and it expired two weeks from that date.  WAHOO!!!

We took these two under the table grape eating cuties to The Mint on New Year's Eve.  I managed to turn my free play into real winnings and used that to pay for a big chunk of our trip.  An unexpected Christmas bonus miracle!  

Karson and I headed to Louisville on Friday (3rd) because she had to get a physical for her new job.  We also took some things up to her place and did some decorating in her room before she makes her permanent move.  These last few weeks at home (for her) have consisted of finding scrub sets she likes and items for her house.  We have packages coming in daily.  

I ended up going to Urgent Care Saturday (4th) because my illness was progressively getting worse and worse.  The nurse practitioner gave me a shot and put me on antibiotics, steroids, and a cough syrup.  It has made a world of difference, and while I am still not quite at 100%, I am gradually feeling like myself again.

I taped up a sign on our garage door before she left since I was at work that morning.

Two additional wins came this week when Karson traveled to Brentwood on Wednesday to take her NCLEX exam.  You don't get your results immediately, but you do have the ability to check the Kentucky Board of Nursing website the next day and see if you have been issued your license.  She checked first thing on Thursday and posted this to her social media....

Many of her close friends in nursing school have passed their NCLEX as well.  Exciting times for these Cardinal nurses.

Two wins came for Isaac.  First, his girlfriend McKayla came to town for a few days to stay with us.  She is a doll, and we fell in love with her immediately!  Second, before our vacation Isaac had two interviews for summer internships in Bowling Green.  He received and accepted an offer this week.  (Selfishly) I am super happy to have him home over the summer.  Because he won't be required to live on campus anymore after this semester, he plans to secure housing with some friends but nothing is set in stone at this time.  Plus, to my knowledge, many off campus leases don't even start for college students until the month of July - sometimes towards the end.  I guess I want him to be able to live at home, work and make some great connections in his industry, and save money - plus I get to see him!!!  

I've got one more full week with both of our older adult kids and am going to soak up every moment. Isaac starts school on the 21st and Karson will begin her job that week as well. We plan to celebrate Isaac's 20th birthday next weekend before he leaves!