FLORIDA! DISNEY! BEACH!

So here's the thing. Nellie has been asking to go to Disney World since she was about 3. At that point, we told her we needed to wait until Annie was old enough to walk on her own and enjoy it. And then we had DJ, and so on. Eventually we had five kids asking us about Disney, but the cost! Not to mention that it seemed really...confusing. There are maybe bracelets involved? You need to contact a Disney specialist? Get an app? There are 1,000 rules, tips, suggestions, and best practices. Disney truly started to feel like a dream that's really a wish your heart makes. Not a reality for the Wernets.

Finally, we just went for it. Step 1: Ask a colleague-friend to recommend a Disney specialist. Step 2: Email the Disney specialist (not sure that's actually what she's called.) Step 3: Make lots of decisions that make you feel like a real grown-up.

One of the biggest decisions we had to make was: Drive or fly? When we looked up the cost to fly, it was an easy answer. We would drive. We would brave any weather and likely car trouble and all the sanctification that one experiences riding in a minivan with seven people, and we would drive.

Guys - we did it. And it was magical. I won't go into all the details, we kept a journal for that. But I will say that the universal highlights were the car ride itself, the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, the German Biergarten, and long beach walks hunting for shells and Dunkin' Donuts. Here is a (large) selection of favorite pictures.

Florida or bust! Leave time 4:17am.

MarioKart in the van was dizzying but fun.

Picnic lunch in Kentucky

Travel day 2 - rain in Georgia

Then sun in Florida! Or maybe still Georgia.

We made it to Port Orleans Riverside!

Poor Eddie, no one wanted to share a bed with him.
We caught photo evidence that he is indeed a bed hog.

The lovely resort

The photo we were waiting for

Up first, Space Mountain! Then Disney donuts and coffee.

True story - I cried in this part of It's a Small World.

It was HOT.

But Disney ice cream helped.

Dinner was a few shared Mexican dishes in Frontierland.
This was the grouchy part of the day.

The last ride of the night was the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - it was worth the wait!

So tired at the end of the day

Epcot the next morning was misty

We were thrilled to make it in the "queue" for the new Guardians ride!

The aquarium was a surprise family favorite.

Annie had been looking forward to visiting Canada for ages :)

Sharing a single beignet

The Biergarten! Dinner was a Christmas present from Aunt Pam.

Disney waffles revived us...

...and we were beach bound!

Made it to Treasure Island!

Sunrise beach walking

The Friendly Fisherman

Kevin's been coming here since he was a kid!

Sunset beach walking

The last day, we were sunburned, hot, tired, sore...
we spent the afternoon in the stinky alligator rescue.

Last swim

Last shell hunting

Headed home - we drove through the night because we were anxious to get there!

Home again, home again.

Family nap after little sleep in the van

I consider the road trip to Florida and taking on Disney among my greatest life accomplishments. :) Was it the last time we'll make that trip? No. Are we ready to go back any time soon? No. Was it a family dream come true? Yes.

Winter weekends 2023

It's been another busy winter, with three kids in basketball, piano and flute lessons, and (unfortunately) lots of colds, step, and stomach viruses. But we also fit in a lot of fun on the weekends, usually watching basketball, of course, but some other things, too! Since tomorrow is the first day of spring (!), it seems appropriate to share a few.

A few highlights include dances, overnights, concerts, birthday parties, a fierce Battle of the Books competition, and days of playing in the snow. Here are some miscellaneous pictures:

A little painting time

They'd come home from basketball games to...play basketball. It was one way to get the driveway cleared!

Nellie and friends left for the Snowball dance in a snowstorm.

Starting the weekend right at Toads in Grand Ledge

District Solo and Ensemble! She did awesome at States as well, but I didn't get pictures.

Sleepover with Otto

The Superball called for an updated hat.

Buckling in some favorite friends

Bowling with cousins!

A visit to Impression 5 - it had been a LONG time and Mary couldn't remember ever going! The big kids were excited to show her their favorite spots.

We had a short getaway to visit my dad in February. It was our first time staying up there since New Years 2020, so it was a special trip and we got to spend lots of time outside in the (very sticky) snow.

Making a snow angel plan

Hiking with the big girls

The boys build a pretty good stash of snowballs to attack the girls from the fort.

Another highlight of the winter was the boys' basketball tournament. Although we were sort of, the tiniest bit, hoping it would be over the first day, DJ's team played in 6 games and won 2nd place. I think he's still recovering! They had a couple of exciting wins over teams who had been them before - even the sisters were into it! Eddie's team played well, too, and improved a TON over the season.

SUCH a nice group of guys and great coaches!

DJ and the varsity coach...maybe his future coach?!

I think my personal highlight was the Battle of the Books through the Delta and Grand Ledge libraries. DJ, Annie, Nellie, Kevin, and I all participated. We had a weak outing in the preliminaries, but snuck in a 3rd place finish in our semifinal group to make it to the finals, where we won 3rd! Most of all, we had a ton of fun. We convinced Kev to join this year and he provided a lot of comedic relief and helped us not to second-guess our answers. Eddie and Mary cheered us on (or maybe just played on the Switch) from the sidelines.

Getting serious

Third-place finish!

Lastly, as I mentioned, we've been sick a lot. This month Eddie and I both had strep throat so we spent a couple of mostly miserable days together, but it was fun to have some time just the two of us. Not pictured: Lots of work meetings on Zoom, naps, banana-flavored medicine, and Eddie destroying me on MarioKart.

The elusive 2023 snow days

In early February, the high school office question of the day was, "How many snow days do you think we'll get this year?" My confident answer was zero. 

I was wrong, sort of. Our first day off, though, was actually under terrible circumstances. As I was dozing in Mary's bed the night of February 13th, Nellie came in to tell me that there was an active shooter on the campus of MSU. I wasn't quite conscious enough to fully take that in, and was shocked when I woke up to a text that school was closed and started reading the awful news. I spent the day in prayer and keeping the kids close and hugging them an inordinate amount, but we did enjoy our time together.

We mostly stayed put, but we did walk to the park to fly kites!

Then the very next week, we had two ice days! Not exactly what we were expecting, but we enjoyed an extra-long weekend (only one day of school with President's Day!) had a lot of fun slipping and sliding.

I have pretty strong feelings about leaving "winter lights" up through the long, dark winter.
They looked so pretty on the icy tree!

The kids successfully summoned a second ice day by screaming into the freezer...?

Mary got ice skates for Christmas and finally got to use them - to skate down the sidewalk!

We did spend a LITTLE time indoors. 

Playing office

and Among Us "in real life"

plus a little Jenga

and the Battle of the Books preliminary battle was still on!