Tuesday (March 13) I got an email around 7pm from DirectAir. This was the airline we were to fly on to Ft. Myers on Saturday (March 17) morning. The email stated that all flights are cancelled from March-May and that if I want my money back, I should contact my credit card company and file a dispute. I was shocked to say the least. We purchased our tickets on August 6, seven months ago! I had bought groupons for our hotels, booked a rental car, arranged some time with family, checked out schedules for Legoland, and planned on visiting Clearwater Animal Hospital to meet Winter, the dolphin. Three days before we were to leave, a slight wrench was put into our plans. Bill and I both agreed that we weren't up to driving 20+ hours to Ft. Lauderdale. Neither of us were in the right mindset, I would have a hard time sitting that long, and Lexi does not tolerate the car well! Last minute flights at $800+ per person were out of the question. So, we cancelled all reservations and began looking into plan B. I was determined to have a great spring break, with wonderful memories, and lots of family time.
I posted a question on facebook asking for suggestions. Unfortunately, when you ask for advice, you get it! Someone suggested a "staycation" in St. Louis. When you homeschool and every other day is a field trip, a "staycation" is not your idea of a "vacation". Another friend suggested driving and making wonderful memories from the road trip. Per info above, driving was out of the question this year. Someone else suggested VRBO to rent a nice condo somewhere. Housing was not the issue, travelling was!
So, I took everyone's advice! We started the weekend with a "groupon staycation", we did a road trip to Table Rock today, and we are staying in a nice little log cabin on the lake for 4 nights.
Here are pictures from the first part of our spring break - the "groupon staycation!"
We started on Friday with a trip to Sweet and Sassy where Lora got her nails done and bought some new glitter face paint and glitter hairspray. (**groupon**) I had such a fun time just spending the afternoon with my girl. We walked the mall, we talked, we window shopped, we held hands - I loved it. The whole family spent our Friday evening outside in 80 degree weather with the BBQ grill going.
Saturday morning we headed to the downtown St. Patricks Day parade. Our old neighbor, Corey, spent the night and came with us. We stopped for Taco Bell on the way home. Treats for everyone and everyone was happy!!
After a good nap, we took the kids to see the Lorax (**groupon**) and splurged on the extra large popcorn with extra butter!
After a great church service on Sunday we headed to Highland IL for cousin Carlie's birthday party. Originally having to miss the party we were slightly disappointed. However, the kids all agreed, "We are glad we got to spend the day with Carlie instead of being in Florida!"
Making the most of the weekend (Phillippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always) was easy with kids who were thankful for whatever we did. Having good friends and neighbors to share the weekend with made St. Louis even more fun. And the best part - 80 degree weather all week!
On Tuesday night I was confident that God would take my lemons and give me lemonade. However, I wasn't quite sure what flavor I would get. Today, I'm pretty sure he gave me some raspberry lemonade with extra sugar! I'm still sad that we didn't get to spend some time with my family and friends in Florida, but I'm very confident that God's plans are better than mine!
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