Some Disney Stragglers

Found a few more pics on my camera and I'm gathering the pictures the Disney people took of the girls with the princesses and Mickey and Minnie. Once I have those, I'll post a few of them too.

On our last day in Disney, we hit the Marketplace one more time to close out the week. Katie saw the train ride there and asked if she could go on one more ride before we left.
After we left the Marketplace, we got on the road but had to make a pit stop at the Daytona Harley Davidson store, Joseph's bike mecca, lol. The place is huge! Besides the store, they have a food stand, restaurants, and a hotel.
Once we got on the 'open road', it was smooth sailing and we even got to see a beautiful rainbow along the way.

Disney Expressway

4 people, 3 roads, 2 days, 1 car... Our trip to Disney in a nutshell! Well, actually there was another car and 4 more people but the numbers worked out better this way for blog purposes, LOL. The ride was smooth and quick, and Katie and Maddie were really great in the car! Thank heaven for DVDs, MP3s, DS, etc. They kept the kids happy, and me and Joseph sane!

Not many pics from the ride down, but here's what we have...

What's a road trip to Florida without a stop at South of the Border???

Maddie, Poppy, and TiTi's new husband Pedro that she bought with a penny!

Maddie appalled at the 'public restrooms'!
We pulled up and she said (with all the 10 year old digust she could muster up!), "PUBLIC restrooms?" OMG!!! lol Joseph told her "No, they're private, we have a membership!"
Confused the heck out of her for a minute!

Get out of my way!!!
Don't you know I have to hit a top speed of 98.5 mph in the minivan!!!

Katie's Trip to School

Here's the ride to school as Katie sees it...

Hmmm, I wonder if Daddy will let me watch a movie?

Pulling out of the driveway
At the end of Juli's street

My Daddy, my chauffeur

Almost there, just waiting for a green light!

We have arrived! I can't wait to see my friends!

Lancaster with Mom-Mom and Pop

Katie's school has been closed this week so she's been spending the week with Mom-Mom & Pop since Joseph isn't home and have work. Pop had off today so they decided to go on a little road trip to the Lancaster area.

First Stop... Sturgis Pretzel Factory

Next, off to the Kid's Museum for some face painting!

The masterpiece

Gone Fishin'!

Pop & Katie shopping for corn

Cashier Kate

Don't forget the milk!

Stepping in Daddy's shoes

Singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"

After enjoying her chocolate taffy! Look like she enjoyed it.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

We took a trip out to Strasburg Railroad to ride the train because Katie has been asking every day if she can go on a train since she went on the West Chester Railroad a couple of weeks ago. When we decided we'd go, the weather was beautiful and the forecast called for possible thunderstorms in the late afternoon. Well, here's my tip: Don't rely on the weather man! We got about 1/2 way there (around 11:30am, far off from "late afternoon") and this happened:

It seemed like the storm was lightening up and in the direction we were headed the sky looked clear, so...

The rain finally stopped but after seeing this we should have known more was on the horizon. They say cows lay down when rain is coming.
We finally got to the station and the weather looked like it was going to hold out and we'd get to enjoy a nice ride on the train.
We got our tickets and were ready to board our coach car.
But then the sky opened up again...
We made a dash for it and we finally got on the train. Here's Katie looking pretty wet and frazzled!
As they say though, the train must go on. Oh wait, that's the show, but you get my point! The conductor gave us the low-down on the history of the train before we took off.

Some of the beautiful scenery of the Amish landscape

Katie checking out the corn growing next to the tracks

Me taking a picture of...

Joseph taking a picture of me!

The locomotive had to switch to the back of the train so that it could become the front and we could head back to the station.

Katie relaxing with her milk AND water while we waited for the train to get going again.

Joseph calls this picture "Mini-Maddie"

These are my two favorite pictures from the trip.

Today's A Good Day For A Trip, CiCi!

Katie and Juli took their first train ride today and loved it. Well, Joseph reminded me they have been on the train in Magic Kingdom but I think this qualifies as the first ride because we sat in a passenger car and it was not at all like a ride at an amusement park. It was lots of fun though!

We rode the West Chester Railroad with Karen, Chris, Maddie, and Chris' mom Diane. There was supposed to be a flea market at the station but it was one measly table with stuff you couldn't even give away. Pretty funny!

Choo-Choo!

Maddie, Katie, and Juli in front of the train.

Standing there was totally freaking Katie and Juli out!

Juli enjoying the train ride as we moved slowly past the train yard.

Note the scoot away from the window once the speed picked up!
She did warm up to it and as we bounced along she told me "CiCi, this train is really dancing!"

Katie on the other hand loved looking out the window the whole time and didn't even want to turn around to smile for a picture.

Tree #1 - Uh oh! Debris on the track! It's just a little one though...

Chris, Maddie, Diane, Karen

Tree #2 - Umm, we might be here a while!
Actually, kudos to the guys cutting through the trees. They got everything cleared pretty quickly.
Thank god because let me tell you it got hot quick in that passenger car once we stopped moving!!!

The conductor gave the girls lollipops since they were so good while we had to wait for the tree to be cut off the tracks.
Here's Juli's aftermath...

On the ride back to the West Chester station, the girls read their Thomas books that they bought at the Glen Mills station.

Katie took this picture of Juli. She's such a talented photographer. Maybe Daddy can give her some lessons!

After the train ride, I drove the girls past West Chester University, since it was just around the corner, to show Katie and Juli where their Mommies went to school. Katie asked if me and Aunt Sandy were in the 'big kid's class', LOL. I stopped to take a picture of the building we lived in our first year and Katie said "if you want, I can go inside with you and take a picture of your old home." Aww, sweet offer but they were so tired and crabby (they were tired headed TO the train and never napped). Otherwise, I would've gotten out for a few minutes and walked around the campus a bit. Oh well, maybe next time...

Here's our old home
(taken on a drive by)

For more pics, check out Sandy's blog or Karen's Shutterfly pics (I'll have to add that link later.). Oh, and thanks to Juli for the title of this post, :-)