Family Trip to Orlando!!

So it's been awhile...mainly because I haven't been home for quite awhile. My parents, both brothers, and sis in law were lucky enough to spend a week at Walt Disney World in Floriday together, we left on Dec. 12th and were suppose to return home on Dec. 20th. But we'll get back to that little word SUPPOSE to return in a bit.First off the trip was incredible. The weather was beautiful, it was in the high 70's and low 80's the whole time we were in Orlando. We visited, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Kennedy Space Center, and stayed at a Disney World resort called Pop Century. The best part about staying at the resort was that we didn't have to worry about transportation all week besides going to kennedy space center. The resort has disney buses that take resort members to and from whichever parks you want to go to, which made everything so much easier! We were able to also attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!It was absolutely wonderful to spend the time with family and share all the memories we were able to make that week. I could go on forever and explain in detail what we did every day, but I really doubt you'd sit and read it all...lol I will post pictures in a seperate post for you to look at!So, back to the trip home, as you know, here in the good old Pacific Northwest, the weather has been somewhat shocking lately. Well, on the 20th we were suppose to fly into Denver, then from Denver, to portland, we received word that morning that our flight from denver to portland however had been cancelled due to weather. So we flew to Denver just to get as far as possible only to find out we would not be able to get another flight into Portland until christmas eve...only if that wouldn't be cancelled also. We spent the night in Denver and found plane tickets into San Jose, CA that afternoon and decided it was at least closer to home and on the other side of the mountains. So our plan was to rent a vehicle and drive home from there.That however became a problem when my dad came down with food poisoning on the flight into San Jose. Needless to say he was in no shape to drive for hours on end the next day, so we stayed in yet another hotel in San Jose and began our research on how we may be able to get home. All trains were full, all planes were full, and still not landing in Portland, so Eric managed to find tickets on a greyhound bus that would take us all the way to Portland by Tuesday morning. We made the tough decision to leave my parents in San Jose so my dad could get better and my brothers and sis in law and I took a taxi to the bus station, only to find out that the bus to Portland had been cancelled for a week and our tickets were non refundable. We were told that we could get as far as Redding, CA and as soon as the next bus left Redding for Portland, we could get on it with no extra charge because that is what our tickets were for. Well, after hours of being on the bus and multiple stops in extremely scary places we made it to Sacramento, CA where we would catch the bus to Redding and so on. Well, when we got there we were told that we could not ride to Redding and would have to stay there, which we did not want to do because it was a pretty sketchy place to say the least. My sissy spoke to the supposed manager and tried calling the corporate office because we should have never been allowed to buy tickets for a bus that had been cancelled for a week in the first place. We overheard a security guard talking to some folks trying to get to Portland and he told them there was a bus going as far as Eugene, OR so we inquired further. The people at the ticket counter and so called manager never knew what we were talking about but we got in the line that the security guard told us to and talked to the bus driver when he got there. He was allowing people on the bus who had tickets to Portland so long as we had a way from Eugene to home. And then...the bus filled up before we were able to get on it, but we were told to stay in line and that another bus would be coming shortly. Well, an hour and a half later, a bus finally made it, it was our turn to get on, and thanks to my big mouth we almost weren't allowed to. The manager took eric and crystals tickets and when peter and I got up there he took ours and I asked just to reassure myself that it was ok we get off at Eugene even though our tickets were originally for Portland. He stopped us dead in our tracks and pulled eric and crystal back and made us wait as well as about 6 other people with the same predicament. After all the other passengers were on the bus we had to plead our cases to him and the bus driver so that we could get on the bus. Bless his soul he allowed us on and there was plenty of room. We left Sacramento about an hour and a half later than scheduled, which was about 8:30 and after multiple stops and snowy roads made it safely into Eugene about 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. The ride wouldn't have been so bad if I had been able to sleep more than a coupld hours total, however I believe it was our last stop in CA before crossing the border into OR that our bus switched drivers for sleeping purposes, well our new bus driver announced to us that he had never driven into OR before, and had also never driven in snowy or icy weather before, so he had his road maps and would be taking it slow and steady. Then in the middle of the night I started to feel just a little yucky to my stomach. I began to wonder if my dad may have had something contageous and I really did not want to be throwing up in a greyhouse bus bathroom. I hate some crackers that I luckily bought before the ride and braced myself for the worst. After thinking over what I had eaten and the happenings of the day, I realized I had only had a little breakfast and a few crackers...as well as 2 Advil PM pills to help with the bus ride...well, there lay my mistake. After I got a little more on my stomack and the PM medicine wore off I was fine thank the good lord.From Eugene we crammed into a friends truck where crystal and I sat in jump seats behind the main bench seat where my two brothers and my now BOYFRIEND(that's another post!) sat. Our luggage in the bed and carryons on our laps, we began yet another couple hour drive home.We did make it safely and my parents were actually lucky enough to get flights out of San Jose into Portland and actually beat my siblings and I home, go figure :) See post below this for some Florida Pictures!!!~Me~