Christmas in Orlando!

After a great time at the beach we made our way into Orlando for what would turn out to be another four nights waiting for the moving truck to arrive. Of course the first thing Sage ever wants to do at a new hotel is hit the pool. You can see just how excited Ty was with that idea...haha! After a quick dip we got cleaned up and headed to one of the hotel restaurants for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was so weird! That's the only way I can describe it. The hotel was decorated beautifully, the Christmas music playing, everyone was dressed to the nines (with the exception of us) and yet it still didn't feel like Christmas Eve. There is something not right about hearing "the weather outside is frightful" or "sleigh bells ring..." when it's in the 80's outside! But we were making the best of it!



The one thing we were all really excited about and looking forward to though was our time at Give Kids the World on Christmas day! Before we had arrived into town I had discussed with Jack spending this Christmas doing some sort of charity work. It seemed like the perfect year to do it being we ourselves were homeless. How nice it would be to work alongside the real homeless people. After some research we learned that between age restrictions and background checks, working at a homeless shelter probably wasn't going to happen. Jack, however, was able to learn about a charity that SeaWorld is heavily involved with called Give Kids the World. It would prove to be the perfect fit for our family. SeaWorld graciously organized us spending Christmas day there which was great because although Sage didn't meet the age requirement there too, they were able to get special authorization for her. GKTW is a resort that caters to children with life threatening illnesses who come there to stay with their families for a week, while also getting to attend the theme parks of their choice. Everything is provided to these families at no cost and sadly for some it will be the last trip their child will get to be able to go on due to their illnesses. It's really amazing. Most families are Make A Wish families who have been selected to have their Disney/SeaWorld/Universal dream vacation fulfilled. It was the BEST way to spend our morning! And we all decided that it's a tradition we'd like to continue.




After a great morning the remainder of Christmas day we spent hanging out at our hotel.



One would have thought we would have made reservations for a fabulous Christmas dinner but no, we had not. So Jack had recommended we go to a restaurant at the Ritz which happens to be attached to the JW Hotel that he had eaten at several times before. Well what he didn't know was that for Christmas they change up the whole menu and it was turned into a special buffet. That special buffet was $110 per person before tax and gratuity. I just couldn't stomach spending almost $700 to eat dinner as a family so we headed to the car and searched...and searched...and searched for a place that was both open and had availability. Well that was completely unsuccessful so I whipped out the handy Trip Advisor app and said find a place near us that is rated high. It turned out to be a pizza place...lol! It was good pizza but not exactly what we imagined Christmas dinner being like . Needless to say we will never move again during the Christmas holiday. Haha!!!

Florida here we come...for good!

After the truck pulled away and a nice night with Michael and Michele it was finally time to hit the road! Never have we driven to our new job location but since Jack had accumulated an arsenal of guns and ammo during our time in Ohio, we really had no other option but to drive because the ammo wasn't going in the moving truck. It's only a fourteen hour drive but it's been over ten years since we've all been in a car that long together. Thankfully, it turned out really nice. We had never really traveled much outside of the Cinci area so it's always fun to see different parts of the country. After getting about halfway, we spent our first night outside of Atlanta and then continued to the Gulf side of Florida for a night on the beach. As for upgrading our weather, I think these photos say it all...



Just a day at the beach... The Marriott we stayed at was right on the beach and boy what a big beach it was! We were all so thrilled and truly in a bit of disbelief that December weather as we know it is a thing of the past. They don't call it the sunshine state for nothing!!!



That night we enjoyed a great night on the boardwalk at John's Pass where we introduced the kids to Bubba Gump's! How could we not with how much we love the movie Forest Gump?!?



We woke up early Christmas Eve morning and hit the beach to collect sea shells before continuing up the road to Clearwater. We were amazed at how different the sand is on the Gulf side to that on the Atlantic side. I just kept thinking how great it was that we'll live under two hours away and only a bit over an hour to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic side!!!





After a great day it was time to head into Orlando where we'd spend the next four nights waiting for our stuff to arrive!

Goodbye friends...

We've always said it's less about where we live and more about the people who enter our life at each stop. Indeed all these people plus many, many others made our stay in Mason memorable and made us better people. We will miss them and are grateful for their friendship!

The Simon family will always hold a special place in our heart. We knew them in Washington and Jack was determined when he took the job at LUX to find a place for Nick who had been struggling with his career and just needed a bit of a kick start. We were so excited to have them move out and they were thrilled with the opportunity. We will miss them so much but we know we'll see them again!



We will sure miss the Hayes family. Rick was a colleague of Jack's at 24 Hr. Fitness and when Jack realized he had a role to fill that Rick would be perfect for, it was only a matter of weeks before the Hayes family was heading out of Southern California to join us. Not only did Jack gain a great employee but I gained an instant friend who I became close to quite quickly. We spent Thanksgivings together and many weekend nights hanging out. The only thing that comforted us when we said goodbye to them was knowing they were planning on moving back to California shortly after we left. We are so grateful for their friendship and for taking the leap and joining us on our journey in Ohio!



From my first football friend Jen to my wonderful church friend Wendy, I would have laughed far less during my time in Mason had these two great women not entered my life.



From our one and only camping trip to cutting down a tree in their back yard to many shared dinners, we will sure miss the Brandolese's. We will however look forward to sharing a bit of Florida with them and hopefully meeting up with them sometime in Italy where they can show us around!



And how sad we are to leave Michael and Michele. They are truly like family to us. Michael and Jack had worked together at Covey years ago and when an opportunity presented itself for Jack to bring Michael to join him at LUX, he too picked up and left southern California to join Jack. We've shared Christmases, New Years, Halloweens, and many many other great memories together. One of our favorite memories of Mason will be making the drive out to their beautiful country house spending time with them there. It always felt like we were at home there. On our last night in Mason, after the moving van had pulled away with all our stuff, we spent our last night at their house being spoiled by their hospitality and enjoying one last holiday night together.



There were so many others that I feel terrible I just didn't get photos with who impacted us in such a positive way but hopefully the memories will last a long time. It's still hard to believe our time is up in Ohio. Mason was sure good to us...

Goodbye Mason!

It's hard to believe our time in Mason is now just a memory. It is indeed bittersweet. It was no secret Ohio wasn't my favorite place to call home. Aside from being away from family and friends, we were living in a place that is surrounded by nothing but flat land with no oceans or mountains in sight! Surprisingly though, this flat land was very green, had beautiful seasons, and was a place we learned to enjoy. For my kids sake I thought it was important for me to post about the things we'll miss and enjoyed while living there.

There is no question we'll miss the wonderful friends we made there. And from the kids going away parties you can see they developed many wonderful and long lasting friendships but one of the other things we'll miss and at times took for granted were the schools. And as your kids get older, you realize just what a difference good schools can make...just like good friends... People always talked about how great the schools were while living there but it truly wasn't until we stepped away that we realized how much we had taken them for granted. Although they were each the size of a small college campus, they were well run, extremely organized and challenging. From the Blue Ribbon high school to finding my old boss Lucy's curriculum being used throughout the schools, we were impressed. The jury is definitely still out on our opinion of Florida schools or if we will have to go the private school route but one thing is clear, Mason schools will be missed...greatly.

We will also greatly miss the small town feel of Mason. Everything that played a part in our daily lives was no more than ten minutes away. Even Jack's work commute was ten minutes! I loved having amenities so close but not feeling like all I was surrounded by was strip malls and pavement. With the exception of a couple streets, traffic was non existent and how could you not love having a water park, amusement park, and national tennis facility right in your backyard.

Of course we will also miss our home, especially now that we are temporarily living in an apartment while we have a house built here in FL. I keep reminding myself that there was a time that I wasn't at all thrilled with the idea of moving into our Mason home. It was a corporate house (the only one that LUX owned) and hadn't been lived in for a few years. Originally we were going to move into for a short period until we built something of our own, but after LUX insisted we renovate it and organized all the contractors for me to meet with, it started to feel more and more like home. I still can't believe I never took a photo of it before it was renovated. Just imagine a house that hadn't been lived in for several years...and although the landscaping had been professionally maintained, no one seemed to care that you couldn't actually see the house behind all the overgrown trees and shrubs. All our neighbors were in shock at how nice it looked once we had all the landscaping redone. We also had the carpets changed, floors sanded and restained, walls repainted, staircase bannister restained, front door stained and garage doors replaced, built-ins pulled out, door hardware throughout the house all switched out, new sink faucets put in, lighting fixtures throughout the whole house replaced...and the list goes on.

I wish I had a photo of the house just before all the renovations started. I was able to find one photo online of it but i'm not sure when it was taken (although I can assure you it looked worse than this before we had the landscaping done). Then I have a photo of the yard shortly after the landscaping was redone and a photo taken shortly before we moved out. Oh the memories of Kan Jam in the front yard with friends, fireworks in the driveway, fireflies in the summer, knocks on the door from Maddie or Linn, and the many many memories that we created within these walls.

Before we moved in:



After: