The Johnson family vacation 2007 - photos
Who's who:
Me - Jude (41)
Husband - Alan (38)
Alans's son - Sam (14)
Our son - Barney (5)
Friday 17/8/07
The day had finally arrived for our annual trip to the villa and boy were we ready for it!! Work had been ridiculoulsy hectic (why are you always ultra busy when you are trying to get everything done before you go away?) Plus this was the first year that Barney had been at school so he had been passed from pillar to post all summer (between me, my mum, my sister and Alan's ex wife!!) It was so much easier when he was at nursery!
Anyway, we were flying from Manchester with Virgin on Saturday 18th at 1.30pm so as soon as I got in from work, I attemped to check us in online. I say attempted because the computer said no! First it said that it could check us all in except for Sam and then it said it couldn't check any of us in so I decided we would have to take our chance and check in the old fashioned way at the airport in the morning.
We had booked The Hilton with parking and, after collecting Sam on the way, we arrived about 9.30pm. We got settled, ordered room service and after a bit of TV, we were all finally in bed by 11pm.
Day 2 - Sat 18/8/07
Because we needed to check in, we decided we should try to get to the terminal as early as possible to avoid having to queue. We jumped in the shuttle bus and reached the terminal at about 10.00am where we were pleased to see that there were only 2 parties ahead of us. We cleared check in and passport control in under 45 minutes and headed off for some food. I had a chocolate croissant, Barney had a chocolate muffin and Alan and Sam opted for Burger King. Although we had quite a long wait, it whizzed by, thanks to a bit of retail therapy! I bought a pair of trousers 1 size bigger than usual so I would have something that fits in the second week after all the food I was planning to eat in the first week!
We boarded without any problems and on time and had a good flight. There were a few spare seats on board so we were able to spread out a little. Between us we watched Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and a couple of others. We landed on time and after collecting the luggage, Alan joined the queue at Dollar. We had meant to join Dollar Express but never got round to it - note to self, remember to do so next year! Even so the queue wasn't too bad and we were soon on our way in a nice Dodge Charger.
We made the obligatory stop at Walmart for some essentials (including a roast chicken!) and were soon at the house. I don't think you ever get over the excitement of walking into your own little piece of Florida and it immediately felt like home again. Barney had fallen asleep in the car but had woken up at Walmart and managed to stay awake until 10.30pm Florida time (3.30am UK time!) which was not bad going seeing as he hadn't slept at all on the flight. Alan, Sam and I soon followed and were all tucked up by 11.00pm.
More to follow - hope I haven't bored the pants off anyone yet!!
