#FurrerFrenzy2015

I've had a few people ask about our family vacation to Orlando, Florida, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it from my perspective- a 24-year-old with no children. (;

It begins on Friday, December 19th, the day of the annual employee Christmas party.  I've come home early from Utah to help, and per the usual, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready for the party.  This is always a pretty stressful (albeit worthwhile) day for the Furrer household.  Every year my dad decides to make way too much food, and every year my mom berates him for having so many offerings.  Every year my sisters and I just try to manage the chaos.  Perfect day to leave for vacation, right?  Well, it gets better.  After an afternoon of putting out many (figurative) fires and cleaning up, my dad still needed to make 200 biscuits for his friend Rudy's customer appreciation breakfast.  "I've made them for him for 12 years!", he says.  "Eye roll", everyone else says.  But, of course, we pitch in and churn out the biscuits in about an hour as the rest of the family arrives and mom finishes (or starts?) packing.  

In case you're wondering, this is the new shop's kitchen, not the house's.  (: 

Finally, at about 9:00 PM, after much to do, the family (all 23 of us) was gathered and the bus loaded.  No small undertaking with all the suitcases, kid stuff, and 4 or 5 coolers full of food and leftovers.  The bus is a former tour bus for a family of singers from the 90's.  So it's beautiful, in a hideous kind of way.  Miraculously, we all fit on it.  There wasn't a place for everyone to sleep, so the children got the 7 bunk beds and the adults... just didn't get much sleep.    

Isn't she a beaut?

I think the best way to describe the bus (and really, the entirety of vacation) is just chaos- punctuated by the screams, laughter, and cries of the children and comments from adults. "Can I sleep in my underwear??" (Luke)  The kids loved it because it was pretty much a confined play space, most of the adults tolerated it, and I liked it because for some reason I like being in the midst of chaos.  I think it's just because I like observing... I like taking in a scene with all it's people and their interactions, and the more chaos the more to see.  It might be different if I had my own children. (:  

On the way down we stopped at a very busy Chick-fil-A and took up no less than 5 parking spots.  By far the most difficult undertaking with 23 people is going to a restaurant of any kind.  The best part was yelling "We're going through the drive through, give Dad your orders!", which Heather (Hoerr) actually believed.  

The house we arrived at in Florida was the polar opposite of the bus.  Huge and spacious, modern, clean, and well-equipped.  There were 9 bedrooms, a backyard pool, an arcade room, pool table, and a home theater.  It was the perfect space to enjoy being together without being too much together, and there was plenty to do without leaving the house.  Most of our time was spent here, except for the days we went to Legoland and Disney.  That house might never be the same though, especially the kitchen.  I don't think it's been accustomed to the cooking of the Furrers.  No one is crazy enough to make almost all their meals, right?  

I think I (and probably everyone) spent most of their time watching, chasing, consoling, or laughing at one child or another.  I speculated that we went no more than 10 minutes in between crying episodes, but at least they usually took turns rather than all melting down at once.  It's a little sad I suppose that the adults don't get to spend more time together, but it's just a phase that will pass.  All too soon, I'll look back on it and laugh.  And then Callie will have kids. (;     

These are some of my favorite pictures.  I think they fairly accurately depict the moments that filled our house.  

Ok, so I wasn't always chasing kids...

The whole family went to Legoland, and to spare you a lot of details, I'll just say that it was a really nice, small park, perfect for children.  Because the entire group stayed together most of the time, I found it exhausting (in the same way that I'm sure herding cats is exhausting), but it was still fun to see the kids enjoy themselves.  Disney was an entirely different experience, as Andrea, Callie, and I just ran around Magic Kingdom doing what we wanted and having a blast.  We managed to never wait in line for longer than 30 minutes, which we were pretty proud of.  If you need Disney advice, we'll be happy to contract our services. (;

This scene is just...... perfect.

I was genuinely so excited to meet Piglet.  Disney just gets to you.

One highlight was a little shopping, lunch, and manicure outing the women of the family took while the men watched the children.  I think that was the first time we've ever spent time together with just us!  Lest you feel bad for the men, they went to an Orlando Magics game that night and had a great time.  Except for the questionable Boston Lobster Feast experience they had prior to the game (Lobster in Florida is just not a good idea).  

Another highlight was watching the two Home Alone movies on separate nights in the theater.  Not only are those movies still as great as ever, 10 children who laugh ridiculously loud at every physical comedy moment make them all the better.

My final highlight was on the way home, when we stopped at Wild Eggs in Louisville for breakfast.  I ended up at a table with Callie, Mark, Troy, Briana, and 5 of the children, while the rest ended up at a couple of other tables.  You can kind of feel the whole restaurant looking at you when you're with a group like that, ya know?  At some point Briana left the table and sat somewhere else, so we decided it probably looked like I was Mark's mail order bride and I'd already popped out 5 children, which Callie took care of as our nanny.  Troy was just the weird uncle.  The validity of this scenario was confirmed when Callie went to the bathroom and a lady asked, "Are you from that table with all the kids?  Are they all from the same family??".  Surprisingly, after a sleepless night, the kids were all well-behaved, but I'm sure the wait staff still breathed a sigh of relief when we were gone.  

Getting home from family vacation always comes with a bittersweet feeling for me.  I'm happy to be back in a comfortable place without a certain amount of stress, but I also feel the absence of so many people I love around me.  Family vacation has always been one of my favorite things.  I'd take it over presents any day.  Not because of the exotic places we go to (because we don't), but because it's one of the few times we're ever all stuck together.  As the family grows, many would say it seems crazier and crazier to do this sort of thing.  I say what's life without a little crazy in it?  Boring.  And at the end of the day I'd put up with pretty much anything to spend time with all of them. (: 

I hope I don't have to eat those words...