It has been a long good week....

Well I have taken a little break from the blogging over the last few weeks. As those of you who read this know my dad past away a little over a week ago. It seems unreal that he is not among the living anymore. We would have liked for him to be here a lot longer. But as we all have discussed he loved his grand babies. He was a great grandpa and would have love to hear some of the stories I will share in this blog. I have included a couple of pictures that were taken in September right after he was told he was sick. Tyler and I took a road trip and as you can see from the pictures playing with his cousins and 15 hours in a car took their toll on him. He slept on him for about 2 hours that day. His loss has been hard on Kaitlyn. She has been very thoughtful about it and after Kristena told her about his passing she cried and then decided that the best thing she could do was send him a note on a balloon. So after I came back from the funeral we had a little ceremony. She picked out a balloon that he would know came from all of us and sent it off. We watched it until it disappeared she was worried some other angel might get it but we assured her that he got it. She wants a picture of him that she can keep in her room. She was really sad tonight that she would not get to stop and see him the next time we went to Ohio. We told her that we would still go see Uncle Justin and Grandma Loretta at their new house and that made her feel better. As we attempt to move forward from this moment please continue to keep Loretta and the rest of us in your prayers.

Now on to the subject my dad would have wanted to hear, about his grand babies. Well this weekend we took the kids to Disney World. We originally wanted to take the kids as close to Kaitlyn's birthday as possible but since Kirstena insisted on having another baby we moved it back a couple of weeks.(she wants me to clarify that it was all my my idea). So in typical Jones family tradition we loaded up the mini van and headed to Disney World. The trip started too easy and we quickly realized that the bad luck that typically follows on vacation was still with us. At about 7:50 Friday night we arrived at our hotel room bags and children in hand. As we approached the room we realized that we had been placed in the building where the were having some sort of summer camp for high school girls who smoke. I thought maybe we had wondered into a rehab center but nope our room was just down the hall. Wanting to spare the children the sight of teenage girls from all over the world swapping Marlboro's we pulled out our room keys only to find out they did not work. I immediately called the front desk and they contacted the dispatcher and sent someone on their way. 10 minutes later I called them again. This time I stressed that I had a very pregnant woman and two small children with me and could the please step on the gas. 10 minutes after that I called this time a lot madder and again stressed that my very pregnant wife was not feeling well and that my 6 year old was getting ready to pee all over the front of the resort. This time the woman at the desk let's call her Mrs. Don't Care told me to hold and see would find out what was taking so long. After holding for 11 mins 23 sec(per my cell phone) I called back this time and was very rude and just as I was beginning to check my nice voice for my mean angry voice I young came to our door. Unfortunately, he concluded the keys did not work (future brain surgeon) and he needed to get a palm pilot to reprogram the door. This palm pilot must have been in Georgia because 10 minutes later we are still standing outside our room with Kaitlyn doing the magic peepee dance and Tyler saying "this room is broken let's go get one that works". Finally, the young man (let's call him Mr. Concrete-In-My-Pants) returned this time with a young lady with also concluded that the keys did not work. Then they said that we probably will have to get us a different room which they start to say will require us to go back to the front desk which is about 1/2 mile away. I told them I did not care how they got the keys back here but no one from our family was doing it. This time the say the engineer is just around the corner and maybe he can get the door to work. So Mr. I Restate The Obvious arrives and does what anyone would do he tried the broken keys in the broken door and tells us they don't work. To which I wanted to say....well you know what you would have wanted to say. Finally, Mr. Obvious whips out his magic palm pilot and reprograms the broken door and after an hour we walk into our room. And much to our delight the room was very nice but the walls were so thin I know that the man next door has nasty gas and his wife snores like my mom. And every time some one flushed the toilet it sounded like the ball from Epcot was rolling thru our room. If one more employee had told me to have a magical evening a was going to take their magic wand and ram it up their.......

Luckily for us the next day was much better. The weather was great. In the sixties all day and the kids had a blast. The highlight of the day was supposed to be the Princess Luncheon at the Castle. It was great even though some person who obviously does not have children thought it would be a great idea to hand a plastic sword to two year old before we sat down to eat. Then that same person decided to give us all glasses that were about eleven feet tall and were great targets for said two year old. Kaitlyn loved the luncheon and got to see all of her favorite princess and had her picture taken with them all. Of course she would have loved the luncheon more had they had a little midget with a cart selling stuff all the way thru lunch. After going to the happiest place on earth with Kaitlyn I realized that all we had to do was take her to the closest shopping mall and turn her loose. Kristena and I have now seen every gift shop in the Magic Kingdom and we think they should have more seats and clearance sections for the parents and a corral for the smaller children.

Tyler's favorite part was probably getting to drive the race cars. They have a speed way with the cars that follow the rails. So I took him on the ride and let him drive and I must say he drives better than Justin and almost as good as my mom. I had to work the gas and the brake for him but he steered us around. Actually I have whiplash from the experience but hey anything for a good time. Kristena did great. Even though Friday before we left her doctor told her that we should not go at all. He has had two patients go into labor at the Magic Kingdom. She did not but I know she is ready to have this baby. She is doing great. Continue to pray for her strength as we near the end of pregnancy and the arrival of the baby.

Well that is about it. I hope you enjoy the pics. On a more serious note my cousin Jason and his brother-in-law Josh pastor at a church in Michigan that they started almost three years ago and while his brother-in-law was diving on vacation in Mexico we broke his neck and nearly drown and now does not have feeling from his chest down. He is showing some signs of improvement but could really use every ones prayers. I have included the link at the end of this blog and if you feel so led I believe they are or have set up a fund to help with the medical expenses and the cost of his wife's housing in Miami.
http://www.greenhouseministries.org